Monday 28 November 2016

Clearing up my confusion with The Crew


As with most online games that require or offer updates in an attempt to keep things fresh, patchnotes or an announcement of some kind is usually made to clear up any confusion that a particular community might have concerning that certain game. The Calling All Units for The Crew update is no exception. However, despite being presented in plain English, some things are just not clicking for me.

Taken from this source: http://thecrew-game.ubi.com/portal/en-GB/newslist/details.aspx?c=tcm:154-275745-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32 Original postings will be in italics, my comments won't.

The Crew Calling All Units Notes


28/11/2016 05:00 PM

It’s time to call all units!

On November 29th, a new expansion will be coming to The Crew and today we’re giving you an in-depth look at the main new elements as well as updates and bugs fixes.

See you soon on the roads!

Okay, let me get a bowl of popcorn and my reading glasses for this. I hope my chair is comfortable enough to sit through all of this....


The Crew Calling All Units Notes

Main elements


  • Crates - New gameplay in Freedrive. As a Street racer, players can see and pick up crates in the world. Once a crate is collected, the player will be chased by the police. By delivering crates, players will be able to win car fragments, and these fragments will allow them to unlock new vehicles.
  • New prologue missions - They introduce the police gameplay, through the eyes of a new character, Clara Washington. Players will be able to learn the new gameplay mechanics from The Crew Calling All Units add-on.
  • Player level increased to 60 - All players will benefit from a new progression system allowing them to reach level 60. Through any activities in the game, players will earn new parts to improve their vehicles through the smart loot system.
  • Bounty - The crates gameplay will introduce players to the Bounty system. The Bounty value reflects the individual skill of a player as a Cop, or as a Street Racer. This Bounty value is also used to determine the reward at the end of a chase. If a player wins a chase against another one, he receives Bucks corresponding to the Bounty of the defeated player, and increases his own personal Bounty.
      
     Not very clear to me if this only applies to those who have the Calling All UNits update, or if some of this filters down to the other players with only the original game.... 
 
New content

With Patch 16, the players have the possibility to purchase the new add-on The Crew Calling All Units, who brings new gameplay features and the Police missions and gameplay.

It would seem to mean to me, you need to have purchased the update in order to have fun with the new content, no?

New story missions

In order to help players dive into the new police experience, The Crew Calling All Units will be introducing a new story mode, with a prologue (introduction missions) as well as additional story missions. The Crew Calling All Units prologue is accessible to everyone, after playing The Crew prologue. Police missions are accessible to The Crew Calling All Units owners after completing the prologue. An appropriate vehicle spec will be required to complete those missions – implying having the required player level for this spec. The police missions introduce a new character, Clara Washington, a police driver who needs to arrest a rising gang of Street Racers: the Harvesters.

If I am reading this right, you need to finish the first story, with the 5-10s and Zoe, before moving on to the new police storyline.

Chase gameplay

Players have the possibility to drive different police vehicles, with different specs such as Raid, Monster trucks, Perf, and access different police gameplay features. The main gameplay for police players will be to chase Street Racers and arrest them, using their driving skills as well new special abilities. As a Street Racer, players need to pick-up and deliver crates found all over in The Crew world, while being pursued by Police AI and players.

The chase feature has 2 types of gameplay:

  • Chase when the Street Racer picks up a crate – delivery gameplay
  • Chase when the Street Racer destroys objects – escape gameplay
Police gameplay

As cops, players while have access to the chase gameplay, which starts instantly when a Street Racer picks up a crate. The chases can start seamlessly, if close enough, or through a chase alert.

Different vehicles are available for the police, with different Specs for all kind of terrain. From Perf, Circuit and Street for asphalt, to Raid and Monster Truck for bumpy off-road chases.

As a cop, the main objective of the player is to arrest the Street racers during the chase. In order to do so, the police players need to have the target (Street Racer) in a 30 meter range for 7 seconds. If the Street Racer exits the range within 7 seconds, the arrest timer is reset.

Street Racer gameplay

As Street Racers, players have access to all the crates in the world. Their main objective is to pick-up crates and deliver them to a given destination on the map. Once they pick-up a crate, they will instantly be pursued by police AI as well as police players. If they successfully deliver the crate, they will have a chance to gain the content and rewards of the crate – car parts to unlock new vehicles as well as Bucks and experience. The Street Racers have access to all the vehicles from the game, to adapt their driving to the terrain on their way to the destination. As Street racers, players also have access to a set of abilities to help them escape from Police.

From what I have gathered and accepted from other sources, no update installed, no police cars to drive. However, with all of this talk about Freedrive crates, still some mud in the water for me....

New gameplay abilities

While in a chase, the police players have access to specific abilities to use in order to arrest Street Racers:

  • Speed Hack – This ability breaks the acceleration of any Street Racer in a range of 150 meters.
  • EMP Field - The EMP Field can deactivate the brakes of any Street Racer in a range of 150 meters.
  • Jammer – When used, this ability deactivates all UI items (BreadCrumb, Radar, crew widget, 3D tags etc …) of the target in range.
  • EMP Shock – the EMP Shock makes every opponent in range lose control of their vehicle.
  • Back on target – if the players are too far away from their target, they have the possibility to use the back on target ability to reduce the distance.

