We are a whiny lot…those of us who have played this game for half a decade.
Yes. We have reached that point in the game, and our lives, that admitting that HALF A DECADE of tapping is a reality. Like many of the true Addicts, I started playing in the first week of October of 2012, and have run the full gambit of emotions as the game has evolved. And before I start whining (this is a warning to the bliss-ninnies), I am going to begin by saying the game HAS evolved. It has become amazingly more interesting, more complex, and in some ways, a lot more rewarding for the effort we spend to play each day. Mostly.
There. See? I can be something other than “Cranky” about TSTO and EA.
But, what does that have to do with Donut Farming? (I hear the donut farmers say…they are in impatient lot). Plenty.
First of all, I have pretty much made it known that I am not a huge proponent of donut farming. Unlike some who believe that it is “ruining the game for others” (that is an extreme over-generalization), I simply don’t want to take the time to do it. It does take time…and dedication…and commitment. But, as has been witnessed by those who can EAsily grind out hundreds of Free Bonuts, (Bonus Donuts), if you really want Premium Items…without spending an inordinate amount of REAL cash, Donut Farming is the way to go.
I’m not going to go over the actual hard cost estimate of what someone would have to spend in real dollars to a acquire every Premium item over the last 5+ years (thousands of dollars). But, I can tell you that I stopped buying donuts with real money (for the most part) when we started “doing something that matters” with our work in Uganda. Every dollar matters…and therefore, even $5 (which is 3 school books or a pair of shoes) just seemed frivolous to me.
However…I am still an Addict. And I DO want some of the Premium Stuff that is offered. So, I find myself grinding for Bonuts with the Rail Yard, and welcoming every bonut offered in Daily Challenges…and playing “Where’s Maggie” relentlessly.
Essentially…just grinding. One big grind…just like almost every major update this past year.
And therein lies the rub…and my finally coming over to the “Safi Side of Donut Farming” (or SSDF). I have come to trust the instincts of our resident math wiz, and TSTO systems analyst. He does what I rarely do, which is to dissect almost every twist and angle on every aspect of the game. He loves this stuff. He eats it up. So when Safi offers his defense of SSDF, I have to step back and listen.
Here’s the basics of what he does…and yes…for some of you, this will seem incomprehensible!!
He only Donut Farms when he WANTS to!
Whoa! Stand back folks! A little “self control and common sense” coming through here!
That’s right…unlike those who have given their lives over to the obsessive and insane pursuit of maximizing every possible multiplier, in order to obtain Bonus percentages in the thousands…so they can accumulate Bonuts in the hundreds EVERY WEEK… Safi just does it when he actually wants something.
I am the first to admit that I can be short-sighted and opinionated. I tried farming a few KEMs…found it tedious…so I stopped. But, I apparently think nothing of grinding like a madman over the past few weeks, since the Rail Yard has become a “Bonut Factory” that is always open.
That’s just nuts.
What this all comes down to (and here comes the whiny part), is that EA has made the game so predictably “grindy” for the major updates, while almost negating any real reason to visit neighbors, (or for that matter…even HAVE neighbors), that it has become a perpetual “4-hour-tap on- tap off” exercise in gathering clutter.
I’m not going to debate anyone on this. Over the course of 5 years, there is a profusion of “stuff” that has almost no real meaning to the basics of the “Springfield that we started” back in 2012…and we are the poorer for it. More stuff…more clutter…at a greater and greater expense…does not lead to more contentment, happiness, or fulfillment. Period.
Where that leaves us, is a TSTO world where you are simply stupid to spend a ton of real money on the game.
How Stupid? Well…in this update alone, if you wanted to get all of the NEW Premium items being offered (that doesn’t include a BUTTLOAD of returning retreads from past events), you would spend more than 1,200 donuts! And, that’s BEFORE you started “trying your luck” on Mystery Boxes.
That slips PAST the ridiculous level of a $49 investment, into the “completely out of your mind” level of $99. For WHAT?????? A bunch of digital clutter, that can all disappear with the flip of a server switch. *Poof!* Like Magic! (even more magical than this update).
This. Is. Insane.
The “Inflation Rate” of Premium Items and the amount of clutter has risen exponentially….and insanely.
If you don’t remember the “Good Old Days” let me refresh your memory.
