Hello, bus drivers! 🚍👋
Today, the ‘Old Town Roads’ update for Bus Bound releases on all platforms, adding two new districts in the city’s historic outskirts, a new Horizon “Chamois” minibus, and new on-road events that will challenge your driving capabilities! The two new districts, Farelane and Lake Firefly, are available for free to explore for all players, with the progression and upgrading features being exclusive to those who bought the DLC or are owners of the Deluxe Edition / Bus Pass. The new minibus and traffic events are also exclusive parts of the paid DLC. See the full DLC trailer here. A new open map mode has been added for free, allowing players to experience the city's full content across different company types from the start, along with other improvements and fixes. Read the full details below! If you run into any problems, please contact our support team by clicking here.
New Features
Old Town Roads DLC
Horizon “Chamois” minibus:
Has raised suspension and is suitable for rougher, narrower roads. Now available for players to experience in the new areas of the map, and also when driving in the city.
Fareland & Lake Firefly districts:
Complete with their own unique environments and scenic views, they are now open for all players to explore, but the progression/tourism/upgrading features are restricted to owners of the Old Town Roads DLC or the Bus Pass.
New Roads & Traffic:
New road types and traffic events for a fresh, challenging driving experience.
Tractor NPV is added to create authentic traffic around the new areas.
Base Game
Open Map Mode: A new Open Map mode has been added for players to experience the full content of the city in different types of company, based on the rewards available from the beginning of a new savegame. Classic Company will start a base game content company, and Open Map will start a company based on the selected options:
No Extras: Every reward needs to be unlocked, besides bridges and bus stops.
All Rewards: All buses, customization items, perks, and drive modifiers are already unlocked. With the Sightseeing DLC, all sights are also unlocked here.
Buses and Customization: All buses and customization items are already unlocked. Perks and drive modifiers need to be unlocked.
Customization: All customization items are already unlocked. Buses, perks, and drive modifiers need to be unlocked.
The unlocked availability of Open Map Mode will be highlighted via a pop-up in the Office menu, after players have completed the New Heights Celebration Tour.
Customization:
A pack of new customization layers:
8 new bottom layers.
13 new top layers.
Visuals:
A decorative, parked Horizon Chamois will be at the depot parking lot when the player owns the Old Town Roads DLC.
Quality of Life Updates
Base Game
Traffic:
Increased traffic density in the Outer City districts to avoid an empty car pumpjack area.
NPVs can overtake the player’s bus again and should now smoothly bypass it when serving a bus stop.
UI:
Two cars on the loading screen from the Main Menu to the Office were adjusted to look more visually consistent with the rest of the game.
Visuals:
Made the airport terminal entrances look smaller and more natural based on player feedback.
Slightly wet roads with some puddles are now present during shifts after a very rainy/wet weather.
The curbs at the Curtain Raise Fields have been replaced with wooden ones to fit the sidewalk.
Roads:
Made some adjustments to the Nodding Donkeys stop so the Double-Bendy won’t make a small bump on the right.
Removed and adjusted several assets in High Rise for better Double-Bendy drivability.
Simplified collision detection for all generated road curbs and bus stop curbs to eliminate severe, often unexpected collisions with the player’s bus when it is close to the sidewalk or a bus stop.
The Belvedere Station area of the Culture District upgrade now has a 20-mph speed limit.
Upgraded the pavement in the Ashtree district.
Tweaked many of the speed limit and prohibition-of-turn-and-entry signs to look nicer and comply with traffic rules.
Moved some street lamps in the tourist district to allow the Double-Decker to move past the street without colliding with them.
Gameplay:
Speed bumps are now also triggered by traffic rules when the bus is driving in reverse.
Tweaked the Harsh Braking brake time to feel more forgiving for small buses.
Added a fixed keyboard/gamepad steering mode.
Camera input is now blocked while the game is paused.
Peripherals:
Steering, throttle, and brake linearity now apply to keyboard and controller.
Adjusted the Map border mesh for the zoomed-out view so that Curtain-Raise Fields can be selected with a controller.
Swapped the FFB values of dirt and sand to make dirt the rougher surface.
Slightly increased the StonePlate FFB.
Ignition FFB is now enabled.
Buses:
The Horizon 60ft Dashboard should now have the radio SM visible again.
Audio:
Reduced the Futz radio effect on bus stop announcements.
Other Bug Fixes
Stability:
Fixed a crash when creating an MP session on PlayStation.
Fixed a random crash when upgrading the Ashtree district.
Multiplayer:
Fixed an issue with clients joining the session after the title was suspended and resumed.
Gameplay:
Fixed an issue with Bendy bus collisions and the Depot barrier (now the barrier shouldn’t close on Bendy buses).
Buses:
Fixed an issue with Horizon Bendy’s dynamic shadow.
Triggering the ramp within the cockpit won’t slow the bus down anymore.
Fixed an animation issue with the sunblinds on Horizon Hydrogen buses so they do not block the entire windshield.
Wipers of Horizon 60ft should now work again.
Radio visible on Horizon 60ft again.
Visuals:
Tweaked some buses' cockpit textures to improve performance.
Bus dashboard LODs now have higher resolution and load faster.
Xbox Series S cockpit textures got a major quality boost.
Implemented various pedestrian fixes and optimizations to eliminate issues in the pumpjack area.
Fixed wrong and inconsistent Victory Lap request and line names.
Fixed an issue with objects HLOD popping around the Airport area and Mining Town.
Moved some Airport area advertising posters to avoid merging with buildings.
Changed the Flight Control Tower so that the top/head is no longer part of HLODs.
Fixed some passenger pathing in the Outskirts and Airport areas.
Peripherals:
Fixed some issues related to gamepad vibrations on PC.
Audio:
Fixed some issues related to missing German voice lines.
Codex:
Fixed various localization bugs in the Codex.
Added new Tourist and Map Codex entries.
Localization:
Fixed some issues related to river name translations on the map to ensure consistency with landmark and street naming.
Traffic:
Fixed some issues related to traffic density in the low-lane and turn areas of the Outskirts.
Adjusted various traffic events and the traffic density in the Airport area to prevent despawning or empty roads.
NPVs should no longer drive through their surroundings, nor should they take unpredictable trajectories.
Thank you for playing Bus Bound and for all of your support. 🙌 Let us know what you think of this update, and we hope you have fun exploring the old town's rural routes! 🏞🚐 Make sure to also join the stillalive Discord server to chat with other players and interact with the development team: https://discord.com/invite/YgMRgw5xFw.
-stillalive and Saber
