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..
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
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
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
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…
Once you hit your 89350, you will see the Tap Finger pointing at your Task Menu towards a Track Piece 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.
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.
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.
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!
I would like to see us be able to trade or sell track pieces. I have a bunch of s-shaped and curve pieces that I don’t want to use. I want straight track pieces!!!!
I wish it hadn’t gotten all resourcey in the last year. I’m sure it’s followable but my brain just glazes over when I’m reading Lisa’s explanatory text. No clue. I’d rather just zone out and vacuum ghosts.
Is anyone else having a problem with cashing out on the plastic depot? I’ve capped out at 105 and it won’t let me cash them in.
You need to keep clearing the Projects so it will unlock more for you to use the Plastic on.
Someone should nominate Alissa for an honorary Math degree from Princeton.
yea I wouldn’t go that far….I’ll settle for one from Rutgers 😉
Someone please help i am new to the simpsons taped out. I do not get what i am suppose to do.. Forgive my stupidity but i have had this monorail event up for 3 days and have not received any blue prints. i have collected all the trash i can my dump is full but what am i suppose to do from there? i have a project board but it doesn’t show me what to do. some one please help i am clueless
You need to convert them at the Project Board.
Thanks Alissa for the quick reply. I neglected to mention that I was also wondering if the time to produce the parts for the larger payouts would be balanced out by the short time for the smaller payouts? That is if many quick but smaller payout projects were better than one longer time but larger payout project. Like how character tasks work out.
Considering you can get over 1000 blueprints usually for 20-55 metal and a few hundred junk, the benefit is better for higher payouts
Do anyone know if we can suggest to them to change the tracks a tad? it be great if they fit over the road…. and the road can go under them. they can do this by making one more track size that is a double length over the straight pieces we have now…
Be nice to have the placement footprints of the tracks be just one Square too… they don’t need to be so big.
Another thing that be great is to have a End of track piece that has a bumper on it.
Another one that would be cool but not needed…. would be a Y section of track… then the train can just pick a random way to travel on it…
And finally a second station that is not for donuts would be very cool… even be cooler if when the event is over the station/stations would work like the dock does by the water… where it can make more and more track for money and time…
just my two cents
DAVE
we will be getting two other stations as prizes in acts 2 and 3. good luck with your suggestions!
oh cool thanks for the info i didn’t know we where getting more. I hope someone is able to pass along my other suggestions to them. be cool to see those changes.
Unless this person works for EA I wouldn’t count on anything, No one knows until it hits and EA has been known to change things at the last minute
i came back in time with the chrono trike to tell you this, word is bond son!
Hi guys.
Is it better to do the projects that return low amounts of blueprints versus the ones that return a high amount of blueprints? I couldn’t find this question/info posted anywhere so my apologies if it has been.
Thanks so much for this awesome site and all your hard work. I live on the east coast and loathe the 4 am updates also. Arrrgh. 😊
It’s better to do the high amount ones, but it’s important to see how many you need each day for the daily bonus. I’d play small to earn the daily bonus and then large for blueprints…
Question: when act one ends, will I have no chance of getting Ray Patterson afterwards?
Honestly… we won’t know til Act 2 hits. It may rollover like last time and allow you to ONLY donut buy them out. It may wipe them out completely. Etc. We just won’t know beyond what is live in the game until next Act hits.
Thank you
I swear whenever I decide to take a week break from the game because nothing is going on the next day a new event starts and then I end up being a week behind. Just installed the monorail update and now I’m never gonna complete act 1! Grr
Moral of the story – don’t ever take a week off. Ever. 😉
It’s OK taking time off but you have to stay in touch here, so these things don’t happen, you’ll only miss out on Ray Patterson, and maybe a few pieces of Monorail track…..the rest was capped to hold us back anyway
🚝 ♻ 🍴 🍝 🍜 🍲
Yeah, how about that. I went hiking for a weekend and no wi-fi so I couldn’t play. Stupid mountains and their lack of wi-fi! Now I may never have Ray Patterson… :(((
Sandra hit the nail on the head — take no breaks!
-Marty (akmpolsen)
The daily limit on blueprint awarding tasks is going from annoying to worrisome. I find I’m barely making the daily prizes- yesterday, I squeaked by with about 40 to spare. Today I need over 11000!
At this point, I may not get the opportunity to try for extra tracks!
