Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
So looks like we’ve got a new game sweeping the streets of our Springfields…Tap Ball! A game invented by our very own Homer J Simpson!
Tap Ball is a combination of a bunch of sports, as Homer says…”Tap Ball takes the best parts of other sports — dribbling, the infield fly rule, an epidemic of concussions — and adds the excitement of watching people play second-rate video games! …. Best of all, the only equipment you need is a smartphone, thirteen balls of varying size, bats made of glass…some chalk to mark the many end zones, a quaffle, Kevlar body armor and a greedy, narcissistic owner to screw it all up!”
As you can see Tap Ball doesn’t make a whole lotta sense, but hey what do you expect from a game Homer invented? After all… “The only rule of Tap Ball is…
THERE…ARE…NO…more than sixty-seven rules. With attached sub-rules, notes, and clarifications.”
Anywho…to play Tap Ball in YOUR Springfield, it’s a whole lot less complicated. So let’s breakdown the ins, outs and how tos of playing Tap Ball on your Tapping Device…Homer Free 😉
As usual let’s start with the basics….
When Can I Start Playing Tap Ball?
You can start playing Tap Ball once you trigger the Balls of Glory Pt. 1 quest. This quest triggers AFTER you’ve completed Meet My Trophy Life Pt. 4. For the full questline check out our Turbo Tappin’ Post here.
Who Can Play Tap Ball? (Which Characters)
From the initial quest triggering in Act 1 only a select few players can Play Tap Ball. Initially you’ll only have 4 or 5 characters that can play (the 5th depends on if you shell out donuts for Football Nelson). As you win prizes in Act 1 and complete the Daily Tasks you’ll unlock more Characters who can play. Here’s a list of who can initially play in Act 1 BEFORE you win prizes:
-Referee Homer
-Soccer Lisa
-Pin Pal Apu
-Flanders
-Football Nelson (Premium, you have to purchase with donuts)
And once you’ve unlocked Act 1 Prizes here’s who else can play:
-Baseball Jasper
-Softball Mr. Burns
And Daily Training Prizes:
-Tatum (should unlock by Saturday 6/27)
-Lugash (Should unlock by Tuesday 6/30)
The other characters you won’t unlock until Act 2 starts….
If A Character Is On A Task, Can They Still Play Tap Ball?
Yes. This is probably one of the best benefits of this update…you can send a character off on a task (for the questline or to earn extra Amateur Bucks) and they can STILL play Tap Ball!
How Do I Play?
To start playing Tap Ball you can either tap on your field or bring up the game hub and find the flag icon, either way will bring you to the Play Tap Ball! menu.
Once you’ve got the Play Tap Ball! list up you’ll see a bunch of options for playing various Tap Ball Games. To play a game IN YOUR OWN TOWN select the Single Player Option:
This will then bring up your list of characters on your Tap Ball Team:
You will need to select FOUR characters for your team. Just hit the Select Button to bring them over the the Roster:
Once the Play Button turns blue you’re good to go! Hit Play to Play Tap Ball!
Note: The order you select the characters in is the order they’ll appear in your game (Character at the top is the first one that’ll start the match and the players will move down from there. So in this case it’ll be Ned, Lisa, Homer & Apu (will close out the match)
What Happens Once I’m Playing Tap Ball?
Your first time through you’ll get a TON of popups explaining how to play and what each action does. We’ll go over them again here.
Your play field will look like this:
You’ll have 3 icons across the bottom and the score, as well as your rating and your opponents rating will be across the top.
Here’s what each Icon at the bottom does. The first, on the bottom right corner (the Flag) is the GO Button:
Pretty simple right? Tap the Go Button once and they’ll start their Face-off, you’ll see the characters each with their own individual sports related animation. Tap the Go Button twice and you’ll skip the animation and go right to the results of that round.