In the FIRST Halloween THOH event, which landed October 3rd of 2012…we received ELEVEN FREEMIUM Characters…and ONE Premium (The Raven), for 60 donuts. I didn’t buy it
We received 6 Buildings and 1 Facade…Freemium…and one Premium (the Mausoleum- 60 donuts) which I bought, because it was spooky and generated game currency. We received 16 decorations, and a couple of what seemed to be “whale” items…a Cauldron for 90 donuts, and the Ray Gun for 100. But, as it turned out, The Ray Gun came with Kang as a full character, and a crashed UFO (which actually had a questline, and an animation that crashed it, once you shot it down with the Ray Gun).
I spent my first real money on donuts at the very end of this update…which ran for 4 Weeks…with an extension, due to server outages…which were pretty normal at that time for TSTO.
So…yes…you COULD have spent as much as 250 donuts. But, few did. And you were given some of the CLASSIC Halloween and TSTO/Simpsons items in the game. Kang, Krabappel, Devil Flanders, as well as Mayan Homer/Marge and Witch Marge.
Today? That 250 donuts will get you a Ghost Pirate Ship (retread)…or the Burns Dragon, and part of one other character. Pfffftttttt….
So…where does this leave us?
Either ramping up the amount of REAL money we hand over to EA, taking the “CrankyOldGuy” route and just ignoring almost ALL of the Premium offerings…or spending some time Grinding for KEM/Bonuts…the choice is yours.
After some honest contemplation, I’m going to go the SSDF route. Why? Call it a protest against EALP (EA Lazyass Programming). These updates are too long…too cluttered…too repetitive…and too, damned expensive, to compel me to hand any cash to EA.
When EA gets its act together…and starts doing events that have content that is WORTH my hard earned money…I will consider spending money. Until then??? I’m on the SSDF team. OK. So…maybe not ON the team, (it still takes a ton of effort and time) but at least supporting the team from the sidelines!
Sorry Alissa. They made me do it.
***ADDED NOTE of reference…
To compare my NET yield between KEM farming, and my now Perpetual RailYard/Maggie routines…I am keeping track of the total expenditure of game cash and donuts (the Collider XP Collider does cost donuts) and how long it takes me to get back my 20 donut investment, and go into the Donut Profit mode….comparing the SAME yields from my Rail Yard…which do not cost donuts or game cash, and still give me a healthy amount of donuts.
We’ll see… The Rail Yard may turn out to be the “Great KEM Neutralizer!”
https://i.imgur.com/nuBpuWr.png
“C” game image.
It has been 11 months since I started KEM farming. I decided I want to eliminate my “farms”. I have just finished converting my third game, eliminating all the extras houses, etc I used before to generate cash. The first time I was about to quit was when it took way too much time to tap players and gather income. The IRS building and unemployment office kept me in the game. I kept 3 games, two just to get test items I didn’t waste donuts on my prime “A” game. Then I found TSTO Addicts and the guide. What a great help. Then I came across a comment on donut farming. Did the blood mobiles. (Spent almost $100M on “A”). Then game across KEM farming, etc. At first it took over 15 KEMs to level up. Down to 4 in “A” game, 8 in “C” game.
I still grind the monorail for the rails, but for donuts, nothing is easier the KEM farming once you get your % up. In my “A” game, I just do 24 – so that is 12 to 18 donuts per period plus 4 to 6 donuts when I collect rent. So when I do event grinding, KEM farming takes about as much time as catch and release the 7 beasts. I have earned enough cash to buy land when becomes available on “A” and “B” game, and now “C” game ($17M left).
In the 11 months I went from 351.90% (when I started recording, it was after the 100% increase from the beach hideaway) to 1681.46%. Working 3 games at a time, I still kept up with the events and did not grind all the time. When I hit 2000% on my “A” I stopped buying Mystery Boxes for the %, but just bought items l wanted in my town- like police cars from the vault. Still in my “A” game I went from 483.40% to 2703.66%. I don’t have to worry about sending by characters out on tasks to earn cash.
My point: I little extra time spent KEM farming and buying Mystery Boxes now can make the game a whole lot more enjoyable a year from now.
Timer has gone off! Must go to the railyard …..
I’ve played for years, post occasionally here. I would build 20 or so kem when I logged in, play Maggie etc, but never worked at it. I skipped a lot of premium content only getting what I really wanted and buying donuts on sale if I felt I needed them.
But lately the game seemed to become more demanding to complete prize tracks and I was anguishing on what to spend my precious donuts on to get everything.
