As some of you may know, and perhaps even followed, my wife and I did a 30-day, 9,600 mile driving trip. As it is roughly 3,000 miles, coast to coast from Oregon to NYC, you can tell by the mileage that we did a bit of “meandering.”
What we really enjoyed most on our trip, was staying off of the Interstates as much as we could, and feeling the personality of each new town or region as we moved through it. There were some days that we went from High Desert, to the Mountains, to a Valley, and to an Ocean beach, in a single day (and that was just in Oregon!). It was amazing…as each region, state and town has a unique flavor that set it apart from others, and left an impression of the people who live there, as they are shaped by the environment and topography of their geography and climate.
It occurred to me, that in my current Springfield layout, that “urban/update sprawl” is creating some pretty jarring transitions that would make an average traveler wonder if they have driven into some huge Orlando “Hands Across America” attraction…or had eaten a bad Peyote bean in their chili…
Add to this, that with the newest update, we may be slipping inside of a wormhole along the way, and transitioning not only through distance and space, but time!
TRIPPY!
The real question here is, “How Do You Make Sense of This in Your Springfield??”
I have been playing since the first week of October, 2012. Yes. That makes me cringe to admit. But, it is, as they say, what it is.
In the early days, it was EAsy (see my emphasis on EA?? Clever…right?), to create and arrange a Springfield that made sense. Some (not many) actually began, and tried to maintain a “Realist” approach to where they placed the primary Springfield buildings, based on copious research of the Simpson’s opening screen credits, endless notes on watching clues from episodes, and of course, the Simpson’s Movie.
A couple of guys even went so far as to lay out a detailed map of what “the Real Springfield” looks like, that resides on the WIKI to this day. You can find it HERE —
Do you see anywhere on this map a place for a huge Clash of Clones Castle Installation? Or even worse, some “Future Springfield” that sits right next to an “Old West Springfield?”
This is where things get sticky in the “Modern Age of TSTO.”
I define the “Modern Age” as the period AFTER the “Clash of Clones” update in August, 2014. I realize that this goes a long way back, but it was the first time that EA and the writers simply went off of the rails and said, “Hey…we know this isn’t really anywhere in the show…but we don’t care…we’re gonna do it!” The subtext of this, could have been, “We’re burned out on trying to do stuff that is Canon…and we all play Clash of Clans…so live with it! Besides…we already GAVE you Stonecutters! The castles and stuff kinda fit in…right? They ARE made of stone!!”
I kinda went with it…placing most of me remnants of COC near my remnants of Stone Cutters…but DEEP in the woods, away from my “normal Springfield.”
Yes..it is kinda random. But, so was Clash of Clones!
According to the Wiki, “Clash of Clones” was the 64th update in the game. We are currently on the 137th content update. Yikes.
I admit that there were some amazingly “Canon” updates that were perfect for a “Real Springfield,” that focused on “real characters,” that didn’t overload us in clutter and random buildings. Springfield Heights, The Terwilligers, and the Monorail all met those criteria.
But, that means that there were more than a 100 that were questionable. Most notable were the two Superhero updates, Burns Casino, Money Mountain, Tap Ball, and the Wild West updates that all left strange footprints in our town, if you used even HALF of the stuff we won…let alone the Premium stuff being offered.
Is it any wonder that many of us are hitting the dreaded “Item Limit” message?
And now…with this new “Future Springfield,” it’s like we need more than just some directional markers and stop signs to make sense of things…we need a “Wormhole Ahead” Sign!
BUT…I HAVE SEEN SOME AMAZING TOWNS FROM MY NEIGHBOR’S, who have admittedly handled this dilemma far better than I have.
It’s on me. I admit it.
I get more than attached to the “Core Springfield” areas I have in my town…and haven’t altered much of it for years (other than figuring out how to add Monorail track to most of it).
However, I have, like many of the real life cities we visited, succumbed to urban sprawl, using mostly the “new land” offered by EA, to plop stuff down during the updates…and then do my best to find continuity after rearranging it in the lulls (which are also becoming fewer these days).
