Devs and fellow glitches,
Having had my 1st experience with street projects yesterday (what a hectic day it was!), I'd like to share some ideas for your consideration.
1. Extend the time frame
Since street projects can only be launched after the prerequisite artwork, coding, QA etc are complete, it means they only come around once in a while. So we should try to let all players have a chance to participate (esp those with heavy rl commitments) by extending the time frame per project, from the current <2 hrs to ~24 hrs per street. That means an entire region will take 1-2 weeks to be 'fully operational', which given the scope and nature of these supposedly ground-breaking projects, makes sense.
2. By massively adjusting material amounts
The adjustment should be based on commodity type, and ease of obtaining them. Eg, food ingredients are by far the most proliferate commodities in the game, so amount required should be in the range of hundreds of thousands. Ores take time to mine, has fixed respawn timers, so proportionately less should be asked for. Disclaimer: I'm specialized in neither skill trees, these are merely figures thrown up for illustration purposes.
3. Non-purchasable materials
Every material needed should have work involved in obtaining them, whether harvesting or value-added processing.
4. Limit material hoarding
Perhaps there are players with 10,000 items lying around in their houses... if the lag doesn't kill their video cards (or sanity) first. Nonetheless, there should be a limit to items in houses similar to limits on livestock numbers. Maybe incorporate this into the upcoming housing changes: cottages can be upgraded with attic/basement storages so they don't 'lose out' to those modern bungalows, for instance. But there's still a limit. Easier on the database too!
5. Scale the difficulty
Early phases to require very lowly skills so newcomers and veterans alike can take part. Late phases to require highly-trained and specialised skillsets, so veterans will have a great avenue to showcase their talents. Adjust material amounts to reflect dynamic ratio between young/old glitches who are active participants. Might require players to 'opt-in' a project via registration before being able to contribute.
6. The X-factor
Streets with special functions (quests, dungeons etc) might need extra-special materials. Maybe a convenient sink for unwanted cubimals?
7. Status noticeboards
Can be placed at fixed locations eg. bureaucratic offices or subway stations, so glitches throughout the land can check on current availability of projects, % completion, and decide whether they want to hop over and lend a hand.
That's all for now, thank you for reading.