Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Discussion Thread

[evldave333]

• Casino will have progression.
• Slot machines, Pokers

This has no place in a driving videogame, its stinks.

 

[strela]

I also believe that Casino has no place in a racing game, but the fans want it so I guess it's ok. What I hate you basically made gambling mandatory or else you lose exclusive rewards.
Casino is a part of TDU dna, but houses are outdated?
Race creator is just an evil feature that kills economy and progression? What is he smoking? 🤣
180 races is just mind blowing and I love it.
Car body kits are coming too? Awesome news.

 

[BONDMINIS]

• No need to worry about race variety (180 at launch). Weekly LIVE event races that are exclusive to each week.

I read this on Reddit, but it seemed like there was no confirmation. I trust you, do they really talk about more than 180 races in the video?

 

[strela]

I trust you, do they really talk about more than 180 races in the video?

You can witness it yourself. They talk in the video about it at 25:20.

 

[EngieDiesel]

I also believe that Casino has no place in a racing game, but the fans want it so I guess it's ok. What I hate you basically made gambling mandatory or else you lose exclusive rewards.

It was like that in TDU2 as well, there was an Audi R8 convertible that was required you to get a jackpot on the slot machines to obtain it. Though what made it worse was that the casino in that game was a pre-order DLC bonus (and I don't remember if they ever made it available to everyone to purchase later on), so if you didn't have that DLC you were completely locked out of getting it. There was even an achievement called "Ready to play TDU2 now?" for getting that car, because they knew some people would just be grinding the slots nonstop to get it.

 

[Tornado]

And why not Hawaii in the future

Because recycling stuff from the first TDU would be even more obvious.

 

[Ande3200]

I will wait maybe up to a year before buying it,
Always online is not a big deal for me, but what is a big deal is the forced pvp in the races, hopefully they can change that down the line.

 

[Time_Cop]

The always online and mandatory pvp races makes this be the sequel I never wanted.

When I tried the demo myself, the world felt pretty barren regarding the amount of other players or racers (people not in traffic cars) around me when just roaming the map. At least TDU2 made you constantly run into other cruising players, or if offline, you'd come across AIs not in traffic cars pretty often.

Though what made it worse was that the casino in that game was a pre-order DLC bonus (and I don't remember if they ever made it available to everyone to purchase later on)

It was made available for purchase, although in some countries it did not become available due to laws against gambling, making acquiring all the trophies/achievements impossible for a lot of players. (also, the casino also had another exclusive car, a Spyker C8 Aileron, which infuriated me because I knew I could never get it and yet I had to see an AI racer use it in one of the championships, the envy...).

 

[Ryan81]

Must admit, the Casino and playing poker has absolutely zero appeal to me. They catering this game towards gamblers and or alcoholics/drug users? 🤣

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

Okay, I was defending this game early on, but hearing about it being a PvP multiplayer game with FOMO mechanics instead of having a single-player campaign like the previous 2 games has immediately changed my mind. Also bringing back the casino from TDU2 is just plain dumb.

 

[Ryan81]

Anyone know if the full car list has been revealed? I counted 95 in the latest list so should be at least 6 more at launch.

 

[BONDMINIS]

Anyone know if the full car list has been revealed? I counted 95 in the latest list so should be at least 6 more at launch.

No, it hasn't been released yet.

 

[Mirai]

Decided to cave in and buy a PS+ subscription
Primarily so I can play Sport Mode in GT7, but also so I can actually play the game that I bought with my own money

 

[Jtheripper]

They are now going on strike, joining Spyder dev against nacon, and the working conditions etc.

They say not sure if the release will be affected, supposed to be in September i think.

 

[EngieDiesel]

They are now going on strike, joining Spyder dev against nacon, and the working conditions etc.

They say not sure if the release will be affected, supposed to be in September i think.

For context:

Test Drive Unlimited Developer Joins Spiders in Strike Against Nacon

Both studios encountering similar issues

www.pushsquare.com

While I fully support game studios standing up to poor conditions caused by publishers, especially after seeing the scummy practices pulled by some of them in recent years, anyone who paid for the gold edition to get early access might not be so understanding if the release gets pushed back due to this. Y'know how some people never let situational awareness get in the way of some good ol' Indignant Gamer Rage™.

Although if some of the decisions surrounding the game are a direct result of Nacon, that would explain a few things...

 

[GroupB]

Wow, this is eerily similar to the launch of TDU2. The online matchmaking was broken for weeks after launch because of labor unrest at Atari.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

For context:

Test Drive Unlimited Developer Joins Spiders in Strike Against Nacon

Both studios encountering similar issues

www.pushsquare.com

and that kills any incentive for me to find positives in the game. Also explains why it's feeling heavily mishandled, what a mess.

 

[Pepperoncini]

I will wait maybe up to a year before buying it,
Always online is not a big deal for me, but what is a big deal is the forced pvp in the races, hopefully they can change that down the line.

So every race is PvP? That’s odd lol

 

[Famine]

They are now going on strike, joining Spyder dev against nacon, and the working conditions etc.

