The Beach Hideaway Bonus % has been FIXED. It’s now back to 20% for each one. Patched 10/5/16
Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
In the column of NOT COOL EA…REALLY NOT COOL (!!!) EA has made changes to the Beach Hideaway. Initially the hideaway paid out 2% bonus on cash and XP..and each accessory piece added additional bonus % so you would receive 20% total bonus on all cash and XP for fully upgrading & having all of the components out.
Now with the Halloween update they’ve adjusted the multiplier from 20%…to 5%! Yes…15% less…again NOT COOL EA!
My guess is someone made a mistake in initial programming and the hideaway was only supposed to offer a 2% bonus (the normal bonus % for 40 donuts..)…but instead that bonus extended to the accessory pieces by mistake. So EA has now corrected this, but upped the % to 5% to make up for their mistake (since a 5% bonus for 40 donuts is still better than the typical payout…).
However, this is still not cool!
EA, you need to step up and compensate players back something for your error…many players spent 200 donuts to get all 5 hideaways because they thought it would payoff in the end. So to make that change is just not cool.
And…not to defend them..but in fairness to EA, they did not advertise in the store that the hideaway paid out a 20% bonus. At least not from what I remember. The bonus was discovered by many of you, and myself, from placing and upgrading one…so I do think it was a legit coding error.
So what can you do about this? Well you can calmly contact EA and request to have the donuts refunded to your account. You can also add your “me too” to this thread on the EA forum. However I will caution you…it’s not a bug or a glitch. It is intentional.
The bright side? (i know it all sucks right now, but I do try to always find a bright side to things..) Well if you decide to keep them they still pay out 5%, which is a nice bonus for 40 donuts….but also you no longer need all of the accessories out. You can just place the hideaways and store the accessories.
And on the subject of changes from this update….
I kind of thought this one would be coming…EA upped the requirements to hit the bonus level up once you’ve maxed out your levels. It’s gone from 1 million to 10 million XP required to earn donuts. If you’re below level 939 (and above level 100) it’s still 500,000 xp to level up. This only impacts players who’ve maxed out levels already.
This is a direct response to excessive donut farming…and I thought it was coming for awhile now.
For those that think it’s a response to the KEM farming post..it’s not. EA’s aware of XP farming (as evident by the Bloodmobile Easter Egg in the game). I just think they underestimated some Tappers….
And finally, since we’re talking about changes, another change. But this one is a nice one. The donut cost for an item how shows up before you place it (and it shows you how many donuts you have as well, top right corner)
Also, when you place something from inventory it’ll also tell you how many you have in inventory..
Nice little change 🙂
And that’s it…one thing to tick you off, one thing to frustrate you and one nice little change. That’s Tapped Out for you…
What are your thoughts on the changes (remember we’re not EA…so don’t scream and yell at me. I’m impacted and frustrated too)? Liking the donut/storage view when placing? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
i know this comment is waaaaay late for this thread, but wasn’t it possible to get 6/5 hideaways at one time? is that still available even now in 2019???
After seeing Patrick come to the dark side of Safi’s KEM farming, I worked my way back to this beach hideaway post and am happy to report that Oct 26, 2017, these bad boys still give 20% when fully upgraded. All the upgrades must be placed, but for 40 donuts this is a great deal!
So I can still buy three. But do they really still give 20% after a full upgrade. I know, that the ones I bought right away, are giving that bonus, but new ones?
If you read the comment thread right below your comment (which would have been the first comment thread before you posted), you’ll get your answer. (I know it’s a couple of month’s old, but no reason why it should have changed at this point, a long time past the original release….)
I read it, and you posted: “Can’t guarantee that newly bought ones still offer the full bonus, though…” So that’s not a definite answer. 😉
Then someone responded to me and said they’d just tried it and the bonuses were still there. That’s about as good a confirmation as you’re likely to get. No reason to think they’d just randomly take them away months later….
