dull moon
Welcome everyone to the devchat for this season.
We have changed the pacing of these devchats up a bit as we found while doing it monthly was fun it did not really give us enough time to make changes and have them appear in the game. As such from now going forward we are going to try and do these once every update (roughly round the middle) so that we can talk a bit about the update as well as plans for next updates (since by the mid point we have more concrete ideas of what will make it).
Before I get into the rest of the devchat let me just talk about the Vanda event quickly so we can clear out those comments for now.
This event is targeted at end game veteran players primarily as they will on average have the better cars, it doesn't mean others can't take part or don't have a chance of winning it will mean you just need to be an even better driver. It's a new event and we are testing it and based upon how many people play it and comments we will kill it or modify it for future iterations
Now on to the actual chat
This update
So right now we are just past the half way through the electric season and I hope you have all had a chance to try out some of the new cars and are enjoying the season
On top of the normal special events this season we had something new which was bringing a non ārealā car into the game with the Lego Technic GP and TLE. Hopefully you all had a chance to take this car for a spin. While unfortunately we canāt keep this car in the game (and believe me the entire team wanted to keep it) hopefully it was a bit of fun and something different to drive with a lego car.
We know the game has become stale for many players (I'll talk a bit more about this later) so things like the Lego event help break it up
As we move into the 2nd half of the season we are launching (well launched about an hour ago) a brand new event the āTrue Legends Dendrobiumā which has as a prize the chance to win all the BP and Import parts needed to max out this car, however to win it you will need to prove that you are a the best of the best. As I mentioned above this event won't necessarily be everyone
's cup of tea
so don't feel like your forced to participate
We also have the next unleashed key hunt launching with the AT96 and our Halloween events in multiplayer which has a bunch of new āscaryā emojiās for you to unlock.
As we move into November we have 2 big events coming up a** Burst of Speed and a Special Event** which has a new balancing structure (it is more open for all players).
And of course last but not least as December starts we begin the countdown to Christmas and the end of the year.
New stuff in the game & The Future
So one of the most common comments I saw in the feedback and something that as a team we are aware of is that the game this year did not deliver very much in the way of new or exciting content
To be perfectly honest as a team overall we are not happy about how little we have managed to get done.
This year has not been a great year due to unforeseen resource reductions (we were down almost 50% at times) and we werenāt able to get all the things we wanted (well letās be honest we didnāt get 90% of the things) to add to game done instead we have played around with what we have to try and create more variety. Some of which has worked, some of which was pretty meh and some of which was actively disliked.
Now having said this we have a number of learnings from this year that we will be taking into next year (what we do but also how much we do in a season) and critically we have and are continuing to ramp up the team so as to not run into this position again (obligatory plug if you are looking for a job go to the gameloft job board and check out the open positions we are looking for all sorts of roles).
So what about next update (Iāll talk a bit more about next year's plans as well)
Well we have a few things that hopefully everyone will enjoy:
The new level Buenos Aires will launch and it is looking and playing awesome, it is very different from the Auckland track we had earlier this year as it is a city race that mixes both narrower streets with nice wide boulevards so lots of opportunities for great races.
As we polish and bug fix Buenos Aires we have also started on the next track which we are looking to launch in the 1st half of next year. ||The new track is an outdoor environment track|| and as we get closer to the launch Iāll share more information, right now it is a rough layout and we are testing various new game elements in it.
Next update we have the return of the Drive Syndicate, the 4th chapter of this event continues the story from past events and will introduce some new characters and cars. Additionally as part of celebrating this event we will be launching a set of new decals themed around the drive syndicate characters for you to unlock.
We keep looking at our Multiplayer and ways to make it more interesting and challenging and in the next update we are going to be running a couple new formats:
The first one will be a class based league, all cars in the event (which will be for 1 week) irrespective of league will come from the same pool. So no more S class vs. A class everyone will have the same options.
The second one we will be testing is similar except we will have a limited filter of cars with 1 car as a free trial ||so if you donāt have any of the cars you can still try it out||.
Both of these are tests we are trying as we are looking at creating a āpro-leagueā format for MP which will be a series of events tying to an overall leaderboard.
Additionally and potentially of greater interest for everyone, we are working on an entirely new gameplay mode in MP for early next year. The aim of this new mode is to change how you drive and make choices in MP and we think the mode should be a ton of fun and change up the race experience.
Other things we have coming next update is the return of a SE for a car (the reward) that has ||not been used in 2 years||. This will be supported by an EP so those who donāt have the car will have a chance to get it and if you do have it you can try to max it out and get import parts for it.
Also we will have a ||brand new layout for the career mode|| (note we are testing to make sure this works and if it doesnāt we will revert it). This new layout is the 1st stage of changes to career to introduce a new chapter and help new players onboard and catch up quicker. It involves not just a new layout but changes to unlocks and seasons in each chapter (Donāt worry if you have already done it you wonāt need to redo anything).
And over the next year we are going to add new seasons in the new chapter, adjust early balance and update onboarding flow for new players.
So what about other new things coming next year?
I'll talk about some other things and answer a couple questions as part of this
Firstly and fairly majorly as many of you might remember we wanted to launch club wars this year (new mode, new currency and new rewards), due to lack of resources this has been pushed to next year. Currently we are working hard to have it out early next year.
Additional stuff coming next year (fingers crossed and this is not an exhaustive list).
Updates to the store both the layout as well as content. This will include things such as GL changes (increase from 18 and new packs), revisit on refresh timers etc. This will be done over several updates next year.
New car filtering option in the garage and pre-race to make it easier for you to sort your cars and find the one you want.
And with regards to this, I'm not sure how many of you are aware of the Asphalt Board survey that has been sent out (and a new one will be soon)
we often asks about community features in this and from what is voted on we try and get some of them done. This includes things like the car filtering, option to not have ghost in GP, mission requirements being visible in a race, Private Lobbies from ESL being open to everyone etc
Some other bits and pieces I've seen questions on about next year:
-Decals -> Yes we are looking to bring back old decals as well as create more new ones (The DS ones for Xmas look great) and in addition to this we are also adding in new Emoji's and expanding the variety of body kits you can get.
