Figured id post part 1 of my tally for my two cities.
City 1 and city 2, both at same spot, both nearly identically built. Both finished all quests up to yesterdays. (todays is still active). Both had collections around the city grounds done one after the other every time. Both collected the same quest milestone currency rewards. Both the the 100 currency email bonus. - Both did not buy any currency or buy the +2 stash house at the start.
Both cities did full cash in of currency today.
City 1:
5544 currency at start of full cash in today.
Chest bonuses: 500, 50, 150, 100, 500, 100, 150, 100, 100, 100, 150
Chest bonus total: 2000 (I was surprised)
9 relics acquired
281 feathers aquired
58 currency left
City 2:
5536 currency at start of full cash in.
Chest Bonuses: 100, 50, 500, 50, 150, 50
Chest Bonus Total: 900
8 relics acquired
240 feathers acquired
65 currency left.
Comparison
City 1 started with 8 more currency then city 2 (from random drops around the city)
Chest bonuses were the big difference here. City 1 got 2000 and city 2 got 900. Less then half of what city 1 got.
I know its 'random' or a 'percentage chance', i get that. But that huge a difference will cause ... well.. huge differences in what each city will get rewarded with for the exact same effort.
City 1 got the 9 artifacts, the portrait, and is working on the 2nd building (probably wont reach that tho)
City 2 is still just trying to get to 9 artifacts. - Portrait is highly highly highly unlikely. The hope of 2nd building isnt worth the effort of typing this sentence out. -_-
So that is a huge difference. A bit to much of the rewards/compensation is placed into the randomness/luck of getting currency from chests. The fact that you can do everything of the event and still come up short.... is a massive flaw. Its one thing to have some extra nice things at the end to entice some diamond buying, i get that. But this kind of difference means ppl can do everything and still not get the minimum. And thats wrong. - And this happens more often then not in events for my two cities; heavy difference.
Ill update numbers at the end of event (50~h)