Update Speculation thread

Just a casual thought - it would be cool if BeamNG did free updates with gameplay mechanics but kept content like cars and maps as paid DLC. Let’s be real the game is cheap and paid DLC could help them speed up development, grow the team, and instead of dropping bubbles they could add crazy flaming ramps, stunt motorcycles with riders who’ve got huge jbeamed balls, new cars, massive maps - and who knows what else…

 

Yeah. If they didn't hide it, we couldn't be saying "the update will likely release today or next week" every day.

 

or just increase the game price

 

So, I've been thinking about the updates that we've had over the past seven years post-0.15. Of these various updates:

-Two of the trucking updates had the biggest increases in peak player counts of any update. (0.33 had a gain of over 8,000 players over the previous month, or 38.8%; 0.31 had a gain of over 6,700 players, or 35.2%. Oddly enough, 0.32 was the least-popular of the three trucking updates, with around 4,000 extra players (17.3%).)
-The big off-roading updates were also very popular (0.27 had 6,400 extra players (45.2%), 0.30 had almost 6,200 extra players (36.1%) and 0.29 had over 5,600 extra players (36.6%)).
-Updates that introduced new vehicle types tended to be quite popular (0.25 had around 4,950 extra players (45.8%), 0.34 had around 4,700 extra players (18.5%), and 0.19 had 2,500 extra players (46.3%)).

However, a few updates stand out to me quite strongly - 0.15, 0.17/0.17.1, 0.23, and 0.28.

Spoiler: Update Numbers #2

-0.15, despite introducing both a new car and a new map, had a lower peak player count than 0.11 (4,065 players vs. 4,383 players) and a lower increase (898 players/28.4% vs. 1,403 players/47.1%).
-0.17/0.17.1 had the highest percentage gain since 2015 (75.7%) and a raw player gain close to that of 0.19 (~2,200 players). (It also was the first update since 0.11 to break the overall peak player count.)
-0.23 had the second-largest percentage gain since 2015 (57.3%) and had almost as many extra players as 0.25 (only 19 fewer, 4,946 vs. 4.965). (It also had the second-largest increase in overall peak players, behind 0.27 (3,533 vs. 4,618).)
-0.28 had one of the smallest percentage gains for a major update (1.8%) and one of the smallest player count increases (308 players). For context, several months with no updates (like August 2024) had larger player count and/or percentage increases (644 players, 3.2%).

To make things even worse for 0.28, it was one of three updates to not increase the overall peak player count since 0.17/0.17.1 (the others being 0.20 and 0.36), and had the largest decrease in peak players compared to the previous update (-3,421 players/-16.5%). Part of that definitely would've been the high expectations post-0.27, but I think another big issue with 0.28 is that it didn't bring any significant new features (like improved aero or tire thermals) to go with the racing-focused content. 0.11 had nitro to go with the new racetrack and drag strip, and 0.13 had the Automation exporter.

It will be very interesting to see if 0.37 ends up becoming the next 0.23 or another 0.28 when it comes to player counts. This is truly a one-of-a-kind update, being focused almost entirely on props. Even 0.24 (which had five new props) had two vehicle remasters (three + a new vehicle and a map remaster with 0.24.1) to carry interest. This is the first time we've had this much focus on non-vehicle/map content since 0.14, which added Light Runner and the track builder (Track Builder was added in 0.12). (Considering how poorly that update was received (even counting November 2018 instead, it had an increase over September 2018 of just 60 players), I don't think that bodes well.)

But hey, I've been wrong before about updates, so I'm ready to be blown away in a big ballin' limo inside a huge bubble.

 

This below.

 

Ah, we call those "speed bumps" here in the US

 

Yeah in EU we just call em a ramp lol im surprised we dont have these as a prop yet.

 

No surprises there. The T and MD are currently my most driven vehicles. I love utility machinery.

 

heres a wild thought, this update is definitely going to be a interesting one with all the random stuff and it almost seems the devs are just adding things that are either outdated, like props or stuff the community has wanted for seems like a decade, the limo and possibly others, and who knows maybe randomly we'll get airbags to go along with it all, even though i think they have said its impossible, but with the mysterious bubbles i wonder if their experimenting with inflation and air physics, which i would think is a key point to airbag function,
but as of course take it with a grain of salt.

 

The devs already have a merch store and dozens of partnerships with various companies through their .tech branch. I'm not sure if they're lacking for money at this point. I think that what's holding back development more is how much more complicated the game has become over the years, and how much higher the expectations are for each update. (They also have to do much more backwards-compatibility and maintenance work compared to their updates in 2016.)

BeamNG.drive is also quite a different game to develop for compared to a Unity or Unreal product. While hiring more modelers is easy enough (and the work for that's often been outsourced in recent years), hiring more programmers for the Jbeams likely isn't. So, even if they had 1,000 modelers, if they only have 5-10 programmers, new vehicle releases will still be limited by how quickly the programmers can work. And they have been hiring a lot more people recently. According to a series of posts by Torror on the Altfuture Discord (developers of Derail Valley and Switchcars), BeamNG grew from ~30 people in 2021 to ~80 people by October 2024. Considering they started with four people in 2013, that's some rapid growth.

Torror also mentioned the problems that come with that many people - mostly, trying to manage all of them:

From Slobodan, the lead developer for Altfuture (a studio comprised of ~10 people), in the same conversation:

I don't think paid DLC would change either of those things - and with how much of a passion project BeamNG.drive/tech was (and still is), I think I'd rather have 80-100 passionate devs than 1,000 people who don't know or care about what they're doing. Considering what happened the last time the devs had a failed contract for a vehicle, I think they'd rather have consistency and commitment than speed. (Especially for maps - although I will admit, it would be nice to get new maps more often.)

I also drove the T-Series a lot more post-remaster, and the MD's a nice middle-ground truck (although it still lacks some things).

 

The floofy panda is online

 

they got 6 million sales this year, that means over 100 million dollars

 

I've actually been thinking about the scalability of the game's content a few days ago. I've realized how slow and tedious it will eventually be to be backporting new features to older items, and keeping them up to date. We can already see the fragmentation with just the current roster. Take the halogen lights as an example. They first rolled out only for one car specifically, and later have been brought to many more, but there's still lots that lack them.

I'm currently most looking forward to a rollback upfit. D and H are too flimsy and fragile to be hauling larger vehicles, and the T can be pretty overkill for hauling just normal cars. The MD would fit way better for the purpose of having a solid and planted driving experience while hauling cars of any size.

 

Me: VIGILANTLY LOOKING FOR THE NEXT UPDATE TEASER
TIME: 9 PM
ME: DID THEY FORGET?

 

It's only coming up to 19 o'clock here in central Europe.

 

no teaser and that is the first time in years make a wrong call.. i dont know what is going on

 

smh why they gatekeeping

 

To be fair, that isn't taking into account the sales that steam occasionally does, but yes, they are still making a decent amount of money.

 

I hope panda wakes up and sees this. They were just here like 20 minutes ago lol

 

That is definitely one example. Another is opening side doors, hoods, and trunks for vehicles other than the Wentward, which were first added to the Scintilla (side doors only), then the Covet, then the Wydra/Stambecco, and finally all vehicles except the T-Series in 0.28. (The T-Series got them with its remaster in 0.31.)