Monorail Math

Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!

So we’ve spent the last couple of days talking about the Blueprint Caps from the Project Board.  And now that we’re all (more or less) understanding what happens with the cap and how it’s reached, it’s time to take a look at the overall Math of the Monorail Event Act 1.

Once the caps were hit by some of you, immediate panic set it.  Many of you were wondering exactly how you’re supposed to unlock all the Act 1 prizes with the cap imposed. So let’s break it down and take a look at all of the Blueprint earning ways for act 1….

So, let’s start with the Project Board itself..

projectboard_menu

Now that we know there is a Cap on how many Blueprints you can earn per day from the Project Board, we can get an understanding of just how many Blueprints you can earn via the Project Board for all of Act 1.

First, let me start with the same thing I said yesterday…This is NOT a cap on the total Blueprints you can earn.  Some people out there are confusing a Project Board Cap with a Blueprint total cap.  There is no cap on the maximum number of Blueprints you can earn in a day.  The Project Board Cap is simply a cap on the number of Blueprints you can earn per day via the Project Board.  There are other ways outside of the Project Board to earn Blueprints, and we’ll cover those below.

So now let’s take a look at these caps….

Date  Cap Increase
8/11 4500
8/12 9000 +4500
8/13 13,500 +4500
8/14 18,000 +4500
8/15 22,500 +4500
8/16 27,000 +4500
8/17 31,500 +4500
8/18 36,000 +4500
8/19 45,000 +9,000
8/20 54,000 +9,000
8/21 63,000 +9,000
8/22 72,000 +9,000

Again a reminder: You’re allowed to earn 4,500 Blueprints from JUST turning in projects/day.  Each day is a running total.  So if you miss a day or don’t max out you can make it up the next day.  The last 4 days of Act 1 (August 19th-22nd) the cap increases to 9,000/day. 

It’s a running total and NOT an individual per day cap.  The cap per day is set at 4,500.

Also important to note it’s not a hard 4,500.  You can go slightly over it each day (depending on the projects you do) from what I’m seeing…BUT if you go over it the previous day, the next days amount will be lower.  It balances out in the end, that by August 22nd you can earn a max of 72,000 Blueprints from the Project Board.

Once you clear the Prize Track the Cap is Lifted.  So you’ll be able to earn loads of Blueprints to get Loads of Tracks. See below for more info on bonus tracks.

So from the project board you’ll earn 72,000 blueprints.

Of course 72,000 isn’t enough to unlock all of the prizes, as you’ll need 89,350 to get to Ray Patterson.  So let’s take a look at some other Blueprint earning ways…

We’ll stay within the Project Board for the moment, as there are Daily Bonuses awarded each day you complete a set number of Projects at the Board.  Here’s a look at those bonuses (and the tasks needed to earn it):

Date  Bonus Payout # of Projects
Required
8/11 1200 2
8/12 1200 2
8/13 1,200 2
8/14 1,800 3
8/15 1,200 2
8/16 1,800 3
8/17 2,400 4
8/18 1,200 2
8/19 1,800 3
8/20 1,800 3
8/21 1,200 2
8/22 3,000 5

So if you make all the bonuses throughout Act 1 you’ll earn an additional 19,800 Blueprints.

So right there just between the Project Board Projects and the bonuses you’re at 91,800 Blueprints…and boom you’ve earned all the prizes!

BUT knowing that you earn extra track pieces AFTER you clear the Prizes it’s certainly worth it to keep going.  Plus if you decide you want to enjoy the last couple of weeks of August and miss a day or two of bonuses…let’s take a look at some of the other ways to earn Blueprints.

Neighbor Actions

ico_mono15_friendsaction_lg

You’ll earn Blueprints for Dumping Garbage on your Neighbors.  And not just one or two, you’ll earn SIX blueprints/tap when you dump Garbage in your Neighbor’s town.  So if you do 3taps/neighbor that’s 18 blueprints/town.

Now like most events, you will get capped on Neighbor Actions that can earn Blueprints/day.  The cap for this event is 90 Actions (or 30 neighbors if you do 3 taps/town) per day.

So let’s breakdown the math….6 blueprints/action x 90 actions per day = 540 Blueprints/day.

