Yes I agree. I have thought that I would buy a little of this and a little of that and now when I sit back and think what I have actually spent it hurts quite a bit as I have spent a small fortune and my city is still not looking that stunning as well as running out of room to put things. When I see some other guys with amazing cities and they are low levels the first thing that comes in to mind is that they must have spent a shed load.
It it probably would not be too bad if they either charged a one off cost like you say or reduced the cost of sim cash as when you look how much you get for real money the value seems a lot of real cash for little sim cash especially as it does not go that far once you start buying a few things.
EA know how to make money so this is the best strategy for them but also the worst cost model for us the end user.
“When I see some other guys with amazing cities and they are low levels the first thing that comes in to mind is that they must have spent a shed load. ”
Everyone is given a slot in CoM, so at low levels there may be thousands of cities in your level but only a few dozen are actually active. As a result competition is weak and ranking high in metropolis or megalopolis league is easy. It’s something learned in hind sight. For example, my main city at level 99 generally needs 100k points to not get demoted from megalopolis league, where as my level 24 city would always place top 3 in megalopolis with that same score and if I have a busy week any score at all on the board is enough to prevent demotion. Winning the first few times will take effort and knowledge, but once you get a capable city with a large inventory and cheetah tokens it becomes much easier.
Yep, it's been a few months since I haven't won at least medium prize in Megalopolis league. I'm at Level 28. It takes simcash to earn simcash. I always buy the Mayors Premium Pass though. Makes COM a lot easier with all those items.
