Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Discussion Thread

[CTznOfTime]

I think you still didn't get what I said, but it's ok, no big deal.

Let's at least agree on something:
Arcadey driving physics is not a problem!

The problem is me not liking it on certain games such as these. My opinion.

But i have absolutely no problem playing Mario Kart on the switch, i enjoy playing that with my kids and anyone else...

 

[Ande3200]

Glad i didint buy it, was excited for it at first but after hearing forced pvp my opinion changed completly about, and seeing it now after being released this could be a game i never buy at all, the excitement i feeled is all gone now.

 

[EngieDiesel]

Honestly KT's very lucky that Concord came along and stole away all the media attention with its grand meltdown, now they have a chance to fix as many issues as they can and try a soft relaunch at the next seasonal sale after everyone's lost track of it. Most likely people will just see it as another game that had a bad launch and apology.png'd their way out of it, as is the standard nowadays.

 

[kartman21]

I wish they will fix the game, but their last communication worry me, they don't listen, and they are focused on wrongs topics
They don't get what TDU DNA is, it's sad, but I think it's better they leave it to another studio

 

[fwyflyer]

I have been playing TDUSC for over 200 hours and really enjoying it on the PC, playing basically single player against the AI, with full Motion (via telemetry). I have, of course, reached level 50 in both clans. Switched to Sharps once I hit 50 in Streets. I have also obviously reached level 60. And, I have approximately 40 cars (most of which are fully tuned).

Some points that need to be made:
1) Until you reach level 20, you cannot tune a car other than by picking general meaningless categories. Once you reach level 20, you CAN finally create tunes down to individual gear ratios, ARBs, camber, etc.
2) With tuning, I have been able to make more than 30 cars handle well to very well. The tuning, as you might imagine, fails to meet real world specifications so it requires a LOT of testing to get things right. The early mustang and the Alfa Romeo 4Cs (bug results in insufficient turning angle) are the only cars that I can say are not worth grinding for or tuning.
3) With a good wheel, the handling model (on tuned cars) is remarkably good even if it is arcade like (assuming you are not running slicks on wet pavement, etc.). If you have not tuned a car, you are only comparing a generic starting setup with what you might expect the car to drive like; as a result, you cannot really judge the handling model fairly.
4) The sounds are pretty good overall (flat plane cranks are good, and the Ferraris sound wonderful, etc.); only a few engines sound like vacuum cleaners.
5) It is easy to make 300-500k per hour racing IF you race in one spot no more than 5 times in a row. You can go back after the server reset to do it again. If you go more than 5 times in a row without waiting for the server to be reset, then payouts are drastically cut. As such, the grind is far from difficult. But, you need to move on to different locales if you want to earn coin efficiently.
6) While the AI suffers from massive rubber-banding, it will keep you occupied during the longer (38 minute) races. And, those longer races are the MAIN REASON I enjoy this title.
7) I haven't suffered from server disconnects in weeks. Gone are the days of disconnecting 35 minutes into a 38 minute race.
8) Graphics DO NEED to be optimized; even so, I am maintaining roughly 60 fps at 5140x1440 with most options on high with an Nvidia 4070 (not super and not ti). So, if you have the hardware, you can probably get it to an adequate fps.
9) TDUSC needs servers on the East and West Coast. Being limited to Servers on the East Coast definitely sucks, especially coming from Hawaii.
10) TDUSC's method for grouping players to join in PVP is abysmal. Since Xbox players cannot play with PS5 players, nor PC players, and since the regional servers are not connected the "MMO" portion was DOA. To think otherwise was simply absurd on the Dev's part.

Conclusion:
As a single player game, TDUSC is MISSING a lot of the TDU dna; however, if you like racing and tuning, and if you have a good enough rig, there is a LOT to enjoy. If you wanted a racing MMO (like the old Motor City Online), you are out of luck. So, the best fix for TDUSC in my opinion is an offline mode. Casinos, housing, and cosmetics are ALL less important (except insofar as Devs did promise same).

 

[nukleabomb]

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown - Patch #2, Compensation & Next Steps - Steam News

The second major patch for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown will be released tomorrow: Tuesday, November 5th at 9:00 AM UTC

store.steampowered.com

Patch #2, Compensation & Next Steps

Dear community,

The second major patch for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown will be released tomorrow: Tuesday, November 5th at 9:00 AM UTC. This update primarily focuses on graphical enhancements for PS5. The patch also optimizes game performance on PC and Xbox Series. Additionally, it includes network upgrades, improved peripheral compatibility, and numerous bug fixes.