Then I read Safi’s article with the tip to keep the experience collider on. I had used it with the free trial then put it beside Burn’s power plant and forgot about it. Since then I just keep it turned on. Since recent events require 4 hour logins I build 24 kem’s every cycle and have more than enough donuts to buy what I feel is needed to complete events.
Praise be to Safi !
Dave
Great post, Patric! I remember when I used to have a bunch of blue houses so I could get more cash to buy buildings, when I first started playing (following guides from here!). For some reason it felt like it was hard to get cash fast enough, to complete the main quest line, so at one point I think I had 100 blue houses. And then EA changed the house farming, so that each building cost more but didnt give as big a pay out. Now I’m down to maybe 20 blue houses stuck in the corner of my town. Personally, I don’t mind if someone has a farming part of town if the rest of the town is nice and orderly. It is more difficult to visit someone’s town if they have a huge pile of random stuff, every where. It makes me shudder when I go to a messy town!
I agree back when I started in Oct ‘13 I was like a kid in a candy shop and didn’t mind the money spent buying donuts because it was adding to MY Springfield. Now I won’t buy donuts (SVT excepted) as most of what is offered is crap. I much prefer the classic stuff (tempted by evil shopkeeper) as I don’t get to see newer simpsons (I don’t have the channel that carries them in uk) so generally only see reruns of older episodes so what is offered most of the time I have no idea where it’s come from!
Great post thanks
Maybe it was just a glitch in my game, but I don’t think I was charged for the Evil Shopkeeper/Talking Kristy Doll combo. I already had the House of Evil from a previous Halloween. Maybe it cost 10-20 donuts, but definitely not the 135 advertised.
I was away for a week or so, and ever since I got back I seem to be able to keep going through the railyard tasks without it timing out. At first I assumed it was catching up from the 2 weeks I missed, but I have now had 7-8 rounds in the last two weeks, getting the donuts each time. Have they removed the limit of one railyard round a week?
It would appear so. Yes.
Rail yard mystery pieces why? it would be much better if you could choose the pieces more straights than curves my only gripe about the game played now for 4 years luv it
Agreed….or some kind of “buy back” where you could trade 10 curves for one straight.
Spot on, Mr P! I agree…what’s the point of having neighbors??
Well…there is the friendship bit. I’ve come to know some of my neighbors personally over the years. But as far as a payoff in events? Meh…
Right. That was a good benefit! I’ve met some amazing people, too!
But a lot of players will never interact personally with any of their neighbors. And as far as gameplay during events is concerned, there isn’t much benefit. Even with the so-called “license”.
I started playing from almost the beginning. I did not understand the neighbor thing and in some ways did not trust it. I soon found out that some events were very much tied to neighbor visits and were necessary to accomplish forward progression. I joined 100 neighbors and learned that helping them also helped me gain in progression through the event. Over the years I have unfriended a few non-players and have not replaced them. I still have 65 original well established players from my beginnings now, and although I do not know them personally, I have a bond with them knowing during events I can trust them to drop off beautiful gift wrapped Christmas presents to me, as I do to them. I know they don`t visit often during down time just like me. But when neighbor visits matter to make events meaningful and it is “all hands on deck”, they are always there.
What is the point of having neighbors? There is a real satisfaction to knowing we are connected to a player, somewhere out there, that has my back when needed, and in return I have their back when needed to help each other reach a common goal. My 65 dedicated neighbors continue to stay with me, as I do with them. We patiently wait for a time when we can play together again. It has been a long time…
Exactly. I like the idea of neighbors helping each other. Now, it doesn’t really matter if you visit or not. The dialogue box still says you’ve “helped your neighbor”, but I would argue that’s not an accurate statement. How, exactly, did I “help” my neighbor when they don’t even receive a reward from my visit?
I, too, am waiting for the time when we can play together again. 🙂
When I read this, I thought, “This could be the beginning of Ready Player One, The Neighbors Unite.” Is Lone Ranger aka Ernest Cline? I have the exact same thoughts about my neighbors, and around the same number. It seems 65 is an easy number to get through in my available time.
I don’t KEM farm, but I do keep my XP collider on, and then buy rat trap trucks when I get an overabundance of cash. I can remember a while ago when people were begging EA to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING to let them turn large amounts of cash into donuts. EA complied. I can’t fault them for that.
