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!”
A 939er who’s been playing for 3 years now, I started KEM farming a few months ago when I accumulated enough of a bonus % to make it worthwhile having the XP collider on all the time.
Thanks to this website for making me aware of this.
My daily strategy is to save a specific amount of $ and once done so, use the surplus to buy KEMs. For example, at the start of the day, I buy and sell 24 KEMs every 4 hours; after I’ve saved the desired $, I buy more than 24. Sometimes, I’ll also use some of the surplus to buy land.
Having the extra donuts is great; recently, I finally got around to finishing Krustyland by buying each of the items that required donuts.
I’ve stopped doing the Railyard; compared to KEM farming, it’s too much of a grind to earn the 5 dounts. Besides, I already have around 1400 track pieces in my inventory.
I’m Team Safi: Farm when I need it. I’m a bit of an HP need, so I’ve done a little bit more farming this event (even though I kinda like it, I agree it’s a lazy one and is at the bottom of my list of favs).
I’ve spent money in the past, and even snagged the SVT deal. So it’s not like I haven’t supported EA monetarily.
But like Patric notes, they need to do something to make me want to spend real-world cash again. Between lazy events like this to way-too-many premium items to lackluster customer support (don’t get me started), I no longer feel like spending hard-earned cash. Treating it like any other game I play on the Xbox or other system…paid my fee, now I’ll play the game. If they want me to spend my dinero, they need to do something to earn that…not give us a crafting track full of rehashed items, some of which I can’t craft because I already got them from other events. Or treat me like a dummy when I call for help.
Hey neighboreeno I couldn’t agree more.
I farmed intently for about 10-11 months,and rose my bonus rate from around 200% up to over 2000%. It’s drifted further, up to over 2300%, just because I now buy every premium item that comes up. I still farm to get donuts, but I’m now getting enough cash that I don’t need to bother with KEMs; I just use rat trap trucks now. Those are only about half as efficient money-wise, but much friendlier in terms of using my actual *time*.
I’ve also built up a balance of over 40,000 donuts, which I’m going to blow on Wailing Walls, IF THEY EVER SHOW UP WHY HAVEN’T THEY SHOWN UP YET DANGIT ITS ALMOST THE END OF OCTOBER… ahem, excuse me.
For anyone that questions my thoughts about Famers I point you to THIS comment… smh
Yup 🍩
Should I buy?
Yes you already got it because you farm
Vs
No overpriced….
No chicken dinner here. 🍗
I could probably buyanything I wanted at this point, but I only buy things I actually want/like and will fit in with my town. I still consult the SIB post before buying, sometimes, to see what the size is, what it does, etc.
I have to agree with you on this one Alissa. Who needs 40,000 doughnuts? Why keep grinding away? It’s silly.
There is a specific reason! For my case at least. See my other comments here.
meanwhile I’m trying to save up to get Manjula at 160 donuts 🙃
😀
At 40,000 plus donuts, unless you use them to speed up tasks, there is no need to farm. Burning off cash through rat trucks will generate enough. I caught up with all the premium items in the last year using less than 40K.
dcm wants to use them for Walls…to increase bonus % of course… smh
What’s wrong with that? She isn’t cheating.
No matter what I say isn’t going to impact your thought process, but for my POV listen to Addicts Live episode 17
sounds like he is afflicted like hoarders, they fill their houses with items most would consider (or eventually becomes) trash to fill some emotional need. If you haven’t acquired Premium items before, I could see having a stash of 2-3 thousand donuts, one event used almost 2,000 donuts for me. Even at 50 donuts per % increase, 40K donuts is 800% increase.
So dcm is going to have a town full of walls? oh joy. I’m sure it will look lovely. (I’m being sarcastic for comedic purposes). 😉
It’ll look better than it does now, since I’ll keep my bonus % the same and remove other, much-less-compact items — including my old house farms, which take a huge amount of space.
Let me do the math — about 400 white houses and similar (4×6 area), 1000 flags (2×2), 400 news vans & similar (2×3), and 400 billboards (1×4) equals 17,600 units of area that will be replaced by 1000 wailing walls, which are 1×5, so will take 5000 units, or less than a third of the area.
Yes, once I burn those off, I’ll just maintain a comfortable balance of a few thousand, and throw down some rat trap trucks when I need to buy something.
Ah, wailing walls. That was a fantastic event and I picked up as many of those as I could.
