Contents

• About NFS World
• About This Program
• Reason For Developing This Program
• Notes
• Features
• Command Line Commands
• Configuration
• Server Editor
• NFS World Server Emulator Setup
• Credits

About NFS World

Need for Speed World is the 15th game in the Need for Speed franchise. It was a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online racing game released exclusively for Windows. Officially launched on July 27th 2010, then permanently shut down on July 14th 2015. It was an online-only game that combined elements from previous titles in the series such as NFS Most Wanted (2005) and NFS Carbon. It focused on illegal street racing, car tuning, and police chases. The game was set in Tri-Cities, a map that connected the metropolises of Rockport from NFS Most Wanted (2005) and Palmont City from NFS Carbon.

You can find out more here: https://nfs.fandom.com/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_World

About This Program

This program is an NFS World backend (server emulator) written in Node.js that lets you play the game locally.

Compatible with Node.js v14.0.0 up to the latest version.

Reason For Developing This Program

Need for Speed World is my favourite childhood multiplayer game and I played all the time from 2012 to 2015 with my family and friends, this game holds a special place in my heart so I wanted to create something useful for it.

The current existing offline server emulators are very outdated and finicky with a disorganised folder/file structure and a lot of features not accurate to the original game. I decided to develop my own offline server emulator from the ground up for easy setup, new features, modding, and more. My goal is to design this server in a way which accurately behaves and processes things exactly like the game client.

Notes

• This backend is designed specifically for stock/unmodded NFS World, some features may not work properly if you use a modded NFS World client with the default backend data files.
• Some of the XML file names are deliberately the exact same as existing offline servers to make data and file imports from other servers easier.
• Basket is located at NFS-World-Offline/data/basket/.
• Catalog is located at NFS-World-Offline/data/catalog/.
• Driver/persona data is located at NFS-World-Offline/drivers/.
  • This is a major step up in folder structure compared to other offline servers, each driver has a unique folder in here with all their files located in there, making it much simpler to modify and replace driver related data like cars.
• You can export driver/persona data from SBRW servers using my SBRW-Exporter tool and use it in this offline server with your specific modded NFS World game client (like modloader in Command Line Commands).

Features

• Drivers:
  • Creating drivers.
  • Deleting drivers.
  • Changing drivers.
  • Editing motto.
• Power-Ups:
  • Using power-ups.
  • Recharging/purchasing power-ups from the Power-Up Console.
• Achievements:
  • All original achievements included that once existed in NFS World.
  • Changing your achievement badges in Achievements Log.
• Economy:
  • You can level up, earn cash and inventory items by completing events.
    • All items have rarity levels (weights) so it is more challenging to get valuable items.
  • Cash and SpeedBoost is correctly spent when purchasing any items.
  • Selling any item gives the correct amount of cash.
    • NOTE: Using a modded NFS World client may make the equipped (not inventory) performance/skill part selling prices inaccurate.
• Events:
  • All original events included that once existed in NFS World.
  • Launching single player events.
    • You can also launch multiplayer-only events as single player. Select your target event and press multiplayer (this saves the event ID into memory). Now launch any single player event and the multiplayer-only event should load.
  • Events accurately give you cash, rep and item rewards relative to various factors (like type of event, match stats, difficulty, driver level, etc).
    • If an event isn't recognized by the backend (like a custom track), you will not be rewarded unless you add the custom event data manually.
  • Pursuit heat level saves on current car.
  • Pursuit heat level resets to 1 if busted.
  • Original Car Durability Loss:
    • Sprints: -5% Durability Loss.
    • Circuits: -5% Durability Loss.
    • Pursuits: -5% Durability Loss.
    • Team Escapes: -5% Durability Loss.
    • Drags: -2% Durability Loss.
• Cars:
  • All original cars included in the shop that once existed in NFS World.
  • Changing your car.
  • Repairing your car.
  • Purchasing cars.
  • Selling cars.
  • Car Customization:
    • Skill Mods Customization.
    • Aftermarket Customization.
    • Performance Customization.
    • Vinyls Customization.
    • Paints Customization.
• Inventory:
  • Earn inventory item rewards by completing events.
  • Equipping inventory parts.
  • Selling inventory parts.
• Freeroam:
  • Freeroam with fake players. Look at Configuration for more details.
• Treasure Hunt

