Santa's Bad Day - V1.75 (V1.76)

Glitches I've noticed:

1. Max population jacked. I started a thread on this.
2. Randomly can't receive gifts. Get notified, but don't see the actual icons.
3. Can't open a support ticket in the game, keyboard doesn't come up in text box.

I would say another solid release.   

I am seeing the gift issue also. Can see that I have 4 gifts incoming but no icon for them. Odd

kcnwa wrote:Glitches I've noticed:

1. Max population jacked. I started a thread on this.
2. Randomly can't receive gifts. Get notified, but don't see the actual icons.
3. Can't open a support ticket in the game, keyboard doesn't come up in text box.

I would say another solid release.   

1. Very cool  - Gremlins in the city. Have several buildings I cant place including an ice rink.
2. Closing and re-opening fixes this. Has to be done every time for gifts to be received.
3. Perfect solution from GI (so they would think) knowing full well every update they release is broken.   

I get a gift-received exclamation on the gift icon... open it. .. no gifts. Later. .. no such indication... yet, I look l, lo and behold many gifts awaiting.

Sigh.

I have the same. Gifts not always visible and cannot place the Christmas giftshop, "maximum nummer of citizens reached" while I have 1106 out of 1300?

Anyone any idea?

Thx,
Clima

71RedClimaCool wrote:I have the same. Gifts not always visible and cannot place the Christmas giftshop, "maximum nummer of citizens reached" while I have 1106 out of 1300?

Anyone any idea?

Thx,
Clima

you sure it says at 1106 and not 2106 ?
Mines 2310 - obviously a GI stuff up

I'm happy to have from last year mission (feel free to visit):
-4 santas houses
-2 gift shop (best deal - produced ~500 gifts through this year)
- iglo and palace

I am playing only to get stars from santa's destinations.
I have got skatng rink in my warehouse, but I can't set it becsuse of
bug

Indeed it is 2106, play on a S3, so the 2 was hard to read, but you're right

Canterbury wrote:

71RedClimaCool wrote:I have the same. Gifts not always visible and cannot place the Christmas giftshop, "maximum nummer of citizens reached" while I have 1106 out of 1300?

Anyone any idea?

Thx,
Clima

you sure it says at 1106 and not 2106 ?
Mines 2310 - obviously a GI stuff up

I have 4 rinks , 1 ice park 1 complete palace and one incomplete palace, 2 ice runways and 2 ice hangers.
But can't progress any further. I got a message saying Christmas is over. Both Hangers show santas sleighs but no destinations are there?!?!   

karrollcia pl wrote:I'm happy to have from last year mission (feel free to visit):
-2 gift shop (best deal - produced ~500 gifts through this year)

Is that the Christmas Gift shop (5 greens)? What does it produce? The description says "coins" (20 / hrs). Gifts???  

Wow, the latest changes are making the game a little bit different and more challenging. I have removed halve of the buildings to secure to purchase the xmass gift shops. The drop rates from elves are weird to get star dusts, so I am not sure if there is a chance to complete the items required for rink or even castle in the next 14 days. Any idea would be appreciated.

The drop rates have been terrible!  My biggest challenge now is to get the gifts for Australia -- only 2 drops after getting 3-stars 40+ flights to Lapland; for other gifts, about 3-5 drops from flight and Christmas Gift Shops (not any better). The Gift Shops are not dropping as often as I wish.

There are about 12 days left, but I doubt if I can finish the quest without spending green cashes.

littleb

I could confirm the drop rate of gift shops are surprisingly low and it drops once a day, but I got item from each one I had at the same time always. I have completed ice rink by buying 20 additional flights to Lapland yesterday. The drop rate from ice rink is far better than from shops, but it is just 8 hour interval, so maximum twice a day for me. Good luck to anyone.

Do the routes go away upon completion of the challenge? If they do, that sucks as I have several buildings I still need items from the gift destinations. I'm only one elf hat away from completing the challenge.

kcnwa wrote:Do the routes go away upon completion of the challenge? If they do, that sucks as I have several buildings I still need items from the gift destinations. I'm only one elf hat away from completing the challenge.

