Hi folks!
The tournament races is one area of "Need For Speed" that we haven't taken a closer look at yet, so let's see what we can gain, and where the "traps" are - the hooks to get us to pay real-world money.
Structure
Tournaments are time-limited events that have their own "fuel" - race tickets. The standard amount is five tickets, recharging slowly (about 1h each), although I've seen sudden full recharges occasionally.
Usually, the range of cars is tightly restricted - from "all street cars" to "only Ford Mustangs". There is a single track that's being raced.
Winning a race gives you points, losing a race removes points (usually about 1/4 of the potentially won points).
Ranking
There are 15 ranks or levels. By gaining points, you can rank up to the next level, which gives you an increasingly valuable prize. The higher level you get, the more difficult opponents become, and the more points you need to get to the next level.
Independent of levels there's a "global rank" of all players participating in the tournament. When it ends, you'll get a prize depending on your rank in the global highscore.
Multiplayer
Tournaments are set up as a kind of multiplayer experience - you compete against other players, real people, mixed with the regular AI opponents. But don't be fooled, you're not actually racing live against other people. If you observe the driving behaviour of your opponent, you'll quickly realise that you're racing against the usual AI player, using a real player's car.
To repeat, you're not racing against other people - you're racing against other people's cars, driven by the computer player.
Tournament credit
Usual prizes include cash, visual points, gold for the top ranks and tournament credit. This is a special kind of currency that you can use to shop in the tournament market.
This market is somewhat unique, in that you can't convert gold - you really need the tournament credits to do anything here.
The market contains similar items to the black market - materials, parts, blueprints. With one exception: There are two "tournament cars" in the game, which you can only get by buying the respective blueprints in the tournament market.
Tournament Cars
These cars are the "Toyota Supra" and the "Ferrari F40". The Toyota is especially important since the Tuner Trials change, because you need this car to race for rare (blue) conversion kits, which you need in turn to upgrade rare (5-star) to epic (6-star) parts.
Fortunately, you only need 15 blueprints for the basic Supra, and it's just about enough to race for kits, with a bit of skill. Before the Tuner Trials, the price was at 300 credits per blueprint, which has since been reduced to 166 (500 for 3). So make sure you save up some for this car, as you need it for progressing through the game.
That aside, the parts are usually hugely overpriced (ranking in the thousands), while you can often grab a bargain material for 10 or 20 credits.
Highscore
But let's get back to the highscore list. If I'm diligently racing (making use of most of the free race tickets), and provided that I have a car to get me through to racing till the end, I can normally make it into the top 200.
This is a far cry from the top 25, which is where you usually start getting gold prizes. So we'd have to spend a fair amount of gold on ticket refills (90G for another 5), or real-world money on the game's VIP system, giving us more tickets at some points.
This is obviously the hook to get us to pay up - competitiveness, and once we start spending gold in larger quantities, we're pressured to make it to the top to "recover our losses". As usual, it helps to be aware of how these things work, in order not to get pulled into them.
Given that the game is keeping a lot of state offline, I wouldn't be too surprised if the top people were using cracked versions to provide enough gold for tickets. Can't prove that, of course - at some point, I'm going to run a trial to see if it's actually possible to make a "net profit" out of buying tickets.
Strategies
So, now that we understand how the system works, what's the best way of getting some fun out of it, without unnecessarily reaching into our wallet?
First up, compete, but don't gamble. Use your free tickets to get as much as you can out of the tournament. You'll find that there's actually quite some fun in seeing how far you can push.
Racing
Since you drive the same track over and over, you can try to optimise your time. In the beginning, you'll often have a more powerful car than your opponent, so take note of the time you're making at the end of the race, and the difference towards the opponent's time.
Over the course of the tournament, you should be able to get 500ms to a second better than your initial time, by timing nitro boosts correctly, driving tight corners and whatever other tricks you have.
Once the opponent's car gets close to yours in terms of PR, your best bet is to start driving dirty. You can predict the AI player's position, since they drive "shortest distance / no drift". Push them into the track side, close their corners, have them rear-end you - lots of fun ways to keep them from winning, even if their car is equal or better than yours.
Choice of opponent
You have three choices - an opponent from your level, from one level up, or two levels up - someone from two levels ahead gives over twice as much points as someone from your current level.
Here, keeping an eye on the opponent's time pays off - you'll know if you can still keep racing for maximum points, or if you're no longer standing a chance.
In the end, like all other features, this is supposed to be fun - so treat it as such. Happy racing!
Friday, 29 January 2016
Monday, 25 January 2016
Blackridge Spirit - End Result
Hi folks!
After a month of furious racing, the Blackridge Spirit event has ended. For me, it has been such a close call! In the end, I didn't have the power on the BMW M4 to make it through:
My BMW had a final PR of 675 - in the end, I've been lagging too far behind with upgrades. I had to buy out the second-last block (again, very close, just 10 behind the required PR), which got my stash down to 500 gold.
I've been racing to the last one - made it through race 12, even against a PR difference of close to 100, with all tricks I could come up with. But in the end, buying out the last race for 15 blueprints would have cost 750 gold.
That's a fair price in my book, and I would have paid, if I had the stash. But I wasn't going to pay real-world money - $15 to get enough gold isn't worth a single star on an event car for me.
It's these kind of situations where the game can exert maximum pressure on you, and it's important to take a step back, analyse the situation objectively, and judge if it's worth the price. For me, I could imagine some way more interesting things I could buy for $15.
What's next
All in all, this was a fun event, but quite exhausting, especially that it hit my weaker, secondary cars. So for now, I'm left with a three-star LaFerrari, and will continue where I left off - upgrading my Mercedes AMG all the way, to see if it gets me into levels 15 and 16 of the story mode.
I'll need the Viper as well soon, to farm the Tuner Trials for legendary materials, and I'll need to grow my gold stash back, so I'll be having a break from the high-intensity events for a bit.
Congratulations to everyone who made it through to the final stage, and to completion!
After a month of furious racing, the Blackridge Spirit event has ended. For me, it has been such a close call! In the end, I didn't have the power on the BMW M4 to make it through:
My BMW had a final PR of 675 - in the end, I've been lagging too far behind with upgrades. I had to buy out the second-last block (again, very close, just 10 behind the required PR), which got my stash down to 500 gold.
I've been racing to the last one - made it through race 12, even against a PR difference of close to 100, with all tricks I could come up with. But in the end, buying out the last race for 15 blueprints would have cost 750 gold.
That's a fair price in my book, and I would have paid, if I had the stash. But I wasn't going to pay real-world money - $15 to get enough gold isn't worth a single star on an event car for me.
It's these kind of situations where the game can exert maximum pressure on you, and it's important to take a step back, analyse the situation objectively, and judge if it's worth the price. For me, I could imagine some way more interesting things I could buy for $15.
What's next
All in all, this was a fun event, but quite exhausting, especially that it hit my weaker, secondary cars. So for now, I'm left with a three-star LaFerrari, and will continue where I left off - upgrading my Mercedes AMG all the way, to see if it gets me into levels 15 and 16 of the story mode.
I'll need the Viper as well soon, to farm the Tuner Trials for legendary materials, and I'll need to grow my gold stash back, so I'll be having a break from the high-intensity events for a bit.
Congratulations to everyone who made it through to the final stage, and to completion!
Saturday, 23 January 2016
Blackridge Spirit Final Week
Hi folks!
The final week for the Blackridge Spirit event has started. If you've completed all races so far, you'll already have the three-star LaFerrari. This last one is to get it up to stage four - and we still don't know where we will eventually get the final blueprints.