I’m no where near as dedicated as some people here (and honestly, most of my premium purchases are characters, so I’m not grinding for decorations or buildings), but I can appreciate being able to get most of the premium characters at this stage in the game. It also encourages me to buy the occasional deal (like SVP) for real cash, if that’s the only thing I need to drop said real cash on.
Agreed…
It is clear that EA is still raking in LOADS of real cash. So, yes…giving them $4.99 every few months doesn’t bother me. The double-down deal on SVT was too good to pass up. So I dropped cash. Somehow…seeing him catching a dollop of crap from the filth wagon just feels right in regards to how I feel about this update, and the EALPish behavior of EA.
👌Ditto👌
Tried kem farming but was to tedious so I basically search for Maggie, railyard and pop balloons, getting the donuts I need and buy what I want, got over 300 since the contiguous railyard and happy not grinding, prefer not to grind to much and enjoy the game, great post patric.
I became a KEM farmer when I decided I wanted every premium item in game (except expensive decorations and overrated characters). Yes, it’s tedious, and yes, I tend to favor items that boost xp: but some premium items are too captivating to skip 😀
I am suffering over here!!!! I’ve been playing tapped out for a more than 5 years now and I live in Puerto Rico and haven’t been able to download the new update, and for the looks of it will have to miss my first event :(. Ok that was me venting from sunny but without power Puerto Rico. Take care.
You have all my sympathy! I hope everyone on the island gets what they need, soonest.
Bonut farming was pretty much a requirement back in the earlier days if you didn’t have a lot of disposable cash on hand due not due to the cost of premium items (as Cranky stated), but due to how incredibly rare it was to get donuts. We didn’t have friend tapping that could net you an occasional donut, nor the monorail, nor Maggie’s mini game which basically gets you a donut a day… It was basically level or $$$.
I really don’t see farming as a bad thing, I’ve dipped my toe into that pool recently. If people want to put the finger elbow sweat in, it doesn’t affect me in the slightest.
I am a middle of the road KEM farmer. While I do typically log in every 4hrs I only buy decorations that I like and that I can organically place into my Springfield. I don’t want to clutter my Springfield with 35 jet bikes etc so my bonus hasn’t grown very fast.
That being said it is nice not to have to agonize over what premium item I will get 🙂
Great post! I am right there with you! I have been playing since December 2012 and have spent literally hundreds of dollars on this game. I FINALLY decided to build my monorail and reorganize my town and am loving the Bonuts from the rail yard. Over the course of just a few weeks I have 75 donuts which I am saving for Christmas. I will probably make a small donut purchase around the Xmas Event if there is anything I must have in my Springfield but at this point I am no longer investing huge dollar amounts into this game.
It’s difficult to defend the gameplay over the last year or more. Grinding for garbage items? This is the first event in which my “rewards” are going straight to storage.
What happened to the game being about the Simpsons and Springfield?
Clap, clap, clap. Finally. You’re now one of us. “One of us. One of us. one of us.” 😉 (That’s a Simpsons reference for those who are interested).
I would give some advice to those who don’t want to grind constantly or blight your town with a massive KEM farm. First- boost your “total bonus from conformity and decorations % Money and XP”. Mine is up to 753.60%. You don’t have to have a percent that high to be effective, but it helps. The higher the percent, the quicker you will “level up” (and get bonuts). Second- Keep your KEM farm modest, and place it on the edge of your town. I’m currently farming 45 KEM’s at a time, but you really don’t need that many. Third- Turn on the XP Collider and keep it turned on ALL OF THE TIME. Spend 25 donuts every 10 days. That’s the most cost effective option. You will quickly make those 25 donuts back. So don’t freak out about the cost. Fourth- This is going to sound counter-intuitive, but stop doing tasks at the rail yard. You want all of your characters out there earning XP and $. Ask Safi if you doubt me. Also- this will help alleviate the grinding feeling. Either grind at the Rail yard, or grind at KEM farming, but not both. You’ll drive yourself crazy. Fifth- choose the level of grinding that suits your time constraints. Yes. Sure. You can plant and harvest your KEM farm 4 or 5 times a day, but if that’s too much, then choose a lower level. Heck- you can harvest as little as once or twice a day and still come out ahead. I think most people will find that harvesting 2-4 times a day is easy. Sixth-if you get tired of farming, and you want to take a break, then by all means- Take a frickin’ break! Most of you will find that you will have stock piled a huge stack of donuts after a couple of months. So if you feel like you have enough donuts to last for a while, then take a break.
