Need for Speed™ Unbound News

Patch 6.1.0 is a small, “quality of life” update that addresses a few issues and improvements based on the feedback you’ve given us so far. Before we get into the details, we’ve also already deployed some changes to Dedicated PVP and Free Drive.

We received a lot of great feedback on our new dedicated PVP mode. We are thrilled that everyone is enjoying it so much, but we know it can always be better. We heard that the most dedicated of you want some adjustments and changes. While we aren't able to deploy a major update right now, we have introduced some changes in line with that feedback. So from now, you will notice that the playlist rotation will update daily. The featured playlists will still stay for a week so that everyone can get the chance to enjoy them, but the Tier playlists will now change daily between Tiers B, A, A+, S and S+. We also haven't forgotten about Free Roam, and we heard that the time between Linkups was still too long. So we have halved that time for you all.

With those changes made, we are now following up with this last update for Vol. 6 before we fully turn our focus to delivering Vol. 7 for you all. Details of the fixes and improvements are below.

Team Kaizen, Criterion Games



[h2]PATCH 6.1.0[/h2]

[h2]KEY FIXES[/h2]



Allow players to go directly to MP Garage after leaving PVP

When leaving PVP, players will now be put straight back to the Multiplayer garage. So less steps and straight to where you want to be. We debated taking you straight back to the PVP screen, but we don’t know what you want to do. Maybe you want to work on your setup, or drop into Free Roam. We leave that choice up to you, but we removed the extra steps.

All Nitrous auxiliary items stop working if the player changes vehicles during playlists or if they leave the server and rejoin

Fixed!

Users are reporting extreme flickering present in-game

We’ve made some changes that should address this issue. Specifically, moved TileLighting and NFS-SSR passes to the cached depth buffer usage since all those passes are on the GPU async queue and there is a chance of inter-referencing. This also fixes a known problem on AMD Vega GPUs.


Improve the Idle Kick for players not progressing - PVP specific change

Okay, so on the level… players finding loopholes in XP earning is all part of the game, but players hanging idle in PVP lobbies means fewer people competing and more roadblocks at the start/finish line. Players will now be warned if their mean velocity is under 1mph, and get an idle kick after 60 seconds if they don’t take action. Essentially if you ain’t racing in PVP, then you are outta here.

[h2]OTHER FIXES[/h2]



Fixed an issue where players could use their own vehicles in a playlist that should be loaner vehicles only

Fixed an issue in Story Mode, where attempting to back away from the Speed Pass menu would send the user to the pause menu instead of the garage

Fixed an issue where underglows unlocked through Speed Pass were not visible to other players on the server

Fixed an issue where PVP lobby playlist tier would show as tier B instead of correct playlist tier

Fixed an issue where users could navigate around menus when in Find Game menu

Fixed a camera issue that would cause changes to the player’s camera when another car was close behind
Need help?
We got you. Hit up Answers HQ, where you can report bugs or issues for a member of the team to check out.
Be sure to follow Need for Speed on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for the latest news.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1846380/Need_for_Speed_Unbound/

*Premium Speed Pass Content requires Premium Speed Pass and Need for Speed Unbound (sold separately) and all game updates. Requires gameplay to unlock. You must log in before the end of Volume 6 to claim your reward. Failure to log in and claim during this period will result in forfeiting the reward.

Didn't catch the items and cars in the Vol. 5 Speed Pass? No worries. The Need for Speed™ Unbound - Vol. 5 Catch-Up Pack offers you the Legendary Custom Volkswagen Beetle (1963), and all the 74 cosmetics and customizations from the Volume 5 Speed Pass, including the Legendary Custom Buick Grand National GNX (1987)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1846380/Need_for_Speed_Unbound/

Ok, we're here, Vol. 6, go time!

Hopefully you saw the blog post detailing the year ahead we have for you but, if not, have a glance here!

Fully equipped with what Unbound Y2 and Kaizen are now? Great!

Just in case though, the TL;DR is that we want to build; not take away, and with each volume, step towards our goal of you starting to experience for the first time ever, the ultimate NFS destination in one place.

So what are we adding?! In Vol. 6 we are hitting with:
- Dedicated PVP (with fresh playlists weekly)
- Global Rank across SP and MP
- Premium Speed Pass*
- 25 new races
and oh, saving possibly the best till last…Audi is back with the triple threat of the S5, R8 and (new to NFS) the Audi RS 6!

Check below for the full details on everything, including other improvements and QOL. We’re extremely excited to see the positive response to the roadmap so far but we need your help.

This year is all about Kaizen and to live that iterative philosophy of changing for the better. We need you all to let us know what you think, what you like and what you want to see improved. We’ll be regularly monitoring the community Subreddit and other social channels for your feedback. Right! Last one to max rank has to help Rydell with the baby powder…

- Team Kaizen, Criterion Games


[h2]PATCH 6.0.1[/h2]
Added Audi Audi S5 Sportback (2017), Audi R8 Coupé (2019) and Audi RS 6 Avant (2020)
Audi's back! Get free access to the Audi S5 Sportback and Audi R8 Coupé, including body kits, in the Speed Pass. Upgrade to Premium for access to the stealthy and not-so-subtle Audi RS 6 Avant.


