The following post was submitted by one of our Addicts Regulars..Totbox. Perhaps you’ve seen Tot in the comments a time or two ;)…Yes Totbox is back with some insightful TSTO musings for us all!
Howdy Pilgrims,
…I mean, Hello Neighbors!
As you know, you should visit your neighbors everyday (not your real life neighbors, your TSTO neighbors). During some events, neighbors are critical. What I have learned is Friendliness and Courtesy are key. So I have a few suggestions. Stop what your doing and let me shine a Light on the subject. 🙂
Every so often events have Event-Tappable-Critters (etc… I mean ETC).. I’m not sure if there is another official term or name for them. You know, Merrymakers during Christmas, Gamblers during the Casino event, Nightmares during the Nightmarish THOH event, etc. ETCs!! And there are Droppables (again maybe a better term out there), such as Formless Terrors, and Prospectors. Those Droppables are crucial to the point of this post and the Stop/Drop Light. Before I get into the thing about the Stop/Drop Light there are a few things to go over.
First and foremost (which I guess I should have said first) make sure that during an event to let your visiting neighbor have easy access to your main roads (since that is usually the place event-tappable-critters and Droppables are found). Solution: if you have a Teleporter or Monorail – Project Board place it near the DropOff Site (place that the game forces you to land/start during the event). DropOff Sites: During the Wild West it is the Saloon, during Casino event it was Burn’s Casino. Traditionally not during events it is either The Simpson’s house or the Springfield Heights Tunnel.
So place the other teleporter or (Monorail) Rail Yard close to your main roads. This is just one way to be a good neighbor.
Fun fact, did you know the city of Buffalo, New York is considered “the City of Good Neighbors”? Yet the only living Buffaloes are in the zoo. In our game we neither have an Official City Zoo (petting zoo doesn’t count) nor Buffaloes, which you’d think during a Wild West event we might have some (Buffaloes)… Maybe for a Connie Appleseed event down the road? But I digress… Like a Good Neighbor, TSTO Addicts is here. *poof*
Second (and not as important as the other points I’m going to make), Monorails: If you have a Monorail it is requested that you take the closest tracks away from the station so that it doesn’t run, which may cause glitches and delay’s to visiting neighbors. I usually just turn the Station sideways(which disconnects the other rails) and turn it back right after the event.
Third. (Finally getting to the Point of this Post!!) The Stop/drop light! With the Casino Event over, I realized that the Multi-colored Spotlight could be used as an indicator for visiting neighbors.
Selectively changing it from Red, Yellow and Green near the newest DropOff Spot can help visiting neighbors know what You (yourself) is up to. You don’t need 3, you can do it with just one (I just liked the look with 3).
Green Light = You are available to tap Droppables within the usual 4hr time frame.
Yellow Light = You are away from the game for a little while (highly likely to return within the usual 4hr time frame)
Red Light = You are in bed or away from the game (and highly not likely to be back within 4hrs)
This is on the honor system, and yes some people may forget to change their light (not going to name any names… She knows who she is) :p
What that means when seeing it in a neighbors town: Green = drop as many droppables as your comfortable with, Yellow = maybe just drop one droppable or check back a little later, Red = move on, there isn’t point wasting points at that time (you can come back a few hours later to check or drop a droppable off at someone else’s town).
Since the rumor that the Wild West event has no Bonuts, I may turn on my red light until the next act (when I get to that point, where I don’t need the currency). And I know some of you jokers out there that May think the Red Light means something else (shame on you) 😛
So did I enlighten you? Do you have any other Good Neighbor tips you’d like to share? (again… Shame on SOME of you). Any idea what the other colors could indicate? Do you have the Song “Roxanne” stuck in your head now? Think you’re going to give this a Go? Any better terms out there besides “Droppables” and “Event-Tappable-Critters” (ETC)? Ever play Red light/Green light as a kid? Ever wonder if you lived next door to a Horse, that it would be your Neigh-bor? Is it a beautiful day in your neighborhood? Leave a comment, you know that comments Light Up our days. 🙂
I agree with most of what’s been posted here, but I’ll add a little something…when I redesigned my Springfield, I did so so that the buildings didn’t cover the roads. ANY roads. This way, not only is it easier for me to find things/people to tap on, it helps every neighbor I have to tap on things.
