Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Discussion Thread

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Solar Crown player base be like

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The way things are these days though, putting fake gambling back in most likely will give it a spike in popularity. If all it took to get people to accept lootboxes again was lightly reskinning them as "card packs", then a proper casino is going to be enough to get them game of the year honors.
 
They have to put cross region on the game, i cant play with my friend because my psn is american and theirs uk lol ! Make no sense
I don't believe cross realm is achievable. At present all data is stored on the server you race on. As a result, if you were to VPN to another server you would be starting anew.

In addition, the latency to the few servers that currently exist is abysmal. And, if we were to see them all connected, the latency between servers would obviously compound the problems exponentially.

Finally, it appears the core game only allows for groups up to four to play together. So, while it is still possible to get 5 in the same race with discord, the fact remains, more often than not, at least one will be kicked before the race begins due to network errors.

Each of these issues appears to contravene the whole idea of TDUSC as a racing mmo. So, one might argue the game, as conceived was doomed from the start. That said, I don't believe these issues could be overcome without a near "ground up" rewrite. And given that we have already seen at least three major patches claim network optimization thus far, I remain a bit skeptical...

As an "Up to four player game", though, I still enjoy it. And, if they manage SIGNIFICANT networking and visual optimizations, as well as loooooooooooooooooooong overdue economy corrections in Season 5 (July is Season 4, September is Season 5), I hope we will see another influx of players, if not a return of those players whose current hardware is unable to get the job done satisfactorily as it stands now.
 
I picked this up the other day for $30 and it’s actually good. I eat my words.

Normally these arcade racers are not for me, but you know, it harkens back to the old old old days when I played everything with a controller. Kind of nice to just relax on the sofa without having to get all strapped into a rig.

Initially I viewed this game with a heavy dose of skepticism after experiencing the WRC series. Granted the TDU franchise is a reboot, but this game shows what they can do creatively without the tether of a rigid license. Nice work. 🙂

Is the game perfect? No. But admittedly I’m presently surprised and will be playing this for a while.
 
It has loads of issues, but also does a lot of things right in a way nothing else does. The driving model is great, the map is fantastic with loads of tight roads, which is a great contrast to Horizon 5's massive highways. There's plenty of issues, especially tehcnical ones, but it's definitely worth picking up on sale.
 
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I've now made it up to level 42.5 and 80% of the map is unlocked. Seem to have sessions on this game in clusters. Next objective will be getting 2.4m to buy the Pista for completing the Ferrari secondary tasks.
There is a secondary task which requires 3,000 miles + driven in Supercars which is a bit ridiculous.
 
I've now made it up to level 42.5 and 80% of the map is unlocked. Seem to have sessions on this game in clusters. Next objective will be getting 2.4m to buy the Pista for completing the Ferrari secondary tasks.
There is a secondary task which requires 3,000 miles + driven in Supercars which is a bit ridiculous.
Grats on your progress so far! The Pista is a wonderful Supercar. You will definitely enjoy it. As for the 3000 miles, I made up most of that driving to the Crown Races. And, once you get high enough level for them, you'll find out just how good TDUSC can be.
 
Grats on your progress so far! The Pista is a wonderful Supercar. You will definitely enjoy it. As for the 3000 miles, I made up most of that driving to the Crown Races. And, once you get high enough level for them, you'll find out just how good TDUSC can be.
Now up to level 45, bought the Pista and now have a load more secondary activities to clear. With the ability to choose AI difficulty, it is easier now to win the required races with cars at lower PP levels.

Need to work on driving around the Stanley area next...

EDIT: Stanley now done and the small Repulse Bay next to it. Level 47.

@fwyflyer I gather there are "win 100 race" challenges for 36 cars unlocked at level 60. From the list, I think I own 5 or 6 of those. Have you completed any of these challenges? Seems like the easiest one to start with would be the Audi TT. I would "stack" these with the daily challenges when they include "win X races".
 
