Lucky Patcher Rolling Sky

[Elvisa Schimke]

OnceI'd spent $60 and could go no further without spending more, I stopped playing; $60 was my limit. I did keep my iCloud save game file in case I wanted to revisit it someday. That someday was yesterday.

Since I left, the game has grown a lot: There are now 171 cars available, or 39 more than when I stopped playing. To finish the game again, I'd need to acquire (and upgrade) all of those cars (and race a huge number of new races). I thought "maybe it's OK to spend another $60 or so; it's been a few years."

That's a full console-based driving setup, including a 65" 4K TV, for less than what I'd probably have to pay to finish (temporarily, until the next expansion) Real Racing 3. Yes, I'd say that's ridiculous.

Like most all "free" iOS games, in-game currency is required to actually get things done in RR3. And like other free iOS games, you can win the in-game currency by playing the game, or you can buy it with real world dollars.

Gold coins are much harder to earn, as you only get them for completing portions of racing events within a racing series, and for certain other special activities. Here was my reward for finishing a portion of an event in the NASCAR series, for example:

Yes, 500 gold coins. For one car. And I just received a whopping four coins for completing 25% of an event (about 15 individual races). For completing an entire event, the total gold coin payout is somewhere between 30 and 70, depending on the length of the event. There are only so many events to complete; I don't have the 40 or so left that it would take to win those 2,000 gold coins!

Hence, to "win" the game (complete all the series, own all the cars, have them all fully upgraded), you really do have to spend real world money, or invest a lot of time playing RR3. (You get a total of 100 gold coins per month, assuming you play the game at least once every day of the month. Miss one day, and it resets.)

Some cars can be bought with R$, but most require gold coins. How many gold coins? Well, in the case of those four NASCAR cars, 500 gold coins each. Of the 39 cars I need to buy, there are 14 that are unlocked and buyable already. (The others would be unlocked by completing more events). Of those 14 cars, just one can be bought with R$; the rest require gold coins. The average purchase cost for those 13 cars is 581 gold coins.

50 gold coins to gain 1mph in top speed and reduce the 0-60 time by .04 seconds. Holy cow, that's a lot of coin for a tiny improvement! And that's just one upgrade in one of the categories. Upgrades can require R$ or gold (but not both).

There are some complications to this math (not all levels have the same number of upgrades, some can be bought with R$), so let's make it easy, and say it takes 1,000 gold coins to go from no upgrades to full upgrades on one car.

Not all cars are the same, though; this one is a high-end racing car. So let's further assume that all the upgrades on a more normal-tiered vehicle could be done for 350 gold coins. Looking at the acquisition cost of the 13 new cars I can see, roughly 30% are "normal" and 70% are "high end."

I have no problem paying for games. I have no problem paying $60 for $120 for an exceptional iOS game if its gameplay and features make it a console-worthy alternative. But in what universe is paying $3,664.61 to finish playing a game make any sort of sense at all?

Hi could you please walk me thru this lucky patcher I tried down load it once and it was in another language and I just could not get it to work!! I tried all the links in the utube videos and they are bogus or I'm an idiot!? I love this game but cannot afford the 4.99 pack let alone anything else and I'm at stand still on most of my levels cause I can't purchase the cars neccesary to play them, I'd really appreciate it, my name's Mike 206you could call or text me or 415email me2390 and mikeycapenter at that place Gmail ? thank you!!

I believe you; I think I was up to 80 or so cars before I got so frustrated by the massive time commitment that I looked for other ways to play. However, I don't think you can "complete" the game without spending real world dollars. And by complete I mean owning every car, every car with max upgrades, and all events completed. The longer you play, the harder it is to earn gold coins, because your primary method of doing that (completing events) is gone, as you've completed most events. So you're left with winning gold through weekly trials, etc.

I didn't say it was impossible, I said it would require a ton of time in the game. You'd spend that time doing events over and over to add R$, competing in the multi-player and hoping to win or place (to get gold), and watching adverts (more gold).

That`s what I call commitment lol :)

If by any chance you get notified about comments, mind me asking how LONG that took? :/

I had played for 17hrs and 17 minutes when I hit 1% completion with 8 cars in my garage..

And how many hours do you have in the game? He was saying that he didn't have many hours to play. I will stick to the Xbox forza 6. Unfortunately I heard that they did the same thing with forza 7 and it costs money to play that game also, I will not be buying that one either.