Act 1 runs from 8/11-8/22 so 12 days of neighbor actions (at best).  540 actions/day x 12 days= 6,480 Blueprints from neighbor actions

Note: This will double to 12,960 if you purchased the Dumping Permit on the first day (the 11th).

So we’re at an additional 6,480 Blueprints from Neighbor Actions.

You’ll also earn an additional 1 Blueprint/building cleared in your own town, when neighbors dump garbage.  I didn’t factor this into math because there are too many variables for it.  It’s not a set number since it’s dependent on your neighbor dumping in your town and out of your control.  So view those Blueprints from clearing buildings as a bonus.  

And finally…

Possum Clearing 

possum03 possum02 possum01

 

Possum’s start appearing in your game once you unlock the Monorail Station. To clear a possum all you do is tap on it, and each one will pay out 10 Blueprints.

Initially they’ll spawn in your town at a rate of 8 every 4hours.  So that’s 80 Blueprints/4hrs from Possumes.  So I always say if you get into your game every 4hrs while you’re awake, you can earn a ton.  I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think most of us can get into our games at least once every 4hrs to clear the possums (note: they don’t just appear, you have to tap the station to release them.  You’ll see a possum icon floating over it when they’re ready).  A general schedule is something like:
7am
11am
3pm
7pm

So at least 4 times clearing them per day, at 80 Blueprints/clearing you’re looking at 320 Blueprints/day from Possums at the most basic point.  (there will be some of you that’ll get on 5-6 times/day to clear them…)

BUT the cool thing about this Event is the more track pieces you unlock, the more possums you’ll get/4hrs.  BUT it does take a few pieces for the Possums to start increasing.  Here’s what I’ve seen so far:
Station-11 Pieces- 8 Possums
12pieces-23pieces- 9 Possums
24pieces- 10 Possums (this is how many you’ll have once you max out the prize track)

So it looks like it increases by 1 every 12 tracks you put down. So there’s some potential to earn a bunch of extra possums/day (and that’ll help out when Act 2 and Act 3 hit).  The more tracks you have, the more possums you’ll get.


 

So what happens when you unlock all the prizes?  Is there incentive to continue getting blueprints?  Well yes there is.  You’ll earn MORE Monorail tracks!  Here’s the details from Bunny on the Track Bonus….

 

AHEAD OF THE TRACK BONUS

trackstraight4x2_menutrackstraight4x2_menutrackstraight4x2_menu

This time around, the “Bonus” is a bit different. For every X amount of Blueprints beyond 89350 you earn, you will be able to get additional pieces of Tracks for your Monorail.

Word of caution on this one, if you are NOT in your town when you hit the bonus, any additional Blueprints collected may not count towards the Bonus (they will only add to your main total). So be careful. If you are close, you may want to go back to your Springfield just before you hit it. This is due to once it triggers the final prize, it will take a few minutes to go through all the pop ups for it. This causes the Bonus Round Pop Up to delay as you tap through them. That means any additional beyond the 89350 earned when you hit it will NOT count to the Ahead of the Track Bonus until you see the Pop Up. For instance if you earn 89450, the extra 100 will go to your total, but nothing will add to the Bonus until Ahead of the Track Bonus pops up. So the counts may be slightly off. 

This is what I saw in my game…

Monorail Prizes Complete

Once you hit your 89350, you will see the Tap Finger pointing at your Task Menu towards a Track Piece Icon.

Monorail Ahead of the Track Rail Icon

Tapping on the Track Piece Icon will then pop up the Ahead of the Track Bonus. You will see what the Current Amount of Additional Blueprints are required in order for you to earn ONE additional Piece of Rail Track to your game.

Ahead of the Track Pop Up

It seems this just keeps going and going and going. Each time adding more to the Required additional Blueprints to earn.

For instance
+1000
+2000
+3000
+4000
+5000

I am currently at earn +5000 more Blueprints.

Ahead of the Track 5000 Pop Up

Each time it only rewarded me the ONE piece of Rail Track when I hit the Required amount of Blueprints. It automatically jumped to the next amount as soon as I got the Track Piece Pop Up.
Straight Track Piece

So no Bonus Donuts, but instead lots more Tracks.