-Old events coming back -> While we most likely will not have an old event back with 100% the same balance we are bringing the cars back as the focus. Xmas has a very popular one coming back that has not been the focus of a SE for 2 years
-What about the Batistta -> I guarantee it will be back before the end of the year
-Control scheme changes -> one of the community features that could be voted on was bringing a different control scheme into the game so it is in the backlog and really depends on how many people vote for it on it's priority.
-Touch drive or manual only events -> This is something we are discussing on how to do as well as where we would apply it. There are pro's and con's either way so we want to make sure if we do this we do it the right way
What about new SE types etc
For the team new gameplay modes are a big thing for next year as we know that unless the event feels really different it will get boring and we need more gameplay options. So as I've mentioned we are working on 1 for MP and additionally we are looking at:
** 2 new modes, 1 solo and 1 that is cooperative and Iāll give more info on these as we get closer to launching them. **
** 2 new DS formats, 1 being a small mini format** that will be shorter in duration and require less investment from you to complete and a totally new one which will allow you to race with police cars (something many people have been requesting).
On top of this there are lots of other improvements for the game that we want to do and will chip away at:
-new mission types
-stability and performance improvements
-look at the game physics again (we just hired a coder who has a bunch of experience in this area so this should help)
and a bunch of other things
To answer some additional questions:
Q Are we thinking of bringing in manual acceleration?
Well we added in for windows/xbox. We may look at it for ios/Android if there is enough requests, currently it really only makes sense to enable it for mobile devices who also use a controller as adding an extra button on the screen in touchdrive or manual would make it harder to play and add clutter.
Q Daily login calendar, will we add one?
We have a high level design for a daily calendar but at this point in time it will not make it into next years plans as we have other lower level onboarding improvements we want to do first.
Q Most races set in Australia
When we were deciding on which track to do earlier this year I pushed for Albert Park, sadly they didn't listen to this brilliant idea and we decided to go with Auckland š But don't give up hope there is so much amazing scenery in Australia I'm sure we will eventually get a track there
Q Switch roadmap
Short answer on switch is they are behind for 2 reasons 1 porting features and 2 and more importantly Nintendo approval process takes much much longer so it reduces how many updates they can do in a year and controls the pace.
Q do changes to MP also mean changes to rewards
Yes, in the long term as we test out the formats and see if people play them or not it will give us more options on how the rewards work.
Q Change car hunts to be less grindy.
So I don't have any sort of concrete answer on this, what I can say is we had a meeting today in fact to talk about the schedule of events, how many we have and how it feels like a job to try and take part in all of them. Coming out of this we are looking at a list of event operation changes we want to do for next year to mitigate this feeling. So not sure what changes will occur but changes are coming in the new year.
Q Hint for the DS4 car
It has 4 wheels, looks really modern and is very fast
Q Seasons focused around 1 brand
Yes we have more brand focused seasons coming up
Q Plans for inventory rework
At this point in time nothing specific however as we bring in CW and new features we will probably have to revisit the inventory and how it works
Q Bring back dark garage theme
Their is no plan at the moment to change the garage theme, however something that will want to try and tackle next year and it will take all of the year to work out so you probably won't see any changes is a revamp of our overall UI style.
Q Are we confident on physics rework
To be honest touching physics scares the crap out of both the designers and the coders. It can be a simple change or a horrible one. Any change we do will be small and incremental as we need to test it as much as humanely possible since changes in physics can have all sort of unforseen effects
Ah question about Xbox release
a perfect setup I can't resist
Xbox
One of the big things that did happen this year is the launch of the game on Xbox.
The work to get the Xbox version launched was pretty significant for the team, not just the porting and getting it running but we also updated controls and UI navigation
We know the launch was not ideal for some players and have a team dedicated to fixing bugs and improving performance for Xbox (there have been a couple hotfixes already) and will keep working on improving the experience. The next update has quite a number of performance improvements and should improve the overall experience.
so hopefully for those playing on Xbox it will keep improving for you
I've also seen a few comments asking for split screen for Xbox, this is something the team working on the Xbox version are implementing and are targeting to Launch early next year.
Q What about cross-platform
I'd love to get cross platform to some degree working (e.g. ios vs android), we are doing investigations as to the work involved and how long this would take. Much of the changes need to be done on the servers to migrate player data to allow cross play so it is not something that will happen quickly. Hopefully I'll be able to have more info next year on how/when etc this might happen
Q Why does China have it's own version.
They have their own version as it has different licensing and regulatory restrictions.
We are looking at sharing some elements (they take stuff from us at the moment) and bringing them into the world wide version as we can.
Q DS4 balance
Yes it will be easier than DS3 I guess is the easy answer
Q Avatars in the game
This is something we have looked at, it probably won't happen next year but you never know it depends on how other things go
Q Can LP exclusive events be killed
Probably not, these are popular with LP owners and it is a benefit of getting the LP
Q Use of emoji's in chat
Yes this is something we have had on our backlog for ages but sadly is not a high priority
Q Motorcycles in A9
Not in the forseable future
Q event packs and class pack updates
Yes these will get revisited as part of store changes next year
they do get changes incrementally through out a year
Q More info on PL
See way way above it is something that if you vote on in the survey can be pushed higher on the priority list
I should mention we have a separate group of people working on the community features so we can do more next year.
Q Paywall in DS4
The paywall is reduced is the best way I guess to explain why it will be easier
Q Rerun of old GP cars like the Jesko
While we won't necessarily re-run these events again we are bringing these older cars back.
Q can we confirm Buneos Aires is straight
As with all our tracks none of them are 100% straight, Buenos Aires has some narrow segments, a couple cool curves and a bunch of nice straights so like any track it is a mix.
A track with just straights is a boring race so even with Auckland we had some nice straights but we also break it up
Ok last question to answer
Q What is the DS4 car
Well the car is.......
