User blog:ShinnyShin/The Problems with the Munich Update

My fellow players.

It’s been a couple of days since the much hyped new track, Munich, graced our screens. And it’s amazing just how big a vocal response (or in this case especially, outrage!) has been aimed towards this Update.

I myself have had reservations about this Update, given how the last few Updates have gone. Numerous glitches, problems and low-bang for your buck vehicles being offered up have contributed to this feeling.

Here, I am going to point out the different things that a lot of players have observed and shared.

First, the bad news ...

😠 LOST PROGRESS Now, this was the bone of contention for many of us. A lot of R&Ds, Championships and Enduro Double Down Events have come out over the years, offering various cars and most recently, bikes. While a number of us managed to win the respective vehicles as prizes the first time around, a lot of other players failed to win those rewards, however they were under the official promise by Gameloft that any and all of the upgrades they paid towards the boss vehicles would be kept until the player obtained the vehicles.

BUT ALAS! The Fandom, Gameloft's official forums and multiple Asphalt-themed social networks saw an absolute firestorm of complaints, comments, screenshots and reports with scores of players citing lost progress with vehicles that they don't own yet, pertaining to MAX level upgrades being completely erased and the slots now being Tokens-only, which I will discuss below.

Like a punch in the face to all the efforts of the millions of players out there who dropped countless loads of Credits in the hopes of winning a car or bike, only to discover that all that grinding (or money spending for some) pretty much amounted to absolutely nothing. Now I try to be diplomatic when I write these blogs, but this is nothing short of criminal, and at the very least, a fraudulent practice.

The very least Gameloft could do is either restore each and every upgrade that was lost, OR compensate players to the value of how much was spent on upgrading each vehicle. Like if I spent 3 million and a Double Credits booster to fully upgrade a TLE car for instance, then that's how much I should get back.

''EDIT : It's been reported that Gameloft have released a patch to fix this. This may be done in stages depending on your device. I have yet to see it on Android, hwever. In any case, this should have been checked out prior to the Update's full-scale release.''

😠 TOKENS-ONLY UPGRADES What. Even. Is. This?

When I saw Matt's YouTube video and he was about to try and upgrade his Honda Civic Type-R and revealed the Tokens-only upgrades, that was a big red flag for me. This was a prelude to much worse things to come, and the scale would be magnified by the astronomical costs of upgrading the higher Class new cars like the Arrinera Hussarya GT and the McLaren 650S. The fact that he stopped right there and didn't go into details about this said an awful lot.

He inadvertently introduced us to the new reality that is Tokens-only upgrades. Not just a rumor, but ABSOLUTE REALITY. Also the fact that he'd only return to the car after he got more Tokens (probably in an upcoming video) illustrates how a lot of us will be playing in the future, that is if this game even has a future so to speak. We'll be leaving our cars to gather dust in the Garage while collecting Tokens to buff them up and Tokens are one thing you cannot grind for.

And now it's become apparent that this problem has spread to the existing cars and if you didn't upgrade them to your liking before the Update, you are screwed. Pretty much any new car worth its salt is following the unfortunate trend set by the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage.

Seriously speaking, WHY? OH DEAR GOD WHY. Why and how is this move viable? Adding further restrictions on our ability to progress in this game, especially in a way that is crucial to the core game-play aspects?

Now it was bad enough when Tokens-only vehicles were introduced. Especially after the reign of the Premium Cars that often saw a collection of just 2 cars going for a hefty hundred bucks. But we learned to live with it, rather begrudgingly. It just meant that some cars were just that much further out of reach if you were a free-playing gamer, and huge wads of $$$ for Gameloft from the paying players.

But here we have it one step further. First you shell out whatever hundreds or thousands of Tokens just to get one car. Then, MAYBE you get the first level of upgrades can be paid with Credits. Then level 2, it will be Tokens. And those go at a few hundred a piece, so incrementally by level 5 you will have spend tens of thousands altogether. All of which could have gone towards buying SEVERAL CARS instead!

Realistically it now means you can't progress anymore in ways that used to be somewhat free, and any hope you have of completely owning a MAXed collection will likely be a result of paying through your nose, or, dare I say, cheating. Which will ruin the fun, the goals and the fairness of the game for everyone.

And force players to leave the game en masse.

It also means that your Double-Credits boosters are now a lot less useful, since Credits cannot be traded or converted to Tokens.

Never thought I'd see the day.

