Update Speculation thread

So, December 2025 is now over, and wow, did 0.38 do numbers:



Every single record from previous updates were obliterated - over 1,000 more players over the previous month than 0.33, almost 2,000 more peak players than 0.27, and almost 1,400 more average players than 0.27. It also had a larger average increase than every other update since 0.31 combined (4,408 vs. 4,301), and less than 100 more peak players (6,455 vs. 6,528). It also had more players over the previous month than every other 2025 update combined.

There's gotta be some follow-up to this incredible performance. There was with 0.27 (0.29 and 0.30), and while not everyone was a fan of the off-road updates, they did quite well - while 0.28 didn't. Clearly, there's a big group of players who like construction vehicles, and plenty of people have been suggesting more of them.

0.35-0.37 didn't have as much of a strong connection to 0.34 as I thought they would in December 2024. I guess the major theme was "remasters", but that also was the main point of 0.31-0.33 (the remastering of the T-Series). (You could also count rallying, but only 0.35 gave that any major attention.) However, I think that was detrimental to 0.35-0.37's performance - or maybe people just aren't that interested in regular cars any more, without new features to go along with them. 0.37 did well, but its performance was far below that of 0.30 and 0.33 for peak and monthly increases. Even 0.34 was the worst-performing of the past four winter updates.

I think we'll see the devs return to more strongly-themed updates per year, so we'll likely get more construction equipment and other "oddball" vehicles this year. That being said...

...I still think we'll get remasters/refreshes this year. We've had at least one every year since 2019 - usually two or three. There are five vehicles released before 0.8 (Moonhawk, SBR, Barstow, '88 Pessima, I-Series) that have yet to be remastered. However, many of those vehicles have received major content additions and/or minor refreshes in recent years, so they're likely lower-priority. The Hopper is the most likely of the post-0.8 vehicles to be remastered, IMO, since it's yet to receive the new smooth lights and it's going to become a traffic vehicle.

Spring updates have usually been for remasters/refreshes since 2019 (only the FCV and Wendover have dropped in the spring since then - that's two out of seventeen vehicles), and I expect that trend to continue. We did get a double refresh/remaster for 0.28, 0.32, and 0.36 (which also had the new MD-Series content), so I could see that happening again for 0.39. The Miramar/Burnside and BX/T-Series also prove that vehicles don't have to share parts to get remastered/refreshed together. I wonder if the Hopper and DT40L will be remastered/refreshed together - they both were released in spring, so it would be fitting.

 

I think the only vehicle that will be remastered is the Hopper. All other vehicles mentioned need refreshes not remasters. They will likely add more content to those vehicles that are lacking in it (Both Pessimas, Barstow, Moonhawk) those vehicles need some texture updates and some more content, not a full remaster as they are already very high quality.

The hopper is super out of date, from the textures to configs. All the configs are basically the same, and it has yet to be added to traffic. It’s one of the two SUVs and it needs the love the roamer has. PLEASE it needs to be in traffic.

One thing the Pessimas badly need is JDM and EUDM configs, it makes no sense that they are only USDM. Same with the hopper, it needs JDM and EUDM configs like its irl Toyota Landcruiser counterpart.

Also the traffic needs some of the missing configs to be added, like some of the missing trim levels, and the very few missing cars.

 

the hopper is more like a YJ Jeep wrangler made under a Japanese brand. it is nothing like the Land Cruiser

 

@DriftinCovet1987

I agree with a lot of your post, but I don’t think a slew of new oddball vehicles is gonna be the priority. I would say the heavy machinery was very polarizing, definitely love it or hate it. I think game content online, holiday season and sale, and yes a new update with vehicles completely different from anything else in game created a perfect storm for new players to jump in and also still gave vets enough to log some hours

For longevity, I do think the focus needs to shift to more traditional beam experiences with cars and trucks built for traditional motoring disciplines. Continuing to expand on rally is huge, anything to coerce all those RBR rally guys to give Beam a shot. Maybe improving the time trial/hot lapping functions to incentivize building those finely tuned track cars and putting in lap after lap. And I think a new map would be huge as well. It’s hard for a driving game to keep going without new places to test vehicles limits. And obviously remasters for vehicles like the moonhawk or hopper that have been around forever, are showing their age but still get love from the community, would be popular too.
what about race configs for more cars? When the rally update dropped, a bunch of cars got rally interiors, sun strips, roof scoops, rally lights etc. Why not redo the race configs? The wings and splitters could use updates, add modern racing wheels to more cars (Only the etk gt4 has one and it looks great), update the race dash, maybe more colors or design for the race seats, add race fuel cells to more cars, and update the roll cages because a lot have clipping issues. Just things like that

 

I think it looks like the Land Cruiser

 

Ong its a landcruiser cosplaying as a jeep

 

It is amazing that a videogame old enough to drink still holds the hearts of that community even with how much competition there is in that space. We'll see how Assetto Corsa does but Beam is already in a good place to challenge the top spot if the they play their cards right. It'll always be difficult for a game without licensed cars/tracks to win over sim racers, but the rally crowd probably would be more forgiving than the other niches.

