Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
So Act 1 is now over and Act 2 is underway in Springfield. For those looking for information about Act 2 you can check out this post from earlier this morning. Right now, even though we’re in the midst of Act 2 I want to take a minute to talk about Act 1.
I’m seeing a lot of reports from players (regular players here, who never have trouble) saying they missed out on getting the last prize (or even the second to last prize) or it was really tight for them. It’s more than we usually see after an event. In fact I don’t know that I’ve see this many complaints since 2014.
Sure, we always have a few complaints here and there, but usually they’re from players who didn’t log in frequently (and we all know events take multiple log ins every 4hrs to complete). This time I’m seeing complaints from players who logged in every 4hrs, 4-5 times/day, did as they were supposed to and still fell short, or nearly fell short. Complaints from players who never have issues during events, yet with this particular event…they struggled.
Personally, Act 1 was like any other event for me. I didn’t even log in regularly some times and still managed to finish before the weekend. So I’m a little perplexed that so many of you struggled. Sure, I have a bunch of premium characters, but I skipped neighbor visits (sorry neighbors, I just ran out of time each day) and often only logged in 3 times/day sometimes only 1 or 2. So I’m seriously scratching my head over how so many of you (who regularly have no issues) struggled.
So I want to take a minute to see exactly what happened. What went wrong. Was it you. Or was it the game. So if you fell short, or nearly fell short, please take a minute to answer the questions below in the comment section, so that we can all take a look and see what happened, and determine if we can offer any advice so you don’t fall short on Act 2.
Here we go…
-How many characters did you have at the HQ?
-Any of those characters Premium? Any of them super premium?
-How often did you log into TSTO to clear your town? How many times/day?
-Did you complete the Act 1 main questline?
-Did you visit your neighbors? Every day? How many did you visit?
-Did you complete the Dossier Tasks each day to earn the extra 1,000 intel/day?
-Did you get any Daily Challenges for Intel? Did you skip other challenges (hitting the x) to earn Intel or Schematics?
-Did you play the Drone Scan game every 4hrs? What was your average score like?
-Did you start the event late?
-At any point were you ahead of the Calendar? Or were you always behind?
-Did you unlock all of the prizes? Last minute? Missed out? (which ones did you miss?)
Appreciate y’all taking a minute to answer the questions!
I shouldn’t count because my isp Frontier is down again more than it’s up for the past 4 weeks… So I usually get definitely 2 tries per day and sometimes 3 if lucky (net comes up about 8am and down for the night between 4-9 pm, although it’s been up for 30 hours straight several times since I started complaining and threatening to tell the FCC).
Ordinarily I would log in at least 4 times per day and sometimes 5. I usually do get all the prizes, unless there’s a collection slowdown for some reason (when spawning slows down a lot as a glitch, 3 days of that will guarantee a miss of the last prize).
But this post tells me I wouldn’t have had much chance anyway, which is oddly comforting. I missed the last and second-to-last Act One prizes entirely (never got started on them) and just barely missed the previous prize (schematics) because my net went down for the night just before I could collect.
I always play the drone game as well as tapping all the MITs. Everybody who can collect is working on it, leaving a skeleton crew for recycling.
My feeling is that something is slowing collections down compared to other events, not sure what it is. It doesn’t feel like a glitchy slowdown but a deliberate one. There seem to be fewer men in tan than would be needed for a sure shot at the prize track, and the missions that earn don’t seem to make up for it. I usually have 7-9 people earning in missions, 2 people on dossiers.
Crafting seems to be going much more slowly than in previous events also, when thinking of progress per pickup rather than per day (that is, this isn’t just about me losing the net at night). Maybe the drop rate is off? Or is it something about the costs of items? The counter for crafting is going up way too slowly during each login, so I think it’s a slow drop rate.
-How many characters did you have at the HQ?
7
-Any of those characters Premium? Any of them super premium?
No.
-How often did you log into TSTO to clear your town? How many times/day?
4 times or more, chased MIT like crazy
-Did you complete the Act 1 main questline?
yes
-Did you visit your neighbors? Every day? How many did you visit?
not daily, missed 1 day or 2, visiting all until intel drops no longer
-Did you complete the Dossier Tasks each day to earn the extra 1,000 intel/day?
yes
-Did you get any Daily Challenges for Intel? Did you skip other challenges (hitting the x) to earn Intel or Schematics?