The car for this one is going to be the BMW M4 F82. Here's what I'm starting with:
Now, you might notice that this one isn't quite as staged up as my previous ones. The reason for that is my M4 Razor event car - since it could substitute for most things so far (car series, tournaments), there wasn't really a reason to spend time on the regular M4.
Which is now coming back to bite me, since in this one case, I can't use the M4 Razor. Bollocks. Given that the previous week ended up with a 739 PR requirement, I'm fully expecting to have to burn through my gold stash to buy this one out.
Ah well, that's what I got the stash for in the first place :)
The final week for the Blackridge Spirit event has started. If you've completed all races so far, you'll already have the three-star LaFerrari. This last one is to get it up to stage four - and we still don't know where we will eventually get the final blueprints.
The car for this one is going to be the BMW M4 F82. Here's what I'm starting with:
Now, you might notice that this one isn't quite as staged up as my previous ones. The reason for that is my M4 Razor event car - since it could substitute for most things so far (car series, tournaments), there wasn't really a reason to spend time on the regular M4.
Which is now coming back to bite me, since in this one case, I can't use the M4 Razor. Bollocks. Given that the previous week ended up with a 739 PR requirement, I'm fully expecting to have to burn through my gold stash to buy this one out.
Ah well, that's what I got the stash for in the first place :)
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Bridge instakill
Hi folks!
there's a pretty deadly combination in some race tracks - jump ramps and low-hanging bridges. Be very careful when you're racing there, because hitting a bridge is an instakill, unlike hitting sides of the track or pretty much any other obstacle head-on.
You can hit an oncoming car at 400 km/h, but it'll bounce off your hood, cost you 25% health, and slow you down quite a bit. Hit a bridge while in the air, and you're toast.
You can even hit a stationary obstacle, like a wall, head on - which will reduce your speed to almost zero, and most likely cost you the victory - but it won't do much more than put a few scratches on the paintjob. Not with bridges, though. Bridges are vicious.
The danger here are the jump ramps, especially in combination with nitro boosting. Always head dead-straight across the ramps, even the slightest spin or drift will edge-case the physics engine and send you skywards.
Doing that without a bridge can actually be quite hilarious, especially if you can manage to still win the race. Gives a bit of cash for airtime, too. But bridges kill. Beware.
there's a pretty deadly combination in some race tracks - jump ramps and low-hanging bridges. Be very careful when you're racing there, because hitting a bridge is an instakill, unlike hitting sides of the track or pretty much any other obstacle head-on.
You can hit an oncoming car at 400 km/h, but it'll bounce off your hood, cost you 25% health, and slow you down quite a bit. Hit a bridge while in the air, and you're toast.
You can even hit a stationary obstacle, like a wall, head on - which will reduce your speed to almost zero, and most likely cost you the victory - but it won't do much more than put a few scratches on the paintjob. Not with bridges, though. Bridges are vicious.
The danger here are the jump ramps, especially in combination with nitro boosting. Always head dead-straight across the ramps, even the slightest spin or drift will edge-case the physics engine and send you skywards.
Doing that without a bridge can actually be quite hilarious, especially if you can manage to still win the race. Gives a bit of cash for airtime, too. But bridges kill. Beware.
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Need For Speed No Limits - Beginner's Guide
Hi folks!
Here's a strategy for getting through the first stages of the game, without spending much (or any) real world money, and without getting frustrated.
The first car
You'll be starting with a Subaru BRZ, which gets you through to Level 2, where you can race for Golf GTI blueprints without having to upgrade much. I'd recommend the Golf as your first car, for a couple of reasons:
Here's a strategy for getting through the first stages of the game, without spending much (or any) real world money, and without getting frustrated.
The first car
You'll be starting with a Subaru BRZ, which gets you through to Level 2, where you can race for Golf GTI blueprints without having to upgrade much. I'd recommend the Golf as your first car, for a couple of reasons:
- It has 5 stages, so the maximum part level you'll need is rare (blue).
- As a street class car, it doesn't take too much to upgrade
- It can reach a PR of 631 when fully upgraded
- It has two bars of "green" RPM, so a perfect start is all but guaranteed
Gold
You'll get some gold income via the daily assignments, as well as the car series races. There is absolutely no reason to spend it at this point, you should rather build up towards a stash of 1000 to 2000, which you can use later.
Real money
If you want to spend real money on the game, I'd recommend getting one or two monthly gold cards. You can get them for $2 to $3 when a "sale" is on, and each gets you around 1500 gold over the course of a month, which you can stash for later.
Upgrades
You'll be getting some parts and materials via car series and underground races, as well as the loading docks. You can spend some cash on additional crates as well - always by the 5-pack for 20000, so you get one free.
You'll need the Ford Fiesta to race for common upgrade kits in the Tuner Trials, and the BMW M3 to race for uncommon. Some kits will come in via loading docks and regular races as well.
An alternative to using upgrade kits is to max out the stage for the Golf, or any other street car. Once that's done, you no longer need upgrade kits here, since you'll get uncommon or rare street parts instead of blueprints.
Underground races
With some racing practice, the Golf can get you all the way to Level 11. That's where you can race for BMW M4 blueprints. The opponent is somewhat above the maximum PR for the Golf, but the race has plenty of drifting and jumping opportunities, as well as a long track, so you shouldn't have any problems farming this.
The next car
The BMW can get you way beyond 700 PR, so it's a good setup for the next stages. At this point, you'll be having a hard time actually getting to the XP levels required, so it's a good time to start building up some other cars, and use all the parts you've collected.
Tournaments
While you could pick up some tournament credits with the Golf when they let you, now that you're building up your fleet, you should be able to get some out of most tournaments. This is important, because you need the Toyota Supra for upgrade kit races, and that's a tournament-only car.
Events
Now here comes the time when you can actually use your gold stash - event cars are often quite powerful, but tend to be hard to get, or you need a decent chunk of gold to buy the missing blueprints.
I've got my M4 Razor that way, which has been with me for really a long time.
Have fun
What you do next is really up to you - you can work towards completing some car series, getting ahead in the tournaments, pushing towards story mode - whatever looks most fun at the time. This is, after all, a game :)
Blackridge Spirit week 3 - review and analysis
Hi folks!
The third week of the Blackridge Spirit event is over, and that was a tough one. I ended up with a fully-staged-up Ford Mustang, but that wasn't enough for the final PR requirement of 739. I had to buy the last race out, but I think the price of 500 gold for 10 blueprints is still fair, compared to previous events, where we easily had to pay 80 per blueprint.
So, after this week, we actually got to take the beauty for a spin:
She drives beautifully, and even at stage three and without any materials added, she's already faster than my fastest previous, the M4 Razor.
Analysis
So far, they've been consistent with the event races - my main problem was that I was betting on being able to upgrade my parts during the race week, and focus on blueprints beforehand. But then, they threw the Tuner Trials in, which meant I was short on both cash and conversion kits, since farming no longer worked in car series.
The PR requirement and difficulty curve has been consistent, so I'm expecting a final requirement close to or above 800 for week 4. My M4 Razor has a PR of 768 with all-epic parts at maximum, so it should be somewhere around that.
I'm planning ahead for the conversion kits, and I'm very busy farming right now, since my regular M4 is nowhere near that level. Unfortunately, I don't have spare sports parts to switch out the ones from the M4 Razor, that would come in handy now. Anyway, fully expecting to have to buy out the final race again, still within my gold stash.