Next let’s talk about the Icons on the Bottom Left. First up the Switch icon:
The Switch button does just what you think it would, it switches a player for another player. (will only switch for the player directly behind them. So in this case it’ll switch Apu and Lisa) This comes in handy if your character has a low star rating and is facing another character with a higher rating (you always want your character to be tied or better in the star rating than their opponent). Here’s how EA explained it:
And finally the Tonic Button:
Pushing this will give that character a temporary (for that round) 2 star boost. So if you’re in a close match and you have a weaker character up use the Tonic Button to win that round. Here’s how the game describes it:
And yes if you’re 5 star going up against another 5 star it’ll still give you a boost.
And that’s really it to actually playing Tap Ball. You literally just tap 😉
How Often Can I Play Tap Ball?
Well…your characters need to rest after playing. They require a 4hr Cool down after each match. So when you go into your Play Screen you’ll see this:
However…this is a digital game and not real life, so naturally there’s a solution to make the Recharge time go faster…Obesotade!
Obesotade is a magical sports drink that will instantly Recharge your players for another Tap Ball match! You can pick it up in the Amateur Shop…but of course it’ll cost you Amateur Bucks…and a lot of them!
Here’s what you can get:
4-Pack- 400 
Will recharge 4 Players instantly
6-Pack- 600 Will recharge 6 Players instantly
12-Pack- 1200 Will recharge 12 Players instantly
So you can either wait the 4hrs or shell out some Amateur Bucks to recharge them instantly with Obesotade!
Tip: Leveling up your characters will also instantly recharge them. In some cases this may be a cheaper (Amateur Buck wise) option than getting Obestotade!
What’s the Payout For A Win/Loss/Tie?
In Tap Ball, much like soccer, you can either Win, Lose or Tie a match. The payouts for each are different. It also doesn’t matter how many points you win by (or lose by) the score is exactly the same.
Here’s what the payouts look like if you start the match (either in your town or in a neighbors town…just a match YOU started):
Act 1 Payouts…
For a Win:
10 60 
For a Loss:
2 30
For a Tie:
5 40
We’ll cover the payouts if a neighbor plays you in your town while you’re away in our neighbors breakdown post.
Now you’ll notice below the reward on the popup screen there’s something called a Bonus
The bonus payout varies for every match and is based on the Difficulty of the Match (i.e. how many stars the match was rated). In the example above the match was rated 1/2 star, so the bonus was 2 and 10 . The harder the match you play, the higher the bonus will be. So even if you play someone at 5 stars, the match will be rated much higher and your bonus will payout at the higher difficulty even if you lose. Here’s a look at the bonus payouts based on the difficulty rating:
| Rating | Amateur Bucks | Foam Fingers |
| 1/2 Star | 2 |
10 |
| 1 Star | 4 |
20 |
| 1 1/2 Star | 6 |
25 |
| 2 Stars | 8 |
30 |
| 2 1/2 Stars | 10 |
35 |
| 3 Stars | 12 |
40 |
| 3 1/2 Stars | 14 |
45 |
| 4 Stars | 16 |
50 |
| 4 1/2 Stars | 18 |
55 |
| 5 Stars (Max) | 20 |
60 |
So as you can see with the bonus payouts you can still make a ton of Amateur Bucks and Foam Fingers even if you play a high level player and lose.
Let’s say your rated 1/2 star & your opponent is rated 5 stars…if your match is rated 5 stars in difficulty and you lose you’ll still earn 22 Amateur Bucks and 90 Foam Fingers…
That’s a lot better than playing a game rated at 1/2 Star and winning…where your payout will be 12 Amateur Bucks and 70 Foam Fingers.
So don’t always avoid those 5 star players…even if you lose the rewards are still pretty good!
IMPORTANT: The difficulty rating of a match is determined by THEIR rating, not yours. So if you’re 2 stars and you play a 5 star, the difficulty is 5 Stars. BUT if you’re a 5 star and play a 2 star the difficulty is 2 star. So be careful who you play once you get higher in ratings.