Yes did all challenges, did not know about the x yet but iirc they were all themed except one for donuts.
-Did you play the Drone Scan game every 4hrs? What was your average score like?
Yes tapped with both hands. Average score around 28 normal and 4 super agents.
-Did you start the event late?
No, started right after it launched.
-At any point were you ahead of the Calendar? Or were you always behind?
Did not look, likely behind all the time, I am already slightly behind on Act2.
-Did you unlock all of the prizes? Last minute? Missed out? (which ones did you miss?)
Missed out on Bont by far like 10k Intel, very disappointing.
Had no issues with last one but this event feels like a job and with Easter coming up and family around I don’t know if I really want to login every 4h and even less if all these efforts don’t even get me the stupid prices :(. I am a level 113 spending huge amounts of time on the game, would rather quit than spend real money if that is required to get more characters and finish well good bye Simpsons :(.
I got through Act 1 alright (I even got some Bonuts)
I will admit that I wasn’t interested in most of what is being offered as Premiums (feels like EA just missed the mark on a few things)
I think there is a degree of burn out once you’ve accomplished everything within an Act (it’s like you need a day off from tapping) 🤔
I started a day late, since it didn’t want to download the first day(not an issue with my iPad but the game itself). I have most characters including premium in my Springfield except for the new ones they released for this event. I tap a minimum of 4 times a day, and set alarms on weekends when I’m home to do it every 4 hours. I visit all event currency neighbors every day, except for 1 day in event one. I did all the dossiers, and side challenges, I didnt get a bonus on dossiers each day though I did complete them every morning, I didn’t know there was to be a bonus each day or I would have spoken to EA. I ‘x’ out all daily challenges to try to get event currency ones but all I seemed to get was donuts (not complaining but I ended up spending them all). I tapped all men in tan before doing the drone challenge but a lot of times I’d show up, and there was not a single men in tan in my town, I went a whole day not seeing one. I kept reporting this to EA, it was a known issue, I didn’t receive much in return. Today in Act2 I’ve had it happen again. As for the drone challenge I tap on average in the 30’s with 3-5 special so about 500+ currency. In the end I got half way to Bont by waking up in the middle of the night to play, and still had to spend my donuts to get him. I was so excited for this event and it disappointed me so much that EA would release such a problematic update.
I had to contact EA with an issue: My Gil Deal for University Nerds disappeared on me after purchase. No Nerds and no Gil. After 10 days, multiple emails to EA, and several phone calls I have my nerds back. EA was very patient. At times I felt very guilty about causing a fuss over a silly game, but EA was helpful and understanding. I am a full-time student, work forty hours a week, and am one of the lowly poor. TSTO and this forum are the only entertainment I indulge in at the moment. Thanks to all of the EA support team that worked on my issue: namely Lawrence M, Anna, Brandon B, Michael Angelo T, Kalvin F, Maribel A, Jobin S, and Harish S. With Gratitude, MissDBlue
Missed Agent Bong by a margin that would cost me 50 donuts to buy him (wondering if I should.) Behind calendar logged in 4-5 X day with 12 toons. 3 premium one super. Added Fem Fatal for act two. Including getting Hank and All extra dossier done. Visited neighbors only a few times as it takes so long.on drone challenges avg yield 37 with 3-5 super agents. Very disappointed. Is Bont a full character with jobs or window dressing? Love the site.
I started a day late and finished with 2 days to spare. I played steadily but not by setting the alarm or anything and had no troubles at all. I really am surprised that some struggled. I used donuts for Hank Scorpio but other characters are those I’ve acquired along the way by playing other events or progressing through the levels.
Nine people doing the Intel jobs. Logged in four or five times every day. I was never on par with the calendar, and I’m normally ahead of it (did this one start the day after the event started? Those ones are better I think). I did manage to get the last prize but it was on the last day and very tight.
I finished with 1 donut round. A lot less than event form last fall.