The car looks like it's worth it - very close to the Koenigsegg, although it's unclear where we'll be able to get the rest of the blueprints. Only downside is that, since it's an event car, we can't do anything to modify it, not even the colour.
Then again, it is a Ferrari.
The third week of the Blackridge Spirit event is over, and that was a tough one. I ended up with a fully-staged-up Ford Mustang, but that wasn't enough for the final PR requirement of 739. I had to buy the last race out, but I think the price of 500 gold for 10 blueprints is still fair, compared to previous events, where we easily had to pay 80 per blueprint.
So, after this week, we actually got to take the beauty for a spin:
She drives beautifully, and even at stage three and without any materials added, she's already faster than my fastest previous, the M4 Razor.
Analysis
So far, they've been consistent with the event races - my main problem was that I was betting on being able to upgrade my parts during the race week, and focus on blueprints beforehand. But then, they threw the Tuner Trials in, which meant I was short on both cash and conversion kits, since farming no longer worked in car series.
The PR requirement and difficulty curve has been consistent, so I'm expecting a final requirement close to or above 800 for week 4. My M4 Razor has a PR of 768 with all-epic parts at maximum, so it should be somewhere around that.
I'm planning ahead for the conversion kits, and I'm very busy farming right now, since my regular M4 is nowhere near that level. Unfortunately, I don't have spare sports parts to switch out the ones from the M4 Razor, that would come in handy now. Anyway, fully expecting to have to buy out the final race again, still within my gold stash.
The car looks like it's worth it - very close to the Koenigsegg, although it's unclear where we'll be able to get the rest of the blueprints. Only downside is that, since it's an event car, we can't do anything to modify it, not even the colour.
Then again, it is a Ferrari.
Friday, 15 January 2016
go for gold - daily assignments
Hi folks!
Gold, as well all know, is a critical resource in Need For Speed. It's the "second currency", the one the publishers try everything to get us to pay real money for, and, given the topic of this blog, that's what we're trying out best to avoid doing.
Besides the gold prizes for races (mostly in car series and events), the best way to get a decent daily income is to complete "assignments", so let's take a closer look at these.
Assignments
Here's the full list, with the possible gains:
Assignment gold xp
--------------------------------------------
win 12 races 2 25
nitro boost for 60 seconds 1 10
drift 800m 2 25
use 20 fuel 2 25
open 5 free crates 2 25
win 5 races in the underground 2 25
win 3 tournament races 4 40
get airborne for 30 seconds 2 25
complete 9 daily assignments 5 100
win 3 races in car series 2 25
rebuild 2 parts 3 50
install 3 materials 1 10
win 2 tuner trial races 4 40
If we were to get these all done, we'd be at a grand total of 32 gold and 425 xp. Not bad! But we usually won't be able to do that, since not all of them are achievable all the time. Still, let's take a closer look at each of them.
Gold, as well all know, is a critical resource in Need For Speed. It's the "second currency", the one the publishers try everything to get us to pay real money for, and, given the topic of this blog, that's what we're trying out best to avoid doing.
Besides the gold prizes for races (mostly in car series and events), the best way to get a decent daily income is to complete "assignments", so let's take a closer look at these.
Assignments
Here's the full list, with the possible gains:
Assignment gold xp
--------------------------------------------
win 12 races 2 25
nitro boost for 60 seconds 1 10
drift 800m 2 25
use 20 fuel 2 25
open 5 free crates 2 25
win 5 races in the underground 2 25
win 3 tournament races 4 40
get airborne for 30 seconds 2 25
complete 9 daily assignments 5 100
win 3 races in car series 2 25
rebuild 2 parts 3 50
install 3 materials 1 10
win 2 tuner trial races 4 40
If we were to get these all done, we'd be at a grand total of 32 gold and 425 xp. Not bad! But we usually won't be able to do that, since not all of them are achievable all the time. Still, let's take a closer look at each of them.
- win 12 races - that's pretty much a given, each 10 fuel should yield between 3 and 5 races, so check in three times a day, and you got that one done.
- nitro boost for 60 seconds - same here, comes automatically with some farming
- drift 800m - I did mention the importance of drifting, so this should be done after the first race :)
- use 20 fuel - again, a no-brainer
- open 5 free crates - given that the number of free crates one gets per day is at least 5, that's not hard either
- 5 underground races - farm for blueprints, and that's not a problem
- 3 tournament races - now, that of course only works if there's a tournament on, and you have a car to race with. So that's usually an optional one.
- airborne for 30s - that's quite a long time, but usually comes with farming, since the easydrive autopilot does go for jumps, if not for drifting.
- 9 daily assignments - that's what we want to get to every day
- 3 car series races - we farm car series for conversion kits, so if you're currently not after those, maybe not something we get every day
- rebuild 2 parts - that's a bit more rare to get
- install 3 materials - that one is more common
- 2 tuner trial races - this one just came in with the update. Nice that they haven't upped the total number of achievements from 9 to 10 for the 5 gold bonus, so here's another easy one for the daily list
Conclusion
All in all, if you're playing intensively, you can avoid paying outrageous amounts for gold in the shop by ticking these regularly, especially the 5 gold one.
Blackridge Spirit week 3
Hi folks!
The third week of this event has started today, and it's going to be tough - one of the first races already had a 500 PR opponent, compared to the 300 we had in the previous weeks. Fortunately, the rebalancing done in the last update has made things a little easier in terms of conversion kit farming.
This is my Ford Mustang at the start of the event:
I'm pretty sure 669 isn't going to cut it, expecting the requirements to go up to maybe 750, so I've got a bit of work to do.
Happy racing everyone!
The third week of this event has started today, and it's going to be tough - one of the first races already had a 500 PR opponent, compared to the 300 we had in the previous weeks. Fortunately, the rebalancing done in the last update has made things a little easier in terms of conversion kit farming.
This is my Ford Mustang at the start of the event:
I'm pretty sure 669 isn't going to cut it, expecting the requirements to go up to maybe 750, so I've got a bit of work to do.
Happy racing everyone!
Upgrade rebalancing
Hi folks!
with the last update, a major rebalancing has been done to the parts upgrade requirements, which isn't quite mentioned in the update notes.
Previously, we had a huge need for conversion kits, which could be farmed in the car series races. For example, my BMW M4 Razor would have needed 25 conversion kits plus two materials to upgrade from epic to legendary. After the update, it's now 4 kits plus 10 materials.
Analysis
I've already done some analysis of this in the Tuner Trials post. Generally speaking, we've seen a rebalance away from repetitive farming towards more strategic gameplay.
Another quite interesting change has been put in - the garage storage is now fixed at 275 items, and can no longer be extended by paying gold (previously, we could by 5 storage for 30 gold). That removes quite a huge gold sink, and again, makes sense in the light of requiring a larger number of regular materials for upgrades.
Basically, this means you should no longer sell anything if you don't have to, as you'll need pretty much all materials at some point. And make sure you'll get the kits from the Tuner Trial dailies.
with the last update, a major rebalancing has been done to the parts upgrade requirements, which isn't quite mentioned in the update notes.
Previously, we had a huge need for conversion kits, which could be farmed in the car series races. For example, my BMW M4 Razor would have needed 25 conversion kits plus two materials to upgrade from epic to legendary. After the update, it's now 4 kits plus 10 materials.
Analysis
I've already done some analysis of this in the Tuner Trials post. Generally speaking, we've seen a rebalance away from repetitive farming towards more strategic gameplay.
Another quite interesting change has been put in - the garage storage is now fixed at 275 items, and can no longer be extended by paying gold (previously, we could by 5 storage for 30 gold). That removes quite a huge gold sink, and again, makes sense in the light of requiring a larger number of regular materials for upgrades.