Also, important to note…you WILL NOT know the rating of a RANDOM Opponent until you’ve started the game. You can only know the ratings of your neighbors (via the Tap Ball menu). Random Opponents will not be shown. So (in my opinion) it’s better to play your neighbors, than random opponents. It helps you and it helps them 🙂
How do I Increase My Difficulty Rating?
It’s pretty simple really, you use Amateur Bucks (or donuts) you earn by playing to upgrade your players to higher stars. The higher level your players are, the higher your difficulty level will be.
We’re going to cover leveling up characters in another post, but for now know that each time you level them up and spend the Amateur Bucks, it’s for 1/2 a star. They can only be upgraded 1/2 star at a time.
Note: There’s something going on where at times (if you have some tickets) you can upgrade the characters fully for 0 donuts, even if you don’t have enough tickets (as long as you have some). Not a bad way to level them up quick. Just tap the orange upgrade button (even if you don’t have enough tickets) and it’ll show you the buyout cost to upgrade with donuts…
What’s a Good Strategy For Playing?
The thing about this game (TSTO) is that there’s really no right or wrong way to play. Everyone’s going to play their own way and that’s ok.
But I know a few of you (ok a lot of you) are going to ask us what’s the best way to play…and while there is no “best way” I will share with you my techniques:
–Upgrade your characters early and often. For me I’d rather spend my Amateur Bucks on upgrading my characters than Obesotade. Then all of my matches (as long as played with a 5 Star Player) will pay out at the higher bonus % and I have a better chance of winning and earning even MORE Amateur Bucks.
–Send characters on tasks frequently to earn more Amateur Bucks. Knowing that you can still play a Tap Ball match even if your character is on a task is a HUGE help. There’s no reason why all of your Amateur Buck earning characters (we’ll have a post up very soon with the list of who can earn what) shouldn’t be earning Amateur Bucks every minute of the day.
–Don’t use the Tonic unless you absolutely need it & if you get an offer to buy some with donuts, Don’t. (you can earn it for free from tapping fans, occasionally they’ll fall). The tonic really isn’t needed that much, at least not right now. If you’re playing a high difficulty level, which is when you might think you need it, odds are if your characters aren’t leveled up enough you’re going to lose the match. And that’s ok. Don’t waste Tonic on 1 player to get 1 point, it’s not worth it. Similarly with a lower level match odds are you’ll win, so it’s not worth wasting Tonic if you already have 3 points. It’s the same pay out if you win by 2 or 4. The ONLY time I think it’s worth it is if you’re 5 stars going against another 5 stars. In which case the boost will give you the edge, but in this case I’d wait to see how the coin tosses have gone first before wasting the boost.
–Help your Neighbors. Your neighbors will earn points for you challenging them, so before you play a random opponent think about playing your neighbors first & help them earn more points.
And that my friends covers the details of playing Tap Ball in Springfield! A pretty simple game to play, once get get the hang of it!
What are your thoughts on Tap Ball? What’s your current win/loss record? What difficulty rating are you on? Thoughts on the payouts? What’s your strategy for playing? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
Should I spend all my tonic in part 1 or will it stay for part 2?
It should stick around for the whole event. It’s part of tap ball and the game will be there for all 3 acts.
Same problem here
This’ll be my third attempt posting this. Either I’m doing something wrong or this site is extremely slow at uploading posts….
Not a huge fan of this event… Admittedly, it’s nice to play tap ball with friends, but I wish the recharge time weren’t so long. Also slightly annoyed at having only 50 actions in the towns of friends – 50 foam fingers per day is kind of pointless in the scheme of things. Aside from that, we don’t get FP for handshakes in our towns during this period, or the mystery box for playing consecutive days. I’d rather the chance at 2% xp and money increase from a news van, than several tonics which will be, likely, useless in a month.
All posts on the site are moderated. If you happen to post while the three of us are away for some reason, it might take a little. Understood your frustrations with the event. I myself am enjoying it. To each their own.