It's great to have Audi back in Need for Speed. We have a long heritage together and what better way to show that off than with one of our Legends-inspired customs: Darius’ Audi R8 from NFS Carbon. You’ll find it in the Premium Speed Pass* so check it out!


[h3]Audi handling model[/h3]
With Kaizen we want to try new things and partnering with Audi seemed like the perfect opportunity for this. So for each of the Audis in Vol. 6, you will find a new handling model equipped specifically for them.

Key differences:
- Introduces a more gradual loss of grip to make initiating a drift feel smoother and make the loss of traction feel more predictable.
- Smoothed out the high grip spec experience, aiming to reduce the amount of snapping that can occur, keeping you in grip more and punishing you less for a loss of grip.
- Making high drift spec drifting easier to initiate and retain a more consistent flow when transitioning.

[h3]Dedicated PVP [/h3]
Welcome to a new world of competition in Unbound. With Dedicated PVP, players compete in our featured playlists over this and the coming volumes.

We heard that you weren't getting the full experience you wanted from Lakeshore Online with regard to races. So we have added a dedicated PVP ‘door’ in the top level of the online garage. Now you can matchmake with everyone else in the NFSverse that's all about the winning!

The Dedicated ‘PVP’ door will also mean fuller playlists too, with 4 flavors to choose from that refresh each week. EVERYONE wanting to play PVP will be matchmade into them. Full playlists FTW!

Dedicated PVP is also our first step toward weekly programming. Each week the playlists will update to something fresh, so check back for what's hot each week.

There will always be an option to simply race and be matchmade to anyone, but there will also be boosted events (boosted cash and XP!) as well as a selection of the options below:
- Audi preview playlists allow you to experience the Audis and their new handling even without having them in your garage. As everyone is in the same car, these playlists are all about how you drive, not what's under the hood!
- Brand new S+, S, A+ and A tier races and playlists (25 in total)
- NFS Legends playlist celebrating 30 years of NFS (New one every volume)

Sounds good, right? Here's the Kaizen homework though. You need to let us know what you would like to see more or less of for the PVP playlists. This is your opportunity to actually affect what's on offer each week. Look out for asks on the NFS Reddit (insert link) on what we should feature in the coming weeks. More variety will come to the PVP door in future volumes. Help us build it into something great to bring the community together!

[h3]Global Player Rank[/h3]
Introducing a new ranking system that will persist beyond volumes. Whether you play in Story, Lakeshore Online or dedicated PVP, you will always make progress in your rank.
How many ranks, you ask? 200 to start! With the rank cap being raised with each volume.

What rewards? You mean more than the pleasure of a shiny rank badge and the intimidation of your rivals? Okay, how about chunks of XP, cash and our new title system, where with each volume through ranking up, challenges and the Speed Pass you can collect and display a title on your banner that expresses what you are all about?…Or maybe what you wish you were!

[h3]Premium Speed Pass*[/h3]
Starting with Vol. 6, we are introducing an all-new premium track to the Speed Pass that will grant you instant access to one of our hot new vehicles and unlock the ability to earn all its deep customisation content. For Vol. 6, it's the beast known as the Audi RS 6 Avant. Premium Pass also gives access to a Custom version of the RS6 inspired by Michèle Hélène Raymonde Mouton’s legendary Audi Quattro rally car.

Premium Speed Pass will also have the hottest new customisation options each season. Refining our Speed Pass this way is how we can keep delivering unique new content and gameplay to you through a more simplified approach. Remember, if that’s not your thing though, we will still be offering a free track of the Speed Pass with new vehicles and customizations for you to enjoy.

We are putting a greater emphasis on car content for the Speed Pass and making it available to Single Player, too, and yes that includes the Speed Pass vehicles. It’s our hope that this is seen as an improvement. Not only in how we deliver fresh new content to you, but in value too.

[h3]ADDITIONAL UPDATES AND QOL [/h3]

[h3]New events[/h3]
25 new races! Across A-S+ tiers! and it wouldn't be Kaizen without trying out some new things. Like a race that runs along the length of the downtown elevated trainline? Yep! Race is called “Gotta be Kiddin’ Me” for a reason.

As with everything, let us know what you like and don't like! It will help inform us for the Volumes ahead.

Freedrive playlist weekly speedlist updates
You might remember our update where we added Server recommended playlists in Freedrive? Well as with our Dedicated PVP rotation, the playlists now recommended by the server will change on a weekly basis too.

[h3]XP and SP earning [/h3]
You can now add towards both your Global rank and your Speed Pass progression from either Single player or Multiplayer. Cars you unlock from the Speed Pass will be unlocked in SP too!

[h3]More XP rewards[/h3]
XP rewards have been added and rebalanced for the following:
- Activities + Collectables
- Linkup MVP
- SP events
- Side Bets
- Escaping cop chases
- Playlists

Playlist rewards have been rebalanced. First place now receives lower rewards with last place earning more, reducing the disparity. The base reward for a playlist has also been increased, but the modifier for participants has been decreased, meaning the number of participants impacts the rewards less now. It's all a bit Robin Hood (steal from the rich, give to the poor), but there is overall more XP in the pool.

