Hey Mayors! We hope you are all keeping well, and that your citizens and cities are happy and prospering! We are currently testing a new game mode: City Design Challenges. It is currently in a restricted early-access mode which means it is only available to a limited number of Mayors. This feature is currently still a work in progress because we want to thoroughly test it before rolling it out to all Mayors. The testing phase will continue with a small subset of Mayors until we are satisfied that the feature is in tip-top shape to make sure that you all can properly love and enjoy it! At this time, we will not be adding more players to the testing, but we do want to provide a place for our testers to discuss the feature, and to provide feedback on their experiences as they go. So, feel free to drop us a quick post below - we will be reading over the comments at various stages throughout the testing stage. However, please remember to keep the discussion on-topic and directed toward the City Design Challenges only. Any comments that are not focussed on this will be removed. Have fun Mayors, and we are looking forward to seeing what you all create and comment on shortly!

A few remarks about the design challenges: - the general concept is very interesting, it allows to breathe new life into the game which was beginning to sink into the war game and no longer a creation game, I really like the idea. However, there are still improvements to be made: - once the challenge has been validated, it is a shame not to be able to go back on it, just to visit it and share it with another player. - it would be nice to be able to visit the designs of other players in our own club - on the vote, the choice between 2 designs is too much limited. Out of the 5 votes to do, I most often voted for the less lame one, but sincerly it did not deserve any star: unfinished site, barely the minimum of inhabitants, photo which shows nothing.- and +1 on the fact that it would be great not to add XP into our level and just keep it a uncorrelated challenge.

Nice to see that our opinions and feedback are valued.1. I feel the motivation to participate in the Challenge is not enough, or I don't want to invest too much, as it is temporary and cannot be saved after the challenge is over.So the rewards could be more generous, such as some honorary titles for the Top players, and be marked on the City Info Panel or in other forms.2. It may be for a number of reasons that we can't visit the candidate cities during Voting.So at the very least, is it possible that we could visit the Top cities as we're always looking for design talent?Above all, it is an interesting mode and I hope it could have really Special things to lure us in. GOOD JOB, EA!

•Please do not add XP for residential upgradings for the city design challenge. Or please let us store the residential even just for the challenge mode. ⇨I don’t want XP for residential I’d lose. I’d like the game-mode to be separated with the regular city development.•I’d like to see the whole city we created but not just one screen shot. No need to to visit their city or trade depot, but would like to see the design from deferent angles!•share the top players cities on the official social media. The cities will be gone after the challenge, it’d be nice if we can check the older challengers too.Really excited for the new game mode. Can’t wait it’ll be released for all players 🙂

After completing 2 challenges, I really feel the voting system needs to be changed.Can’t select the best design with the current system. There are cities that barely fit the requirements and not even “designing”. Don’t want to vote for them...Mayors who spent 1 hours to make the city look pretty get only 3 stars, and mayors who spent only 10 mins just placed 5 houses also get 3 stars... it’s a total joke. this needs to be fixed. Here are some ideas;-let us skip vote if those randomly selected 2 cities aren’t worth voting-let us pick from randomly selected 5 (or 10) designs instead of 2, so we can vote for a design that actually looks good, but not elimination method.I saw some designs a lot better than the winning one. Please improve the voting system so those great designers can get 5 stars!!

Hi everyone,thank you for the interesting game mode of design challenge. At first, I thought that this will be quite fun.Now after the 3rd participation, I‘m not sure if I will play this mode ever again. The reason for this are the - in my opinion - randomly awarded stars. I‘ve got 0,5 stars for a design that met all requirements, was elaborate, had quite some population, and on which I spent quite some time and Sim Cash. What really irritated me was the fact that the winner of the current round did win the last round too. This time, his design was impressive but last time it had nothing to do with the topic. So I‘m asking myself why I should spend hours on a design if I never have a chance of earning stars / blueprints whilst other players will get rewarded for „low to none“ effort designs. Like this I‘ll neither get the achievments nor the feeling of being evaluated fairly. I understand that designs are based on subjective evaluation but something appears to be very off for me. Thanks for checking

Early Access City Design Challenges - Feedback Thread

50 Replies

MichealYun
New Vanguard
5 years ago
Nice to see that our opinions and feedback are valued.
1. I feel the motivation to participate in the Challenge is not enough, or I don't want to invest too much, as it is temporary and cannot be saved after the challenge is over.
So the rewards could be more generous, such as some honorary titles for the Top players, and be marked on the City Info Panel or in other forms.

