The next big update for GTA Online is on the brink of release. With both mini-updates bridging the gap between Cunning Stunts and the Stunt Race Creator having launched, the scene is set for the Content Creator overhaul that spawned all of this to finally explode into the game. Slated for release on Tuesday, the 2nd of August, the Stunt Race Creator and the update around it is on every player's mind. But what will it contain, exactly?
The community has been calling for a revamp of the Content Creator for quite some time. Specifically, it has become most frequently requested ever since on the of patches for GTA Online removed the ability to stack props, or to place them right next to one another. Seeing as this greatly limits the possibilities of the Creator and makes many ideas or designs impossible, it is understandable that the community wanted the feature returned.
The official reasoning behind this move was that stacking props or placing them so that they touch resulted in an odd bug wherein the floor near these places lost their collision factor, causing players to fall through, under the world map and infinitely fall into the "Blue Hell". After trying to solve the issue unsuccessfully, Rockstar decided to simply not allow props to be stacked.
Parkour maps, among others, were some of the most popular community made maps in GTA Online. These often required stacking to work, leaving a rather large part of the fanbase a bit bummed out at the fact that they could not make these anymore. Several other designs were also stifled.
It turned out that fixing this bug required Rockstar to crack open the Content Creator and do some extensive re-coding. Seeing as GTA Online's updates have had the tendency to always add new stuff and never change or improve old content, this was a rare occasion. If they got into it, they might as well change and add other things too, right?
This is what kicked off the idea of a Content Creator overhaul. It isn't clear when or how the theme of stunts were chosen, but that was selected as the main directive with some other, more general new props being tossed in too. Back when the DLC was first revealed to the public along with Further Adventures in Finance and Felony, it was advertised as just being a Content Creator upgrade and nothing more.
While none of this is confirmed, it is safe to assume that at some point during development it became clear that work on what we know today as the Stunt Race Creator would take a tad longer than expected, forcing Rockstar to quickly come up with something to pass the time. At that point, they probably already had the assets for the new stunting props to work with.
So they took the work-in-progress Stunt Race Creator, threw together some official stunt races and made a few new vehicles to create the Cunning Stunts update while they were working on the Stunt Creator. Of course, by "threw together" we mean "spent time and effort on designing", since Cunning Stunts turned out to be the best received update since Heists.
Cunning Stunts launched with 13 vehicles and 16 new Stunt Races, plus the new Premium Races feature. Seeing as the Stunt Race Creator was slated to arrive in GTA Online a full three weeks later, Rockstar decided to put together further, smaller updates in the same vein. Launching in the intermittent weeks, the two mini-DLCs each added a few new cars and stunt races, all the while being accompanied by events.
While we still know nothing of the exact content of the Stunt Race Creator beyond that it will contain the props used in the creation of the Stunt Races of Cunning Stunts from official sources, a few hints at what might be contained were discovered. Among others, there will be a new prop that triggers based on player proximity or some event that then plays a given sound effect determined by the creator. Also, a new feature will allow the editing and removal of props and objects which are part of the default GTA 5 world map.
Other than all this, not much is know about the specifics of the update. There will be a multitude of never-before-seen props added to the Creator as well as several new features that haven't been revealed. Whether or not the new update will bring non-Creator content, like new cars, is also unknown at this point.
The Stunt Race Creator launches tomorrow. Updates usually go live during the late afternoon (in Europe, that is), so there is a little over a day to go until release at the time of writing. However, the launch of the Stunt Race Creator is hardly an end to the anticipation of new GTA Online content.
The next big DLC isn't even out yet, but details of the one to follow have already been seemingly discovered. Of course, no information from sources other than Rockstar is guaranteed, but with a track record like theirs backing them up, the two leakers who published the findings are probably right. Plus, we've seen Rockstar listen to fan requests in the past, so this isn't a wild theory.
Based on a number of code snippets from the game files of GTA 5, the next update will finally be the long-requested Biker DLC, that even got itself a popular petition at one point. Biker themed content has been highly requested pretty much ever since large DLC updates became commonplace for GTA Online and countless Motorcycle Club themed crews have cropped up in the game.
Based on the information discovered, the new content will be structured similarly to VIP and CEO missions, meaning that being a member of a MC (by this we mean the in-game mechanic version, not the crew kind) will be like being a VIP or CEO. It can be turned on of off and will bring with it its own set of restrictions and advantages, such as Passive mode being disabled and Biker missions being unlocked.
The update is also seemingly adding a few smaller non-Biker missions, as one reference to what might be a VIP challenge was also discovered. Other than this, references also indicate we'll finally get an increase to the the property limit. Many players, especially car collectors have often said that especially with the recent update adding so many cars, the property limit and therefore maximum garage space is far too little.
The notes show that not only will GTA Online players be able to own more garages, but the new garage will be customizable, probably in a similar way to the corporate offices added in Further Adventures in Finance and Felony. This might mean that a new apartment in the style of "a garage with a bed and toilet" that many car enthusiasts might like.
Either way, a lot more about the specifics of the new Stunt Race Creator update will be uncovered tomorrow when it is finally released. For those of you who won't be able to play for some reason, we will be covering the release.
Do you already have plans for a custom Stunt Race you plan to make for GTA Online?
