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:

• 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.