How do you cross the level 12 to level 30 gap? (grinding XP fast in CSM2018)

[Sky_walker]

How do you pass that enormous gap from level 12 to 30.

From what I've noticed it's about 900 XP per level, it doesn't matter what sort of a job I do - they're all equally unrewarding in XP. I'm 19 hours into the game and on a level 15.... which means that likely I would have to invest another 20 hours into the game to get to the next point where there's something new and interesting in the game - car modding.

But that cannot be... I don't want to grind for even 5 hours, yet alone: 20. It's atrocious.

How can I efficiently get past that enormous gap in levels to the next piece of remotely interesting content?

[Bluemoon_19]

I'm doing the grind now (lvl 24), since all jobs pay mostly the same I only do exhaust, brake and gear jobs. Other jobs take to long and offer no better reward, I don't know why taking an engine apart offers the same as a 1 minute exhaust replacement job.
I'm trying to keep it interesting by buying cars and restoring them as much as I can till I can make them all 100% will the lvl 30 upgrade.

[Sky_walker]

Originally posted by Bluemoon_19:

since all jobs pay mostly the same I only do exhaust, brake and gear jobs

Yea, I did similar levels 14 and 15... got tired pretty quick.

• Exhaust-only jobs are by far the best, but they're few and in-between.
  
• Gear jobs are fine. Not as fast as exhaust, but easy to remember and relatively quick.
  
• Breaks and suspension jobs are... not good, unbolting the tires takes too long, and god forbid you're unlucky and just unscrewed wrong tire on a drum break. :/
  
• I found chassis jobs are not-too-bad. I take a photo of the list of parts with a car model on a smartphone and then buy all the parts needed via tablet by just searching for the car name (usually first 3 letters of manufacturer and model into search box are enough). They're quicker to do than most of the breaks and suspension jobs, IMHO.

But even doing those I feel like I'm burnt-out after grinding just 2 levels, yet alone: 15 more to go.

On a side note:

• Fixing & selling cars from the junk yard gives you no XP other than this for mounting parts. What the heck? Why? It'd make game at least a little bit-less grindy
  
• You can't fix chassis parts on the table? This is such a weird choice, given that workshops fixing chassis parts are propably the most common out there. You don't buy a new hood every time you get a dent on it...

[Bluemoon_19]

You can fix body parts once you get to level 35 but thats even more grinding lol.
I agree that the suspension jobs are a total pain but the brake jobs are not to bad. I have the faster unscrewing upgrades so I just take all the wheels off, then I check the front brake system and see how many parts get discovered. I then check the back brakes so if they happen to be drum and I have un-discovered parts I know I need to open them up(unless its and ABS problem)

[Flam3]

I was enjoying the game quite a bit and was genuinely surprised that no matter the job, they all offer around the same amount of exp, which is just a really poor design choice. Even if they made the engine/gear change jobs give a considerable amount more exp, I think it would be worth the time spent.

Not to mention going to the junkyard, finding a car, fixing it up and selling it on just awards the exp you get from mounting parts. I honestly hope this is noted by the devs and they will do something about the terrible grind and of course they aren't done with the game.

[Vellari]

Personally don't mind some grind, there should be a hill to climb to get to max level. But in this case, re-shuffling of the skill tree is in order. Move the non-essential to later levels and useful stuff to lower. For example move engine crane to garage level three and welder to level two.

Crane is a convenience thing, but welder is required for body work...

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Another thing that is odd is that painting a car doesnt give any exp or even add any value to the car when it comes to selling it, especially considering how much it costs in real world to paint a car.
At least welding the frame and cleaning the interior add considerable value to the sell price.

[Rittersporn]

When you do just exhaust, breaks and gear you earn xp really slow!!! XP is per part subtraktet or added to the carframe or motor. Do motors and aisles! They need longer but 16 rockers and 16 ventilstaves build of and build on are 64 xp alone and you got a lot of bonus xp for missions.

