Epic challenges can be too challenging !!!

[Restville]

SimCity support:  I want to point out that the tasks to obtain the speed up tokens (epic buildings) can be ridiculously challenging (a nice way of saying impossible) -- without lots of help from friends.

I recently encountered the following 12 tasks (the only 12 tasks at that moment).  This was not at the beginning but I ended up here after fulfilling the tasks that I could fulfill)  Notice that every one of these tasks requires something from the farmer's market:

5 bread

4 ice cream

4 cheesecake

5 flour

3 bread

5 milk

5 flour

5 flour

3 yogurt

5 cheesecake

5 smoothie

5 smoothie

That's lists all my available tasks (12) at one point during an epic challenge.

If you break down what is needed from the farmer's market, you'll see why it's not realistic.  At least I already had two stars for the farmer's market so it is 15% faster than the default speed.  Even then ... impossible without help.

48 flours (25:30) - 1,224 minutes

24 milks (1:03) - 1,512 minutes

9 cheeses (1:29) - 801 minutes

22 watermelons (1:16) - 1,672 minutes

10 vegetables (0:17) - 170 minutes

Add that up and it would take 5,379 minutes (over 89 hours - you only get 24 hours to complete the epic challenge).  Well you can't accomplish this without using tokens since you only have 24 hours to complete the epic challenge.  But even with all 12 of the tokens you first get, it's not enough!

The most I've had for any token is right at the very beginning:  Four of each type.

Cheetah = 720 minutes for each hour

Llama = 240 minutes for each hour

Turtle = 120 minutes for each hour

Even if I used all four cheetah, llama, and turtle tokens for 4,320 minutes, I am still 1,059 minutes short (17:39).  Since I would have used 12 hours for the 12 tokens, I would only have 12 hours left (now with no tokens).  Yet, I still need more than 17-1/2 hours to clear through all the tasks.  Not possible since that would be five hours past the 24 hours you get for an epic challenge.

So I ask you, Sim City support:  How are you expecting players to get Cheetah tokens when you're putting an insurmountable barrier in front of them?

For those who don't know:

Turtle - three parts to get a turtle token

Llama - six parts to get a llama token

Cheetah - nine parts to get a cheetah token

I have had no choice but to be very good friends with some people.  Some days they help me and other days I help them.  Otherwise it would be impossible to get cheetah tokens.  The global market is of no help because items from the farmer's market is pretty rare.

Become good friends with others and hope they will help you in return for you helping them.

[Scardabums · Accepted solution]

I actually enjoy the challenge. And no it's not impossible as plenty of people have already made it to cheetah level on the project. With a decent amount of planning, you can make it.

I see time and time again that people start the epic project with practically nothing stockpiled, and then they wonder why they can't make it. My strategy is this: stockpile everything that is rare on the market, or takes forever to make (refrigerators, frozen yogurt, cream etc) and ditch everything that you can manufacture relatively quickly (nails, wood, plastic) as well as things that are super common on the market that you can just buy. Max out the storage to 350, have 150k in simoleons on hand and you should have a fighting chance to make it to 160. 80 would be no problem if you follow this strategy.

Try it out. See if it works. I hope to get my first cheetah token tomorrow once my storage is full (I've been stockpiling for a week now).

[Scardabums · Accepted solution]

I actually enjoy the challenge. And no it's not impossible as plenty of people have already made it to cheetah level on the project. With a decent amount of planning, you can make it.

I see time and time again that people start the epic project with practically nothing stockpiled, and then they wonder why they can't make it. My strategy is this: stockpile everything that is rare on the market, or takes forever to make (refrigerators, frozen yogurt, cream etc) and ditch everything that you can manufacture relatively quickly (nails, wood, plastic) as well as things that are super common on the market that you can just buy. Max out the storage to 350, have 150k in simoleons on hand and you should have a fighting chance to make it to 160. 80 would be no problem if you follow this strategy.

Try it out. See if it works. I hope to get my first cheetah token tomorrow once my storage is full (I've been stockpiling for a week now).

[KrayZGingy]

I personally agree with the OP. The lvls, especially when you first start on those Epic challenges are extremely difficult to get.  Unless you waste a ton of real life money to get the items needed.  

I suggest making them not so challenging the first time or 2. Then raise the difficulty.  

[TroyParry74]

FYI, 10 gold tokens = 1 gold speed-up.

If you're going for gold, you need to be well established in bronze/silver token buildings. You also need good storage, and a good amount of simoleons for shopping.

I do a gold epic project every day (sometimes every 13 hours). I often finish gold in 1 hour, other times I get into situations like the one you described, and it could take me 6 hours.