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I have only read thru the June 26th Solar Crown letter once. And, I am trying to put a positive spin on it. So, far...

The letter indicates that the Casino with slot machines is coming (along with a clothing store and car dealer) but you will not be able to cash out your chips yet. (This is not core gameplay but it was promised so I wont dismiss it).

The letter indicates Devs are aware the users want an offline mode but they don't want to take away time from all of the other things they are doing to improve TDUSC. (Perhaps Devs should stop wasting time making movies about their updates and just focus on the updates themselves. Imagine if they were able to promptly patch this "live service" and actually prioritize consumer concerns.)

The letter also indicates that paid DLC solar passes will start coming with Season 4. (IMO, this is a terrible idea until the core game, including optimizations for networking, graphics, and economy and progression are completed SATISFACTORILY. I am more than a little worried about the backlash this will likely cause.)

The letter also indicates SARD will return. (SARD was supposedly introduced to stop cheating but the Devs have failed to remove significant skips/jumps/bounces in the races; moreover, Devs have failed to ensure that cars utilize the Gates in sequence (without skipping intermediate gates) In the absence of said checks, players will continue to see "cheats" with or without SARD. I am hopeful that the prior iteration allowed them to find the shortcuts and remove them. If so, this would be a MAJOR positive. If not...)

And, lastly, the letter indicates more cars and cosmetics are coming. (Obviously a good thing EXCEPT when placed behind a paywall for DLC before the core game is completed.)

What are your feelings?
 
I have only read thru the June 26th Solar Crown letter once. And, I am trying to put a positive spin on it. So, far...

The letter indicates that the Casino with slot machines is coming (along with a clothing store and car dealer) but you will not be able to cash out your chips yet. (This is not core gameplay but it was promised so I wont dismiss it).

The letter indicates Devs are aware the users want an offline mode but they don't want to take away time from all of the other things they are doing to improve TDUSC. (Perhaps Devs should stop wasting time making movies about their updates and just focus on the updates themselves. Imagine if they were able to promptly patch this "live service" and actually prioritize consumer concerns.)

The letter also indicates that paid DLC solar passes will start coming with Season 4. (IMO, this is a terrible idea until the core game, including optimizations for networking, graphics, and economy and progression are completed SATISFACTORILY. I am more than a little worried about the backlash this will likely cause.)

The letter also indicates SARD will return. (SARD was supposedly introduced to stop cheating but the Devs have failed to remove significant skips/jumps/bounces in the races; moreover, Devs have failed to ensure that cars utilize the Gates in sequence (without skipping intermediate gates) In the absence of said checks, players will continue to see "cheats" with or without SARD. I am hopeful that the prior iteration allowed them to find the shortcuts and remove them. If so, this would be a MAJOR positive. If not...)

And, lastly, the letter indicates more cars and cosmetics are coming. (Obviously a good thing EXCEPT when placed behind a paywall for DLC before the core game is completed.)

What are your feelings?
To me, THE most important things to keep this game alive are
1. reworked economy and
2. reworked economy.

I personally think that, CURRENTLY, offline is less of an issue (to me, at least) since they enabled single player racing and difficulty levels. However, many people see this game at risk of being shutdown at virtually any time, which would currently mean the game ceasing to exist ala The Crew 1, despite assurances that year 2 is funded, which is I think why most people want offline like "yesterday".

I think they MUST either add offline early in year 2 (season 6?), or be able to confirm year 3 is funded

The casino is clearly unfinished (and that suggests there might be a lot of bugs and missing functionality until the following update which won't be till ?September. Which was predicted by many. Although I personally don't plan to use the casino anyway, unless I am forced to.

I have just reached level 52, and level 15 in the solar pass, which means i can finally drive the Delorean and Ferrari.