So let’s sum it all up with a look at the potential Blueprints you can earn for Act 1:

Project Board- 72,000 blueprints.
Project Board Bonus- 19,800 blueprints
Neighbor Actions- 6,480 blueprints (if started collecting from neighbors on 8/11) Double that if you’ve had the Permit since 8/11.
Possums- 3,520/act 1 Blueprints, at the basic 8 Possums/4hrs..and if you clear them at least 4times/day.  And assuming you clear it for 11 days (from the 12th-22nd)

For a total of 101,800.  BUT remember, once you clear the Prizes the cap is completely lifted on the Project Board.  So you should have no problem exceeding 101,000 and earning loads of bonus tracks!

And that my friends sums up this Monorail Math Post!

What are your thoughts on the math of this event?  How are you doing with your Blueprint count so far?  Are you visiting all your neighbors daily?  Clearing those possums?  Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!

 

 

212 responses to “Monorail Math”

  1. Hello ya’ll addicts!
    This event seems pretty cool, but im getting really annoyed (not to say pi*** off) at the fact that there is no telling in game when an event update comes.
    Just today i got the forced update. Almost a week in!!
    Now I’ll never be able to get all those sweet tracks.. sniff

    aaand there goes my sunday feeling 😛

    • You don’t ever check your app store for updates?

      • Not really. My auto-update is always off and i just check whatever i need.
        oh well.. i need my addiction! so better start checking hehe
        still, I think it would be nice and easy to put a little popup in game refering to an existing event or whatnot.
        cheers!

    • You should check here more often so you know what’s going on

      🙂

    • No neighbors? I found out about the monorail event during my daily visit of my neighbors. One of them had already updated and I was told “Your neighbor has newer content, you need to update to visit them!” (paraphrasing).

    • If you don’t want to check this site every day (a good way to know about new stuff), but you do check Facebook daily, you might want to “like” or “friend” or whatever this site’s Facebook page, so took get notifications when there’s a new article here. Just by looking at the articles’ titles, you’ll seed when there’s a new event!

  2. I think the math should also consider, that the daily bonus with 5000 blueprints every 5 days also add considerably to the total amount.

  3. Another issue around the update is my game had a meltdown and when rebooted it looks like the townsfolk involved in themonrail task look like they are under construction… Storing their building sorts the issue except for Lisa as Simpsons house can’t be stored.

    There is a topic on EA forum and I’ve reported to EA but worried if its not fixed I won’t be able to progress.

    • Try contacting them directly, you’ll probably get it fixed faster

      • Sorry Alissa I did chat with an advisor yesterday who said wait and see if it fixes itself? I will go back in a couple of days when they have a clue.I still haven’t got my dough its back from beginning of the month.

  4. Where do the wiggly bits of track come from? So far out of three packs (two three packs and a five pack) I’ve had three corners, two little short bits, and the rest have been straight. I’d like some wiggly bits and I’ve seen them in neighbour towns with similar blueprint the Italy to me, but I can’t find them anywhere to get.

  5. Did you know you can ride your friends monorails? Pretty sweet:)

  6. Hi!
    Is anyone else having freezing issues? Mine freezes randomly several times per day and I need to hard close the game.
    Maybe its my old cellphone…

    Thanks in advance and keep the excellent work! =)

    • It’s probably your old device. It’s a MASSIVE update and requires a lot of memory, if your phone can’t handle it it’s going to freeze.

    • Disconnect the piece of track closest to the monorail so that it won’t run. That fixed my freezing problems (which I was surprised to have in the first place, because my iPad rarely had memory issues).

  7. Does anybody have a photo of a fully upgraded monorail so I can have a little sense of where the add-on pieces are supposed to go..?

  8. Anyone else had connection issues since monorail update. All other apps fine but tsto doesn’t seem to like mobile data so much anymore and wants me on wifi. gs6

  9. I haven’t read through all the comments yet, but if it hasn’t been said already, you can also earn more blueprints from the Burns box every fifth day. Yesterday, I earned 5000 bp from it.

  10. Also dear neighbors – please check your Krustylands! Since the SH update I have been unable to visit neighbor’s main town who are above level 50, but I can hit their Krustyland, and so I have still been visiting all my neighbors every day to give them their blueprints–I know I know it’s only three, but it adds up! Right now EA is all… sucks to be you, we’re working on it. Krustyland…. who knew?

