Need for Speed: Payback Update Adds Highly Requested Online Freeroam

Full patch notes, as posted on the official site:
  • Introducing Alldrive: Hangouts, which will allow you to explore Fortune Valley alongside your friends and other members of the Need for Speed Community.
  • A new item is being added to the Tune-up shop, in the form of Catch-up packs.
  • New variations of Underglow.
  • New variations of Tire Smoke.
  • To help improve inventory management we are adding the ability to sell or trade-in all currently unequipped Speed Cards.
  • We've made some tweaks and improvements to Snapshot Pro.
  • New filters have been added to Snapshot Pro.
  • We've made some quality of life improvements to the front menu
  • Decals will no longer find themselves flipped vertically when copying from one side of a car to another.
  • Traffic cars have taken the 'Ghost' name to heart, but no longer do they possess the ability to drive through roadblocks in the event Alley Escape.
  • On rare occasions the textures on the Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 2.8 would sometimes flicker, this no longer happens.
  • A fade is now in place after the airfield cinematic within the Outlaw's Rush event.
  • Corrected an issue where players within multiplayer would broadcast background audio to other players.
  • When restarting the Graveyard Shift event, the camera will now behave properly and as expected.
  • Fixed a crash that would sometimes occur after finishing the Shift Lock event.
  • Fixed a problem that would sometimes stop players from accessing Speedwalls.
  • On very rare occasions players would be shown a static image of Tyler's Skyline if the race to the airfield intro cinematic was skipped. It's no longer static.
  • Top secret development text strings are no longer present within the subtitles that appear after you defeat Gallo Riviera. You didn't see anything.
  • The number of Pursuers Wrecked in the Journal tab now displays the correct number.
  • Subtitles are no longer incorrectly displayed after the end of the Kill Switch event.
  • Fixed a problem that would sometimes cause the game to crash at the start of the Double or Nothing event.
  • Drifting for 8 seconds straight with the Nissan Fairlady ZG will now unlock the Front Bumpers for all cars.
  • Players should no longer receive a duplicate ECU part when sometimes doing a targeted roll for the Ford Mustang Derelict.
  • The event Residential Drag had a car that had found a way to park itself within the ground. The car is now parked above ground.
  • Setting the Snapshot Pro option to Bodywork Damage off will now close the damaged hood of the Ford Mustang Derelict Superbuild.
  • Fixed an issue where a segment of road, west of the Drag dealership had the incorrect collision set to it. You can now drive over it with the expected behaviour.
  • Obtaining 50 stars from activities now awards a Shipment as expected.
  • Mac will now correctly get the Off-road version of the Subaru Impreza WRX STI as opposed to the race version.
  • Modified the color of the Rhino on the minimap to make it more easily noticeable. Still, good luck.
  • Wrap smoothness will now match the car smoothness when it is set to 0.
  • Flickering textures on the Race Superbuild of the Ford Mustang Derelict have been fixed.
  • Players would sometimes experience low framerate during the third leg of the Failed Heist event. The framerate is now smooth.
  • Swapping between controller and keyboard will no longer cause the controller to continue to vibrate.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the Nissan Skyline 2000 from being released as an Abandoned car.
  • Zooming in and out of the map after selecting a Speedwall will no longer leave the respective Speedwall selected.
  • The Porsche Panamera can now have decals placed on the right side of the trunk.
  • Nitrous flame is now aligned to exhaust parts when the Honda Civic Type-R 1992 is equipped with the Rocket Bunny trunk.
  • The 5th checkpoint within The Drift Life Drift Zone will no longer prompt players with a 'checkpoint missed' message.
  • The licence plate text on the Chevrolet Grand Sport will no longer change if a player inputs an even number of letters and then modifies the diffuser.
  • The Traffic Pinball challenge will no longer work on parked cars.
  • Pressing L1 or R1 while the credits is playing used to play random sounds, it no longer does.
  • Crowds will no longer float during the Knife's Edge event.
  • Fixed an issue where players would sometimes find themselves disconnected while in Speedlists.
  • The Abandoned car VO will now include subtitles.
  • The Speedlist final result screen will now stay visible for a little bit longer, previously it passed too quickly.
  • Repositioned some of the smashables within Speedcross events that were clipping with the ground.
  • Corrected the camera placement which was in an incorrect position when customizing the rear canards on the Infiniti Q60S.
  • Applying a wrap to the Volvo 242 that covered the front bumper will no longer cover the Ghost branded headlights if they are equipped.
  • The Plymouth Barracuda can now reach level 399, previously it was stuck at 398.
  • Once a player has collected an Abandoned Car, the VO telling them to go collect it will no longer keep playing.
  • Fixed an issue on the Plymouth Barracuda that would cause inconstancies with wrap creation.
  • Decals will now display on the Need for Speed branded Hood of the Mazda RX-7 as expected.
  • Fixed an issue with the Volvo Amazon where the vents on the roof now match the car body color.
  • Fixed an issue on the BMW M3 Evolution II which caused corrupted textures on the windows when applying decals.
  • The Nissan Skyline 2000 has had a texture bug fixed that caused issues around its windows.
  • Players can no longer drive under the drift ramp in the Speedcross event Valley Scrambler.
  • Improved visibility on the chevrons in some Speedcross events.
  • Trees can no longer grow through a drift ramp in the Valley Scrambler Speedcross event. All offending trees have been relocated.
  • A concrete barrier and drift ramp are no longer floating above the ground in the Valley Scrambler Speedcross event.
  • Improved camera movement when moving from the Sound System to Roof interaction point on the Volvo 242.
  • Driving the Volvo 242 with headlights that have lids on the grill will now produce no light.
  • The Nissan Skyline 2000 now has the correct default location applied when applying decals to the side and rear.
  • You can now apply decals over the side skirts of the Dodge Charger as expected.
  • Decals will now apply to all areas of the Need for Speed front fender on the Plymouth Barracuda.
  • Decals will now apply correctly to Ghost branded splitters on the Plymouth Barracuda.
  • Corrected an issue where some jumps during Speedcross would send a player 'out of bounds'.
  • Bolts on the Pandem rear fender now get covered by decals on the BMW M3 Evolution.
  • Players will no longer be randomly reset when driving up a certain hill in the desert.
  • The Coca Cola trucks had a corrupted texture on their brake discs, this has been uncorrupted.
  • The Holtzman achievement and trophy will now unlock correctly.
  • Cars would sometimes float during the cinematic of the event, The Boss. The correct gravity has been applied.
  • If a player drove at high speed after jumping the ramp in the Holtzman: The Coming Storm event they would sometimes fall through the game world. The world has now been made stronger and cars should no longer fall through the world after this jump.
  • The exhaust on the Nissan Fairlady 240ZG will no longer overlap with the Alchemist diffuser.
  • Fixed multiple visual customization issues across numerous cars.
  • Multiple other tweaks, fixes and improvements.
 