2. It may be for a number of reasons that we can't visit the candidate cities during Voting.
So at the very least, is it possible that we could visit the Top cities as we're always looking for design talent?

Above all, it is an interesting mode and I hope it could have really Special things to lure us in. GOOD JOB, EA!
SummitVista3310
5 years ago
•Please do not add XP for residential upgradings for the city design challenge. Or please let us store the residential even just for the challenge mode.
⇨I don’t want XP for residential I’d lose. I’d like the game-mode to be separated with the regular city development.
•I’d like to see the whole city we created but not just one screen shot. No need to to visit their city or trade depot, but would like to see the design from deferent angles!
•share the top players cities on the official social media. The cities will be gone after the challenge, it’d be nice if we can check the older challengers too.
Really excited for the new game mode. Can’t wait it’ll be released for all players 🙂
ProMayorSCBI
5 years ago
Awesome. Hope simcity will be more enjoyable with more mega updates.
BabyloniaUK
5 years ago
Aah, we were wondering what the update was about and why some club members couldn't see it, thanks for the info.
I wondered what 'Minimal 2 buildings' meant in Bonus Goals until I fully upgraded a couple, could be worded better?
It would be nice if club members could view each others' efforts.
Might be interesting but agree that there needs to be a really goox incentive.
C_Sha_31
5 years ago
A few remarks about the design challenges:
- the general concept is very interesting, it allows to breathe new life into the game which was beginning to sink into the war game and no longer a creation game, I really like the idea.
However, there are still improvements to be made:
- once the challenge has been validated, it is a shame not to be able to go back on it, just to visit it and share it with another player.
- it would be nice to be able to visit the designs of other players in our own club
- on the vote, the choice between 2 designs is too much limited. Out of the 5 votes to do, I most often voted for the less lame one, but sincerly it did not deserve any star: unfinished site, barely the minimum of inhabitants, photo which shows nothing.
- and +1 on the fact that it would be great not to add XP into our level and just keep it a uncorrelated challenge.
MichealYun
New Vanguard
5 years ago
@EA_Leeloo It would be great if we could have an Atlas to store and display the works we have designed.
BabyloniaUK
5 years ago
Having completed the voting process I don't think taking a snapshot really works. As mentioned above, too many show little or nothing, presumably being submitted without understanding what to do. Another consideration is those like myself playing on an older device and unable to zoom out.
Agree that having a choice of only 2 to vote for doesn't work when neither deserved a vote.
Would it be too difficult to code the challenge like a temporary region? Let us see what others are doing and visit the cities before voting.
Looking forward to my results and the next challenge 🙂
inhert5orh0u
5 years ago
Thanks for choosing me to test the new city design challenges 🤩. I’m really enjoying this concept and hope it will be a permanent feature in the near future.
The voting system needs looking into. Is it possible voters could give each design a rating out of 5 stars?⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. This will enable voters to give more stars to the best designs. A lot of entries are incomplete and have bare minimum items, and others are designed beautifully with a lot of time and effort spent in creating. Lots of SimCity fans showing beautiful designs that never come up in voting which is disappointing.
Maybe once the winning design is announced also show the top 10 best designs.
I have attached my designs for Tropical Haven, Winter Wonderland and The Great Wilds.
1457699360
5 years ago
I really love this feature! It’s awesome! It feels like going back to the roots of the game - and to the reasons why I started playing SCBI after all.
Just a couple of improvements I would like to post here:
1) I wish I could be able to see the screenshots of the cities I upload during the challenges. Once you upload your city, you don’t have access to it anymore, neither to your oldest designs. Hopefully we will be able in the future to see them in a short of a library.
2) I would like to be able to see the blueprints I could earn if progressing my design beyond the basic requirements. By this way I would be encouraged to continue building.

Thank you for reading my suggestions.
And thank you EA! Keep up the good work- we need more new features & updates in SCBI!!
BabyloniaUK
5 years ago
Very sorry but I decided not to continue with the challenge. Really like the concept but city design is difficult enough when you're unable to zoom out and can only see 20 buildings at a time. Then I can't even get a decent snapshot of my efforts.
I suppose I could do the bare minimum for the rewards but where's the challenge in that?
The developers really need a rethink on how they restrict older devices, I'd rather have reduced graphics and/or some occasional lag than be stuck fully zoomed in.
Back to just building skyscrapers to increase population and war.....