Nah not going to tell you as we are out of time and you will have to find out in just over a month š
thankyou everyone for attending and have a good weekend.
hidden shell
I will tell them! The car is || I got you||
hidden shell
FESTIVE SEASON A9DEVCHAT
dull moon
Hello everyone and welcome to the 1st DevChat of 2022. I hope everyone had a pleasant festive season and your year has started off well.
As the Festive Season is currently wrapping up we have 1 last event kicking off next week to celebrate both the end of the Festive season but also the Lunar New Year.
As we enter the year of the Tiger a new Unleashed event will be running to celebrate this.
To give you a bit a sneak peek the cars for this event will be:
McLaren SEnna
Ferrari F8 Tributo
Porsche Carrera GT
as this event caps the end of the Festive season we are going to beginning a new season shortly afterwards.
This new season will be introducing a new schedule format to shake up the season experience
The next season is a Tour season, specifically it is a British Tour season which will have you racing in locations around the world in new cars from British manufacturers (check the patch notes coming soon to see which cars specifically)
So let me talk some more about the new format of the season.
Firstly I'm sure many of you will be happy to hear the Multiplayer series for the next season are going back to how they were (same format).
We will also have the usual set of Car hunts during the season and in addition to these we are introducing a new type of Car hunt format: Weekend Hunt.
The Weekend Hunt is focused on a single car and will repeat each weekend during the season. This means you have all season to unlock and star up this car.
Now what about special events (SE) and Gran Prix (GP)? This is where the format of the season comes in.
This season is going to split into 4 stages (or stops on the tour). The 1st 3 stages will all use the same format and build up to the final stage.
Each of the stages is focused around 1 car and the events in that stage are about that car to give the maximum amount of opportunity to not just unlock the car but star it up.
As you progress through each stage the car from the previous stage will be used in the next one so playing consistently throughout the season will give you the maximum chance to progress at unlocking the 4 cars of the tour.
Stage 1 to 3 all follow the same format and will consist of:
-Star hunt a new SE that is aimed at unlocking and starring up the car of the stage
-A GP focused on the car of the stage
-A Passport event were you will use the car of the stage to further get BP and star it up
-And finish off with an Epic Hunt for this car to let you collect epic parts.
at the end of these 3 stages the 4th stop on the tour kicks off in a Finale Special event that will require cars gained throughout the season to unlock the final car.
Each stage lasts roughly around 17 days (there is some overlap between stages)
and before it gets asked none of these cars are locked behind the legend pass. Pass owners will have benefits per normal but everyone who races will have a chance to unlock these new cars
So what else is new in the next update?
Well we are launching the first feature that was voted on by the community via the Asphalt Board and will be launching a new tool that lets you filter your garage to make finding cars easiers.
You will be able to filter your garage by the cars you own, brands and order them by rank and stars. This should help you find that one car you are looking for but can't remember the class or name when you want to use it.
Another thing we are launching next update is Closed Beta for the new club vs. club mode.
As this is a huge mode which has taken us a long time to develop we will be doing an invitational Beta to active clubs and running live tests with these players to make sure it works as we want and catch any final bugs before it goes fully live for everyone.
As part of this we will be publishing an article around the mode so even those whose clubs don't get a chance to participate will still be able to see more about it and start planning their strategies
ok let me take a look at some of the questions in the other channel and answer them
Q Do you plan to launch on steam?
A At this point in time it's not something I have an answer to, steam deck while a cool option is not something we have factored in for us it will depend on overall priorities and the work involved to introduce a new PC platform.
Q Are there any plans to support portrait mode on the club chat.
A Not at this point in time, it is not something we have thought about.
Q I feel like car hunts have beomce more relevant, after adding new season cars that are required for events
A Yes car hunts have become more relevant, for the past few seasons we have been trying to link things a bit closer
Q Add more re-run events like the Chiron SE
A The Chiron event before Christmas worked really well and it is something we will look at doing again in upcoming seasons. To expand a bit on this we are also looking at introducing a new SE format that will occur with every update and allow you to slowly work on maxing out a set of cars that will be used to get a final car. This event will be targeted at newer player initially and since it will repeat you will be able to keep working away at the car requirements outside of the event.
Q Adding a quick race mode like Switch did
A Currently we don't plan to add a quick race mode for the mobile/PC/Xbox version. It is something we have talked about but not something in our roadmap for this year
Q Can we get a Santiago de Chile track (top speed focused)
A The answer for this is neither yes or no, we are in planning at the moment for our 2nd track of the year (the 1st track is being worked on by Art right now) so not sure exactly where it will be. We do look at the track feedback and comments and each track we try to make it as different as we can from the previous one.
Small hint for the next one, since Buenos Aires is in a city with tight curves and fewer straights what do you think the next one would be like š
Q Updating the legend store or giving LP holders their own store
A Bit of a round about way to answer this, for those who came to Devchat last year you might remember I mentioned we wanted to do an update to the store? Well it's on the roadmap for the 1st 1/2 of this year and as part of this we will be updating not just visuals but also content.
Q Make rewards in MP worth the time spent.
A We have updated these a few times and will keep adjusting them they won't change in the next update but we can relook at them for future ones
Q Add Buenos Aires track to MP
A Yes this is something we can and will be doing there are a ton of tracks in the game so over time we try and move some in and some out of MP
Q More Career seasons
A We skipped adding a season in the Festive update but are back on track and there is a new season added for the next update
Q Reruns of old GP will they happen
A As with the reruns of old events we will bring these back as they fit into the relevant update.
Q Will older cars be associated with stops in the tour next season
A Yes some old cars are associated with stops
Q Garage update with cars >3500 rating
A This is a tough one to answer as it depends a bunch on the manufacturers car specs and how that then converts to rating. I will say we are working on our car evolution feature this year and part of that feature is boost to car rating (goes with stat increases) as well as new visuals and gameplay enhancements to the cars that are evolved.
I'll talk more about this again as we get closer to the launch of it.
