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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
9 years ago

What EA needs to do to REALLY FIX the Mayor's Contest

I have been somewhat outspoken regarding the problems with the Mayor's Contest mainly regarding the large discrepancies in available point pools between players in the same league. EA says they have fixed it to make it fair for everyone but from what I'm seeing today I can't tell any difference, in fact it may be worse.

When I first heard of the Mayor's contest I was excited for the opportunity to add new buildings to my city, after all how many Ferris wheels and Washington Monuments does a city need, but to do that  I need Platinum Keys and since winning my Neighborhood League I haven't even had a chance to get close to the winners despite doing all the highest point assignments, but this is not about being a sore loser it is about real improvements to the Contest. If you agree please say so maybe EA will really hear us.

1.   Shorten it 5+ days is too long. Competing in the Mayors Contest all but stops anything else in the game. Everything I enjoyed about the game has to be put on hold to compete and then in the other 1+ days you try to rebalance inventories and just recover from what it takes to compete. A 3 day contest over the weekend would be much better and give people who work a chance to be involved.

2.   Allow us to opt out a week without penalty of dropping a league. I feel compelled to play every week because if I drop I will never get Platinum Key which is my entire motivation for playing, all the other prizes aren't worth the effort. You use more Cheetah Tokens competing than you earn most of the time and I could earn Gold Keys with the Vu Tower without all the aggravation. A player that passes 2 weeks in a row should drop.

3. Contest should be sensitive to time zones it appears some time zones get a big head start because how many player can really play at 2 AM? I'm sure with EAs army of skilled programmers they can figure out how to let each time zone start at the same local time. Tie breakers would be the least total time needed to complete the assignments. Since the current tie breaker is whoever gets to a point total first wins this would be much more equitable.

4. Create pools of assignments with equal point values and similar difficulty then assign each player in the same league an equal number of each from each pool this should elimitate the gross inequities in available points we have seen so far while still giving players choices between quick and easy and high value.

Again just my ideas but if you agree or have others please let EA hear you.

10 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago

    I also think a 5 day contest every week, where you drop a league if you don't participate, is too much.

    About the task balancing, I suspect EA is tinkering a lot. Maybe. No one from EA ever seems to read these posts, or be interested enough to respond to anything.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago

    I gess I'm in the good post to talk about my own experiencing Mayor Contest...

    (sorry for my english-writing, I'm a french guy)

    I was indeed really excited by the Mayor contest... But what is really frustrating is, unless I'm taking lot of time and simoleone and simcash to finish all the best missions given (the best = the ones giving more points), I only have missions 1600 pts 1080 pts, and so, after one or 2 days of contest, I see that the first in the list has allready 31.000 pts and me 7.0000 or 10.000... How that can be possible?

    Right now, I have accomplished 8 missions, I have 20.000, and all new missions generated give only 1080 pts max... And I the the firts players are 33.000 pts... The could'n have done so fast and so faster than me... Impossible...

    It's really frustrating...

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago
    I can understand the need to have variable points. If they had a fixed group of tasks and all players received the same then the total points would all be the same and the contest would be whoever spends more sim cash to finish the top missions faster.

    I agree 5 days is way too long for a contest if they ajdusted the days they would have to adjust a lot more. I see them tinkering with the missions do hopefully they find a nice a balance.

    I also think they need to adjust the rewards this is probably my biggest issue atm. Nobody cares about a few tokens and gold keys the only point of the contest is silver keys. As it is now the only way to get silver keys is to get promoted even in city league only top 8 get a key. They should make the small prize 1 silver key this way even if you don't get promoted you get a key. This makes the challenge worth it and 1 key over a few weeks can get you a prize.
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago
    @Shadowd3mon69 wrote:
    Nobody cares about a few tokens and gold keys the only point of the contest is silver keys. 

    That isn't true in all cases and I'm not the only one.  I don't care about the platinum keys.  I only care about the gold keys.  I would rather them dump the platinum keys as we do not need a 4th currency.  I am intentionally staying in 3rd even though I could have taken over 2nd yesterday.  Both the top 2 haven't moved in 24 hours, but everyone below me has.  I am still watching to ensure I get 8 gold keys and am ready to overtake anyone who may pass me up.  I'm sitting pretty for 3rd.......  Right where I want to be.

    The purpose of the contest has nothing to do with the contest and keys.  The purpose of the contest was to help balance out the market so there is a wider variety of items you would not have been able to buy otherwise and for that, the contest is certainly doing it's job since you could never buy most items from the factory and some other items from commercial stores until the Mayor's Contest.  It has also helped to balance out user action and as a result, most things are actually available to buy when you get there rather than seeing mostly sold signs everywhere you go.  The keys you can get are merely an incentive to play the contest, but this is its purpose.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago


    my ideas:
    The contest can be done as fast as you want, it does not have to take you the whole 5 days. Just speed up the planes and boats, and shazaam you can get through it in a day and a half.

    Since the largest pool of players is in China, it should synch to their time zone. It makes the most business sense. Besides, there is no disadvantage to starting later anyways. I've always caught and passed the leaders in my contests.




