Megapolis: Architectural Project Contest

Architectural Project Contest - "Building Design For the Win?"

The Architectural Project Contest timed quest began in the morning on 03/21/2014.  After doing my analysis, I have found that this timed quest is a very good investment due to the low APM values (Assets Per Max Rate) for the contracts available from the Architectural Academy.  You can also just skip the quests and build the pavilion that will give you your desired contract.  I am pretty interested in the 6 hour contract awarded by building the Relaxation Pavilion, but I'm not sure what that is quite yet. It's probably the final reward from the whole timed quest :(

For minimal effort and free assets like with the Earth Day timed quest, you get another 15 minute contract that rewards 133.33 coins/minute.  But it is also annoyingly short and I will barely be able to collect my earnings at the rate that I play.  I will break down the first 4 quests and the contract rates for you.

Quest #1: Upgrading the City

     - Visit 5 Friends

     - House 1,000 Residents

     $ Reward: Some Asset Thing x5 (use on Quest #3)

Quest #2: Architectural Academy

     - Collect Taxes 5 Times

     - Buy the Architectural Academy Foundation

     $ Reward: Concrete Slabs x5 (use on Quest #3)

Quest #3: Architectural Contest

     - Build the Architectural Academy

     - Accept the Organizing an Architectural Contest Contract

     $ Reward: Nothing substantial

Quest #4: Architectural Novelties

     - Buy an East Pavilion Foundation

     - Build an East Pavilion

     - Complete an Organizing an Architectural Contest Contract

     $ Reward: ??????

Contracts for the Architectural Academy

As you can see, the APM for all of these contracts is very low which means that investing your assets in this timed quest is a very good investment.  I don't even think you need to complete construction on these pavilions while the timed quest is active in order to gain access to these new contracts.  The most desireable contracts for me from this building are the 6 hour one and the 4 hour one.  However, I don't know what the Relaxation Pavilion is.  So I know that the APM values in RED could be much higher for a slight benefit over the 4 hour contract that requires only 85 assets.

Also, I do not yet know if any of these contracts allow neighbors to assist.  That would increase the coins/minute rate and also lower the APM rate making those contracts more profitable!

This is where I have currently stopped for this timed quest.  The East Pavilion requires 20 assets and it does not give me access to a desirable contract.  I may invest 75 assets into completing the West Pavilion which will give me the 4 hour contract.  

Megapolis: Mysterious Chest Event 03/18

Free Treasure!

The Mysterious Chest Event happens every once in a while in Megapolis and lasts for several days.  The only rewards that I have seen are unique infrastructure buildings, but they tend to be on the more profitable side as far as coins per minute per square.  They also tend to give a good boost to your population cap.


I recommend opening as many chests as you can and paying coins every time after you get your first 3 figurines if you are saving up coins, or your first 2 figurines if you have plenty of coins.  You can stop at the second building reward if you are feeling practical, or continue to open chests if you are feeling brave.  Even when paying coins to open a chest, you get a bigger reward than you paid for sometimes.

Thanks to Ezterry for the odds & strategy contribution on the Unofficial Megapolis Wiki!

I must say that the set of buildings available for this event look pretty cool - especially the Zenith Tower.  Unfortunately I have only ever gotten 5 figurines during one event before, so we'll see how my luck plays out this week.

Megapolis: Switching Phone and Carrier in 2 Hours

Today, I switched to a new phone and one of my main concerns (although nerdy) was "How do I get to my Megapolis city on my new phone?"  I will share my experience with this and start by saying that it was extremely easy.  I have a 6 month old baby and you may know how much attention they require, but I was still able to finish the entire process from front door to couch w/ new phone and my old Megapolis city in under 2 hours.  This was my situation, so yours may be different and require different steps.  I encourage you to share your experience in a comment.

     - I switched from AT&T to a new Sprint plan
     - I upgraded from an iPhone 5 to an iPhone 5s
     - I use a Macbook Pro and iTunes
     - I played on SQ network with my old phone and my new phone

Switching to a New Phone and Accessing Your Megapolis City in Under 2 hours

Step #1: Backup your Old iPhone

The first and most important step is to save all of your settings, pictures, music, and everything else onto your computer.  Connect to your computer using the iPhone USB cable, open iTunes, and back it up.

Step #2: Start Megapolis Contracts

This step is optional, of course.  I was worried that the entire process of switching to a new phone would take a long time, so I started contracts that took longer than 4 hours.  Instead of purchasing my usual 2 hour contracts for my Courier Airplanes, I bought the 6 hour contracts.  As I sit here waiting for them to finish, I am typing this blog post.

