Pizza Payout in EAland

[imported_MooMooLand]

What happend to pizza payout in EAland, yesterday our team got 9bonus, and later that evening it lowerd to 4, and the base payout is lower too??

 

[Guest]

I bet that's part of the dynamic payouts they were talking about on the blog, where payouts would be altered based on the number of people using the object. Seems alot of people are using pizza machines, so with dynamic payouts it would make sense that the payout would go lower until people shifted to a different object for a while. That's one thing that was a turn-off for me when I read it, since I usually only like pizzaing and jamming, so I'd hate to be forced to use something else. On the other hand, I guess it will prevent everybody from having jam houses and nobody having any other kind of money object house for those who do like other things besides jam and pizzaing. I can see a real benefit for code especially, since in the production cities it had gotten to the point that the code machine was almost unused, with maze not used a whole lot more than that, everywhere you went was pizza pizza pizza which is only good for those of us that like it in the first place and can find a decent IM team

 

[Guest]

it had gotten to the point that the code machine was almost unused

Someone should do band. I'd love to know how much band pays since band was totally unused in the production cities.

*wonders if the dev's snuck dynamic payouts into EA Land*

*also wonders if we have come up with a mutually agreeable abbreviation for 'EA Land'*

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

it had gotten to the point that the code machine was almost unused

Someone should do band. I'd love to know how much band pays since band was totally unused in the production cities.

*wonders if the dev's snuck dynamic payouts into EA Land*

*also wonders if we have come up with a mutually agreeable abbreviation for 'EA Land'*

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes dynamic payouts are in EA Land, everything can be changed live now.

Abbreviations...maybe we should start a suggestion thread?

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

it had gotten to the point that the code machine was almost unused

Someone should do band. I'd love to know how much band pays since band was totally unused in the production cities.

*wonders if the dev's snuck dynamic payouts into EA Land*

*also wonders if we have come up with a mutually agreeable abbreviation for 'EA Land'*

[/ QUOTE ]

Gosh, its been a LONG time since I had creativity beyond the level of serenade, and I only make money with skills that are at least 15+ but preferrably closer to maxed, so I dunno. Seems like it was a pretty good payout though. What killed the band object for most players that were initially enthused by it was that damn buzz note that made you lose every bit of the payout you'd earned getting a long string. The only people I met that really liked it was people that played it with their own 4 sims, so they didnt run the risk of wanting to strangle somebody that hit the buzz note and made them lose their take.....if they hit it themselves they had only themselves to blame LOL. I bet if they removed the buzz note, some popularity would be rejuvenated back into it.....especially since creativity, charisma and body (seemslike that's right?) are all popular skills to study, with creativity being the most popular since almost everybody wants/needs serenade, and some in TC3 were even skilling higher than 8 to make money with typewriter, so it'd be awesome to be able to have 2 things to make money with that skill. Charm and body skillers would have 2 objects too, not counting the telemarketing machines and pinatas, since few use those: the band machine + pizza, and body players could also code with their maxed skill.

 

[mariotso]

shouldn't they post when they make changes?

had i known, i could have stuck with painting and not bothered to look for and finally find a pizza team only to learn first hand that payouts had been slashed.

it's all rather creepy imagining them watching us and making adjustments willy nilly.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

shouldn't they post when they make changes?

had i known, i could have stuck with painting and not bothered to look for and finally find a pizza team only to learn first hand that payouts had been slashed.

it's all rather creepy imagining them watching us and making adjustments willy nilly.

[/ QUOTE ]

From what I've read...this is going to be the future whether we like it or not. So far all we're seeing is the decreases, but according to Luc we will eventually see fun little increases:

"We want to use this capability to add some real time fun in the game. For example we could have a “gym” hour when skilling for body would be twice as effective. Or a Jamming Session for music and creative skills." (TSO-E Blog)

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

shouldn't they post when they make changes?

had i known, i could have stuck with painting and not bothered to look for and finally find a pizza team only to learn first hand that payouts had been slashed.

it's all rather creepy imagining them watching us and making adjustments willy nilly.

[/ QUOTE ]

They told us a long time ago that dynamic payouts were going to go hand in hand with the dynamic pricing....that's how those of us that answered knew what was going on. I'm not sure if it was said here, but I know it was said on the blog, which I do understand alot of people choose not to read, but that's the major source of up-to-date information, other than hearing it in the pub in TC3, isn't it?