Q What happened with 1vs1 mode
A We haven't run it for a bit as not many people were playing it and the overall experience was not what we wanted for those playing.
Q When is DS5
A Later this year, no firm date as yet but we will have it the story does go on
Ok before we end the Devchat thankyou all for attending and your questions.
I want to wrap up by saying I hope you all enjoy the Unleashed Year of the Tiger event that will launch next week.
And for the next season remember playing in each stage of the tour will help you maximize the cars you unlock in each stop.
dull moon
Alright let's kick off the Devchat for The British Tour
Welcome everyone and thanks for taking time out to join me today, hopefully what I'll be covering brightens up the middle of your week
so before I begin to talk about the next season let's take a bit of a look back at the current one.
This was a new season format for us and is a bit of theme we will be continuing through out this year changing up the format and focus of each season.
The tour season structure is a new one we tried and I'd love to get your feelings on it. A poll will be going up shortly in the #ā-dev-chat-vote channel. Let me know what you thought of the season on a scale of 1 (please never do this again) to 5 (yes please repeat I loved it)
A question I'm sure many people are going to ask is will this format be used again? The format most likely the exact same structure probably not, we will look at the data on the season and make adjustments (change event lengths, requirements etc) to continue and tweak the experience.
However it is not something that will happen in the next few updates as we have a new structure, theme and focus for the next season.
The next season kicks-off in early April and is a multiplayer (MP) focused season.
Now what do I mean by this?
Well in this season we will be trying something totally new with MP
in conjunction with the normal 2 week long world series events we will be running daily MP events
each day of the week will be it's own short mini series with it's own set of rules
each day the rules will change and the series begins again
The key thing with this is these mini-series will give you a method to unlock 2 brand new cars through the season
during the week 1 of the new cars is available as a reward in the mini-series
and on the weekend we expand this to introduce a second one.
additionally the MP 1 vs. 1 will be back this season with new cars as the rewards as part of the MP focused season.
But what about other events you say?
We know not everyone loves MP so of course we will be having other events this season.
In fact we are introducing 2 new types of events this season.
The 1st new event type "Starway" is a new format that is aimed at allowing you to collect and star-up some cars that you might not have had a chance to.
The way this event will work is that you will need to collect 6 cars that are commonly available (from career, the daily class events and other daily events). When you have each of the cars at 1 star it will unlock the Starway event for you. Complete the 1 star stage of the event and you are guaranteed the feature car of the event at 1 star.
The event then repeats for you with the requirement being to have the 6 cars at 2 stars and then guaranteeing the feature car at 2 stars.
This event will allow you to get the feature car up to 4 stars by playing.
If you run out of time to finish the event don't worry. We will be running this event format every month and this year we will be having 3 feature cars so every 3 months the event will repeat with the same cars and requirements.
The second new event this season is a twist on the GP format.
The event is called "Looper Prix" and we are introducing a new mechanic that will help you boost your time to complete the race faster than before.
In this event you will start the 1st race and "record" a ghost of yourself during the race. Each subsequent race on that track will have you racing against your ghost.
The twist is that the ghost will have slipstream enabled helping you to catch your ghost. Once you have caught your ghost as long as you are in contact with it you will gain nitro at an increased rate.
This will allow you to race in nitro for longer periods of time and finish faster.
If you beat your ghost time a new ghost will be created, so each time you beat your ghost you will be able to push yourself faster by getting nitro from slipstream and ghost longer decreasing the time per lap.
By repeating this loop over and over you can push yourself to faster times and rank higher on the leaderboards for the event.
In addition to the 2 new events we will also be having the usual compliment of car hunts as well as a return of a popular old car in a SE focused just for it (no it's not the Chiron)
The biggest news for the next season is of course the world wide launch of the club vs. club feature.
The Clash (and yes I know it's the name of an awesome band) will launch next season
We will have a small closed beta (to make sure of any final issues) at the start of the season with the world wide launch planned at the start of May
The 1st clash season will be a shortened season consisting of 3 clashes, make sure you organize your club mates and join in as the rewards from it will be the same as for the normal longer seasons so take advantage of it.
will The Clash beta be live streamed? that will depend on the clubs involved and what they want to show off for their strategies.
We will be working on various articles etc to communicate how it all works before the launch.
The best advice I can give you is collect as many cars as you can and make sure that everyone in your club takes part as the more people playing in the club the better it is for you.
Q: is looper Prix unlimited?
A: It is not unlimited however your ghost is the same for each track (each stage) so my recommendation is use the unlimited practice races to push your ghost to a good time before you try ranked races.
Q: Will there be any pit stops like real races in the future?
A: We looked at doing a mode which had you making decisions on when to do pit stops etc. Design was a bit meh and we need to play with it more to find how to make it more fun before we look at building it
Q: What about new track?
A: We were hoping to launch a new track this update, unfortunately the art team who work on it are based in the Ukraine so we have pushed the track out of this update.
Q: Change the cars in MP
A: We will not be changing them in this update, the entire update is focused on MP so while world series will remain as is the new daily MP has new cars in it.
Q: When are we getting garage update
A: No time line for that at this point, changing the BP in the legend store and the garage levels is something we have starting looking at and talking about. It is not a simple change as there are many different things connected to it so it is something we need to slowly chip away at in the background to get ready since if we get it wrong it has drastic knock-ons for all of the rewards in the game
Q: Will these daily MP replace MP2 or will it be MP3
A: These will replace the normal MP2
Q: Could we let the community pick from a specific pool of MP1 rewards?
A: We can look at doing this it means we need to create several pools of rewards early in a season so it can be implemented, definetaly something we can discuss
Q: daily MP reward are in milestones " to unlock new cars) ?
A: Yes they are milestone rewards so you can grind for them
Q: Will there be more rare cars introduced in special events
A: Not this update (well other than the old one coming back) but this something we do through out the year
Q: how much series score will I need to grind each day
A: I don't have the exact value in front of me but from our testing it feels quite reasonable to obtain (my opinion so others may differ)
Q: Endurance game mode
A: This was actually part of the issue with the concept being fun, while some people like endurance driving it goes a bit against the DNA of A9 which is about going fast, using nitro etc.