Also, we'd like to take a moment to update you on where we stand and what we're doing to improve your experience. We understand your frustration, given the difficulties that have been encountered during the launch of TDUSC. We are sorry for this situation and we want to acknowledge your concerns. We genuinely appreciate your patience and commitment to Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

Over the past few weeks, we've worked hard to roll out multiple maintenance phases and hotfixes aimed at enhancing the game. We know there’s still work to be done, and we hear you. Please know that your feedback is invaluable, and our development team is fully dedicated to addressing the issues you're encountering as quickly as possible, while also refining features to ensure a smoother, more enjoyable gaming experience for everyone.

Launch Compensation:

To thank you for your patience and support, an exclusive
‘Adventurer’ off-road edition of the 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe
will be given to all Gold Edition players who have played the game before October 12th. This exceptional German car will be part of the Cross Country category, available from level 15, and is fully equipped to navigate on the rugged off-road trails from Hong Kong Island.

The Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe ‘Adventurer’ edition will automatically be transferred to your garage in the first weeks of the Season 2, the time it takes for us to polish the car and its integration into the game. A pack of 5 ‘Pioneers of the Solar Crown’ premium stickers will also be part of this compensation, with more details coming in the next weeks.

Second Major Patch:

As mentioned in our Launch Dev Diary, we have been working on enhancing the performance and graphics for PlayStation 5 players. The first major patch introduced an initial wave of optimizations on all platforms, especially regarding graphics, framerate, and global quality of network services. We will continue to improve these technical aspects over the upcoming months to ensure an increasingly smooth and stable experience. In this second major patch, we are introducing various fixes and improvements across all platforms, while significantly enhancing the visual experience on PS5. As soon as this update is released, PS5 players will be able to enjoy:

• A more consistent framerate in Performance mode.
• An increased resolution in Quality mode, from 1080p to 1440p.

Overall, the experience across
all platforms
will also be improved:

• Over 40 bugs fixed
• Improved game stability
• Enhanced optimization and framerate
• Better compatibility and stability for steering wheels.

You can view the full changelog of this update at the end of the article.


This new patch will be released on Tuesday, November 5th at 9 AM UTC. There won’t be any maintenance phase. To access the new patch, simply restart your game after 9 AM UTC and download the update on your gaming platform.

AI Improvements:

We’ve heard your feedback on AI difficulty and behavior, and this is a top priority for us. We're actively working on key improvements to enhance the AI experience. First of all, we’ll make the "Expert" AI more accessible for a smoother racing experience.
This update will be applied by the launch of Season 2 at the latest.


Following that, our development team will focus on deeper AI balancing and refining overall behavior to ensure consistent performance across different race conditions—whether in dry or wet weather, on asphalt or gravel. We’ll share more details on these AI improvements in a future article.

Server Stability:

Since the first major patch on September 30th, we’ve seen improvements in server stability. A few new maintenance periods were carried out over the past few weeks to further improve lobby performance and stability, providing a smoother experience across various activities. The development team will continue working in this direction to provide the best possible experience in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

Ranked Matchmaking:

We understand that many of you are facing challenges with ranked races. Our development team is actively seeking a short-term solution to alleviate the situation, and we’re fully committed to finding a more permanent fix that will ensure you get the best possible ranked experience.

We acknowledge that the competitive Solar Crown experience in Season 1 may not be optimal, especially in less populated regions. To improve this, we’re focusing on game design adjustments to better align the ranked system with player behavior and needs. In the meantime, we recommend grouping with other participants before entering ranked events to enhance the experience.

Additionally, we’re aware of concerns regarding cheating, and solutions are already being implemented to tackle this problem.

Car performances and meta:

Some cars have upgrades that are too powerful. We've listened to your comments, and we will be making changes accordingly. Some vehicles will see a reduction in performance, while others will be improved in the future. There is no ETA yet, but this is a significant topic that the team is actively working on.

We want to make the car experience in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown more realistic, both in terms of driving and the power of the available upgrades. Race restrictions will also be revised accordingly.

As a reminder, Season 1 is live and will run until December 2024. With the 25-level Solar Pass, you can unlock unique rewards like the Audi RS e-tron GT. New Live Events are available each Wednesday at 8 AM UTC. Thank you for your passion and dedication to Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. See you on Hong Kong Island!

