Collections

Collections are very important and also very diversionary. Never click on a "Congratulations" box for completing a collection, especially while you are collecting. However, a few of them are important because of what you get when you complete them. And you don't have to depend on chance, as you can put certain items on your "Wish List". More on that later.

Here are the Collections that get you extra energy and goods: Cranberry, Italian Cuisine, Pumpkin, Convenience Store (which comes FREE and appears in your inventory), Watering Hole (which also comes from your FREE Taverns), Game, Early Riser, Retail, and St. Patrick's.

The useless ones I will list tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Technical and maintenance

When playing CityVille, you need to do some periodic maintenance chores to keep your computer able to handle CityVille, which is a big game that takes up lots of computer space. I'm not a computer geek at all, but there's what I do several times a day, or whenever CV seems to slow down:

1. Clear the Adobe Flash Cache. Do so by going to this site: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html  After the site loads, you'll see a box with an area to the right which says "delete all sites". Click that and then click "Confirm". I do this twice, just to make sure.

2. Clear your browser's cache of temporary files. This varies, depending on the browser you use. I use Mozilla's Firefox, and clear it by going to "Tools" and clicking on "Clear Recent History". Have the "Cache" Box" cleared for one, and I also have the "Browsing and Recent History" box checked, too.

3. Clear your computer's Operating System's cache. I have Windows 7, so I go to Control Panel, then to "Network and Internet", then "Clear Browsing History".

I usually reboot once a day, which I think helps, too.

Now, having said all that, I have a cousin/neighbor who likes Google Chrome better than Mozilla FireFox and disagrees with me on having to clear the browser cache. Go figure! :)

Special Note!

This morning I got a 6188 coin bonus from harvesting thirteen plots of pumpkins! And two hours later, I got the same 6188 in coins from harvesting thirteen plots of wheat! The "shooting gallery" technique works very well!

How to "harvest" or collect in your own city.

As stated previously, first look around your city to see if any neighbors have visited. After you follow them around or if they aren't present, collect with the following guidelines.

Would you believe me if I told you that I got a $6038 coin bonus once or twice from collecting from a neighborhood of about twelve houses? First, they were linked together by decorations that have big pay-offs, but that explanation is for another post. The most important thing was the way I collected.

Pick 12 houses close together, make sure you have at least 12 energy units available so that you aren't interrupted, then click on each house in a semi-circular or circular pattern. As each money icon (coin, bag or gold bar) and star appears, click on each quickly but accurately and IN ORDER. Before, I referenced a shooter at an arcade. That's you when collecting, okay? follow the same pattern by which you clicked. When you're done, check out the bonus bar. If, out of the corner of your eye, you see the bonus bar say "OMGEEZER", you're doing well. However, those encouraging words at the bonus bar are DISTRACTIONS! Don't let them divert you from your mission.

Go on to another neighborhood of a dozen houses and repeat.

If you want to collect from businesses, do the same thing, but with maybe only nine or ten at a time. Follow and click each money icon and star in the same pattern and order that you clicked the business with or on. WARNING: BANDITS are a distraction to keep you from collecting bonuses. IGNORE BANDITS UNTIL YOU ARE THROUGH CLICKING ON THOSE BUSINESSES. Guess what? The bandits will wait. They will still be there. Then try to capture them and collect the money you earned by doing so. Celebrate or ask for donuts only AFTER you collect from a group of stores.

With crops...same thing. Collect in a circular pattern from 10 - 12 plots at once. Quickly but surely click on each "goods" icon and star, then check for bonuses. A patch of twelve pumpkin plots has many times netted me bonuses of over $2000 city coins. Then go on to another patch of plots.

Click on your goods as you unload your train and factory.

When your neighbors visit you.

You load CityVille and see that five neighbors have visited you. LOOK for them FIRST before doing anything else. Don't collect on anything, which expends your energy, until you see where they are going to "harvest" for you. Scan your city for them and hope that they aren't packed on top of each other. Also hope that they know to click on five items in your city that are CLOSE together.

Choose one friend and "accept" his/her help. Follow neighbor's click and click on each thing his/her click produces, whether it's goods or money or stars (XP points). Hit each squarely the first time you click it so it "takes". Now, look up in bonus land, at the upper right side of your screen, and you'll see another $378 bonus (at my level it's $378). Well done!

THE ABOVE ONLY WORKS IF NEIGHBORS COLLECT SOMETHING. Watering crops won't let you get anything, as sincere as their efforts were. 

If neighbors are clicking all over your city and you can't keep up with them, talk to them and ask them to read this blog or tell them why "close" together matters. Get all of your neighbors on the same page (AND on this one)!

