One invaluable decoration.

As much as I enjoy helping players without spending real money I wanted to share one helpful type of item that may well be worth its weight in city cash. I would consider taking a look at any item like the Eternal Fountain that keeps your crops alive forever. If you have been following my tips you may well have enough cash to purchase one.  The game releases them from time to time and I was lucky enough to get one as part of a promotion once. These are helpful items because they allow you to pick and choose when you spend your energy on picking crops. There is not a worse feeling in the game then missing the deadline on crop picking and having a giant field of some 24 hour or longer high yield crop die. Like I have pointed out before food is the true asset the game so you must do what you can to maximize it.

How to grow by 5000 without breaking a sweat.

Over time expanding in cityville has gone from adding a few hundred to 100 and now about 5000 citizens. The new expansion rules for cityville can be very intimidating but with a little thinking ahead and saving you can still make your city grow as far as the eye can see.

Here is something I have seen said on message boards about expansion pretty regularly.

“How am I supposed to expand when I don’t have enough room to build all these houses.”?

Solution 1
Neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods were a great addition to cityville a while back. They are helpful because you can currently put as many as 15 residences in each neighborhood. Now here is the thing. You have to put high yield population houses in to the neighborhood for it to make much of a difference. If you want to build neighborhoods for expansion purposes you need to build neighborhoods that hold mansions and apartment buildings. A park place villa is my favorite house for expansion as four will pretty much meet the population requirements. This will only account for one block of your neighborhood. Plus Mansion estates NBH typically give you generous population drops. Regularly clicking on the neighborhoods which really just means once every day or so costs 15 energies which may sound like a lot, but if you practice being a good neighbor you can look at it as a way to gain 15 exp points, 15 energies and a nice little chunk of change for visiting your neighbors.

Another Neighborhood to build is one that allows apartments. The Garant Apartments are a good one to meet population needs. The family housing neighborhoods make for the worst solution to this issue because there are not any family houses that give you a large enough boost to make the space taken by a neighborhood worth it.

The two properties I recommend are expensive and may seem daunting to many players especially beginners but if you read my guide on making money effectively you can pull in enough money to buy some of them. The task becomes quite a bit easier if you have businesses like the Salvador’s, or the free metro business the Salon. Both are available as quest rewards. With intelligent use of decorations you can make around 50,000 in one click. In order to do this you need to put together a bonus area. This means surrounding a block of space big enough to put a high yield business in the middle of a group of decorations that increases the percentage of your profits. Many quest rewards are great for this purpose, The Christmas presents gave out Black Diamond Slope, thanksgiving gave us the holiday table, there is the Matterhorn, and so on. If you have been using these decorations just for looks you are missing out. I suggest checking out the potency of your decorations. Surrounding a business with fireworks shooters from the Chinese newyear mission or Wind Turbines, which can be bought for regular gold pieces will pay themselves off quickly. Start by building those types of thing right next to the business on all sides. One of the best all time decorations is the small solar panel. At the moment I don’t remember what quest that comes from, but if you want a list of quest guides you can check out cityville chat or the games.com blog for all the info you can read. Before you say that you cannot afford all of these things just understand that you have to take a long approach to the game and always be on the lookout for quest rewards that are decorations, as soon as you get a quest done see what the decorations add. Trust me I started out with the country cottage and a coffee shop just like everybody else.

2. The Bridge

If you have already expanded across the water by building the bridge, check out the bridge upgrades. Once you begin to upgrade your bridge you increase your population by clicking the moving truck icon. No house building is needed for this one, trucks will just drop off the people. They must be moving in with families who live there already. It costs energy each time you use this method but as you increase the level of your bridge the population increases rise. If you have the energy to spare this is a nice way to get over the hump over time.

3. Sky Scrapers
Building the skyscrapers which can be bought coins and requires material collecting is a relatively easy way to get a hold of more land. They cost no more than 50,000 at the most and once you are done with one you will have around 6500 people just like that. And the best part is that the population can still grow through random increases.

4. Build an Embassy for every country you canThe embassies are a gold mine for players who regularly play. If you patiently collect passport stamps you can cash them in for not only great housing but some cool decorations that in some cases would otherwise be city cash items. Some of these can be used in your bonus areas to increase profits. Put down the Embassies and enjoy.