Before Real Racing, I'd never really played any of these "free" games monetized with IAP (with restricted resources and game delays to encourage you to make IAPs). I was also used to games where the goal is to "complete". But I saw my boyfriend playing it and it looked so good so I picked it up last year. It was a shock to see that this game wasn't much fun played with a strict 100% completion goal. And like you, I found it frustrating and, well, the $ outlay required insulting! And then I found the rr3 wikia community.

Seeing the cold hard math made me step back and ask: what is really fun, for me, about the game? Honestly, it's the gorgeous visuals, realistic feel, and trying to get better. I don't need all the cars or all the cars upgraded, or even to complete all the events or series. When I let go of the goal of "completion" I started having lots of fun for cheap. I do require regular fresh content though -- and RR3 delivers that at my level of casual play -- I'll never catch up or run out of content if they keep pumping it out like they are.

Folks at rr3 wikia already compute the gold cost of series and cars and required upgrades in advance. This way I don't waste my time on a series I can only do a few events of before needing too much gold. Forget NASCAR, for sure! And, until they made the Formula E cars free recently, I skipped those too! But there is plenty left! I still haven't even finished series that will be gold positive for me given what I already have yet (and I'm level 109 with 93 cars).

I almost never farm (10 laps of LeMans? How boring! I only have a 4 lapper open and I'll only sometimes do it for the fame/RS on bonus days only, and even then I'll often skip it -- it's about maximizing fun, not maximizing gold. So even 15 min of a track I don't particularly like? Forget it). Sure, I watch 5 videos for 5 coins a day but not more, 30+, forget it! Like you said, the daily check-in bonus gives about 100GC/month (I'm not 'elite' where they double it), oh, and if you miss it doesn't 'reset' you just miss out on the last day's bonus (30 GC, tho!). I level up about three times a month for 75 coin bonus. So, without wasting time farming, I can get about 325 coins a month, sometimes more if there is a really fun limited time series or event and I level up more. A few months ago I did buy the $20 378 coin pack (where they give you 18 coins a day for 21 days). And I use itunes credit that I usually buy at a discount, so actual cost was less than that.

And right now, some of those limited time series and events are a lot of fun for me: bash 20 windows? Sure! Let me at 'em. I only start an event after the rr3 wikia community has determined the gold cost. They I decide if it's worth it. It often is! I get enough gold to complete some of those limited time series which gives me partially upgraded cars that I can earn more gold with later when I do their series, more series opened, and more cars to do time trials with.

For fun I also do the weekly time trials and the time trials I've opened in series to get better and see how I place (not good -- but I'm improving -- and no, I don't care if I don't have the best fully upgraded car). And I try to beat my boyfriend at events I've already completed (I usually do, to! I drive without assists and he doesn't. I followed advice from the rr3 community early to learn how to do that from nearly the beginning, and now I prefer it and find it a lot more fun! Crashing hard when you mess up just seems right!).

As long as casual fun play at getting better and getting to race on new tracks and with new cars now and then continues to be possible, I'll be a RR3 player. If I run out of affordable content -- good bye and thanks for the ride!

Great article!

I was actually just wondering how many cars there are, thought maybe some were hidden etc.

Then I stumbled on to this and was thoroughly shocked and pretty pissed off..

I knew it was expensive, and that I might have to forego large parts of the game due to the price of gold.

I mean NO app with in app purchases up to and beyond 100 bucks should even be allowed to exist.

Fuck EA for pricing it, and fuck google play store for allowing the publishing.

Im saving this article on my pc, sharing on FB, and will talk about it with anyone willing to listen.

Its just fucking diabolical..

Even MORE people will hate EA pretty soon..

But players who play it for fun than playing it to win will really "win" with Real Racing 3 the graphics are awesome with on point sound effects, and just about everything is polished to perfection in the game.

I am at level 199 wth 140 of the current 199 cars. My observations are these; 1- yes play for fun life is too short, and time too precious, and money better spent elsewhere. Stay away from the real time races with real time opponents, once they see you are doing well they simply cheat making the whole thing utterly pointless. Try not to get angry when you realize that one upgrade you need to end an event or start another costs 200-500 coin...programmers are bastards. Many times you will take a corner in the same car at the same speed, on the same trajectory and find something completely different happens...you are not in the real world driving against the universe just a game driving against the guys who designed it. Take a walk, read a book, play with your kid.

3a8082e126