Changelog:

🌐 Servers/Network

• Fixed various login issues
• 🛠️ Performance/Stability
• Reduced shadow cost in performance
• Added various optimizations to improve memory consumption and overall stability
• Fixed a crash that could happen when entering a spot
• Fixed a crash that could happen when traffic spawned
• Fixed a crash that could happen while buying car parts
• PC: Fixed a crash that could occur when playing with certain AMD GPUs
• PS5: Reduced frame drops in performance mode

🌄 Graphics

• Improved global illumination performance
• Improved octree tracing performance
• Improved shadow quality created by headlights
• Improved SSR upscaling
• PC: Use DLAA instead of FSR TAA by default when available
• PS5: Improved quality mode resolution from 1080p to 1440p

🔀 Compatibility

• PC: Fixed binding and default preset on Thrustmaster TMX wheel
• PC: Fixed Logitech G923 default binding
  
  
  
• PC: Fixed Moza devices default preset
• PC: Fixed issue where FFB was lost when the mouse was moved
• PC: Fixed issue where FFB could still be present when navigating menus
• PS5 & XS|X: Added presets for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox 360 and PS5 controllers
• PS5 & XS|X: Added clutch binding to default steering wheel presets
• PS5 & XS|X: Added gear binding to default steering wheel presets
• XS|X: Fixed default binding on Logitech devices
• XS|X: Added Fanatec CSL Elite as a recognized device

🐛 Bugfixes

• Fixed a softlock that could occur when opening the map at the same time than various menus
• Fixed a softlock when pausing and accelerating at the same time during cutscenes with Vivian
• Fixed garage's slot not updating when uninstalling and reinstalling DLCs
• Fixed various localization issues
• Fixed an issue where pause menu would be unresponsive if Alyss menu was opened before
• Fixed Aliasing of certain fonts
• Fixed fences sometimes not having collisions
• Fixed pre-order Ford DLC text
• Fixed start button POI on Lotus Evija
• Fixed license plate light turning on with reverse & brake input on Alpine A110
• Fixed dirt wrongly applied on Corvette C7 ZR1
• Fixed brake light animation while spoiler is open on Porsche 911R
• Fixed cases where NPCs could be run through
• Fixed various wall collision issues
• Fixed issue where french audio was not playing correctly
• Fixed pink pixel in dark areas
• Fixed RPM leds not resetting on the pause menu
• Fixed car color widget order
• Fixed the race "Fateful Confrontation" always being identified as a ranked race
• Fixed wrong highlighted races while having the secondary task "Ad Campaign" pinned
• Fixed DLCs vehicles appearing in the pause menu before unlocking them
• Fixed a case where the avatar could fall underground during onboarding in the first car dealer
• Fixed rewards depreciation enabling itself when abandoning or being disconnected from races
• Fixed a case where the wrong garment were applied to the avatar preview when switching rapidly from one category to another
• Fixed issue where car livery were not applied on other player's cards
• Fixed High Stake event's rush hour sometimes not triggering
• Fixed an issue where beard were not displayed properly after adding a mustache
• Fixed wrong car thumbnail ratio when using an ultra-wide monitor
• Improvement in AI behaviour while close to the player
• Fixed yellow floating lines
• Fixed GPS voice still talking when set to off
• Fixed issue where parts of the avatar would turn grey
• Fixed "Roof" selection on radial menu when driving a car with no roof
• Fixed issue where cars could change color depending on the distance
• Fixed ghost sometimes not being visible in Time Attack
• Fixed rain in the pause menu
• XS|X: Fixed black blinking during races
• XS|X: Fixed crash when reconnecting Logitech wheel
• XS|X: Fixed issue where wheel angle was being wrongly reset on Logitech devices

💠 Misc

• Updated matchmaking value for toxicity
• Updated camera settings in shops
• Added F13 shortcut for ping display on Nvidia Reflex

 

[FSGT]

They did it again
Some cars got a price increase.

 

[nukleabomb]

They did it again
Some cars got a price increase.

Which ones got an increase?

 

[Pepperoncini]

Are the weekly live events FOMO inducing or are they simply like Motorfesst where it's really not too bad to complete?

 

[kartman21]

it's crap, you have to done it several times with poor AI and at the end you win outfits and more often stickers...

 

[fwyflyer]

Are the weekly live events FOMO inducing or are they simply like Motorfesst where it's really not too bad to complete?

Each Race win nets 8 points. 7 points for second. 6 for third, etc. The races take 2-3 min each. At an average of 6 points per race, you need 17 races to complete the event and you have a week over which to finish it at any or all of the three weekly locations. So, in total the weekly events take about 45 min to complete. This makes the weekly events extremely easy to do. That said, sometimes the only reward is a sticker so skipping the weekly events is no big deal. Other times, the weekly event is a cosmetic like a jacket or costume. Only you can decide if that is worth 45 minutes. Fortunately, you earn coin at the same time so no real loss to do it.