5. Islands
If you have free space in the water you can purchase islands. In many cases most people do not have an spots for islands if they are having trouble find population on land but there are many who expanded out in to the water long before expansions got complicated. The Islands make water just as valuable as any other real estate in the game. Islands can be bought with gold and require gathering parts but once done provide enough population to put anybody over the hump. And then you can expand to more dry land. It is counter intuitive but if you have a lot of blue space on your board it is a great use of it.

6. Buildings that are quest rewards
Cityville has taken to providing high population housing as a part of a quest. Be on the lookout for quests like the valentines quest which rewarded you with the adventure house, the governor’s mansion and others like it. If you are thousands away from building population through the normal process finishing a quest which only requires asking for parts and such if a pretty cheap way to go about it. But if you are not aware of how many people you need to add before you get to lay down that blue square you will regret your lack of vision. Which brings me to me final point.

7. Pay attention and be careful when building.

Through an unfortunate design in the game you are given the right to expand once you meet the population goal set for expansion be it 100 or 6000. If you somehow gain 6600 people from one building but were only 20 people away from meeting the required growth you will only get one more expansion for the huge gain. So pay attention to this and use the bridge or population drops or even small cottages or newlywed houses to put yourself over the hump when you are close. You can knock them down afterwards if you don’t want them taking up space.

A friend of mine pointed out recently that nothing new has come off the desk of the mayor of Meribia in quite some time.  When I put this site together I did so in a way that made sure its advice was topical and universal. It addresses thematic issues that come up in game play as apposed to providing a running commentary on what is being released for the game houses quests etc. Despite this I will be releasing a series of new articles to assist all in need. Take care.

How to Earn City Cash For Free

I’m sure many of you have seen the scams about getting free city cash, but there actually are way to get free city cash with next to no effort on your part.

First off let me alert you to what a scam looks like. I will read something like this.

“OH MY GOD I CAN”T BELIEVE IT WORKED. I JUST GOT HUNDRED OF CITY CASH FOR FREE JUST CLICK HERE AND JOIN ME”

Another red flag is if you are linked to a website that requires you to like the page first. If you do this and it posts a message to your profile similar to the one above delete the message from your feed and get off of the site. No matter how good it looks it is probably a scam.

Now as promised let me share the ways that you can actually get City Cash. One way you can do this is by taking advantage of the offers that face book has arranged with third party vendors.



Purchase things you actually want or need through Facebook

I won’t recommend anything in particular but there are a number of services that you might not currently have that you may have been meaning to get started with.  Everything from magazine subscriptions to custom T-Shirts for a family reunion. Most of these are services that you pay money for.

If you currently have a subscription to a magazine and you can renew it through Facebook why not do it get the rewards for doing something you already planned to do.  It is up to you.

There are also completely free offers available. I will say that I signed up for  a free financial program and earned 18 city cash. The program is actually very helpful for my family budget. I also volunteered to take surveys for another handsome sum.

To access these offers just do the following.

• Click the tab that says Earn City Cash
• Brows away
• Find an offer that’s right for you
• Complete the instructions for the offer
• Refresh your face book

You will see your new cash in the total

Look right under your game screen

Another way to get free city cash is to take part in numerous surveys that are advertised under the game play window. 

• They are usually worth 3 city cash at a time.
  
• They usually take just a few minutes
  
• Most but not all are free, but there are some that will not work unless you sign up for a credit card
  
• Compete the necessary steps you will get a message at the top corner of the survey that says your have earned your Cityville cash. 
  
• Close the offer screen and refresh your city and you will see that you have how ever much City Cash was offered added to your total.

Why are these offers out there?

I am sure that the information gained from the surveys for one is used to keep stats and information on your buying habits and interests.

I also imagine that it helps market research for the products and services who sponsor the offers.
Facebook makes money from the adds

Some people may be bothered by this sort of thing because we think that nothing else keeps track of what we buy and what we like but I am afraid this is not really the case. For instance, anybody who has ever used a discount card at a favorite store has participated in the same sort of research.