The liaisons may have been a footnote in the patch notes, but it shows that Beam is already set up to do things few/no other rally games have ontop of the softbody physics advantage.

 

I wonder if there will ever be an update like 0.27 again

 

Moonhawk sits waiting, to give nightmares to the devs to say give me a remaster Hopper wants to hop into that chat to, saying remaster me ( just jokes ) Devs can do what they like and we will all love it,
This is the only game i mostly play this and gta 4 lol,

Mods should be posted today or soon on a side note

 

Beam and GTA 4 are the best games ong.

I think they will remaster the hopper, and give a content update to the Pessimas. The pessimas dont even have JDM or EUDM configs.

 

Don't forget the Moonhawk!

 

That is a fair point - the Hopper hasn't really received much of anything since 0.18.3 (it did get a couple new configs in 0.27, but those didn't add new parts (other than the new tyres)). I do wonder if it and the DT40L (being the only heavy/off-road vehicles yet to be remastered) will be done this year, while we'll start seeing the remaining pre-0.8 cars get refreshed in 2027. There were five remasters in 2021 - many of which were for smaller vehicles (the only exception being the H-Series) - so it is possible.

While the heavy machinery was probably polarizing, it was definitely popular. I will admit that much of the community isn't interested in the really slow vehicles (see: Wydra), but I could still see at least one smaller, simpler "oddball" vehicle (like a baggage tractor) being added this year. We had a similar thing with 0.30 (which added the Aurata). Maybe there'll be some more utility/construction additions for the current roster, as well (like what happened in 0.29, when several vehicles got more off-road parts).

You say that, and yet the most popular update from 0.35-0.37 was the one that focused on props and a limo. The least-popular of the three trucking updates was 0.32. 0.29 and 0.30 were substantially more popular than 0.28 (especially 0.30). 0.23 had a bigger peak increase than 0.24-0.26 combined (2,594 vs. 679, 1,560, and 262 (2,501 combined)). I feel like without the required features (better tyres, better aero), people just don't have much interest in new regular cars. Oftentimes, people go back to their preferred mod cars after a couple weeks at most. I do agree that a new map and new time trial content/fixes would be cool.

Even so, it could still get EU/JP configs, since the Jeep Wrangler is quite popular in Japan (there's even a JDM-exclusive Snow Trace trim, among others) and Europe. The Wrangler was/is made in Iran, Egypt, Israel (where four-door TJs were built), Venezuela, and India. It (and the Land Cruiser) have also been sold pretty much everywhere. The Hopper could have a staggering number of market variations and special editions - it's one of the best vehicles to represent the "smaller" areas of the Beamverse with. (By "smaller", I mean "less-represented in driving/racing games".)

Also, December 2025 had 22,536 average players - it just hadn't been updated yet when I checked last week. That's almost 5,000 more than 0.37 had - which is more than 0.34 had over the previous month.

 

You know I was thinking, if you took a poll of the vehicles in BeamNG you use the most I bet they would correspond to the ones found in traffic just because you see them more even when not using them.

I bet that adding more vehicles to traffic would make more people use them. Like the SBR4, I always forget it exists even though its a very cool vehicle. Seeing it in traffic I would for sure drive it more. Like how the LeGran or Wendover are in traffic, if they weren’t I would for sire forget about the wendover.

 

What about the Moonhawk or Barstow? The moonhawk lacks variety and the Barstow needs better textures/more interior colors. Both are pretty dated

 

Not dated enough for a remaster. Both have good models, mostly good textures, and realistic components. They just need a refresh like the Miramar

 

I would say it's mainly the carpet textures that need some love

 

And it would be nice to see more cars that have more interior interactivity like the Sunburst/ T-series.

 

They're actually still really outdated, the PBR and nice lights just make it look great. If you took those 2 things away, it would look like an abandoned mod from 2018. There are also noticeable issues with the j-beam as well, like with the rear driveshaft breaking way too easily.
--- Post updated ---

The T-series is one of the most interactive vehicles in the game

 

I still think they need a refresh not remaster. You would have said the same thing to pre refresh Miramar

 

Seriously, even after the Refresh, the carpet texture from the interior of the cabin to the interior of the trunk is still very bad, lacking PBR, and the resolution is very low.

I think these places still need updating ...