My town makes perfect sense…until you “head South” (or right, if you are scrolling). The transition from my boardwalk/Squidport area, into a restaurant and recreation district, and into Burns CasinoLand, makes sense…until you head “East” and go into a Launch Pad and Air Museum (I rationalized that), and with little buffer, into an expansive Wild West area, that butts uncomfortably close to a “modern city portion” created during the first SuperHeroes….which also has an airport…and leads into the “manufacturing zone” and “enchanted storybook/StoneCutters/Castle region.”
Click Image for full size
See? It’s an urban planner’s nightmare.
And it gets worse, when I added land for the Wild West Update…but it was close to my huge installation of “Super Heroes Modern City” stuff. This is after I rearranged it, to make room for an homage to the trip, including a Los Alamos bomb museum, Arches National Park, Caves and Teddy’s National Park.
Click image to see full size
I realize that many of you have no problem using the NUKE button. But I just can’t. I don’t even know where the “briefcase with the launch codes” is these days.
And now…I can feel some real challenges coming on with the SciFi update…because there are a TON of new buildings and decorations…and I admit to loving this update enough to have already bought the Montgomery Burns Institute of Soul Extraction…which is huge!! ( Yes, I dressed it up a bit with the X-Ray truck and one of my transporters).
But now am faced with the “DO I REALLY WANT A WHOLE SEGMENT OF MY TOWN TO BE IN THE FUTURE???” question that begs for “Mooch Bart” to come with a DeLorean and a Professor Emmett Brown figure. Of course, time travel in the DeLorean would be futile in TSTO since none of the cars move…much less reach the required MPH to trigger the Flux Capacitor.
Please. I’m asking for your help… how do YOU solve this “REAL-vs-Random” dilemma???
Let us know how YOU dream up your designs…use the Nuke…or just have no problem with large “Urban Renewal Restructuring” after one of these major events…
Are you actually OK with “Future” versions of your main characters making a permanent home in your Springfields????
INQUIRING OLD GUYS WANT TO KNOW!!
ConfusedOldGuy
Patric
I have massive plans for my Springfield but sadly they are all in my head at the moment. I’m hoping before my thoughts become reality EA will have look at the proportions of some of the buildings, some of the newer buildings are way too big. Only in the virtual world are houses getting bigger, whilst in the real world house builders squeeze as many doll houses into a small strip of land. Lol.
The first step to a executing a grand plan…is the first step! LOL! Get it out of your head…and onto your Springfield!
Love the idea of your trip, fantastic, one can only dream, my town started straight forward but been playing since 2013 I think and now its create a space and make an event theme in that space, have a look I would appreciate some feedback
I’m playing since Valentine’s 2016.
I won’t use the Nuke Button eather. But since I’m able to get more and more land, while I’m playing for a longer timer, I rearrenged my SF a few times already. I like to have areas where things fit together.
I don’t like SH much, so I have all of those buildings in storage and get them out occasionaly to upgrade them and put them back. So in the SH-area I have Burns, Fat Tony, Major Quimby (the rich guys) living there. With big properties.
I got a small area with the run down houses. A Industrial area. A shopping area. Along the shore you can go out to eat. A few living areas all over SF. Then there’s a small forrest which leads into my wild west area and is also connected to my casino area. (They are connected by the wedding chapel, the strip club and shot kickers. They have a western look, but could also fit into the casino area.)
So whenever something new comes, I try to fit it into the right area and if necesarry I move everything else a bit. My future town is going to be more like a film set area. So it’s just Hollywood using there share in my SF.
Preplanning… I like the idea…
Well, for the old west, I had to give up part of the north-east forest, and I’m squeezing the future buildings between my Space Agency in the south and the casino area in the south-east. I usually don’t touch what’s in the west of the map because that’s where I started and I want this zone to stay that way. I’m not against moving some buildings when I don’t have enough room. The extra lands added in the North are sadly useless to me since that’s where the forests and the outlands (cletus farm, some gas stations, abandoned or run down buildings) are.
