Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
I’ve said it many times…and I’ll say it again..I swear EA has cameras on me. They wait until I leave my office and then release an update. Special thanks to Patric for being on top of this one for me! And for covering for me yesterday as well! Super grateful to have him as part of the Addicts team 🙂
Anywho as many of us predicted an Episode Tie-In has hit our games today to promote this Sunday’s Season 28 Premiere! For those who joined TSTO over the Summer and this is your first time seeing an Episode Tie-In…these are fun little updates that give us a little teaser of what’s to come in this week’s episode of The Simpsons. And usually the items released are related to the new episode. So it’s a fun way to get excited about that week’s episode. They don’t always happen..so it’s always exciting when they do 🙂
Now onto this tie-in…
This one is a bit different from previous ones. In that it’s setup more like a mini event..where you check back after the Season Premiere has aired (on Sunday September 25th) to see more stuff that will unlock!
Let’s break it all down…Homer gets things going with a bit of dialogue and a 3hr task…
Oh and the tie in ends October 4th..just under 2 weeks from now. Who else thinks we’ll see Halloween then? 😉
So when you first start up your game you’ll see this dialogue between Homer and Lenny…
Homer: Ah, the coffee break: the sweet spot between beer breakfast and lager lunch.
Lenny: If you’re looking for donuts, forget about it. Burns is on another health kick: all we got is Kombucha and kale.
Homer: No donuts?! This isn’t like health insurance, you can’t just take it away!
A world without donuts?! Such a crime!
But this kicks off the tie-in event…and again this is setup JUST LIKE mini events. Where you complete tasks to unlock prizes. It’s kind of cool for an episode tie-in because we’re getting more free stuff with it…
Before I break the prizes and tasks down….let’s take a look at the new/old items in the store…
Note: All the store items are Premium…because the free stuff comes as prizes…
New Stuff…
Retro Lard Lads- 120 Donuts. 10×11. Earns $300, 30xp. Comes with Laird Ladd, a new character. Helps earn Gift Cards, more on those in a bit.
Beach Hideaway- 40 Donuts. New Item for Springfield Heights!
Fancy Farms- 70 Donuts. 6×9 Earns $300, 30xp/12hrs
Quimby’s Broken Promises Billboard- 20 Donuts. .50% bonus on all cash and XP.
Returning Stuff…
Quick and Fresh- 30 Donuts. Should I Buy (the file image I have has snow on it…this one doesn’t have snow..i’ll pull a new image in a bit)
Bob’s Victorian House- 100 Donuts. Should I Buy
Kwik -E-Mart Central Office- 145 Donuts Should I Buy
And thanks to you guys for letting me know…also returning..
Mapple Store- 90 Donuts. Should I Buy
Banana Dictatorship- 30 Donuts. Should I Buy
Ok so now some details about the prizes/quests…
Just like the past mini events…you have to send characters on tasks to collect an item to unlock the prizes. In this case the item is 
gift cards. Various characters can go for each part, and we’ll break that down with the walkthrough…each task length is 3hrs.
Prizes..
New Lard Lad- Building for Springfield, Earned after Part 1
Moe’s Brewing Co- Building for Springfield. Earned after part 2, Collect 12
Tarp-Covered Statue- Facade for your New Lard Lad. NOT an additional building. Earned after part 3, Collect 12
Cinnabun- Building for Springfield. Earned after part 4, Collect 25
And that’s as far as you can get for now….
There will be another Facade for Lard Lad AND another Building that unlock after Sunday….
And that’s it for now my friends…I’ll be back shortly with the questline for the tie-in and..
Yes. Before you ask, yes. We will have Should I Buys for the new content.
What are your thoughts on the tie-in? Anything you’re excited about? Any premium items you’ll grab? Excited for the Premiere episode? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
I am absolutely loving the new items for SH. With a 20% increase on a fully upgraded Beach Hideaway for only 40 Donuts, I just couldn’t resist it. My Squidport now looks so classy, with the yachts and jet skis, I’ll have to hike up the Sea Captain’s rent😂…..💜X
Blew my last donuts on Retro Lard Lads, after I saw a picture of it here. Really love the design of the building, a lovely 50’s vibe inspired by the iconic pink donut. Considering the decent price for a premium building/character combo, it is a great buy for me.
