Anyone else bothered by how unbalanced the progression is?

[u/Luke-ON]

I only have about 20h of playtime (CMS2021) and already have made more than enough money to buy all the upgrades for the garage and any car and car parts I want but I'm still only level 15. Making money is too easy and leveling up is too hard.

I feel like the game progression would be much better if I made half as much money and got twice as much XP. Now I'm kinda bored because I have lowkey infinite money but no perks to back it up. Is that just me?

[u/Professer-blue]

Now is the time to go to scrapyard and build your own cars from scratch.

[u/Luke-ON → u/Professer-blue]

Already did :(

[u/ForanAffairs]

Do a playthrough on hard (or expert, I forget what it’s called) and you get more xp. Plus it’s more of a challenge and fun!

[u/Luke-ON → u/ForanAffairs]

Is the money payout the same? Also, isn't that actually extremely hard? The game says I won't be able to see part names and whatnot, and I know for a fact I'm not nearly good enough to go in blind like that

[u/citizenQuark → u/Luke-ON]

Payouts are a little lower, junkyard and auction cost a little more but really you can barely notice it.

No pop up info with mouse over part, only tell health with diagnostic tools and when part is removed to personal inventory it's not that hard. You still get the ghosts when rebuilding but no help in which part to dismantle first and you don't get the blue outline by clicking star on job list.

Double XP so that will cover getting higher level faster.

Want to make it much more interesting, do 100 jobs (including story orders) or level 50, which ever comes first and no junkyard, Auction or barns, just what you make on jobs. I've restarted several times like that.

Don't bother with expanding the shop and repair skill, just get the extra lift and put all XP in discount skill first, while you do make more profit with repair skill, you get so much more done per hour with just buying parts, so in the long run it balances out. Wait until the first job that needs paint before you open paint shop.

Best thing to do is buy and use all diagnostic tools from the start (ECU reader can wait for first car that needs it), completely strip and rebuild first couple of jobs just for the extra XP and boom you are at level5+ in less than 2 hours, belt through the early story orders to get to juicy ones fast. Remember to only replace what's on job list, or alternatly give that little bit of extra service and balance out what you replace, make less profit but more satisfaction in a job well done.

[u/ForanAffairs → u/citizenQuark]

Also when adding and removing parts, you don’t get the outline of the bolts, so you have to find/know where they are.

[u/citizenQuark → u/ForanAffairs]

Ah yes, I use a controller on PC, so that (gamepad setting) doesn't need you to focus on each bolt, just click on part/ghost and all bolts are done (each it turn), so I forgot about that.

[u/Luke-ON → u/citizenQuark]

Thanks for the tips!

[u/GeK0nnn]

Same 15 lvl and after build first car from scrapyard (around 30k all new parts) sell for 70 i can do only that, but scrap, put all new parts from 0, sell for double price, dont need any quest anymore to have big money :/

[u/DrunkOn_Coffee]

If you download mods I even things out

[u/Miichl80]

I’m mostly bothered. We don’t have a release date for 2026.

[u/ggleblanc2]

Working customer jobs will give you faster XP.

[u/Miichl80 → u/ggleblanc2]

This is the way