Update Speculation thread

On the driver front, I wouldn't want a physical driver, something like the MSC protagonist would better for BeamNG, with basic on foot capabilities and the ability to interact with cars.

Very few people are talking about this, but I suspect traffic may come this update. It has been in the works for a while, and very well might be completed. I hope that the official system will be significantly more polished than the mod, and I am very curious to see what the improvements may be.

The main limitation that traffic currently has is the incompetent AI, and I hope that the improved AI is released alongside traffic. Hopefully vehicles actually obey traffic laws, and pursuit AI stops having frequent personal relationships with both trees and lampposts. Obviously the police pursuit system has to be overhauled, the current version in the mod is very crude.

Although the traffic tool was very customizable as to what cars and such roamed your maps, a new traffic game mode would be much appreciated. Obviously it would only feature the maps best suited for traffic, but I hope that it would feature realistic vehicle selection for the map.

Police would work better within this game mode, and would hopefully feature map specific police vehicles, both patrols and speed traps, ability to detect numerous driving offenses rather than just speeding, enhanced equipment and tactics, such as roadblocks, spike strips, better units in later stages of a pursuit, and hopefully increasing aggression over time. Although not mandatory, it would be nice to see "busted" scenes, police radio chatter, or even a helicopter. Obviously if this was the case, we would see a number of new police vehicles, so that each map has a few realistic police vehicles.

Lastly, I expect the update August 9th. It is both a Friday and the 2 year anniversary of 0.10.

 

My interpretation of the qa branch.
qa_latest: (Quality Assurance Latest) When ever something new (small line off code, jbeamed part, or any other addition) gets added to the game, it will have bugs. A bunch of lua errors, missing textures, and crashes will be almost granted.The qa_latest build is like one of those test mule cars that you see way before the real car comes out.
Ford Ranger Raptor test mule for example
It's meant for debugging big things to make it stable and playable.

qa_stable: Is a build that has passed through the latest branch. It's playable and has minimal errors. This version still has small bugs. Maybe a small mapping issue or a jbeam error. Just because there is a new stable build dose not mean the update is ready. To continue the car analogy, the qa_latest is like the test mules that don't have all the camouflage and covers. They're still not done but they're close. BUT if the small error seen stable branch turns out to be of a bigger problem (meaning completely having to redo something) it will go back through the qa_latest to make sure it doesn't cause any big errors.
Again this is just what I think the qa means. Feel free to tell me I am wrong

https://www.sema.org/sema-enews/2019/15/spy-shots-22-ranger-raptor-mule-caught-testing

 

just for hype reasons ill just put this classic right here for ya

 

Yep i agree, I hear the the Bluebuck will have most parts of any car, And the cars lately ( since late 2016 ) Have got even more detail/ For the Bluebuck to have most parts means that crashes will happen,

So what you said Noah2001 sounds spot on. After all the Bluebuck is in prototype stage still

 

We may see a full Bluebuck reveal today. Last year, the first full picture of the Piccolina was shown on the 5th anniversary. Today is the 6th anniversary.

 

5 bucks says that the update maybe could possibly come out (or not) today.

 

Dunno, its 11pm rn. What's your time dudes/

 

Half past 10 AM.

 

oh....

 

It's Saturday, late in the afternoon in Central Europe. I wouldn't expect the game update to land today if I were you...

 

Doubt we'll see it today, I've never seen an update on a weekend. Wouldn't be surprised if the devs are offline all weekend, as I suspect this may be their rest weekend before the update.

None of that would affect a Bluebuck tease though, especially if there's a good chance of 0.17 this Friday. I doubt BeamNG will release the Bluebuck without a full reveal beforehand.

 

i'd actually like to have a lack of reveals beforehand, makes it more exciting and surprising when it comes out

 

And people can't complain about turn signals...

 

The general rule seems to be 2-3 weeks after people start seriously talking about the update...

 

Alright, massive update post time.

It's been exactly 3 months since 0.16. Based on previous updates, 0.17 will come in the next two weeks. There is an increased likelihood of an update this Friday, as 0.10 released August 9th two years ago.

Let's talk about major content:

Very Likely:
Upgraded Port - Confirmed to be getting upgraded back in November 2018.
Upgraded Industrial Site - Confirmed to be getting upgraded back in November 2018.
Upgraded Derby Arenas - Confirmed to be getting upgraded back in November 2018.
Upgraded Small Island, USA - Confirmed to be getting upgraded back in November 2018.
Upgraded East Coast, USA - Confirmed to be getting upgrades.
Upgraded Hirochi Raceway - Confirmed to be getting upgrades.

Somewhat Likely:
Gavril Bluebuck - There have been a number of teasers, and it seems to be nearing completion. Due to the fact that we have not seen a full reveal, I am somewhat skeptical.
Traffic - Back in March, the Traffic Tool was a working mod confirmed by tdev to be added to the game. It has been over 6 months since then. Also, in May, Nadeox1 posted a suspicious video that may relate to official traffic. Due to the fact that Gamergull recently updated the Traffic Tool to not conflict with the official system, it may be ready. It is unknown how different the official system may be.

Possible:
Upgraded Jungle Rock Island - Although not confirmed to be getting an upgrade, it is clearly not up to par with newer maps. It was introduced back in 2014, and hasn't received major upgrades. It uses the aging industrial assets that are also seen on four of the maps were confirmed to be getting upgrades back November 2018. It would make sense to release all the map upgrades at once.
New AI - May be released alongside traffic.
More vehicle configurations such as police cars and such - May be added alongside traffic.

Unlikely:
Soliad Wendover - Obviously nowhere near completion
Upgraded Utah or later maps - Not blatantly showing age, likely not a priority
Career Mode - WIP, Status Unknown
New UI - WIP, Status Unknown


Also, in other news, take this:
https://www.beamng.com/threads/vent...ying-to-make-maps-for-now.62871/#post-1033699
The wiki is being completely replaced by official developer documentation.

 

It just occurred to me that the map upgrades could break so many mod maps that use the old abandoned-industrial and east-coast assets. Especially since some map creators have left the scene entirely and won't be around to fix their work. No Material party all over the place, yes, no, maybe?

 

My theory is that the new maps will be considered internally different, with different filenames and such, like east_coast_usa2 and the like, and they'll leave the old versions in the files with the original paths, but hidden from the map selector to preserve mod maps, but who knows?

 

I don't think there would be a problem if the creators copied the models & textures into their map folder instead of outsourcing it to the content folder.

 

I'm aware that some creators have left. Most maps I've seen have all their content self-contained, so I don't think there would be many, if not any issues at all following the update.