Update rewards

This is a primarily a plea to update the lottery (boosters & loot-o-matic) reward pools to include the (relatively) new permits and to better distribute them. There are of course some things to be said about tweaking the reward chances, but that's been said and said many times already.

Starting with the coastal expansion we were given new permits with a small addition of matching decoration shortly after. I feel those permits are under-represented in the pool. This may be because, it appears, those permits may have been split between boosters and the LOM, and some only appear in one or the other with most in the LOM (more buildings and all the deco as far as I have seen). This may have made sense at the time as the LOM was still new and there was only one other field. Coastal assets weren't added immediately to the boosters, but it didn't take this long and they evidently aren't all there.

A couple small additions of new buildings were added some time later that remain unobtainable other than direct purchase: Brownstone Flats, Contemporary Rondavel, Bioscape Home & Sky Center, Finca, Conservatory Apartment, Hacienda.

And of course, all of the mountain permits. There are also a slew of premium decorations and a couple residences destined for the LOM that are, as far as anyone can tell, completely absent. I'm guessing they weren't announced on the English boards for a reason, but they are plainly visible on others, including the German.

So we've got (names approximate, from German): Snowhill Villa, Renaissance Square, 'Finger Rocks' (appear to be volcanic plugs), Eroded Rocks, Stone Throne, Ski Hut and the Snowboard Ramp (which we can clearly see on the map screen).

Links for reference (I can't easily link directly to most items due to the post structure):

Snowhill Villa (In last post near bottom.)
Renaissance Square
Decorations (Some of the premium items of the last two posts, some of which were previewed via English channels as well.)

I haven't seen a single instance of these being obtained or even seen on the LOM.

Commercial buildings don't seem to be available in boosters. Despite a few comments to the contrary, I've never seen proof. We can get them in the LOM, so why not boosters? Same with power plants. We can get wind farms in boosters and the LOM while coal, solar, and nuclear seem to be restricted to the LOM.

New England Colonials really shouldn't be exclusive to comet packs. Nothing should be, because you'll eventually run out of chances. I suggest putting it in regular boosters like the Sunrise Lofts, or giving us another method to obtain comet medals somehow (perhaps intended with the missing specialists?). It's a nice building, however its stats aren't deserving of its rarity.

And let us not forget our new Modern Private Home. Really, as a non-premium permit with stats identical to the likewise non-premium Designer Duplex, we should have seven free permits to match, but I'd gladly take it in boosters.

Of course, we can (and I have) bought some extras of these permits where and when possible, but this is especially about the missing ones that can't be bought because they appear to be absent. The ones that are at least purchasable directly are a bonus while trying to win the lottery-exclusives, but not being able to get them make trying for the already rare exclusives less appealing as you'll otherwise be getting more and more of what you don't need/want. Most regular, non-premium deco are simply not worth the MM to buy directly. The material gains are less appealing once you obtain a high income. The MM you could win is not an equivalent replacement for permits either and comes less often. There are dozens of permits we should be getting, and a whole seven that seem to be entirely unobtainable in any way.

This is certainly not a new plea, but we can only wait so much. It had already been 1/2 a year since I've opened any boosters, and much longer that these updates are missing. The mountain has been here for a year already, the coast almost two. I really have little intention of opening any more boosters until the pool is updated, and I certainly won't buy into the Street Patrol until then. I'm only saving up the free LOM tokens I get in the meantime as well, as that is where the missing content is to be found.

I suggest others to stop buying into these features for the time being, particularly the Loot-O-Matic as it is missing announced items entirely to the best of available knowledge. Save what medals & tokens you get and profit later, especially as things like CC, XP, goods and materials scale with level, and there are no permits to be gotten above level 41 from boosters as far as I can tell, and even then not everything before can be won. The longer they delay these updates, the better-off those that save their medals & tokens will be when they are put into place.

I know, things happen, but this is pretty unreasonable. Frankly, the items should have been added to the lotteries once the content was introduced, but now it can at least give a much needed boost to the game. These permits need added to the pools at least, and the division of non-exclusive permits between boosters and the LOM should preferably be eliminated.

 

Arsuru well stated argument. I agree completely. Help us please

 

that is a reasonable argument and totally agree but what about us newbie that have not been playing for years {i myself have been playing for 5 months}but i also agree that the LOM{Loot-O-Matic} is unfair for the price of there tickets{59mm} as i usually only get classic improvements and pp and some cc,but once and yes i said once i got a residential tower{was so surprised}.and every 2 days i am buying that 99mm patrol squad.I've gotten some nice stuff out of it, but i think those comet packs r the best{wish i could buy those} but anyways i think i would have problems trying to say my metals{need to add to my city} but i can stop buying those LOM tickets{didn't like them anyways}

 

@city8936 Well, boosters can be very useful early on, especially for brickyard products (hint: if you will level soon, save your medals until then as the rewards may increase). It's up to each individual to decide what to do for themselves and their city, but it's true that a lot of these issues will probably not be an issue to everyone. Level 41 can be attained pretty quickly, though you may still not be able to spend millions on bricks a day. Those that only want high-density buildings for example will be largely unaffected, though water, mountain, and snow residences of the highest densities are also absent from the pool. Well, I guess it's significant enough.

