“The Solar Hotel is inspired by 'Arcology' and aerodynamics. It is notable for its slender and organic shape, combined with the latest architectural, aerospace and automobile technologies. Its spire reaches up at over 500 metres (1,640 ft.) from the ground and dominates the Hong Kong skyline.
Its location is somewhat linked to its connection with the tournament's competitors. It overlooks the city and encourages you to push yourself to another level. It is a central hub for players – who gain access to increasingly luxurious rooms as they progress in the competition – and has stunning views over HKI."
“The lobby of the Solar Hotel illustrates our desire to get players together and help them interact. TDUSC is not just a racing game, it's a game for fans of beautiful cars, for racing or cruising around with friends, so it was essential for us to provide a place for players to meet up. The most obvious way to do this was with social hubs where players move around with their avatars rather than at 300km/h on HKI behind the wheel of a hypercar. In the first Solar Club Letter, we explained that players meet in dealerships and workshops, but the Solar Hotel is the central meeting hub in TDUSC.
Whether it's for strutting around with the latest exclusive clothes, throwing down an Instant Challenge to other players, seeing your car showcased after your latest triumph, buying new clothes, or changing your avatar's appearance, the lobby has been designed as a 'village square' in TDUSC.
We added this fantastic place and its rooms to enhance the accommodation concept in the TDU series. Fans of the franchise will remember the houses in TDU2 where you could extend your garage, but it was a very personal experience. Even though you could invite your friends, you must first make friends, and this is the objective with the Solar Hotel. We know that houses made an impression on TDU players. While this feature is not in the game when TDUSC launches, it is part of a long list of features we have already researched for future content in the medium and long term."
Recreating Hong Kong Island with all its variety and small details was a considerableAs you can see, everything has been done to provide a unique, fun and sometimes challenging game
challenge.
In an open-world game like TDU, we need to provide a seamless and interesting driving
experience as well as encourage exploration, which is an important part of the experience. To
increase immersion and transport players to a new country, we also wanted to make HKI very
realistic, which is why we recreated it at 1:1 scale. It was a challenge technically as well as in
terms of gameplay.
Thanks to the experience gained developing many rally games (WRC series) and motorcycling
games (TT series), we have considerable expertise in creating realistic environments on a large
scale. But TDU is a different kind of experience and more challenging.
Hong Kong Island is an amazing playground that offers incredible diversity, and each environment
received special attention to make them more fun for players.
To emphasize the fast and smooth driving, for example, the very dense urban network of HKI
needed some small adjustments because of certain little streets that were very (too?) narrow.
Conversely, some light redesign was done to the major thoroughfares to make them more fun
and adapted to very fast cars, while respecting the identity of Hong Kong Island.
To increase exploration options, we used our expertise from WRC games to transform certain
walking and hiking paths into small mountain roads that a car can use. It's up to you to discover
all the island's secret areas by driving down routes that aren't always shown on the map! It takes
time for HKI to give up all its secrets…
HKI has a wide variety of locations, and we wanted to reproduce as many of these
environments as possible: from small inlets on the coast to mountain peaks to dense urban
areas and swamps.
Obviously, you can't show Hong Kong without the major landmarks that make up its famous skyline and iconic places from movies like the Monster Building.
You can cruise through downtown Wan Chai, the financial district with huge buildings like the
Hopewell Centre and Convention Centre, then pass through the Central District under the Bank
of China Tower and the twin towers of the Lippo Centre, an iconic skyscraper on HKI.
The East docks area is the perfect playground for the Streets. Their HQ, an underground industrial
nightclub, can be found here. But if you prefer a calmer and more residential atmosphere, the
Repulse Bay district with its luxury dealerships is there on the south side of the island. The Peak,
the island's highest point, is perfect for an off-road experience and to admire the city as the sun
goes down.
Are you an inveterate explorer at heart? Set off to find small fishing villages at the foot of Tai Tam
Tuk Reservoir, which can only be reached by small paths; then take the Dragon's Back to reach
Shek O for unforgettable gaming moments that can only be found in TDUSC.
With this guided tour, you can see that HKI has incredible variety that we have faithfully recreated
so you can enjoy epic driving adventures with your friends.
“Buying a car in TDU is always a special moment. It's a core part of the game for fans of beautiful cars.
In TDUSC we have created special places that showcase our cars. You'll discover them in real locations throughout Hong Kong Island as you progress and level up in the game.
Before buying a new car, we make sure you can take time to make the right choice. You can move around freely within the dealership, interact with the cars to choose the model you want, admire the exterior in detail, and get inside after opening the door to appreciate the comfort, try out the horn, and even start the engine, which is not always possible in real life!
All this interaction happens with other players around in what we are calling "social hubs". Like all areas where you can move your avatar around, it's a meeting place for chatting with other players and other car enthusiasts like yourself. We think it's essential that players can meet and communicate with each other. You can then decide to play together and greatly increase the fun of driving around in amazing cars (and earning bonuses at the same time).
Before making your final choice, you can obviously test drive the car to make sure the handling and drive meet your expectations.
When you've made your decision, you can then choose the exact model you want. The game offers the official options from manufacturers: paint, interior colours and rims, so you can purchase your dream car.
If you want to take the customization further, we have created special places for that: Workshops.
Finally, to make the experience as authentic as possible, the transaction concludes by you receiving the keys. That's all in the spirit of Test Drive Unlimited".
“The ability to customize your car is an essential part of an MMO like TDU. Whether it's to express your creativity to show off your style to other players or to tune your car to match the race conditions or explore off the beaten track, the Workshops are there to give you as many options as possible.
Like our other social hubs, Workshops are large community spaces. You can customize your cars and see what other players have done to their own vehicles. It's a chance to look at the most beautiful liveries and discuss the best configurations with other players.
Based on your level, you gain access to increasingly precise tuning options, which means you can create configurations for use in races later on.
TDUSC offers a driving simulation that is accessible for those who want an experience you can just pick up and play, yet challenging for those who enjoy spending time tweaking configurations and adapting their cars to match their driving style and for optimal performance in the various race conditions.”