Last year’s THOH event was a bit underwhelming for me as far as premium items are concerned, so I don’t really mind going “broke” into Halloween this year.
I’ve lost 10 friends from my list since the sci fi event. I’m guessing most were freemium players. I think so many new premium items are coming through the game that it is frustrating players not willing or able to spend money on the game, so they just quit.
You could well have a good point here & I’m sure the fact that some premium players take great delight in telling us all what they have bought within seconds of items being released does not help.
I notice a few guys have started to run out of space ……. shame.
I’m a mostly freemium player – in two years, I’ve only bought donuts maybe three times (not including an occasional Scratch-R), and never more than a truckload, and mostly just with free iTunes credits I’ve earned via QuickThoughts. I don’t understand why you sound bitter about premium players posting about their purchases…when you get a shiny new something in real like that you’re excited about, don’t you like to tell your friends/family about it?
I kind of like hearing about people’s premium purchases, because it helps me know whether I want to put that item on my “wish list,” either for now or for the next time that item is released (if it’s a limited-time item). Besides, without those premium players, this game wouldn’t continue to exist, so I think we should be grateful to the folks who are willing to drop the big bucks on this game….the rest of us are just riding their coattails!
(And this game is really quite generous to freemium players, especially with all of the ways to get free donuts now. Try playing the Family Guy game, which I’ve heard makes it impossible, or nearly impossible, to compete questlines without making premium purchases, no matter how dedicated a tapper you are!)
Listen, my comments were made with tongue in cheek. I understand people showing off a bit & I know we need those premium players. However the fact remains people are leaving the game for whatever reason.
I think you yourself have mentioned before perhaps there should be a few more items that can be purchased ( within events or mini games )with game currency & I mean decent stuff as opossed to say the odd lamppost or hedge. Premium items have to be in there of course but the odd one that can be purchased to help with an event would be nice.
I used to play the Family Guy & dropped it for the reasons you mentioned.
I want to make it clear that although TSTO has its flaws it remains way out in front of its competitors in my opinion.
(Mostly) Freemium Player here
Premium Buildings aren’t the problem, because you get a lot of donuts for free. One year ago it took me half a year until I was able to afford premium items. Now with Maggie, Monorail, Daily Bonus etc. I am able to get a premium item every event.
The problem are the events. I know some people who think it is too much, they sometimes need a break from tapping.
Frankly, this annoys me. I don’t use auto update and because I was close to more bonuts, I figured what the heck, I’ll stay in sci fi mode until I have to update. But for the second time in the past year, they release an update without forcing. So basically, if I didn’t read this site, who knows how long it would be before I knew there was a new event? New events should either be in game updates or forced.
it’s nothing new for the game to allow a couple days of borrowed time before forcing you to update (wouldn’t be surprised if it’s sometime tomorrow). i know you’ve been playing this game for a while, and frequently comment on here, so surely you had some inkling that an update might be released soon, no? or at least enough of one to check this site for word of any updates?
i know you are a busy mom and i very much respect that… however, this is all pretty par for the course after an event ends.
All true tapebelt, but it is fairly new that they release a new event without forcing the update – and especially, so quickly. Think about the people who don’t use any sites and just play as they go. Who knows how long they might have gone with literally no idea the new event had hit. As for me, I didn’t need to stretch sci fi, just figured what the heck. Regular game or time to rearrange and still earn bonuts? Easy choice. And as for checking the site – this site is a total godsend which I do check pretty much every day, but it just happens that yesterday was just insanely busy at work and on the homefront so didn’t get on until late. I’ll recover in terms of progress since I tap so frequently, but I do think it’s a bad practice in general and this is now the second time I’ve seen it happen.