It’s worse than that – once you hit the 19.5k foam fingers to complete Act One it seems that any other fans you poke in friends’ towns only give FP and you *still* can’t give handshakes. I also appear to have missed out on having over 500 foam fingers count towards the 4k donut bonus by having breached the 19.5k target outside of my own town (i.e. while playing a match)
I think the “how you play” really depends on what kind of record you want to have. I’m going to assume your record will stick with you after the event like the rpg event. And all those levels are worth is your pride. The math is there (lose to 5 star games) and then build your team. I wish I read this sooner because I want a five star team. If you battle low teams to get wins, other towns will just beat you and you can’t control that (I have almost a .500 w/l due to other towns schooling me.
Though, yes, the apparent long lasting use of tickets is decorations and not leveling (as far as I can tell) and decorating is the real goal of the game. I have only ever wished to myself that, if they ever revisit these events, our hard work carries forward in some capacity.
I’m thinking rushing to get five stars is a dead end. You can’t undo it, and if everyone does it, every match is a coin toss. I’d suggest stopping around 2.5 stars with varying skills. It gives people the chance to beat you, and you can rearrange players to beat others. And minimizes the need to buy ammo to win.
Yep, definitely been doing it all wrong LOL. Oh well, at least I know now. I can always count on TSTO to break it down step by step. Thanks for you guys’ dedication:) So basically, one must always fight 5 stars or higher? Myself, I’m 3 1/2 stars but have 2 players that are 4 stars. What strategy would pay out more for me? TIA 🙂
It is honestly up to how YOU Play. You don’t HAVE to fight a 5 star, we are just saying don’t be afraid of them because the payout could be good if not greater than a win. Just look at the payout options and what neighbors would be most beneficial to YOU to play… then go for it. 🙂
Adding to the comments about the coin toss, I must be at 9 or 10 Tails (or maybe even more) to a single Heads. Yes I could be the unlucky schmuck to someone else who is getting the reverse ratio in Heads, but I doubt it.
I just wanted to post this up in case there genuinely is a ratio in favour of Tails in the game so we can start to detect.
Like I was telling another reader… the “variable” is a singularity. In other words… EVERY time there is a toss… you will have a 50/50 chance of heads or tails. So there is not a way to give an “overall” of the results. You can try and compare them all you want, but there will be way to many variables on it. Just wanted you to know. 🙂
Maybe I’m missing something but I can’t see any advantage to upgrading your tap ball players. It would seem that the only thing upgrading does is allow you to win. However winning doesn’t seem to have any advantages when you consider that losing at a five star difficulty has a higher payout. Perhaps it would be better to save for crafting.
If you win against a 5 star with your 5 star… you get MORE
Eh, their five star rating will get you more event currency, but your rating doesn’t add to the payout that I can see.
It will if you are at 5 star. So you will have yours plus theirs. 😉
I agree. Watching coin flips for a month is going to get stale. 5 vs. 5 is four coin flips or burn nerve tonic to win.
Is the expectation (similar to the last event) that payoffs will increase dramatically to make items more affordable, making it worth leveling the athletes? So far I’m spending all my amateur bucks on the athletes rather than buying items, but I would prefer not to get burned. I’ve really enjoyed the last event (and this one thus far) but I do wish the mechanics were fully laid out in advance
You gain by winning more and getting those payouts.
If that is the case I wonder if there is a mathematical point where the extra payoff is no longer worth the resources invested
For instance… in your single player games. There comes a point that losing does payout REALLY well. But then you kind of even out, then tip the scale again as you win against 5 stars and boost it even more. So… its kinda like there is a middle area.
What would really be awesome is if we could still play tap ball at the stadium once the event is over – you know, another cash-earning minigame, like the dog races or sideshow you. I hope the stadium doesn’t just turn into another random decoration.
I got the zero donut thing, but it still took my remaining tickets.
Here’s a tip about upgrading players: upgrading refreshes a player, so don’t upgrade them one by one. If you just upgrade one, and they’re ready to play, you still need to wait for the others to rest. So I now wait until I can upgrade three, then I use a single obesotade on the fourth player, and I get an extra game in.