😠 SOUR GRAPES EVENTS This is especially regarding the various re-boots that we have seen crossing over between this Update and the last. The EDD for the Lamborghini Aventador SV, the Championship for the Porsche 959 and the R&D for the Ducati SuperSport S as well as the Suzuki Hayabusa. Many gamers were disappointed at not getting to win the SV and the 959 the first time around, so the excitement to win them this time was out of control! We saw people literally jumping for joy (comments-wise) on the Fandom's pages and that they'd finally be able to proudly add the new vehicles to their Garages.

Second chances? No, more like sloppy seconds with a case of sour grapes on Gameloft's part.

Because of the new conditions of upgrading vehicled with Tokens, it means that a lot of second-timers couldn't win the rewards under the same conditions that the first timers did. And in the case of EDDs, it made their chances even slimmer. For example, I won the SV's first EDD mainly because I had hugely upgraded the Egoista and the Huracan (which I still don't own yet due to failing their R&Ds) but their upgrades remained and enabled me to use the cars to progress through the EDD.

But now, because the MAX upgrades are lost on those 2 cars, and the SV has Tokens-only upgrades,  I would never be able to win that car at all.

Go figure.

''EDIT : Reps from Gameloft have said that they're working on fixing the lost upgrades for the TLE vehicles. Plus, you'll get the Aventador SV for free. However there's no ETA on any of these things, or details on the other affected vehicles just yet.''

😠 GAME FORCE CLOSES So far, an issue only reported on the Android platform. As an Android user, I have come across it 5 times since installing the Update. Usually it happens during a MP race where I run into destructible objects, some strange programming code flashes on the screen and the game stops working. This could potentially cost players a lot of points and Tokens in risky MP matches. The issue of crashes even when opening the Tuning / Inventory screens is still there. Often the solution is shutting off your device, restarting it and re-booting the game, but we shouldn't have to keep doing that all the time.

It's a classic case of trying to do too much and not working on the flaws and bugs that are leading to the game's decline in quality.

😠   OMISSION OF RUF / 9FF RACES I wrote a more detailed blog about that here. Only now, according to Gameloft at least, it's official. This also means a few Collections can't be finished, Season 9 races have been altered (read: RUF & 9FF have been removed). So it means, if you don't own any of these cars, there's little to no trace of them in the game anymore. And if you do own them, you can still use them for Car Mastery and the odd MP race, but that's all they're good for now. No more TLEs or Cups featuring these cars since we now have Porsche. Gameloft would rather you just forget about RUF, 9FF and Rinspeed.

Those cars that first appeared in Asphalt 8's heyday and brought a lot of good times to the game's veterans, now get left out in the cold.

It's quite sad, really.

😠 STILL UNABLE TO SELL PRO KIT CARDS This is a thing that not many players have spoken about, which is surprising. The feature that came with the Motorcycles Update, called Fusion, allows you to fuse collections of certain Pro Kit Cards in return for some Rare and/or Legendary Cards. Now that in itself is a pretty neat addition, but it came at the cost of being able to sell your Cards. Selling unwanted Cards was a great way to obtain lots of Credits as an alternative to grinding.

It would have been nice to bring back the Sell Cards option and have it side-by-side with the Fusion option.

'''And now for some things that I'm kinda on the fence about. Neither good or bad, but just ... meh.'''

😐   DESPICABLE ME Yup. Now we were under the impression that this was a developers' joke. But then it happened. A car that makes a joke of other D-Class cars while essentially being a joke itself, well, I'll be damned. Now the fridge-horror aspect of this car's inclusion is all too apparent.

The car itself, according to some, is a metaphor for the demonstrations of greed that Gameloft has been perceived to display with the release of this update.

The despicable act of releasing an update that robs players of hard-earned achievements, all while coercing players to re-earn those lost efforts through Tokens, aka. cold hard cash?

The despicable act of releasing an update that crashes the game at random moments during play, costing players big time in the long run?

The despicable act of collectively punishing legit, innocent players and allowing hackers and cheaters to thrive? And by this I mean, modifying the game so that it's more geared towards the paying players, pricing casual gamers out of the game almost entirely? And as a result, encouraging more and more players to cross over to the dark side and cheat?

Some argue that this is just down to a buggy Update and that in itself is a possibility, but given the track record of monetization-oriented business models by Gameloft's parent company Vivendi, one would beg to differ. A lot of players mentioned what an absolute nightmare it was to fully upgrade the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage, which was the first Tokens-upgradable car introduced to the game. And Vivendi's accountants are all like, 'Hey, we're onto something here! Why not add more of these types of upgrades?'

This particular car is nothing but a money vacuum for those who choose to upgrade it. If you have Credits to burn and that's what you want to do, then be my guest. But the car's not going to be around forever. It is only here temporarily, and once it disappears, so does your investment in its upgrades. As of writing, there is no word on whether it might come back, so work on the assumption that it probably won't. And even if it does return, all your upgrades might be completely erased.