Make deals with your neighbors, through FB messaging, where you want them to come when they visit your city and where they would like you to harvest. Get a couple neighbors to agree to only harvest or water your crops; get another couple to concentrate on unloading your ships, etc. DISCOURAGE neighbors from sending tour buses, as it makes getting bonuses harder for both of you. 

How to visit neighbors in CV

You can visit your CV neighbors twice each day, about twelve hours apart, but only once do you get the rewards of one energy, 50 coins and XP (Experience Points, which you need to get your level higher). However, your second visit is very valuable if you do it right. For both visits, the one with rewards and the one without, follow these guidelines:

A. Decide what you want to gain from your visit. If it's money, click on five houses close together. If it's goods you want, click on five "ripe" crops or five full cargo ships, again, close together.

B. Why "close together"? Because you want to quickly click on each product that results from each of your five clicks. Two things will emerge; a heart (Reputation Points, a measure of your kindness as an active neighbor) and either a coin icon or goods icon. Click on each quickly and surely (think like a person at a shooting gallery at an arcade), IMMEDIATELY "X" out the "Thank you" box (DON"T click "Share") and return to click your remaining products.

C. Either coins or goods will go to your totals, and hearts will be added, too. But if you follow these tips, notice in the top right of your screen the words "Excellent" and/or "Amazing"....then you'll see "Bonus". Click to visit the next neighbor and a bonus of 338 CV coins come up (that's at my level, which is 75. Your result will be commensurate with your level at the time, so the amount of these bonuses go up). I have 45 neighbors. If I do this correctly, I'll net an extra 15120 CV coin as a bonus in addition to the other money or goods or energy I collect. That's enough to buy a business or a house in CV.

D. Avoid clicking on tourists buses. Yes, it's fun and noisy and cute, but you'll usually lose your full bonus because often the tourist bus comes from too far of a distance. Click on tourist buses as a LAST RESORT!

E. Sometimes you'll only get a partial bonus, say if the browser loses the connection, CV "enhances", or you don't click on everything soon enough or accurately enough.

Introduction (This blog assumes you're NOT a beginning player.)

CityVille is an intriguing, creative and highly addictive game published by Zynga, a San Fran based company, that also publishes FarmVille (boring), CafeWorld (fun, but high maintenance like CV) and other games. Zynga's mission is to make money. Zynga does this by playing on our need for instant gratification. Our job is to NOT give Zynga very much, if any, of our real money. I don't have the current figures, but as of 2009, Zynga was making a NET profit of $15,000,000 each month. I gave them too much of my money before I learned the tricks that I want to share with you.

Zynga provides many diversions to keep you from making your own money, thus encouraging you to buy their CV cash. Most are innocent looking, but you'll see that you must avoid them. I'll talk about diversions as we progress.

I firmly believe that Zynga is trying to market CV to a wealthier market than FarmVille or CafeWorld, where I hardly ever have to buy anything. In fact, in FarmVille, I've never bought a thing, but only play to repay some friends and neighbors.

Let's look at some building blocks of CV:

A. Energy: It takes energy to collect from houses, your train, businesses and farm plots. It also takes energy to build buildings of any kind and to unload cargo ships and the train.  Every time you turn around, you'll need energy. Zynga tries to get you to buy CV cash to get more energy. But TIME is your best friend because Zynga replenishes 30 energy units every 2.5 hours. So, when you have exhausted your energy, go mow the yard or make chicken soup and come back in 2.5 hours. Thirty is the max...it won't keep increasing over 30 units unless you use it.

B. Goods: Goods supply businesses so that citizens have something to buy. Goods come from farm plots, cargo ships, visits to neighbors, from the factory, from your train (which you can use to sell goods, too) and from some collections. There is no way to buy goods except by the train, which now only operates once a day (unless you want to pay more!). When you're out of goods, you're done until you grow more crops or can unload more ships, the train, turn in collections, etc. DON'T think that you need a huge amount of storage units. That's a Zynga diversion to take up expensive real estate. I've been playing CV for 3.5 months and have NEVER had leftovers for sale. More on this later.

C. CV cash. It's the stuff you want to avoid buying.

D. CV coins are what you want to always be maximizing opportunities to make tons of these.

E. Sharing is usually a "feel good" word used mostly as a diversion and as a way to get Zynga to advertise its games on FaceBook for them. Be careful about "sharing".

F. Zoning Permits. You'll need lots of them. ONLY gift zoning permits and energy. Most of the other is unused junk. AVOID Mystery Gifts...they are a HUGE diversion. You'll end up giving and getting back something that you probably can't use.

G. Inventory. Should be self-explanatory.

H. Collections. These are partly silly, partly useful, and partly diversionary. Later we'll discuss this in more length.

I. Expansions: Wow. Here's where Zynga wants everything in your bank account! More later.

First, let's look at how and win to visit neighbors and make money, goods and energy doing it.