They do eventually force it, but by waiting a bit before they do, they give folks who haven’t completed the event a little extra chance to do so, so I think it’s the best of both worlds.
But, yeah…if you want to stay in the know, following a site like this is imperative. Frankly, with EA’s very minimal in-game instructions/information for events, you need a site like this if you just want to play the events effectively, too. Who knows…maybe it’s intentional on their part, because I bet folks who get involved with sites/communities like these probably play for longer, and spend more money, on the game!
Interesting theory Sandra! I don’t have any issue with not forcing the updates immediately for takedowns. What I have an issue with is dropping new content in the game with no notification whatsoever. It should either come in game, or an update should be forced, or even, like Apple does, a notice that there is an update and you can choose to update or defer. Any of those would be fine. But for the game to move along and someone could never even know, isn’t right.
Ahhhhhhh…another shot for everyone to get the single best item ever in TSTO!!! What is that? The Mapple Store…of course 🙂
This is getting bonkers. Log in, update on, check an hour later, update disappears. Do a hard shut down, it reappears, hour later, it disappears, again. Of playing for over a year and a half, have never had this happen before.
Does anyone know if the Quimby’s Broken Promises Billboard and Beach Hideaway are limited buys as well?
You can only buy one billboard and 5 of the beach houses 🙂
Fancy Farms can go on the Squidport tiles. Just the place for a gourmet store featuring pomegranate skin bags!
They are going to have to open up some land pretty soon, hopefully on the Springfield heights side. I’m about ready to store most of my buildings there.
That’s what I use that space for too
Before you store them, don’t forget the that Springfield Heights buildings have a hidden bonus multiplier to them.
So I am happy to see the Kwik -E-Mart Central Office back because it is building I really like and I didn’t get it before when I had the chance. But kind of annoyed that it is a 145 Donuts when I could get the Retro Lard Lads building a character combo for 120 Donuts.
That was the original price, IIRC, when it was a Gil Deal.
Ehh I know this is only an episode tie-in, but seems kinda meh to me. Yay, more buildings, to add to my already crowded Springfield. Sure one has a character (although premium, and I don’t get paid for another week), but the rest is just that, buildings. Think I’ll pass on this and try for another round of bonuts until I’m kicked out lol
Something is not right with this update, because when I start it, nothing happens after the EA startup screen.
I have an ARMv8 device, and I don’t know what is wrong with it.
A quick Haloween question for those in the know about the interchangeable skins for town buildings,
I have four regular Lard Lad buildings that can be changed from regular to Christmas skin no problem, I also have four Kwik-E-Mart’s but only one can be changed to a Kill-E-Mart for Halloween,
Any answers to why some buildings have this and not others?
Thanks in advance 💜💜💜
There are actually 2 Kwik-E-Mart objects in the game files. One of them is unique, and tied to Apu. The other can be bought as many times as you would like, and are not tied to any one character. The way it’s coded, the Kill-E-Mart skin can only go on the “prime” Kwik-E-Mart.
The Lard Lad only has one entry in the game files.
Thanks you for the info Skydude, much appreciated.
I guess it’s because the Christmas skins were just released as a decoration, but the Halloween skin was part of the event questline story (as were the other two Halloween building skins).
(But I could be wrong with original release of the Christmas skins, because I think it was before I started playing.)
Does Laird have an origin or are we expecting him to appear in the premiere – this is a tie-in after all?
The only reason I asked is because:
1) I haven’t seen him before
2) Reading clues and spoilers about the premiere their seems no connection for them to add Laird lad in.
Or is this tie in for the whole of the Season and not just the premiere?
