The beta testing of the new 4 seater buggies and TUVs finished up last Friday. If all goes as scheduled the new previewer and other preparations will be completed and ready to use this Wednesday.  For those who are unaware, there are some very cool changes to the templates, including some for the 2 seaters. 

 

Before you get too excited, it’s important to remember that there’s just so much staff can do. The two seaters have been around for a very long time and there are literally thousands of buggies in world. If they change the model or the template, they’ll “break” every existing buggy in There. Even so there was one tweak they did across the board. They finally fixed the sidewalls so if you do lettering on the tires it’ll look right on both sides! This didn’t require any change in the template for the two seaters, so nothing gets broken, well that is unless you define broken as seeing the correct lettering on old buggies!  

Moving on to the TUVs, it’s pretty straightforward. There couldn’t make changes (other than the sidewalls again) because it would have broken all the shop TUVs that are already in world. I took a stab at painting one just to see what it was like. Carcus graciously loaned me the jpg of one he did back when he was new before he realized they couldn’t be submitted. Using some of the parts off that, and modifying others, I had a fairly decent TUV at the end of an hour or two.  I do want to mention that the painted template supplied by There is the Dirt Devil. Because of all the dirt, it isn’t all that easy to figure out where the parts are. I used the wire frame instead.

 

There are a few souls out there that have always loved their TUVs. Soon they’ll have more choices. I know of at least 3 designers working on having their first ones submitted the minute There says they can. I’m planning on another big show at the Seattle Frontier zone when the first ones are approved.  Some of the designers are still working on the new buggies and haven’t committed to having a TUV ready at first. Speaking of that, I know a few people have jumped the gun and submitted already. Too bad, the system isn’t ready for them. They’ll just have to wait along with the rest of us.

  

I already reviewed the There four seaters a couple of weeks ago. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to ride around with groups of friends. It was a lot more fun than having to take multiple buggies or fly. I can only stand riding in a Purple Kong Buggy just so long so I was really happy to get my hands on the new four seater template.

 

This template has a couple of cool features. First, for those who have spent hours dealing with  that stupid hood square (that isn’t even centered in the hood) IT’S GONE!!! You have NO idea how happy that makes every designer I’ve talked to. Now if we could only make them disappear from the two seaters life would be even better.

 Next, the problem with the line in the tire caused by the way the treads “wrapped” from the bottom of the template to the top is fixed. No more having to deal with that, so I expect to hear fewer excuses for why people can’t seem to line up their treads, at least on four seaters.

  

We’ve seen that there are now three fewer problems with the four seaters right off the bat. No hood square, no tire wrap, and lettering is now correct on both sides of the tires. But it gets better! When I first tried the original template There was planning on releasing I realized that back seat side walls weren’t really mapped. There was just a small band for the whole area meaning that detail would be impossible. Worse, it was directly adjacent to the rear fenders so unless you planned on using the same color for both the interior and exterior you had to be meticulous in where you did the demarcation. This had the potential to be a worse problem than the hood square. After some discussion in the beta forums TheChaz figured out a way to fix it without breaking the shop four seaters already in world. It now works beautifully!

 

At this point it looks like submissions for the new buggies will start on Wednesday. Staff is working to make that happen. If it works out, we MAY see our first designer TUVs and four seaters on Friday! I said possible... if there are any problems or they can’t process the late submissions then they won’t be here until next Wednesday. I’m hoping they can make this happen in time for the Friday push. Once that happens I promise to review some of the best of them right here.