[h3]QOL[/h3]
We have also made other improvements to make your life easier:
- Hot Laps are not discovered by default, as these are no longer ‘new’: they sit alongside the other activities to find and conquer
- Fixed a bug with Linkup MVP tracking - now it should take into account contribution to the whole round!
- Fixed a bug when entering a Linkup while in a pursuit/escaping, where a player wouldn't trigger the escalating heat and pursuit status throughout the Linkup rounds
- Some small performance improvements when in longer game modes (endurance, mostly). This should save on CPU usage spikes
- Improved cars and road reflection
- Improved image aliasing stability
- Fixed ""white tunnels"" problem

Need help?
We got you. Hit up Answers HQ, where you can report bugs or issues for a member of the team to check out.

Be sure to follow Need for Speed on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for the latest news.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1846380/Need_for_Speed_Unbound/

*Premium Speed Pass Content requires Premium Speed Pass and Need for Speed Unbound (sold separately) and all game updates. Requires gameplay to unlock. You must log in before the end of Volume 6 to claim your reward. Failure to log in and claim during this period will result in forfeiting the reward.

Surprise! We're still here, and not just here - we have a whole year's worth of content coming to you! NFS turns 30 this year, and with that huge legacy, we couldn’t stand idle. However, this year will be a bit different from the previous one.

Because here’s the thing - the NFS legacy signifies different things to each and every one of you. Some of you were there at the start of it all on Road and Track. Some of you will remember taking on the Eastsiders in Olympic City or smashing your way through the Blacklist in Rockport. Or you might have started playing more recently. Hustling by day and risking it all by night in Palm City. No matter your memory, we all have a shared love of NFS, and we want to build new memories over the next 12 months.

But, we’ll be honest and admit we can’t build everything everyone wants right now, but we can decide together what NFS should be in the future.

Our vision is that through our second year of live service, you can, for the first time, begin to play the ultimate NFS experience in one place. Your feedback and gameplay will help shape the future of this iconic franchise. As you play, we will be listening, observing and reacting to the things you want to see and those you don’t. It’s an approach that we’re calling Kaizen.

Kaizen is a Japanese term that means change for better or continuous improvement. We feel this really encapsulates what we want to do with NFS, and we want to make you, our players and fans, a key part of it too. So how are we doing this?:



[h3]Evolving Volumes[/h3]
We’re committing to adding four new volumes of content in the next year, each launching every few months. We aim to deliver some exciting themed updates, with at least one new major mode added to each volume. We will also continue to build on and evolve with each time. Adding more events, more challenges, new content, Ranks to earn, and new progression to chase. We will deliver at least two new fully customizable cars as part of the Speed Pass. And when we say cars, we mean cars in the NFS sense, like no one else creates. We aren’t just talking base models here and stock paint there; we are talking cars that come with fully customizable body kits with a myriad of interchangeable parts so you can tweak your ride just the way you want it.

[h3]Most Requested Bug Fixes and Improvements[/h3]
We really want to be fixing and focusing on the things that you all care about most (like adding realistic driving effects last December), but as a small team, we need to prioritize where we spend our time, and it will always focus on what we feel is best for you all. Every improvement we try to make is a trade-off between something new and something different. So we’ll be closely monitoring your comments and feedback and coming to you with regular communications about what we’re learning along the way.

[h3]Premium Speed Pass*[/h3]
Starting with Volume 6, we are introducing an all-new premium track to the Speed Pass that will grant you instant access to one of our hot new vehicles and unlock the ability to earn all its deep customisation content. It also includes custom versions of the vehicle, and it’s where you can find our hottest new customisation options each season. Refining our Speed Pass this way is how we can keep delivering unique new content and gameplay to you through a more simplified approach. If that’s not your thing, though, we will still be offering a free track of the Speed Pass with new vehicles and customizations for you to enjoy.

[h3]Always Be Learning[/h3]
We see this as a year to test and learn and understand what works best for you. Committing to an extended Unbound live service allows us to really build on feedback, which we’ll be gathering in a few ways. We’re working closely with a dedicated Player Council - a great bunch of NFS influencers, core community members, and players to understand what’s important to them and their communities. We’ll be increasing the amount of telemetry we track from the games to better understand through gameplay data what’s working for you. And we’ll look to close the feedback loop by being as transparent as possible with you, letting you know what we’ve heard and what we can and can’t do.

Ok, you made it! Closing time. We hope more than ever that all fans of NFS can come join us as we continue to deliver updates to NFS Unbound. We might just have some nice surprises along the way as we take a tongue-in-cheek look back in the rearview before we drop a gear and power forward into the future together, testing, refining and constantly improving along the way!

*Requires Need for Speed Unbound (sold separately) and all game updates. Requires gameplay to unlock. You must log in before the end of Volume 6 to claim your reward. Failure to log in and claim during this period will result in forfeiting the reward.

This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. For more information, please refer to EA’s Online Service Updates at https://www.ea.com/service-updates.

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