Basically, this means you should no longer sell anything if you don't have to, as you'll need pretty much all materials at some point. And make sure you'll get the kits from the Tuner Trial dailies.
Thursday, 14 January 2016
new feature - tuner trials
Hi folks!
Today's update brought along a new feature: "Tuner Trials". This was visible for a short time after the last update, but not functional. So, let's take a look at what we got here.
But before we start, for some reason, the game just dropped 600 gold on me. Why, I have no idea (something was mentioned on outages, which I didn't notice). Won't complain, though.
Tuner Trials - mechanics
We've got yet another type of race here, with a heavy focus on materials (things to put into parts) and conversion kits (things to upgrade parts).
We get two "tickets" free per day, but unlike event tickets or tournament tickets, these don't allow us to race yet, we still need three fuel for each race.
In return, we get a component and a conversion kit for one of the parts (each has its day), or cash and massive amounts of visual points on the seventh day.
There is a special "all access" feature that can be used to unlock all days for an hour.
Cars and races
For each class, there is a specific car requirement:
I actually just noticed a bit later that with this update, the car series races no longer have a farming function - repeatable races are still marked as such, but no longer work (I guess that'll be sorted in the UI in a later update).
This means Tuner Trials is now the only way to farm for upgrade kits. In this light, it makes a lot of sense that the upgrade requirements have been rebalanced - the previous requirements for upgrade kits were way too high for this.
It also means we can't easily get the upgrade kits we need at a given time, because they only unlock once a week for two items total. We can, of course, buy the "all access" pass to unlock all days temporarily, which is what the publishers want us to do.
Or, of course, we plan ahead and get the kits we need when they become available. For example, I've needed uncommon kits to upgrade my M4's wheels to rare for the upcoming Blackridge Spirit week 4, so I got the kits when they were active, and put them in storage.
Gotchas
Lastly, there's another little barb in this - the car requirements, especially the rare kits (to get to epic parts). The Toyota Supra is a tournament-only car, meaning, you can only get blueprints in the tournament market. You need 15 to unlock the car, which equals to 4500 tournament tickets - not a small order. Plus, you can't gold-buy them, which means you've got to invest in many other cars to get some value out of your tournaments.
The 911 and Viper are regular cars, which I feel are suitable for the later-game requirements. Generally, this feature adds some interesting challenges, both logistically and in terms of gameplay, to the upgrade farming. Together with making some sense out of previously underused cars, I feel it's quite a neat change.
Today's update brought along a new feature: "Tuner Trials". This was visible for a short time after the last update, but not functional. So, let's take a look at what we got here.
But before we start, for some reason, the game just dropped 600 gold on me. Why, I have no idea (something was mentioned on outages, which I didn't notice). Won't complain, though.
Tuner Trials - mechanics
We've got yet another type of race here, with a heavy focus on materials (things to put into parts) and conversion kits (things to upgrade parts).
We get two "tickets" free per day, but unlike event tickets or tournament tickets, these don't allow us to race yet, we still need three fuel for each race.
In return, we get a component and a conversion kit for one of the parts (each has its day), or cash and massive amounts of visual points on the seventh day.
There is a special "all access" feature that can be used to unlock all days for an hour.
Cars and races
For each class, there is a specific car requirement:
- common - Ford Fiesta
- uncommon - BMW M3
- rare - Toyota Supra
- epic - Porsche 911 (sports)
- legendary - Dodge Viper
This is a rather interesting choice. The Fiesta, as the overall lowest-level car, is all but useless outside its specific car series. The BMW M3 isn't even having that, and as the lowest classic sports car, usually would get parts last. The Toyota Supra is a tournament car - you can only get blueprints in the tournament market, 5 for 1500 points (with 15 needed to unlock). The Porsche is the entry-level sports car, so mostly people would go for better one (the Porsche-specific car series can be done with the classic sports 911 just as well). Finally, the Dodge Viper for legendary - not quite in the highest tier, which makes sense, given that legendary parts can be used in as low as a Ford Mustang.
Analysis
I actually just noticed a bit later that with this update, the car series races no longer have a farming function - repeatable races are still marked as such, but no longer work (I guess that'll be sorted in the UI in a later update).
This means Tuner Trials is now the only way to farm for upgrade kits. In this light, it makes a lot of sense that the upgrade requirements have been rebalanced - the previous requirements for upgrade kits were way too high for this.
It also means we can't easily get the upgrade kits we need at a given time, because they only unlock once a week for two items total. We can, of course, buy the "all access" pass to unlock all days temporarily, which is what the publishers want us to do.
Or, of course, we plan ahead and get the kits we need when they become available. For example, I've needed uncommon kits to upgrade my M4's wheels to rare for the upcoming Blackridge Spirit week 4, so I got the kits when they were active, and put them in storage.
Gotchas
Lastly, there's another little barb in this - the car requirements, especially the rare kits (to get to epic parts). The Toyota Supra is a tournament-only car, meaning, you can only get blueprints in the tournament market. You need 15 to unlock the car, which equals to 4500 tournament tickets - not a small order. Plus, you can't gold-buy them, which means you've got to invest in many other cars to get some value out of your tournaments.
The 911 and Viper are regular cars, which I feel are suitable for the later-game requirements. Generally, this feature adds some interesting challenges, both logistically and in terms of gameplay, to the upgrade farming. Together with making some sense out of previously underused cars, I feel it's quite a neat change.
Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Another way to lose real world money
Hi folks!
We're all aware of the game's various attempts of getting us to pay real world money for gold. We've been discussing strategies of avoiding the temptation.
But there's a little trap that's not quite obvious, and can really ruin your day: The game isn't aware of / doesn't respect the type of data connection of your mobile device. It happily downloads updates, event data etc. when it starts, no matter if you're on an unlimited WiFi or on an expensive mobile data cap.
And we're not talking peanuts here, the "Christmas" event, which got snow onto all tracks, was a whopping 100MB. Fortunately, my mobile cap is 2.5GB and I'm aggressively rate-limiting usage via Android, so that wasn't a problem, but for someone on a tight budget, this may be a nasty surprise.
We're all aware of the game's various attempts of getting us to pay real world money for gold. We've been discussing strategies of avoiding the temptation.
But there's a little trap that's not quite obvious, and can really ruin your day: The game isn't aware of / doesn't respect the type of data connection of your mobile device. It happily downloads updates, event data etc. when it starts, no matter if you're on an unlimited WiFi or on an expensive mobile data cap.
And we're not talking peanuts here, the "Christmas" event, which got snow onto all tracks, was a whopping 100MB. Fortunately, my mobile cap is 2.5GB and I'm aggressively rate-limiting usage via Android, so that wasn't a problem, but for someone on a tight budget, this may be a nasty surprise.
Monday, 11 January 2016
Blackridge Spirit week 2 - review and analysis
Hi folks!
Week two of the event ended today, and it's been a bit unfortunate for me - I didn't have enough time to complete the last three races, with literally a bit over a minute to spare. The final stage gave seven blueprints, so I decided to drop some gold and buy out for 350. Generally, I consider 50 gold for a good blueprint a fair price. With the two preceding races I didn't have time to do, my stash is now down to 1500 gold, so I'll be restocking in the coming weeks, unless there's a really compelling reason to spend on.
Car requirements
The final race had a PR requirement of 639, which is again pretty close to a fully-upgraded Mazda, so we can expect that trend to continue in the remaining two weeks. The races started at entry level again as well, both to leave at least some blueprints for beginners, and, of course, tempt everyone into gold purchases.