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Did not know about the catch up packs that’s good take some of the grind out of it. Mind you I don’t play payback enough. Struggle still to enjoy it.
 
I just played it for few hours then haven't touch it for months. Is the drifting tyre direction fix yet?

Nope.

The biggest turn-off from this game for me was the slot machine-like upgrading system. Why should I depend on gambling to upgrade a car, especially in a full price game?

To each his own. It's actually kind of fun, IMO. With the new quick upgrade packs, it has really hit the sweet spot in terms of balance.
 
Nope.



To each his own. It's actually kind of fun, IMO. With the new quick upgrade packs, it has really hit the sweet spot in terms of balance.

Never really noticed a particular imbalance as there is always a work around if you simply wait 10 minutes and buy the sparts, not to mention you get to stop a roll on the slot machine, dictating at least one of the outs. All in all gambling it ain't (relatively speaking).
 
Free-roam/All-drive is pointless. I was expecting to be able to find collectibles, do events, point-to-point races, and launch events, and do the free-roam challenges to unlock parts and set records while online...

Instead... You can only tune vehicles, & visit the dealerships, gas stations, and garages.

The GPS is pointless, you can only keep track of one friend/person out of the perimeter of it at a time. And to do so, you have to "Mark" them from the map screen first. It doesn't scale/expand according to your movement speed either, so predicting turns can be a mess.

The Photo Mode doesn't allow for action shots while online, so forget about getting any cool drift or jump shots, or even any shots of you & a friend ducking and dodging through traffic. Nope, just static, parking shots. And you can't even turn the wheels to profile the car.

Imo, they could learn a thing or two from spending some quality time with The Crew (photo mode functionality, GPS functionality, & free-roam challenges), MCLA (wheel customization & user created races/challenges), or even TDU2. It's not like they have to re-invent the wheel to provide us with the basic features of an open world racing game.
 
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Never really noticed a particular imbalance as there is always a work around if you simply wait 10 minutes and buy the sparts, not to mention you get to stop a roll on the slot machine, dictating at least one of the outs. All in all gambling it ain't (relatively speaking).

I agree totally. The game throws money at you... Easy enough to buy the parts and stores restock often. I rarely roll for parts.... usually it is just to fine-tune the perks once I get the performance dialed in. But it's fun to roll and see what cool stuff you might land... it's especially gratifying when you get a performance part that's 2 or more levels above your current one... not unlike the thrill of real gambling I reckon.
 
The Photo Mode doesn't allow for action shots while online, so forget about getting any cool drift or jump shots, or even any shots of you & a friend ducking and dodging through traffic. Nope, just static, parking shots. And you can't even turn the wheels to profile the car.

Imo, they could learn a thing or two from spending some quality time with The Crew, MCLA, or TDU2. It's not like they have to re-invent the wheel to provide us with the basic features of an open world racing game.

Not bagging on all your gripes, because many are no doubt legitimate, but all you have to do to take pictures of wheels turned is to turn them first and then immediately enter snapshot mode.
 
Not bagging on all your gripes, because many are no doubt legitimate, but all you have to do to take pictures of wheels turned is to turn them first and then immediately enter snapshot mode.

Doesn't work while online.
 
But... That's what this article and thread are pertaining to... the Online Free-roam update...

But here's a reasonable question: Why would that particular aspect behave any differently in online mode than it would in offline mode? Evidently it does behave differently, as you have pointed out, but no one would expect it to.
 
But here's a reasonable question: Why would that particular aspect behave any differently in online mode than it would in offline mode? Evidently it does behave differently, as you have pointed out, but no one would expect it to.

The likely reason being, everything pauses when activating photo mode offline. When online, the game as well as other players, cannot be paused.

The Crew's solution to this, is to create a separate "instance" when entering into photo mode that freezes everything: traffic, time of day, NPC's/animals, smoke, effects, etc. and all other player vehicles into its own separate occurrence, away from what's happening in the free-roam lobby. Other players will view you as being both translucent and frozen in the position in which you were when you first entered photo mode, and be able to carry on playing normally. While on your side, everyone is frozen in place, as if entering photo-mode from a sort of "real-time replay". They cannot physically interact with your vehicle outside of photo-mode until you exit, and return to the lobbies real time/current state.

TLDR: Essentially, The Crew's Photo-Mode pauses all vehicles for you, and only you, upon entering photo-mode.
 
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I just played it for few hours then haven't touch it for months. Is the drifting tyre direction fix yet?

..... Vehicle don't countersteer when drifting.

Just realized this was an issue, and now... I can't unsee it...
 
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