 

[Guest]

dynamic payouts are in EA Land

I'm assuming the changes are manual right now. This could be a problem later on as people with bots wait for Sarah to go home, at which time they could start churning out Simoleans using the highest payout object. Sarah would come back the next day and find the economy completely out of whack.

Adjustments could be automated, but that would be some programming feat.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

This could be a problem later on as people with bots wait for Sarah to go home

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't remember the exact wording but I'm sure it's been stated that the team is working on eliminating the bot problem. I would think that after this is done, it won't be much of a problem. I don't think the concept of changing payouts in real-time is going to make or break the economy...I think it's more along the lines of fine-tuning an already stable economy.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

dynamic payouts are in EA Land

I'm assuming the changes are manual right now. This could be a problem later on as people with bots wait for Sarah to go home, at which time they could start churning out Simoleans using the highest payout object. Sarah would come back the next day and find the economy completely out of whack.

Adjustments could be automated, but that would be some programming feat.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting point....I figured the botters would be out and about pretty quick with EA Land's launch, but didn't have any concept of how they could do it. Your theory does sound plausible though.

Of course, if they really do track which money objects are the most used, even if it's manual, then the next morning when the numbers are looked at, botting would stick out like a sore thumb since the numbers would be ALOT higher, unless the botter had all the bots that did all 4 group money objects, and spread it out a bit so that the earning would be split up amongst the 4 categories and not all into one. It wouldn't be obvious WHO was doing the botting, but it would be obvious that it was going on if it was all on one object, and from that point all they'd have to do is watch the people that everybody already knows bot, and chances are they'd end up nailing the culprit, unless the guy was an unknown to the PTB.

Still, seems like you've uncovered a major loophole in the system

. The only good thing is that ATM machines aren't available in EA Land *yet* so anybody that does it now, is jumping the gun and will get caught before they are allowed to sell the simoleans back to EA. Those simolens could still flood the new economy, but they couldn't be sold back to EA for RL profit, they'd have to be sold to individual players, and then the players might sell them back to EA. Almost sounds like RL money laundering....sheesh lol.

 

[imported_SimTripps]

I don't know about all of you, but I'll be sure glad once the merge happens and we can all finally play in a consistent, permanent land again! All this testing, uprooting, the merges, rumors, hype, ARGH! It's discombobulating lol.. It's like a nightmare where you're trying to get back home, and once you get there, your home is gone lol...

 

[Guest]

An old curse, Sim....

"May you live in interesting times......"

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I don't know about all of you, but I'll be sure glad once the merge happens and we can all finally play in a consistent, permanent land again! All this testing, uprooting, the merges, rumors, hype, ARGH! It's discombobulating lol.. It's like a nightmare where you're trying to get back home, and once you get there, your home is gone lol...

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen to that! Especially the bug that isn't allowing our returning players into EA Land. That to me is a huge hinderance in the revitalization efforts of the game. I wonder if they've found out what's causing the problem, and at least know how to fix it, if not when it will be fixed, since I have heard no ETA on when that issue should be resolved

 

[Monkeybear]

I just played a round a payouts were lower. A small pizza got me $12 when I usually got $24

 

[Guest]

This isn't looking good, if they can't find a solution to the botters I can see us having to do pizza or any other item all day just to be able to tile our kitchen floor.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I just played a round a payouts were lower. A small pizza got me $12 when I usually got $24

[/ QUOTE ]

When that happens, try the different multi-player objects to see which one is currently giving out the most payout, that one will be the least one currently being used overall. This makes skilling tricky, but for instance max charm will let you play both maze and pizza with just the one skill, and if memory serves me correctly, band too. That means you can lock that skill, and still get another 20 skill points in whichever skill you want, whether it's 8 creativity and 12 cooking so you can both give serenades and do jams when everybody's doing jams, or personally I like getting max creativity, since the typewriters are good also, and there's usually been a really popular typing house that always has max payouts. The single player objects are also affected by the dynamic payouts though, so it's a good idea to have some skill in more than one skill, like the 8 creativity and 12 cooking, or the 8 points somewhere else if you're one who does not wish to have serenade. This is what is gonna make getting locks by entitlement days so neat.....most of us will have more than we do by sim age currently, so we can skill in more different skills and can therefore handle the dynamic payouts better, because we won't be stuck without being able to make money if the skill we 'specialize' in is currently having the lowest payout.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I just played a round a payouts were lower. A small pizza got me $12 when I usually got $24

[/ QUOTE ]