At the moment I’m going to random opponents and as ice just read I don’t find their star rating – I thought you did before now!
If I wanted to play someone with a higher star rating, I need to go via my neighbours to be sure.
Where does it tell me what their star rating is? I know it tells me on the trophy screen on the neighbours page and in the trophy screen when I click my stadium, but when I get to the actual neighbours town where is it?
Sorry for the silly question!
It wont show until you start battling them.
Bunny
Been looking for the comment/post on the coin toss…but can’t find it! This can’t really be a coin toss, as its nowhere close to 50/50 for the outcome.
What is the IN GAME meaning of ‘the result is determined by a coin toss’??? If all players are the same difficulty, why isn’t the result closer to 50/50 over time???
It is completely random… like a coin toss. You NEVER know who will win.
Well, no sequence generated by a computer is ever TRULY random… Most procedures to generate random numbers start with a. SEED, and if you start the same process with the same SEED…what most don’t understand, you get THE SAME exact sequence of “random” numbers; yes, exactly the same.
If instead what you’re saying is, the outcome against a common level opponent isn’t modeled like a coin at all (where the chances of getting heads vs tails IS 50/50…actually, that’s a theoretical idea, I think with how they’re minted/top heavy…it’s slightly less/more) but it’s “random” = we have no idea nor expectation of how an even matchup should work.
>
Lol… I giggle when my comments go to the wrong place, but oh well. Here are my thoughts on coin toss…
All I am saying, as we have in the past to many players, don’t focus on % as it will drive you mad. Just play the game, have fun, and go into it knowing that NOBODY knows the way that coin will land. There is still too many other factors in game coding like slot machines that no one can predict. Every toss is a chance. Nothing more. Keep that kind of mindset, and I think it will make the game play easier.
If you want to use strategy, use it where you CAN control it. For instance, if you are 3 to 1 in your favor of winning, coin toss won’t matter. If you are 2 to 1, look at the following player and see if they have a chance to win or if a boost will force them a win. If not… it does not matter what way that coin goes.
Tap ball as a whole is all based on Strategy of trying to put a higher star player or boosted player against another for better odds of winning. Just have fun. Play it. No matter if you win or lose… you still win SOMETHING. 🙂
Probably because you haven’t seen enough coin tosses yet for you to see the law of averages play out (plus, you are only one player among at least tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousand).
Whether it’s the coin toss in this event or getting donuts from visiting neighbors, folks don’t seem to understand that odds don’t necessarily show themselves to be as you might expect over the short run. Even with 50/50 odds, you could get 20 “tails” in a row. Now if you flipped that coin 100,000 times in a row and still only got tails, that would be a bit suspicious (although still mathematically possible). Likewise, if EVERYONE who posts here was reporting that they’re getting tails 9 out 10 times, that would be suspicious (although, again, still possible, albeit highly unlikely).
A related issue that some folks also don’t understand (not saying you, just making a generalization here) is that, for each coin toss, the odds of getting heads is exactly the same 50/50, no matter what the previous results have been. Odds only show themselves in hindsight, they don’t really predict the future. So that feeling that, because you’ve gotten tails, say, 9 times in a row you’re “due” for a heads is just a human emotional feeling of what would be “fair,” but has absolutely no mathematical truth to it.
So, if you’ve been getting a vast preponderance of tails, it could very well be that someone else is similarly getting a vast preponderance of heads. However, human nature being what it is, people who are dissatisfied because their con tosses are coming up tails a lot are far more likely to post their frustration about it here than people who are getting heads more than 50% of the time are likely to bother to come here and post about that. People, in general, are always more likely to tell others when they’ve had a bad experience than when they’ve had a good one – something that smart companies keep in mind in terms of how much money, time, and effort they’re willing to invest in providing good customer service (unless they’re willing to sell their products/services so cheaply that customers are still going to keep coming back regardless of their level of customer service, like Wal-Mart).