I seem to end up with areas of town dedicated to the different events and occasionally when I have time I rearrange stuff – this post got me thinking and I just moved my Cletus monorail station next to Wild West town cause it kinda fits and now I have a monorail going around the Wild West kinda like an amusement park ride – now it makes sense!
I am at a loss for the future stuff it is all so big and I have so many future bucks and only a few more days to decide what to craft argh!
I can’t bring myself to use the nuke button. I spent way too many hours designing my town and some of my road patterns turned out to be happy accidents. Plus, I’ve seen neighbor’s towns that had awesome designs and they nuked it. Now they only design one or two sections and the rest of the buildings are dumped on one side town.
My town is not canon by any stretch of the imagination (except for the Simpson’s house being next to the brown house) but I created my town on the premise of many scifi stories; if I got pulled into my game would I be able to move around town? (I’m always careful tapping near my wormholes…you just never know!) My town is set up in districts (residential, business, recreational, etc.) that flows from one area to the next. The type of building determines what area it goes in. Since I’m a freemium player, any building that earns money is in my town. The only buildings I have in storage are from the Heights (worst update ever) with the exception of the add-ons for one of the hotels. The main building is just too big so I put the pieces together to make a smaller luxury hotel.
My scifi event buildings are split up in different areas. I consider “future” to be more of a concept of what we think future homes will be, so my future area just have the homes and stores that look futuristic, the rest are in my other residential areas. The office buildings are in the business section, and I have the Itchy and Scratchy holo in my space section. I figured NARA should come up with something that works since the shuttle is forever crashing.
It takes a lot of planning and a little rearranging for each event, but so far I’ve been lucky that the events have always had new land available when I needed it, and even luckier that’s it’s been on the side of town that fits in with sections already there. And now I’ve just jinxed myself since I still need to wait and see what act 3 releases for this event. I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead! 🤐😄
Well…I have found that a a “Partial Nuke” (using the green slider to grab a big chunk for storage) is very helpful in my urban renewal area. It allows you to destroy things…in a nice, measured way! LOL!
Peyote is a cactus, not a bean.
While I can appreciate and understand the desire to constantly rearrange Springfield thematically, I’ve long been following a different philosophy: Pretty much like any actual town tends to grow from its center outwards, without regularly tearing down and moving around districts, I much like the organic mix resulting from these building phases. In my opinion, built-from-scratch towns often have a kinda sterile feel, similar to a planned community vs. grown town.
That said, I rearranged my Springfield only once – when I started earning enough currncy so that land was no longer a scarce commodity, making squeezing everything close together a simple act of necessity.
That’s better placing than I do. Most of my placing is like mashing a square peg into a round hole. I just look and say “Ooh, there’s a space!” And push stuff around until it works. And I can’t have ANY non roaded space in between buldings. My town is a mess, and only works because of how poorly it works…
Lol!
That’s awesome that you and the Mrs. were able to take that trip, you must have seen some beautiful lands 😊
As far as my SF… it’s always a work in progress lol. I usually use down time between events to rearrange & organize, but there hasn’t been much of that lately 😂 This event has been a lot of fun, but I’m scared… we still have a whole act to do, and I’m running out of room! I already took all of my duplicate buildings and kind of shoved them up in SH to get them out of the way. My town had very few roads in the past, was kind of unconventional, but was semi-organized. Recently I decided to make actual “blocks” as in roads that made sense, but they take up too much room, the buildings that make sense to me to group together are too varied in size, & I’m just not happy with the outcome lol. I have areas I’m pleased with, but overall, to me it’s a mess 😂 I am having fun though, which is what it’s all about, right? 😀😀 I think I just need to stop stressing over where to put all the rest of the stuff from this event, & start worrying about where all the new THOH stuff will go 😂😂😂😂
One thing is for sure, change is inevitable, which isn’t a bad thing 😊
Change. The only thing you can count on!
And yes… The trip was amazing.
