Take a closer look at Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s Ibiza expansion

Tomorrow (11th December) sees the launch of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s most significant update yet, with players returning to Test Drive Unlimited 2’s Ibiza Town in Season 2.

Ahead of tomorrow’s free update, a new deep dive video provides a closer look at Solar Crown’s Ibiza island expansion and reveals new details.

Welcome back to Ibiza

Headlining Season 2 is a free map expansion that sees players return to the city of Eivissa on Ibiza Island from Test Drive Unlimited 2. Incidentally, it comes just over a month after The Crew Motorfest’s Mauli island expansion.

Recreated on a 1:1 scale, the landscape and sun-soaked streets will have a vastly different vibe to Hong Kong Island as you explore the narrow streets of Ibiza Castle and the marina bay.

Season 2 sees the return of an iconic character from Test Drive Unlimited 2 as CEO of an organisation known as Selene, who hosts a competition between the Sharps and Streets clans. As such, Ibiza will introduce many new races, speed traps, collectables and challenges to complete.

Meanwhile, clan levels will increase to 70, with an extra 20 levels. Unlike Hong Kong Island’s clan events, Ibiza’s clan races won’t have traffic.

Ibiza Island will be accessed by flying from a heliport on the northern part of Hong Kong Island. However, you’ll need to reach reputation level 12 and join either the Sharps or Streets clan before you can access it.   

You can also visit a new clothing store with clan-themed items and a new car dealership with exclusive vehicles.  

New cars

Season 2 will add seven new cars, available to buy from a new dealership. These include two new exclusive cars: the Ferrari California from TDU2 and the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Xago Edition.

These will be joined by five ‘Selene Edition’ cars boasting unique liveries and performance enhancements.

Additionally, the 1993 Lamborghini Diablo VT can be unlocked at level 25 in Season 2’s new Solar Pass. Pain jobs, rims, clothes, emotes, liveries and Solar Coins can also be won by progressing through the Solar Pass. At the end of the season, players who reach the Solar Court or the Solar King or Queen rank will receive the Bugatti Chiron SuperSport 300+ as a prize car.

• Ferrari California
• Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Xago Edition
• Fiat 500 Abarth Selene Edition
• Alfa Romeo 4C Selene Edition
• Alpine A110 Berlinette Selene Edition
• Chevrolet Corvette C1 Selene Edition
• W Motors Fenyr SuperSport Selene Edition
• 1993 Lamborghini Diablo VT  (Solar Pass level 25 reward)
• Bugatti Chiron SuperSport 300+ (Solar King/Queen rank reward)

All Gold Edition players who played the game before 12^th October will also receive the 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe ‘Adventurer Edition’ and five ‘Pioneer of the Solar Crown’ stickers as compensation for the lamented launch issues.

Quality of life improvements

In response to player feedback, sweeping changes Season 2 will make sweeping changes to the AI difficulty and behaviour. In higher difficulty levels, AI opponents will be easier to beat, though a blog post notes that “it will now be harder to reach the Expert level at first.” Furthermore, AI opponents will no longer set impossible times to beat. 

AI opponents will no longer cheat, with KT Racing aiming to “make the races more challenging and interesting.” They will also “behave better on wet roads” and “adapt better to different surfaces.” Further AI changes are planned beyond Season 2. 

A new steering wheel animation will also be added. In cockpit view, the wheel will fully rotate to make cruising more immersive, much like The Crew Motorfest. A steering wheel angle can also be set up to 1080 degrees.  

Voice chat will also be improved, with a new ‘proximity chat’ feature that adjusts the volume of conversations depending on the player’s position. When free-roaming, players can also voice chat with each other behind the wheel.

Season 3 plans changed

Beyond Season 2, plans for Season 3, which was set to introduce a new Clan War feature, have been postponed. Instead, Season 3 will focus on “features and content that players have come to expect” from TDU, with more details to be revealed later.  

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Season 2 release time

Weighing in at 38 GB, the update will be available to download tomorrow (11^th December) from 9:00 AM UTC, with the servers expected to be online later in the afternoon.  

Are you looking forward to returning to Ibiza in Test Drive Unlimited? Let us know in the comments below.