Now having said this we are working on more game modes this year we are about to start prototyping another one (I'll just say it involves letting you drive with a car everyone hates to be taken down by) as well as other modes to change up how you play overall
Q: About rep level going above 100
A: This is a request that has come up in the Asphalt board as well, we are doing a design for it at the moment (rough concept is to not go above 100 but once at 100 allow you to still gain rep and get rewards) and will be something we ask you all to vote on in an upcoming Asphalt board survey.
For those who aren't familiar, the Asphalt board survey allow us to get info from you but also allows you to vote on features you would like us to add. The car filter has come from this and a few other improvements are in the pipeline from it as well
Q: Cross server MP
A: No time line for it yet but it is something we want even if it is just Android & iOS in 1 pool. The more people we can get playing together the better it is in MP
Q: tips pls (like kind which characteristic of the car)
A: 4 wheels, goes really fast and looks cool
Q: What about SE for next season.
A: Next season we have showcase event, the looper prix, the starway, a bunch of car hunts. Certainly won't be lacking content
Q: Will there be a balance change to cars?
A: The only balance change for the next update is The Vencer Sarthe which has recieved a rank update, the stats are the same at stock and at max. Now the rank value and as a consequence its garage position indicates better the true power of the car
Q: About planning dynamic maps
A: The next one has a few new interesting mechanics in it that adds some dynamic elements as well as other parts. It is something we are looking at pushing and adding more to upcoming tracks to help make them feel more alive. We have a few new tools we have prototyped to allow us to add new elements to the maps to change up the driving experience and will be using them.
Q: What is a showcase event?
A: A showcase event is where we show off the new cars of the season letting you drive with them and experience them without having to unlock them
Q: What about a new soundtrack?
A: Really good point and something I'll bring up, we can certainly look at bringing in some new music over time.
Q: pizza or pasta
A: Depends on the weather and my mood. Warm weather pizza outside is nice, cold weather pasta all the way
Q: Can we have a title drop for the next update.
A: The next season will be called...... stay tuned š
Q: Will we see the tour structure repeating?
A: Yes as I mentioned previously we will look at bringing the overall structure and theme back but it will most likely not be another British tour but will be Something Tour.
The idea we are trying is to create structures were we can change the car focus but keep a common theme. so British Tour was British cars, Italian Tour would be Italian cars etc both using the same sort of format
Q: Brand focused season when?
A: Yes later this year, won't tell you which brand but there is 1 coming up in the not to distant future
It will probably not be a Koenigsegg season (not enough cars)
Q: i hope there will not any errors or gliches on this new update
A: Me to, it is not fun for the team when a new season launches as rockily as this past one did. Even with all of the QA we did it still happened. We put in some new processes to double, triple and quadruple check to make sure this hopefully never happens again.
alright 4 min left, i'll do a few more questions so get the best ones in that you can think of
Q: how many new cars
A: There are 6 you can get (like most seasons)
Alright, going to close this chat for now.
Thanks again everyone for attending and asking questions. Don't forget to vote on how you liked the British Tour season and hope you like the next season which is coming in a couple weeks.
hidden shell
NEW BREED RIVALS & THE CLASH #A9DEVCHAT
dull moon
Yay, almost time to start so grab your popcorn
Alright, let's get this kicked off
Welcome everyone to a new Devchat
I hope you have all had a good week and if not I hope the weekend gets better for you
Let's get started with the current season
As some of you may be aware and for those who aren't we are coming to the end of the season with a new one kicking off pretty shortly (couple weeks roughly).
This past season we tried something new (as we have with the other seasons this year) and had a focus on multiplayer (MP) this season
now MP can be quite a contentious topic as some people love it, some people hate it, some people just want different rewards etc
so what I'd like to do with this devchat is get some quick feedback from everyone before I dive into the juicy bits and pieces of what is coming soon
so first poll for the day (will appear in #ā-dev-chat-vote ) what did you think of the current season? Did you love it? did you hate it or are you indiferent?
Please go vote
As part of this since daily MP change is something totally new let's have a poll for you to vote on how you found that particular part of the season
MP is an area we keep tinkering with in order to try and find the optimal format for it so would be good to see what you all thought about the daily variations and the linking of new cars to them.
(also it's a race to see if I can ask the question before Clauwdia can get the poll up so far it's 1:0 for me)
Ok and next bit of feedback please (don't worry not long till the interesting stuff). One of the most common comments we have seen is often people say the game has to much going on during the week and the season. On the other hand we often see comments asking for more. So to help us with this there will be 2 polls going up.
For the 1st one let us know what you think about the amount of content in a season (special events, TLE primarily).
And for the second one what sort of events do you think there are to many of?
I'll give you all a min or so to vote before I go into the upcoming season
Next Season
Now let's talk about the stuff I'm sure you are all really interested in the next season
The next season is an exciting one for us, it is a season all about one of the most popular brands of car Lamborghini! We have a bunch of brand-new Lamborghiniās coming to the game with some cool decals that can be unlocked for them.
As with any season naturally there are a bunch of events that will be run
early in the season to celebrate the 1st live season of the clash we will be celebrating its launch with some special things, so make sure you login early June to see what it will be
additionally we will be having a Play For The Planet event, join us to help raise awareness in an event that we are running in conjunction with the United Nations play for the planet initiative. This event along with other time limited event will let you play with and collect electric and hybrid cars along with an exclusive decal for the Lotus Evija (yes, yes I know itās not a Lamborghini š ).