Step #3: Go to a Sprint Store

. . . or the carrier that you are switching to.  Sprint gave me a $100 Visa Gift Card and offered me a bunch of deals on bluetooth speakers and tablets (which I refused).  They also took about 20 minutes to port my phone number over from AT&T to Sprint.  At first, he told me it usually takes 2-3 hours from AT&T to Sprint, so I was ready to head over to Golfsmith or Best Buy to browse, then go home if they didn't call me by then.

Step #4: Buy New Phone & Plan

I went with the iPhone 5s, but only because the 5 was not available anymore.  I didn't want to downgrade to a 4s or buy one of those plastic colorful iPhones.  I like my metal.

Step #5: Update your New iPhone to the latest iOS

Go home, fire up your computer, and prepare to wait around for about half an hour.  Plug your new iPhone into the computer and open iTunes.  I got the prompt to update my new phone's iOS when I first tried to restore my old phone's backup.  Go through the prompts to update the iOS and wait.  This part took about 25 minutes for me.  I decided to register my phone with Apple after this step.

Step #6: Restore your New iPhone from Old iPhone Backup

After your iOS updates and reboots, it will automatically connect back to your computer and show up in iTunes.  Restore your old iPhone's setup to your new iPhone.  This step took me about 15 minutes.

Step #7: Download the Megapolis App on New iPhone

Unfortunately, restoring your old iPhone onto a new one does not automatically download all of your apps.  So you have to go to the App Store, search, and download the Megapolis app manually.  I would also like to mention that I was not able to see the list of apps that I have previously purchased in the App Store.  What the heck?  I had to search for every app that I had before and download them 1 at a time.  Luckily, my old phone was sitting next to me so I could check out all the apps that I had.  Another good thing is the apps download and show up in the same spots as they were before, so you don't have to move a bunch of apps around to get your new iPhone looking like you had it before.

Step #8: Play!

This was the step that I was not looking forward to.  I thought I would open the app and Alice would tell me all about Wooden Houses and give me some crappy new town to start over with.  I thought I would have to contact Social Quantum and request my old user ID to be transferred over to my new phone on a completely different carrier.  And I know how slow a ticket process can be sometimes for IT matters :)

BUT ALAS, MY CITY WAS THERE ALREADY!  Hooray!  I had to scroll around and see the buildings load for the first time, but all of them were in their rightful place and my contract timers were ticking away.

Sharing a City Between 2 iPhones?

Because I was curious, I opened up Megapolis on both my old iPhone 5 and my new iPhone 5s at the same time.  I built a Wooden House on my new iPhone.  On my old iPhone, I closed the app and opened it up again.  The wooden house was there!  Then I tried it the other way by building a Wooden House on my old iPhone and refreshing the new iPhone and there it was - TWO WOODEN HOUSES!  So now I am led to believe that you can share a city using two iPhones.


So there you have it - the complete process I went through this afternoon to get a new phone and load up my city to my precious new iPhone 5s.

Please comment and share your experience with other carriers and phone types!

Megapolis: Earth Day 03/11/14

Earth Day - "Not Worth Day?"

I don't mean that I don't want people to be environmentally conscious in real life.  But for this timed quest, I will not spend any of my precious assets.

The Earth Day timed quest began during the day on 03/11/2014.  After doing my analysis, I don't want to pursue this timed quest past quest #3 due to the high APM values (Assets Per Max Rate).  My main reason is that I am on quest #4 and I need to spend at least 75 assets to find out how many more assets I need to spend to get a desirable contract from the City Environmental Institute.  For minimal effort, you still get a 15 minute contract that rewards 133.33 coins/minute, but it is annoyingly short and I will barely be able to collect my earnings at the rate that I play.  I will break down the first 4 quests and the contract rates for you either way.

Quest #1: Imagine a Blue Sky

     - Collect 2,000 in Taxes

     - Build an Imagine Park

     $ Reward: Concrete Blocks x5 (use on Quest #3)

Quest #2: City Ecology

     - Visit 5 Neighbors

     - Buy the City Environmental Institute Foundation

     $ Reward: Solar Heating System x5 (use on Quest #3)

Quest #3: Earth Day

     - Build the City Environmental Institute

     - Accept the Earth Day Opening Ceremony Contract

     $ Reward: Nothing substantial

Quest #4: Preparations for the Carnival

     - Improve your City Environmental Institute

     - Complete an Earth Day Opening Ceremony Contract
     - Buy the Green City Civic Organization Foundation

     $ Reward: ??????

Contracts for the City Environmental Institute

As you can see, the APM for the 15 and 30 minute contracts is low which is good.  If you are VERY active, then feel free to invest the assets past the "gimmes" for this timed quest.  The only desireable contracts for me from this building are the 6 hour and 4 hour ones.  However, I can't tell how many assets are required past the first step of construction for the extra buildings.  So I know that the APM values in RED will be much higher for the contracts that I would actually use.