As Street racers, the players have access to the following abilities:

  • Flashbang – this ability blinds the cop players and AI in range, and removes their UI elements for few seconds.
  • Unlimitro – gives unlimited nitro to the caster and his support players in range.
  • Guardian – This ability is a protective one, once launched, it will cleanse all the abilities sent by Cops for few seconds.
  • EMP Shock – the EMP Shock applies a single shock to the target and makes the opponent’s car lose control and grip for a few seconds.
  • Back on target for support players – if a support Street Racer (i.e, non-crate holder) is too far away from the crate holder, he has the possibility to use the back on target ability to reduce the distance.
The players have the possibility to choose 2 abilities from the menu before the chase, and also change them anytime during the chase gameplay.

With the way this is written, I am going to maintain the impression that Calling All Units must be installed for any of these features to work.

New vehicles

With the new Calling All Units add-on the players will have access to new vehicles and specs:

  • Nissan GT-R (FS / Perf / Police Perf)
  • Jeep Wrangler (Full Stock / Street / Dirt / Raid / Police Dirt)
  • Mercedes-Benz GLC CoupĂ© (Police Street)
  • Lamborghini Aventador (Police Perf)
  • Ford F-150 (Police Raid)
  • Lamborghini Gallardo (Police Circuit)
  • Abarth 500 (Police Monster Truck)
  • BMW S1000R (Police Perf)
  • Koenigsegg Agera R (Police Perf)
  • Hummer H1 (Police Raid)
  • Pagani Huayra (Police Perf)
  • Ferrari F12 Berlinetta (Full Stock / Perf)
  • Kawasaki GPZ 900R Ninja 1984 (FS / Street / Perf / Circuit)
  • Kawasaki KX450F (Full Stock / Street / Dirt / Raid)
  • Indian Chief Dark Horse (Full Stock / Street / Perf)
  • Ducati Hypermotard (Full Stock / Street / Dirt)
  • KTM 1190 RC8 R (Full Stock / Perf) + RC8 R Track (Circuit)
  • Mercedes AMG GT (Full Stock + Perf) + GT3 (Circuit)
  • Maserati MC12 (Full Stock + Perf) + MC12 Corsa (Circuit) 
This I have figured out, Police vehicles will remain behind the paywall of Calling All Units, the motorcycles are part of the paid Wild Run/CAU content, but the new Mercedes AMG GT and Maesrati MC12?

Handling Updates

Cars

The following cars have had their suspension and overall handling refined:

  • Ford GT 2005 (Full Stock / Perf / Circuit)
  • Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera (Full Stock / Perf / Circuit)
  • Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 (Full Stock / Perf)
  • Ford Mustang GT 2011 (Full Stock / Street)
  • 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS (Full Stock / Street)
  • 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392 (Full Stock / Street)
  • 2013 Nissan 370Z R34 (Full Stock / Street)
  • 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS (Perf)

Bikes


  • Handling update for ALL bikes: better turning rate and improved suspension settings.  
Tweaks and re-balances are always to be expected, claimed to be based on statistics and other performance data.

Bug fixes


  • Manual clutch issue: the possibility to force the clutch in manual mode has been fixed.
  • Dashboard issue: some car’s dashboards weren’t properly displayed depending on the time of the day, this has been fixed.
  • The global behavior of traffic AI has been refined.
  • AI police stickers: some AI police vehicles weren’t displaying the proper sticker of their associated region of the USA, this has been fixed.
  • Disabled AI police vehicles: some AI police vehicles were still moving after being disabled, this has been fixed.
  • Frame rate improvement when in a session of 8 players, especially in cities with high traffic density.
  • “Experimental” Award: the award that requires to use all the features of the demo mode in the HQ has been fixed and can now be properly obtained.
  • Players’ names properly displayed in video mode: while using the video mode, players’ names were sometimes inaccurately displayed.
  • Vehicles’ sound properly exposed.
  • Vehicles’ stats are now properly displayed in car dealers, car tuners and HQ.
  • Cars’ interiors were not properly displayed during the short cinematic when leaving the Circuit tuner in Los Angeles.
  • Audio issue: some players weren’t getting their audio options when logging back into the game. This has been fixed. 
Despite many hours of testing and reporting, programming bugs find their way into the system and are caught at a later date (sometimes, they are just ignored, with the thin hope they will just go away on their own....)

The Crew Team

 
Some additional stuff here: http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1525843-The-Crew-Calling-All-Units-launch-information?s=37ce43e00532b715da45ce2ffa2beb73

A few excerpts....
  
Free Nissan GT-R

As you know, all players who purchased The Crew Wild Run prior to the launch of The Crew Calling All Units will receive for free the Nissan GT-R.

Important note: if you are eligible for this free car, it will be automatically sent to you in-game few hours after the launch of The Crew Calling All Units.
In order to see it, eligible players will only have to logout and log back in.


2 Years anniversary - Lamborghini Huracan & exclusive sticker

To celebrate our 2 years anniversary, all players who played The Crew in December 2014 and January 2015 will received for free the new Lamborghini Huracan as well as an exclusive sticker.


I already know that I will not be getting either one of these cars, since I have only the original game and started a mere 45 days ago.

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