So, any idea how much Bonus % is giving in this moment. I’m planning on buying them for the bonus %, but only if they still have the full bonus (20% each hideaway?)
I still have the full bonus on the ones I bought. (They restored it within a few days of making the ill-considered change. Can’t guarantee that newly bought ones still offer the full bonus, though…you may just have to take a chance on one and see what happens.
I took a chance ando bought one, they still have the full bonus, 2% initial and 1.5% for each part, giving a total of 20% after all the upgradea. Great!
Greetings from Mexico 🙂
It’s not a glitch… EA is very aware of it and even gave the Kwik-E-Marts an escalating cost structure because if it. Plus, they released the collider to help multiply the XP received. And they even mentioned bloodmobile farming right in the game!
So, no, it’s not “unsportsmanlike conduct,” but, if it offends your sensibilities, by all means don’t do it.
I gotta admit that it is hilarious how finally make a post about KEM farming and EA makes it a lot harder to do a week later 😂
But everything’s back now… XP is back to $1M and they restored the proper percentages to the beach hideaways!
Really? It’s not 10mill anymore?
I’ve just checked, it’s still 10mill
Hi, I haven’t seen the question in the comments. What if I now buy the Hideout? Will I only get the 2% (5%)? I would gess so since it is stated in the description of the Hideout.
Anway, this site is great! You do a really god job.
Greetings from Denmark 🙂
Woo hoo! I did my part, I finally figured out how to report it and did so under “missing content”. Well, that’s what it was. My sad tale of spending all my hard earned donuts on 4 hideaways melted their cold little hearts, I’m sure.
I find this discussion interesting – especially since I think my opinion is very different from what I’m seeing here. I initially bought just one Beach Hideaway for 40 donuts, and fully upgraded it. Then I re-maxed my SH materials just 1 day before the 4x bonus in SH started.
When the % changed from 20% for a fully-upgraded Beach Hideaway, where all the parts have to be placed, and went to just 5% for the main building, but only that building had to be placed, I was actually happy, because 5% for 40 donuts is a very good deal, and not having to place all the parts to get the full bonus is also nice. I made the mistake of not reading the info here before I took the plunge, but I spent the 160 donuts for the last 4 Beach Hideaways, and I was pretty happy with that. But if I had known the % issue was going to be changed back to just 2% for the main building, and then you have to have all the parts placed to get the full 20% for each, I probably would not have bought the other 4 buildings, because I don’t want to have to place all of those parts (use up all that space), and I don’t want to just shove all the parts in a clump off in a corner somewhere, although that’s probably what I’ll end up doing when I eventually fully upgrade the last 4 Beach Hideaways…
I suppose i could complain to EA and ask for the donuts back – and I would expect to lose the buildings if I got the donuts back, but I don’t know if that’s worth my time. I only did one round of KEM farming (for 3 days, from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon, Sept. 30 – Oct. 3), and spent $75 million on KEM’s. In those 3 days, with the XP multiplier turned on, I was able to farm 15 “crops” of KEM’s, each of which got me about 51 to 57 donuts, for a total of about 780 donuts. After Halloween is over, I’ll probably finish maxing out the hideaways, and most likely will just stick all the small parts in a clump off in a corner somewhere.
And as much as I’m a Tapped Out Addict, it is just a game, and everyone has to play in the way that works for them. I understand where a 5% bonus versus a 20% bonus can make a significant difference. My XP bonus is just over 340%, with only one fully upgraded Beach Hideaway, so it takes a lot to make a bonus % item appealing to me. And, at least for me, 5% for one building was more appealing than 20% for one building plus a dozen add-ons that all have to be placed.
Wow!!! And actual, reasonable, pragmatic viewpoint? Thank you.
