CityVille by Zynga for Facebook: guide, tips, tricks, hints, cheats and strategies

CityVille is the brand new Zynga Facebook game that has been long awaited, and is finally able to be played right now on Facebook. It combines elements of FarmVille and FrontierVille with other established city building games such as Millionaire City, and even such games as Lucky Train,  to create a brand new, rich and compelling gaming experience. All of these different methods of play will come into play for building your city. You can even start a franchise and open branches in other cities, as well as invite your friends to put their franchises in your city! Many fake websites have already popped up for tips and cheats for CityVille, but unlike those websites, I am one of the first to play CityVille and uncover REAL playing tips and cheats. Read on...

First of all, much of what you do in CityVille revolves around how many neighbors you have (friends who play the game). If you don't know too many people who play the game, or who would be interested in playing the game, there are a few places you can go to very easily find people to add who play the game. Your best bet would be to go to the official CityVille forum (the link is found on www.cityville.com), go to the "add new neighbors" forum, and add people who have already posted, or post an "add me" post. Another good bet is to go to the CityVille Facebook page and add people who have "liked" the game or commented. You will find yourself with 2 to 3 digits worth of neighbors in no time if you do this.

The layout you start off with in CityVille, is not really an ideal layout. There is no reason for the red barn to be next to the street, as nothing at all happens when it's next to the street. It's still just as useful when it's not next to the street, unlike your businesses and your residences. So use the "move tool" to move it away from the street, in order to make room for businesses and residences.

You start off with various trees growing in empty areas of your city. They don't add any payout bonuses to any of the businesses in your city, so there is no reason to keep any of them around. DON'T CLICK THEM. You will have a task come up where you have to chop down 3 trees in order to complete the task. Wait to chop them down until this task comes up, or else you won't get credit for the trees which you have already chopped down. If you absolutely must chop them for the extra money and energy, leave at least 3 trees behind.

Your decorations should be the centerpiece of your other buildings, because of the effect that they have on how much money your businesses earn you, and how much of an effect they have on how much rent you collect from each house. Try to concentrate them next around your most profitable businesses.

Or, even better, here's a little cheat to maximize your earnings from a business, especially a high-dollar business like the coffee shop, or (later on in the game) the pool hall, sunglass store, and wedding store. Once a store is ready to have money collected, use the "move" tool to move it to a wide open space in your city. Then, use the "move" tool to move all of your decorations to be within range of the business, so that your payout bonus is massive. Next, collect your payout, and watch the extra-large payout flood your account with money. It doesn't matter that the customers weren't served near the decorations, only that the building is near decorations when you collect the payout. Once you're done, move them back to their normal locations and carry on with the game as normal.

To start moving your franchises into your friends' cities, go to your neighbor's city and find their empty lot. Click the empty lot and choose which business of yours you want to place there. Once you choose, you have to wait for your friend to accept your business.
Once they accept your business, you get a pop up with two options. Choose the "new headquarter available" option, and you can build your franchise's "headquarters" in your city, where you can supply your franchises, as well as collect from them. Build more branches of that same franchise in more friends' cities as well, and your franchise headquarters building will grow taller and taller.

To increase your citizens' happiness (as well as increase your population limit), build community buildings. After you unlock one community building, you can build multiples of the same building, and continue to increase both the happiness and the population limit of your city. You don't need to wait to unlock more and more types of buildings.

Source: http://evanhutchinson.hubpages.com

How to Play CityVille?

Zynga's latest Facebook game, CityVille, is growing in users rapidly; indeed, it is thought that it might soon overtake the number of monthly users of FarmVille. In this game, players have to create and maintain a city where they'll be in charge of opening shops, houses, community buildings, farming crops, and financial work in the hope of becoming the Mayor. Read on for a step-by-step guide to get started on CityVille.

Steps

Open the CityVille application on Facebook. You'll find it at: http://apps.facebook.com/cityville. Click the 'Play' button to begin. 

Open the CityVille application on Facebook.