Any time you order something from Amazon the program begins to offer you other things “like” what you bought. It also influences the adds that you see when you get on Facbook and other sites.

Another place where this happens is Netflix. The program can see if you watched a movie staring Harrison Ford. “Since you liked Indiana Jones you may like Patriot Games“.

I hope this was helpful folks.


                                                          From the desk of the mayor of Meribia

New methods for Expansion

Expansion can be difficult for a number of reasons.  The two main issues of course are gathering permits and raising the required population.  For a guide about gathering zoning permits see here

As for raising your population I have found that there are two very effective ways to expand relatively fast. One is to buy a Park Side Villa. They are expensive so you have to dedicate your time and energy to farming and supplying the businesses that make you the most money and  of course collect from them.  A Park Side Villa adds enough population for a whole expansion and does not take up very much room. This way you don’t have to take up all of you expansion with new houses which defeats the purpose  of expanding in the first place.

The other method is taking advantage of the population additions that appear as you collect from the housing you already have. Depending on the amount of housing you have in your city you may have numerous opportunities to do so. In this case you do not need to farm or collect from businesses since the houses simply replenish themselves. The draw back is that you don’t have as much control over the results. Sometimes I will have 5 moving trucks appear in 30 clicks, sometimes only one.

The most effective method I have seen to expand is a combination of the two.
Farming regularly is helpful bc you gain exp points which of course help you level up and earn city cash. Supply businesses and collect from them until you run out of goods. Once you are out of goods you can start collecting from houses regularly until your crops grow again. If you run out of energy visit neighbors and do tasks in the cities so that you can earn energy and money.

Take care folks.


From the desk of the Mayor of Meribia

Optimizing Friends and Neighbors

Cityville is a social game. This is a very important distinction from other games and understanding how to work with in its structure will help you not just do well but dominate the game. This guide will provide some strategies to help you optimize the social aspect of this game.


Accept all gifts and send the gift back to the sender.

          It's very important to take time to respond to gift requests.

• Don’t worry about weather you need an item at the time or not because what you do when you accept the gifts is build a relationship with the other player that lets them know they can depend on your help and you can in turn begin to depend on them. 

• Never ignore a gift. Now and then I will for instance have more zoning permit requests than I can  accept due to limits. I keep them until I expand then cash them in and in turn send them out.  The same goes for energy.

• When someone sends you a three energy battery do not reply with one energy.  Take note of who sent it to you and make sure to send three back to each person through the gift menu. I jot it down on word pad so I don’t miss anybody.

Visiting Neighbors
Depending on how many neighbors you have you may or may not have time to visit each of them every day. If you can  visit each of them every day do so. You will earn money each time along with reputation points which eventually give you goods. You also earn 1 energy every 24 hours each time you visit. As your reputation level rises so do your cash bonuses.

• Active players are usually great for return visits at least 25 percent will probably be in your city within 10 hours of your visit.

• If you have a hundred neighbors or more break up visits daily Go to 30 neighbors a day or how ever many you can, but do the same thing consistently over time. If you are regularly visiting neighbors a number of them will visit you. If they do not don’t worry about it just get your visiting bonuses.

• If many of your current friends no longer play regularly or at all add new ones.  New players are eager to get things done. Not all of them will become strong neighbors but they in the least will give you one more placed to visit and earn money and energy.

*You can tell if they are actively playing by looking at their farms. If they are always empty or have nothing but dead crops they probably are not playing.

Be open to adding friends, either suggested ones or even the ones you add the various Facebook fan sites. I have found that the friends I add from various sites like Cityville Daily players and other face book groups like it always results in new friends who are actively playing.

Ask friends for items through chattingWhen you need items for a given talks like finishing a building or a goal go ahead and ask your friends on chat directly. The reason they are face book friends and neighbors is because they want help in the game and there is no reason not to ask them for help.

Get to know people
It is amazing the difference it makes when you talk with the people on your friends list through chat programs. The truth is that building relationships with people from all over the country is enriching and could very well help both of you in one way or another. People are much more likely to help someone they feel a connection to.  Otherwise the only time anybody will hear from you is when you ask for something.

