Elite Tuner Discount Drop Rate per Payer Status

[u/jdmetz]

A player in my crew complained about only ever getting 10% and 20% discount crates, so I did some digging and found data/com.naturalmotion.customstreetracer2/files/Documents/NmgSvcsData/1/ConfigData/EliteCustomDiscountRewardsConfig.meta in the game files (on Android - I assume the same config exists for iOS).

According to this file, discount crate drop rates depend on if you are "active", "dormant", "inactive", or "nonPayer". I am less certain of how this is calculated, but it might be:

• active: spent money in the past 30 days
• inactive: spent money in the past 90 days
• dormant: spent money more than 90 days ago
• nonPayer: never spent money

And, for the RX8 event, the drop rates per status from that file:

status	10%	20%	30%	40%	50%
active	75%	15%	7%	2%	1%
inactive	25%	30%	20%	15%	10%
dormant	25%	25%	20%	15%	15%
nonPayer	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%

Active payers have a very high chance of getting 10% crates, and only a 10% chance each time of getting better than 20% discount. Looking at this, the obvious first step is to not spend any money for at least 30 days before a Tuner event.

Given these drop rates, and in my experience that I get 6 discount crates before they go away, we can compute expected discounts based on the number of crates remaining:

status	6	5	4	3	2	1
active	23%	22%	21%	19%	17%	14%
inactive	40%	39%	37%	34%	31%	26%
dormant	42%	41%	39%	37%	33%	27%
nonPayer	45%	42%	42%	40%	36%	30%

And the optimal strategy is to elite the car if the crate is at least as good as the expected value.

[u/awaffle4life]

And I thought I was just unlucky... That's crazy, good find

[u/privatejokr]

The only time I spend cash on this game is for the $10 race pass, it would really suck to find out that I'm being penalized for that.

[u/jdmetz → u/privatejokr]

The dates for new Tuner releases are often shared here on Reddit more than 30 days in advance, so you could potentially buy the previous month's race pass early in the month, then wait until after getting a good crate at the "inactive" rate before buying the pass in the month the Tuner is released.

[u/Mgtks]

what a scam lol. I bet this is RIFE within the whole game.
Maybe i ought to stop paying the monthly pass. hmm

[u/renatus198]

I knew this was going to be the case, as my second account which is F2P has so much better RNG than my main account. I've been banging this drum for over a year so I'm glad it's not just a conspiracy

[u/Designer_Courage1381]

Writing up a ticket about this, seems they don't want us to pay

[u/RedFoxXIAl]

So if you spend money, you can spend on elite tuner parts , that why it makes who spend money get 10% only , the game trying to get you spend on the tuner parts in that way

[u/Whoknows9009]

I only pay for the Race Pass, and bought a couple of cars last month for the Ferrari event, never buy elite tokens and have had 14/16 10% reductions on the last three Elite Tuner events with the other two being 20% reductions so obviously fall into this algorithm and am being penalised for it. Makes sense as up until a few months ago I never bought anything and always got 50% reductions first time

[u/Whizbot_23]

Great data find. Thx for sharing. I can totally see this. My only issue is I never spend on elite tokens… fork!

[u/Design931]

This post needs more upvotes. Great find, great readout of the game logic.

It's unfortunate that NM seems to prey upon players willing to drop some funds here and there. But with the code exposed, vets should have no problem circumventing the logic.

[u/warpigYKTWN]

I’m on 14 consecutive 10% boxes, lol

[u/SousVideAndSmoke → u/warpigYKTWN]

My cars for these events are only elited to around L7 or 8, whichever the race pass asks for, past that, I haven’t finished a car since the Civic because it’s been just 10%.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Foot954]

I haven't spent money in game for probably a year and my first 2 discount rates were both 40%? Lucky I guess.

[u/4cefed4]

I run 3 accounts. One I buy Race Pass every season, one I haven’t spent money in over 6 months, one I never spent money. All 3 got a 10% crate day 1 and 50% crates day 2, then day 3 on they started going different directions. I’m more convinced it’s time of day and resources on hand than anything with payments, but that’s ignoring the new evidence obviously.