I’ve been to a number of neighbors where things are so dense, I can’t even tell where to tap. Seriously, space things out, people! It’s not a game (well, yes it is) whose goal is to fill every single space up with crap.
Totbox, are you guaranteeing if I put a red light in my town I won’t attract the wrong kind of visitors, don’t want my downtown Sprimgfield turning into downtown Amsterdam. 🙂 No seriously it’s a fun idea but I’m sadly one of the players whose game crashes visiting neighbours, keep hoping EA will sort this out but alas I’m left playing all on my own, a real Billy no mates.
I put on the red lights last night, five actually, and woke up to a town full of prospectors. None were from names I regularly see around here, though. 🙂
Thanks Totbox, I read this blog and immediately posted three green lights outside of my dropoff spot.
Hope this catches on. 🙌
~~~ A “WELCOME” sign to my neighborinos!
I also posted a photo of my Springfield in the comments on the “TSTO Addicts” Facebook page, the post featuring this blog.
Off-topic, but my game just trolled me hard: The option to buy Brandine showed up in my Metal Depot, but nothing happened when I tapped it!
Plus, the Two-Story Outhouse is up for sale, but there’s no bonus, just Vanity points.
Tot box, are you from the Buffalo area? I live nearby and that slogan “the city of good neighbors” (for all you other out of towners) is 100% true. Whenever there is a local crisis, such as a blizzard or maybe the Bills lost we are all here for another. I just wanted to point out that to all our Tapppers!!
I drop off with my B town. *shrug*
Yes 😃
Slightly OT at first, but I wanted to say Hi to Jubiedog – one redhead of a certain age to another LOL! Purple you say? & there was me getting around in black & hoping no one would notice my tinsel like hair! (red & silver)
I like Totbox’s idea, but many of my neighbours aren’t playing the event & don’t read these boards. (Hello to those who do!) I tend to drop my prospectors off on those who leave them for me for a first preference (but often I don’t get any notification as to who has visited on my ipad) & don’t seem to be getting many to dropoff anyway!
I’m mindful that I’m in Australia & so try to leave them for active overseas neighbours who may be awake when the drop hits. May I suggest something to help with timezones?
If you have the flag of your country from the prior Tapball event – put it near the saloon (or landing spot for future events) – that way some can make an educated guess as to your awake/asleep status.
I still don’t get the medal logo on neighbour names. Am I missing something? I avoid the neighbours with a 0 event tally as they aren’t playing at all.
Hello, I’m in Australia too 😀 I also think looking to see when a neighbour last played is also an idea to help anyone who wants to be sure their neighbours will find their prospectors. And in response to your medal logo question.. The medal represents the position that they are on your leaderboard. So a medal with 1 next to it means they are 1st on your leader board a medal with 7 next to it means they’re 7th and so on. Hope that helps 😀
I tend to drop off only a few prospectors per person, because I have a lot of active neighbors for this event. And I didn’t have Roxanne stuck in my head until I read it in the article.
I think it is a very clever and creative idea for people who read this site and understand what the spotlights mean. But those who don’t would not know to look out for the lights.. :-/
To be honest I don’t look for the spotlight, (even tho I know about it)
I just try to send prospectors to everyone.. 🙂
(but mainly send to my loyal neighbours, and Favourite neighbours)
And… neighbors who are last on the leader board.
I don’t look for the spotlight, I just send them and move on.
The one thing I would suggest to use, is seeing when they last played,
so if you want to be sure they will catch the prospectors, just choose neighbours who played “less than an hour ago”
You don’t fool nobody,…..you send all yours to “Awesome Dave”
🚦 😃
LOL 😛 of course I send to awesome Dave, but I’m s good girl and I like to share them with everyone. I even send them to you Lee, even tho you tease me. 😛😀🌟🐱
It is interesting to hear/read the various excuses (I started listing them but deleted it, it came off sounding sarcastic and as if I was making fun). This isn’t mandatory, I didn’t make this post to be Neighbor shaming (I Frinkiac-searched “Neighbors” and that was the funniest picture I found).
