Rackets

Rackets are a replacement for Properties for some beta accounts. There are tiers that open up after you master the first tier of each racket. For example, when you master the Three-Card Monte racket a new tier opens up called Backroom Poker. Master that and Executive Game opens up and so on and so forth. You must return to collect on the racket after it completes or it gets busted by the cops and you lose the money and the influence.

The Attack, Defense and Job rackets each generate an initial count per instance, until the job is mastered. After mastering, you are then awarded an additional boost each time you collect the racket. For example, the Taxi Stand Racket initially generates two Free Ride boost every four hours. After you have mastered the racket you will be awarded with three Free Ride boost every four hours.

(For Racket Strategies, see Racket Management)

How using Influence for Rackets works
Rackets come in four flavors: Cash, Attack Boosts, Defensive Boosts, Job Boosts. Each Racket requires you invest Influence into it and then wait for a specified amount of time for the Racket to finish. Once the timer expires and the Racket is complete, you get back your Influence investment + the reward (cash or boost).

It's important to think of these Rackets as investments (rather than purchases) because you get 100% of your Influence back when you collect on the Racket. This is important because you only GAIN 1pt of Influence every hour. You don't get a refill on level ups like you do with Energy and Stamina.

So in other words, it would take you 24 real-time hours to GAIN 24 pts of Influence. So getting back your Influence investment by collecting is absolutely critical to being successful at Racketeering.

However, once a Racket is ready to collect, you have a very limited amount of time to collect on the racket before it is "busted" and you lose your Influence investment. Given the slow regen timer on Influence, the Influence loss from a "busted" job is much more hurtful than losing the cash or extra boost.

Influence Skill Points
When you increase your Influence skill, you increase the amount of Influence you can "hold" at one time. The maximum amount you can you hold is 20% greater than the number of skill points you have invested. So if you have 20 Influence skill points, you can "hold" up to 24 Influence points at one time (24/20). However, just like an Energy Pack, you stop GAINING pts from the regen timer if your current Influence is greater than the amount of pts you have invested.

This means that with 20 skill points, the largest Racket you could invest in would have a 24 point cost. If the Racket you want to invest in has an Influence cost greater than that amount, then you'll need to increase the number of skill points. Otherwise, if it is equal to or less than 24, there is little reason to invest more skill points into Influence. This is critical because investing skill points above that number is wasteful and they could be better spent elsewhere.

Re-Investing Influence
The reason this is wasteful is because if you manage it correctly, you'll never exceed 24 pts. Lets say that the Racket you use most often requires 16 Influence. You would invest that 16 Influence into a Racket.

The regen timer ticks away gaining you additional Influence. When it reaches 16 again, you invest in a second Racket. Then you collect on your original Racket, gaining back the original 16 investment and immediately re-investing it back into a new Racket.

As long as your Rackets don't bust, your total amount of Influence invested in Rackets continues to increase. The only limitation is the total number of Rackets you have at the same time (based on the number of slots purchased - 20 max).

Busted Rackets
Rackets appear to "go bust" if they are not collected within 8 hours after the Racket is completed. So for a 4-hour Job racket which you started at 8:00am, you could collect it any time between Noon and 8:00pm. However, if you wait until 8:01pm to collect it, then you will be unable to collect the "busted" Racket and you will not only lose your profit, you will also lose 100% of the Influence you invested into the Racket.

Racket Locations
Each Racket needs to go into a location or spot. You start with two "free" slots in Little Italy which will allow you to run two Rackets. If you would like to run more Rackets, then you need to purchase additional slot locations.

There are four tiers that can each hold five locations for your Rackets. This means that you can run up to 20 Rackets concurrently if you have purchased all 20 locations.

The locations themselves become progressively more expensive and while the name of the Tier implies a better location, the Rackets themselves produce the same amount whether they are invested in Little Italy or Upper East Side.

Little Italy
 * 1st slot = Free
 * 2nd slot = Free
 * 3rd slot = $5,000
 * 4th slot = $10,000
 * 5th slot = $25,000

Hell's Kitchen
 * 1st slot = $50,000
 * 2nd slot = $100,000
 * 3rd slot = $150,000
 * 4th slot = $250,000
 * 5th slot = $500,000

Bensonhurst 
 * 1st slot = $750,000
 * 2nd slot = $1,000,000
 * 3rd slot = $1,500,000
 * 4th slot = $3,000,000
 * 5th slot = $5,000,000

Upper East Side
 * 1st slot = $10,000,000
 * 2nd slot = $50,000,000
 * 3rd slot = $100,000,000
 * 4th slot = $500,000,000
 * 5th slot = $1,000,000,000

Property Owners
Rackets will eventually be rolled out to everyone.

Longtime players will not have their properties taken away, but going to be given really good reasons to cash them in.

The money available will be comparable to the old properties.