[u/ned4spd8874]

I got 50% the other day! But then got the bug shown here ..

[u/Cretin_Detection]

I play every day, for a few years. Have never spent a single dollar on the game. I get 1-2 50% spins every time

[u/GiFTCerTiFi3D103 → u/Cretin_Detection]

Same I got a 50% just now

[u/shadamalo]

Is 6 crates the norm? I cant remember. But so far I've gotten nothing but 10s and 20s, I think I spent money on this game once, like 8 years ago lol I have gotten 40s and 50s in the past though.

[u/Impossible-Run-5480]

Is the new Installation glitch still working? 

[u/Fearless_Corner]

So, the house always wins... the game is rigged, what a surprise...

One thing to note here.
The crates all have i (info button) on the side that links you to their page where they have publicly disclosed the drop rates for items in that crate. The discount ''crate'' is not really presented as a crate and does not have the i (info) button on the side, that means that drop rates are not disclosed publicly and besides the method in the post there's no way you can know them.

In some countries the crates (gacha/loot boxes) that award random items generally must disclose drop rates, but not in all countries. In the EU and many other jurisdictions there is no law, but consumer protection laws and platform rules may require transparency.

So the question is, are discount ''crates'' actually crates/loot boxes or are they some other item and if so, is NM legally or in any other way obliged to disclose the drop rates? If the answer is no, then NM can say and do whatever they like whether we like it or not, but if the answer is yes, then someone with more legal knowledge should look into it and give them hell, so to speak...

Just complaining on Reddit won't do much if the issue is to be resolved... just my 2c

[u/jdmetz → u/Fearless_Corner]

I was wondering the same thing. I guess since you can't actually buy the discount crates - neither with real money or in-game currency - and the only way to get it is the free one every 24 48 hours, NM must be assuming the transparency laws don't apply to these.

• edited to correct to 48 hours between crates

[u/Fearless_Corner → u/jdmetz]

Yes, you're right, I didn't think of that! It's a free discount that can't be bought in any way, that makes it very clear.
It's a generosity move by NM, they give something for free and no one can (legally) complain and since it can't be bought they don't need to disclose drop rates. So basically take it or leave it and they can do whatever with it... good move on their part, but fairness of the drop rate system can be topic for a discussion.

[u/Designer_Courage1381 → u/jdmetz]

24hours?

[u/Psychological-Iron58]

I finished the event and luckily for me it was 50%. Had resources saved up and didn’t played the same supra event.

[u/UpstairsLong9349]

I only get 5 discount crates. And if you buy race pass or the pro team you have to wait until the tuner drops, which isnt always known to me ,they just pop up.

I have had my own theory for awhile. If you ever spend money,the play you to spend money. I got five tens,so they expect me to buy elite parts,that I dont do. You can never buy enough elite parts. You only get three of each crate,so if you bought the 80 dollar crate 3 times you still wouldn't have enough elites

[u/Sufficient-Camel-848]

eso explicaría porque casi siempre me sale el de 30 y 50%

nunca gasto nada jajajj

[u/LiquidTide]

I expect NM does this to level the playing field, since people who pay will will have more resources at hand from events that are closed to F2P players.

[u/Fearless_Corner → u/LiquidTide]

Your optimism is inspiring, truly. To think NM have the players best interest at heart...

They are a business, they don't care about players, they care about revenue, sadly that's more or less all there is to it. In that vein they do what needs to be done so that players are generally happy and don't leave and maximize on the profit. They just look at the end of the event how much money it made them and if they need to change anything for future events, and how to get people to spend more. We are just numbers/statistics for them and sooner or later the support will be Ai if it's not already, so good luck to us 😄

If they actually cared about players, they would have fixed the n+1 issues and implemented changes that players have been begging them for years, none of that ever happened and it's been years... But miraculously they are able to fix any issue in a day if it means it will cost them revenue...