I had no premium character and skip a lot of the daily mission to get donuts instead. This time it was good since no money was appearing so denying currency mission was not getting us something worst. I had done some anyway as cancelling was sometime giving me one back
What saved me compared to you math post at the beginning was the tapping minigame where I was getting more around 600-700 currency. And the weekend where I was tapping more often than 4 times a days. The tapping minigame had to be done on the tablets with many fingers tapping over the black part to get some unseen agents. I could not get as much with a mouse on bluestack
I had a bad start beginning only the wedenesday morning. When I looked at the store I did not saw an update so I was thinking that the event must have been the next week and did not upgrade right away. Something in game to inform about update would be good
No problems with finishing the questline here. Initially 12 characters in the HQ, increased to 14 during the event (one of them super-premium Mastermind Scorpio). But I also did both monorail rounds, so for those two days some characters were at monorail jobs instead of collecting intel. Clearing their tasks and the drone scans 4-5 times a day. Visited neighbours about every other day. Did intel and donut daily tasks, skipped the schematics ones – so I got maybe 7 times 1000 intel from the daily tasks. Completed all dossiers. Not only finished the questline, but also got a total of 7 bonut rounds completed.
Patric,, I love the thought that you put into this. You add a ton of value to TSTO Addicts!
13 Characters, 4 are super premium, 2 are premium. I bought the premium & super premium towards the end of the event when it became clear that I had zero shot in getting many of the prizes. I was ahead in the beginning, And then dropped off fast.
Logged in the same as most events – average on 4 per day. Barely any neighbor visits. Until I get a new phone, it takes me forever to go from town to town and it freezes. I have pretty active neighbors that visit me.
Didn’t finish – bought the last character for 55 donuts, which in retrospect was a dunce move and I should have bought Femme.
Completed all challenges, didn’t skip daily tasks because you can easily end up with pharms instead of intel, not worth the risk.
Did the drone scans – maybe I got confused and though the drone scans cleared all the tan men and I got the points for them like in other events? Don’t know. Average score was 420.
Started the event on time.
Here’s my synopsis:
This is the future of how things are going to be from now on, ladies and gents. EA is always going to give us the ability to finish every event as a freemium, but it’s no longer going to be EAsy. We saw EA change the rules on us last event midway through Act 1 when they lowered payouts.
If you do ALL the right things – neighbor visits, tap the people, log in 4-5 times a day, do every task, skip daily task for currency – then, and only then will a freemium be able to accomplish everything. But take a day off and your goose is cooked.
And honestly, I don’t have a problem with that. I’ve been playing this game for YEARS now and I’ve spent minimal. This week I spent $35, and I EA made up for the fact that people would most likely need to spend by offering discounts and rebates on great characters.
I think with the next event we are going to see something similar, but with a different set of premium characters to earn great currency. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
I wish that I were not a completionist, but I am.In the 4 years I’ve been playing this game I have gotten almost everything and spent MAYBE $70 lifetime, $35 of which was this week. AND, the new characters that I added are going to give me A LOT of questlines to go through after this event ends, which is just what I needed for a game that was growing dull.
Silver linings!!
One other note : I think getting all of the prizes in crafting if going to be very tough. I know it was addressed in another post, but I still belive it will be very hard for players who don’t log in on a schedule every day.
Actually, it was Alissa 24th put a ton of thought into this and wrote this article, not Patric. Just want to make sure credit is given where it is due!
I finished act 1 early and had 3 rounds of bonuts. I do have most of the premium characters for this event,though.
I wanted to add my son’s experience to the thread. He had 7 non-premium characters to collect Intel at the headquarters (Homer, Cletus, Apu, Krusty, Skinner, Moe & Midge). He collected them every four hours, did his drone scans, completed a challenge everyday, and visited neighbours every day. At the end of Act 1, he had aquired (in total) 94,977 notebook pages. So it is doable with no premium characters. He completed the prize track and was able to get 4 or 5 chances for bonuts. He dismissed daily challenges that paid out 1 donut but kept the ones that paid out 3.
My husband acquired a total of 110,508 pages and I had 113,440 pages. I set alarms and interrupted my sleep….totally worth it. How many total notebook pages did anyone else get? I admit I’m obsessive. I reset my son’s-he is 22- and my husband’s games when they were….unmotivated. For this second Act, my son bought Homer ‘s Camera Hat so he has a premium earner now. Overall, I’m really enjoying the event…lots of good stuff so far.