I guess they will, like with the other quests. Just don't click 'collect' after collecting the elf hat.
I've completed the quest yesterday, didn't click 'collect' with the last collection. I want to keep flying to the special destination as long as possible to get the required items for the Christmas buildings, to complete the 5 continent collection, and I want to try to 3-star all the destinations.

Just need 2 Deer Sweaters to finish this event up, but still have a lot of flights left to the special destinations.

Lucky you, I am short of one skate, got a tripple drop from ice rink, amazing how the random generator is working in this game. Nevertheless I will not accomplish the event prior all the flights are completed and it will take much much more time as the drop rate is rather low for gifts to all continents. Already 3 stars in South America, but only 10 flights to Euroasia, Africa and only one more to North America.

Spy Glass has been amazing. I've used 2 and got 10+ items needed for buildings with a fleet of 6 sleighs.

If you've been hit by the max pop 'bug' that GI 'fixed' in the SBD update, and you decide to destroy some buildings to get back under the population limit, make sure you know exactly what your current population is! Due to GI's piss-poor combination of tiny font, cramped field size, and low contrast (really, GI? White numbers on a light blue background? You need to fire your UX people and hire new ones), I thought my population was 1800/1020. After I sent the tornado through and destroyed a shit-ton of buildings (really, I was having flashbacks to Sim City 2000), I discovered that my original population wasn't 1800/1020, it was *2800*/1020. So now, after destroying literally EVERY SINGLE BUILDING that I could A) rebuild*, and B) using only coins, I'm STILL at 1254.

Or maybe it's 2254, and I was originally at *3800*. I'm still not sure.

I am ashamed to admit that I have spent meatspace cash money to buy greens in the past, more than once. That is over. GI will never see another penny of my money.

tl;dr: If you're tearing buildings down to gain population headroom to build Christmas buildings, triple-check your actual population. Use a magnifying glass if you have to. Also, GI sucks like a 400-pound leech.

* Fortunately I noticed that the Brazilian houses are off the build menu before I tore them down. I would have missed the Brazilians, too - they're fun to party with and their women are stupendously hot.

Brazilian houses are bug according the correspondance of my wife and it should be fixed with the next update, hmm, they could either remove the quests or put back buildings. Let´s coss the coin and we will see

parking_god wrote:I thought my population was 1800/1020. After I sent the tornado through and destroyed a shit-ton of buildings (really, I was having flashbacks to Sim City 2000), I discovered that my original population wasn't 1800/1020, it was *2800*/1020. So now, after destroying literally EVERY SINGLE BUILDING that I could A) rebuild*, and B) using only coins, I'm STILL at 1254.

Or maybe it's 2254, and I was originally at *3800*.

Same here, I though my population was about 2400/1180, but actually was 3400/1180. Now my city is 2/3 empty!!!

Please could someone share with me what is the reward for this event this year? I have seen in some of my neighbors cities new strange white building, bigger than the ice palace and no tree. Should I understand it that the reward of the tree was only for the last year and this year another special building for increasing the population cap? I know I could not change it, but I am just curious and do not want to wait till Tuesday (want to finish all the flights to all destinations). Thanks a lot for an answer

It's an Ice Hotel. Requires no special items to build. +20 population.

kcnwa wrote:Spy Glass has been amazing. I've used 2 and got 10+ items needed for buildings with a fleet of 6 sleighs.

I've used a Spyglass with awesome results from the Lapland flight (2 or 3 drops each flight! unseen of!), but no luck with the other destinations (Australia etc.) : obstinately nothing! Was I just unlucky, or is the spyglass of no use for getting those items required for the ice buildings (and christmas balls too)?

Has anyone tried with a Dice or SkyCaptain?

kcnwa wrote:It's an Ice Hotel. Requires no special items to build. +20 population.

Thanks a lot, I take it there is no tree. That is a big difference

Nope no gift giving tree this year, just a dumb looking ice hotel

airtiggus wrote:
I've used a Spyglass with awesome results from the Lapland flight (2 or 3 drops each flight! unseen of!), but no luck with the other destinations (Australia etc.) : obstinately nothing!  Was I just unlucky, or is the spyglass of no use for getting those items required for the ice buildings (and christmas balls too)?

Has anyone tried with a Dice or SkyCaptain?