I also have unlocked 95% of the map. When I get to 99%, that last 1% will be a pain :lol:

I am missing a few collectibles in areas I have driven completely, which is also irritating :lol:

One other thing I believe they really need to achieve in year 2 is expansion of Ibiza. That would create opportunities for adding more races, collectibles, deliveries etc, and all parts of the game already existing.

However, nothing has been indicated yet to suggest that is going to happen.

I should just finish by saying there's a lot that is GOOD about this game already - tons of things to do and I haven't even had a chance to do many deliveries yet, the handling on everything from Daily Drivers to Supercars and Hypercars is really good based on my experience so far, except for that awful Alpine. I still lose 2 or 3 hours in one session very easily, so I must be enjoying the game overall.

EDIT: I "finished" the map but that just took me to 98% - the video below was really helpful and got me to 99%. The rest must be little bits I've missed (probably somewhere under the elevated motorway where the road is on multiple levels).


I have a few missed collectibles still - less than 10 though, so I'm unlikely to search for those.

All this work means I'm now at level 55 and have just unlocked the Crown Jewels. However, the only objectives added are "complete this race within Xminutes", I suspect this will mostly be beyond my skill level, so getting from level 55 to 60 might be the first major "grind"/chore I hit.

EDIT2: I hope they improve the Series S graphics in the season 5 optimisation - the game still looks slightly worse than FH3 (yes I do mean three!) on the Series S in my opinion. I'm not obsessed with graphics but it could be much better.
 
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VXR
Introducing paid content into a game with genuinely a handful of players at any one time seems to be a fool's errand.
I guess they're stuffed because they need to generate revenue from somewhere to pay the bills. Problem is, the game is still missing major TDU staples (houses being the most obvious) and they've just messed up the introduction of the casino by having it unfinished (even though they delayed season 4 for a month!) and worthless initially.


PSA: If anyone has the Ferrari California, one of the tasks is to earn $x in Cas Bernat area (Spelling probably wrong!) - this week's Live Event includes a race in that area which can be "grinded" to earn money for this task.

I have now run 3 of the Crown Jewel races.
Nacre - a long way from getting the 4 minutes required for the task and can't see me achieving it.
Jade - less than 12 minutes! You must be joking! Plus my eyes were popping out of their sockets after 10 minutes trying to stare ahead at 200+ mph. It has given me a slight headache. I will NEVER repeat that race.
Amethyst - at last, something fun! I loved the course used and also managed to beat 10 minutes at first attempt. I will rerun this one sometime in the future.

Level 56.5 now.
70% of Ibiza unlocked.
Just completed the Streets level 20 race.

3 more Crown Jewels to complete, then it's mainly running clan races to level up to 70.

Hopefully I will have got to level 60 XP by then...
 
3 more Crown Jewels to complete, then it's mainly running clan races to level up to 70.
Let me know when you have finished the Ruby Crown and Sapphire Crown. The Ruby represents the best on road racing in the game and the Sapphire Crown (If I am remembering the right one), represents the best off road racing in the game. These are the absolute highlights of TDUSC for me. And, I still cannot believe they are locked behind so much grinding to the point where most players will quit long before ever enjoying them.
 
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The Dev Diary comes on 21st July at 5pm UK time (6pm CEST) with the Roadmap for Year 2:
season-4-and-year-2-developer-documentary-date-announcement-v0-7fnzn3y5gacf1.png

Someone reckons the blurred car in season 6 is the new Mustang. **** knows how they see anything in that! :lol:

First car announced for season 5 is the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera:
season-4-and-year-2-developer-documentary-date-announcement-v0-r09mc8s8gacf1.jpg


2 Asian brands reconfirmed for year 2 and they are teasing cars "that have not been in an open world racing game".

And still trying to put a positive spin on the casino cash out not appearing until the mid season update in August :lol:

Also, there's a gap of several days between the end of season 3 and the start of season 4...
 