 

Building a House

1. If this is your first time playing Cityville, you will be brought to a near-empty piece of land. Instructions on how to begin will appear on-screen asking you to create your first building.

     2. To do this, click open the Building menu by selecting the 'Build' button located in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Click this. The Building menu will appear in place of the Neighbors list, and a list of the houses you have unlocked so far (at the beginning of the game there is only one).


The build button

Select the building, then drop it onto the desired location. (Note: The house must be connected to a road or a path.) The price of the house in CityVille coins will be deducted automatically. The house will appear unbuilt. To build the house, click on the building and one energy will be deducted for building. Depending on the building, this step may need to be repeated.

 
Building
 
Your new villagers will move in and you will earn City Coins and XP (experience) for building a new house.

Your new house and villagers!

Farming Crops

In CityVille, harvesting crops provides you with goods which can be used to supply any shops or businesses you open in your new city, so obviously this is a vital part in running your town.

To plant crops, you will have to lay down some farm plot to grow your crops on. This will cost you 100 city coins.

  

 Four farm plots

Open the 'Build' menu again, but this time click the 'Farming' tab. A list of available crops will appear. Click your preferred crop, and drop it on the empty farm plot. The cost of the crop will be deducted from your City Coins balance.  

 

 Crop selection

 Note: The amount of goods the crops produce and the length of time the crop takes to grow depends on the crop. Strawberries take five minutes to grow and produce 15 goods, whilst eggplant takes one hour to grow and produces 30 goods.

Once the crops have grown, click on the crop to harvest. You will get your goods and some experience stars (XP). One energy will be required to harvest each crop.

 

Businesses and Community Buildings

In the 'Build' menu, you have the option to build businesses such as shops and community buildings such as City Halls. Doing this can act as a money source and allow you to build more homes and increase the population limit.

 

Community buildings 

 

Open the 'Build' menu and select either the 'Businesses' or 'Community Buildings' tab.

Select the building you'd like to build and drop it where you'd like it to appear. The cost of the building will be deducted from your City Coin balance. Construct the building as described in previous steps. This will require energy.

 

Building a Shop 

You will be rewarded with some City Coins and Experience stars (XP). If your building is a business, you'll be asked to name your shop and supply your shop with goods.

A completed bakery shop

 As you progress in the game, you will start to notice 'Goals' appearing on the left side of your game screen. These are tasks you must complete in order to unlock special items and help your town progress.

To view a goal, click a goal's icon on the left hand side of your game screen. A small instruction window will open telling you what you are required to do.

 

A Goal

 Follow the instructions. Completing the task will give you rewards such as unlocking items, experience stars (XP), city coins or cash, energy or items.

 

Some items require a certain goal to be completed

 

Neighbors

You will need neighbors in Cityville to give you certain gifts, complete certain goals, fill staff roles in community buildings, unlock items and to help around town.

 

  An item that requires a certain number of neighbors

• Visit your neighbor's town on a DAILY bases to gain coins and goods.

Go to the Neighbor menu down the bottom of the game screen and find a 'Add Friend' icon.

An 'Add Friend' icon

Click this icon and you'll be brought to your friend list. Select friends whom you either know already play Cityville or those you'd like to start playing. An invitation will be sent to these people.

Inventory

The inventory list keeps a count of all items you collect and gifts you earn. You can request items directly to your neighbors and they will be notified via the Cityville mail alert or the game will let you post on your Facebook wall.
Visit your neighbors town as well as they're Facebook wall on a DAILY bases to donate to their inventory requests. This is beneficial to the giver and the receiver as the person donating and sending the items will reap in coins, goods, gifts and most of the time receive the same item in return which will go into inventory for future use. Most players click on "like" after they send an item to their neighbor.

 as well as their Facebook wall to donate items they need.

Collection

As you collect with your business you will start earning different items that will go into your collection. As you complete each collection you will have an option highlighted in green to trade it in for different gifts to add to your Cityville town.

Source: http://www.wikihow.com