My spyglass is just ending. I was able to finish everything for all the collections on df99 and everything except one mitten on df10. It did require a lot of extra passengers and fuel to finish flights early and resend. Luckily, I had plenty in reserve thanks to all the Fuel(20) from my friends .

Does anybody know what extra items the Ice Palace needs for completion? I'd just as soon leave it in my building inventory for next year if it needs something I'm short on (e.g., Artificial Ice).

parking_god wrote:Does anybody know what extra items the Ice Palace needs for completion?  I'd just as soon leave it in my building inventory for next year if it needs something I'm short on (e.g., Artificial Ice).

Ice Palace Requirements:

1* Liquid Nitrogen
1* Freezer          
2* Snowmaker    
1* Artificial Ice

drivefast99 wrote:

airtiggus wrote:
I've used a Spyglass with awesome results from the Lapland flight (2 or 3 drops each flight! unseen of!), but no luck with the other destinations (Australia etc.) : obstinately nothing!  Was I just unlucky, or is the spyglass of no use for getting those items required for the ice buildings (and christmas balls too)?

Has anyone tried with a Dice or SkyCaptain?

My spyglass is just ending.  I was able to finish everything for all the collections on df99 and everything except one mitten on df10.  It did require a lot of extra passengers and fuel to finish flights early and resend.  Luckily, I had plenty in reserve thanks to all the Fuel(20) from my friends .

Hi DF99,

Did you have the same observation as airtiggus in terms of the other destinations? I have used Spyglass to get a few "gifts" to the other destinations from Lapland, but not sure if I should use Spyglass again to improve drop rate of other destinations.

Thanks,
littleb

littleb wrote:

Hi DF99,

Did you have the same observation as airtiggus in terms of the other destinations?  I have used Spyglass to get a few "gifts" to the other destinations from Lapland, but not sure if I should use Spyglass again to improve drop rate of other destinations.

Thanks,
littleb

For me, it seemed the drop rate improved for all the Christmas destinations. I received all the Christmas balls and some of the items needed to complete buildings. My non-Christmas destinations didn't seem to improve any (I was hoping to get a flower or 2 from Amsterdam but no luck).

littleb wrote:

Did you have the same observation as airtiggus in terms of the other destinations?  I have used Spyglass to get a few "gifts" to the other destinations from Lapland, but not sure if I should use Spyglass again to improve drop rate of other destinations.

Thanks,
littleb

Actually I realised that it gets worse without the Spyglass (that time I had 0 drop out of maybe 5 flights... later I got at least something, and more flights without Spyglass brought really nothing). So to make it short, the drop rates from Australia, Eurasia etc. is really crap, and a little less crap with Spyglass (I think somewhere around 10%).

In the end, I got all I needed (to build a skating ring and few spare items) with 3 spyglasses and lots of extra fuel (flew about 15 times to each of those destinations, got 9 items total, most of the flights were with Spyglass)

WHAT!!!... This event had 3+ hours left then vanished from my game   ... I hate GI...

drivefast99 wrote:WHAT!!!...  This event had 3+ hours left then vanished from my game   ... I hate GI...

Happened to me too!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was visiting neighbors and getting lanterns...went to a neighbor and no elves...tried a couple more and the same. Went back to my airport and the event was over...I had over 3 hours!!!!!! All I needed was one stupid refrigerator to finish the event...GI SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I put in a ticket with GI and they closed it immediately and said the mayor decreed a population change blah, blah, blah...

What does that have to do with ending an event early?? I hate GI....

Same here. I had 25 ice castles waiting to complete. I wanted to wait till the last minute so I could get as much stars as possible.

No Ice Hotel for me, and I actually finished this mission two weeks ago.

It's crazy. It's totally nightmare for me. Trying to optimize flight to get star and collecting collectibke item because believe with the game timeline and...........WTF, they close the quest earlier. Same with the other, doesn't get the ice hotel. Actually I finished the quest 3 days ago and believe with GI timeline. Just considering to quit from this game.

dang, erasmus and ayonatan, that's so frustrating!!! This game makes me want to quit but I enjoy the community on this forum so will stick it out a little longer...I hold out hope that GI will get their crap together but seems like every release is a new bug...grrrr

skinnyb37 wrote:This game makes me want to quit but I enjoy the community on this forum so will stick it out a little longer...I hold out hope that GI will get their crap together but seems like every release is a new bug...grrrr

Ditto... although GI will NOT get their crap together.  Seems like all of their games play very well for beginners but as you advance the bugs and other things start to appear.  It's like they don't want to keep any seasoned players.