This season is also a big one for Grand Prix events
as there will be 3 different ones this season a normal one for the Lamborghini ReventĆ³n Roadster A new Looper Prix (note balance for the ghosts have been adjusted in the Looper Prix) as well as an Elite Prix for the Techrules AT96 Track Version
Speaking of Looper Prix, we added the ability for you to reset your ghost, so if you took the wrong path you can now reset it and record a new ghost to help you improve.
so a mistake in a round isn't the end of your ghost anymore
We will also have several special events focused on the new cars for this update that will give you a chance to collect them and get blueprints for older Lamborghiniās. To complement the new Lamborghini's being launched
And don't forget the new career season launching this update means if you have been playing career diligently you should be able to unlock the Lamborghini Veneno
Did you miss out on the Peugeot Onyx or McLaren Speedtail? 2 new Starway events will be occurring during this update for these cars. Once finished the sequence of Starway events will begin to repeat so you will have multiple chances at completing these events as they will repeat on a montly basis (different one each month)
Finally and certainly not least when it comes to events in the next update
as we go into July we will be having our yearly 4th of July celebration events and much more importantly the end of July marks the 4th anniversary of Asphalt 9. There will be some surprises to celebrate this milestone! So login and check it out to see what we have in store for you.
Phew lot's of cool event next update but What else is coming ?
We have a new layout of the shop and will be running tests of this new shop, some people will see a different shop layout (donāt worry, the content is the same for everyone) so if you do see it please send us feedback we want to hear from you! It will help us decide if we keep it, change it or discard it
An Asphalt Board feature is launching this update giving you the ability to set a token spend limit in the game which will trigger a prompt if you try to spend more than that amount. You can find this in the settings -> notifications section of the game.
and Remember Asphalt Board features are done based upon your votes, so please take part of the surveys and vote!
and of course after the beta test and world wide launch of the 1st Clash season we have made some changes and improvements to it.
But before I start talking about The Clash, Iād like to get a quick feel about how many of you took part in it and your thoughts, a poll will be going up for you to vote in a minute.
The Clash
to start off a big thanks to all the clubs who took part in Beta and for everyone who has taken part in the 1st official season of The Clash. If you missed out don't worry it is not going anywhere, for those played I hope you enjoyed it.
We got a ton of questions and suggestions around the clash for this devchat so I'm going to talk to you about some of them but also about the improvements we have done for next update and what we are looking at for future ones as many of the questions and suggestions match what we already had planned.
to give a bit of context The Clash is a huge feature for us which has taken us almost an entire year to design and develop and what we launched with is still not the final product. We know with something as big as this it is important to get it into your hands so we can see if players enjoy it as well as areas that can be improved (which is why we launched it last update). So over the next few updates we will be continuing to tweak and improve The Clash in both big and small ways.
In the next update you will see a few key changes:
Firstly the round lengths are being changed to give more time on defense and attack, instead of 2 days both phases will be 4. Additionally, we are changing the warm up pre-war period to be 6 days for this update so as to create a larger gap between round of the clash and spread the event out.
As part of this duration change, we have also changed when we look at eligible players for a round. Previously you would have needed to be in the club when it registered to be eligible to play in that round. Now you need to be in the club when matchmaking starts, this means if you join a club that has registered in the warm up phase prior to matchmaking you will still be able to take part.
hopefully this will also make it easier for you to ensure your club is ready to go when the defense phase starts
Scoring is a big one in The Clash and it has been adjusted. Now when on attack if you want to get the bonus points you will need to meet the criteria in the same way that the defenders have to. We think this makes it fairer for both defenders and attackers.
and will also add an extra layer of strategy as you can't just always use the best car without leaving points on the table for your opponents.
We got a bunch of comments about needing someway to see which neighbourhoods you were defending or attacking so to help address this we have added some icons to the map so you can now more easily see neighbourhoods that you have streets defended and are attacking. Small change that should make it a bit easier to see were to go
Speaking of attacking and defending, now when your attempt to conquer an opponents street you will be racing against the car of the defender. So you will be able to see the route they took and have a clear target to beat.
Those are some of the big changes you will see, we also did a bunch of bug fixes and UI tweaks to streamline the experience. Check out the patch notes for a fuller list if you are interested (or just play the clash and marvel at how much better it is š )
hidden shell
Full Patch Notes: https://gmlft.co/A9-Raging-Bull-PN
dull moon
As I've mentioned this is a big feature so of course this won't be the end of changes we will do to it. Some upcoming stuff we are looking at doing (no particular order and no timeline as yet)
Practice leaderboard for defense so you can compare vs. club mates
An ask for help feature allowing club mates to help you out if you get stuck during the attack phase.
Updating the status screen to not just show your information but also see the rest of the club what they are doing and can do. This will help you see who in the club is playing in the clash and what they are doing.
A record and history of previous Clashes to see how well you did vs. different clubs and how you rank in overall seasons.
Potential to practice in attack before you attempt to beat the opponent's time.
These are just some of the things we are looking at doing to keep improving the Clash in the future and none are locked in stone as yet as we work through the design and look at how long things will take to implement.
We are very conscious of the feedback of the community for the feature so please keep providing feedback on it as it helps us prioritize the work and can give us areas to improve we might see in our playing.
Now one question that has come up is about the streets used in the clash and if these will change. We will be changing them over time along with the extra point requirements and car filters. This will happen semi-regularly as we continue to get data on the clash and adjust how points are distributed.
so you can expect changes to the streets, map shape as well as where scoring emphasize is put (do you get more points for conquering a street vs. meeting extra requirements for example)
Now for some questions from the discussion channel
Question about starway and how you can only get the car to 4 stars and not max it (oh I should mention starways all max out at 4 stars for the car). This is done on purpose as the events are aimed at helping newer players get these great cars to a high star level to be competitive.
Q: Allow unlocking of customization by tokens
A: This is something we have considered, not planned for this year (we have some other interesting customization stuff coming) but on the list for the future
Q: For the tokens threshold what if I want to spend above it multiple times?
A: You will get prompted each time so your option is to go through the prompt (1 extra click) or disable it or raise it for a period of time. The thresholds are set by you so you can control it pretty easily.