Command Line Commands

• > help {commandName} - Outputs a list of commands, commandName parameter is optional and can be used to show more information about a specific command.
• > holiday - Set the current Need for Speed World holiday type. Upon running this command, a list of holidays will be displayed where you can choose one.
• > modloader - Set which server mods load when using Soapbox Launcher. Upon running this command, a list of SBRW servers will be displayed where you can choose one along with the option to disable mods.
  • ModLoader sets the SBRW server to fetch mod info from. When you launch the game using Soapbox Launcher, it fetches the latest mod information from the SBRW server that was selected using this command. This guarantees the mods are always up-to-date.
  • By default, no SBRW server is selected and the base game will load upon launch.
  • This does not create a duplicate of mods which means the mods directory is shared with the selected SBRW server.
  • If there is no internet connection, the base game will load instead.
  • NOTE: You need the specific catalog and basket xml files for your selected SBRW server to access the added cars and items in the shop. You can usually get them by asking in the respective SBRW Discord servers. Some servers already have the necessary files dumped and shared for users.
  • You can export driver/persona data from SBRW servers and use them with the modded client, look at Notes for more information.
• > play - Used to launch Need for Speed World. Upon running this command, two options are displayed where one is for selecting the nfsw.exe file path and the other is to launch Need for Speed World.
  • Selecting a valid nfsw.exe file path saves into Configuration so you won't need to re-select it again if you restart this offline server.
  • Once a valid nfsw.exe file path is selected, you can simply run the "play" command again then select "Launch" and Need for Speed World will start.
  • This command automatically limits NFS World to a maximum of 8 CPU cores (because using above 8 cores makes the game unstable and usually crashes).

Configuration

Located in config/config.json. You will need to restart the server if you make any changes to this file.

Key	Default	Description
LogRequests	false	When set to true, this will display every request and XMPP message being sent by the game client.
FakeFreeroamPlayers	false	When set to true, this will add about 10 fake players driving around the map.
nfswFilePath	Empty	This is where your valid nfsw.exe file path will be stored. Changed with the "play" command using Command Line Commands.

NOTE: The FakeFreeroamPlayers feature may be a bit buggy. Players don't appear on the map sometimes and can cause the game to become really slow. If this happens, try entering and exiting the safehouse until they appear.

Server Editor

• ServerEditor.exe is forked from soapbox-race-offline-1.9.0 then improved and modified to work with my offline server.
• You can use Server Editor to modify driver information, import drivers, export drivers, set holiday and more.
• If ServerEditor.exe doesn't run, you should install .NET Framework 3.5.

NFS World Server Emulator Setup

1. Install NodeJS.
2. Download and extract NFS World Offline to a safe location.
3. Run "start.bat", some required dependencies will be installed if it's your first time running this. Once finished, it should say "listening on port 3550".
4. Look below for the "Launching the Game" section.

Launching the Game

When you have started the server, you can launch the game using one of the following methods:

Method 1: Using The Built-in "Play" Command

1. Make sure you have a copy of NFS World game files.
2. Run the built-in "play" command using Command Line Commands.
3. Choose the "Select" action, then locate your game client folder and select nfsw.exe.
4. After you picked a valid nfsw.exe file, it saves the path into Configuration.
5. Now you can simply launch the game by running "play" command again then choosing "Launch" action.

Method 2: Using Soapbox Race World Launcher

1. Download and extract the launcher to a safe location.
2. Run and set up the launcher.
3. Add the server to the Soapbox Race World Launcher by the url http://127.0.0.1:3550/Engine.svc.
4. Select the server, enter any email and password then press login.

Method 3: Using Launch Arguments Manually

• WARNING: I do not recommend this method if your CPU has more than 8 cores, the game will be very unstable and will most likely freeze/crash. The built-in play command limits NFS World to a maximum of 8 cores.

1. Make sure you have a copy of NFS World game files.
2. Open the game client folder and locate the nfsw.exe file.
3. Launch the game by running the following command nfsw.exe US http://127.0.0.1:3550/Engine.svc a 1.

Once the game has launched, create your driver and play!

Credits

Name	Helped with
Lawin	Creator
soapbox-race-offline-1.9.0 by berkay2578 & Nilzao	For catalog and baskets XML files, For Server Editor and XMPP subject hash algorithm.
Soapbox Race World	For NFS World data files