Construction Hub Challenge

The Upland Construction Hub: A Solid Foundation with Room to Grow

The recent Construction Hub Challenge brought a fresh wave of utility and competition to the Upland metaverse. While the launch of the Construction Hub itself was a technical success, the competitive side of the event sparked a lot of conversation within the community.

Here is our breakdown of what worked, what didn’t, and how Upland can level up for the next challenge.


The Construction Hub: A Successful Launch

From a technical standpoint, the Construction Hub is a winner. The implementation was smooth, the contracts functioned exactly as intended, and the overall launch felt incredibly polished. It’s a solid addition to the Upland ecosystem.  


Improving the Construction Hub Experience

While the foundation is strong, a few "quality of life" tweaks to the Hub would go a long way in making it more user-friendly:

  • City-Specific Cooldowns: Currently, the one-hour cooldown is global.  A cooldown mechanic is good and well warranted, but the global application doesn't seem exactly right. We recommend making this city-specific. If a player travels to a new city to take a job, they shouldn’t be locked out by a global timer. However, the one-hour wait should still apply to the original city if they return within that window.  By traveling they are incurring a time delay and a cost to travel that serves as a friction point on it's own.  They also may miss the contract when they attempt to travel making the decision more strategic.

  • Sorting and Filtering: As more contracts open up, the Hub requires a lot of scrolling. Introducing a "Nearest to Farthest" sort option would allow players to see jobs in their current city first, and then successively further cities, streamlining the workflow.  This would allow players to sort either by nearest first, or newest first.


The Contest: Lot's of Fun, Room for Improvement


The contest itself was a lot of fun and left you feeling like there was always a reason to check in and see what's going on.  Scanning for contracts and making travel plans gave the strategist driven gamer a lot to think about in a good way.  Having an incentive to build some of the blueprints you missed during sales was also nice.  People were eager to grab the contracts so you didn't have to wait long. Hopefully this isn't the last construction challenge we see.

Improving The Challenge Experience

Addressing the "Lister vs. Builder" Imbalance

The intention of the contest was likely to benefit both those listing jobs and those building them, but the reality was a bit different. We noticed a significant imbalance that favored listers.

Logistics and Travel

  • Listers: Can list as many constructions as they can manage, as fast as they want, without needing to travel.

  • Builders: Are capped by a one-hour global cooldown and must physically travel to the property to take the job.


The Blueprint Advantage

  • Blueprint Buyers: Players who previously purchased the majority of blueprints were locked out of making contracts, and as such, didn't have many options to list and were only able to compete effectively as a builder.  This left them in a place where they had both timing and traveling restrictions that the listers did not.
  • Non-Buyers: Players who had not purchased blueprints, especially the ones with low listing thresholds, (like cemeteries or bus stops) had a massive leg up. Because these items were inexpensive to list, these players could rack up points at a rate that other players couldn't match.



Looking Ahead: A Fairer Playing Field

Assuming the challenge is run again in the future, here are a few ideas to make the next Construction Hub Challenge more competitive for the entire community, Upland should consider:

  1. Separate Prize Pools: Divide rewards between "Builders" and "Listers" so they aren't competing for the same spots. (A given player could attempt both if they like)

  2. Point Adjustments: Re-evaluate how points are weighted for different types of constructions to prevent "blueprint spamming."

  3. Localize Cooldowns: Implement the city-specific cooldown mentioned above to reward active travelers.

  4. Listing Cooldowns: For the purpose of a competition provide a city specific cool down for listing the same blueprint.

  5. Option to Contract: Even if a player owns a blueprint they should be afforded the option to open a contract as well.  If a player decides they want to outsource the build for the sake of competition it should be their choice.


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