The Dev Diary comes on 21st July at 5pm UK time (6pm CEST) with the Roadmap for Year 2:
View attachment 1464047
Someone reckons the blurred car in season 6 is the new Mustang. **** knows how they see anything in that! :lol:

First car announced for season 5 is the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera:
View attachment 1464048

2 Asian brands reconfirmed for year 2 and they are teasing cars "that have not been in an open world racing game".

And still trying to put a positive spin on the casino cash out not appearing until the mid season update in August :lol:

Also, there's a gap of several days between the end of season 3 and the start of season 4...
Huzzah! A RHD car for Hong Kong! Why there are so few in the game eludes me.
 
This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:
This article was published by Michael Leary (@Terronium-12) on March 5th, 2020 in the Gaming category.
We were already informed Season 4 would suck insofar as the improvements are underwhelming at best. That said, who do they think will enjoy the improvements when the economy/progression has been utterly ignored for so long? Prioritize the game elements. Active aero and Casinos should clearly have been delayed to year 2 to rectify far more glaring issues in the meantime.
 
I do like the stock races coming in season 4. The taxi missions in season 5 will be a good change from racing and I like that they will require use of the indicators/windows etc function.

Here is the link for the community vote for season 6. I went for the "detective mode", though I wouldn't mind the "photography mode" either:
 
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Apologies for the double post, but just wanted to highlight that the map now shows you how many roads you have discovered out of the total in each area. Previously it only showed you the number of radiant rewards found.

This is a small but, for some of us, highly important addition - very much something that should have been available at launch.

And now a plea for help:

I find I am missing the odd road in a few locations on HKI, but not many, as I expected.

But on Ibiza, I am missing 10! roads in the Can Bernat area, even though everything looks to be filled in and driven on. If anyone has completed the area, could they please share a screenshot of their map as it might show me what I am missing - 10 roads suggests I am missing a whole mini-area?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: The game now runs a lot smoother on Series S and driving is MUCH easier on the eyes. I ran the Sapphire crown race for the first time and the sunlight coming through the trees at one point on the first gravel part was really effective.

Also, the Live Event is fun this week, including stock races in the 2CV and Mini Cooper. If they can only keep that going with something good to follow, a stock race each week would be fun.
 
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Couple additional comments on Season 4 now that I have driven a bit of it...

1. We did get 20 stock car races and they are good; however, Devs failed to adjust minimum times to account for the use of Stock cars on the High Stakes races. As a result, qualifying for some of the High Stakes races with Stock cars is all but impossible.

2. Player level max has been upped to 70. Remember, nothing on Ibiza will up Player levels. Some reported it wasn't working for the Solar Pass as well, but I found it still worked well for the Solar Pass (The Sub one minute Nav race seemed to at least) Additional Note: The Solar Pass was initially bugged and some players were unable to gain levels. I think that was also resolved with a restart.

3. The update to the Map UI showing street segments driven is probably the best improvement of the Season. I have now verified that I have driven every road segment in Hong Kong. Do I have credit for 100 % roads driven? No. Do I have credit (PC Steam Achievement GPS something) for discovering all of the gas stations, meeting points, etc.? No. So, one year later, and Devs still haven't corrected the bugs present on day one. But, at least I can verify that I have done all I could with the new map info.

4. The Casino play is mind-numbingly bad. Those who cannot play the one slot machine should be thankful. Pressing a single button over and over (and waiting an indeterminate period of time for rewards to payout before you can press it again) for hours on end in hopes of winning a car is completely nuts! How is that possibly fun? I would much rather earn coin racing with which to purchase the car.

5. If you use gold edition to purchase the Solar Crown Pass on PC and it does not work, do NOT worry. Just restart the game and everything should be fine. If you use cash to purchase the Solar Crown Pass, well, that is another story entirely. Some folks have reported getting nothing in return. So, I suggest that if you are inclined to dole out the cash, that you wait a few days to make sure Devs and Steam have everything ironed out.