When that happens, try the different multi-player objects to see which one is currently giving out the most payout, that one will be the least one currently being used overall. This makes skilling tricky, but for instance max charm will let you play both maze and pizza with just the one skill, and if memory serves me correctly, band too. That means you can lock that skill, and still get another 20 skill points in whichever skill you want, whether it's 8 creativity and 12 cooking so you can both give serenades and do jams when everybody's doing jams, or personally I like getting max creativity, since the typewriters are good also, and there's usually been a really popular typing house that always has max payouts. The single player objects are also affected by the dynamic payouts though, so it's a good idea to have some skill in more than one skill, like the 8 creativity and 12 cooking, or the 8 points somewhere else if you're one who does not wish to have serenade. This is what is gonna make getting locks by entitlement days so neat.....most of us will have more than we do by sim age currently, so we can skill in more different skills and can therefore handle the dynamic payouts better, because we won't be stuck without being able to make money if the skill we 'specialize' in is currently having the lowest payout.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry but I find all this absolutely unecceptable. I play code with 3 accounts. I play it not only for the payouts but because I like code. Are we now expected to change our game play and skills to be able to play this game. What about locks, this will make it much harder for new and returning players as they only have 20 locks. Players with older sims will be able to switch back and forwards easily, but it means new players will be skilling constantly. Likely before they get skilled to a suited skill it will have changed again as all the older sims would have been cashing in on the higher paying items already.
No sorry, this sucks.

 

[imported_Dali Dalinza]

<blockquote><hr>

Sorry but I find all this absolutely unecceptable. I play code with 3 accounts. I play it not only for the payouts but because I like code. Are we now expected to change our game play and skills to be able to play this game. What about locks, this will make it much harder for new and returning players as they only have 20 locks. Players with older sims will be able to switch back and forwards easily, but it means new players will be skilling constantly. Likely before they get skilled to a suited skill it will have changed again as all the older sims would have been cashing in on the higher paying items already.
No sorry, this sucks.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the expectation is that you will face the fact that skilling and working will be as frustrating as you have detailed in your post. Why spend your precious game time not only trying to earn money, but trying to figure out the daily "best pay" strategy. Buying simoleans will allow you to bypass all the dynamics (read: hurdles) of earning simoleans. Simple solution, yes?

 

[imported_Gracie Nito]

With 4 sims at your disposal for a new paying subscriber, I would suggest skilling each sim for different money objects. That way you always have one sim that can earn a decent living on any given day. What to skill and what to spend your precious locks on has become more of a strategy.

 

[Roger Wilco]

<blockquote><hr>

I think the expectation is that you will face the fact that skilling and working will be as frustrating as you have detailed in your post. Why spend your precious game time not only trying to earn money, but trying to figure out the daily "best pay" strategy. Buying simoleans will allow you to bypass all the dynamics (read: hurdles) of earning simoleans. Simple solution, yes?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yep. They'll fine tune it of course, but the decision they want players to end up making to end the frustration of making money is to simply buy simoleans. It will be interesting to see if this revenue model works with TSO players, or not.

 

[imported_Dali Dalinza]

<blockquote><hr>

With 4 sims at your disposal for a new paying subscriber, I would suggest skilling each sim for different money objects. That way you always have one sim that can earn a decent living on any given day. What to skill and what to spend your precious locks on has become more of a strategy.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, you figure that each day we will need to figure out where the money is and determine our sim-of-the-day? Bless you, you've more enthusiasm and patience than I.

It sure seems that by "fixing" the economy we are moving towards a game that is primarily about rat racing -- with no light (or retirement) at the end of the tunnel. (Oh, wait -- I do see a light! <font color=red>A - T - M </font color=red> )

 

[imported_Gracie Nito]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

With 4 sims at your disposal for a new paying subscriber, I would suggest skilling each sim for different money objects. That way you always have one sim that can earn a decent living on any given day. What to skill and what to spend your precious locks on has become more of a strategy.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, you figure that each day we will need to figure out where the money is and determine our sim-of-the-day? Bless you, you've more enthusiasm and patience than I.

It sure seems that by "fixing" the economy we are moving towards a game that is primarily about rat racing -- with no light (or retirement) at the end of the tunnel. (Oh, wait -- I do see a light! <font color=red>A - T - M </font color=red> )

[/ QUOTE ]

Give it a break. I began this game as a beta sim when life was so much harder than it is now. We had no trade interactions. We had no stores with discounted prices. We had no friggin skill locks! Even with all of that, within 6 months of playing the game, I had more simoleans than I ever realy needed. Within a year everyone had more than they needed and began just giving it away to new players outright or in the form of payouts.