[Sky_walker]

Originally posted by Rittersporn:

When you do just exhaust, breaks and gear you earn xp really slow!!!

It's one XP per part vs 100 XP per completed job. You look at it the wrong way around. It doesn't matter what's the total XP for the job, it matters how much XP you can earn per hour of gameplay. And by far the most efficient way of doing it now is grinding the smallest, fastest jobs available.

Originally posted by Vellari:

Personally don't mind some grind, there should be a hill to climb to get to max level.

Level 30 is not the top level of the game.
The major issue I have with this is that there's a huge part of gameplay locked behind 20 hours of grind. That's not acceptable. Heck: I don't even play vast majority of games of over 20 hours, yet alone grind through it to unlock a major mechanic of the game - customizations. Heck: It's the part of the game that may even fundamentally bought it for.

[Vellari]

Originally posted by Sky_walker:

Originally posted by Vellari:

Personally don't mind some grind, there should be a hill to climb to get to max level.

Level 30 is not the top level of the game.
The major issue I have with this is that there's a huge part of gameplay locked behind 20 hours of grind. That's not acceptable. Heck: I don't even play vast majority of games of over 20 hours, yet alone grind through it to unlock a major mechanic of the game - customizations. Heck: It's the part of the game that may even fundamentally bought it for.

Yeah I get that too. There should be a sandbox mode for those who don't care about the "full experience".

[FrozeUp]

"grind to 35" wasn't too bad for me, just wait until you try the grind to 50.

The easiest way to get past the grind feeling is to enjoy the game as you are doing it; enjoy the journey, don't race to the destination.

[Rittersporn]

But there is none. And so the real question is what jobs are fun? Just recycling the same 5 parts over and over is incredible boring. The game comes in phases: Phase one is "buy" your repair shop by doing jobs. And 20 hrs of grind is nothing! When you play things like war thunder you need 20 hrs of grind for one vehicle (reason I don´t play it anymore). Have a little pacients and do jobs which are most interesting or a fair mix of both or you will never reach level 50 and up.

[Sky_walker]

Originally posted by FrozeUp:

"grind to 35" wasn't too bad for me, just wait until you try the grind to 50

What for? The last big piece of gameplay that's locked behind grind is at level 35.

Originally posted by Rittersporn:

And so the real question is what jobs are fun?

None from those that are avaible to me. The next fun piece of game is beyond 20 hours of grind. I feel like you didn't read the very first post in this thread, cause grind is precisely the reason why I've made it. If game would keep on delivering fun elements to the gameplay, as it did over the first 13 levels, I wouldn't complain about mindless grind over the huge gap where nothing much of interest happens.

Originally posted by Rittersporn:

When you play things like war thunder you need 20 hrs of grind for one vehicle (reason I don´t play it anymore)

First of all - War Thunder is a free to play - for Car Mechanic I've paid. Second of all - even there you can bypass the grind (by paying, it's super-expensive, but it is an option none the less). And lastly - you've said it yourself: You don't play it any more. Grind was a killing factor for you out there, how difficult it is to understand that the same might happen in other games?

[gill4401]

You can also try to choose orders with experience bonus. I don't know how big is this bonus but I always left 2 spots empty in my garage for those. And I check my orders list often to see if there is any.

[Hurst Quayzar]

I did the Story Orders with a few orders in between...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPndgWmxwcU8QYTvn5MrOFZldG18XQkwF

[Kimmaz]

Most jobs give 100 exp and 1exp per part. So you could do 20 jobs of exhaust and gearbox in one hour, if you keep on moving fast. thats easy 2100exp in 1 hour. And you need about 25000 exp to get to level 30. Buy in 5-10 "sets" of parts, i can often do 4-5 jobs without visiting the shop. and it saves time in the long run.
I got to level 30 after playing 3 evenings, but then I had like 500k money and 30 cars in the parking space (because I visited barns for fun from time to time).

I actually stopped playing after restoring 3-4 cars and painting them. I guess all the grinding made the gameplay feel boring in the end and ill not restore cars for fun.