Hey everyone,
In Sandra shill’s comments below, I thought it’s funny becos she obviously mistyped coin and it say ” con flip” and that seems more correct. I too have been seeing many more tails than heads. I hope whoever is getting all my “heads” is enjoying them. Thanx and have fun.
It was also funny because, after everything I’d been saying to people about randomness, I was just beginning to question everything because I had literally not gotten a single head since I got one or two on the very first day. But then I got a head (or two?) tonight and my faith was restored. 🙂
Oh,but Sandra… It’s totally random! One toss has nothing to do with the next???
LOL 😉
>
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know! That’s why I was laughing at myself!
As Alissa showed in the article above, the easiest way to see your neighbors’ ratings and find a high-level neighbor to play with is to tap the ball-and-mitt icon on the lower right, then in the pop-up screen, tap the flag icon on the left. That will show you a list of neighbors and their ratings and allow you to pick someone to play right from there.
Sandra’s explanation is accurate, as well as Bunny’s advice. I just wanted to point out that my head-to-tail ratio seems to be pretty close to 1.
I have a wierd and possable dumb question:
Though I can see the star points for each of my players – how can I find out My total (without having a B-game or a neighbor telling me)? Is it just an average and if so adding players (like Nelson) changes that average?
I ask mainly to find close to even matches (even if it doesn’t matter – those matches are more fun than those total Lose, total Win games)
Look at the top of each Tap Ball Game… your name and star level on left…. opponent on right. 😉
D’oh! Thanks Bunny. All I need to do it wait for a match to start, select my players and see the total on the right. Then if I don’t like my total, just hit the left arrow to back out of the challenge.
🙂
I got a lovely surprise today…bonus dialogue! I happened to use Flanders to play against my opponents Flanders. I’m guessing it wouldn’t matter which character played against itself but the end result was quite amusing in my game!! 😀
I did it for the first time (but had Apu Vs. Apu) (I assume it’s the same dialog no matter which Doppleganger is faced) The Dialog is hilarious (I don’t want to give away anything… Yet I do) – if you Switch players enough to do it. It is worth it. 🙂
I really want to see this dialog, but can’t get the switches to make it happen!!! I’ll keep trying!
add me! pelax656
Sorry if this is answered somewhere already… Does anyone know when the “first win of the day” counter is reset? Does the new day start at midnight local time? Or maybe 8 GMT when the new daily training is unlocked? Thanks a lot! 🙂
That I am not 100% if it goes off when you won the first game, or the 8GMT clock. I am getting odd results testing it. I assume the 8GMT when the new Daily Training task launches.
Not really, the daily training tasks unlock for me in the early morning while I’m sleeping, but I only get my “first win” bonus sometime in the afternoon. I’m guessing it has to do with the time I played my first game.
I’ve confirmed that the “first win” counter resets every time you collect the bonus. So if you earned the bonus yesterday at noon and win a game today at 11:59 PM you’ll only get the bonus with your next win – say, 4 PM. And tomorrow you won’t get the bonus until after that time.
Mine is happening around ten at night central daylight. I think it depends on when you started the event.
Thanks for the Helpful Tips for playing Tap Ball (gotta earn Foam Fingers / Tickets) 😉
Do we know yet how one’s star level is calculated exactly? Is it an average? Trying to figure out if I should raise everyone’s levels evenly or if it would be better to focus on one player at a time.
I believe an average myself.
I’ve been wondering this too. If it is based on an average the overall rating certainly rounds down — I’ve played several matches against players with a half star lower rating than what I thought had only to be very surprised at their strength.
Any more details on this would be appreciated!
Thanks!
I see you put Milhouse on a pic but I have that character and haven’t had a quest for a new skin. How can I trigger it?
I didn’t put him there…the game did. He’s part of the “computer”. He’s not unlocked for ability to play tap ball yet
Ah, OK. I’ve been looking everywhere to find out how to unlock the skin…thanks! I’ll just have to wait and see.