I plan to retire, just as I've retired many times over in the past 5 years. It's really not that difficult.

 

[imported_Spaghetti Legs]

<blockquote><hr>

I began this game as a beta sim when life was so much harder than it is now. We had no trade interactions. We had no stores with discounted prices. We had no friggin skill locks! Even with all of that, within 6 months of playing the game, I had more simoleans than I ever realy needed. Within a year everyone had more than they needed and began just giving it away to new players outright or in the form of payouts.

I plan to retire, just as I've retired many times over in the past 5 years. It's really not that difficult.

[/ QUOTE ]

You've got that right, Gracie. I remember finally saving up and buying a bull for $45,000 or so (?). Straight out of the catalog and payouts didn't even exist! I don't even want to know how many potions I made to buy it. And guess what?! It was fun!

I think anything they add to this game that makes it more challenging will be an improvement. It's too easy! And if a sim chooses to make never using the ATM a challenge, go for it!

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I began this game as a beta sim when life was so much harder than it is now. We had no trade interactions. We had no stores with discounted prices. We had no friggin skill locks! Even with all of that, within 6 months of playing the game, I had more simoleans than I ever realy needed. Within a year everyone had more than they needed and began just giving it away to new players outright or in the form of payouts.

I plan to retire, just as I've retired many times over in the past 5 years. It's really not that difficult.

[/ QUOTE ]

You've got that right, Gracie. I remember finally saving up and buying a bull for $45,000 or so (?). Straight out of the catalog and payouts didn't even exist! I don't even want to know how many potions I made to buy it. And guess what?! It was fun!

I think anything they add to this game that makes it more challenging will be an improvement. It's too easy! And if a sim chooses to make never using the ATM a challenge, go for it!

[/ QUOTE ]

No doubt about that, I miss the days when friends would send an IM..."OMG I finally got a black piano!! Come see!" I'm looking forward to the game being a challenge again. All new strategies to learn thrill me!

 

[imported_Dali Dalinza]

<blockquote><hr>



Give it a break. I began this game as a beta sim when life was so much harder than it is now. We had no trade interactions. We had no stores with discounted prices. We had no friggin skill locks! Even with all of that, within 6 months of playing the game, I had more simoleans than I ever realy needed. Within a year everyone had more than they needed and began just giving it away to new players outright or in the form of payouts.

I plan to retire, just as I've retired many times over in the past 5 years. It's really not that difficult.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gracie, how many hours a day, on average, do you have to play?

I know you are not a naturally rude person, so I figure you are exasperated ("Give it a break!") hearing me be less-than-upbeat only because for you this issue is no big deal.

I know some of you -- the ones who post for me to "Give it a break" -- enjoy starting over. I really think this must be because you have more time to play. Otherwise, I really don't understand how you think spending <u>more</u> time than I do already trying to find ways to earn cash will be be anything more than added frustration during the limited time I have to be in game.

My game -- one that I have enjoyed playing almost as long as you, Gracie -- has been totally eviscerated by the money wipe. I cannot host or plan any of the fun activities I used to do, partially because there is no property bonus (hence, no incentive for tours) and also for lack of funds to hold events.

I used to love playing this game in order to exercise my creative spirit. So far all I've been doing for the past few months is skilling and earning money, and it appears that is the only thing I have in store for a long, long time. Consequently, hearing about the capricious mechanics of "dynamic payouts" is not cheery news for me.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Consequently, hearing about the capricious mechanics of "dynamic payouts" is not cheery news for me.


[/ QUOTE ]
"Capricious" is an understatement - there is no formulaic basis for the fluctuation of object payouts - just the judgement of somebody standing at the switch. This makes any "strategy" difficult (read "frustrating") at best.
Creating a challenge is one thing (and I welcome it), but this is more along the lines of 'random spontaneity/chaos'.

Change needs 'order' to become progress.

 

[Guest]

heck EA why don't u just do what you're trying to do? Eliminate jobs and ways of earning cash. Set ATMs at every lot and force players to buy cash from you. Thats about all this closed economy boils down to..

All we wanted was the exploited money in other cities wiped, wipe all cash let us restart, NOT all this limitation stuff.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Change needs 'order' to become progress.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh. There is definately 'order' behind all of this. TSO was losing money so the higher ups 'ordered' that the game make a profit or be shut down.

Unfortunately for us, one of the ways for the game to profit is to corner us into needing to buy simoleans in order to express our creativity in the way we have been accustomed to.

