DaSud wrote:Seems like in the update which fixed the frozen XP bars, EA snuck in something which may as well be just as bad as the XP bars staying frozen, I'm talking about exponentially increasing bonus XP bars.This time around, I noticed my XP bar was a number around 178k. Thought that was just the side effect of leveling up from 27 to 28 and discounted it until I leveled up again today. The number is now 214,410, an increase of around 36k XP, or, an inflation of just over 18%Why is this bad? Power creep. At each bonus level, you get 0.15% worth of town improvement through donuts (assuming you pay the money to guarantee the 3 donuts). This was a fine model with the static bonus level requirements, because with no gain, your town could slowly progress and become more efficient.Obviously, 0.15% improvement in the face of 18% degradation is a landslide shift and a few bonus levels completed will essentially functionally kill off the bonus level system. Given that the amount of purchasable land in Springfield is finite, there will be no way to improve your efficiency (fun fact: if the current degradation continues at the same percent, it will cost roughly 360 donuits, or roughly $25 per level just to continue progressing towards the next level at the same rate).Killed a lot of fun of the game for me, as I liked trying to see how efficient I could get my town.

From what I saw the xp required to gain a bonus level dropped back down to slightly above the level cap required xp.So I think all it does it stop massive bonus level farming between level cap raising. It'll drop back down when lev 29 comes out to a reasonable amount.Also multiplier xp gains essentially decrease the amount of xp required for each bonus level. 300%-400% bonus xp makes that 200k level a lot smaller.

xboxbeta wrote:If you need donuts buy them. No one should ever try and get bonus levels multiple times just to get a couple donuts. Maybe that's your opinion, but there's a lot of us that like power building and seeing how efficient we can get our towns. Not to mention there isn't anything else to do in the endgame, which now essentially no longer exists, unless your idea of fun is artistically arranging your giant magnifying glasses and popsicle towers to spell out inanities in your town to make visitors shout profanities at your design.It's bad game design at it's most basic level. Any game with a level and experience system has to deal with these types of issues, and if the player doesn't feel any sense of progression, they often leave.Linky2g wrote:So I think all it does it stop massive bonus level farming between level cap raising. It'll drop back down when lev 29 comes out to a reasonable amount.What you're calling farming is called playing the game. If there is no purpose to the cash and xp you gain after a certain point, there essentially isn't any reason to open up the game at all except on new content days to dump in a new character or two.Someone who's avatar is from World of Warcraft should understand what's happening here. It's the equivalent of your guild struggling to finish Naxxramas or whatever is current, finally triumphing, then having Blizzard say "yeah we're happy for you, we're gonna let you have your gear, but we're releasing a new expansion TODAY!" and rendering what you just did pointless.I guess I have to thank ole EA though. This is my backpack in TF2 - http://backpack.tf/id/sud_ - it's worth over $4800 US which should show the extent I support the games I like. I've spent around $30-40 on this game and was contemplating spending more, but as a result of this nickle and diming, I'm definitely sure my money is going to go somewhere else.

There are people surprised by this? It makes perfect sense. If they changed the way the level system/bonuses work, it's entirely possible (if not the exactly what's happening) that bonuses levels are now just the NEXT level, with donuts as your reward for getting there early.So it doesn't matter if you're working towards a bonus level, or the next Level, the XP you need to gain increases each time.DaSud wrote:but as a result of this nickle and diming, I'm definitely sure my money is going to go somewhere else.EA made it harder to abuse their system to farm free money? Oh you poor baby.As far as there being nothing to do in the "endgame", that's false. I've been at Max since Halloween, and I'm still stopping in to my city at least 2-3 times a day to adjust how my town looks as new decorations and buildings come in.And I'm still trying to come up with what to do with the Big 3 Landmarks once I have enough money to buy them.

xboxbeta wrote:If you need donuts buy them. No one should ever try and get bonus levels multiple times just to get a couple donuts. Why not its everyone's game and you can play it how you like, I've never brought any as everybody knows and I think that the people who do and get upset over people like me,must be down to the embarrassment suffered from wasting money on this awesome product that suffers so bad to defects and bugs, well all I can say outta it is that every time iam concidering buying donuts there is a bug of some sort and I always jump on here, so you could say iam learning from your misfortunes and feel quite relieved I kept my hand outta my wallet, better not mention the glitch I got it would blow ur a$$ out.

The (eventual) death of bonus levels

brenneryes
12 years ago
jasonicus321 wrote:
I don't see it as a big deal.

For once we agree.
brenneryes
12 years ago
emmcee1 wrote:
What a pain,house farmers make it bs hard to find snakes. Not only that,to me it defeats the purpose of the game,why you trying to make millions and millions if you don't care about your towns appearance. Just so you can buy something else to cram in and farm? Just does not make any sense to me at all. I got no problems with farming if at least it looks like a proper town,with the gardens done and roads and trees etc. not buildings plonked all over place like they fell outta the sky.

House farming is a means to an end, w/e that persons ends may be, if i didnt use the friend bonus then i would have house farmed alot more, i can get that alot of people dont like house farmers but why dont you just delete them and make life easier lol
emmcee1
12 years ago
I just don't see the point if your gonna ram them together like Lego. When you play with that,you build something,not just open the box,empty it on the floor and go "iam done,laters". Like I said you do it properly its no drama, I understand you need to make money. I don't like deleting them as I think everyone needs friends,just hope they fix it up,some have mind you.
sherryt07
12 years ago
The very first bonus levels offered in the game were originally based on increasing xp. They changed it to a static 120k about a week later due to a glitch I think. They must have figured out how to do it correctly now that it is switched back.
brenneryes
12 years ago
emmcee1 wrote:
I just don't see the point if your gonna ram them together like Lego. When you play with that,you build something,not just open the box,empty it on the floor and go "iam done,laters". Like I said you do it properly its no drama, I understand you need to make money. I don't like deleting them as I think everyone needs friends,just hope they fix it up,some have mind you.

