TOP DRIVES ROADMAP UPDATE - APRIL 2022
RELEASE: 14.6
Hey drivers, welcome to the April 2022 edition of the Top Drives Roadmap!
Read on to find out about upcoming inbox feature, loading times improvements, physics and ground clearance changes, and more!
2022 is in full swing now and the Top Drives team is hard at work making your favourite game better than ever before.
Now is a great opportunity for us to look back at the last three months to see what's already been achieved, and what you can expect from us in the coming months, giving you a glimpse of how the rest of 2022 will be shaping up for Top Drives.
ROADMAP LAYOUT
As usual, the future plans are divided into the following categories of features completed and coming up:
Complete - what's already been achieved.
Braking Distance - near end of development
On the Horizon - in development
A Long Road Trip - mainly pre-production, very early on in big feature
Now, let’s look at what's been done, and what's coming next!
[DISCLAIMER]
As always, it's important to keep in mind that our timelines do shift a lot, and so do team priorities. Features may not end up being developed.
Additionally, an item being on this list is not a guarantee it will be released. For every player-facing feature, there is often a non-player-facing feature, such as improving our tooling to deliver more live content, or improving our processes to make the resolver (game engine) more resilient, so this list does not include everything we will be working on.
Q1/2022 - Q2/2022 Progress Update
Let's start by reviewing our progress from the previous quarter:
Looking back at the last 3 months and comparing the 'completed' list to the last Roadmap's 'Breaking Distance' section we can see that every single goal has been achieved!
From technical refinement aimed at increasing performance, to a number of quality of life changes such as holding pool improvements, the first 3 months of 2022 were busy for our team.
As you know, we've also released a massive upgrade to Top Drives graphics in the form of 18 updated 3D-environments (tracks), in addition to 36 brand new car models, making the game look like it never did before!
Finally, just a few days ago we rolled out the updated rewarded ads system that gives you more opportunities to watch ads and earn freebies.
We are very pleased with your feedback regarding all of these changes!
Braking distance (nearing the end of development):
Let's have a look at what's coming next for Top Drives.
Now, while the 'Braking Distance' list might seem quite short at first glance, it's important to remember that the features listed here are very close to release, likely to be launched in the next update.
In terms of what's coming, we've been using your feedback to make reasonable amendments to the updated tracks plus we'll be updating some of the remaining old-style 3D-environments with new graphics.
We've also made good progress at improving loading times when pressing on Challenge and Event panels by removing non-essential data packs, this should make the game feel even snappier than before.
Finally, the in-game inbox feature. This will combine several screens, such as Daily Rewards, Social Links and Inbox - the latter will let you stay on top of all Top Drives news such as release notes and event info without having to leave the game and visit external links.
On the horizon (in development):
While certainly things have been reshuffled quite a bit in the mid-term section of this April 2022 Roadmap, there are some good long-awaited surprises here.
And yes, you read that right - very soon, updated physics will be finally making their way into Top Drives!
With this update, we are not only resolving the existing issues with unexpected car performance in races making simulations as accurate as ever. We are also bringing an overhaul to the ground clearance system bringing extra nuance to the system that has not been changed since the game launched. We'll have more to share on this in the coming months.
Additionally, this work unblocks us on bringing more car corrections thanks to the newly developed system that compensates players in case if a card goes up or down in rarity, making the corrections process much fairer for everyone. So, more car corrections will be coming soon!
As for when all these features can be expected, you can aim roughly for the mid-summer to get your hands on this refreshing update.
A long road trip (mainly pre-production, very early on in big feature):
Our disclaimer in the beginning of this roadmap mentions that 'things can move', and they certain did in the long-term plans, compared to what you might have seen earlier.
There is a small number of features that are moving quite far back. We will let you know when these appear 'on the horizon' soon.
And yes, we know - the big question that's interesting to everyone right now is - when is the next car update coming?
Don't fret, we'd like it as soon as possible, but it has to be complete to make sense in game terms. While we can't reveal more than that at this point, we can assure you the work on licensing new vehicles is advancing very actively. Stay tuned for more updates!
Otherwise, we recognise that new players might be struggling with the game as the current tutorial hasn't really seen any major changes since the game launched almost 5 years ago. We will be changing that soon by bringing an updated version of the tutorial teaching players a number of game aspects from basic car collection to tyre types and more.
Additionally, we are working on some brand new quality tracks for you to race and can't wait for you to see those in game!
Other notable work includes the next iteration of the Championship as well as something completely new - Achievements, which will give you certain tasks and rewards for completing them!
Generally speaking, we are aiming for the Long Road features to be realised in Top Drives sometime within the second half of 2022, though the features here are not listed in a specific order for release.
That's it for now! Thanks for reading our updated April 2022 Roadmap.
We are keen to see Top Drives approaching its 5-year anniversary this year! It's hard to believe it's been so long, but we are very much looking forward to the next 5 years and beyond!
If you'd like to discuss the roadmap and other Top Drives-related themes with fellow players, make sure to follow our on our social platforms and Discord:
See you soon!