They say not sure if the release will be affected, supposed to be in September i think.

At this point - with Gold players getting it on Thursday - the launch is set, as would be any day one patch.

It's just not in any developers' hands any more; the masters would have been done a few weeks ago and a day one patch certified last week. Launch is done for them, and it's the all in the publisher's hands.

What might be affected is early bugsquash patches in the first couple of weeks post-launch. Depending on how long the strike is.

 

[Ryan81]

Still wondering why the complete car list hasn't been revealed....🤔 Usually, they reveal the full contents a couple of weeks or more before release day.
Unless they've revealed all the cars and that's all, folks! Although we stand at 95 so that would be a bit of false advertising claiming "100+ at launch"

 

[GBalao888]

Must admit, the Casino and playing poker has absolutely zero appeal to me. They catering this game towards gamblers and or alcoholics/drug users? 🤣

The only good thing about the casino is it does give good money if you win. Suppose that you, or someone you know is good at playing Texas hold'em, you'll be earning a ton of credits easily.

But other than that, it looks rather gimmicky and most forms of gambling is all down to luck.

 

[Kriptical]

I actually like the idea of open world with pvp. I expect things to be always online going forward so, no bother there. Would have bought this on day one.

But no vr support sucks all of the fun out of it. So, hard pass.

Will never buy.

 

[Ryan81]

I agree that pretty much all racing games now are becoming online always as a matter of course. GT7, FH5 and FM23 have "offline" options but they are so limited as to be pretty much irrelevant. Not sure how successful the PvP aspect will be but let's see.

 

[nukleabomb]

Well. It's confirmed now.

 

[Pepperoncini]

Are the races all online or there will be single player content? I am asking because right now my PC has some really slow internet compared to my PS5.

 

[Fezzik]

Are the races all online or there will be single player content? I am asking because right now my PC has some really slow internet compared to my PS5.

from one of the dev newsletters

“As you've seen through the different Solar Club Letters, the stories in Test Drive involve many players. That's also what we're aiming for with the races.

This means all the races are primarily multiplayer events, so you will face other players in each of them. If there aren't enough players in an event, AI drivers will fill out the starting grid.”

You can drive around solo and collect some stuff, but to make any progress you need to do the PVP racing. Frankly if you don’t have a reliable internet connection you shouldn’t buy the game - it’s entirely designed to be online multiplayer and so the experience wouldn’t be great if that doesn’t work for you.

 

[evldave333]

from one of the dev newsletters

“As you've seen through the different Solar Club Letters, the stories in Test Drive involve many players. That's also what we're aiming for with the races.

This means all the races are primarily multiplayer events, so you will face other players in each of them. If there aren't enough players in an event, AI drivers will fill out the starting grid.”

You can drive around solo and collect some stuff, but to make any progress you need to do the PVP racing. Frankly if you don’t have a reliable internet connection you shouldn’t buy the game - it’s entirely designed to be online multiplayer and so the experience wouldn’t be great if that doesn’t work for you.

I hope this game fails and sends a strong message to game designers that they should listen to their audience first before making narrow arbitrary gameplay design choices. I really fancy a new driving game experience to sink my teeth into... sigh.

 

[strela]

I understand their intentions. Having a world with thousands of players roaming around in crews, challenging each others, cruising together, hanging out in clubs, casinos. An awesome idea. On paper.
What I don't understand is do devs even make a little bit of research what is going on in reality? Having 80 (+100 in weekly rotation) an having servers limited to 32 players (so far we saw 8 players max) how do they expecting players to race each other? Even dedicated lobbies don't always work (the Crew 2?). On top of that you had a terrible idea of implementing Instant challenges (Head to Head races). If there's something that I learned playing Horizon is no one wants to do H2H racing in free roam. And you even make it mandatory to accept a challenge or you lose reputation? How long before we see players in Bugattis chasing others around the map? Or imagine you cruising with a buddy just to be challenged constantly by others.
I'm still waiting to see servers stability before buying the game.

 

[EngieDiesel]

I hope this game fails and sends a strong message to game designers that they should listen to their audience first before making narrow arbitrary gameplay design choices. I really fancy a new driving game experience to sink my teeth into... sigh.

It'll more likely send a message to publishers that open world racing games aren't worth investing in and thus provide even less choices in the future. You should instead be hoping that Nacon actually listens to their unhappy studios and allows them to remake the game in a manner that makes it fun to play, rather than be designed for maximum publisher revenue as that's where the real problem with the design lies.

 

[evldave333]

It'll more likely send a message to publishers that open world racing games aren't worth investing in and thus provide even less choices in the future. You should instead be hoping that Nacon actually listens to their unhappy studios and allows them to remake the game in a manner that makes it fun to play, rather than be designed for maximum publisher revenue as that's where the real problem with the design lies.

I agree monetization is the enemy of compelling gameplay, I dont like how the publishers are treating developers either. You are staring down the gameplay barrel of a driving? game which wants you to grind casino games for in game currency to buy vehicles, for me the grinding is unacceptable, never mind normalising gambling. At the end of the day we dont want our fun being ruined by greed.