Friend Visit Payouts

PhoenicianSn wrote:
Maybe someone posted this already, but what happened to the gradual increase in payouts when visiting friends? Before the Valentines Day update, with each visit to your friend's towns, the per building payout would gradually increase. That made payouts interesting with each continuous daily visit, and incentivized players to increase their friends base. Now I have about 80 or so friends, not that I am complaining on the count, or bragging for that matter, but visiting town to town for 18 dollar redundant payouts seems more tedious than rewarding in between holiday patches when the only reward is the money collected.

Please EA, reinstitute the progressive payout increase with each visit. It at least makes visiting countless friends interesting rather than tenuous, and also may incentivize players to continually seek additional friends over and above the singular purpose of netting larger holiday patch rewards. That way, players are rewarded on and off holiday patches.

Anyone with me on this? :roll:

Absolutely not.

They took it away because of a friend glitch that made people millions in a matter of hours

Wasn't aware of any glitches on the payouts, but money payout glitches are not as big of a financial issue to EA compared to Donut glitches where they actually lose money. I understand a glitch is a glitch and thus poses a need to rectify the problematic code, but honestly, what difference does it matter to EA as a business when a player finds a means to cheat the cash when the cash is free to boot? Meaning, the game is free, the cash generated from the game can only get the player so far, while taking advantage of glitches netting the player Donuts actually does pose a financial threat to the Publisher.

Notwithstanding this position, I was not aware that there was a glitch on the friend payouts resulting in EA patching the code to remove the payout progression. I still would like them to bring it back though. Why not?

PhoenicianSn wrote:
Wasn't aware of any glitches on the payouts, but money payout glitches are not as big of a financial issue to EA compared to Donut glitches where they actually lose money. I understand a glitch is a glitch and thus poses a need to rectify the problematic code, but honestly, what difference does it matter to EA as a business when a player finds a means to cheat the cash when the cash is free to boot? Meaning, the game is free, the cash generated from the game can only get the player so far, while taking advantage of glitches netting the player Donuts actually does pose a financial threat to the Publisher.

Notwithstanding this position, I was not aware that there was a glitch on the friend payouts resulting in EA patching the code to remove the payout progression. I still would like them to bring it back though. Why not?

At the risk of sounding self-centered, I didn't really care about the effect of the glitch on EA. I don't think anyone did. I cared about how it affected *me*. The manner in which the glitch was exploited (and its effect on the game servers) was widely held to be one of the causes of the game's instability at that time.

KrustyBrand wrote:

PhoenicianSn wrote:
Wasn't aware of any glitches on the payouts, but money payout glitches are not as big of a financial issue to EA compared to Donut glitches where they actually lose money. I understand a glitch is a glitch and thus poses a need to rectify the problematic code, but honestly, what difference does it matter to EA as a business when a player finds a means to cheat the cash when the cash is free to boot? Meaning, the game is free, the cash generated from the game can only get the player so far, while taking advantage of glitches netting the player Donuts actually does pose a financial threat to the Publisher.

Notwithstanding this position, I was not aware that there was a glitch on the friend payouts resulting in EA patching the code to remove the payout progression. I still would like them to bring it back though. Why not?

At the risk of sounding self-centered, I didn't really care about the effect of the glitch on EA. I don't think anyone did. I cared about how it affected *me*. The manner in which the glitch was exploited (and its effect on the game servers) was widely held to be one of the causes of the game's instability at that time.

Totally agree there. Visiting friends was pretty much sure way to disconnect for me.

NeoSEC28 wrote:
They removed it due to people working the system and taking advantage BIG TIME! lol

Im not really bothered they took it away tbh, as you can make enough money with your own town day to day, as for visiting friends it mainly about being a good neighbour and checking out their towns out as people can really have some great designs :D

Exactly, :-) doesn't really bother me as I didn't use the 'glitch'

tbuddy442 wrote:

KrustyBrand wrote:

PhoenicianSn wrote:
Wasn't aware of any glitches on the payouts, but money payout glitches are not as big of a financial issue to EA compared to Donut glitches where they actually lose money. I understand a glitch is a glitch and thus poses a need to rectify the problematic code, but honestly, what difference does it matter to EA as a business when a player finds a means to cheat the cash when the cash is free to boot? Meaning, the game is free, the cash generated from the game can only get the player so far, while taking advantage of glitches netting the player Donuts actually does pose a financial threat to the Publisher.

Notwithstanding this position, I was not aware that there was a glitch on the friend payouts resulting in EA patching the code to remove the payout progression. I still would like them to bring it back though. Why not?

At the risk of sounding self-centered, I didn't really care about the effect of the glitch on EA. I don't think anyone did. I cared about how it affected *me*. The manner in which the glitch was exploited (and its effect on the game servers) was widely held to be one of the causes of the game's instability at that time.

Totally agree there. Visiting friends was pretty much sure way to disconnect for me.

I had a different experience. The progressive bonus didn't make my game less stable. In fact, I'm much more likely to crash when visiting friends now (though only about once a day, following the Green Screen).

The fact that the progressive bonus/friends glitch/what-have-you generated payouts so out of line with the game's price structure, and that it was ultimately removed does suggest that it was an unplanned and undesired (on EA's part) coding side-effect or error. But I'm not convinced that it was one of the causes of the stability problems.

That said, I'm not sad to see it go. At first it was exciting to score all that extra cash, but it was a TON of work. It became a grind, and sucked the fun out of the game. After a few rounds I stopped doing it, but was nagged at by the knowledge that I was leaving so much money on the table. When the bonus disappeared, it was actually a relief.

Now I'm back to looking around my friends' towns and re-designing my own, and having more fun. My only regret is that the whole thing may have influenced EA to put those crazy price tags on the escalator, skyscraper, and magnifying glass, only one of which I like, but all of which I'll buy because I'm an obsessive completist (please, oh please, let the mausoleum be offered again next Halloween!).

I'm not sure about the veracity of the claims that the issue caused severe instability either; I have not read anything to date, and within the parameters of my research, that corroborates these statements. Although, that does not necessarily mean that the problem didn't exist or didn't contribute to client crashes and server instability as claimed. The only issue I had read causing severe instability to the point of consistency with client and server crashing is the problem with the Silent Bob character.

Regardless of either position, I am happy that the subject presents a good topic of discussion and to experience contributions tendering both sides of the argument. Some people have offered great insight with their position, even those who have offered a meager two word conclusion. Without question, each person subjectively enjoys different aspects of the game, and it is interesting to learn of each individual's experience.

For me, part of my enjoyment was aiming to increase my friend base as a result of the increasing payouts with each visit. Now, although I do visit friends daily to vandalize their buildings in an effort to contribute towards each friend's maintenance of the respective trait relative to that action with their Conformity Meter, the process does not feel as rewarding with the lack of any holiday patch rewards.

Nevertheless, I greatly appreciate everyone's contributions! Keep 'me coming!

I used the glitch a few times, but it was too much work. Don't really mind that it's gone. I do think EA should apply our individual premium bonus multiplier to when we visit neighbors.