iOS Can't visit neighbours - even ones I know for sure are active

[Gary42]

Hi Gary. Please update this post or send me a message of the outcome. I, like you, am just considering chucking the whole game as I am fed with GI. I would actually consider starting a new game, if they reapply everything from my old game, and I mean everything - building for building and level by level!!! I doubt that this will be the case though, as they could just as easily simply unblock the old game. I am very interested in your outcome.

Hi LAX and others-

The update you requested is not positive. The GI support people refuse to give details or get into a forthcoming conversation. The core of my problem seems to be that I either played the game during the week I was in Hawaii or that the game was running in the background while I was on the plane?? I had it in airplane mode but who knows. All GI is prepared to do is give a credit for the amount of "green" I was supposed to receive back in February (I originally got too much - again not my fault). They refuse to acknowledge they have programming problems, they refuse to acknowledge that I did not cheat, they refuse to acknowledge that they have treaded Android users differently for similar problems, and they refuse to credit me anything for a year of lost game play. I sent one last pointed email to tech support, but they have now simply closed the ticket. That generated a feedback form on which I let them know exactly what I think of this whole mess, but I can't see that it will do much good. Sorry I don't have better news.

I have restarted my game. My new username is GS42, and I'm even back to level 10 (I was 40 with Prometheus space flights and several promo-buildings completed), but I am left with an uneasy feeling that it could all go quite wrong again. I half-expected to be re-branded a cheater when we went off of daylight savings time last wee! At any rate, if anyone wants to take a junior neighbor on I'd try my best to be a good gifter. I also wouldn't mind feedback on whether gifts get though either way.

Gary

 

[LAX]

Hi Gary, thanks for the update on your reset. I figured that was going to be the case. I am in the same situation as you and I don't think I am going to delete and reinstall the game again. Too much to lose. I guess I will continue to play sparingly in my blocked state. Extremely unfair - I don't understand why they just don't unblock iOs users, like they did for Android users!!!

I will definitely send you a friend request and gladly take you on as a neighbor!!! I know you said that you had to start from scratch on level one. What, if anything, did GI give you towards the new game???

 

[Gary42]

Hi Gary, thanks for the update on your reset. I figured that was going to be the case. I am in the same situation as you and I don't think I am going to delete and reinstall the game again. Too much to lose. I guess I will continue to play sparingly in my blocked state. Extremely unfair - I don't understand why they just don't unblock iOs users, like they did for Android users!!!

I will definitely send you a friend request and gladly take you on as a neighbor!!! I know you said that you had to start from scratch on level one. What, if anything, did GI give you towards the new game???

They only gave me 96 "green" as a reimbursement for a $9.99 purchase I made back in February during a 300% promo. Nothing else for time and trouble. I see in other threads some people have accepted "coupons" for reinstalling and others have been satisfied with the deal. I am really not, and I am beginning to wonder if I just got a particularly dim tech support person. I certainly provided as much info as I could to demonstrate that I had never cheated. I would have, as you, kept going with a crippled game, but mine was really messed up: weed-end promos wouldn't work, I was worried about future space launches as I had heard they hadn't been crippled, the airship wouldn't sell to me, and most neighbors many of whom I knew were playing read as "away", which in turn meant the Halloween contest was more or less impossible.

I accepted your request today and sent an aerosol. I'll try to get a signature with gifting up and running soon, and figure out this whole PM thing. Honestly, the only reason I'm willing to start over at all is because of the information and support available on these forums.

Gary

 

[LAX]

Wow, that certainly doesn't seem "fair" getting 96 greenies to start your new game. I have many of the same problems that your game had - can't launch with any friends, many friends "away", duke won't sell to me anymore, etc. However, I do have enough neighbors that I can still visit and get items for various challenges and space launches. I am trying finish out getting 3 stars for all Jumbo's and then I am probably going to cut way back on my play - it just isn't as fun as it used to be.

I do agree with you, that if it weren't for great information and friends on this forum, I would have stopped playing a loooooooong time ago!!!

 

[wwo55]

The last answer from GI was "We know the reason of impossibility to visit your neighbors and solve this problem". I sent to GI many emails about this problem and gave names of player who do give me gifts daily but are inaccessible.
I believe this bug will be solved in next release.
About time zones.
GI support says: always close the game when you can change the time zone. This rule works - I traveled many times, crossed the time zones in both directions and do not have this problem.

 

[Neil ellor]

The last answer from GI was "We know the reason of impossibility to visit your neighbors and solve this problem". I sent to GI many emails about this problem and gave names of player who do give me gifts daily but are inaccessible.
I believe this bug will be solved in next release.
About time zones.
GI support says: always close the game when you can change the time zone. This rule works - I traveled many times, crossed the time zones in both directions and do not have this problem.

Or set your time zone to London and leave it there. That is if you are from UK

 

[Ianda11]

I've sent GI a second email with regards to the neighbour is away problem. They closed my first case with the usual response of it will be solved with the next update.