I don’t have the focus to farm and my only strategy for doughnuts is that Costco / Sam’s Club/ Target sell iTunes gift cards at a 20% discount so I justify my budget. I honestly only paid for the XP collider boost because I wanted the whole family in the homerlayas (?) mt range. I can never remember Maggie and I’m highly skilled at picking the 1 doughnut reward. Just happy that together we got a resolution and even our differences afterward can give EA a template to handle the next issue
I finally figured out that if I make sure I always have $300,000 to spare, I can always get three donuts on the Maggie game and similar gambles. It’s $150,000 to try each box if the first one is a dud. If I’m lucky, I get 3 on first try. Usually they repeat which box they use for the triple few times so you can try that after you’ve paid to open the other boxes, so you know which box is the one.I can’t bring myself to use real money for donuts.
Also if the daily challenge isn’t something you want, if you reject it to get another option (hit that X in the upper right hand corner of the challenge box), often it will give you a challenge for donuts.
Does it not occur to anyone that this whole “debacle” was meticulously planned by EA from the beginning?
Everyone got up in arms about the loss of the 100% XP bonus that was taken away from the “new” SH items. Items that were introduced as limited time items followed immediately by an easy way to pay for them increasing the SH payout by 400% (4x). So anyone interested in XP farming immediately spent 200 donuts and then farmed as much as they could to increase their XP bonus %. In fact they even offered one of the best XP bonus item at a 33% off donut cost (Jet Ski Bike). It was like they WANTED people to spend all their donuts on increasing their XP %. That’s exactly what I did. Once the Halloween update hit I was on ~10 donuts.
Also note, it is extremely unlikely these new SH item bonuses were an “error” or bug from the developers, otherwise all add on would have been 2% instead of 1.5%. So if removing the 100% XP bonus is not the issue, what IS the issue we should be focussing on?
Changing the level up requirements from $1M -> $10M is the issue. 2% XP bonus has effectively become 0.2%. All items offering XP % bonuses have become reduced to a tenth of value they were offering prior to the update. Changing the level up by a factor of 10 is almost the same result as reducing all XP bonuses by a factor of 10.
So this was no mistake. EA’s whole plan all along was to reduce all item’s XP percentage bonus by a factor of 10. And they did it in a way that sucked people in and then diverted people’s attention and anger to the removing of 100% XP bonuses instead of the reducing ALL XP bonuses by 90%.
Very well played EA…
(Note my whole argument above is based on the scenario where you have reached the Level 939 cap)
And again… How many donuts did you actually spend real money for in your trip to levee 930?
Your premise is based on some way that EA can benefit from giving things away for free.
That is a business model guarantee to bankrupt you.
I wasn’t commenting on the business model or whether it was right or wrong. I was strongly suggesting that EA planned every step of the way the events of the last week and that it was “Very well played EA”.
Ahh, the rampant cynicism of the Internet.
A very good point Matthew! Everyone was angered over loosing the 80% XP, and yet we have all lost far far more than that.
I have my collider on and as I build each KEM now, the blue line barely mooves. There is no chance if the collider wasn’t working! XP has little effect now 🙁
This morning (eastern time, at least) it went back to 1M, so you should be fine. 🙂
And the world is a better place…
So if you buy the beach hideaway now, will it pay out at 2%? Or 20% if fully upgraded?
It’s 20, or just under 20
So a lot of you probably saw this coming from me, but here we go anyway. KEM farming is no longer a viable option for farming for doughnuts if you’re at level 939. The only way it would be worth while is if your XP % was an astronomically high figure. I’m sure there are a few players out there with a XP % greater than 1000, but I would imagine that to be a rarity. My visible XP % is currently at 435%. So this raises the question: What is the best way to get a lot of doughnuts short of paying $ for them? It seems to me the best way now is to revert back to rat trap delivery trucks and blood mobiles. Here is my reasoning: Before EA raised the level up to 10 million, it made sense to buy ten days on the XP Collider and farm KEM’s every four hours. I was netting 300+ doughnuts over the ten day period. Now that the level up is at 10 million, it hardly makes sense to spend 25 doughnuts on the collider to net maybe 30 doughnuts over the same ten day period. It’s just too much work. So now I’m thinking it makes more sense to save my game cash until I have many millions and buy one day on the collider and buy and sell rat trap delivery trucks. It’s less of an investment in time, game cash, and doughnuts. The days of netting 300+ doughnuts are gone, but if I play my game well, I think I can still generate a decent flow of doughnuts from time to time.