  11. Why do I have to wait over 10 hrs to give all my characters more jobs?? Am I doing something wrong with the timing, cause they r all full! I can’t do a thing!! Help!!😁

    • ? Do you mean you storage is maxed out?

      • From the timestamp of the comment, I believe that she means the daily cap. It’s set to reset in 10 hours from when written.

        And the storage, yes. No projects open to spend them on. I have nearly the same issue. Not a big deal, but it’s how it’s going.

  12. Not trying to rush Alissa with the “should I buy” post but do any of you mathemagicians have a rough idea what advantage will the lil Lisa recycling plant give over the event in terms of track pieces (like an extra 10 or 20 ?) 🙂

    • lol it’ll be up next week…was working to push all this math stuff out first..

    • It will give you a max of four extra pieces in Act 1. That assumes you wouldn’t have gotten any extra otherwise. I don’t think anyone knows what the building will give in Act 2, so we can’t guess.

  13. Don’t care anymore the game is continually crashing and requires switching on and off to restore. All other apps no problems. Finally beaten me

  14. One more thing, I don’t know if you remember that before this launched I was all no, not monorail, this is going to be a disaster, blah, blah, blah. And you guys were all like you shouldn’t poo poo it until you see it. Well you were right (as usual) and now that it’s getting bigger I’m all Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! I’ve gone from Marge to mob.
    Only thing is with this far to go and so much more to come I’m gonna have to stick everything in storage until the event’s over then slowly redesign large swaths of my town (no way I’m nuking). Next time I’ll try and not be such a negative Nancy.

  15. Cap schmap. I have been playing with absolutely no strategy whatsoever. I just hit 40,000. Not sure how just playing the way I do every event. I just bought Krusty station and little Lisa Slurry yesterday so that didn’t make the difference.

  16. One thing I Love about the possums is remember that tiny little guinea pig we got for a ridiculous amount of doughnuts a while back that has basically gone forgotten/unnoticed? I keep mistaking it for a possum and making him jump, poor guy has never gotten so much attention!

  17. Thanks for the maths! Feel a bit better about being able to get everything now …phew! Or is that poo ; )

    I really hope bitey is for sale at some point …5 donuts max lol xx

    • Bitey is part of Conductor Homer’s 24 task “Air Out Bitey”! She pretends to play dead and Homer pokes her with a stick! haha.

      I would also love her separately, but glad that I have an alternative. 🙂

  18. So any ideas why I have no monorail update?? This stinks I’m falling behind

  19. I’m a little confused about the projects that award very small numbers of blueprints, like 7 or 9 blueprints. Is anyone completing these projects? Are they worth it?? Any info immensely appreciated!!

  20. I can’t stop rushing things!!! ): I just want all my track in place and to be done. I was going slow and now not anymore. I’ve unlocked my project cap. The monorail is too cute. The monorail train gets bigger when you add more tracks. And more track equals more possums. And more possums equals more blueprints. I’ve already planned out where my stations will be placed. And my track will go on my streets so no need to move anything about.

    Overall I’m in love with this event. But I do feel sad for future players who won’t have monorails. Kinda wish this an expansion. By far though my favorite added content. This will have me a happy panda until Halloween comes and make me a giddy bear.

    • Yeah, I was hoping a bit that it was an expansion, as well. An expansion that never ends so that we could build the track as our town expands. As it is, it will just be limited to our ideas on the current land we have.

  21. If a neighbor had 89k blueprints on day 2, is that possible “officially”, especially because of these daily caps? I have a neighbor that had 110k. I haven’t checked since then…

    You only mention that the possums come from the monorail building. But I’ve seen them just wandering around. And, no, I didn’t release them…I always count my 8 to make sure I get them all. How are the other possums showing up? Do you know their spawn rate?

    • Yea…once you max out the prize track the cap is lifted.

    • Could be me, I got paid yesterday and bought a boatload of donuts and rushed my personal prizes to remove my project cap. I really regret it, I only ever feel this sad when I eat to much cake… Then I go to the gym and feel better. But now my donuts are gone ): but blue prints come extremely fast once that’s gone.