The number of races was about the same as last time, with 22 in the last 24h at the upper end, but definitely doable without raising VIP levels.
Again, I didn't spend any of the event cash on crates, since they cost 6000 instead of the regular 5000 for standard crates. I converted 60000 cash at the end, which got used, together with the collected components, on upgrading the Ford Mustang.
Upcoming week 3
The next car is going to be the Mustang, and I'm still unsure if the Mustang Hoonicorn event car can be used or not, so to be on the safe side, I'm currently farming for regular Mustang blueprints and parts. We can expect the need for almost full upgrade again, which is almost impossible during the event, so all preparation goes into that.
I'm planning to follow the strategy again of using the parts and cash for the BMW M4, once week three is over.
Payment motivation
It makes sense, from time to time, to reflect on the methods the publishers are using on us to get us to pay real-world money ingame. Being aware of those makes it easier to resist.
For this event, we've got:
Week two of the event ended today, and it's been a bit unfortunate for me - I didn't have enough time to complete the last three races, with literally a bit over a minute to spare. The final stage gave seven blueprints, so I decided to drop some gold and buy out for 350. Generally, I consider 50 gold for a good blueprint a fair price. With the two preceding races I didn't have time to do, my stash is now down to 1500 gold, so I'll be restocking in the coming weeks, unless there's a really compelling reason to spend on.
Car requirements
The final race had a PR requirement of 639, which is again pretty close to a fully-upgraded Mazda, so we can expect that trend to continue in the remaining two weeks. The races started at entry level again as well, both to leave at least some blueprints for beginners, and, of course, tempt everyone into gold purchases.
The number of races was about the same as last time, with 22 in the last 24h at the upper end, but definitely doable without raising VIP levels.
Again, I didn't spend any of the event cash on crates, since they cost 6000 instead of the regular 5000 for standard crates. I converted 60000 cash at the end, which got used, together with the collected components, on upgrading the Ford Mustang.
Upcoming week 3
The next car is going to be the Mustang, and I'm still unsure if the Mustang Hoonicorn event car can be used or not, so to be on the safe side, I'm currently farming for regular Mustang blueprints and parts. We can expect the need for almost full upgrade again, which is almost impossible during the event, so all preparation goes into that.
I'm planning to follow the strategy again of using the parts and cash for the BMW M4, once week three is over.
Payment motivation
It makes sense, from time to time, to reflect on the methods the publishers are using on us to get us to pay real-world money ingame. Being aware of those makes it easier to resist.
For this event, we've got:
- VIP levels for additional tickets - by requiring a relatively high number of races to be completed in a short timeframe, it actually needs some scheduling to get that done on the standard 5 ticket base, but definitely possible
- Steep difficulty curve - races going from < 300 PR to > 600 PR within three days lead to "early successes" for under-upgraded cars, but then the pressure kicks in rapidly
- Component temptation - crates give useful upgrade components, but by far not enough to actually pull off any significant upgrades, leading to pressure to spend gold on premium crates
- Event cash can't be used for upgrading, so there's a steep need for real cash.
In summary, that means we can't do much in terms of upgrading during the event, and need to be prepared. With that expectation in place, we should be able to avoid these temptations easily.
Also, never lose track of what the actual prize is - we're talking about, at best, a level 4 hypercar, with seven possible levels and no ordinary track for getting additional blueprints. While very nice, it's certainly not going to be the most powerful item in the game, especially since we need some very decently upgraded cars, all the way up to sports class, to even get there.
So I'd take this all as a "nice to have, but not the end of the world if we miss something". Definitely not a reason to pay real money for gold, if you don't have a stash around, in my opinion.
Saturday, 9 January 2016
Keep it in the green
Hi folks!
I've talked about some racing basics in a previous post, so today, I'll elaborate a bit on the importance of "keeping it in the green"
RPM
For many types of race, you have to "rev up" at the start - keep the needle within a certain amount of RPM to get the best start.
A good start gets you:
Get in front early
Imagine a tournament race - one-to-one, the other is driving a 750 PR Mercedes AMG against your 700 PR BMW M4. You know that, once she's in front, there's no way in hell you're going to win this.
But you get it green, and use the initial nitro charge to just boost straight past her. Now you're in front, and since you know that the AI players drive for shortest distance, you really close those corners in front of her.
She'll try to get past regardless, and either has to take the long way around, or you can "crash" her into the roadside. Now, just keep driving clean, and you've got this in the bag.
I've made it through quite some tournament stages that way.
Crowd control
Another situation where a good start comes in especially handy is the "four cars, rush hour, close spaces" kind of race. You can't afford to lose time by crashing into people, and you've got three against you, so getting ahead of the pack early and driving the race your way is really important.
Car choice
Depending on your car, you'll get one, two or three "sectors" of green, and a different "needle speed". For me, this is a defining factor of which car I pick to build on.
For example, while the Subaru Impreza is the best street car in all other regards, and would be a prime candidate for an early build, it only has one green sector, which makes it a secondary choice for me.
I've talked about some racing basics in a previous post, so today, I'll elaborate a bit on the importance of "keeping it in the green"
RPM
For many types of race, you have to "rev up" at the start - keep the needle within a certain amount of RPM to get the best start.
A good start gets you:
- 250 cash
- an acceleration bonus
- a decent nitro fill
Get in front early
Imagine a tournament race - one-to-one, the other is driving a 750 PR Mercedes AMG against your 700 PR BMW M4. You know that, once she's in front, there's no way in hell you're going to win this.
But you get it green, and use the initial nitro charge to just boost straight past her. Now you're in front, and since you know that the AI players drive for shortest distance, you really close those corners in front of her.
She'll try to get past regardless, and either has to take the long way around, or you can "crash" her into the roadside. Now, just keep driving clean, and you've got this in the bag.
I've made it through quite some tournament stages that way.
Crowd control
Another situation where a good start comes in especially handy is the "four cars, rush hour, close spaces" kind of race. You can't afford to lose time by crashing into people, and you've got three against you, so getting ahead of the pack early and driving the race your way is really important.
Car choice
Depending on your car, you'll get one, two or three "sectors" of green, and a different "needle speed". For me, this is a defining factor of which car I pick to build on.
For example, while the Subaru Impreza is the best street car in all other regards, and would be a prime candidate for an early build, it only has one green sector, which makes it a secondary choice for me.
Friday, 8 January 2016
Blackridge Spirit Week 2
Hi folks,
a couple of hours ago, "week" two has started (actually, it's going to be three days). This time, we'll be using the Mazda RX-7, the rest of the rules are pretty much the same.
Again, the prize is a set of blueprints for the Ferrari LaFerrari event hypercar. The "special" crates give a second set of useful basic components, but again, all goes into your own storage, and you can't use the event cash for anything besides buying more event crates.
Event cash will convert 1:1 at the end, so since event crates cost 6000 instead of the regular 5000, you may as well keep it.
I'm starting out with a 5-star car, since we needed quite a high build in the first week for the final races.
I've got a bit of space to upgrade components to get the PR maybe beyond 600, but I'm just going to do the work necessary to get above the PR requirements, and focus on the Ford Mustang instead, which will be up next week.
a couple of hours ago, "week" two has started (actually, it's going to be three days). This time, we'll be using the Mazda RX-7, the rest of the rules are pretty much the same.
Again, the prize is a set of blueprints for the Ferrari LaFerrari event hypercar. The "special" crates give a second set of useful basic components, but again, all goes into your own storage, and you can't use the event cash for anything besides buying more event crates.