I just try to have buildings flow into each other as best as possible. Buildings with a lot of glass and steel look pretty good together. My cracker factory, botanical garden, and Burns soul sucking building are near each other and they look good. It’s all about matching colors and styles with nearby buildings as much as possible, and I think I have a nice gradient going throughout much of my town. Not everything fits in, and sometimes stuff just has to go in storage. Sometimes it can fit in later, sometimes it just lives there. I have a lot of stuff out, though, including futuristic stuff. Less wild west stuff is in storage, though, I need more space near my forest and mountains for that, but there are some hints of it in the area.
To me one of the bigger challenges is the sizing of stuff. The style of two buildings might work together, but the scale is way off and I can’t put them together. That’s frustrating.
The new additions do seem huge!
I have a woods area I really like, and a wedding chapel area, and pocket parks with bird feeding benches, and a farm with windmills, and a very nice riverside spot for Willy’s shack. I am tired of Springfield Heights too, since the buildings are so ugly. I kept a bunch of the weird Kodos and Kang trees and I will keep these futuristic ones too. Happy urban planning, everybody!
Oh my dog. At one time, I had TSTO on my iPod Touch 4. I then got rid of it to get a much better smartphone. Little did I know, I could’ve made it into the modern age of TSTO, because I very vividly remember the CoC update on my iPod.
I rejoined on my smartphone, as it occurred to me as one of the least unimportant apps from my other device, roughly at the beginning of the Burns’ Casino event.
I like to think of my Springfeild a bit like a across between “Disneyland” meets “Westworld” I tend to like morphing and blending some areas and segregating others on a theme rather than randomised, I also like to get a few puns in and visual jokes that other Simpson fans will “get”.
There are a few annoyances with some buildings that you can’t add to Squidport or move out of Squidport like Planet Hype. I would have liked that to be in my Futureworld section along with all the new SciFi stuff , it annoys the hell out of me when I can’t get a building to fit in so I will usually make a feature of it instead , (but what the heck am I going to do with a Zappy Clock Tower for Petes sake) other than that I’m really happy with how my SF works and I always try to get a building fitted in and landscaped before I get the next one , mustn’t let the work pile up you know.
Its funny but I started playing on the cusp of the “modern” age of TSTO. It was the beginning of Clash of the Clones. I thought, did I miss an episode? But I played on.
I forced real life friends to join so I could get FP in their Springfields, and all of them have quit. I attempted to entice their returns whenever bonuts ran aplenty, to no avail.
I’ve nuked twice, maybe the last time was a year after I started playing, and even then, with much fewer objects to move took forever. I can’t even imagine doing it now. I’d need at least a month or two off from any events.
My Springfield isn’t all that pretty, but there is some order. I’ll just have to live with it.
Yeah, lots of new, great content. 🙂 I, too, have started to create “sections” of my Springfield, where I put certain things together. My “OG” Springfield buildings are together (upper left), then I have a Future City-to-Superhero City-to-Casinotown-to-Wild West-to-Haunted/Creepy Woods-to-Sports District/Olympic Village-back to- my “OG” Springfield. Phew! (it starts at the “OG” and goes counterclockwise) I have the “One Percenters” in The Heights. It looks as though is need to “tighten up” some of the plots, but so far, all my buildings and each type of deco I own are used. Admittedly, I have only been playing since the 2014 Halloween event, so I cant imagine the trouble the people, WITH all that content BEFORE that, have. That strip of land EA gave use in the last update was great, but we need more on the side or more in The Heights. I have to say, my Springfield is starting to take a “shape”. Its been a LONG time coming. 😉
Would love to see it!
Yeah, I just have to figure out how to take the screen shots and upload them.
My solution is pretty simple. Instead of using my monorail as a system if mass transport, I use it more as an amusement park ride. I have a series of curved tracks and use out of place buildings as tableaus for riders to look at. I have several holiday areas, a western area, an apocalypse area, a medieval area, a future area and a monuments of Springfield area.
I’ve been thinking that once I fill up all the space in my Springfield and buy everything I might hit the nuke button. Then rather than have everything out at once I’ll change it day to day or week by week. Like maybe one week I’ll have nothing but the western stuff up. Then next I’ll have just the future stuff, ect… You know something to surprise my neighbors every time they visit. Only problem is that not having everything up at once all the time will make it harder for me to earn money which in turn will make it harder to earn donuts.
