Great Works Bug

This is a bug that's been around for a long long time. I'm not certain if it's ever been fully, successfully patched, although building the great works is a lot smoother than it used to be. It basically comes down to server synchronization across your cities. Here are some things I know, hopefully something helps:

First, probably not the problem if you and your buddies have traded anything, but be aware in large regions with multiple GW sites, not all cities see or can build the same GW. So verify that you're all looking at the same GW site in the region. 

Depending on server load, processing power, "Sim-time", etc - it can take a long time for the game synchronize across the entire region. If everyone is actively playing, try to stay relatively in the same time frame, at least while you're attempting the GW. By time frame, I mean if City A is running full tilt cheetah speed and is at year 5, but City B is on year 2 and City C just got claimed, City B and City C may have to run a long while before they "see" what's happening in City A. 

You can try to force the game to save synchronization by having everyone log out of the game. It will force a server save, and hopefully all regions will have the same view when you log back in.

If more than one person (city) clicked "Build It" on the Great Works, even if they clicked to build the same one, you're pretty much screwed. Think of it as overlapping saves, it shouldn't confuse the server, but it does. If both of the other cities that see the solar array clicked "build it", they are probably going to end up sending resources to "different" solar arrays. And DEFINITELY DO NOT CLICK BUILD IT ON THE AIRPORT!  The name of the game should be "Patience CityGamer" 

If you and your buddies decide that the region is bugged, you might just want to cut your losses, abandon the region and start another. I am completely certain you can avoid this bug by having one city build the GW while no one else is logged in. I usually only play single player offline mode, and I can build a GW site with one city. Then, after it completes, log in to other cities and eventually I'll get the message that the GW site has been started, then it will go through the building stages and finally ask me to cut the ribbon. It doesn't matter where in Sim-time the other cities are, and the GW site will do the same thing for any newly claimed city in that same GW part of the region. But, that's pretty stupid for a multi-player online.

Your option is probably to keep all cities at approximate same age, have one city click the Build It button and start the construction while the others are offline. Once the starting city has successfully begun the construction, the other mayors log in and just wait until they see the message that construction on the GW has begun. Then co-ordinate. Don't click on any buttons, wait for your city to update and say that the GW has started, watch the process and catch up to the beginning city. Then if everyone has resources to supply, try to have each city supplying a different resource (otherwise the server might have problems synching the delivery amounts). At each stage, everyone log out to synch up the progress, then log back in and go through all the stages this way. Don't claim any new cities until the GW is completed. Any cities you claim after it's been built will eventually see the construction process of the GW, don't do anything but let it build and then cut the ribbon.

It's painful even for me to suggest it. I really hope that your region has already synched up and you can avoid everything I just wrote. 🙂