      • hehe, it wasn’t you. But, damn, 150k… you’ve surpassed the person I was referring to. They haven’t gone up much since day 2, about 10k, it appears.

        Okay, I wasn’t understanding how you could get past the cap…so I checked a little, and I see what Alissa was saying. You bought the prizes directly until you got the last character. Now you can earn as much as you want. So, these neighbors of mine just used a lot of donuts. Thanks, both!

        How much in donuts is that, Amy? Or…should I not ask…..? lol

        • It’s actually not as bad as it’s been in the past. Ray’s expensive (over 400 i believe) but the others are between 75-150, i think it worked out to just over 1,000

      • It cost like 450 donuts. Hence my regret, I’d rather have eaten cake. I did use the earnable blueprints as much as possible so that lessened the blow. But after, earning blueprints is smooth and bonus track is easy to get. I earned like 7 today. I got lucky that a lot of my random projects wanted junk and not metal.

        I feel really bad about this. 🙁 I have NEVER EVER been rash with my donuts ever!!!! It won’t happen in act 2 NO way! I actually got to the 6th prize before I had to have the cap off finished!

      • Are you really getting that many track pieces per day ?

        It is crazy money but you got me thinking, I was already thinking because I don’t think we’re going to end up with enough track by the end

        The train sits on 4 pieces of track so 8 bits of track allow the train to move one train length ….that’s not going to be enough for my plans based on the 3 & 5 piece packs we’re winning/unlocking at present

        It’s a new medical condition “Lack-o-track anxiety”

        🚝 ♻ 🐒 🙈 🙉 🙊 💩 👷 💀 👀👀 👻 👯 👰 👸 🚬 💉💊📌📎

      • Thanks. 400 doesn’t sound too bad.

        Don’t feel too bad about the spent donuts. I spend only free donuts and even then I hoard…. I feel slightly bad for not spending a little here and there, like you, with real money. I mean, if I do it at least once, that’s a good thing, for supporting the game.

        Um…your spending has helped me not spend… does that make you feel good? You’re my sugar mamma, as I may have said in some distance land…. Do you like sugar mamma or whale?? 😉

        Oh, if you can’t tell…I should probably be asleep. *goes back to focus on the impossible*

      • Day one was easy. I actually ended up with 8 pieces of track. 7 straight, one curve. But the total of blueprints I need to earn in order to recieve my track changes. You start at 3000 needed and then I goes up by 1000 every piece you earn. I currently need 12,000 blueprints for my next piece. But I also have the permit, Little Lisa’s, and both stations. And my stations pay out 12 possums each every 4 hours.

        I earn tons of blueprints. Today I am going ton earn less track. Hopefully a least five. I’m not encouraging doing this. But this is what’s happening in my game now.

        Sigh, this sugar mama needs a sugar daddy to buy her donuts.

      • It’s sugar parents all the way up. (sugar parent does not sound as cool…)

    • Hmm. I just checked the Monorail station and it says that I am now getting 9 possums. I’m pretty sure that it was 8 last time I checked, but maybe that’s where that rogue possum was showing up from.

      When does that increase? Is it the number of station pieces that I have? Strike that…. It’s all in the post! Sorry!

  22. In haven’t yet ever hit the cap, which worries me a bit. Just emphasizes what I’ve been concerned about all along – I’m seriously behind where I should be.

    Oh well…I guess I’ll just keep tapping and hope for the best!

    • I thought I was SOOoo far ahead, what with the donuts (not really a) debacle. But, now I’ve hit my cap for 2 days in a row. Ugh, it’s so sluggish feeling up here. Be happy that you can still move along. You’ll catch up with plenty of time for the bonus rounds, I’m sure!

  23. Thanks for all the great info on here, only problemis since the monorail has arrived and people have been dumping rubbish, my buildings freeze and the game crashes when i click on my buildings putting me way behind. 😢😢.
    Any help/ideas would be helpful, i have uninstalled and reinstalled. … still no joy

  24. Thank you! 😄😄😄

    I was getting really confused about what was going on with the cap… Much appreciate all you do👍👍👍👍👍
    Michael

  25. Is it possible to build the monorail parts across the mountains?
    Because i want to connect my Heights and the normal Springfield together.
    Sorry for my bad English.