This seriously. I think the cap is to reduce our chance at getting more tracks….BUT WHY!? Why, EA? You should want us to have as much track as possible. Seriously just make this into an expansion at some point, SOON. This toying with us is uncalled for! MONORAIL! lol 😉 😛 🙁
The answer to that is really quite simple… I’m almost positive that track pieces will be for sale (for donuts) once this event is over. So, they need to make sure you get enough to start a nice-sized project, but not enough to finish it without buying some additional track!
I was going to carefully plan my projects today to maximize my blueprints but after a got 3100 it kept out and I cannot do any more projects today :-(. I was going out for the 4500 per day cap as described above can anyone explain?
Did you get more than 4500 yesterday?
I’ve never got close to 4500 and today only 2000 odd like I said earlier also last possum run definitely only 7 not 9
18/08/2015, 13:38, gmt, am on 54000 blueprints so far with one more go to go before I hit the limit, I think I am well ahead of the game and should have all prises by thursday 20th, that will give me 2 days to collect as many as the bonus track as I can, woohoo great
I seem to be getting gibbed. Says 9 possums and only ever 7. Yesterday cleared less than 4000 project prints and said complete for 24 hours. Today around 2000 and done for the day. On 57000 or so. Am I going to unlock all in time?
You sure they’re not hiding behind the station? I always find a few by randomly tapping behind the station.
And you should be ok, as long as you’re maxing out each day and getting the daily bonus.
Great info! Thanks for doing all this! Just found your site!
I need to get tapping. I’m only halfway through the prize trail with 5 days left til act 2. I’m nervous I won’t make it 🙁
****
The posts you are looking for are HERE.
http://tstoaddicts.com/category/add-tsto-friends/
Just wondering where the daily bonus of 5000 blueprints goes? This is my bonus for today but for the life of me I have no idea where the blueprints have gone – not in inventory, nor in any of my totals. Help please!?
Should just go to your total blueprint
How many blueprints track to go ? i’m at 22000 to
collect and it’s so boring and waste of donuts.
If i not collect can i not gonna win character or something
free will not open or something?
http://tstoaddicts.com/2015/08/12/monorail-calendar-act-one/
I can’t figure out how my buildings are activated for neighbor actions. The buildings most frequently tapped aren’t near my junkyard. Isn’t that the landing area? When visiting my neighbors, some houses don’t have the “smelly” indicator that they’ve been tapped but don’t have wheelbarrows either. Is this happening to my neighbors when they visit me? I try to make things as easy as possible for visitors to get their tapping done. Any advice would be helpful.
Your neighbors may just be exploring your town…
The project board is the landing zone, not the dump. And some buildings are untappable for this event for some reason, like the brown and blue houses and Kwik-E-Marts.
Is there a way to know roughly how many items I’ve placed in my town, or if there is a limit?
At 4500 your game might start to become laggy.
But you’ll get a popup telling you you’re at or near 4500. Beyond that there’s no way to tell unless you either count every piece, or nuke your town store everything and count that way.
Thank you, you guys are great! I tried counting but all the trees look the same and some of the stuff moves. I’ll wait for the warning. Thanks again
Question: On the “Daily Challenge” on the Project Board, do you get the bonus when you complete all the projects for the day? I have had several days that I have completed all of them and didn’t get the pop up with the daily bonus. Like today, I finished the 4 required projects and did not get the 2400 blue prints yet. Any ideas?
Could be something out of sync. Try hard closing and restarting see if your total goes up. If it doesn’t i’d contact EA and let them know..
Hey! Today is 8 – 17. I need to complete 4 projects to receive daily challenge bonus. Will I be able to get daily bonus, if I go for the max? I mean handing in the biggest projects there are available. Becouse I’m afraid, that i’ll be stuck with 3 big projects handed in, and with a message, that it’s time for a break, come back tomorow. Or maybe I don’t fully understand, how the cap works? Maybe you cant hand in projects, than you complete daily challenge? Please answer. 🙂
I’d do some smaller ones first, just to be safe.
It looks like some risk is healthy ;)! Already handed in 3 big ones, and it seems that 4th is available! 🙂
I’m not sure where to put this comment so I’ll just put it with these two & get all my comments in in one day. 🙂 I know there’s a SpH thread around here; maybe I didn’t go back far enough.
