WTF is Up With OMEGA Building Price Gouging?

[l-Sheppard-l]

Someone help me understand why the OMEGA service buildings, such as Power, Water, Sewage, and Waste Management, increase by 10,000 NeoSimoleons after every purchase, yet they provide the same value of service.

I WAS planning on upgrading all of my services across the board, but I'll be doing good to upgrade those services for a single OMEGA neighborhood over the next month+, let-alone my entire city.  Even the ControlNet & Drones services increase as well.  I've been able to buy 3 Small ControlNet Towers and the next one that I MIGHT try to buy will cost 32,400 NeoSimoleons.

WHY ARE THESE BUILDINGS COSTING MORE IF THEY ARE NOT PROVIDING INCREASED SERVICES?!!

This is just dumb!  There's no reason for these buildings to become increasingly more expensive to buy for our cities to grow.  Especially when that extra cost doesn't come with extra service coverage.  Imagine buying 3 plain, cheese pizzas where the 1st costs $5, the 2nd [same style pizza] costs $15, and the 3rd [same style pizza] costs $25.   That's $45 of textbook gouging.  Just like the OMEGA buildings in this update.

...Talk about taking the hope for fun of upgrading my city right out of the game.

I am very, very discouraged by this.

[180484iain]

Absolutely.

A truly disheartening game dynamic, one which the devs seem not be fussed about.

This style of play was introduced in the Epic building dynamic, the more you build, the more you need to create one token but then hits a roof.

Not the best actually but forces you to think about what buildings you need.  For example, one tower is probably enough, but maybe 3 small control nets and 2 med, 1 large would be more cost effective than 3 large.

[l-Sheppard-l]

Understandable.  After all that's the allure of the SimCity franchise, how creative can you be with maximizing you resources and real estate to develop your own, custom virtual city.

The thing is, my city is specifically tailored to support 10 neighborhoods consisting of 16 residences per block.  I HAVE to have 4 Small ControlNet Towers at the corners of each neighborhood to support the full compliment of buildings.  If my 4th  ControlNet is going to cost 32,400 NeoSimoleons...  I'm too discouraged to even entertain the thoughts of trying to create a second, much less the third OMEGA neighborhood that I initially planned for upon receiving the latest update.

[pengamia]

C'mon, it is obviously a new horizon for those who already have everything standard the game offers: now you again can look forward to achieveing something which is still out of your reach!

[josepootler]

I had the same plans for my utilities and am equally discouraged. I make about 2200 neosimoleans per day, but have bank caps that I'll have to remove to get to 20,000 in the bank. At this rate it will take a significant amount of time to reach 20,000.

[Kencito69]

I agree.  It's a RUDE surprise.

I don't want the game to be easy, but it's freakin' hard to increase the Neobank capacity and the Omega storage.  Now, having the NeoMall hang on the same products makes the whole Omega experience very disappointing.  I had just succeeded in enlarging the bank capacity when the new prices kept me from being able to purchase a single one of the utility buildings.

The game as a whole is a fun concept, but it seems like a rapidly growing number have just resorted to hacking it so they can build whatever they want.  IMHO, that makes it less fun for all of us.  And it's not like the Omega buildings even look that cool.  Other than ticking off the contest challenges, I don't really see the point to them.

EA, FYI, my strongest motivator to play is to build an interesting and beautiful city.  I'd be personally interested in more visual enhancements.  How about being able to build custom lakes, ponds, rivers, San Antonio style river walks, etc...in otherwords, getting us closer to the city we see on the startup screen?

[180484iain]

new update is set to include lakes

[yohanstrauss]

Just found out about this now when I was about to upgrade my omega utility buildings. It's just so rude and greedy, EA! It's hard enough to expand the Neobank and now the prices double up for the same capacity. To be honest, if I was just playing the game purely out of the sake of designing cities, I would never make neo buildings they're so ugly. It's like they were designed in the 2000s. 

[zoomzoom72]

A way around expanding your neo bank.  Max out your bank. When you sell omega items your bank takes the neosimoleons.  My limit is 25000 and i've had over 60000 in my bank this way.

[219Daylight1319]

I’ve been playing this game for over 5 years now. It just seems to me that the game developers indeed do not care what is written in this space.  It may be a good place to vent, but not to expect change. I recently sent in a help ticket concerning Omega services. The response I got back included this phrase, “Anything you achieve in the game is server based. Also, Omega homes need special kinds of services to keep them powered to the highest level.” Now I just gotta ask again.  Will someone out there actually describe which special kinds of services this is.  It is implied in the email I recieved from someone named Binod that the control net towers and drones are these special services. OK.  But even if I buy that nonsense, the thing the game devs have done is cap the prices of each control net to 300Kneo. And since the price of each will rise to that level if you keep buying that “control net service” even the small 4 home tower will be outrageously expensive. Why would I buy a 4 home tower, when I can buy a 20 home tower for the same price?  That is issue number one.

Issue number two is that none of that has to do with Power,Water,Sewage, Waste Management (PWSWM). How idiotic to make each one of these services go up 10K a pop when you buy one, when the actual “special services” have a cap of 300k? Right now I have bought enough Omega Sewage treatment plants that my next one will cost 370kneo.  But what if like any good Mayor I want to replace all my sewage services with Omega Sewage service? In 4 more Sewage buildings my cost is 400k? WTF is right. Talk about unrealistic aspects of a game that is pretty sophisticated in so many ways… being just idiotic in others… this is it. My bank is at 400k.  My total daily neo income. Is 123k. Theoretically, at 300k cap for each service, in time I could replace all my services, creating space for all the frilly little buildings they offer in the CoM seasons.  But it isn’t capped, I can’t replace all my services EVER!  It just gets so out of proportion, that it is extremely frustrating.

Issue number three is how stupid that the development of Omega items for updating buildings is so random.  When everything else in the game is so precise. I’m fine with an assignment in CoM that requires making 59 sacks of grain. I have a mechanism to do this. I am in control of how I do it.  But, there is no control over Omega items at all. What comes out is random. Additionally, there is no way to buy or sell Omega items you might need to other players. STUPID!!! STUPID !!! STUPID!!! I wanted to eventually build a high-tech city, all Omega, rails, services, the works. This is not only impossible, it makes the game not so fun for me anymore.  I guess I’ll spend my mad money on WTG Gold instead of SimCityBuildit… because this is just dumb.

If anyone at EA wants to talk to a mature, 68 year old man, who has been around high-tech since the 80’s, understands gaming and what people want… well here I am. You have my email. You know how to get in touch with me. I just don’t want to play your silly game anymore when I have no control over the outcome.  This game is a great way to pursue creative thinking, but the Omega aspect of this game is so random and uncontrollable that most of the people in my club feel exactly as I do.  What is it going to take for you guys to listen to the actual customer and modify the game so it’s fun again?