I dont think you fully understand.... If it bothers you do something about it instead of trying to tell people how to play, although by saying this im telling you to also do something u dont want to :lol:

There is no proper way of playing. Only how others would like you to play.
emmcee1
12 years ago
I don't think you fully understand,iam just stating my opinion on how it looks, I really couldn't care less if you do or don't. And when I do enter a house farmers town I grab what I can see and leave cant be bothered siphoning through it, so it's all good I don't really care tbh, I think your taking it slightly outta context, and yes it's every bodies game and you play it how ever you want.
brenneryes
12 years ago
emmcee1 wrote:
Like I said you do it properly its no drama

Wen u say stuff like this it can get misconstrued...
caprici424
12 years ago
sherryt07 wrote:
The very first bonus levels offered in the game were originally based on increasing xp. They changed it to a static 120k about a week later due to a glitch I think. They must have figured out how to do it correctly now that it is switched back.

Yup...I don't have a problem with it. As stated before, it's just like increasing level xp, only you get donuts. The amount isn't astronomical (if you're exploiting it, it could be, but whatever) and it keeps the game interesting between updates. Just a short while ago, bonus levels didn't even EXIST, so I think EA is providing the best of both worlds here...keeping loyal players interested and rewarding them for it, and watching out for their own interests with people who exploit the system. Seems fair to me.
DaSud
12 years ago
TRTX84 wrote:

EA made it harder to abuse their system to farm free money? Oh you poor baby.

As far as there being nothing to do in the "endgame", that's false. I've been at Max since Halloween, and I'm still stopping in to my city at least 2-3 times a day to adjust how my town looks as new decorations and buildings come in.

And I'm still trying to come up with what to do with the Big 3 Landmarks once I have enough money to buy them.

That's not called endgame, that's called cosmetics. There's no more game there than trying on a pair of jeans, or transmogrifying your gear if you're into World of Warcraft. The actual "game" to be had in tapped out is in growth, progression, efficiency, and seeing how creatively you can work within the system. Otherwise the game's playable value is little more than a pixellated ant farm; which, if you enjoy that aspect, is fine, but don't bother getting into arguments with people who actually enjoy the other aspect of the game.

Be quiet with your numbers and stats , no one cares.just enjoy

I would advise you to take your own advice. The adults are talking here kiddo, go outside and play.

What a pain,house farmers make it bs hard to find snakes

House farmers with bad designs, maybe. In the 100 or so friends I have, though, the house farmers are the least of the worries, the actual problems are the people with terrible town design, where their houses obstruct vision of the roads. THOSE are the towns where finding the snakes is a nightmare.

As far as my town goes, I placed no less than three snake speakers for people visiting to use. Out of all those friends, I think I'm only 1/5 of people who actually have snake speakers.

Yup...I don't have a problem with it. As stated before, it's just like increasing level xp, only you get donuts. The amount isn't astronomical (if you're exploiting it, it could be, but whatever) and it keeps the game interesting between updates. Just a short while ago, bonus levels didn't even EXIST, so I think EA is providing the best of both worlds here...keeping loyal players interested and rewarding them for it, and watching out for their own interests with people who exploit the system. Seems fair to me.

How exactly is the system being "exploited"? You do realize that with a high efficiency, maxed out town area farm, spending a lot of time selling buildings to work off the excess money, you're going to level maybe once a day? To put it simply, 3 donuts a day is hardly exploitative. Especially when a decent piece of premium content costs 90-120 donuts these days. So basically you're spending hours of your life a day gathering and selling, to earn yourself the equivalent of 33-55 cents. Yeah, highway robbery at it's finest.

I simply cannot agree with the change so long as the town area is finite. The natural idea would be to allow Springfield to expand indefinitely to allow for more progression and to combat the diminishing returns of the xp increases, however, considering they just had to remove a 3000 object cap to accommodate whacking day I don't think that's going to be possible with the current game engine. I can't really think up any clever alternative ideas other than this though.
caprici424
12 years ago
DaSud wrote:

How exactly is the system being "exploited"? You do realize that with a high efficiency, maxed out town area farm, spending a lot of time selling buildings to work off the excess money, you're going to level maybe once a day? To put it simply, 3 donuts a day is hardly exploitative. Especially when a decent piece of premium content costs 90-120 donuts these days. So basically you're spending hours of your life a day gathering and selling, to earn yourself the equivalent of 33-55 cents. Yeah, highway robbery at it's finest.

I simply cannot agree with the change so long as the town area is finite. The natural idea would be to allow Springfield to expand indefinitely to allow for more progression and to combat the diminishing returns of the xp increases, however, considering they just had to remove a 3000 object cap to accommodate whacking day I don't think that's going to be possible with the current game engine. I can't really think up any clever alternative ideas other than this though.

You do realize that, however you choose the play the game, that's not how everyone plays it, right? Get a little perspective. Obviously playing normally is not exploiting...I'm referring to those that have millions of dollars through exploiting the increasing friend xp and were farming out decorations to get the xp and thus level up quickly and repeatedly. THAT is exploiting, and unfortunately in a game such as this, a few ruin it for the many.