Q: Separate event tickets for SE vs. Daily events
A: Not something planned currently, we do have something we are looking to do in an upcoming update that will be a big quality of life improvement when it comes to daily events. But I will talk more about it closer to when it is ready
Q: Do cars stay the same for Starway
A: Each Starway has it's own set of cars and these cars remain the same for it e.g. Onyx will have a set that is always the same for the Onyx
Q: For car filters why not add year part for ordering
A: This is not something we have currently planned, our events are based around brand and class so those are the filters we added first. We will look at potentially adding other filters but the focus will be on ones that help find the car needed quicker.
Q: What about new currency?
A: Come back to the next Devchat I should have something for it then
Q: What about a trading system
A: This is not something for this year, as to when I don't have an answer for it sorry.
Q: What about a new track?
A: We have a new track coming this year, in fact we had 2 planned. Unfortunately they have been delayed a bit as a large chunk of the art team who do the environment are in the Ukraine. They are all safe and back working again so we will have 1 for sure this year (in fact I played it this morning and I think you will all love it). It won't be this update and I will talk about it in the Devchat before it goes live
Q: More garage and rep levels
A: This is something we have been talking about for ages and is something we want to do. It keeps getting pushed back as we have higher priority items we need to do and we only have a certain amount of bandwith to do so (it's not trivial as we have to rebalance all the rewards to do so)
Q: Bring back LP cars for all players
A: We have not given up on doing this and it is something we do on a case by case basis and update by update basis. It needs to be the right car and the right update when we do this.
Q: Dark garage
A: Not anytime soon, there is a garage related feature that is being worked on (and no not the level I mean visual related)
Q: Why can NFS or F&F kits not be added to the game
A: Because they are different games with different licensor agreements (oh yeah and that pesky being sued thing)
Q: What is the deal with league mixing
A: League mixing occurs when there are not enough players available within 1 league to make a race. So instead of a continual no match found we allow mixing within a certain rating threshold of each league. It's not ideal but we think it's a better solution than not being able to play at all
Q: Will MP2 be 1 day events in the next update?
A: No it will go back to the old format as we do an analysis on this past season and decide on future changes based upon it. Hence the polls, if everyone loved it then we can push to keep it or something close to it.
Q: What about account sharing blocking
A: Don't have an answer to that sorry as it's not my area, I can bring it up with the game champion and maybe get him back for a devchat (he was a bit scared after the last one) to answer some questions
Q: Can switch players have a devchat
A: Fine with me (throws the switch team under the bus)
Q: How can we unlock the Diablo
A: There will be packs & offers for it next season
Q: What up with the inaccurate top speed of the sesto?
A: Top speed for us vs. what you might see on the internet can vary sometimes we have to have differences due to licensing and sometimes what the licensors give us vs. what they publish are different
Q: Can we have a free drive "practice" mode
A: Something on the list long term
Ok going end the chat here, thank you everyone for taking part and your comments (I'll go through them for those I missed).
I hope you all have a good weekend and make sure to grab the update when it launches soon
hidden shell
RAGING BULL & UPCOMING SEASON A9DEVCHAT
dull moon
Hi everybody! Thank you all for joining again for the latest DevChat.
As usual I'll be talking a bit about the next season (starting towards the end of this month) but before I get into that let's talk a bit about the past season and the current mini one
First of all we have heard the comments and thoughts about the past season. As many of you may be aware this year we have been experimenting with our season structures to see what works and doesn't. In this case it clearly did not so the changes that we tried with the legend pass are not something we are planning to continue with or do again.
The slightly shorter season and the mini-season is something we are doing for future ones (just not as short as the last one)
with the mini season in particular we thought it was a good way to help celebrate the 4th anniversary of the game.
So as we celebrate the 4th anniversary of the game we are also currently prepping the launch of the next season. So what is in the next season?
We have a few big new features coming in the next season as well as some changes to existing things
Let's start off with the new features
One of the first new features being launched is a quality of life for players who are at garage level (GL) 12 and above (we may adjust this in future). We have done a bunch of analysis on our daily events and found that many people spend a ton of time on the non-seasonal events (credit heist, class X cup etc)
so to reduce the time you need to spend on these we are introducing an auto-claim feature
the way this will work is:
-It will only apply to non-seasonal daily events
-If you meet the requirement to beat a criteria (e.g. you have the car)
Then you will be able to press 1 button and auto claim all of the rewards for that event
it won't cost you a ticket or fuel
so you can spend more time playing the seasonal related things
The next new feature/change impacts both the store and the clash
we have added a new section to the store just for the clash
this section has a set of exclusive cars that you can get BP and import parts for
to get these items you will need to purchase them with a new currency that you can earn from the clash
you will get the currency at the end of a round as well as at the end of the clash season at the moment
over time we will slowly add more exclusive cars here.
As part of the store feature we also added a filter so in this section of the store you can click to select a car and it will show you all the cars that have items you can get.
This section of the store opens up currently at GL10 (we may lower this in future updates)
The next new feature in the game is the much anticipated (well at least by me and the designer working on it) new track
I've been told I can't tell you the location of it but I will talk a bit about the track
It's the 1st new track of the year (and only 1 this year due to delays the 2nd track has been pushed to early next year).
in a location that is quite different than the rest of the game
it also introduces some new game elements/hazards that we have not seen previously in the game
where depending on the action you take in specific spots you can change the path your car is taking. E.g. do a 360 at the right spot to take 1 path or go straight and have a different one.
So you will need to consider when to do an action not just choose a path.
The next new feature and area of change is around multiplayer
We are introducing a new pass you can purchase that will give bonuses for playing multiplayer
The bonuses include:
ā¢ Extra daily gas refills
ā¢ Gas refills faster for all cars
ā¢ Extra credits per MP race
ā¢ Extra series score per MP race (get to the rewards faster)
ā¢ Extra series score milestones (more rewards)
ā¢ Get the reward from all the leagues you reach.
this applies to both time limited multiplayer as well as the world series multiplayer events.
The other change to MP is quite a major one that applies to the world series multiplayer events.
Currently each tier (bronze, silver etc) unlocks a specific class of cars you can use. We have changed this and each tier now has a pool of cars associated with it.