  26. View from across the pond : Weather iffy , more hospital tests next week , boring . signed off work for another 3 months , would be boring if it wasn’t for the TSTO monorail event and your site ;
    If theres something strange in your neighbourhood
    who you gonna call ?
    MATHSBUSTERS!
    Congratulations Alissa you are officially my mathsbuster.
    I ain’t afraid of no maths !

    • Lol well thank you and hope everything goes well at the hospital

    • I can understand your boredom my new hip has been in place 1wk now and basically I am just waiting it out while it heals. Without this game I would really be at a loss for what to do. So good luck to you and hang in from a Toronto Blue Jays fan on this side of the pond

      • Thanks for your support , same to you . hang in there and keep on tapping ! Bluejays , that’s baseball right ? I am going to watch Arsenal play Crystal Palace on tv this afternoon in the Premier league football as I am a massive Gooner ( Arsenal fan } Not too hopeful as they are one of our bogey teams .

    • Good luck, Big Phil!

  27. i had a bit of glitch this morning that i am confused about. when i logged in i was hit by a number of notifications that i had completed quests which included: brandine birthing her first spuckler, the final part of the baking brad questline and part 6 of the dora questline. when i then went to go and check on these characters: a) brandine was still 11 days away from birthing the first spuckler (but i had the new spuckler wandering in my springfield) b) the baking bread questline was still not finished (but i was awarded the suspicious dirtpile) and c) dora was not finished. half an hour later the baking bread quest finally finished and i was awarded ANOTHER dirtpile. i am confused. what has happened here? what will happen in 11 days when brandine actually finishes? do i get the first spuckler again, or will it fast track to the second one? CONFUSED!

  28. I was visiting a neighbour this morning and noticed that their monorail consists of 5 cars in total while mine is still only three, what gives? Any insight on this? 😋

  29. I’m frustrated to have noticed we’ll all be losing out on 6 blueprints from friend actions every day, due to a very persistent, minor but likely global bug (that is, it appears to affect EVERYBODY) that I and at least two other people have reported to EA several times. I first noticed it during the Superheroes event and it may have even been around before that, and it seems to just never get fixed.

    The bug affects the way any limited-quantity friend actions that earn event currency or Friend Points are calculated. Basically, if you look closely, you’ll notice that the last action of a limited-quantity set does not award whatever it is you’re supposed to earn, i.e. currently the 90th action will not give you blueprints. 6 lost blueprints x 12 days is a not-insignificant 72 for this act, and this will likely repeat for the next two acts’ currency as well.

    And if you haven’t maxed out your FP yet, you’ll find that any of the last actions for each FP value you can earn (30th action for 10/5/4/2 FP, 180th for 1 FP) awards the next lower amount (e.g. 30th action for 10FP gives you 5FP instead, etc. until 180th for 1FP gives you nothing), meaning that anyone still working to earn FP prizes loses out on at least 10FP everyday.

    A final kick in the shins with this bug is that if the friend actions can be done simultaneously, like popping several criminals at once during Superheroes or mutants during Terwilligers, you can lose currency/FP for up to 3 actions if you trigger the last action at the same time as the previous 1 or 2. Thankfully, if you tap carefully and avoid the last action until after the currency/FP pop up for the other 2, you can at least prevent some of the loss.

    It’s admittedly fairly small amounts but they add up over time, and the global, long term nature of this bug is worrying. I’m not a programmer, but from several years of tech support / game testing experience it seems to me that whenever the last action is triggered, the game first removes the friend action(s) from your counter, and only then figures out how much to award you, leading it to decide you get nothing (or merely less FP) because you maxed out of friend actions that earn whatever you were supposed to get. One would think that the fix would be to make sure the game first awards the currency and/or correct FP amount and only then changes the counter, which sounds simple enough, but who knows how it looks on the code side for the developers. I’ve suggested that both times I reported this bug, and haven’t seen any change.

    Sorry for ranting. I just feel like this is being ignored because it’s kinda minor and goes unnoticed by most people. I think I’ll follow up on my last report’s case and see if EA support can look into what the dev decision was…

  30. I haven’t had any of the donut-rewarding quests pop up since I completed the second one. Is this a bug or is it meant to only appear twice (four donuts)?

Leave a Reply