Down on the Boardwalk… having Squidport Fun….

Posted on December 30, 2013 by | 13 Comments

Well hello there tappers and tappettes!

Kind of a slow day here at Addicts as you can see from my silly attempt to sing an oldie with TSTO lyrics and failing.  I had written a whole verse and chorus but scrapped it to spare you the silliness lol.

As we ramp up for the new year.  I’m personally so excited for 2014 and all the new content we will have coming in the future.  Of course New Year’s Eve is synonymous with champagne and maybe a little debauchery so I figured I’d hit the kegs here at Addicts and see what’s on tap for today…

I know a lot of folks probably are feeling a little tapped-out with the holiday event, so I thought I’d take a break from it all and talk about a neglected area of a lot of Springfields… Squidport.  Whether you feel it is you or EA that is guilty of the neglect is up to you.  Like most things in life, you are the master of your destiny (and opinion), but I thought I’d show you a neat little trick or two to spice up your Springfield Pier Area.

Toxic Shark's SqP

How cool is that Squidport?  This is from a frienderino (that’s friend and neighboreeno combined btw) of mine who goes by the moniker of Toxic Shark.

I love how this looks but upon closer examination, you might be asking yourself, how the heck does he have so many characters on his Boardwalk?  Well, I’m here to tell you and of course ramble a skoshi about the Squidport.

Tapped_Out_Squidport

Squidport came to TSTO in June of 2012 and was the first expansion to the game.  Prior to its arrival, tappers only got to see the ocean on the western edge of their towns.   Squidport marked the beginning of TSTO summer and as a California kid, nothing says summer to me like the beach.  Down in sunny So Cal we have some amazing piers in San Diego, Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach. Closer to where I’m from, the Huntington Beach pier is where a ton of kids congregate.    I may or may not have jumped off the end during Tiger Shark mating season.  Not my smartest moment but my point is, the arrival of Squidport seemed like the perfect addition.

All you have to be at is Level 15 in the game and off you go.  The pier includes a bunch of really well-designed buildings and decorations.  17 out of 23 of them are free!  As for characters on the boardwalk, of the 6 available, only one is free. These NPCs just walk around doing their performances.  Not all is lost though, Squidport also brings the houseboat for 15000 game cash and includes one of my favorite characters, the Sea Captain.

The entire Squidport questline revolves around building tiles for the port and placing your buildings and includes some funny dialogue.  I won’t bore you with comments about how long the tiles take to build, but I will link you to this post about a nifty glitch which might help you get them faster.  I know of quite a few people still using this to their benefit.

Squidport made its debut in The Simpsons in Season 6, Episode 20: “Two Dozen and One Greyhounds” and since then has been part of several more episodes.  My favorite is Homer and Marge going on a date there in “My Sister, My Sitter” (S8:E17).  This episode was actually my inspiration for more buildings (Part 1 & 2) that could be added to SqP in the future.

SquidportBefore anyone points it out, yes I know the Clamphitheater doesn’t come from this episode but I really wanted to show it off too in case no one clicks the links.

While working on your SqP tasks, one of the really fun ones is sending all your Springfielders to The Frying Dutchman to eat.  I remember this one fondly because it seemed like the last time I had a ton of characters on my Boardwalk. It wasn’t until I duplicated this feat with a Fleet A Pita quest that I saw an abundance of people at my port.  Apparently Springfielders are afraid of water unless they’re walking over it lol.

Feetapita SqP

Which brings me back to Toxic’s Sqp New Year’s party.  Why do his characters love the port?  Well, the answer is easy other than his obvious magnetism and the whole moths to the flame theory.  Check out these shots of Patty going to the Squidport.