Sounds like a lot of work…but kinda cool!
I absolutely hate the idea of Springfield Heights. Even though I completed it I have kept the area clear. Luckily, with all this space in the great beyond it’s perfect for a future area! Complete with the Fortress of Lonelitude from Winter 2015.
Boom. Perfect!
I never completed the fortress of lonlitude it looks so ugly
Yes. I understand integrating the new with the old is hard. There always seems to be an oddball item that doesnt fit in with my plan, so i put it in my storage area untill it can be used. Like the re-neducation center. Looks great with future springfield stuff. I dont like how updates are now a months worth of stuff that can only be grouped together. Its almost as if the designers are ignoring the fact that towns are full to the max. But if it makes money i will have that building somewhere. All my christmas and halloween stuff is holding a place for duff stadium and the other sports complexes for when i buy them. Cal Young forbid that instead of adding more land, they just give us about 4 or 5 more KL sized areas and say ” heres you wild west SPFD, and heres your Future SPFD, and heres a SPFD where a shark can jump the Homer.”…and so on.
Honestly all i want now out of this game is to get all the Stonecutters. I have most of them except, the alien, hibbert, frink, and lenny and carl. Which reminds me ……im going to stalk lenny and carl.
Oh yeah, i am sad we will never see lionel or troy mcclure. You may remember him from such films as gladys the groovey mule and lepper in the backfield.
Wow! That was a lot. Thanks to anyone who read that.
damianf74
Go Axemen!!!
Lol! Great post!
Hi Patric. Great post! I’ve been waiting for someone to ask the very question you’re asking. I feel the same way you do about the game, and how to design a town. I have a core part of town which I would consider to be “Springfield” proper. From there, it gets weird. I have tended to put the event buildings on the periphery of town, but as you say, my town has become bigger and bigger. So now my Clash of Clones castle is in the “middle” of town, where once before it was on the edge of town. Also- I tend to put the uglier, and taller buildings in the back of my town (the northwest corners of both Springfield proper, and Springfield heights). I don’t like tall buildings blocking the shorter buildings. I also despise the look of most of the SH buildings. So in the the back they go.
My monorail is now on a beautiful, single loop around the entire town with three stops. I need to move one of the three stations further out, but I can’t seem to figure out how to move it without a major redesign. Sigh.
As for the event stuff….I try to group buildings together in a way that would make sense in the real world. For instance: I have a Wild West part of town with all of the Wild West event prizes. But I have a lot of other, older buildings that fir in well with the Wild West part of town. So now Cletus’s farm, the old Simpsons house, a couple of log cabins, etc are now in the Wild West part of town. Also- in order to maintain proper flow from one part of town to another, I try to place what I would call “transition” buildings. These are buildings that might fit in well with either part of town that it is next to. For instance: I have placed a few retro looking buildings (from the current event) between my future world and Wild West parts of town. Also- my future world part of town is next to my airport and space complexes. Does this make sense? I think it does.
Lastly- I tend to redesign constantly. I don’t like the idea of nuking my town and starting over. So the only way to keep a handle on things is to always be tweaking.
That’s my philosophy, and I’m sticking to it.
Ps. Oregon is perhaps one of the most ecologically diverse and beautiful states in the union, and that’s why I love living there. 😃🌲⛷🚴⚓️🗻
We agree on much, my friend. Oregon…after a 9600 mile trip…still my favorite state!
I agree about the SH buildings, and have set most of mine to Stage 1 or 2, so that it doesn’t just look like some weird sort of 3D column graph.
I’m creating a Future Island, accessible by long bridge, and a fly-over by the monorail is in the planning (hey EA, how about another monorail station, like a futuristic one?). The retro townhouses fit quite well with the regular part of town.
Oh, and why can’t the hover cars hover on the road? I don’t care if Springfieldians walk through them, they can already walk through fences and walk on water!
I love that idea. Time warp islands… Like “Lost.”