I’m happy to see (some of) my neighbors embracing the Light 🙂
And my neighbors who haven’t, that’s fine too (they just might get a little less Droppables that’s all, no big whoop)… Unless they are on the bottom of the scoreboard than maybe a few their way nonetheless 😛
.
I don’t know why Bunny and Wookie don’t ever comment on my posts, I comment on theirs all the time :p
They’re so ungrateful… 😉
PS: what is this teleporting rail yard you speak of???
If you played through the Monorail event and won the Rail Yard, luckly the Poject Board at the begining of that event can be used as a quick way to get to the Rail Yard (no matter how distant they are away from eachother). If you have these two peices (Rail Yard and Project Board) it is like a poor-man’s teleporter but it is only a one way trip (Pboard to Ryard but not Ryard to Pboard).
It’s a one-way trip from the project board to the railyard, but (in your own town anyway) you’ve got an easy return trip if you’ve placed the project board by your recycling centres or the dump. I use my project board/railyard/recycling centres to zip around town all the time. Don’t know what I’d do without them.
Fun and interesting post! What is this about four hours?? Is that how long the dropped prospectors last? I had no idea. I’ll consider the lights idea, but I don’t want to rearrange much of my town for these purposes. I have a hard enough time just trying to figure out how to set up my Springfield.
Re: monorails… If long connected ones are causing games to crash, I’ll consider adjusting my rails. I never heard of that. I used to keep a few disconnected spots just to have multiple monorail trains in the city. Once you connect everything, you just get one train. So, happy to disconnect a few spots if it helps.
As far as disconnecting the Monorail from running during events, I’m not sure if that was just doing the original Monorail event or something we should still do… It could just be a Myth at this point, I brought it up because I recall others requesting it.
if someone out there can confirm or bust this myth, I’d appreciate it. 🙂
I can connect everything and have 3 trains running, or switch tracks to have just one train running that gives an eight minute ride,
just thought I would mention that, and I’ll probably mention it again every time someone says Monorail.
I’ve stopped my Monorail at the minute in case it is slowing down the loading time for neighbours, but I don’t think it was.
🚝 🚝 🚦 😃
Thanks so much! Inwas actually just about to search the comments for this to figure it out. Light system here I come!
awww, i like the monorails. i always follow them around the springfields. like scenic railways.
Thank you Totbox I enjoy getting new ideas and yes I do visit every neighbor every day. Also thanks to you I have Roxanne playing in my head and memories of red light/green light lol. I remember getting behind all the big kids being little they got caught first lol. Thanks again
I am forced to do an update in Playstore. The latest update improve the freezing time I have with Maggie Mini game a bit but it has not solved it entirely.
Love the idea of a lights system. Unfortunately it probably will not work for me because my playing is unpredictable. I have notifications set and if I can I will react immediately to prospectors but life is unpredictable and things get in the way. Generally I am in game every 3-4hrs through the day but sometimes things happen that mean I may be away from game for 6-8hrs. Would hate to put a green light and mislead any of my friends.
Also any of my friends will hopefully see I’ve tried to make things easier by removing a lot of roads and keeping them around the landing area. Hope this has made it ok? Please bare with me whilst I rearrange the rest of the town, probably looks a bit dump and go right now 😕
Any tappers named roxanne? According to sting, they don’t have to put on the red light 😜
I really like the idea but I don’t know if I’ll be using it because a) I don’t know if any of my neighbours are regular readers here and b) my town is a mess right now so I wouldn’t know where to place it so it’d be seen. Great post though tot!
On a side note from my earlier post… If I had added all you wonderful people as neighbours in my town then totbox’s idea would work if we all did it but I just have completely random people on my friends list, that’s why I won’t take part because they really won’t know what the light means and I’ve worked my backside off to design my town so I won’t dismantle my monorail and take out roads etc.
Good idea though for those of you on here that are neighbours with each other 🙂