Decals Update



The Decals Update (also called the Ferrari Update or Spring 2015 Update) is the v1.8.0 update of Asphalt 8: Airborne. It was released in March 2015.

Overview
While no new tracks were added, five new Ferrari cars were added:
 * Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (Class C)
 * Ferrari F40 (Class B)
 * Ferrari F50 (Class B)
 * Ferrari 330 P4 (Class A)
 * Ferrari Enzo Ferrari (Class S) — also on the Decals Update app icon.
 * Three of these last appeared in Asphalt 7: Heat:
 * Ferrari Enzo Ferrari (previously named Ferrari Enzo) (v1.0.0)
 * Ferrari F40 (v1.0.0)
 * Ferrari F50 (v1.0.0)

Customization was re-introduced to the Asphalt series by adding the possibility of purchasing various decals with Credits or Tokens. Some decals are vehicle specific, and some vehicles (including Renault DeZir, Lotus Exige S Roadster, Maserati GranTurismo Sport, Maserati MC12, Marussia B2, Jaguar C-X75, and Nissan GT-R NISMO) didn't receive any decals at all in the Decals Update. The garage was redesigned and two new car collections (Winter Came & Winter is Gone) were added.

All vehicles can now be purchased separately, including the Premium cars (which now cost Tokens). The four former two-car Car Packs were removed from the Car Packs screen, which prior to the Decals Update displayed Car Packs that were purchasable only with real money.

The "Participated" race rewards of the Elimination race type were reduced by 80% in Season 8. Also the race rewards for ”Participated” in other Career Mode Seasons' Elimination races, where the original race rewards for ”Participated” were more than 178 Credits, were reduced by 80%. This concerns (but not limited to) the Elimination races 18, 20, & 35 in Season 7 and race 27 in Season 5. As a result of this reduction of race rewards, no more than can be earned for the ”Participated” race result in the Elimination races of Asphalt 8 Career Mode. On average in the Career Mode players are rewarded for a 4th place finish after playing 2 min 45 seconds in a Elimination race, which makes the out of podium position race result in this race type in Career Mode very unfavorable to the players.

The Decals Update Cloud Sync Bug
In some cases all career progress (purchased vehicles (including all upgrades that had been applied to the vehicles), Credits, Tokens, Pro Kit cards, pending (unopened) Pro Kit boxes, free unused upgrades, free unused boosters, stars earned, gained levels and opened seasons) is lost after reinstalling the v1.8.0 version of the game (essentially forcing some players to start from Level 1 with one car every time they have reinstalled the game). The core of this problem is a nonworking cloud sync, which after a reinstallation of the game doesn't in all cases prompt the user with formerly found dialogue, wheather the player would like to use an existing career (in the cloud) with such and such many cars or start a new career. Google+ Remote Account connection in some cases only brings back the Google+ name and Google+ Quests. Tokens and Pro Kit cards, which reside in the Gameloft servers are in most cases synced correctly, but after the automated sync procedure (which was introduced in the Decals Update) has taken place, everything else is reset to the career progress situation that was found in the previous version (v1.7.2) of the game (the situation of March 4th, 2015 or in some cases to default, as if the player was starting from the beginning). Reports of a nonworking cloud sync (slightly differing in nature, but the common denominator is the defunct cloud sync) have come from iOS and Android users and from single device as well as multiple device users. In essence, currently the Asphalt 8 cloud sync on iOS and Android is a partial wayback machine, which allows the players to travel to history with their name, Tokens and Pro Kit cards.

Zeremoniar on Gameloft Forum thread "No cloud sync?", page 8 comment #79:

''Problem is that also guys with only one account will be affected by this. They are just not aware about it. But this can happen single device users and needs a working sync to avoid data loss:'' — Zeremoniar
 * Buy of a new device
 * Stop playing A8, delete it, then decide that life is poor without and start playing again
 * Reinstall due to software problems (Darksolid had this a couple of days ago)
 * Device broken and resetted after repair
 * The weird acount resetted to level zero sync bug

Trivia

 * The Decals Update's artwork does not use new cars. Instead, it reuses old cars.
 * The Decals Update is the only major update that doesn't include any new Race Tracks. Instead an amazing Garage redesign is included in this update.
 * During the Decals Update, it widely occurred that all the Upgrades of Dodge Dart GT were wiped out making the vehicle stock (Level 0) for most players. Later (March 9th), Gameloft compensated for the losses either with 10 free Class D upgrades, 20 free Class D upgrades (equivalent for maxing a stock Class D car) or 125,000 Credits plus the 20 free Class D upgrades. This is due to increased anti-cheating security measures.
 * A similar but bigger issue occurred in Asphalt 7: Heat, where certain users lost some of their cars along with all of their customizations without any refunds, but it was fixed on March 19, 2013.
 * For some reason, the update only added Ferrari cars in the missing files pre-update. This is also the reason why this update is alternatively called "Ferrari update".
 * One decal effect for the 9FF GT9 VMAX has been erased for depicting a sun similar to the Rising Sun Flag of Japan, causing controversy. This is because Japan was part of the Axis side of World War II, led by Germany (where the 9FF GT9 VMAX originates from).