Anyway, what are we supposed to do with all these SpH buildings as we update them to the max? They’re SO huge & taking up SO much space! I want to delete them! lol Rachel
It depends on what for SH you are looking for. Just put Springfield Heights in our cool “Search” feature in the Menu tabs (drop down menu in mobile).
Contact EA and tell them you want to store them again …or… delete them.
I forgot to add that I’ve been having some daily crashing issues since the update too. I have an iPad Air with max storage & am always on fast wifi. So it’s not just people with older devices – tho’ I’m sure it’s much worse with older stuff.. I’ve tried doing mostly inside tasks along w/all the rest of the troubleshooting; doesn’t seem to make the slightest difference. Hopefully EA will be able to find & fix all the crashing issues in the next update. Rachel
It’s Monorail. It is the Event. It sucks the Memory out of your device. If you want to combat it, try these tips…
Disable Monorail. Pull the track pieces away.
Store NPC’S and any other animated items not in use. Don’t push the 4500 limit. Keep non essential Characters on indoor task or store them in your inventory.
See if this helps and lets you tap again.
Is anyone else wishing for more track instead of more station parts? I really don’t think I need my station much larger. And the big stairs don’t seem to fit that well. Sigh. I wish you could choose to be awarded the tracks instead. I REALLY hope this event doesn’t end like Tapball with a half-finished arena/monorail. Somehow I don’t see my monorail getting large enough to look good without spending donuts. I’ve spent tons of money on this game over the past 2 years, but don’t care much for how they (EA) seem to be rushing all the events now. We used to have longer periods without an event. I liked that much better.
Oh, and I have a funny glitch – Akira keeps replanting the bonsai over & over w/o moving onto the next 2 tasks – so I don’t get my bonsai trees anymore. I really hope we all get enough track – maybe I’m worrying needlessly. I was just so disappointed with the Tapball event & only getting a partial station even tho’ I spent over 100 donuts. Rachel
You’re starting to display symptoms of the condition,
“Lack-o-track anxiety” ….please be prepared for the following side-effects….. episodes of panic, possibly followed by irrational donut spending, or urges towards this type of behaviour.
As a survivor I can tell you things do get better but beware, episodes can recur at any time, especially when in the proximity of your blueprint total.
In order to come to terms with your illness, you have to realise that you’re not alone, don’t feel guilty, it’s not your fault, this is happening to thousands of others,
you can only move forward once you accept the fact that this event is going to leave you with a disappointing amount of track pieces.
It’s good that you’ve had an early diagnosis, there are thousands of others, who are blissfully ignorant, and think they’ll end up with a monorail that goes twice round their whole town,
🚝 ♻ 🚝 ♻ 🚝 ♻ 🚝 ♻ 🚝
Is anyone having trouble placing Lisa’s plant. I click on the donuts to buy it, it comes up in red, but it doesn’t move past the beach. Anyone else having this problem? Everything else seems ok. Thanks, Christy****
Sent from my iPad
>
It can ONLY go on that area… it uses the water off the beach to pull in the fish to “recycle”
Also… please place requests in the proper location so they don’t flood the site.
http://tstoaddicts.com/category/add-tsto-friends/
I’ve been having crashing issues since yesterday when I try to clear up the garbage on certain buildings. I checked it on both my phone and tablet and it crashes on the same building. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling, restarting devices, visiting neighbours and no joy.
I’m in the UK, and I haven’t had to contact EA before, what’s the best way to get a response?
Email was my only option, I’ve gone with that. *fingers crossed*
It’s an issue they’re aware of, just FYI 🙂
“Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.
I am sorry to know that your The Simpsons: Tapped Out game crashes. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. Please know that we are aware of this issue. Our engineers are working hard to fix this issue. I hope it will be fixed soon.
We appreciate your cooperation and patience.”
Yes… to combat in the meantime… unhook the rails from your Monorail Station to help with the Memory Drain.
Chat option is usually the best if you’re outside of the US
I’m with Joseph, getting bumped out a lot any more! I want more track! If this ends and I don’t have enough track to make a loop around Springfeild I will be mad!
More track!
Another sufferer…. “Lack-o-track anxiety”
🚝 ♻ 🚝 ♻ 🚝 ♻ 🚝 ♻ 🚝
You also get 5000 Blueprints on the end of the daily free rewards.