Update On the positive side we get dynamic tuning which was a recent feature request from my side: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=3815630&postcount=16798 Alas, dynamic tuning is only available for "Elite" cars which makes the whole feature crippled. Also, it takes some time until the tuning is applied. I don't really understand why this is required. Anyway, I just bought the Mazda RX8 and I'm looking forward to playing with this feature. Thanks for that, Fabien. I am glad this was implemented.
Wow, I did a single lap (car mastery) with the new "elite" car. This is how its "condition" looks like afterwards: WTF?
Asphalt 8 started out with almost a completely different monetization system but Asphalt 9 will be like this from the get go. What makes me angry about this is that people will spend hundreds of dollars on IAP but not on a 2 to 10 dollar game.
Asphalt 9: Shockwave & Asphalt Xtreme Asphalt 9: Shockwave Q2, 2017 Asphalt Xtreme Q2, 2016 Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh6hiugH5jE
How Gameloft makes profit (PDF, 88 pages): https://vk.com/doc276651054_437378086?hash=97b65a10722e674a87&dl=f685c676617a1ca8ff This document was the source of the new Asphalt versions. Not much info about the games though.
new ios update sound bug The new ios update does not honor the user's "mute" button. In prior versions, and every other app, the physical mute button overrides whatever the app settings are. Hope its a bug and not intentional, because it's a horrid experience.
And this is something that the beancounters over at GameLoft with dollar signs in their eyes have to understand. I'm quite certain that the new "pay oriented" features that we're seeing now (R&D, Elite Cars), are trial balloons for the revenue model that A9 will use from the outset. The problem is, A8 started off as an inexpensive pay game, converted over to a reasonable freemium model. Most recently - ever since R&D began - the freemium model is being pushed to the max, and in-game ads have been cranked way up. Many of the better A8 users (ie. the hardcore audience, without which a game will fail) started playing when the game was much simpler and things were far easier to obtain; when you really didn't have to spend cold card cash to have an enjoyable time and still do well. They're sticking around primarily because they're so invested, and it's been possible to ignore most of the expensive new features without ill effect. But when A9 comes out and everything's this way from the start - where everything good requires a premium currency you can't earn at any reasonable pace, where all cars are insanely expensive to buy and upgrade, when every feature requires hours of "wait time" to apply unless you're willing to pay, when cars degrade unless you pay to top them up - you're not going to hook users anywhere near as easily as the captive audience you're currently enjoying.
The way I see it I can spend $20 for a single car in this game or I can spend $20 for a game like The Crew: Wild Run. I know this isn't a that good of a comparison but at this point it's like Gameloft doesn't care. I mentioned the same thing you did in one of my earlier posts.
I think GL changed leadership because the new market strategy is identical to a drug dealer. 1 star from me just because Store doesn't let you give 0.
Isn't that a known strategy in drug dealing: start with some free or cheap stuff, wait for people to get addicted, make them pay ?
Unfortunately, there will always be people who simply don't care. Like some people have said, if they have the resources (money) and they want to spend it on game, they will do it no matter what. Nothing that Gameloft does will ever dissuade them from doing so. There are hardcore players who spent money because they're too invested already (like you have said), and there are players who simply don't give a damn. They do it because they can. If A9 starts with all features introduced in A8, it'll probably lower GL's revenue but it's not like the game will completely fail. I would laugh if they also add the VIP thing from Asphalt Nitro. As far as I remember, you aren't even allowed to upgrade the car fully unless you max out your VIP using real money right? If it is like this, I certainly hope that the game will fail and they will return to their old ways. Pay a certain price, and get the full game. Oh well, it was nice knowing you all. I'm done with this game.
It's completely insane that a single, unusable shell of a car costs $99. To make it somewhat usable costs another $99. To make it really usable costs another at least another $50 and a ton of luck. And further insane that $250 is likely only "good" for a few months.
Well. I have just upgraded RX8, it seems really fast with a good config... https://youtu.be/26Al81fkqbI
Thank you again, Hector, for that video. I always learn a lot from your videos. Finally I can see how this tuning works. And I like it very much. I wish this would be available for all cars. Time to max out my RX8 (proing won't be that easy because I lack a lot of cards).
Pro Kits deliberately screw you over It seems to me that whatever you get from a pro-kit box is individually tailored to you (and not in a good way). A few days ago, I've gotten way too many D-Class parts cards so I sold most of them and kept just two of each so as to not overflow the storage. But after buying the Mazda RX8 and using up the cards I have, I never get any more D-Class cards despite me opening up 4-5 boxes by now. It's the same with initial tech and early tech. I got so many of those cards when I had too many and they were useless. But after selling most of them to clear up space, I rarely got any more. Now that I need some to upgrade the Mazda, I almost never get them. I'm not kidding, I'm 100% serious. I think Gameloft has written an algorithm in a way that makes you enjoy the game the least (sort of like Netflix's but in reverse). The Pro-kit cards you get are always a) cards that you have plenty of, b) that you don't need for any immediate upgrades. It seems as if the program can tell what you need the most by figuring out what you play with the most and what you most want to upgrade and then giving you any cards but those. I had this problem with Mid-tech a while ago but it was worse. Zero Mid-tech cards for an entire year when I desperately needed them to upgrade the Felino, Biome, Huayra, and P1. I won four mid-tech cards in an event a few days ago and the Pro-kit box suddenly gave me a fifth one. I'm not using them because I want to keep those five mid-tech cards and pretend I don't need them so hopefully the Pro-kit boxes give me more (until I get around 30) which will help me Pro all the cars that are sitting in limbo half Pro'd. Has anyone else experienced this? I've heard people say that a card seems rarer when you really need it but this happened pretty noticeably with early tech/initial tech and I'm pretty sure this isn't psychological.
The standard "joke" is the game is tailored to give you more of what you already have. So, if you have a ton of D-cards, you get lots more D-cards. Even if you sell a pile, so long as you keep a good quantity around, you'll continue getting them. But should you "run out" of something you've been getting a lot of... magically, you stop getting it. Now, one can argue this could very well just be randomness / law of averages... but it's happened so many times to me, it's hard to believe it's totally coincidence. Like, the last D-class car that came out sucked up all my D-class inventory - something I'd been selling maybe 4-8 of per day. But after using them up, they stopped coming. It took me maybe a solid 3 weeks to get back up to a measly buffer of 10, and now they're coming in fast and furious again. But, for example, in the last month I've only received one FiV8 card, and that was from a engine box. I need like 250 of them. But now I'm getting tons of F6 cards I have zero use for.
@DeepBlueSea89 @Sunfox The drop rate on needed cards increases/decreases depending on the number of that cards you have in inventory and the number of that cards needed in that moment, plus the number of opened boxes and the number of bought boxes.
You are welcome By the way, seems like I'm on cheaterboard after make my time on Tokyo with Mazda RX8... I think it could be related to the times that can be achieved with this car with a good config. Probably Gameloft underestimated the car performance :/ So, could you confirm this Fabien? I made 1:39.726...
@Fabien The video refill and adds are gone from Windows PC but not from Windows Phone. Please fix it, meaning I want the fuel refill back on PC. Can you guys add a key refill video for R&D? What's going on with MP cups for new cars?