Event cash will convert 1:1 at the end, so since event crates cost 6000 instead of the regular 5000, you may as well keep it.
I'm starting out with a 5-star car, since we needed quite a high build in the first week for the final races.
I've got a bit of space to upgrade components to get the PR maybe beyond 600, but I'm just going to do the work necessary to get above the PR requirements, and focus on the Ford Mustang instead, which will be up next week.
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Racing techniques
Hi folks!
Just realised I've spent already quite some time talking about various strategies, without actually mentioning the racing itself. Goes to show how I perceive the game, I guess. So let's go through this today.
Controls
Your car has three "capabilities": max speed, acceleration and nitro boost. There is no acceleration / brake control, all you can do is "steer left", "steer right", "nitro boost" (swipe up) and "drift" (swipe down). That sounds simplistic, but it's actually quite fun, and can be challenging. Think rush hour at night with narrow roads.
The basics are that you go faster by staying on the road, and nitro-boosting. You go slower by hitting stuff (streetlights are fine, kerb or other cars, not so much) or steering through curves.
Nitro
The single most important asset you have is the nitro boost. Depending on your start (if you keep the needle in the green RPM space), you initially get maybe one third or half a fill.
Nitro fills up while you drive, but you can speed up the refill significantly by:
* "near missing" (pass by another car closely without hitting it, except police cars)
* "airtime" (ramps etc)
* "drifting" (swipe down and steer to get into drift, straigthen the car to get out again)
* "drafting" (closely following an opponent's car)
* "avoiding blockade" (getting through a police blockade without crashing into it)
Drifting
If you observe the "easy drive" autopilot, you'll notice that she's pretty good at micro-steering (doing the smallest possible adjustments, to keep as much momentum as possible) and at finding the ideal (shortest) path. The one thing she does not do is drift. I don't know if the nitro refill rules are the same for the computer player, but this is the one way how you can beat them.
I'll repeat, drift always, everywhere, as much as you can. Besides giving you nitro refill, it allows you to go around corners faster, and you collect quite a neat amount of cash as well. Did I mention you get cash for the nitro-refilling actions? Well, you do, and it can make quite a difference. One reason not to use easydrive for farming.
So how much difference does drifting really make? For me, I'm usually able to beat the computer player by a full second on a 30s track with some longer strips, which translates into about 50 PR above me that I can comfortably take. It's quite important to know these stats for tournaments, where you have to decide which opponent to challenge.
The further you bend into the drift, the more you slow down, so try to keep it shallow. Generally, driving in a straighter line allows for higher speed. When it comes to corners, try to drive them "tightly", i.e. drift around as closely as you can. This shortens your track - on a 30s tournament race, I can usually squeeze out about a second towards my initial time by optimising the corners.
Mind you, the risk of crashes increases, since you have less steering control while drifting, and while a scratched car gets "forgiven" after the race (no repair or anything required), it will absolutely cost you the victory, if the opponent is anywhere near you in PR.
That's it for now, I may elaborate on some items later down the road. Keep speeding!
Just realised I've spent already quite some time talking about various strategies, without actually mentioning the racing itself. Goes to show how I perceive the game, I guess. So let's go through this today.
Controls
Your car has three "capabilities": max speed, acceleration and nitro boost. There is no acceleration / brake control, all you can do is "steer left", "steer right", "nitro boost" (swipe up) and "drift" (swipe down). That sounds simplistic, but it's actually quite fun, and can be challenging. Think rush hour at night with narrow roads.
The basics are that you go faster by staying on the road, and nitro-boosting. You go slower by hitting stuff (streetlights are fine, kerb or other cars, not so much) or steering through curves.
Nitro
The single most important asset you have is the nitro boost. Depending on your start (if you keep the needle in the green RPM space), you initially get maybe one third or half a fill.
Nitro fills up while you drive, but you can speed up the refill significantly by:
* "near missing" (pass by another car closely without hitting it, except police cars)
* "airtime" (ramps etc)
* "drifting" (swipe down and steer to get into drift, straigthen the car to get out again)
* "drafting" (closely following an opponent's car)
* "avoiding blockade" (getting through a police blockade without crashing into it)
Drifting
If you observe the "easy drive" autopilot, you'll notice that she's pretty good at micro-steering (doing the smallest possible adjustments, to keep as much momentum as possible) and at finding the ideal (shortest) path. The one thing she does not do is drift. I don't know if the nitro refill rules are the same for the computer player, but this is the one way how you can beat them.
I'll repeat, drift always, everywhere, as much as you can. Besides giving you nitro refill, it allows you to go around corners faster, and you collect quite a neat amount of cash as well. Did I mention you get cash for the nitro-refilling actions? Well, you do, and it can make quite a difference. One reason not to use easydrive for farming.
So how much difference does drifting really make? For me, I'm usually able to beat the computer player by a full second on a 30s track with some longer strips, which translates into about 50 PR above me that I can comfortably take. It's quite important to know these stats for tournaments, where you have to decide which opponent to challenge.
The further you bend into the drift, the more you slow down, so try to keep it shallow. Generally, driving in a straighter line allows for higher speed. When it comes to corners, try to drive them "tightly", i.e. drift around as closely as you can. This shortens your track - on a 30s tournament race, I can usually squeeze out about a second towards my initial time by optimising the corners.
Mind you, the risk of crashes increases, since you have less steering control while drifting, and while a scratched car gets "forgiven" after the race (no repair or anything required), it will absolutely cost you the victory, if the opponent is anywhere near you in PR.
That's it for now, I may elaborate on some items later down the road. Keep speeding!
Tuesday, 5 January 2016
BWM M4 F82 Razor
Hi folks,
just wanted to do a quick post about my current top car, the M4 Razor. This was my first event car, and at the time, I didn't know about the blueprints rules. I've seen blueprints in (very gold-expensive) limited time crates once, but given that they're a game of chance to start with, I've upgraded what could be done, and I'm moving towards the Mercedes AMG as a replacement.
That's the thing with event cars - they can carry you very far, especially at the beginning, but it can become very expensive to try and max them out.
just wanted to do a quick post about my current top car, the M4 Razor. This was my first event car, and at the time, I didn't know about the blueprints rules. I've seen blueprints in (very gold-expensive) limited time crates once, but given that they're a game of chance to start with, I've upgraded what could be done, and I'm moving towards the Mercedes AMG as a replacement.
That's the thing with event cars - they can carry you very far, especially at the beginning, but it can become very expensive to try and max them out.
Monday, 4 January 2016
Blackridge Spirit Week 1 - review and analysis
Hi folks!
So week 1 of the "Blackridge Spirit" event has ended, and it's certainly been a bit different from previous events. I'll do some review and analysis of what's going on, with some predictions and strategies for the remaining three events to follow.
Event structure
We've been getting two "chapters" every 24h, for a total of 6, ending after three days total. Every two chapters, there was a reward of LaFerrari blueprints, that we get to keep regardless of future races.
The last two chapters had 22 races in total, which was a bit of a scheduling challenge. Races have started from entry-level, < 300 PR opponents, but got a bit more challenging towards the end, with night-races in narrow city tracks with 500+ PR opponents.
Rewards
As mentioned, we got the blueprints - previous events went for an "all or nothing" approach. There was a second set of crates to be collected, giving parts from common to rare. "Event money" was converted 1:1 into cash afterwards.
Storage was different, as we had to use our own storage, instead of having the usual "prototype storage" for event parts.