Hello tap ball fans, quick question when I send someone to practice tap ball does that increase their difficulty (stars) ? Thanks,
Wes
Nope
Long story short, I figured that I would win a neighbor game instead of losing to a 5-star opponent. And to my surprise, after I defeated my opponent, I got a pop-up that read (I’m paraphrasing): In honor of your first win of the day, please accept this reward: 75 Amateur Bucks (and some fingers…whatever).
I didn’t find any mention of this. So, does anyone know if this bonus resets every day? And if so, then suddenly, it would seem that it would be best to WIN one game each day, then go back to losing to a 5-star opponent.
Whoops, I think I got my numbers wrong. I think my reward was 50 Amateur Bucks and 75 Fingers. But the basic idea is still the same.
I had this happen too. I scoured all the new posts, but couldn’t find any mention of it. I won a game last night (I was 1-1/2 star, they were 1) and got an extra 50 bucks/75 fingers (or something similar) when I went back to my town for my “first win of the day,” even though it wasn’t.
I won my first game this morning (I’m 2 star, they were 1), and I didn’t get the extra bonus. Could be a 24-hr thing, or maybe a one time?
Every 24hrs.
Something I am having a problem with. When I am in tapball, and tap on the tonic to give two temp stars to a player, the game freezes and I can’t click on anything at all. I have to go completely out oftappedout and back in, but it does not save the changes. It goes back to what it was.
How do I get through this! In one of my games, I can’t play at all.
Try uninstalling and reinstalling. If that doesn’t help, contact EA.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/01/14/troubleshooting-101-contacting-ea/
This is a helpful post, thanks. Just one thing isn’t clear: what exactly determines the difficulty level? Is it just your rating, your opponent’s rating, the average between both, or what?
Your opponents rating.
This statement makes it sound like your rating determines the difficulty level. “Because the higher my character is, the higher the difficulty rating. And then all of my matches will pay out at the higher bonus %”.
So I can see where it’s confusing. It appears to contradict the other statement “The difficulty rating of a match is determined by THEIR rating, not yours.”
I don’t know if this was a glitch, but when I went to a random town, it said that it was 5 stars, but when I actually played them, they were 1 star. Has thus occurred for anyone else?
Not a glitch. The stars in the top left is their conform-o-meter rating. On random towns you have no way of knowing their rating until you play them…that’s one of the reasons it’s better to play a neighbor.
Hello everyone, haven’t been on in awhile. I have a question. I’m going outta town the next week and trying to maximize my game today. I bought the skin for nelson, however during the first round match I couldn’t use him. I was only allowed 4 players and nelson went unused. Did I just waste 85 hard earned donuts? Thanks in advance. Rob
You can only send 4 at a time. So right now, nelson isn’t needed. BUT once you unlock more skins (via prizes and daily training) he’ll come in handy. So it’s not a waste event wise, but just not needed at this time.
Does the higher your rating mean more fans in your Springfield
No. Fan spawn rates are the same for everyone..
http://tstoaddicts.com/2015/06/23/soccer-event-goooooooooooaallll/
OK, I think I’ve stumbled upon something fairly major here, and I’d love to share it as a strategy as well as ask for feedback, especially in case I’m overlooking something.
TICKET STUBS:
So it’s been pointed out that you can increase your player stars by upgrading for 0 donuts when you’re within approximately 15-ish stubs, and this will save you some stubs. I thought this was a great route to take (and still think it’s a great option). HOWEVER, losing matches against higher-starred players gives you a bigger payout, so why upgrade each to 5 stars? It looks like the only advantage is being at the top of the friends leaderboard, and personally, I don’t care about that. (I’m there right now, but neighbors, I won’t be for long as losing games is my strategy for the long haul. I was just trying to clear the “win 10 games in neighbors’ towns” icon, but after 8 wins, I’m starting to realize THAT task doesn’t matter either.)