6. The economy is still borked so the GRIND is real. Many will not finish the Solar Crown Pass even in 4 months time. I have done 7 levels beyond the 20 I got free so I will finish it but I am fairly determined in that regard. I finished the last solar pass in about a week...

7. The Casino clothing store is decent.

8. AI cars are pretty nuts now. Some of the AI cars go way out of their lanes at times making delivery missions much more challenging than they were previously.

TLDR: Game is still decent on Top Level Hardware, especially with a wheel (though a small percentage of Logitech wheel users cannot seem to figure out how to make it work). The Grind is still really bad. But, the improvements are coming albeit VERY VERY SLOWLY. In fact, I have never in my life seen a game patched as slowly as this one while still in the active development phase.
 
Couple additional comments on Season 4 now that I have driven a bit of it...

1. We did get 20 stock car races and they are good; however, Devs failed to adjust minimum times to account for the use of Stock cars on the High Stakes races. As a result, qualifying for some of the High Stakes races with Stock cars is all but impossible.

2. Player level max has been upped to 70. Remember, nothing on Ibiza will up Player levels. Some reported it wasn't working for the Solar Pass as well, but I found it still worked well for the Solar Pass (The Sub one minute Nav race seemed to at least) Additional Note: The Solar Pass was initially bugged and some players were unable to gain levels. I think that was also resolved with a restart.

3. The update to the Map UI showing street segments driven is probably the best improvement of the Season. I have now verified that I have driven every road segment in Hong Kong. Do I have credit for 100 % roads driven? No. Do I have credit (PC Steam Achievement GPS something) for discovering all of the gas stations, meeting points, etc.? No. So, one year later, and Devs still haven't corrected the bugs present on day one. But, at least I can verify that I have done all I could with the new map info.

4. The Casino play is mind-numbingly bad. Those who cannot play the one slot machine should be thankful. Pressing a single button over and over (and waiting an indeterminate period of time for rewards to payout before you can press it again) for hours on end in hopes of winning a car is completely nuts! How is that possibly fun? I would much rather earn coin racing with which to purchase the car.

5. If you use gold edition to purchase the Solar Crown Pass on PC and it does not work, do NOT worry. Just restart the game and everything should be fine. If you use cash to purchase the Solar Crown Pass, well, that is another story entirely. Some folks have reported getting nothing in return. So, I suggest that if you are inclined to dole out the cash, that you wait a few days to make sure Devs and Steam have everything ironed out.

6. The economy is still borked so the GRIND is real. Many will not finish the Solar Crown Pass even in 4 months time. I have done 7 levels beyond the 20 I got free so I will finish it but I am fairly determined in that regard. I finished the last solar pass in about a week...

7. The Casino clothing store is decent.

8. AI cars are pretty nuts now. Some of the AI cars go way out of their lanes at times making delivery missions much more challenging than they were previously.

TLDR: Game is still decent on Top Level Hardware, especially with a wheel (though a small percentage of Logitech wheel users cannot seem to figure out how to make it work). The Grind is still really bad. But, the improvements are coming albeit VERY VERY SLOWLY. In fact, I have never in my life seen a game patched as slowly as this one while still in the active development phase.
You have mentioned lots of fair points here.

Re point 6, today I did the 7 races required for the 3 daily rewards and that was enough to jump almost 2 levels in the Solar pass. So, witn 3 months to get to level 50, by my calculations you could complete the daily tasks every other day and get to level 50. It's still a grind, but playing regularly it's a lot more achievable than before. I think it can be expected that regular play would be necessary so I don't personally see any immediate issues with this.

Point 1 is a stupid oversight from the developers and is possibly indicative of them not looking at the full picture in relation to changes (not the first time this has happened).

Point 3 must be irritating - until its resolved I don't feel any compulsion to find the last few road segments.

I couldn't care less about the Casino personally to be honest, but I know others are more likely to be aggrieved.
 
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