Earning Coins Fast and Efficiently

Money makes the world go around and Cityville is no exception. I have a number of highly profitable businesses but the truth is that if you have a little time to tinker with the game and just three businesses you can make a million dollars in 3 days or less. Here is how you do it.


The easy way
Let someone build something for you!!!!!!!!!!!

Find out what your friends have in their cities,
Especially the higher level players. Do they have their own Tower Eats or other high end businesses? They will likely be glad to put a high grossing business in your city in order to increase their own profitability. Just ask.

If you have no space for their businesses you may need to clear out an under performing franchise in order to allow for the new one. You want to do this for things like the Jewelry store, the Furniture Store and especially Tower Eats. 

Put the new business in a space that allows for decorations that will greatly increase its earnings.

Start Small You can usually place flowers two rows deep around a business and still have them benefit from the Arboretum and Rocky Hill.

• Arboretums increase earnings by 16%  
• Rocky Hills increase earnings by 20%.

Put the Arboretums or Rocky Hills behind, beside and, if you arranged it well, in front of  the business. You can do so if you connect them to a road via a sidewalk instead of parking them on a curb.  

(You can experiment to see how far away these decorations can be from your business in order to still get the boost. You can easily have a business that collect 150% its default income. For even better results repeat the steps. Do not leave one affected inch undecorated.)

The longer road
Want to build your own Tower Eats? A million dollars might seem like a lot to make but it is easier than you might think.

What you want to do is build at least three businesses that can produce 1700 or more gold pieces apiece.

Here is how you do it.

Build a business that already brings in solid income
Suggestions:

• Italian restaurant
• Cinema
• Seafood restaurant
• Wedding store 

Place your businesses in a clear lot
If you need room move some things in your city around or knock some things, anything goes:

• Houses: (They can be rebuilt) Though yo can’t knock down all of them or there will be no customers.
• Low income businesses: (Sentimentality does not lend itself to profitability)
• Community Buildings: (Last resort because it takes longer to rebuild them than other buildings)

Set your business down

Surround it with flowers then with as many Rocky Hills or Arboretums as can fit  typically this will be 4-5.

When you are done your business should rake in over well over 1000 gold pieces and likely make around 1400 per click. It all depends on what businesses you build in the first place.

Tip for the time challenged
If you only have a little time for the game you can make the most of this set up by moving the business to an empty spot and dropping others in the same plot and collecting from them. This should be helpful to those who do not have a lot of space in their cities for many decorations.

If you have the time take it slow.
Supply the decorated high end business and collect. Repeat this step until you run out of goods

*Important note!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While you are concentrating on making money only do not supply all of your businesses and stop collecting from houses. Concentrate all of your energy on high grossing businesses.!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Why?
 

More people from your city will flock to the high grossing businesses which will cause them to make money faster. Houses will not give you as much of a financial windfall.

• You utilize your energy on the tasks that make the most money
• Your energy will have time to replenish naturally

Farming and Storage

You need fuel for the fire. It is up to you to decide how much space to dedicate to storage and farming. It all depends on how long you want to spend raking in the money.

What to supply the businesses with
Pumpkins and Cranberries.

Why?

*As you collect pumpkins and cranberries you build their collections. Their collections provide energy when they are cashed in.

Franchising
Be careful with this.

• Build businesses in your neighbors cities. Do not waste a franchise on a bakery or coffee shop wait till you can build something that you would want some one to build in your city.
• Neighbors who play often will help you make more money over time by increasing the value of the franchise.
• The more expensive your business is the more you will get when you supply and collect. 
• Collect from your businesses every day.

*It may be worth your time to add neighbors.

How do you add Neighbors?

• Cityville communities on Face Book. Cityville Daily Players has an Add Me board. “Like” the site and post an Add me message. Also add anybody on the board that strikes your fancy. By the next day you can gain a lot of good neighbors who will play often and often times have space for businesses.
• Ask your current neighbors to recommend you to others.
• Ask current neighbors to recommend their cityville playing friends and neighbors

Keep stocked on Donuts
As you collect from businesses you will find those thieves. It can really add up fast if you have the police ready to catch them.

By utilizing these steps regularly you will pile up more money over a week than you have before.

From the desk of the Mayor of Meribia