I'm able to forgo them comfortably, so I do. I've made comments about the missing permits here-and-there, but after some time I just want to raise the issue more prominently to the players, as I doubt BP is unaware after a whole year. As the pool is, I'm mostly only missing out on the lottery-exclusives which I'll have the same chance at later. If I use them now I have less chances for new permits.

It should be a simple task to add a few items to a list of rewards, but they've messed up a few times already when it was altered. Despite getting new mods, things are looking pretty desolate lately, so this simple thing would help a lot.

 

I would think this all lies at the root of what appears to be zero development of the game. As always I am in favour of any change that provides greater variety and whether that be in packs you can buy, boosters you can obtain, or via the LAM. Not sure why any of those appear to be mutually exclusive, when the mechanism behind them is probably very similar. This is just another highlight to what appears to be a lack of interest by Bigpoint to develope the game any further. Hopefully that summation is incorrect and everyone at Bigpoint is beavering away on a whole host of new playing fields, new buildings, new Events and generally bringing things up to date.

 

I concur with Sir Cat; well stated, Arsuru...all I can really add is my support

 

Slightly more than one year later:



Imagine I was using the patrol the whole time. Imagine that.

 

I'm against that because update like that serves only relatively small group of TOPs which are already too rich.

 

No, not at all. Many of those items are available before level 30; over a dozen already not including all the missing mountain premiums, starting at level 12. That isn't top-teir at all. That there is no way to obtain them like the majority of the rest of the permits, especially as some of them are missing entirely in any form, is kinda like being cheated. It's an incomplete implementation of an existing feature.

Frankly, I don't see what being a top player has to do with any of this, including being rich, which is easy even at a low level given market prices and an aesthetically focused/non-maximizing play style. Sure, only the highest-level players will have access to some of these permits, but being rich or not in-game isn't relevant as most often you'll be left with MM as your only option to buy even non-premium permits, which can cost more than premium ones because of silly level-based scaling math. Even basic items end up more expensive than more efficient lower-level items, particularly deco, which as far as numbers go, Mystery Building Season 3 trumps all and is much cheaper. One has to be rich personally then to afford those paltry snow decorations.

I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here, but you really should have better arguments than always saying things like "I'm against it because it serves TOPs". A "relatively small group" does not mean "few", though again, this affects people as low as level 12 at least.

 

I think this argument is more than enough, there are not only TOPs or low-levels who play every day, there are other kinds of players, and I think it's not a good idea to let everyone have many "premium", "advanced" buildings.

 

It might be enough, if it were actually the case. As I said, if you'd have paid attention, this doesn't concern only premium or "advanced" permits (not only buildings), but many basic ones even at low-mid levels.

 

If you'd have paid attention, I'm not against "inaccessibility for low levels"
I'm just against receiving "premium" or "additional basic" things on regular basis.
I think this is unfair.

 

No, I've paid well enough attention. This isn't about making it any easier or more accessible or particularly regular: rewards have been updated before with other expansions, it's only normal it be done now. It's unfair that it isn't done already, again, especially as some of these items have been revealed but are absent from the game.

I see RC as a big bucket of Legos: the more pieces you have, the more variety, the more fun and potential challenge. Any difficulty is gone after the early levels, in general, so it's not removing the main challenge, which is easily overcome and then it comes down to a lot of waiting.

 

I don't think that's true because one of the gamedesign commandment tells the contrary: less elements = more "decision space", more fun, more challenge.

 

Blindly following any "commandment" is folly. Less elements can be good, but it depends of what. Usually simpler (or more intuitive) gameplay, UI, controls, etc., are things to strive for. Less building elements in such a game only gives less choice, thus less decisions to make, which gets boring. It's the difference between "Oh, I've built everything" or "What should I build". Design is a large part of the draw, and repetition kills a lot of the joy. I've said this somewhere before, but this isn't like having useless or weapons or spells in an RPG that could be easily removed. You cannot apply a rule equally to every case and expect it to work how you want it to. Look at the justice system.

And your argument is largely irrelevant here because I'm only asking that things that are already in the game, or are supposed to be, are given the same availability that has been applied to other assets in the past; not for new things entirely. There is a fair amount of variety with what is present, but it's at the limit and that is another discussion.

Anyway, I don't think there really is a point in going back-and-forth about this any longer. You can disagree, but it's already a core function of the game so it should at least be consistent. Those that put in the effort should get rewarded, and updating it would also reduce the likelihood of any particular permit, spreading out and slowing gains.