Thoughts? (PLEASE. Nice comments only. Thank you).
Yes. EA will see this too. Just sayin’… But, what you suggest seems like a fair tradeoff of time invested for reward.
Well I don’t think I’m really saying anything new. The TSTO Addicts web site posted a post about this Perhaps couple of years ago, and people have talked about it at length.
Look. I’m not trying to ruin anything for anyone. Quite the contrary. I’m trying to help people. Is there anything wrong with that?
Changing the subject………GO HUSKIES! 😎
One day we’ll all look back on this and say “man do you remember how crazy we all go with that XP Farming? We were crazy! Now it just rains donuts..” 😉
Ah. Those were the days. Sigh. 🤑
😂😂
I agree, I respect your advice sillyboy since you introduced me to KEM farming in the first place. It looks like it’s back to rat trap trucks and bloodmobiles
Congratulations everyone! We got our 100% back.
I’m happy with that. I got what I paid for.
I spoke with EA twice about this issue and was offered the 40 donut refund twice, which I refused. I don’t regret that and don’t hold any grudges towards those who got a refund.
I agree with you, Alissa, on the inconsistency of EA’s response. They probably weren’t anticipating such a huge backlash to this issue and my guess is that they waited for the Halloween event to start so that people might be distracted enough not to notice the drop in %
Now I can enjoy the new event and admire my 322% XP MODIFIER 😄👍 Thanks Alissa, Bunny, Patrick and Wookie for all the time and effort you put into this site. The info and the friendships mean a lot and enhance the game for me. I don’t think I would have been playing for this long (3 years, every day) without the support I get here. Happy Halloween😀❤️
Are they kidding me? At first people get hundreds of donuts back because “the 20% was not intended” and now they bring the 20% back because the “glitch” wasn’t intended. I feel like calling them for my (in my case) free 120 donut gift.
I can tell you I’m happy they fixed it..but more than a little miffed that they returned donuts to players (while letting them keep their hideaways) and then patched it. If they refunded donuts they should take the hideaway away too…
I am glad they have fixed it, too. But I… well… jealous tbh. I am on GMT+1 and noticed the “glitch” before I had to go to work and because of a long workday I came back home when it was fixed… I did intend on calling them for a refund… The fellow addicts who got a refund are lucky EA has such a bad support team that has no clue on what is going on… Pathetic… But congrats to those who got the refund… Now I have got to get me a pair of those angry socks…
I may have found our next contest lol
A new pair?
It was compensation for lost revenue during the time that the bug lasted. Granted, it was overly generous compensation, but it bought them a lot of good will from folks like me.
I originally asked for a 160 donuts refund, since they had cut 80% of the value of what I bought. When they took me it was a mistake, and a patch was coming, I said that, in that case the 160 donuts wouldn’t be reasonable and I just wanted some compensation for the lost revenue for the time that my 80 percentage points were lost (thinking maybe I’d get the 40 donuts consolation prize that I saw they had given to others. When the rep came back and my account had been credited for the full 200, I was extremely happy and surprised.
I didn’t ask for “my donuts back” from the get-go…I wanted to keep my beach houses and just be made whole. That they decided (after numerous holds to look over my account and such) that, for whatever reason, I was a customer who’s expectations they wanted to exceed and gave me the 200 donuts I never asked for. So, no – I don’t think they should have then taken my beach houses back, because I never would have agreed to that trade, especially once I knew the bug was being fixed.
Lost revenue?! On free donuts?! Ok then…whenever you need to say to help you sleep at night.