Toxic Patty SqP

I watched her walk right down that street and just meander on over.  What’s going on?  Well dear reader, the secret is to have roads going to Squidport with unobstructed access to the tiles.  Here are the basics:

Step number the First: Try and clear away as many roads from your town as you can.  Characters are drawn to roads, so the more you have, the less chance you have of coercing them to visit your pier. 
Numero dos: Place the entrance to Squidport and then place a few squares of road leading up to the entrance.  This will make the characters begin to gather on the road by it.
Tre: Place SqP tiles directly out towards the ocean from the center of the entrance. Do not add any decorations or items yet that will “block” the path of your characters.
In Turkish they say “Dort”:  Start to span out your tiles to the left and right, filling in as little or as much area as you would like.  I would suggest initially leaving out decorations.
Woohoo and Bob’s your uncle… your characters will now start to journey onto Squidport.  To keep them on Squidport, it’s all a matter of timing.  If you want them to stay, find a task that they stand still doing (like the captain telling a tale, willie playing the pipes, Tony playing the violin, etc), initiate the task and bask in the glow of a populated Squidport.
Character on Sqp
You can see Mr. Costington journeyed out there but not finding anything to his liking, wandered right off.
In addition, you know that some characters use items during tasks like the benches.  You can either place these items only on your Squidport or drag the character over.  For dragging, after you set the task in your town, just go to your “move item” screen and close down the building and character icons.  This will allow you to move the “decoration” (bench, lawnchair, etc.) they are using over to the Squidport area.  This works for Brockman, Agnes, Dolph, and Grandpa to name a few.
I followed all these step in my 2D town and as you can see, there are characters I stuck there, some I associated with decorations AND others just milling around on their tasks.  While this Squidport is obviously boring, it is much more full of life than my decorated one.
Active Sqp
As a special bonus, Toxic Shark shared with me (over at tapped-out) another little trick he does to get characters out there.
Basically, you send a character on a task that is associated with a building.  While they are walking to that building, go to the “move item” screen and hover the building over Squidport.  When the character is close to your desired location on the pier (before they enter the building), quickly store the building and then have the character do what ever the almighty skyfinger wants it to.  It’s important to note that if you use the building the character came with, they’ll also be stored so pick unassociated buildings.  A lot of work, but a unique way to get Squidport customers.   Thanks T.S.!
Well, hope you liked this little bit of info.  Hoping at least one more Squidport might get some action this New Year.  Hope every one of us have a safe New Year’s Eve and a blessed 2014.
TTFN… Wookiee out!
A couple of my peeps over at tapped-out insisted I let them know the lyrics to the song I scrapped so I figured I’d add them to the bottom in case you were interested.
Down on the Boardwalk… Having Squidport Fun,
Down on the Boardwalk… Where Horatio is number one,
Down at the Squidport… we know your tiles ain’t done,
Down at the Squidport… where the heck is everyone?Down on the boardwalk, out by the seeeeeeeeeeee-a yeah,
On an iPhone with my Midgee-baby is where I’ll be.

 
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13 responses to “Down on the Boardwalk… having Squidport Fun….”

  1. runicgem | December 31, 2013 at 6:22 am | Reply

    the tiles, the channel 6 studio and of course Cletus’ farm are all still working so to speak!

  2. alunited1961 | December 31, 2013 at 3:29 am | Reply

    I don’t have all the content and would love to see some return as well.

    Have you any speculation or knowledge on what is coming. I love a spoiler.

    Happy Hogmany to all of you have a great time at the Bells.

  3. Lekittynoir | December 30, 2013 at 11:41 pm | Reply

    Is the tile glitch still working then? I thought they fixed that!

  4. Thomas ToxicShark Lyon | December 30, 2013 at 9:46 pm | Reply

    A perfect synopsis and explanation…we should be seeing many populated squidports now…and the last trick (hovering building) works anywhere. Great forr
    Staging photo ops…..great post

  5. Randall Cheuvront | December 30, 2013 at 4:53 pm | Reply

    i’m hoping some of the old content will be revisited. the mapple store, the pub, etc. there are things i’d love to get that aren’t available any longer. new content is cool but when so many neighbors have their towns decorated with stuff no longer available you get a little jealous lol

    • wookieecorp | December 30, 2013 at 5:00 pm | Reply

      EA has brought back a lot of things that weren’t available for tappers before. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. The Pub is ripe for a re-release for St. Patty’s Day.

      • silverdog77 | December 30, 2013 at 8:31 pm | Reply

        I think we’re all hoping to see some content re-released. I know I am, btw Wookie maybe we need a new link for those slow days perhaps a section titled Confessions of a Tapaholic. Ehhh-Yesssssss! 🙂

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