Re: FAQ about the Global Trade HQ

Amelia, they already disappear really fast, so that's a strawman argument.  The issue isn't with how fast they disappear, it's how much time is wasted chasing down items that are already sold.

It's understood that EA wants to make money off in-game purchases, but you've created an economic infrastructure that is exasperating, and I haven't even opened up "Tokyo Town" yet.

If you don't want to put a filter on what we are searching for, perhaps you can instead put a filter on what we don't want to see?  I love the game but searching for a specific item can become very monotonous to the point I am starting to lose interest in the game.  I think something needs to be done to fix this.  Another thought is increasing the list of items to choose from but I imagine this comes with a price as well.  Thanks for the consideration.

The new features that have been added are excellent.  I love the variety and the challenges that are offered.  However, EA has still ignored (or hasn't figured out to improve) the global trading HQ.  I have harped on this in the past, but the new feature, epic projects, only exacerbate the horrific global trading system.  I have a storage capacity of 250.  When I started my epic project, I had enough items to quickly go through around 30 requests before I had to start making items or try to purchase them.  In the 24 hours, I managed to get through 80 items, but did not even attempt to make it to 160.  The reason:  the global trading system.  I am still amazed that your algorithms think I need so many TVs.  Every refresh, I was offered mostly TVs.  I didn't need any TVs.  I need items that were hardly ever displayed.  And if they were displayed.... well, you have seen my rants on this previously.... they were already sold!

I have played SimCity Build It pretty much every day almost from the very beginning.  Since the epic project, my playing time has significantly reduced.  I have gone 2 days without even logging in to the game.  My frustration with the trading system is so high, that I don't want to be bothered any more.  It is a shame, because I enjoyed the new functionality that has been added. I can only hope that EA will eventually update the trading system.  I haven't given up on the game completely, but I am getting very close.

same frustration for me... they should have put some filtering to get what specific items we want to build the spic building... Im so frustrated as well, I cant even get to silver to farm the 80 items even I bought it all in global HQ... sooooo frustrating

IMHO the GTHQ isn't completely broken but could use some serious improvement. First of all I agree with the the idea of different market place types IE: specialty / manufactured etc. I am not sure who or where I first seen this suggestion, not that it really matters. Although it is a good suggestion. Most of the time I feel that the lack of expansion/specialty items is intentional on the part of EA to force players to use REAL MONEY to buy the items. I have no idea how the random item generator works in the GTHQ but I assume it looks at what you need and gives you 0 to very few of what you need. Then when you are lucky enough to find one 95% of the time it is gone by the time the neighboring city loads.

That brings me to the other frustrating thing about the GTHQ is that after the December update the city load time has at least tripled. As a matter of fact I have even updated to a more powerful device and the load time for most cities is 15 to 45 seconds. so by the time cities load the items are long gone. So in retrospect I would say not having wait for cities to load would be a great thing with the option to go visiting other cities like suggested previously.

Just my two cents

Yes, I agree. The long load times to visit other cities is frustrating. By the time I load a city, the item I was hoping to buy is gone. It is very frustrating. This started after the mountain updates were added.

I would like to see the cool-down timer adjusted.

If you haven't bought anything, there is no timer. You can refresh GTHQ as much as you want. But after you buy something from another town, THEN the 30 second timer is enabled. The timer is kept active for, say, the next 5 minutes. Then the game goes back to unlimited refreshes.

This way, mayors have a chance to find and purchase the item they desire. You still have to deal with The Llamas, but they don't smell too bad.

speaking of epic's... 160 is pretty tough, I have only one bronze epic...

If they aren't going to fix the global Trade HQ's, maybe make it a bit easier to gain gold epic's.