There are approximately 12 cars per pool and the cars have been chosen based upon:
-Performance
-Availability (how easy it is to unlock and star them up)
-Rating range
These pools will remain fairly stable for the rest of the year with only 1 or 2 cars being added/removed to fit in with the season e.g. for next season we added some of the cars of the season in the pools were they fit.
As we have changed the pools we have also changed all of the gacha rewards associated with them
this means each tier has it's own set of gacha rewards which will help you star up the cars in your current tier as well as get some of the cars for the next tier (well except legend which obviously has only cars for its tier)
I believe there is going to be a SNS post in the next few weeks which will show you all of the cars in the pools
So those are the new features/changes for the upcoming season (well except 1 more) so let me talk a bit about the events in the season
The next season is going to see the return of some older events for cars like Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta, Rimac Nevera & Zenvo TSR-S
Additionally new events for new cars will be run per normal
The big event for the next update is a new type of drive syndicate
for the past few years the drive syndicate has had you trying to get in with syndicate and driving for them
the new syndicate will let you experience being on the other side and working for the security forces with the introduction of a brand new game mode
This new mode called Takedown will let you take control of 1 of 2 security cars and tasks you with stopping syndicate drivers from escaping by taking them down before they can escape.
The new mode introduces a brand new mechanic to do so. As these are enhanced cars you no longer will need nitro as you will be able to briefly boost your car to catch up and when you are close enough to your target execute a takedown
This includes a takedown of a car in front or if you time it right by braking a bit (go straight and hold drift) slow down and execute a 90 degree block to takedown of a car approaching from behind
The security cars you will be able to drive with in the event but not unlock for this event, they will become available in the future though for you to collect and add to your garage.
Let me grab some questions to answer
Q: GL and legend store increases.
A: This is something we want to do (i know i've talked about it a bunch) it keeps getting pushed as the work to do is high but overall its a lower priority compared to the seasonal things we need to do. Having said that it is something still on our radar and we are looking to raise the GL to 30 and as part of this the legend store would be updated
Q: What about Venom packs?
A: Venom packs will come back when the venom is next used in an event, as to when that will be I don't have an answer right now
Q: What about bringing back the British tour season structure?
A: This is under discussion, at the moment I don't think the structure will come back 100% in the format it was however parts of it did work and we are looking at bringing them back (events tied together and the weekend hunt in particular)
Q: What reward will the DS give
A: It will give a new car other than that you will need to wait a few weeks to see š
Q: Increase trade coins for selling epic parts
A: We are not planning on increasing the trade coins you get for selling epic parts at this point in time
Q: What will happen to MP exclusives with the changes
A: Some of these will remain in MP and others will be moved as rewards into other areas of the game
Q: Will the new auto claim for daily event change the currency rewards
A: No rewards are remaining as they were
Q: new track in MP
A: The new track is added to MP
Q: New MP pass adds more rewards for series score is it more grinding?
A: No it's not the new rewards are added in between existing milestones so you get more for the same amount and as you will get more series score so overall you will reach your milestones faster
Q: When is the new track coming can you give us an exact time
A: Wednesday at noon (I have no idea it goes live with the update)
Q: Is the team confident about the steam release
A: Yes we are confident it will be released in the near future, in fact you can wishlist now on steam http://gmlft.co/A9-Steam
Q: 2 Passes
A: Yes the LP and the MP one can live together at the same time, worth mentioning the MP bonus pass is not seasonal base but lasts for a set period of time
Q: Thoughts on cross platform with iOS
A: Would love to do this and it is on the long term roadmap as most of the work to do so is not on the dev team but central teams to support it so it takes time
Q: Will there be more starway events?
A: For this year we have the 3 events which have already occured and these will keep repeating. We are looking at potentially adding some additional starway events focused at newer players (current ones are aimed at GL7+)
Q: Rerun of old events where?
A: In the special events section
Q: Cross platform saves mobile -> pc/xbox
A: Not something we can do at the moment.
Q: Add 120fps
A: For the next update 120fps option has been added for some devices
Q: Plan to sell decals in game
A: We have tried selling them in the past and they haven't really worked so we will be adding them in locations as either rewards as well as in the clash store in the future
Q: Will nitro pollution return
A: Probably at some point we have reworked it a bit but overall the response on it has been meh so not something we will run more often
Q: Trading/sharing resource feature
A: I've talked about this in the past how we would like to have sort of help or trade system within clubs. But no ETA as to when this would occur as when we do it we want to support it with a number of other features.
Q: Daily login reward
A: No plans for it at the moment, before we do this we want to revamp the daily tasks so that they are more interesting and give better rewards
Q: is there a chance of the la voitre noir returning next season
A: 0% chance for next season but future ones will have to see (it will be back for sure just when not sure)
Q: Emoji's of the DS characters
A: Good idea, we are actually looking at the next set of emoji's we need to create at the moment so will add it to the list
Q: What's the price of MP pass
A: I don't know off the top of my head, less than the LP but I don't have precise cost in front of me
Q: Will there be more DS event
A: Yes we tend to run at least 1 a year (aiming for 2 this year)
Q: Will there be an anime inspired decal?
A: Not sure yet the question in the survey ties to a partnership we were looking to maybe do
Q: Are player titles like in the Chinese version something for global?
A: Long term maybe its not something on our radar at the moment
Q: new daily events added?
A: No not at this point
Q: Will car X be back
A: Yes at some point as to when I cannot say
Q: When will there be an unleashed event
A: Sometime this year I'm sure there is at least 1
Q: Will the lancer be used in a special event
A: 100% it's the focus of a special event next update........ I'm joking
Q: Purchasing of LP or other things to give as a gift.
A: We have done a design on this to allow gifting but it will not make our schedule this year so maybe next year but not sure
Q: Will the next season have the same format as the british tour
A: No it will not have the same format (that format wouldn't work with a drive syndicate in any case)
Ok let me close it here
Thank you everyone for attending and your questions