Gary42 I've sent you a friend request but normally my requests don't work for some reason. Feel free to send me a request and I'll accept and try and help you get your game back on track.

 

[wwo55]

Ianda11 The GI support informed me that they understood the reason for this problem and are doing anew release to solve it.
And the good news: GI team has a plan to increase the city space and the levels quantity.
I am waiting for new releases and features (I hope - without bugs)...

 

[Gary42]

Ianda11 The GI support informed me that they understood the reason for this problem and are doing anew release to solve it.
And the good news: GI team has a plan to increase the city space and the levels quantity.
I am waiting for new releases and features (I hope - without bugs)...

I think I understand the time zone fix now. Tech support did explain that, but too late. It also isn't very intuitive and certainly not may habit. Press the home button, then double press the home button, then press a long time on the tile, then shut off the game - Yeesh! As two new neighbors (LAX is one of them) worked for a day or two but now read as "Away", I am starting to wonder if my brand new restarted game is already blocked.

I certainly hope they can fix the "Neighbor Away" but they have promised that for months now. I also think it must be tied in with certainly games being blocked or partially blocked, and as far as I know GI isn't going to offer the amnesty they did to Android players.

Ianda11 : I will try to add you now.

-Gary

 

[Gary42]

I think I understand the time zone fix now. Tech support did explain that, but too late. It also isn't very intuitive and certainly not may habit. Press the home button, then double press the home button, then press a long time on the tile, then shut off the game - Yeesh! As two new neighbors (LAX is one of them) worked for a day or two but now read as "Away", I am starting to wonder if my brand new restarted game is already blocked.

I certainly hope they can fix the "Neighbor Away" but they have promised that for months now. I also think it must be tied in with certainly games being blocked or partially blocked, and as far as I know GI isn't going to offer the amnesty they did to Android players.

Ianda11 : I will try to add you now.

-Gary

I should have said I wonder if my new games is already blocked because I doubt if I had it shut done properly during the recent time change.

-G

 

[Red Fox One]

I should have said I wonder if my new games is already blocked because I doubt if I had it shut done properly during the recent time change.

-G

Can your neighbours receive your gifts? Can you see/join neighbours' launches or can they see/join yours? If yes, then you're not blocked. It's weird how a new game gets blocked so fast.

A note that I'd like to add: My device has had problems for quite some time now, and 2-3 times when I powered it off and on again, the date got changed to year 2011 or 2012 I can't remember. The point is that I had to fast forward several years but I didn't get the Time Traveler cheat stuff and didn't get blocked though I worried a bit when it happened...

On "neighbour is away" problem:
I am on Android, and I also have this problem. If the neighbour is really not away, my problem stems from:
1. Not the latest version
2. Neighbour is from ios platform. I can visit my Android neighbours who are on the latest version, but can't visit ios neighbours.

 

[Gary42]

It's weird how a new game gets blocked so fast.
...
On "neighbour is away" problem:
I am on Android, and I also have this problem. If the neighbour is really not away, my problem stems from:
1. Not the latest version
2. Neighbour is from ios platform. I can visit my Android neighbours who are on the latest version, but can't visit ios neighbours.

Sorry, I missed this.

You are correct. My new game isn't blocked. I can't tell from launches though because I haven't rebuilt to that point yet. I just found it weird that a bunch of good people found me, and after I accepted their requests was able to tap buildings in their airports once, but the very next time, and to date, they are still "Away." Again, you might be right about the cross platform and different version points. I can't say. At any rate, many more new neighbors work just fine.

Gary

 

[pwcmvj]

How about this to add to our list of GI woes. Now after being in this situation since mid October NOW they tell me the problem has been caused because I changed the date/time information on the device and that therefore all this is punishment for cheating.

I never do anything to the date/time information on this device. Never ever. I'd have to look up the manual to find out how, and I certainly haven't done that.

In early October our country moved from normal time to daylight savings time. At GIs usual speed, 10-14 days would be about right for their reaction time.

Obviously their programming algorithm to catch time travelling cheats needs to be fine tuned so that we don't get pinged each time our countries change their clocks and Apple obliges by automatically changing the time stamps on our devices for us.

To add insult to injury I had to add in a long complicated code (12 digits) to get things back to normal and the screen would not accept the code. Pressing 'Add' did absolutely nothing, no response.

Perhaps if enough of us complain we might get somewhere.

 

[Gt city]

Perhaps if enough of us complain we might get somewhere.

Yes, we all might be banned.

 

[GamingSwiftie]

After a couple of months with occasional game play and missing my forum friends, I decided to investigate my game play issues with GI. Apparently both games have been added to GI's ban list. In addition, one crashes after about a minute of game play. I'm still trying to get GI to tell me what I supposedly did to "earn" the ban as I have never time traveled and never did anything other than use the game as they have produced it. But at this point all they are willing to tell me is that my options are: a) continue playing in a banned state or b) start over and they will reimburse me for any purchased greens. Neither option sounds appealing to me especially if their bad programming is going to just put me in the exact same state later down the road.

So... stuck in limbo land still...