 

[Pepperoncini]

Each Race win nets 8 points. 7 points for second. 6 for third, etc. The races take 2-3 min each. At an average of 6 points per race, you need 17 races to complete the event and you have a week over which to finish it at any or all of the three weekly locations. So, in total the weekly events take about 45 min to complete. This makes the weekly events extremely easy to do. That said, sometimes the only reward is a sticker so skipping the weekly events is no big deal. Other times, the weekly event is a cosmetic like a jacket or costume. Only you can decide if that is worth 45 minutes. Fortunately, you earn coin at the same time so no real loss to do it.

That isn't that bad. I know it's only a sticker but at least you get to earn coins. I have been considering trying the game on Steam or waiting for the next Steam sale and maybe trying then.

 

[kartman21]

Well not that bad, I disagree, the races have nothing really special, AI is still wrong, rivals cars make no sense
There's only 6 races each event, you're suppose to done them at least twice, and they came only 3 at a time

 

[fwyflyer]

That isn't that bad. I know it's only a sticker but at least you get to earn coins. I have been considering trying the game on Steam or waiting for the next Steam sale and maybe trying then.

Necessary CAVEATs:

TDUSC is still very poorly optimized. However, if you have a 4070 and reasonably current processor, you should be able to manage about 60 fps at 1440p. I personally really like the way the roads and trees are done.

There is, as of the latest patch, an issue with ffb on Logitech wheels, which will undoubtedly get fixed in a month or so. But, you should be able to get most other wheels working satisfactorily. Use youtube as a reference to do the initial tuning of your wheel (if using same).

The interface is not well thought out... I don't know if these were borrowed from GTA as I have never played it. But, I found things like having to stare at the center of the outside of the door to get the prompt to come up in order to open the door to be highly unusual. Car purchases and race starts sometimes require long presses instead of normal clicks. Automatic and semi-automatic controls sometimes conflict so that it is really hard to back up in a semi-automatic car. You get the general idea.

I guess what I am trying to say is this game took me SEVERAL hours to configure just to get it running. As a result, Steam's two hour refund policy is not very helpful for evaluation. So, this is the rare case, where I would say the purchase IS a gamble no matter what you do. As such, I would suggest you wait until a VERY nice Steam sale or purchase at a discount from another hopefully legitimate source like cdkeys.com.

For me, the gamble paid off. I enjoy it thoroughly. I literally have over 300 hours into the game. I am using telemetry for full motion along with an off brand [Accuforce] direct drive wheel, off brand [Project D] h-shifter, fanatec clubsport pedals and fanatec handbrake.

That said, I certainly cannot fault those who think the gamble was not worth it and are still trying to get refunds.

 

[Johnny Caisse]

All I'm waiting for to retry TDU Solar Crown is if the devs are adding solo vs. A.I. racing events. No need for a story, just generic racing would probably do for me.

 

[fwyflyer]

All I'm waiting for to retry TDU Solar Crown is if the devs are adding solo vs. A.I. racing events. No need for a story, just generic racing would probably do for me.

Up till last night I played TDUSC as if it was single player only (racing against AI primarily). Last night, I finally got someone else in discord and managed to do several longer races 20-40 min. The netcode was plenty good. No teleports, bouncing, etc. As a result, I was very pleasantly surprised by the online racing experience. Would love to find a few more folk to join in who enjoy lighthearted chatting and casual racing on PC on the North American Server of TDUSC.

 

[Johnny Caisse]

Up till last night I played TDUSC as if it was single player only (racing against AI primarily). Last night, I finally got someone else in discord and managed to do several longer races 20-40 min. The netcode was plenty good. No teleports, bouncing, etc. As a result, I was very pleasantly surprised by the online racing experience. Would love to find a few more folk to join in who enjoy lighthearted chatting and casual racing on PC on the North American Server of TDUSC.

I'd like to play VS A.I., not against other players.
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|
v

All I'm waiting for to retry TDU Solar Crown is if the devs are adding solo vs. A.I. racing events. No need for a story, just generic racing would probably do for me.

 

[kartman21]

In fact you can only be 8 players on the map, I've played the game about 40 hours, and only once I manage to start a race with a human player
I do agree with Johnny, I enjoy playing with AI more, and I don't like to be forced to play online when I don't want and when it's pointless

Now let's see what season 2 brings