Initially, “One of us. One of us.” came from Tod Browning’s “Freaks” (classic) film so that’s what The Simpsons were referencing. 🙂
You just bet me to it hahaha I said the same thing in my comment!
Actually “one of us” is a reference to Tod Brownings classic movie called Freaks. Normally I wouldn’t say anything but the movies almost a hundred years old so gotta keep it relevant some lol.
I can’t see why I have to stop the rail yard.
Let’s do the math:
All 20 characters, 4 of them premium, earn 575 XP when you send them on 4h tasks 5 times a day.
My current bonus multiplier boosts the XP to 22,070.
Taking into account that I need 1,000,000 XP to get 3 donuts this would be roughly 0.07 donuts a day.
On the other hand if you let them grind at the rail yard 5 times a day you may not always get the 5 donuts. Let’s say you need 2 days to finish the monorail.
This makes 2.5 donuts a day. Compared to 0.07.
If your getting more from monorail than KEM farming, you either (a) haven’t turned on the XP collider (b) and/or don’t have a high enough bonus %. Even a low cost 12 KEM farm should be producing a donut every 2 periods if you are below level 939.
A 24 KEM costs $57,578 (net). 24*2000 = 48,000 XP. Add Collider, that is 240,000 XP per 4 hours. At 500,000 XP per donut, that is a little under .48 donuts per 4 hours.
The worse case scenario, no bonus – no collider. XP to level up: 1M
1M/2000 = 500 KEM. 500 KEM at (14,400 * .75) = $9.6M per donut (3 box – get 1, then stop), but really $9.7/3 = $3.3M per donut.
KEM vs. Monorail is not in question here – it’s all about 20 character grinding at the monorail (2.5D/d) or earning XP/money.
I habe to correct my numbers (forgot to multiply by the number of premium resp. normal characters).
5,000 XP, 192,662.5 with bonus factor, 0.58 D/d.
And yes, they earn 118,589 $/d which makes some KEM and these make approximately nearly 2 D/d (my bonus).
In total ~ 2.5 D/d.
But I have already 72 KEM in my farm, no expanding any more 😉
So the consideration I made works for MY situation (KEM farm full).
If one asks KEM exclusive-or Monorail, I’d say: KEM.
If one asks additional KEM or monorail I’d tend to KEM (with rising bonus more on the KEM side).
When I’m satisfied with the number of KEM I’d say Monorail for additional 5 D/d.
P.S.: My current bonus is 517.65% + 153%
On your KEM farm are you selling and buying every period? Some people are under the mistaken impression that you farm KEM like house. To KEM farm you must sell them to take advantage of the low price of $220 for the first one. At your level you should get the donut box every 13 KEM sales, or 5.6 times.
12.97 is the KEM per level-up, you’re right 🙂
Each additional KEM (the first 24 already built) costs 12.084 $ net. This price includes the average costs for the level-up this KEM would generate (at my current XP multiplier, 2.5 donuts per level).
How did you get to level 939 with such a low level bonus?
For long-timer farm-ium players, a lot of those 20x characters have premium skins.
Hippie and Rev. Lovejoy are the only ones which doesn’t have premium earning potential.
In any case, the cash generated by the characters doing their jobs is what funds KEM farms, so a bit unfair to discard that output.
I don’t discard their cash output. But I can afford 72 KEM without these characters (who ALL have premium income due to the walking KEM exploit).
The farming goes through different stages where I have enough houses and enough KEM. My goal is to raise bonus ’til 1,000% and more and THEN do it the Safi way 😀
I forgot, though, that MY situation is not applicable to others in every case 😉
In MY case a KEM costs 12.084 $ net (including the average level-up costs for more donuts). The money my grinders would make instead would allow 9.81 more KEM, which makes (at MY bonus level) 1.89 donuts a day (I currently pay only if I get 1 donut, avg. 2.5D/level).
Considering that I usually get 5 D/d from the Rail Yard (or 2 x 5D/3d when I’m off office – no hourly grinding, gone golf instead 😛 – which is more realistic than the previous assumed 5D/2d) there’s no reason to give up recycling.
The more bonus, the farming might change. You will plant fewer KEM for fewer donuts but still have enough.
You’ll go the Safi way and build up your farm only to refill your stash before an event.
