It's becoming too obvious...

I agree: offering all of us a game like iGp isn't for free. Servers and other expenses have to be taken into account. And yes, I'm willing to do pay for it, but the last few months are becoming exaggerating. "By coincidence" CD's that are available in HQ always seem to have the wrong strength. Which means you have to pay more then enough tokens to get them out of the academy, and then you are forced once again to spend another load of tokens to change his/her strength. It's all about spending tokens these days. Yes, it's becoming a "pay to win" game and yes: it's becoming very obvious that all iGp is after these days is pure cash. What about Rookie and Pro classes drying out all over the place? What have they done about that? Right, nothing. I'm afraid the game has had its best days. I'm not a milk cow, so yes: I've had it. You guys are pushing way too hard to make people spend hard earned money. And please don't deny that it's getting really obvious... It's probably my last season, so don't worry about this post.

I know someone will come along and say that there is nothing wrong with a P2W model, and that it supports the game, however the only games I have come across with the same model leave a distasteful feeling when playing (mainly WOT Blitz) that you are burning money I can't afford to compete, with countless avenues for 'Premiums'. I have already cut down my monthly spend after so many increases, so can't justify to add something on. Each to their own but I now prefer to play an offline game as I don't want to be fodder, as others will raise the stakes naturally. I was beginning to be competitive in my league with T18 drivers against T20, but I now am trying to save tokens to buy T30 drivers, but I can see players already have supreme engines, levelled up to 24 and have level 25+ drivers already, and my team is currently saving all it can for 23 races, only using T20 on the one race so I don't get relegated. There is no incentive to race when the financials are crippling when you do, I may as well just return back in 6+ months and farm tokens. Especially as I use PC so already I'm at a disadvantage from free XP etc, it is clear as day there is less strategy in the game other than spend. but when you take the armchair historian's game into account (https://www.youtube.com/@TheArmchairHistorian/community), he is in similar financial quandary and the way he openly discusses and addresses it, this game pales by comparison. So yeah, long story short, I am in agreement and I'm looking for another game, hopefully something in the style of 'football  manager' for racing/'Motorsport Manager', preferably offline on PC if you or anyone has suggestions. Currently playing the old Flatout 2 game and enjoying it, but obviously want the management aspect

100% agree mate!

I’m totally agree with you ?

Exactly, this is also before a chassis supplier update. My calculations have most running at a deficit as it is, about -$160m in the red after a years worth of races, (with the increased cost of engine suppliers ($750k+) and wage increases). And that is based on using youth drivers, collecting a daily reward, and hitting your sponsor requirement each race. If they aren't currently running at a loss, they soon will be when their youth contracts renew. Totally get it is all designed to reduce peoples tokens. but it is underhand. Realistically players will all desire legendary drivers + engines + chassis, so I have my doubts any tokens will be left after covering loses/upgrading. Especially when it comes to engines and then chassis. Yet to see what the next update will do, but I have already told my league I am going to bankrupt my team then leave before I get stringed along

It's the new road ahead...

We can learn few thing from this poll: https://igpmanager.com/forum-thread/54051

1) iGP doesn't test properly its changes. If they did, this poll would never happen and someone would have noted the gifted tokens.
2) The token log doesn't work properly and it needs a rework. (more details, even the earned tokens after a race/healing,etc...)
3) The largest part of the community doesn't know what "being honest" means. Only one option was the right one. iGP must remember this poll forever before doing anything.
4) Compensations/Updates/Mechanics/Economy are never well thought and designed but they come out how they come out...

I'm collecting the last data before leaving the game for a long time. I hope the 4 points above will be solved asap otherwise things will get worse update after update.

edit:
I understand why they did the last changes. The economy is broken and unbalanced. There are many old accounts having billions of cash and thousands of tokens and they want to lower their advantage over others but this isn't the right way to do it.

Personally I would put a cap for cash and tokens and I would warn players that any resource above the limit will be lost in 6 months. Instead we have the manufacturer tab that will kill the balance of newer players. That's the mistake.

exactly, the poll was confused by what looks like people who had double the amount of tokens taken, and those who wanted their token history checked, and what the result is... is a snap poll gifting free tokens to the early adopters, so if I become an engine manufacturer today I will be 10-20 tokens less off than those. I get that the devs tried to do the right thing, but it got muddled because of their own bugs. 

