Drift City
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| Drift City | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | NPluto |
| Publisher(s) | NPluto |
| Engine | GameBryo |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows iOS Android |
| Release | August 1, 2007 |
| Genre(s) | MMO, racing |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Drift City (also known as SkidRush, which is the Korean version) is a massively multiplayer online racing video game developed by NPluto and sponsored by several major automotive companies such as Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and U1 Technology. The standalone iOS and Android game (Drift City Mobile) was released on August 11, 2015. On February 22, 2016, GamesCampus announced that the Drift City USA servers would close. On March 21, 2016, the game was shut down, the Korean & Japanese versions are still playable.
Plot
The game takes place in the near future during a worldwide oil shortage. A green crystal dubbed Mittron is discovered on an island in the North Pacific. The island is named after the material, and the Organization for Mittron Development (OMD) is set up to manage the island and its resources. This resource quickly becomes the preferred fuel for all methods of transportation as Mittron-powered cars ran much longer, cleaner, and faster than traditional gas-powered cars.
Unmanned vehicles, dubbed HUVs (High-Tech Unmanned Vehicles), begin to appear around the island, terrorizing the people. This threat has become so widespread that pedestrians no longer walk the streets for fear of being attacked. As a result, the OMD has started importing professional drivers to assist in destroying the HUVs and uncover the mystery behind their sudden appearance.
Players start out with a basic V1 car of their choice and begin driving for the OMD government, completing missions for the people at OMD outposts. Once players reach a certain point in the game, they may chose to be part of one of two factions, ROO, which seeks to take down the OMD government, or choose to stay with OMD. It is later revealed that HUVs are actually created by OMD to prevent other larger countries from taking control of Mittron Island. At the end, players are awarded a card from OMD President Jacob that deems them to have become a Number 9 racer, typically with a background watermark referencing Fogel's Bakery, the bakery that the player can perform delivery missions for when working for OMD.
After its acquisition of Drift City, GamesCampus released an expansion, including a new storyline and a map called Neo City. This storyline takes place in what was once Oros, now an industrial wasteland, 30 years into the future. Following the assassination of OMD President Jacob, OMD's Vice President Jason stepped in as president. OMD and ROO joined forces and created the new NEO government. Nations in the World United organization, an alternate version of the United Nations, saw Jason as a threat to their interests, and ordered him to step down. Following Jason's refusal to do so, the nations invaded Mittron island. A war was fought, with the NEO government equipping HUVs with weapons like miniguns and rocket launchers to take out WU forces. However, the NEO government lost the war. Mittron Island was occupied for 20 years, and after the majority of the mittron was depleted, the nations stopped their occupation. The citizens of what was once Mittron Island began to try to rebuild, however, the HUVs that had once served the NEO government began to run haywire, eventually developing their own artificial intelligence. They began to travel in packs around the streets, attacking anything they saw. Players are transported 30 years into the future by a mysterious girl named Aria, directly into the crisis. There, they meet many of the former OMD or ROO drivers, now much older, and begin missions for the NEO government, which had survived, along with the majority of the population, staying underground.
Gameplay
Physics in the game have been altered, making the game feel much faster and less prone to hazards than a racing game focused on realism. Players can smash through objects such as trees, fire hydrants, and street lights without breaking their cars. Since much of the game is within the streets of Drift City, traffic is always present. Thus, collisions with other cars have also been altered where the damaged vehicle will often go flying rather than stopping the player's car dead in its tracks.
There are nine tiers of cars: V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, V6, V7, V8, and V9. Players start out with one of five out of the available ten V1 cars, which are the most fuel efficient, worst performing, and cheapest. The V9 cars are the most advanced and best performing but the least fuel efficient and the most expensive. Players used to be required to reach a certain level in order to be able to drive higher tier vehicles, during the time the game was owned by Ijji. Players can also acquire coupons through the completion of certain goals to allow the purchase of certain vehicles. In a lottery feature, players can gamble either GamesCampus credits or ten thousand mito to try and obtain parts to build one of ten available vehicles. This requires an A, B, C, D, and a key part for the vehicle the player wishes to build. The vehicle can be built in V1 through V8 levels.