These considerations become obsolete at a later stage of farming. Nevermind,
GREAT FUN DISCUSSING THE FINE TUNING WITH YOU 😀
Your math is incorrect. Do you have the XP Collider turned on? I farm 45 KEM’s at a time. My XP % is 753%. I get a level up for every 10 KEM’s harvested. So I get far more donuts per harvest than I ever would from the Rail Yard. You earn far less XP from diverting characters to the rail yard- not to mention the terrible grind that you would be doing from sending your characters on rail yard tasks. It’s all about maximizing your XP accrual whilst maintaining your cash flow. The more XP earned, the more level up opportunities.
I’m currently gaining at least 60 doughnuts a day KEM farming. I farm 45 KEM’s at a time. I harvest at least 4 times a day (when I’m not busy- sometimes 5 times a day when I really want some doughnuts). How many doughnuts a day do you get from grinding at the rail yard?
See https://tstoaddicts.com/2017/10/25/in-defense-of-donut-farming-mostly/comment-page-1/#comment-604049
To my excuse I must say that I made the initial comment with foggy eyes this morning, coffee still brewing – and FORGOT (facepalm) to multiply by 4 (premium) and 16 (normal) characters.
I agree with you completely, I too am I player from the start. I don’t have an issue with others farming at all, finding it somewhat confusing that some do!?! Similarly, I don’t have any jealousy with those who spend money to acquire all 🍩 related items. I’m also stunned that new players are resentful of the items in long-term neighbours Springfield’s, that they can’t instantly get their hands on!?!
I’ve farmed once before earlier this year in order to get some limited time characters in the spy update.
Like you, it’s the time/dedication element which prevents me from farming more frequently. That said, I’m very tempted by Wiggops and others in this update and so hoping to get some time this weekend 😊🇬🇧
I wish I could have started earlier, but didn’t get a tablet until late 2013 – now I’m grinding like crazy at the Rail Yard so I can keep getting Mystery Boxes in the hopes of getting King Homer. So far I’ve gotten the Drive-In Theater, Scary Dock, Hellementary School and Gypsy Fortune Teller Shop, so a nice haul, but I need to keep going until King Homer shows up.
Got King Homer yesterday!!!
This article is extremely well-written and serves up a great synopsis of the current TSTO gaming environment. I started playing in Winter 2014, so I missed a few years (which is highly unfortunate as I simply love the game [mostly]). It wasn’t until year 3 (this year) that I started spending real $$. However, I too noticed a supreme upswing in premium items over..honestly..crappy “rewards” from the prize track. I, too, retaliated (although I don’t think it was “intentional” more than it was a necessity) by KEM farming SAFI-style (although I do it every 4 hours consistently since my bonus % is only 260% and I don’t earn the amount of donuts longer-term players can earn with much higher %s). I, too, felt forced to use this technique to “enjoy” the game by purchasing “premium” items sine “freemium” items in general SUCKED. I’m right there with you. This year was the absolute worst for events in the 3 years I’ve played. Why EA isn’t trolling our website seeking ideas (and reading Alyssas brilliant post several weeks ago about how to make TSTO events great again) is beyond me. You’d think by listening they could keep players, which in turn can keep the money coming in (from players like me, who don’t mind an occasional $$ for donut purchase) who now feels forced to donut grind which takes $$ out of EAs pockets…
I admittedly haven’t been playing as long as the hard-core early adopters… but I’ve been a “Farmium” player since probably less than a month after I started playing — I mean, it just made sense. What’s more, I’m still using the “old style” of farming, that is to say, just collecting up income from my characters and from a crap-load of houses, (to be precise, I have exactly one thousand purple houses — along with whatever else I’ve picked up along the way) and then spending that income on Rat Trap Trucks now and than. As such, I casually collect at least one bonut round every time I open the game… and I normally play at least four to five time a day, so it all adds up pretty quickly. (Plus, I just generally have a problem with the idea of spending actual money on insubstantial in-game items, which don’t actually… ummm… *exist.* Call me weird if you want, but…)
Now, here’s where reality creeps in, in the most eerie of ways: My wife just called me a couple of hours ago, and told me that she and the kids have all decided (or more likely, she decided for them) that *everyone* in the family is going to take a short hiatus from electronics based entertainment, for awhile… and she wanted to know if I was on-board to support her in this. It would mean no games and no TV shows, until November 1st.