If stubs are only used for raising star ratings and Amateur Shop items, doesn’t it seem like a smart idea to STOP leveling players, since W-L doesn’t actually matter, and just use the stubs in the Amateur Shop to purchase decorations you want? The lower the star rating means the higher the stub payout when you play a high-star neighbor, so not only have you spent less stubs, but you’ve earned more in the process.
I think once I have my 4 players at 2.5 stars, I may stop leveling them up altogether and stay at 2.5… This way, high-starred neighbors who want to win can, and low-starred neighbors who want to lose can. Then I’ve saved my stubs for shop items like fences AND left a good option for my neighbors in the process.
Is this making sense, or is my logic flawed here? The only flaw I’m seeing is that if everybody did that, each game would be a tie, but since everybody plays differently, that’s not going to happen. And we also don’t know if the W/L ratio will matter in future acts, but I’m assuming it won’t, since the friend leaderboard never “matters” or affects game play. So this is just one of many strategies, but it’s one I haven’t seen around here yet.
Questions? Thoughts? Bueller?
And by “ticket stubs,” I mean “Amateur Bucks.”
Sigh.
Well, as people catch onto the fact that it’s more lucrative to play a 5-star opponent and lose than to play a lower-level opponent and win, perhaps fewer people will want to play you?
True, Sandra! I think I was just banking on the players who choose the route of always wanting to win (the early 5-star crowd) to be on the lookout for easy pickings, but as far as neighbors below the 2.5 star rating- you’re definitely on point. Why hit a 2.5 star town to lose when the payout is larger for losing to a 5-star?
I think I’ll give it a few days at 2.5 for those neighbors who haven’t caught on to the “losing is winning” philosophy, to help them out, and then I’ll just proceed with increasing my players’ star ratings. 🙂
As of now that seems reasonable, but my guess (based on past events and the wording in this post) is that in Act 2 the payout for a win will probably go up. You can also get a free 4-hour refresh with an upgrade, plus you get something for completing the upgrade X players quest.
I didn’t notice the bonus for getting the “upgrade x number of players” quest, so thanks for pointing that one out! I’m at 12/15 upgrades, and I must have missed the notification when I completed the quest for 10. 🙂
Thank you both for your replies!!
What do you get for completing the upgrade X players quest? I don’t think I’ve reached that yet…
If you do the maths you see that once you reach 3 1/2 stars you can earn the same amount Amateur Bucks by winning against a 3 star player as you could by losing to a 5 star one. And of course levelling up beyond that will increase you winnings if you continue to play teams half a star below yours.
Plus there appears to be a bonus payment for winning one game each day (or is it for winning your first game of the day?). And on top of that today’s daily task has been to win 2 games.
Um, I think he’s sick…..
Well you’d win even more amateur bucks by winning against a 5 star town right? The win bucks and difficulty bucks! And winning also get the first win of the day bonus!
Q…there is a task to win 10 games and I was wondering if it’s worth aiming for ie what do you get for completing it? Or as everyone here is saying go for the hard level loss?
…thanks : )
Nothing. You just clear the task..and it’s the last task in that questline series.
thanks alissa xhugsx
Where’s my Jellybloob design lady?! 😉
Oh that’s soooo last season daaarling! The new look is a hat that flashes lol : D
hahahaha
I noticed the radio station and Fit Milhouse can earn extra amateur bucks. Is there anyone else that has hidden earning potential that you’ve found?
As the post above says…post on the tasks is coming 😉
Hi, I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this in a previous post, but if you have the KBBL station, there is a task to broadcast a program. It’s a 16 hour task, and awards you with 16 tickets/bucks! Money for (almost) nothing! Also can I put in a suggestion for naming tickets/bucks? How about tucks? 😀
lol just a few have mentioned it in the comments…and it’s on the rundown post 😉
I had a large enough balance in my Google Opinion Rewards account to buy 300 donuts, so I picked up the Community Center and Coliseum in anticipation for the bonus skins. Walking the tiger has already made getting Drederick Tatum WORTH IT. 🙂
Thank you all for these fabulous write-ups so we can better prepare ourselves for what’s in store!