We'll try to post a new contest as soon as we can. Any suggestions as to the types of contests you'd like to see are greatly appreciated.
I am tired of the brainless, repetitive and horrifically boring quests in-game that oftentimes result in a reward I don't even want. That's why I was excited about this contest at first. Anyway, I think this would be a fun idea -- I don't know if you could do this considering it would involve an endorsement of an outside resource (unaffiliated with Inno) -- the forgestats.net city building tool -- but it might be fun to put forth some minimum and maximum parameters, and see who can design the most efficient city, as measured by some variable defined in advance, such as fitting in the maximum number of goods, or max barracks, etc.
As an example, you might make a contest to design a city for maximum goods output with the following parameters:
-Goods value is defined by LMA goods equivalent according to 2:1 fair trade. (eg. 1 LMA goods building is same value as 2 HMA goods buildings)
-City must include all items (GB's, decorations, special items, etc) present in the
template city (view my sample)
-You may use a maximum of 81 4x4 expansion grids (total of 1296 squares - template is already set up this way but you can rearrange into different shape)
-Any buildings from bronze through LMA tech tree may be used, excluding additional special event items.
-City must run at 120% enthusiasm with no more than 2 concurrent polishes.
-Must have at least 8 supply buildings.
-May include a maximum of 2 premium buildings of your choosing.
-Population provided must meet population demands (ie. be a feasible city)
-All buildings requiring roads must be adequately provided with such.
I imagine that for this contest, there would be a practical maximum that a number of players might arrive at independently, in different ways. They could all receive the main prize. Maybe someone will figure out a way that's better than everyone else, and they can win a special grand prize. And anyone meeting at least a certain standard of excellence (as determined by a decent city-builder in advance) could win an average prize.
It would be easy to spot copy-cats, as it's very highly unlikely that any two cities are going to wind up being exactly the same considering all the possible configurations. Identical cities can simply be disqualified.
It would be hard to judge and involve a learning curve for a large majority of the player base. But Inno has quite obviously been pandering to the masses of noobs lately with their events (hello, globe statue, peace sculpture, drummer school and shrine of inspiration???), and throwing the experienced players by the wayside... who, by the way, are growing more disgruntled day by day. This would give the experienced players who already use the builder a
mentally stimulating contest, and at the same time would get curious newer players the chance to learn something new that will help them maintain a better city in the future.