Update Speculation thread

As long as they keep all original roads backwards compatibility be preserved, much like they did with all previous map remakes. Adding additional roads/locations shouldn't cause any issues with scenarios. This is what has happened with all previous remakes, original roads have been preserved and new roads have been added.

I've gone over the map numerous times lately, and there is in fact a lot of free real estate. As of now the jungle is like the old East Coast, where it's in fact very empty and surrounded like a tree wall. We all saw what happened to East Coast, so I would not be surprised if the jungle is opened up for better drivability, similar to what happened in East Coast's remake. There are a number of open coastal areas for points of interest, and one could easily cut the jungle back in places to access more land and add more locations.

Yes it is, much like all the other abandoned industrial maps (Port, Derby Arenas, Industrial Site, Small Island) it doesn't make a lot of sense. I would not be surprised if the points of interest/lore/etc change in an inevitable remake.

Since when has a level remake managed to "fuck up everything"? They've always done a pretty good job at maintaining backwards compatibility.

A couple topics I would like to discuss:

1. Level remaster announcements: As stated earlier, the level team has been relatively quiet about level remasters in general. I would not be surprised if they're being even quieter now as to prevent additional hype seeing as the Vivace created an excess of it. There are definitely some in production, see the official Instagram for example. Due to the small size of Small Island and the last few remaining maps, I wouldn't be surprised if they are packaged together, possibly alongside JRI as a "flagship" map like 0.17's ECA.
   
2. Abandoned Industrial Maps: As of now, there are way too many maps that are completely filled with abandoned industrial areas (Small Island, Port, Derby Arenas, Industrial Site, JRI). Abandoned industrial is fine in places, but having so many maps completely abandoned is a giant waste of potential, not to mention how similar it all looks. For example, Port and JRI both have large abandoned ports that mostly use the same assets. JRI and Industrial Site also have large abandoned industrial sites. I'm not sure why certain people seem to want completely abandoned maps, as they feel lifeless and empty.

 

For the remasters we've seen there hasn't been much reason to change the layouts. JRI may or may not be too bad depending on where they take it. There's a lot of small paths to worry about, and any major changes may need changes to the roadway. Small Island probably won't be a problem, but Port and Industrial may be a disaster... How do you improve Industrial without changing the layout when half the map is just random racetracks in a field? As for Port, it's just a maze of shipping containers. Any changes to what's already there is going to change the roadway.

I haven't been over the map, but I imagine it would be difficult to develop a lot of the map since the center is a lot of cliffs. There's enough room for small structures, but it's difficult to put any large landmarks in it since it could quickly turn into a WCUSA situation where the two defining features (city and motorsport park) crowd out everything else (film studio, drift track, suburbs, forest, etc...). Yet larger landmarks are what JRI needs, since right now there's nothing tying the map together, residences for example.

Personally I love abandoned infrastructure in general, but I don't think it's overdone in game. Looking at the major maps:

Hirochi and Automation are active maps with hints of historic infrastructure.
ETK Center, Italy, ECUSA, and WCUSA don't have any that I can think of.
Utah is a park in the desert; it has about just enough to make sense (abandoned mines and the refinery) but active everything else.
Derby is just a collection of derby arenas and one track, it doesn't really count for this conversation.
That just leaves Port/Industrial, Small Island, and JRI. All of which are scheduled for remasters and we have minimal idea what the plans are for any of them are. So that's three or four maps depending on how you count Port and Industrial, and none of these are particularly large maps. Further, there's plenty of variety that the abandoned genre could go. For example, Port/Industrial could go for an abandoned industrial center like the gymkhana map in Dirt Showdown, and JRI could emphasize a creepy overgrown former military theme, and Small Island could just become a camp ground or something. Just throwing examples out to show the possible diversity in the genre, not speculating anything.

 

On the topic of JRI's lack of land space, one could easily flatten/carve out certain areas for future infrastructure, as long as that wouldn't conflict with existing roads.

On the topic of abandoned places, I'll summarize it more accurately.

• East Coast - Mostly functional, however there is an abandoned house in the swamp.
  
• Hirochi Raceway - Mostly functional, however there is an abandoned shed on the outskirts.
• Utah - Mostly functional, however there are abandoned mines and an abandoned reduction mill.
  
• West Coast - Mostly functional, however there are numerous abandoned buildings near the industrial spawn point.
  
• ETK - Mostly functional, however there is a castle ruin on a hill.
  
• Italy - I don't know of any abandoned buildings here.
  
• Derby - Really just a derby map, so I'll ignore.

I love abandoned places too (I really want an abandoned mall like Rolling Acres to drive through), but I believe every map should have a healthy mix. For example, JRI could have various towns and villages, but if you go onto certain overgrown trails and the like you might come out at abandoned WWII military installations and or other abandoned places. I don't really see how filling the map completely with abandoned places is better than a healthy mix.
--- Post updated ---

Didn't see the top part, quick response:

• On the topic of JRI, one could add additional roads/trails for future locations, for example see how ECA's fishing village was handled without conflicting with pre-existing roads.
  
• I agree, Small Island won't be a problem.
• Port - Outside of the port area, the rest of the map is completely empty and the developers in theory are free to do whatever they want.
• Industrial Site's layout does concern me, I'm really not sure how they'd change that besides adding stuff on the surrounding hills and maybe better roads for raceway access.

 

Instructions unclear, caused COVID-19 outbreak during World War I

 

Yes lets go to to the web archive and travel to the future! Because thats how time works, we can't see things back in time

 

Spanish Flu and COVID-19 at the same time? Damn.

 

Does this mean we're getting a new vehicle? perhaps a new ibishu called the "ibishu geese" as some alternative to the pigeon?

 

Seems like photoshopped geese from untitled goose game

 

Clearly Nadeox is now dabling in the arts. You see, this painting is infact a highly complicated treatise on the natural state of Pigeon kind. The natural state of the Pigeon is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. But through friendship with Geese, they can rise to something greater than the noumenal.

 

that's the fuggin joke

 

Anyone think the LWB roamer and long bed D15 long bed are revised from synsols mod? Or they saw the mod wanted to put it in game?

 

They remodeled the roamer in the last update. They probably just manually extended it unless synsol's models were really up-to par, then maybe.

 

Synsol's Roamer wasn't a LWB Roamer, it just had the portion between the rear wheel wells and the rear bumper lengthened. It was the same story for his long bed.

 

In terms of the model itself, the long bed D-Series and Roamer LXT share no relation to Synsol's old mod. Notice how the long bed/body in that mod are on the standard frame.

Also, the mod was released before the Roamer was tweaked in 0.16 and the D-Series was tweaked in 0.18.

 

If not the case, like mentioned, they could have saw the mod and were inspired by it?

 

Most likely. I highly doubt devs use mods and revise them to developer standards; even if the mod maker joined the team. They are at most inspired by mods and consequently build their own version from the ground up.

 

yall know that synsol, who made the mod is a dev

 

I feel like this is a repeat of when everyone claimed they inspired XYZ from the Bluebuck... Does it really matter where the inspiration came from? It's not like a LWB truck based SUV is some obscure thing no one's thought of before...

 

yes

 

honestly making a longer version of a vehicle isn't terribly hard modeling-wise. They could've just as easily made the longer versions from scratch as they could re use the mod.