I did some quick mental calculations and considered the implications: I’ve already completed the event track for the current act. I’ve beaten all of the monsters except for Bully-vern. I don’t really have to beat Bully-vern before Act 3 starts — and in fact, it might be advantageous to hold him (them?) in reserve, anyway. I already have a sizeable hoard of in-game cash, waiting in the wings for the Rat Trap Truck conversion. Act 3 just happens to start on November 1st. (Or maybe it’s October 31st… but I guess it makes little difference, at the rate I’m going.) I don’t get to start playing on a new iPhone X until November 3rd, at the earliest. And there’s a good book sitting on my nightstand, that I’ve been meaning to finish for awhile now, but it somehow always manages to take second place behind TSTO.
So yeah; don’t tattle on me to my wife… but it wasn’t actually all that hard to agree to her conditions. So I guess I may not have much in the way of timely input to offer here, over the next week… 😀
I could do that with the game, but no TV for a week?!? THAT would be really hard for me!!
LOL! Surprisingly enough, that’s going to be the easy part for me! Family activities tend to conflict with the typical broadcast television schedules, so I haven’t watched “live” TV shows in over a year now, anyway… all of my shows come in via streaming of one form or another. So I won’t actually be missing out on anything, there; it’s just deferred gratification. 😉
I’m actually going to be quietly watching my wife, though… since she’s the one who pushed for this, I want to see if she holds to it herself, or if she cheats. She almost always relies upon a TV show or the like to put her to sleep at night, or as a stress relief escape from the kids during the day… so can *she* do without?
Just to follow-up on my own previous speculative query… the answer was an emphatic, “Nope.” Not only did she cheat multiple times, but she even gave in to the kids, and let them *buy* and watch two entirely new movies over the weekend.
(And not that it seems to matter at this point… but I haven’t cheated.)
How disappointing! 🙁
I do exactly as Safi does, KEM every few months when I want something. I have too much junk so I’m a lot choosier about premium items because of it.
I have been farming doughnuts for awhile now. I have no issues with people who farm. To me what I find extreme is people who buy like 50-60 of the same decoration that offer bonus % and place it in one spot. I had a neighbor who had nothing but walls in their entire town. I don’t know the name of the object but it looked ridiculous. The entire town was row after row of those purple walls from a Halloween Event. I’m the sort of tapper who appreciates an interesting design, not some auful looking clutter. I’ve read some people have 700-1000 bonus % which is great but not at the cost of having a non functional town. To each their own I guess.
It’s not either/or. My pecentage is actually significantly higher than that, but you’d be hard pressed to see the vast majority of my bonus-earning items, as I hide them behind buildings and tall decorations. And other than my KEM farms (which are currently lying fallow for a bit), you won’t find any undesigned clusters of duplicate items (except for some from whatever the current event is, as I often like to wait until I have most of it before I begin decorating in earnest).
But I agree with you about those kinds of towns…not my favorite to visit, either!
I’m still waiting for EA to enable 3D POV shifting… so that we can turn that map around and discover all of the stuff that’s hiding behind buildings! We’ll all have to start redesigning in earnest, on that day…
In my town, if you looked behind my buildings, you’d see oceans of billboards and news vans. 😛
Sounds about right. For me, you’d find Billboards, scads of Training Walls, and various random items with bonuses attached to them.
I was able to get rid of a lot of my training walls without affecting my stars (and, really, even if they went down, that percentage is pretty negligible in the scope of my overall bonus percentage), but I do also have hidden away bunches of wailing walls and tennis courts and flags, as well as a few elder gods and other miscellaneous bonus-earning crap…err….I mean stuff.
I stack the billboards and vans from the mystery boxes near my farm, outside my visual Springfield. Some are already hidden in town but I currently don’t bother looking where there is space for them. I don’t think I can hide them all so I build a long row 10 squares wide.
I remember that event and I accidentally bought the raven! I was so gutted at the time because donuts were almost impossible to come by.
Only rat trap truck farming for this tapper. And only if I need them (and have at least 10M in the bank to make it worth the effort).
Meanwhile, not only have I replaced all my zigzaggy monorail track with straight track, but I’ve replaced my pairs of short straight track with long track, for a much smoother passenger experience. With over 5 bonuts per day, it’d be nuts not to be grinding the rail yard 24×7
Unless your KEM farm yields 15 times that without 15 times the effort….
I just joined a group on Facebook that gives me free donuts 1000 every other day so there’s that
“That” is hacking and cheating. Not to mention it violates EA Terms of Service. “That” no one here will tolerate as acceptable. You want to cheat, only your conscience can stop you. But do not come here to brag about it…
If I knew your TSTO player name, etc, I would turn you in to EA in a minute. It’s peole like you that piss everyone off. How dare you brag about it here?