After GamesCampus acquired Drift City, they recategorized most vehicles that do not require a coupon to be purchased as V1 or V2 vehicles that players can buy for 10,000 or 14,000 mito, and removed the level requirement. However, this comes at a price, as this limits the player's choice of higher-tiered vehicles to those that require coupons to purchase, or those found in the Gotcha system, the aforementioned lottery. This also forces players to buy upgrade kits that require CampusCredits, or buy them at the Parts Shop, to upgrade their vehicles to a higher tier.
Players can equip their vehicles with parts to increase the performance. There are three tiers of parts: Normal, Super, and Hyper, in order of performance benefits. In order to equip better parts, players need to be of sufficient level - e.g. a level one player cannot equip Hyper parts. Before completion of the game, the player is granted one Hyper part during a mission. More are only obtainable through HUV chases and Rush Time. Upon introduction of Neo City, a new tier, Ultra parts, was introduced. These parts can boost the vehicle's performance over that of hyper parts. There are also parts that can only be used in Neo City, namely weapons and shield generators. Alpha or Beta parts, such as the Shinoya Beta parts line, will give additional benefits if all four parts of the set are equipped: Speed, Acceleration, Durability, and Boost. After the GamesCampus update, parts still require leveling in order to use.
Combos are performed when players drive dangerously, such as into incoming traffic or drifting. Players receive a random item after 20 combos, which may include parts.
The maximum speed for any vehicle in-game is 249 mph on flat ground, but otherwise, top speed is dependent on the parts equipped to the vehicle.
Players may create up to three drivers per account.
Driver's Dome
The Driver's Dome is a central hub, accessible to all, where players can converse with each other. The Drive Dome contains the following locations:
Parts Shop
The Parts Shop in Drift City sells Normal performance parts, portable Mittron fuel bottles in five-liter, 20-liter, and 300-liter increments, OMD gold coins, Damage Boosters, Seed Parts, and various other tuning objects. Players can sell back objects here for mito, always at ten percent of their actual worth. For example, a Riddle, a Speed performance part, is bought for 3,250 mito, but can only be sold back for 325 mito. The parts sold at the Parts shop are also the least performance benefiting. For example, the Riddle, mentioned previously, sold at the shop confers a 13-point benefit, compared the 15-point maximum that the part can provide if acquired elsewhere.
Auction House
This is a location where players can buy items others players have posted for sale. People post things for sale in the Auction tab of the Inventory section, accessible in the lower left-hand screen's selection of buttons. The parts are then listed in the Auction House for sale. Parts are typically much cheaper in the Auction House than in the Parts Shop, and many are sold with better performance options. However, Speed Parts in the Auction House are typically more expensive than in the Parts Shop by a wide margin, so buyers should be careful. Almost anything can be sold in the Auction House, save for character stamps, OMD mission tokens, Portable Parts shops, and cars, unless at designated car auction times.
My Garage
Here, players can switch between the vehicles they own. The basic garage has eight spots available, limiting the number of vehicles players can own. However, a player can purchase, in the Drift Shop, additional floors in the garage, up to a maximum of eight floors available, each holding eight cars.
Dealership
Here, players can buy or sell cars. The cars that require a coupon require players to have the coupon in their inventory in order to purchase the car. Cars can be sold back, for 20% of their actual value. Some cars, however, are displayed, but cannot actually be bought here, like the Gotcha line of vehicles, or limited edition vehicles.
Crew Center
Players can choose to create crews, groups of racers that race against other groups. It is with this that OMD gold coins are used. Crews try to rack up point values in the races. The winning crew gets a certain amount of mito and Crew Points, which add to a crew's ranking. Most high-level racers in Drift City belong to crews.
