u/Tall_Cartographer394

I was trying to find the original clip

I ask myself this every time I log in now. The player base used to sit comfortably around 1000 - 2000 players on a good day. Lately it just struggles to break 800 - 1000. A massive part of what used to drive those numbers was how simple the game felt. A new player could join the game, get a really nice car that actually performed well, and immediately start racing their friends. It was accessible and fun.

Now it just feels like the game lost its identity entirely.

The issue isn't with the Tier 4 cars themselves, but instead how poorly the update was implemented. A Tier 4 car does not perform better than the old Tier 3s (pre-update) had performed, and for a lot of the vets that were looking for higher skill/speed ceilings, this was a slap in the face.

Back around 2020 a Tier 3 Testarossa could easily average a 2:40 on the downhill. In the modern state of the game any Tier 3 will average closer to a 3:00. The game got slower for 90 percent of the cars. And to top it off, a Tier 4 now averages around 2:40. The times didn't get better, but the cars got worse.

nerf and missing speed
Before T4 even rolled out they nerfed Tiers 1, 2, 3 pretty heavily. Less top speed, worse traction, and some models literally just lost TCS. We basically have to pay ridiculous upgrade costs just to get back the top speeds we already had for free before the update.

iconic cars are just cosmetics now
A new Tier 4 car costs around 100+ million yen which is an insane grind. But the worst part is that it makes zero sense to stick with a T3 like an FD or NA1. You can spend a fortune upgrading a T3 and a completely base default T4 will still outperform it effortlessly.

Because of this the update basically turned all the iconic cars from Initial D and Wangan Midnight into pure cosmetics. They are no longer viable choices to actually race with. All the hard work the devs put into those older cars seems wasted. Unless it is an iconic car like an 86 or an R32 there is almost no reason to buy them and even then you are usually buying them to look cool while losing.

catering to a crowd with no time
With all the references to older media like Initial D and Wangan Midnight paired with a super complex interface and driving system the devs are clearly catering to an older customer base. But that same older demographic does not have the time of day to grind for hours just to afford a single Tier 4 car.

the economy punishes experimenting
I know the devs added the event system to help curve the economy. While this is a step in the right direction it does very little to offset the heart of the issue.

Grinding still takes way too much time right now. New players just have to aim for a decent T3 and suffer the grind until they can afford a T4. Trying out other cars is way too much of a financial risk. If you buy a random car on a whim to test it out and it performs terribly you just lost millions of yen. You cant get a full refund for the car or the upgrades so everyone is forced into the exact same T4 pipeline.

how to actually fix this
I don't want to just bash the game without offering solutions. Here are some realistic fixes that would benefit the devs and the playerbase.

First a trial system. Let players try out one free car for a short window. You don't own it and you cant upgrade it but you can get a feel for the base car before wasting millions of yen. This gives new players the option to race with any car, regardless of cost, while earning yen to buy a car of their own.

Second make the race system more intuitive. Give us options to limit max HP or set specific drivetrains in races. That way people can actually run fair and balanced lobbies without a T4 blowing past everyone.

Finally give the tuning system higher potential to make lower tier cars viable again. Better boosts, weight reduction, brakes, etc. Other games let you do drivetrain swaps so imagine putting an AWD system on any car you want. That would greatly help bridge the gap and make the older cars competitive and exciting again.

tldr; Poor update implementation. Higher costs, longer grinds, and lower tiered cars performing worse - all making Tier 4 cars more enticing, but at the cost of longer grinding times and overall reduced player retention

i dont really watch anything else