From reading the comments it looks like my issue was the drone game it moved way to slow, I even cleared a large space in the middle of town so they couldn’t hide behind buildings. I could only get about 18 and 3 my best score was 24 and 5, half the timer I stare at a completely blank screen with nothing to tap. Other tap events I get way more the turtles 80-120 normally never have done less than 60 and usually 50 on the robots. I watched a couple videos an it seems my drone moves at half speed I just nearly got the dry cleaner with 5 minutes left in the event I spent 20 doughnuts on it. I really want bout but he’s 260 doughnut’s way to high for a character for me
The only way that I get 24-40 every time…is to set my phone down, and tap every space wildly…whether I see anyone or not. It’s like carpet bombing the screen. Random…and insane. But, it gets results. I too have a blank slot in my land, and have to wait for the screen to move. But, I don’t wait…I just tap the heck out of anything that shows up.
If they are hidden, there is a crosshair type thing. For act two I think my average is just below 500 discs per tap. I do just tap wildly. But try to watch for crosshairs to get hidden ones. My game plays at bottom of my Springfield so some of time it is in no mans land. Still get high totals.
Well…500 per is pretty good. Not bad at all!
Thanks for the tip got 42 yesterday. Also found the slowdown cause, I decided to redesigne my town and blew it up ran the drone in an empty town and it went right speed almost to fast but I did the blind speed tap and got 52 reg and 9 super agents
I usually finish these acts with a day to spare and sometimes two. I had to pay 35 donuts to get the last prize. If I didn’t think it was going to be a prize worth having I would have skipped it, but I wanted him.
-7 characters at HQ, all free characters. No premium/super premium.
-Logged in as much as I could during the day, pretty much every 4 hours, but never lost sleep over this event. Would log in at 9:00am, 1pm, 5pm, 9pm and then again the next morning. Logged in less frequently on weekends.
-I completed the entire quest and was able to go for bonuts on the last day.
-Only visited neighbors once during the entire event.
-Completed all Dossier tasks daily.
-Completed Daily Challenges and about every other day was offered a challenge that offered Intel/Schematics. Never skipped a daily challenge.
-Used the Drone Scan every time I logged in to clear out the HQ.
-Started on time; was pretty much always on the same pace as TSTO calendar.
So many questions… Will try to get back to that later, but I wanted to mention one thing: The Drone Scan Game kept freezing on me. Well, it didn’t freeze completely, but it got really really slow, the screen hardly moved at all. The time didn’t slow down, though, and consequently I only could tap a very low number of targets. Typically between 18 and 20. Can’t really remember what that translates to in intel and schematics. If it works normally, the number doubles (high thirties, 40 was my own record so far). That was the only bug I encountered, the rest is mostly just down to lazyness, I suppose. 😉
I noticed that many times I logged on I didn’t get any men in tan in one of my towns, meaning I would miss out on quite a substantial amount of intel. This only happened on my iPhone, I didn’t have any issues if I used a different device to play. Maybe that’s why so many players didn’t get the last prize?
Most event I end with 2-3 bonuts rounds, this time around finished with one day to spare.
-How many characters did you have at the HQ?
11
-Any of those characters Premium? Any of them super premium?
1 premium – 3 super premium (only got them, nerds, five days before end act 1)
-How often did you log into TSTO to clear your town? How many times/day?
Average of 2-3 a day, at the end had 2 1/2 day where my alarm rang every 4h, even through the night.
-Did you complete the Act 1 main questline?
Yes
-Did you visit your neighbors? Every day? How many did you visit?
Maybe missed 1 or 2 days
-Did you complete the Dossier Tasks each day to earn the extra 1,000 intel/day?
Yes, I did
-Did you get any Daily Challenges for Intel? Did you skip other challenges (hitting the x) to earn Intel or Schematics?
Yes, 4x I got donuts, 3x schematics and the rest all intel. Never hit X.
-Did you play the Drone Scan game every 4hrs? What was your average score like?
Everytime I visited my town. Average of 34 agents and 5 super agents.
-Did you start the event late?
Almost a soon as the update hit, maybe an hour after.
-At any point were you ahead of the Calendar? Or were you always behind?
First week I was ahead.
-Did you unlock all of the prizes? Last minute? Missed out? (which ones did you miss?)
Got all the prizes with a day to spare.