I do agree that these changes should be based on certain formulas and should not be controlled by (a) human being(s). My guess is that this is only a temporary fix until they can get these formulas coded into the game. I do not foresee the company paying continually for somebody to manage our economy when it can be done by a machine.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

With 4 sims at your disposal for a new paying subscriber, I would suggest skilling each sim for different money objects. That way you always have one sim that can earn a decent living on any given day. What to skill and what to spend your precious locks on has become more of a strategy.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, you figure that each day we will need to figure out where the money is and determine our sim-of-the-day? Bless you, you've more enthusiasm and patience than I.

It sure seems that by "fixing" the economy we are moving towards a game that is primarily about rat racing -- with no light (or retirement) at the end of the tunnel. (Oh, wait -- I do see a light! <font color=red>A - T - M </font color=red> )

[/ QUOTE ]

Give it a break. I began this game as a beta sim when life was so much harder than it is now. We had no trade interactions. We had no stores with discounted prices. We had no friggin skill locks! Even with all of that, within 6 months of playing the game, I had more simoleans than I ever realy needed. Within a year everyone had more than they needed and began just giving it away to new players outright or in the form of payouts.

I plan to retire, just as I've retired many times over in the past 5 years. It's really not that difficult.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ty for echoing my thoughts, though I don't advise you to stay in my head very long, its scary in there!

Seriously, agree 100%. The game is going to be what people do, or don't make of it. Trying to piss on the happiness of those who are making a concerted effort to stay positive isn't really helping anybody here, the person doing the degrading themselves, or the future of the game, so I don't see anything but punitive reasons to do it

 

[Guest]

Did anyone seriously think that they would have it so we could so easily make 10k each month to cash in and pay for our account. Dynamic payouts “automatic or not” is the way they are going to prevent that from happening. I think we can all look forward to much lower payouts than we are seeing now. Like I said earlier, we may have to work at it for days just to be able to tile our kitchen floor. With the payouts the way they are at present anyone could make 10k in a matter of a day, while playing and enjoying the game the way we always have done. Plans for the game are based around players being able to cash in simoleans earned from things like custom content, so the buyback of simoleans will come in. With that hey will make sure that they wont lose much profit to the so called power players. To do that the average player will find themselves in position where spending real cash is much easier than spending hours at the keyboard to earn so little. What I am concerned about here is new players. I think new players will be expected to keep forking out to advance in the game. Honestly, I expect payouts to go much lower until it gets to a stage where we only do it for fun. If you think it was hard in the old days, wait til we have to work an hour to earn 1 or 2 hundred simoleans, because that’s where I expect it to go.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

All we wanted was the exploited money in other cities wiped, wipe all cash let us restart, NOT all this limitation stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]

Was that we and us or me and I? Now I'm certain you're not the only player conveying part of this message, however, the merging of the cities, if you do a search on it here on this site IS something that alot of the players wanted. From everything I've read it sounds like EA was just going to scrap everything in TSO and start over with EA Land. Players here asked, sometimes begged, for them to compromise by consolidating the existing cities into one city, which is now EA Land, or will be after the merges are complete. EA granted this request of the long-time players that had older sims with locks that they did not want to lose. So, at least that part of it was requested by a large part of the players represented here. As was the fix of the economy.....people cried ungodly amounts over the exploit money in the production cities, and begged EA to start clean up the economy, and as a result they had to wipe simoleans to infact HAVE a clean economy. Botters are now trying to screw that up, but blame the botters, not EA. Players have been given ways they can help stop things themselves, until EA gets to it on the list of priorities, and if you read that thread it's full of more "NO dont' do that it will affect ME" posts. Granted, there are parts of the economy fix that none of us really thought of, but just because we didn't suggest it, or because it's not being implemented exactly like we think it ought to be, doesn't mean it's not going to work eventually.....unless you've got some clairvoyant capabilities that none of the rest of us have? If not, then its wayyyyy too early to be making 'gonna work/not gonna work' predictions, considering we're not even merged yet.

Taking some of what you dont like/want in return for getting more of what you do like/want, doesn't seem to be that terrible a trade off to me, so I dont understand why some players are doing their gut level best to be as non-open-minded as they can be about it, as if they can't let go of what EA didnt' do 2 years ago, or how they shoulda done this, or shouldn't have done that. Wonder if EA is hiring for any of those that think they might be able to do it better with the shoestring budget they have....

. I don't believe its so much a matter of what they can or cant do, as much as it is that the within budget' is so critical now with TSO/EA Land teetering on the edge of oblivion, even now still.