This is where I decided to stop for this timed quest.  The next portion requires at least 75 assets and it does not give me access to a desirable contract.  I also do not spend Megabucks on timed quests quite yet since I would rather save them for asset sales that benefit my trains at this time.

Megapolis: Construction of Unique Contract Buildings

Which Contract Building Should I Buy First?

In this post, we are only looking at Unique Production Buildings that allow contracts and take up space in your city.  I will create a separate post that examines Production Buildings that take up no space (like the Zoo Administration Building).

This section will help you decide which unique Megapolis Production Buildings to invest your assets in first.  The main value we will use to compare buildings is Assets Per Max Rate (APM henceforth).  A lower APM for a selected building & contract is better than a higher APM.  A low APM means that you spend less assets in order to produce a reward rate in coins per minute.

In general, your top three choices are:

   1) Baseball Federation Headquarters (0.36 APM)
   2) Agora Tower (0.42 - 0.49 APM)
   3) Conrad Miami Hotel (0.57 - 0.68 APM)

Min APM Versus Max APM

In the table below, you will see that some buildings & contracts have two APM values on the far right.

Min APM: The APM rate if zero friends "help" you increase your profit for the contract.

Max APM: The APM rate if the maximum amount of friends "help" you increase your profit for the contract.

The table is sorted ascending by "Min APM" only, so the buildings & contracts listed towards the top of the list are more profitable at the cost of less assets.  In some cases, a building may move up on your list depending on how many of your Megapolis neighbors "help" to increase your profit for that contract.

Why is "Emergency Services Center" - "Cleaning Up the Aftermath" Low on the List?

With a coin rate of 45.33 per minute (higher than Baseball Federation Headquarters), you would think this one should be an obvious choice to invest your assets in first.  Unfortunately, you would have to invest 160 assets to get a slightly better coin rate per minute as opposed to the Baseball Federation Headquarters which only costs 15 assets to complete.


**Note: Some of the contracts in my table require additional infrastructure or constructed buildings to be completed before you may access that particular contract.  Don't worry, my "Assets" column takes additional construction costs into account if applicable.  For more details on those requirements, please visit the Megapolis Wiki page for that particular building.

Megapolis: Planes or Trains?

The Bottom Line: Trains are Slightly Better

If you have barely or not yet started to build your Megapolis airplane fleet or train armada, then you are probably asking yourself: "Which one should I build first?"  Here, we will take a look at the cost and the rewards for both choices.  It is a close call, but I will start by giving you my one word answer: Trains.

In comparing the choice between building trains or planes first, we will overlook any costs in Megapolis coins.  You will make your coins back faster with more profitable contracts, so the only cost factor we will consider is assets.  I also don't take into account the cost of each asset in Megabucks.  Yea yea, all of these numbers might look confusing to you so I will boil it down to one number that you can look at: Assets per Max Rate (AMR henceforth).  A higher AMR means that you are paying more assets for not as good of a coin rate for your contracts.

One more thing about my data tables.  I entered data for a single plane or train's contracts on the left side with no additional multipliers (train only).  On the right side, my numbers apply to the maximum number of contract producing vehicles - so 10 planes or 7 trains with max multipliers.

Information for all of my tables are derived from pages on the Megapolis Wiki.   All of the formulas are from my own calculations.  I could be wrong, and I welcome corrections where applicable.

Airplanes

Reference Table:

Data Table:









As you can see, the AMR starts off and ends higher as you continue to invest assets into your planes.  Fully upgrading to Long-Range airliners costs 27% more assets than trains, but the max coins/minute you can earn is only 10% higher than having the best trains.

Trains

The general rule of thumb for building your trains in Megapolis is "Get Max Multipliers!"  Without multipliers, your contracts will have a very low coin rate per minute.  I'm talking pathetically low.  Underground and Surface Subway Stations only cost 3+7 and 5+10 assets to upgrade respectively.  Also, don't bother fully upgrading your Subway Stations if they will not help the multiplier of any of your current trains.  You will need to upgrade them all eventually for your higher up trains, but for now save those spots on your asset wish list for other upgrades.

Reference Table:














Data Table:








With trains, you can see that the AMR is slightly lower than planes.  One exception to note is Wide-Body Airliners compared to New Jersey Trains.  At this point, planes are better.  But in the short term and long term for asset investments in most other cases, trains will be a better investment.

I suppose I should also mention that train contracts are harder to "click" through than planes.  I find myself accidentally selecting the Service Platforms instead of the trains on accident.  My service platforms aren't fully upgraded yet though, so maybe that will get better.  I use an iPhone5 so maybe it's better on other platforms.  This annoyance still does not affect my decision to shift my asset investment to trains over planes.