Thought I’d add what I did, so you have a few more data points to add to your analysis 🙂
-How many characters did you have at the HQ?
All the regulars, plus four.
-Any of those characters Premium? Any of them super premium?
Three premiums, got Hank Scorpio a few days in, as I was worried I wouldn’t make it.
-How often did you log into TSTO to clear your town? How many times/day?
3-4 times a day. Maybe one or two days where I managed 5 times, but at least three days where I only logged in 3 times.
-Did you complete the Act 1 main questline?
Yes, as fast as I could.
-Did you visit your neighbors? Every day? How many did you visit?
30 neighbours most days I visited, the last 34-5 days I only visited maybe 20 neighbours in total.
-Did you complete the Dossier Tasks each day to earn the extra 1,000 intel/day?
All 9 completed, plus 1 from the G.H.O.S.T
-Did you get any Daily Challenges for Intel? Did you skip other challenges (hitting the x) to earn Intel or Schematics?
The first few days I kind of forgot I could skip if I didn’t get Intel (got a donut or schematics maybe five times). I’d say I got Intel about half the time.
-Did you play the Drone Scan game every 4hrs? What was your average score like?
Every four hours when I logged in. I lost the connection once, but completed the drone scans the rest of the time. Averaged maybe 32 ordinary men, 3-4 super. I did do as Patrick said though, and collected MITs between drone scans and Intel jobs. Usually collected 10-15 MITs before the drone scans as well, because I like talking them 🙂 Also, I couldn’t figure out if I got all the Intel I was supposed to get from MITs after the scan had finished.
-Did you start the event late?
No, started a few hours after the update.
-At any point were you ahead of the Calendar? Or were you always behind?
Didn’t really look at the calendar all that often, but I think I might have gotten ahead rather quickly, and stayed there.
-Did you unlock all of the prizes? Last minute? Missed out? (which ones did you miss?)
I unlocked all the prizes with about 48 hours to spare. Did the first of the new dossier tasks, got Bont and then managed to get a round of bonuts before I left the game to itself the last day (I was out of the country).
At first, I thought I’d have a hard time getting all the prizes, because I knew I was going away, and I had no plans of paying way too much for mobile data usage abroad. In the end I was about 10.000 Intel from the last prize with five days left, and averaging at least 5000 Intel a day, so I knew I was going to make it and didn’t bother all that much with logging in regularly. For me, this has been an easy event so far, but if I had missed out on a lot of the MITs, I can see that it would have been harder…
I had no problems in both my A and B towns. I was quickly ahead of the calendar, although not much in the first couple of days. I finished in my A game about 4 days before the end of Act 1 and 2 days in my B game.
My A game has all premium characters that help with the event (including the new ones except for Cool Hat Homer and Femme Fatale), my B game all except for Tatum, although several of them were added during the event’s discount offer. I didn’t maximize their use but instead was able to complete all their questlines yesterday.
I’ve only visited neighbors in the A game during the first two days, in my B game not at all (simply due to time constraints, sorry!). I managed to play four times a day (usually around 6a/10a/2p/6p), did all drone scans (average 35 agents) and completed all daily tasks and dossiers to earn extra.
So far my experience is not much different from previous events. It’s not trivial, but manageable.
– I had the normal gang of 6 plus Duffman, and bought Hank Scorpio on day 3.
-Logged in around every 2 hours, at least the last week, maybe I was a bit too slow in the beginning.
-Completed the Act 1 questline
-Visited my neighbors when I started to realise that I was falling behind, like day 5, but then also realised that a lot of my neighbors were inactive. Now I have gotten some fresh ones and tap all 17 every day.
-Completed Dossier tasks every day
-Got like 3 challenges for Intel. Did not skip challenges for intel as I didn’t know it would benefit the event.
-Played Drone Scan every 4 hours, average around 40 people in total.
-Started at the right time, but might have played 3 times per day some days in the beginning instead of the 5 I normally do.
-Always behind the calendar.
-Missed out on Bont, I can now get him for 115 donuts, and I have only 59.
Seems like I am already doing better for Act 2, 8230 after 24 hours. Hope the wifi will behave in the cabin over the easter break.
-How many characters did you have at the HQ?
8
-Any of those characters Premium? Any of them super premium?