Gold traps
Usually, the game would attempt to get us to spend gold via "event market" special items, especially blueprints. Here, it was more of a combination of needing to upgrade the car quickly, and having a rather large number of races, leading to either spending gold on refills or trying to promote the VIP payable upgrades, where we'd get an additional ticket at level 4.
Car requirements
The final race had a hard PR requirement of 559, which is quite close to a full build. This is the final Toyota 86 that got me through the races:
I didn't bother upgrading further, as I was getting quite a few useful parts, so I tried doing the necessary minimum and rather upgrading the cars for the coming weeks.
Strategy for week 2
Next up is the Mazda RX-7. Assuming the races will have a similar structure, we'll be going from entry level difficulty to almost complete upgrades. Now, the Mazda is a "classic sports" class car, so upgrades are getting more expensive and require more parts.
This seems to be the concept behind this - get us "hooked" with some blueprints, and then push for a need to quickly upgrade, using gold.
To work with this, we need to spend as much as possible of the remaining time preparing the Mazda. Focus on staging up, as we'll be getting some parts from the races, but they'll be useless if we don't have a high enough stage.
Also, conversion kit requirements are going to be higher, e.g. 8 kits to get from uncommon to rare. The Mazda is a 6-star car, so we could go up to unique parts. I'm going to focus on getting all parts up to rare, and hopefully stage up fully (currently at 5 stars).
Keep the eyes on the next one as well - I'm currently farming for Ford Mustang and BMW M4 blueprints also.
So week 1 of the "Blackridge Spirit" event has ended, and it's certainly been a bit different from previous events. I'll do some review and analysis of what's going on, with some predictions and strategies for the remaining three events to follow.
Event structure
We've been getting two "chapters" every 24h, for a total of 6, ending after three days total. Every two chapters, there was a reward of LaFerrari blueprints, that we get to keep regardless of future races.
The last two chapters had 22 races in total, which was a bit of a scheduling challenge. Races have started from entry-level, < 300 PR opponents, but got a bit more challenging towards the end, with night-races in narrow city tracks with 500+ PR opponents.
Rewards
As mentioned, we got the blueprints - previous events went for an "all or nothing" approach. There was a second set of crates to be collected, giving parts from common to rare. "Event money" was converted 1:1 into cash afterwards.
Storage was different, as we had to use our own storage, instead of having the usual "prototype storage" for event parts.
Gold traps
Usually, the game would attempt to get us to spend gold via "event market" special items, especially blueprints. Here, it was more of a combination of needing to upgrade the car quickly, and having a rather large number of races, leading to either spending gold on refills or trying to promote the VIP payable upgrades, where we'd get an additional ticket at level 4.
Car requirements
The final race had a hard PR requirement of 559, which is quite close to a full build. This is the final Toyota 86 that got me through the races:
I didn't bother upgrading further, as I was getting quite a few useful parts, so I tried doing the necessary minimum and rather upgrading the cars for the coming weeks.
Strategy for week 2
Next up is the Mazda RX-7. Assuming the races will have a similar structure, we'll be going from entry level difficulty to almost complete upgrades. Now, the Mazda is a "classic sports" class car, so upgrades are getting more expensive and require more parts.
This seems to be the concept behind this - get us "hooked" with some blueprints, and then push for a need to quickly upgrade, using gold.
To work with this, we need to spend as much as possible of the remaining time preparing the Mazda. Focus on staging up, as we'll be getting some parts from the races, but they'll be useless if we don't have a high enough stage.
Also, conversion kit requirements are going to be higher, e.g. 8 kits to get from uncommon to rare. The Mazda is a 6-star car, so we could go up to unique parts. I'm going to focus on getting all parts up to rare, and hopefully stage up fully (currently at 5 stars).
Keep the eyes on the next one as well - I'm currently farming for Ford Mustang and BMW M4 blueprints also.
Sunday, 3 January 2016
easydrive draft cash
Hi folks,
here's a little trick for getting some extra cash out of "easydrive" autopilot farming races. Since the autopilot doesn't drift, you usually lose out on that. But get a car that has a PR very close to the opponent you're racing, and you can let her "follow" almost half way through the race.
Since they're both computer players, they'll follow the same track, and she'll collect $1000 to $2000 in cash for you via "draft", depending on the length of the race. Once she gets close and tries to overtake, kick in the nitro boost, and you'll have that in the bag.
here's a little trick for getting some extra cash out of "easydrive" autopilot farming races. Since the autopilot doesn't drift, you usually lose out on that. But get a car that has a PR very close to the opponent you're racing, and you can let her "follow" almost half way through the race.
Since they're both computer players, they'll follow the same track, and she'll collect $1000 to $2000 in cash for you via "draft", depending on the length of the race. Once she gets close and tries to overtake, kick in the nitro boost, and you'll have that in the bag.
Saturday, 2 January 2016
Farming
Hi folks!
Last time, we had a look at the upgrade / "tech tree" system. Unsurprisingly, we'll follow this up with the "farming" aspect of NFS.
Most commonly, we get upgrades by winning races. You can progress through the underground / car series races, which give you parts, but very quickly, you'll hit a wall there, since races get increasingly demanding in terms of car performance.
Some races are repeatable, though. They won't have a guaranteed upgrade, but give you three to choose from, out of a specific range for that race. It's a game of chance here, since they're shuffeled and hidden before you get to choose. You can pay gold for getting the other two, but we're not falling for such simple marketing trappings. Patience is the virtue of the thrifty gamer.
Going through the level-up process is somewhat tedious, and hugely time-consuming, so here's my strategy on how to make the most of this not-so-fun task.
Don't wildly spray your upgrades across all cars. Focus on a car, either one that gets you ahead in game progression, or that's needed for tournaments / special events. That way, you can target farming races to the parts you need.
Grow garage space and use crates. You get 5 standard crates for free each day, or you can buy 5 for 20000 cash (never buy individually, as the 5 pack is discounted). Early in the game, that's a lot of cash, but as you progress, cash is easier to come by (e.g. at my current level farming underground races, I often get between 8000 and 14000 for a single race). You do need that cash for fitting in upgrades, as that gets rather expensive in higher tiers, but make sure you buy a regular extra 5 batch to save time.
Here's a tip that's not immediately obvious: get one car per class (street, muscle etc.) staged to the max quickly. That's a lot easier in street, as they have less stages and require less blueprints.
Why, you ask? Well, the repeatable race in the underground that gave you car blueprints, no longer gives them, for obvious reasons, once you've maxed out the car stages. Instead, you get parts. Yes, the big 6, like engine, turbo etc, not the little upgradey-slotty ones. I've only done this for street so far, but I do get both uncommon and rare parts, which is the highest tier for street. That allows skipping hours of tedious farming, by just going into the higher tier directly. And you can sell the parts you don't need, which means lower-paying races suddenly can yield 3000 for an uncommon part, which you can then invest into crates again.
If you're looking for conversion kits, these are in the repeatable car series. Hoard those if you get them, as some of the higher tier upgrades need a metric crapload (1.5 imperial fucktons) of them. I've got level 6 epic parts that need 25 epic kits to upgrade to legendary. Did I mention the importance of spending your gold on storage, and not willy-nilly?
Don't sell off parts easily. That fuse you had 5 or 6 of at some early stage, and sold them? Guess what, your sports part now needs 9 of them to get the next star. Some crap is more common than others, like input shafts or flywheels, and tends to clog up the shelves rather quickly. I tend to have four to six of these around, and sell off excess. Also, keep an eye on car parts you may not need anymore, because all cars from that tier have been upgraded beyond.