Once you roll up all that into perspective, you wind up with a huge ball mired in despicability. And that's what this car represents for some of us. An in-game vehicle version of Gameloft/Vivendi's despicable practices. By including this joke of a car in the game, they are laughing at us.

Utterly despicable.

😐   MATT'S DEMO VIDEO Now don't get me wrong, I was totally stoked to kick back and watch the game-play that was very kindly done by Matt. It covered a lot of things to expect like obstacles and shortcuts, and of course showed off Munich in its fullest glory.

Only thing, though, is how a lot of things that could have been addressed, or at the very least given some mention, were not. I had all sorts of questions, like: - Is Tokens-only for just those cars, and the rest will be with Credits? (though the problem here only got worse) - Will it be easier, or will there be more chances to win more Tokens than in the previous Updates? - Will TLEs like Championships, EDDs and R&Ds give Free Max Upgrades as an alternative, provided you win the car or bike? - Will the lag issues be fixed? - How do you sing so well, and do you do requests?

I know the main reason for the video was to showcase Munich, but just my two cents, it would have been a more well-rounded video if these issues were mentioned, and what was being done to fix them. It's a shame because Matt seems like a nice dude, and he's a spokesperson for Gameloft, and Gameloft thanking us fans for keeping the game alive yet ignoring our countless tips and suggestions to improve the quality of game, sounds pretty hollow and tedious. Especially when they put a nice friendly face on it.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, time for the good news!

😁 THE TRACK Hafta admit, the track looks beautiful. Very detailed scenery that's reminiscent of Rio de Janeiro & Barcelona's sun-drenched city-scapes, Sector 8's helix spiral and Tokyo's  stunt-filled parking garages all in one. And the addition of trains to catch you off guard is a nice touch that keeps the adrenaline going!

It was nice of Gameloft to release this track during Validation so we don't go all in and risk valuable points wrecking all over the place. A great chance to get some practice in and test the handling and controls of our many different cars and bikes. Also, it was nice to get a preview of 2 of the track's variants thanks to Matt's game-play video.

Now if only something could be done about the lag ...

😁 MOAR STORAGE SPACE Who says more Storage Space isn't welcome? That's mighty fine of you, Gameloft! BUT, it wouldn't hurt to keep it as organized as it was before, only now with just more space.

''EDIT : Reports are in that this issue was fixed. Again, I'm on Android so I have yet to confirm this.''

🤔    HOW CAN THIS BE FIXED ? I'm fairly certain that this has been said time and time again. Gameloft, Vivendi, LISTEN TO YOUR FANS. If you're going to market a product to an audience and then ignore their feedback to improve your product, IT WILL DIE.


 * Please, re-consider your approach to Tokens-only upgrades. A lot of us can't afford that option and it will drive us away from the Asphalt franchise.
 * Fix the lag issues. It's not fun to start a race 10 seconds after everyone else, even with LOW GRAPHICS
 * Re-balance the Multi-player feature ABOVE ALL ELSE
 * Re-balance the Rank weighting of the cars and bikes. It sucks to see cars we spend so much investing in become non-competitive like 5 updates later
 * Balance the duration for Boosters. We waste so much time just waiting in lobbies to play while our time runs out. Also, why does Double-Credits have to last A WHOLE DAY?
 * Re-introduce the ability to Sell Pro Kit Cards. I know I said this before, but it cannot be stressed enough
 * Have another look at Upgrade Prices in general. How can we spend 4 millions on a car and another 3 millions just to upgrade the thing?
 * Remove the usage restrictions on Elite Cars, we already spent enough to even get them in the first place!
 * Allow downgrading. Even more so for vehicles we win in Events/R&D/EDDs. It would open up more possibility for more strategic game-play
 * Car Prices should be more realistically attainable. If a car costs more than 500 000, IT BETTER BE WORTH IT
 * Include every single track in Quick Solo Race
 * Make more use of Tag Races, and provide alternatives for cars that players don't own yet

I could go on, but it's late and I'm tired.

How can Gameloft introduce all these new Updates with so much promise, only to ignore all these crucial suggestions?

BOY, this was a long blog. Thanks to all of you who bothered to read it this far, you're the real MVPs.

Since 2014, (for me, at least) Asphalt 8 has been so much fun to play, but now I feel like I'm steadily losing the motivation to continue playing this game. I was going to grind today and maybe use an Extra Tank or two but I just haven't had it in me to go much beyond the Daily Tasks.

Tell us what you've seen in your experiences with this new Update, maybe some things I've missed in this blog, please feel free to share!

- ShinnyShin