I got the in game update and started Homers task, the next time I logged in to play I got another in game update that took the the mini update away… basically giving me a plain Springfield. I’ve rebooted and restarted but nothin works.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Double check that you didn’t get booted from your origin account. Log out… Log in with your origin ID
Yup, me too
This happened to me today too…purchased Retro Lard Lads, Fancy Farms, Quimby billboard and 5 Beach Hideaways. Everything disappeared and the new items were no longer in the store. I uninstalled and reinstalled the game with no luck, all the new purchases were gone (~ 400 donuts worth) along with whatever progress that I made. As a last resort, I signed in to the game on my phone and everything saved! I played on the phone for a while and went back to my tablet a little later. I had to reinstall the game on my tablet 2 more times before the progress was saved correctly. This happened to me once before at Christmas and I lost the recently purchased Nativity Scene. I did not have a tablet at the time and was never able to retrieve that purchase. Hopefully, EA can fix your issue. I really do commiserate with anyone who has to go through that process. Good Luck!
My update disappeared !
Okay … Get the ‘Panic Button’ ready! Or you can:
1) Close the game, log out, log back in.
2) Uninstall and reinstall
3) If that doesn’t work, contact EA 😊
I bet Alissa will be quick to spot if I have missed out a point
The pink retro Lard Lad was an unabashed instabuy, almost finger punched a hole in my iPad in excitement to eagerly spend bonuts on it , this looks like a great little session before the big push for Hallowe’en. A
Also the new addition to Squidport looks really good with the new “hideaway” I like the name as it’s also the title of one of my most favourite “America” albums ( of Horse With No Name fame).
Tip/Trick.
I would highly recommend buying Quick and Fresh or Kwik -E-Mart Central Office.
Simple explanation:
Much like the Sushi 1hr task that can be done by almost all characters, but was eventually patched, the two buildings above have similar tasks
Quick and fresh is 4 Hr (non-premium payout needs Dr. Nick)
KWEMCO 1 Hr. (Premium payout. all Chars)
So for all those peoples that enjoy having all your characters in one place, stock up while the goings hot.
Wondering if the new SH buildings are limited time or not (no timer but still)
Hey has anybody else noticed the currency has gone down in the stores? It’s back on it’s normal levels before level 60. What’s up with that?
Yep, i noticed that too. I think they realized that people were buying cash and using it to farm for donuts. Over the past 2 weeks i bought 14.4 million for 285 donuts, twice. Using the race track bonut round glitch that i discovered and building around 90 KEM every 4 hours, i was taking in about 130 donuts a day. Now i wish i bought a ton of cash at once instead of just the 14 mil opition. O well, it was fun while it lasted. So now its back to 50 kems, that should net around 60 donuts a day. I’ll still be donut rich, just not scrooge mcduck level rich.
Well I’m not going to be surprised when they take away the donuts for experience for good by the way some people exploit it. It’s the people who spend money on the game that keep it alive. I wasn’t buying cash to farm for donuts, I just noticed that it costed a lot more donuts for me to level up my IRS building based on the difference. Then I went into the store and I saw why.
Believe me, ive spent my fair share of real money on this game, hundreds in fact.
They’ll never take away the xp for donuts. They may alter it in some way, like raising the requirements, but they’ll never eliminate it. That aspect has been part of the game since the begining.
People who KEM farm aren’t exploiting anything. We’re playing within the rules and guidlines that EA has set up. They know whats going on. They could easily change the code and put an end to it. I take a slight offense when people imply that we’re doing something wrong. Its not like we hacked the game. We’re playing by their rules. Anyone can do it.
Hear, hEAr!
The Beach Hideaway is great….you can put it anywhere – attached to squid port or the beach club, on the beach in either town or out in the water. I wanted something fun for Springfield on the beach, and this is perfect…making yoga mats to upgrade it already!
Retro Lard Lad with Lairrd? Wow, no hesitation whatsoever 😊😊😊😊 This should be fun!
noob question. what does NPC stand for? It’s driving me crazy. I know it means the character doesnt have tasks.
And ya, I’ve been playing this game since it launched. *blushes*
Non Playing Character… it just walks around.
Thank you!! lol. For three years I’ve not known. You’ve put my mind at ease. hahahaha
People playing TSTO tend to love acronyms 😛
OMG that beach getaway! It has so many additional items when you fully upgrade! I have to re-do my whole Squidport!