No
-How often did you log into TSTO to clear your town? How many times/day?
Around 4 times a day except for 2 days when I was to busy to play.
-Did you complete the Act 1 main questline?
Yes
-Did you visit your neighbors? Every day? How many did you visit?
Sometimes, not every day. Usually it isn’t necessary in order to conplete the event
-Did you complete the Dossier Tasks each day to earn the extra 1,000 intel/day?
Yes
-Did you get any Daily Challenges for Intel? Did you skip other challenges (hitting the x) to earn Intel or Schematics?
Yes, didn’t skip any
-Did you play the Drone Scan game every 4hrs? What was your average score like?
Yes around 400
-Did you start the event late?
No
-At any point were you ahead of the Calendar? Or were you always behind?
I haven’t looked at the calender this event
I think I was behind the last 3 or 4 days maybe?
-Did you unlock all of the prizes? Last minute? Missed out? (which ones did you miss?)
I missed the last one
I managed to get everything way a head of schedule. I did average about 3 times a day and had 20 characters collecting intel. Finished the event quest line within the allotted time. I didn’t realize it was finish until it happened. Visited neighbours but not consistent and only till I stopped getting intel.
Though I wasn’t sure if I was going to get everything as it did seem to take time getting from one prize to the next.
I haven’t crafted much so I doubt I will get one of everything before the event ends.
I had a difficult time with this first part of the Secret Agent event. I play often throughout the day too (every four hours PLUS a few times in-between). Oddly enough, I didn’t een earn any Bonus Donuts after finally unlocking the last prize.
-How many characters did you have at the HQ?
10
-Any of those characters Premium? Any of them super premium?
2 (to start) and 5 by the end. 1 to start and 4 by the end.
-How often did you log into TSTO to clear town? How many times/day?
At least 5-6 times per day. I coincide jobs with event.
-Did you complete the Act 1 main questline?
Yes.
-Did you visit your neighbors? Every day? How many did you visit?
Yes — everyday until I reached my limit event limit (and even more).
-Did you complete the Dossier Tasks each day to earn the 1,000 intel/day?
Yes.
-Did you get any Daily Challenges for Intel? Did you skip other challenges (hitting the x) to earn Intel or Schematics?
Yes (except once or twice for multiple donuts).
-Did you play the Drone Scan game every 4hrs? Average score like?
Yes. My average score was about 460.
-Did you start the event late?
No.
-At any point were you ahead of the Calendar? Always behind?
Yes…but only near the end.
-Did you unlock all of the prizes? Last minute? Missed out? (which ones did you miss?)
Yes, I unlocked all of them…barely. I only had a day left by the time I completed all of the event’s tasks.
I’ll add that my game didn’t update for a day (so I technically started late — but only because of the update). Ironically, the game updated to Act 2 at the precise time.
Somehow I managed to fail. I visited my neighbors almost every single day (maybe missed one or two max). Logged in at least 3 times a day and unlocked everything but the final prize: Agent Bont. Is it worth using donuts to get him???
My story is identical to yours Alissa.
I just think folks missing 2-3 days and then having some more days with only 2x visits will likely result in missing the last prizes.
Part of the motivation on EAs part *is* to make us tap thru the whole act. I’d been finishing very early in other recent events but still tapping for craftables at a similar rate post the last prize.
I don’t KEM farm due time constraints and do spend my own money on donuts but honestly, the amount of time I spend playing, the cost per hour is negligible. I’m shocked I’m still mentally invested in the game after 2 yrs(?)..Happily.
I started playing at tail end of COC and didn’t understand what the heck was going on. Til I found you guys.
Relatively new since I lost my account last year. This town is only half a year old. Only have 1 premium character for the agency HQ. I got the dossier done. Did neighbor visits. At least 3 times daily. Started a day late. Did the scan 3 times daily. Usually 20 agents and 5 super agents. I barley got the final prize in time. 5 hours to be exact.
This was definitely harder than around the world. I got bonuts on that. And I’m barley getting the final prize here.
I feel like this event is much easier for older and more premium players.
A Account I finished 4 days early. My Best, C and D accounts finished 24 hours before the end. Was always ahead of the calender.
I slacked off a bit and didnt visit neighbours and got Bont and bonuts a few times.