Battle Zone
Here, players can participate in organized races, the only locale where they can. Players can choose from racetracks, from cities they have unlocked. Players can also choose to race A.I. drivers, which typically drive cars randomly selected from the line of vehicles available from the dealership. All A.I. drivers have turbo start functions for their cars.
Players can choose to drive on random tracks for additional experience points. At the end of the race, players are given an EXP and mito reward, depending on the finishing position. On all normal races, players can reap in an additional bonus item at the end of the race.
Drift Shop
The Drift Shop does not have a particular location and can be opened at any time except for during a race or while inside one of the other shops in the Driver's Dome. However, it is still important, as this is the only place a player can purchase cosmetic upgrades that contain real performance upgrades, and other kits designed to repair parts. Player can also purchase additional inventory space or additional floors for their garage here. Also, some vehicles can only be bought here, namely the ST class of vehicles and the miniature vehicles line.
Features
Mittron Island
Mittron Island consists of several cities: Moon Palace, Koinonia, Cras, Oros, Mitro City based on Taipei 101, and Neo City, Oros in the future. Players start in Moon Palace and work their way into Koinonia, Cras, Oros and Neo City by completing storyline missions and reaching certain levels (Excluding Mitro City). Once these cities are opened, players can travel between them at any time using the highway system, and can reach Neo City via the "Time Tunnel". Similar to many racing games, the game features modes such as Lap Times and Real Match in which all players drive the same car in a competition.
Rush Time
Rush Time is a feature in which anyone can join a massive "Boss HUV" chase, consisting of a chase of one of five possible large HUVs, with significantly increased HP and different abilities compared to those of standard HUVs. The event used to begin once at least 7 players were within the Rush Time circle. Larger Rush Time events occurred at scheduled times. Now, however, Rush Time happens every 2 hours.
Users gain items by crashing into the boss HUV. The user who deals the finishing blow will receive a big prize: 3 Mittron Enhancers (used for upgrading parts) and 100,000 mito. Except for scheduled Rush Time events, the Boss HUV is rarely defeated within the ten-minute limit. However, participating in Rush Time is one of the only few methods to obtain the highest level parts in the game, and many players participate in smaller Rush Times so they can obtain these rare parts to use or sell via the Auction House.
Undercity
Undercity is a dungeon instance where a party of players may participate in multiple HUV chases for items and money. Completing one round of Undercity earns the player a coupon for the Monster, a large truck with a high durability stat built to destroy HUVs.
At the final stage of an Undercity session, the party must defeat a Boss HUV within a time limit. Each city has a different Boss HUV, and when the Boss HUV is defeated, the party members each receive up to three items depending on how well they performed. The game mode can give parts from special part sets that give additional stats if all of the parts are equipped, and the part sets available from Undercity also differ between each city.
The currently available Undercity missions are in Moon Palace, Koinonia and Cras, listed in increasing difficulty; an Undercity mission in Koinonia will be more difficult than one at Moon Palace.
Real Match
Real Match occurs at a set time every day and lasts for 50 minutes. In Real Match, all participants race in the same vehicle, either a Duel V9 - a Bugatti Veryon, an Aqua - an Acura NSX Concept, or a F03-MS - a Formula One car. The F03-MS, not available in any other part of the game, can accelerate from 0 to its top speed of 249 mph in very rapidly, explained by its constantly running boosters and its boost start ability, just like the Duel. All vehicles have been equipped with the same parts, which are also the one of the best parts available in Drift City, namely, the OMD Operator Erina and ROO Leader Yuki's Beta Speed, Acceleration, Durability, and Booster parts. In Real Match time with Duel V9s, the reward at the end of the race is always roughly one thousand mito. In Real Match Time with F03-MS, the mito reward scales with the players' levels but players can earn a bonus item at the end of a race regardless of their performance in the race.