I played Mystery Manor for 1 1/2 years... each release became more complicated and broke some basic functionality.  Next release would fix it but break something else.  Finally I just gave up.  Swore I'd never play another GI game then my son got me started on this one...   - it's better but still the same old crap.

Been playing some on Tribez too, and again, the senior players complain of the same crap.  Impossible quests, broken functionality, etc.    

Games should be fun.  When the frustration exceeds the fun, then it's time to do something else.  Was almost there back in the summer with the greens fiasco, now I'm almost there again.

Typical GI. Luckily I finished the quest earlier.
Although there might be a way to finish it: if you turn your wifi off and go a couple of days back (like 3 or so) the quest might still exist!
You can finish the quest like this (time travelling is only registered through your wifi).
If you turn your wifi back on when the actual time is correct, you can just continue playing whitout having to wait!
Hope it works!

Nidoking wrote:Typical GI. Luckily I finished the quest earlier.
Although there might be a way to finish it: if you turn your wifi off and go a couple of days back (like 3 or so) the quest might still exist!
You can finish the quest like this (time travelling is only registered through your wifi).
If you turn your wifi back on when the actual time is correct, you can just continue playing whitout having to wait!
Hope it works!

Doesn't work, the quest doesn't appear again, but thanks for the tip!

When I set my date back to the 6th of January I got the error I couldn't collect because I'm a time traveler (although I turned my wifi off).
Now when I'm back at real time (9th January), I don't get the error anymore, but all the buildings gave money, and all my planes all returned as well. So I guess the wifi-trick does work in a certain way, but not for the quest to return.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but now that the quest is over what can you do with the jet-sleighs, santa hangers & ice runways? The event destinations are gone now so is there any point keeping these at all (i.e. for next year, etc) or should they just be deleted? Same question with unfinished quest buildings too - I've a skating rink and igloo that I now can't get the items needed to complete (and no I'm not going to buy them with greenies!!)?

This was the first quest I've had a serious go at and expected I'd have half a chance to finish until I was hamstrung by the stupid population limit issue   . . . not impressed with GI, that's for sure

SannSunn wrote:

Nidoking wrote:Typical GI. Luckily I finished the quest earlier.
Although there might be a way to finish it: if you turn your wifi off and go a couple of days back (like 3 or so) the quest might still exist!
You can finish the quest like this (time travelling is only registered through your wifi).
If you turn your wifi back on when the actual time is correct, you can just continue playing whitout having to wait!
Hope it works!

Doesn't work, the quest doesn't appear again, but thanks for the tip!

When I set my date back to the 6th of January I got the error I couldn't collect because I'm a time traveler (although I turned my wifi off).
Now when I'm back at real time (9th January), I don't get the error anymore, but all the buildings gave money, and all my planes all returned as well. So I guess the wifi-trick does work in a certain way, but not for the quest to return.

Aah, that's too bad. This trick works for me whitout major difficulties though. Looking forward too the next GI screw-up!

airbuscity wrote:Sorry if this is a dumb question but now that the quest is over what can you do with the jet-sleighs, santa hangers & ice runways? The event destinations are gone now so is there any point keeping these at all (i.e. for next year, etc) or should they just be deleted? Same question with unfinished quest buildings too - I've a skating rink and igloo that I now can't get the items needed to complete (and no I'm not going to buy them with greenies!!)?

This was the first quest I've had a serious go at and expected I'd have half a chance to finish until I was hamstrung by the stupid population limit issue   . . . not impressed with GI, that's for sure

Good question: in my opinion you should certainly sell the runways, the santa hangars and the sleighs. You're not using them for at least a year and you'll be able to put other hangars there. Normally it will be (very) easy to build the santa-hangars next year (if GI doesn't do a major screw-up) as you have greatly advanced in the game. Perhaps you have some sleighs in your inventory (so not in a hangar). Keep those! They still can be useful for next year without taking space now.
The only reason to keep the runway and santa-hangars would be the view of your city (i.e. you try to have at least 1 building of each, but I don't think that's your main goal).
I would delete unfinished buildings too, they take space and population. Buying them with greens is very expensive and not recommended. I thought the iglo didn't need extra items (check this please) and if it doesn't I would build it. If you have the Santa cabine (don't know if it is the right translation) you should also build it (doesn't need extra items).