What? No! Lost revenue on my buildings, character tasks, etc. for the time that my multiplier was down. I bought something under the premise that it would provide a certain return. When that return was decreased by 80%, I thought a few donuts in compensation would be nice. I didn’t ask to get my money back for the donuts I spent to buy the hideaways, nor did I ask for, or expect, such a generous “gift.”
You should know me better by now….
Ok.
And my conscience is clear…don’t need to rationalize anything.
You’ll notice that, while I certainly wasn’t happy about it, not once have I said that I thought that EA did anything wrong when they jacked up the XP requirement to fill the bar tenfold. That was certainly within their right to do. I am not someone who plays this game with an “entitled” attitude.
Listen this entire time I’ve been saying my issue is with EA, not the players. But when you come out and say you wanted 160 donuts back to account for lost revenue..and they told you they were patching it…it makes me scratch my head.
But whatever. That’s me. Like I said to someone else…I just view it differently in my own mind. So we’re not going to agree…
but I don’t think it makes you a criminal either. It’s eas deal. I just don’t think you need to justify it as anything other than that’s what ea offered me.
But like I said..that’s me.
You got the sequence wrong. I asked for 160 donuts, THEN they said they were patching it and I said to them that, in that case, asking for 160 donuts would not NOT be fair and I was **no longer asking for that**, just a small compensation, instead.
And, while you may not be saying anything against the players, your fellow moderator sure did, with a lot of nastiness and some unfair assumptions.
Sandra… For the love of God. Let it go. There is no “winner” in this kind of continued discussion. We clearly have a difference of opinion…and OPINION is just that. Let. It. Go.
And of course, “nastiness” is I the eye of the reciever…and just another form of Opinion. Any further tit for tat will be removed.
I wasn’t one of the people that called in and got doughnuts but I am happy that those people did because those people reported the problem, EA has fixed it. So, I don’t think badly about the people that got refunded their doughnuts and got to keep their hidaways. I say the doughnuts are their reward for being proactive in reporting the issue.
Except for all the people that called and were told it was being patched and got 0 compensation…
It’s a very inconsistent system..all depends on the rep you get.
I think there is nothing to blame on the players who got the refund. Yesterday I contacted EA with no response, and today tried again and got a full refund without even asking. The thing is to keep trying and find the right guy on the EA side.
This episode shows that is worthy to contact EA for every problem and, if not satisfied, try it over and over again.
I’m not blaming them. I’m frustrated that the items weren’t taken out of their game. You return an item to the store, you get your money back..but you return the item.
Those who got 40 donuts back that’s fine. That’s usually what EA gives you if you call and complain about anything. But those that got their full 200 donuts back, got to keep the items and now they’re getting 100% for free..that one stings. (especially with the amount of money I put into this game…) And yes, I’m fully aware I can call and get my donuts back. But the items are now working as intended..and to me that’s just stealing.
But that’s me. I have to live with myself every day. Others have to live with themselves. If it doesn’t bother them…more power to them.
And i know some offered to give their items back, and EA didn’t take them back. I’m not mad at people for that. I’m more frustrated that EA didn’t take the items away…it’s a general aggravation at EA over the entire situation…
I totally agree it’s inconsistent (and shouldn’t be), but it also depends on the effort you make. I got that answer the first time I called (last night), but then, today, decided to call again to get some compensation, and I did.
Has nothing to do with your effort. It has to do with who you get on the other line. I’ve had moments where I’ve called several times over an issue and never got compensation where others have. Its dumbluck on who you get.
The issue is it shouldn’t be dumbluck. Their message should be consistent for every one.
Answer from EA at the forum:
Hi folks,
I just want to chime in to let you know that the change was not intended and will be reverted. Please keep an eye for updates.
Hope that helps.
Link: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Simpsons-Tapped-Out/Bonus-multiplier/m-p/5603268/highlight/true#M121544
They changed it back!!!! UHUU
THE UPDATE GAVE ME BACK MY XP THEY TOOK