I 100% agree also, the economy is unbalanced, by design. I remember in the past when T20 drivers cost a lot less than 50 tokens, (I forget but I think it was 20 tokens). And there were times when the game failed to notify me that my drivers contracts were expiring with a red exclamation mark, and so their contracts lapsed, and I absorbed the cost of replacing them and training their replacements as there were plenty of surplus tokens to do so. if that happens again now or in the future, then it would be 270 tokens for a driver lost, and 11+ months worth of daily tokens after expenses (+renewing engines) if it happens to just the one driver. What the OP said about staff is equally true, and they do not train to level up like drivers but have the same expense. and there is no room for movement if in future updates Jack decides to reduce overpowered special abilities or like he did with lifting the performance of T30 drivers & engines overnight recently, thereby everyone scrambling to source T30 drivers as the gap is now huge. No room for any error.

Every change has an unfair effect on players who calculated and strategised a plan beforehand, so who knows what upset the next update will cause, but I am done trying to anticipate them when he updates dynamics overnight. This is not to say I haven't had my fun with this game, and thanks for the enjoyment, but it has been clear in the last few updates that it is going in a bad direction, the warning signs are there, and I don't judge anyone who wants to pay to play this game, but for what is a very basic simulator/2d coloured dots, and linear set ups, I 100% agree that there are much more options out there. The racing community are without doubt one of the most respectful and generous niches of players, and honestly what made this game as good as it has been, take that away and you reveal something quite bare and what is propped up by a lot of well-intending people, so it's sad to see this go the aggressive way it is doing. 

As the saying goes, 'if you're not paying for the product, then you're the product', and certainly the devs know who pays more for tokens and went about making changes based on that rather than balanced game dynamics. those new updates may not have been tested as thoroughly as they liked, but the idea behind them were not mistakes, after every update it gets more about tokens for every decision you make, right down to renaming your team. they will probably bring an update to not completely suffocate the new players and help them along, as I'm haemorrhaging tokens myself to remain competitive, but a lot of these updates you can't undo, as people will have already paid hard cash for them, and again, I've seen enough to know where it is going. devs cost money, even mediocre ones. thanks, but no thanks

I'm interested in hearing about the other options (games?) some of you are speaking of in here.

https://www.gpro.net/be/gpro.asp

Good example. Tried it but it's a lot more difficult than iGp Manager :-) 

I feel you guys and I share your thoughts. Unfortunately, this seems to be the way the developer(s) want to go. On the other hand: yes, what about rookies and pro's? Something might come in that direction in a possible upcoming update, but who wants to start at level 1, knowing it'll take you ages to reach max level and play amongst the big boys? I think more people will run away as soon a they realise that... 

Gpro is a game with a lot of non-sense stuff (i.e. using only one tyre per race or you cannot know how much tyre consumption and fuel consumption there will be). I abandoned it after half season.

This game is the best of its genre. Sadly it's going in a wrong direction.

So weird that no one (moderators or developers) seem to respond here ? 

Unfortunately, I have to agree with all of you. The game made a very nasty turn into the direction of generating more money for the ones that are behind the scenes. In times where people have to worry about huge energy bills, these guys bring “the invisible message”: if you want to play, you’ll have to pay. Everything costs tokens these days, really everything. It’s almost absurd. Like someone else mentioned earlier: this has always been a good community and the people behind iGp should be grateful for that. The only thing we get in return is: pay mate, you have to pay. Pay more, pay again, etc…

I won’t re-enter the game, there’s no point. If you don’t want to spend too much hard cash, you’re always on the back foot.

And yes iGp gentlemen, this might be a very inconvenient truth, but it remains the truth ??‍♂️

I agree with the comments above. The Elite tier in my 2 car league was consistently full before the changes, but 6 teams have now left and I will go soon, due to the crippling token costs. I will try a 1 car league, but if that is no better I simply stop playing the game.

Developers, you should be encouraging more people to play, not driving people away.

Try my league if you are thinking of giving it up, i don't think it's that mega competitive that it requires throwing tokens at it every race because i sure don't lol and only it's only 3 races a week. Just a thought if you and others in your league wanna try it.. no biggy if it doesn't suit. 

I really appreciate the offer. Sadly the race time is middle of the day here, so I am at work. However I have found a 1 car league to join, at a time that suits, so will see how that goes ?