  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago

    You sound like one who is not afraid to break out the credit card. Some of us either can't or won't do that to play a game. Please tell how you accelerate the game when you 5 highest point assignments are 51 E Parts, 55 Glass, 56, Feed, another 51 E Parts without your credit card. To top it off none of those gave more than 1250 Pts anyway while the leader in the clubhouse is already over 50,000 after 24 hrs. That is what I was faced with this contest. And at lvl 45 I only have 10 factories.

    I also dispute that the time doesn't matter those of us living I the EST and who work for a living find it difficult to stay up to 2 am to start a contest while those living in PST could easily complete a project and start a long time assignment wake up in the morning and be ahead. Yet there is no way for the EST player to get back those lost 5-7 hours of nothing.

    As for your ability to overtake early leaders that probably has as much to do with your luck in getting generous point pools as anything else you are doing. I find it funny how those who have been getting the upper hand in the assignments look down on those of us who keep drawing the short straw. I bet first time you get screwed you be just like the guy bragging how he won 3 weeks in a row and crying this week how unfair the contest is because even doing every high point assignment he can't crack the top 30.

    This is not the contest they promised there is no strategy, everyone is doing the highest point assignments the only thing that separating the winners from the losers is luck.  Luck in getting the best assignments with the best points in the best order nothing more.

    if they shortened the contest and kept the number of assignments the same people would be forced to decide if they want to take a quick smaller prize or grind out a more lucrative but time consuming one. As it is now everyone is able to complete all the assignments and since their programmers don't seem competent enough to get the points pools competitive it is just a game of chance.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago
    @esch5995 wrote:

    I find it funny how those who have been getting the upper hand in the assignments look down on those of us who keep drawing the short straw. I bet first time you get screwed you be just like the guy bragging how he won 3 weeks in a row and crying this week how unfair the contest is because even doing every high point assignment he can't crack the top 30.

    Been there done that.  I did not move up the first week.  Moved up the 2nd week. Did not move up the 3rd week, moved up the 4th week.  I'm poised to move up this week, but if I don't come close next week, oh well, there's always another week.  They're coming around every week now, so win some loose some.  I only care about the gold keys that can be earned from it right now.  If I can't earn any at all, I'll bail on the contest and work on Epics.  I've said it before and will say it again.....  Stress not about that which you cannot control.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago
    Arcadia0426 "No one from EA ever seems to read these posts, or be interested enough to respond to anything." Oh, believe me their watching everything on this site. I posted this as a "joke" the other day. Must've hit a nerve because I got an Instant response from EA Barry, and he marked it as best answer not me.😂
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago
    On your topic I build epic buildings and play around with the contest. I usually end up after 5 days with a small prize in the town league and 3 new epic buildings. I am more interested in the buildings right now. I can't figure out the contest? I wonder if it's rigged. I know it's for money.
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago
    @esch5995 wrote:

    You sound like one who is not afraid to break out the credit card. Some of us either can't or won't do that to play a game. Please tell how you accelerate the game when you 5 highest point assignments are 51 E Parts, 55 Glass, 56, Feed, another 51 E Parts without your credit card. To top it off none of those gave more than 1250 Pts anyway while the leader in the clubhouse is already over 50,000 after 24 hrs. That is what I was faced with this contest. And at lvl 45 I only have 10 factories.

    I also dispute that the time doesn't matter those of us living I the EST and who work for a living find it difficult to stay up to 2 am to start a contest while those living in PST could easily complete a project and start a long time assignment wake up in the morning and be ahead. Yet there is no way for the EST player to get back those lost 5-7 hours of nothing.

    As for your ability to overtake early leaders that probably has as much to do with your luck in getting generous point pools as anything else you are doing. I find it funny how those who have been getting the upper hand in the assignments look down on those of us who keep drawing the short straw. I bet first time you get screwed you be just like the guy bragging how he won 3 weeks in a row and crying this week how unfair the contest is because even doing every high point assignment he can't crack the top 30.

    This is not the contest they promised there is no strategy, everyone is doing the highest point assignments the only thing that separating the winners from the losers is luck.  Luck in getting the best assignments with the best points in the best order nothing more.

    if they shortened the contest and kept the number of assignments the same people would be forced to decide if they want to take a quick smaller prize or grind out a more lucrative but time consuming one. As it is now everyone is able to complete all the assignments and since their programmers don't seem competent enough to get the points pools competitive it is just a game of chance.

    To speed up the planes and boats only takes 110-130 sim cash per contest, or about $2 dollars worth.

    By speeding these, you can pass the leaders every time, even if you start the following day like I do. It does NOT mean that you will hold 1st place in the end, or even in the top ten (the final score you get it is still a complete luck of the draw), however you don't spend your whole week doing the contest. To me this is well worth the price of a cup of coffee. I do not have the free time to invest like the hard core "no pay till hell freezes over" people do.

    The last two rounds are way more plane/boat/disaster/key heavy, so the EC/Glass/spice/feed I just do by dumping them in just before bedtime and let them produce while I sleep, then blast through the rest of the ones that aren't limited by time on the train ride to work in the morning.

    At first glance it seems like it is a travesty that it is a luck of the draw each week, but no one aside from billionaire Chinese kids, would win otherwise. I think it's worth the extra 2 or 3 loses it takes to get to the top league, when at least you have a chance of ever getting there. I'll take it as it is, vs some more super equitable version that makes it impossible to advance vs the hard core players and the super rich.

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