Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Yesterday EA released a patch for the Secret Agent update and with that patch a number of small changes were made (a few things you wouldn’t even know because they don’t come into play until later acts).
Among the changes that would be noticeable to players during Act 1…. a bonus % was added to the Globex Balloon (.50%) and a bonus % added to the Cypress Creek Sign (1%). Oh and Camera Hat Homer at the HQ was adjusted…if you have Camera Hat Homer regular Homer will no longer show up on the HQ job list (so you can’t accidentally send the wrong one).
However, one big change was made that a number of you took notice of yesterday….the Schematic drop rates were drastically changed. What does this mean? What have they changed to? Let’s take a quick look…
As a reminder we covered the schematic details in this post… this current post (that you’re reading now) is an update to that post
So the biggest change everyone’s noticed is that Schematics are now dropping more regularly from the Men In Tan (MIT).
So no you’re not going crazy. Not only are the MIT dropping through the floor, they’re also dropping more Schematics.
The old rate was 10% it is now 60%. A nice change indeed. So now it’ll feel like they’re dropping with nearly ever tap.
BUT….there’s always a but somewhere right?
The Schematics you earn from each drop have DECREASED. They’ve been cut in half, as a matter of fact.
Instead of earning 2 Schematics per drop from the MIT you’ll now only earn 1 Schematic per drop from the MIT. Not only that, but they’ve cut the Schematics earned from MIT drops in Acts 2 and 3 in half as well…
Originally Act 2 should have yielded 6 Schematics from each MIT drop, now they’ll yield 3.
Originally Act 3 should have yielded 12 Schematics from each MIT drop, now they’ll yield 6.
Ouch! Yes, THOSE MONSTERS! Vengeance shall be ours!!
Ok not really. Let’s all put our swords away….for now. This isn’t the battle we want to pick, just yet.
The jist of it all? The change was for perception. It looks a feels like you’re getting more Schematics, because they’re dropping from the MIT more frequently, but in reality your Schematic total isn’t really increasing all that much from where it was originally.
With this change you will earn slightly more Schematics throughout the course of each Act. However, by decreasing the quantity of Schematics earned per drop EA’s still trying to keep you on a slower crafting pace.
There’s a reason EA wants you to move at a slower crafting pace. We just have to figure out what that is….if it’s anything different than the obvious to get you to have less stuff.
Perhaps they’re laying the groundwork for a future event?
We’ll have to wait and see. For now, enjoy the slight change/increase and just keep tappa, tap, tap, tapping…
Thoughts on the Schematic changes? Which crafting prizes do you have your eye on? Why do you think EA’s trying to keep you crafting at a slower pace? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
Lately, a lot of my buildings and decorations have been animating themselves even when they shouldn’t be..
Sometimes this is cool, I mean, it’s great to see my Bad Dream House light up every now and then! But overall, it can get quite irritating.
I’ve been looking forward to incorporating some of this event’s crafting items into my town, but they don’t seem to have the desired effect when they’re always in their “spy-mode”.
For example, the manhole covers could be cool, but they just look out of place when they stand out of the ground and light up all of the time.
Is anyone else experiencing this?
And is there a method to stop it or should I just hope for EA to eventually patch it themselves?
The spy animation can be switched of in the Surveillance Post.
Bart, Lisa and some other kids have an eight hour task in The Bad Dream House.
Of course! Thanks
I didn’t realise what that option did, assumed it was for the surveillance activity..
There’s a button in the Surveillance Post that lets you turn the spy animations on and off.
I turned off spy-mode and this worked for a few days, but now they’re on again and I’m SURE the toggle is set to disable.
It’s also worth noting that this isn’t only happening to my event items, but to general buildings and decorations. They’re not necessarily annoying, but I’m pretty sure they’re not supposed to act as if they are being tapped all of the time… I’m going to assume that this is the reason my event items are acting up too.
Oh, if you’re talking about other buildings doing that, that’s just something that the game dies randomly every now and then, as a treat. For some buildings, it’s practically the only time you get to see them animated, so just enjoy! 🙂
Not sure what EA was thinking when they decided that the ATF van is unique but the Vigilant Town Square can be crafted as much as you like. It is a huge square (literally and figuratively) and difficult to incorporate into your town, but the ATF van looks nice and can be placed anywhere around town easily. But, at the rate schematics are dropping, most people won’t be able to craft multiples anyways so it’s a moot point…. Please forget I said anything!
I agree completely 😊
Does anyone know if the ‘Nothing to See Here’ crafting prize is an outfit for the nerds? I’d like to know before the nerds premium offer expires
I’ll probably be able to answer that on saturday when I get the extra schematics in the prize track. It seems unlikely though, since it is a craftable prize for everyone, not just those who bought the nerds. I think they’re either npc’s or maybe even stationary, like a decoration.
I’m never going to be able to craft the final crafting prize. It costs 1200 schematics and I didn’t even get that many in Act 1 alone and I would like to craft the other stuff too! Maybe I need to login six times a day?!
It won’t help 😕
Still a considerable improvement overall, and that’s a good thing! I had a feeling a change would be coming.
The reason for slowing us down is because they don’t want you to finish too soon and be bored, both with prize track and crafting but some people will insist on telling the world how far ahead of the calendar they are during these events
🇬🇧😁
My Men in Tan are missing. I tapped them all when I woke up this morning and haven’t seen another one since, anyone else having this issue?
Yep, I am having same issue. Can’t clear the task as not had any more since the 26 I cleared this morning 🙁
I’m just looking at the crafting items – 200 schematics for the ATF, then it just gets larger. it’s gonna take a whole lot of tappa tappa tapping to get all those schematics….
During the last airport/world event, I’d finished crafting all Brazil items while we were still in Act 2’s Japan event. I was bored with the crafting before Act 3 had even started; and, I suspect many of us were in the same spot. That’s likely why they slowed down the crafting for this event.