judging from what I saw in my neighbourhood :
-the "suddenly looking better" option proposed by
@bobbipiazza is smart
-insist more on the"you
have to build cultural buildings, not just one";
many cities in my neighbourhood have been deserted showing very few cultural buildings and sometimes an upgrade in progress; it looks that these players have decided to upgrade some building and found out that they were running out of culture (or inhabitants, or gold, or supplies, or whatever) and thought "ok, it is the end, I will never be able to go further, the game is over";
I admit that this is not the attitude to have when facing a city builder, but this is the kind of story their cities seem to tell;
-somebody mentioned to me "adding a 3rd or 4th builder is a good way to spend diamonds";
I still think that is is an excellent way to go bankrupt : building yourself to poverty
when you build more, you spend more, and when you can build even more, you can spend even more, it is so obvious;
would I have a 3rd builder in the hut, I could not keep pace with the expenses at fairies level : upgrading houses, workshops, manufactories and such is very expensive, and I could not make enough coins to follow up....
come to think of it, some of my now inactive neighbours must have gone through that pitfall : they have this 3rd and even 4th builder ...
-inform players that cultural buildings are not upgradable, and must be replaced instead
I know that some of these ideas sound like "take players by the hand", but making them feel comfortable with the game is a good way to keep them;
yes, I know, it is written in the forum, it is written in the wiki, it may even be written within the game; the bottom line is that players and here to play, not read, and they won't read; so the game must find a nicer way to tell them were to go than letting them hit the brick wall
and oh, those cities with 3 top notch cultural buildings for their age and a lot (quite a lot) of flying boats/floating tomes in the background... depressing ...
and by the way, the same goes with premium buildings : they are the best at their age and level, then another age comes with better premium buildings; the spending never ends
