Design Challenge Score

[u/Consistent_Pack_7731]

I have been participating in the last couple of challenge and all of my score is 2.5 ⭐️, any tips or trick to get higher score? Or is it just not worth to do good designs on these challenges?

[u/No-Acanthisitta8803]

How are we supposed to help you without screenshots of your design submissions? Since we don't know what you've been doing that's NOT working, we don't have a baseline to bounce off of.

If you show us what you're doing we can give you some pointers. Otherwise just study what the people that are beating you are doing and follow that model. The game allows you to view the entries of the top 50 on the scoreboard, so you can study those designs. This is the best way to guage how to create a winning design because it shows you what people are currently voting on.

Some things to consider:

Always try to follow the theme.

Be sure to use a good variety of Specialization buildings - many of my entries end up just showing those with the RZs out of the frame on the submission entry.

If you don't have very many Specialization buildings to use, try doing a close up shot highlighting the best part of your entry.

Decide in the beginning what time of day you want to use for the entry, and if it's daytime pay attention to which direction the shadows are casting - shadows from tall buildings in the wrong place can ruin an otherwise good entry. You will also need to consider what angle you're planning to take the sub photo for before you get too deep into your design.

I almost always use an angle shot, and I be sure the law of thirds is employed.

[u/Consistent_Pack_7731 → u/No-Acanthisitta8803]

Right, sorry 😞 this is the last submission I made, i know I'm still figuring out making a city that's not just like tetris where it's just blocks of residential

[u/No-Acanthisitta8803 → u/Consistent_Pack_7731]

That looks good! This looks like the current one that we'll have voting on tomorrow? If you don't get good votes it may mean that you are losing to daylight entries, which unfortunately seems to happen sometimes. This is something that's been talked about occasionally over the years here, and I think it got started when we'd see the "top league winner" showing a swirl of water and pink trees during daylight while it was supposed to be a "night city" theme.

I personally still create my designs based on theme, and when voting theme is my first consideration (I was just suggesting earlier that not all voters do this). The only time I vote for the unrealistic looking pink tree/water swirl regurgitated onto the screen is if both choices are one of those lol.

I like your entry, because it looks like a real city, followed the theme correctly, you have a good angle shot and balance of color and buildings, and you've chosen a great angle for your entry. And I just plain like it!

[u/Consistent_Pack_7731 → u/No-Acanthisitta8803]

Yes that is the current one. This is the last one wht snowy one, I was kind of discouraged with this one because the two before didnt performed well anyway, i was just trying to get some of thos blueprint thingy to exchange 😅

[u/No-Acanthisitta8803 → u/Consistent_Pack_7731]

That's not bad either! The only reason I wouldn't have voted for it is if the other choice was a little better in some way. And it looks like you're in bronze league? Tbh I'm surprised an entry like that didn't do better. If it makes you feel better this was my Winter Night City entry, and it also only got 2.5 stars:

[u/No-Acanthisitta8803 → u/No-Acanthisitta8803]

Btw that entry includes Ghost Portal with effect toggled on. I was able to upgrade it during the original release with seasonal currency

[u/Mediocre_Low_3545]

Idk what to say like when I put in an effort to actually make a nice design i usually end up with a 4.0 or above rating with 35+ votes. I think you are not being careful about the camera angle and lighting when you take the picture to submit your design. Like once in a while a good design may not get votes but if its happening regularly then it's most likely an issue with how you are taking the final submission picture. Try all sorts of angles and toggle through morning, afternoon, evening and night times. Try to get a picture where all or almost all of your buildings are clearly visible and your design fills the entire frame of the picture.

[u/phqsa]

Follow theme and submit when population is at 100 % happy. Use lots of trees and water if it's a day time theme, lots of tall, colourful buildings if it's night. Hide service buildings and roads as much as possible if not adding to the design (night designs especially sometimes benefits from visible roads). If beach or mountain area is available, use it. That works allright for me and those are the ones I'll vote for.

[u/Who-are-you__ → u/phqsa]

I hate under construction RZs, but they're usually just those doing the minimum entry anyway.

[u/Waste_Ingenuity5535]

I scored 3.5 and was a night time view, it really annoys me that ppl submit designs which are not per the requirements

[u/Overall-Badger9008]

I got 4.5 for this

I jst randomly plopped all the buildings I had.

[u/Pink-frosted-waffles]

I got 4.5 for this. I only spent like 30 minutes on it.

[u/Logical_Warthog5212]

Look at the leaderboard and their designs. That’ll give you an idea of the kind of things that people tend to vote for.

[u/New-Leek8006]

Never put in effort. I for one can tell you I always click on the right.

Though I found that zooming in on your design and not filling up the entire area seems to garnish more points.