In the early stages of the game, farming can help you memorise the tracks, which is really, really important for winning more difficult races, as a single mistake will usually cost you the victory.
Later on, you can use the "easy drive" feature, which is basically an autopilot. You should have powerful enough cars to have the computer player win without you having to keep an eye, so you can do other things in the meantime and just farm through a fuel fill.
Last time, we had a look at the upgrade / "tech tree" system. Unsurprisingly, we'll follow this up with the "farming" aspect of NFS.
Most commonly, we get upgrades by winning races. You can progress through the underground / car series races, which give you parts, but very quickly, you'll hit a wall there, since races get increasingly demanding in terms of car performance.
Some races are repeatable, though. They won't have a guaranteed upgrade, but give you three to choose from, out of a specific range for that race. It's a game of chance here, since they're shuffeled and hidden before you get to choose. You can pay gold for getting the other two, but we're not falling for such simple marketing trappings. Patience is the virtue of the thrifty gamer.
Going through the level-up process is somewhat tedious, and hugely time-consuming, so here's my strategy on how to make the most of this not-so-fun task.
Don't wildly spray your upgrades across all cars. Focus on a car, either one that gets you ahead in game progression, or that's needed for tournaments / special events. That way, you can target farming races to the parts you need.
Grow garage space and use crates. You get 5 standard crates for free each day, or you can buy 5 for 20000 cash (never buy individually, as the 5 pack is discounted). Early in the game, that's a lot of cash, but as you progress, cash is easier to come by (e.g. at my current level farming underground races, I often get between 8000 and 14000 for a single race). You do need that cash for fitting in upgrades, as that gets rather expensive in higher tiers, but make sure you buy a regular extra 5 batch to save time.
Here's a tip that's not immediately obvious: get one car per class (street, muscle etc.) staged to the max quickly. That's a lot easier in street, as they have less stages and require less blueprints.
Why, you ask? Well, the repeatable race in the underground that gave you car blueprints, no longer gives them, for obvious reasons, once you've maxed out the car stages. Instead, you get parts. Yes, the big 6, like engine, turbo etc, not the little upgradey-slotty ones. I've only done this for street so far, but I do get both uncommon and rare parts, which is the highest tier for street. That allows skipping hours of tedious farming, by just going into the higher tier directly. And you can sell the parts you don't need, which means lower-paying races suddenly can yield 3000 for an uncommon part, which you can then invest into crates again.
If you're looking for conversion kits, these are in the repeatable car series. Hoard those if you get them, as some of the higher tier upgrades need a metric crapload (1.5 imperial fucktons) of them. I've got level 6 epic parts that need 25 epic kits to upgrade to legendary. Did I mention the importance of spending your gold on storage, and not willy-nilly?
Don't sell off parts easily. That fuse you had 5 or 6 of at some early stage, and sold them? Guess what, your sports part now needs 9 of them to get the next star. Some crap is more common than others, like input shafts or flywheels, and tends to clog up the shelves rather quickly. I tend to have four to six of these around, and sell off excess. Also, keep an eye on car parts you may not need anymore, because all cars from that tier have been upgraded beyond.
In the early stages of the game, farming can help you memorise the tracks, which is really, really important for winning more difficult races, as a single mistake will usually cost you the victory.
Later on, you can use the "easy drive" feature, which is basically an autopilot. You should have powerful enough cars to have the computer player win without you having to keep an eye, so you can do other things in the meantime and just farm through a fuel fill.
Friday, 1 January 2016
Upgrades
Hi folks!
Today, we'll have a look at NFS' upgrade system, as it's one of the core motivators in this game.
Cars are grouped in "classes", starting at "street", then "classic sports", "muscle", "sports", "super" up to "hyper" as the top class. Car parts are class-specific, so you can't take a street engine and put it into a muscle car.
Each car has 6 parts: engine / turbo (top speed), gearbox / wheels (acceleration) and ECU / nitro (nitro boosting). Cars have
"stages", represented by stars. Same goes for parts - car stage limits part stage, so you can't stick a 5-star part into a 3-star car.
Initially, most cars are locked. You need to find "blueprints" to unlock cars, as well as for staging them up to their maximum level.
The parts themselves have upgrade slots as well, once you filled all upgrade slots, you can "rebuild" the part, giving it one more
star, till the natural limit of the part.
Parts come in different rarity levels:
When a part has reached its limit, you need an increasing amount of "upgrade kits" to lift it to the next tier. Needless to say, any kind of modification costs money (cash, mostly). It's possible to move parts around between cars within the same tier, but so far I haven't bothered, since that costs cash, which I can use to better ends, and I'm a completionist / collector kind of player anyway.
Today, we'll have a look at NFS' upgrade system, as it's one of the core motivators in this game.
Cars are grouped in "classes", starting at "street", then "classic sports", "muscle", "sports", "super" up to "hyper" as the top class. Car parts are class-specific, so you can't take a street engine and put it into a muscle car.
Each car has 6 parts: engine / turbo (top speed), gearbox / wheels (acceleration) and ECU / nitro (nitro boosting). Cars have
"stages", represented by stars. Same goes for parts - car stage limits part stage, so you can't stick a 5-star part into a 3-star car.
Initially, most cars are locked. You need to find "blueprints" to unlock cars, as well as for staging them up to their maximum level.
The parts themselves have upgrade slots as well, once you filled all upgrade slots, you can "rebuild" the part, giving it one more
star, till the natural limit of the part.
Parts come in different rarity levels:
- "common" (gray), two stars limit, these are the starting parts for the lower-class cars
- "uncommon" (green), three stars limit
- "rare" (blue), five stars limit
- "epic" (purple), six stars limit
- "legendary" (gold), seven stars limit
When a part has reached its limit, you need an increasing amount of "upgrade kits" to lift it to the next tier. Needless to say, any kind of modification costs money (cash, mostly). It's possible to move parts around between cars within the same tier, but so far I haven't bothered, since that costs cash, which I can use to better ends, and I'm a completionist / collector kind of player anyway.
Blackridge Spirit starting
Hi folks!
A couple of minutes ago, the "Blackridge Spirit" event has started. Interesting event - unlike before, we don't get to race the "prize" car, but actually use our own.
For the first week, it's the Toyota 86 - everyone who's been playing for a little bit should have this. I've actually ignored it largely before, and just started upgrading when the event was showing up on the horizon.
As you can see, I'm frustratingly close to stage five (both engine and gearbox are waiting on that for the final rebuild).
I've just gone through the first 5 tickets, and the races were dead easy so far. We'll see if they become more challenging, or if I can start focusing instead on the other cars.
I'm especially concerned with the BMW, as I have done almost nothing to it, since I have the M4 "Razor" special event car. I'm not sure if I can use it, though, as they're usually specific in the listings of car restrictions, and would list both if they were applicable.
A couple of minutes ago, the "Blackridge Spirit" event has started. Interesting event - unlike before, we don't get to race the "prize" car, but actually use our own.
For the first week, it's the Toyota 86 - everyone who's been playing for a little bit should have this. I've actually ignored it largely before, and just started upgrading when the event was showing up on the horizon.
As you can see, I'm frustratingly close to stage five (both engine and gearbox are waiting on that for the final rebuild).
I've just gone through the first 5 tickets, and the races were dead easy so far. We'll see if they become more challenging, or if I can start focusing instead on the other cars.
I'm especially concerned with the BMW, as I have done almost nothing to it, since I have the M4 "Razor" special event car. I'm not sure if I can use it, though, as they're usually specific in the listings of car restrictions, and would list both if they were applicable.
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