The next quest will probably be the valentine quest (I think it will spawn around begin february) and if I remember correctly this one will be easier.

airbuscity wrote:Sorry if this is a dumb question but now that the quest is over what can you do with the jet-sleighs, santa hangers & ice runways? The event destinations are gone now so is there any point keeping these at all (i.e. for next year, etc) or should they just be deleted? Same question with unfinished quest buildings too - I've a skating rink and igloo that I now can't get the items needed to complete (and no I'm not going to buy them with greenies!!)?

This was the first quest I've had a serious go at and expected I'd have half a chance to finish until I was hamstrung by the stupid population limit issue   . . . not impressed with GI, that's for sure

Agree with nidoking (mostly). You can get rid of the hangers and runways, but I wouldn't if space isn't a concern (they don't cost you any population, I don't think). As far as the unfinished buildings...well, it depends on whether you think you can get those again next quest. I plan to keep mine even though they are useless for a year (and cost population), but that's cause I had a very tough time collecting a couple of them. If you have some in storage then no big deal.

Sorry you had such a bad experience!!! This quest is the most frustrating one I've done (well, except maybe the Easter one). Most of the others seem to be easier but maybe I've just been lucky. But this is twice I haven't been able to complete the Santa one (although I did have to start my game over last year, so I didn't have the leftovers from the previous Santa event).

airbuscity wrote:Sorry if this is a dumb question but now that the quest is over what can you do with the jet-sleighs, santa hangers & ice runways? The event destinations are gone now so is there any point keeping these at all (i.e. for next year, etc) or should they just be deleted? Same question with unfinished quest buildings too - I've a skating rink and igloo that I now can't get the items needed to complete (and no I'm not going to buy them with greenies!!)?

This was the first quest I've had a serious go at and expected I'd have half a chance to finish until I was hamstrung by the stupid population limit issue   . . . not impressed with GI, that's for sure

I have plenty of space so I'm moving my runway and hangars to a dark corner and keeping them. The hangars required build items and I don't want to go through that again. I may sell the sleighs since I have plenty in inventory.

The ice rink I couldn't complete, I sold. I have another in inventory for next year. The uncompleted units don't take up population so if you don't need the space you can leave them. I'm keeping the Christmas shops because they cost greens to replace.

Do any of the Christmas items still give gifts? I would keep any that do.

I'm keeping all, since indeed the hangars required a lot off items. Maybe I will delete the runways, when I need the space.
I will delete my unfinished buildings, but keep the other ones as long as I don't need the space.
Santa's house indeed requires no items, the igloo does. The Christmas shops were bought with greens, so i will keep those as well. They don't drop gifts anymore, none of the Christmas buildings.
So as long as you don't really need the space and the earnings are ok (passengers, or cash) I would advice you to keep them for next year, so you have an advantage.

SS

Be careful if you keep too many building, you may auto complete the quest next year so don't have any chance to get all stars from the flight.

I've deleted all flight items from my airport.  Still have 18 sleds stored. Only need to rebuild hangers and due to the pathetic drop rates having more than 2 hangers is redundant. 0.5% chance I'll be playing this game in 12 months.
To paraphrase from the film ARGO.....
AGRO G!

I'm not sure what I'll keep. Unfinished buildings will probably be sold, as I have spares sitting in the warehouse. Due to me deleting half my buildings to buy the gift shops, I have plenty of space now so the hangars and the ice runway are a non issue.

It really is sad that GI used Christmas to roll out these changes. I've played this game for a couple years and had to restart a couple times. I've never completed the Christmas one and was all amped up for this years event.

Its stupid I know, but I can't get past the scrooge-like decision of their move. It took what should have been an awesome and fun event and turned it intk something terribly frustrating and disappointing. Just a huge letdown.