Excellent post Patric! Like you I was a rail yard grinder and played Find Maggie like she was my actual child. I discovered that KEM farming yielded more donuts for roughly the same effort.
(On a very picky note, having played since August of 2012 I have to point of that Mayan Marge was NOT released that first Halloween. They had developed her for that event but for some reason didn’t release her until years later. Yes, I’m a nerd.)
I agree on the bonut effort reach the point of diminishing returns.
After the last couple of weeks of nonstop grinding on the Railyard, I’ve decided to store the junkyard. I used to bring it out once a week, grind through the bonuts in a couple of days, and then store it. Now… gone for good.
I burned out trying to log in every 1-2 hours as opposed to the usual 4-hour cycle. Railyard grinding also requires more time in-game to refill the junkyard on the 30s jobs. It just wasn’t worth the time-effort compared to the KEM farm.
I already optimized the KEM farm size for the number of times I’m willing to spend clicking, and for the Railyard, the optimal time effort is now.. zero.
ARRIS- Do you have the Surveillance Post building? If so, play the Drone Scan game. It takes 20 secs on a four hr cycle. It awards the 30 sec rubbish and 2 ipads for SH. It also allows you to go over the limits. I play it every 4/8 hours, depending on time etc. Even playing it badly you get average of 210 rubbish 2 ipads and XP240. In no time at all I have accumulated 70,000 (seventy thousand) rubbish! I stopped doing Monorail because I prefer to task my peeps for cash. I may return to it next year but I too burned out with it when I first got it. I do love seeing all the characters on their collection jobs tho. Hope this helps you…….💜X
Yes, I’ve got that plus the black hole generator. Back when railyard was weekly, I often started Tue morning with ~4k trash and burned through it.
In terms of in-game time… Railyard is not worth the headache for me. The ratio is different for newer folks but my XP% bonus is sufficiently high that even generating 5 bonuts/day really isn’t worth the extra in-game grinding effort.
I can be in-and-out on a KEM/event tap within about ~5 minute in real-world time. Tap the 51x KEMs in my farm, tap the bonuts, re-place 51x KEM, tap the monsters, the tower, resend characters on jobs, and… done.
With Monorail grinding… I’m logging in every 2 hours or so and spending about 3-4 minutes per cycle to build up junk in order to resend everyone on jobs. When resources are full, have to send them on 1/2-hr jobs so they’re available for the next push. Monorail just about tripled my grind-time for an average of ~25 donuts/week.
My KEM farm provides 10x as many donuts for less effort.
I agree. That’s why I don’t bother. I occasionally KEM but I’m lazy, so I’ve just put out all my housing to the outskirts. Provided I clear my town at least 3 times/day I earn sufficient Donuts. On my B game I grind a bit before events , otherwise the same. If changes were made to monorail to add longer earning times like SH with the 8hr jobs then it’d work for me. I do think it’s great for newer people or those who are anti farming of any kind. There’s something there for everyone😎…….💜X
I agree the the Monorail provides bonuts for people who are not yet level 939 and don’t have XP% bonus in excess of 300%+. KEM farming efficiency is a lot lower if the level-up is always 1x donut.
When the unlimited Monorail was first discussed, I admitted to not being able to turn down the opportunity to grind for bonuts. Turns out I could turn it down after all. 🙂
I’m neither new, nor anti-farming, but I’ve been doing the rail yard just to have something to do. If I weren’t so bored with the rest of the game right now, maybe I’d stop. I just wish I could bequeath the zillions of track pieces I’ve accumulated, since I don’t have any plans to ever use them (unless maybe I was going to nuke and redesign my who’s town, but I’m pretty sure that ain’t never gonna happen).
I’m just amassing cash for Cecil’s next task. I reckon it’ll be approx 120 million, so I’ve got a lot to do. I’m working on my B town. Tidying it up, buying SH land doing quest lines that I’ve had festering a while. I wish EA had included me in the Halloween box for my A town. There are plenty of skins that I don’t yet have. I would have enjoyed being able to run through them at a leisurely pace. Sometimes I just don’t get their logic☹️……..💜X
Bravo Patric! 👏👏👏
Enjoy your journey to the dark side Pat… once you pop you’ll never stop! 🍩🍩🍩