I have an part of my where big ugly buildings go in the corner, Springfield heights and re neducation will always stay there haha
I should take some screenshots and post, because I think I have a pretty nice looking town. But to answer the question, I don’t think of my town as ever really complete. I have roads dividing up the town into rough blocks and keep some empty to put event items that can’t be put into storage yet. I then keep my town mostly “real” and box up everything that doesn’t fit.
I basically locked in the left-most side of town years ago and change little, but my right and “back” (where new land strips are periodically added) stay fluid.
I’ve nuked twice. First, I was hacked and someone used all my donuts and money to dumb shit. I had to nuke it afterward, but I quit for about two years after that happened. I put things together pretty well again after that, but the quantity of new items required another nuking. I took screenshots of anything I liked so I could re-create it after. Locking in parts while keeping sections fluid works really well for me. Also, throwing tons of items into storage.
My town doesn’t make sense and I know it doesn’t make sense. But it’s Springfield so it’s not suppose to. I only have two constants in my town, that have to happen: The Flanders house has to be next to the Simpson house and King Toots has to be next to Moe’s. Everything else is fair game. I mean, there’s a Space Mutant walking around, an elephant and Nessie.
Yeah it really doesn’t bother me. It’s a cartoon world, after all. I do try to keep some organization going. I keep sections of my Springfield that have themes, so I have all the casino stuff in one area and all the western stuff in another. The Western part of my Springfield is the only part that uses the dirt roads, although I do use dirt paths in other areas. I think if you’re too concerned with realism you’re going to end up putting most things in storage. I have roads connecting to everything and my monorail is complete spanning threw most of my Springfield. Recently I changed it so now it goes through my Springfield heights. It’s all connected and really cool.
None of the stuff we’ve had lately goes good on the boardwalk so I have a bunch of boardwalk space. Although I know the Halloween event will be coming shortly after this, I’m hoping that in between we have another yard sale so I can get some stuff to put on my boardwalk.
I have tried to cordon off a section of my Springfield with black holes, rationalizing (if that word can truly be used in this context) that this part of town exists due to the temporal coexistence of this section both in the “present” Springfield and the “future” one, from which it came – a quantum entanglement between items across time, sort of.
Trying to decorate that section with nothing but future items, and struggling with the lack of day to day future items like trash cans and benches that don’t look like hover recliners (though i’m using those elsewhere as part of an open air theater)
I love that you have thought this out… Perfect!
I have chosen to just leave some things in storage. As time goes on and the more “stuff” we collect, to paraphrase another cartoon city building game that you “quest for”. I have found it quite easy to leave some of the non-canon stuff in storage. This future stuff is just weird to me and doesn’t really belong in my Springfield. Once this event is over I will probably store most of it, except some of the buildings that “kind of” work with my town (I too have the Burns Soul Extraction Building). Mushroom buildings and hologram plants will end up in storage. I have also created theme neighborhoods, so I do have a wild west part of town, but if you traveled through Arizona and visited Tombstone, you will see that “Old West” stuff can fit into a real life town, it is like a historic district. I suppose towns could have a future district too, but I will leave that to the more creative city builders.
I’ve placed a few of the new buildings in SH…but the bulk will go into storage.
Sorry to side track, but it TSTO compatible with the current Kindle being sold by Amazon? I have a 1st gen kindle and it’s not supported. In addition to my 1st gen dying and a lot of stuff nolonger compatiable, I was considering getting a newer one, the one that’s $49.99.
It should be. But that’s a better question for the community…as I don’t use kindle. Any one know?
yes it is. i use that tablet almost exclusively to play the game when at home, and it works great.
That is something to talk to EA support on. They haven’t been clear at all.
My town is already a mess, imagine if I nuke it :0. Sometimes I feel as if I’m wasting a lot of land for buildings and decorations from events.
My best friend in reality that plays just has everything clumped
No roads
I have incorporated all the hights building stuff into the old area which I call normal Springfield leaving the new heights land area as a kind of Disney land somewhat remote and separated by mountains, a kind of krusty land, where all the timey wimey randomness dosnt matter, it works at Disney lol. I have a superhero area right next to a Easter bunny and a wild west town. It’s kinda cool…
If it works… Then it works!