I do plan ahead though, I try and keep 5 of each item in stock, and often more of the hard-to-find items in GTHQ like Milk, Bread. I do typically have 5 gold speed-up tokens before I start too, it's just all about being prepared. I now have 20 gold epic project buildings, so I pretty much have to use 2 speed-up tokens a day just so I can collect more.

Here's a list of the items I required for my last gold project, it did cost 125,000 Simoleons, with many expensive tasks backed up near the end. I do have 8 x 3 token buildings, and i've deleted as many 1-2 token buildings as possible (so they don't hold the task - you can only have 8 active).

http://answers.ea.com/t5/SimCity-BuildIt-Strategies/Epic-Projects-cost-breakdown/td-p/5107298

FYI, i'm level 55. It's probably cheaper for much lower levels, however you might not have as many 3 token buildings, so it will require more completed tasks and cost more anyway.

Gold epic projects are meant for the cities that have it all, it's kind of an end-game thing for players to work on. I actually like the epic projects and enjoy the challenge. Prior to this update I only had 220 storage (now 350), and crappy specializations.

[l-Sheppard-l]

I continue to feel that one way to balance the Epic Projects is to limit the tiered Tasks to like-tiered items.  By that I mean the following:

• 1 Star Tasks should only require "1 tier" items such as Hammers, Grass, Caps, etc.
• 2 Star Tasks should include "1 tier" items but now include "2 tier" items such asGlue, Grills, Green Smoothies, etc.
• 3 Star Tasks should include all possible "tier" items.

I understand that the quality of Task depends on the quality of building placed in the city, but I don't want duplicate 3 Star Specialization Buildings in my city.  I find such repetition to be tacky and unwanted.  It seems that the current mechanic behind Epic Projects demands that you strive to only place 3 Star buildings, thus limiting the build diversity that I thought this game is trying to encourage.

By fine tuning the Tasks to require more level appropriate items, more mayors can at least participate in striving for Silver Epics, at the least.  (I doubt that Gold could ever be reached, but I don't expect mayors under certain city levels to easily reach Silver nor Gold.  They just don't have the resource production available to do it.)  It would also prevent ridiculous shenanigans such as 1 Star Tasks requesting 4+ of a high production item, even back-to-back or in multiple Tasks simultaneously.  This type of event roadblocks lower lever mayors from moving forward in an Epic Project.  Granted, the Devs have make Bronze level Epic Projects available with only 10 Star points, but I feel that this kind of limitation only hurts the gameplay experience.

I like the Epic Project challenges.  I do strongly feel that they could use some fine tuning to make them more appealing to a broader player base, but maybe that's not what the Devs have in mind.  Maybe these challenges are intended only for the more developed cities to keep those mayors striving to develop their city in a new way that is more applicable in the "end game meta" of SimCity BuildIt, but at the risk of overtly alienating players they just haven't said that.

[Restville]

It's been a few months since I first complained about the epic challenges.

And thanks to the helpful suggestion of "stock up before you start," I've managed plenty of cheetah buildings along the way (and also discovered that the number of pieces to make a token has increased steadily since - now I need 13 pieces to make a cheetah token)..

Having spent all my time on epic buildings has left me with a slight problem:  I'm running out of regular buildings to upgrade.  Epic challenges don't seem to apply to any buildings other than the original building type (Tokyo, London, and Paris buildings have yet to be flagged for epic upgrades)..

[bdietz20]

This is not a proven theory or have i tried to prove it but it seems to me that as you progress through the project tasks will require items you don't have or few of. I always make sure that I have at least 10 each of items that are time consuming to produce or require 2 or 3 time consuming items to produce and I never had a problem getting the gold token. Sure I have had to spend time searching the global trade HQ to buy items but never had too many problems finding them nor did I use a lot of money to buy items to complete the project.. So yes a silver token is really pretty easy to achieve and it is pretty easy to get to that 100-120 point range. It's after that that things get tough but its not impossible.

[Cristalexi]

So you stockpile both items and simoleons which you say has taken you a week just to get 1/9th of a cheetah token. So it will take you 2 months to get the 9 pieces to get 1 token and ultimately 18 months to have enough buildings that will give 5 tokens (which is the maximum) in a 24-hour period. I'm assuming a person would need to dedicate a lot of time to do this. Games should be played in a person's

spare time, not take over the person'so life.

[Scups12]

Preparation and patience are the key here...and the lower your storage level the more difficult the task.

First, work on getting your storage to 500 to the exclusion of everything else. Once you get there, your epic life will be improved exponentially.

Boring? Perhaps...but this game is for turtles not cheetahs. 

[jarodj04]

No this isn't theory this is absolutely true. There's a definite pattern.