I combined my stash of Wailing Walls with Spooky Cabins because they’re both 12-hour payout. Fill out the perimeter with bramble walls. Finally, a training wall (the only one in town) goes in the exact center. Send Eddie on his 12-hour job and I collect all the cash in a single shot. It’s a way to create a cash farming area that doesn’t look too boring.
Yes, but what does 1 do with 1,000 wailing walls?
I would probably build some SH Exclusive resort complexes. They look great if you combine 2 sets of the buildings, add towers, create entrances, etc… I have a set which is 56x blocks wide north-south.
Wailing Wall is 5×1 so ~100x WW’s can be placed without any of them being visible.
Lots of other SH buildings create potential for hiding tons of WW’s
They will replace the nearly 2000 flags, news vans, billboards, and other unsightly junk that got me to the 2000% mark. And since they give income, they can also replace my array of over 300 white houses that I built up a long time ago (back when that was feasible). So it will represent a really nice cleanup of my Springfield.
The walls will go around the power plant and the xp accelerator — and it will make sense.
You see, Mr Burns has a new evil plan.
From his studies of the Necronomicon, he has found a way to harness the cryptocosmological energy of trapped spirits! When combined with nuclear fission products using Frink’s XP Acceleratior device, it can infuse conventional pastries purchased from a farm of Kwik-E-Marts to produce an unlimited supply of donuts! All he needs is to gather enough Wailing Walls, and he’s ready to begin!
lol whatever works i suppose.
I hope they bring back the Wailing Walls (with both % and cash) for you.
Create a prison? 😉
I didn’t go anywhere near as crazy when the wailing wall “glitch” popped up, so I was able to display some and then hide others behind buildings. I might have 20?
I feel like 1000 would drive me crazy. And would probably constantly set my game over the item limit, because I prefer some sort of design and order vs shove things everywhere.
You want something that will drive you crazy, try zooming in on a field of hundreds of flags, all making the flapping-in-the breeze sound. It has a weird reverb effect. Wailing walls are much, much more compact (for the same bonus %), and so will represent a real improvement.
Yes, about 3/4 of my Springfield would have to be classified as “junk pile,” I admit. I plan to clean it up — but I need to set up my spirit-accelerated power plant first, since it’ll be a major feature. 🙂
I love this post. I’m at 13,000 donuts. Still a long way to go to catch up to you! Bit like you and many others, I will never spend real cash again on this game.
Thanks!
Before I learned about farming, I had spent probably about $5 on the game, in $1 golden scratchers, at times when I was desperate to get something before it went away (first one was Witch Marge). So I’ve given EA my share, even though I’ve always thought the donuts were way overpriced for what you can get with them.
Holyfreakinshirt!!!! 40k???!?!!!!!!!
Good grief… even if you are earning 100 a day…that is an insane level of tapping buying clearing and tapping.
You win. Is there anything left to say? You win. Here’s a ribbon. Now try another hobby.
Sorry. But to Alissa’s point…that is excessive by any measure.
There’s a method to the madness, I promise! I explained my in-game rationale for the wailing walls above, but there’s also the part that you pointed out: that EA’s prices for donuts have always been really excessive.
I started playing back around the time of the Whacking Day event, and this whole time I’ve felt the the real-money prices for donuts was absolutely ridiculous. They managed to get some Golden Scratchers out of me, maybe $5 worth overall, when I was desperate to get just a few more donuts so I could buy one dear premium item… but I was not about to drop hundreds or even tens of dollars at a time on a phone game. So I spent a lot of game play in “poorsville”, seeing other Springfields with all sorts of premium items that I didn’t have, and feeling really left out.
I got sick of it, and mostly stopped playing for the better part of a year — I missed a Christmas event, Tap Ball, even the NASA event… until I saw the post here that let me know that the XP barrier after the top level was now constant. And a-farming I went.
If the prices were better by, say, a factor of 10, I probably would have felt it worth my real actual money to buy donuts much more often, and therefore
spent quite a bit more money on the game over the years. If they had gotten $50 out of many more people like me, rather than $0 to $5, they might have done better overall.
Or, at least, it would have been more honest of them. As it is, they’re very likely tapping into a relative few people’s problems with addictive behavior. I mean, I see that other post in this thread from the Afghanistan Vet who’s blown $1500 on the game, and I cringe…
Again thank you for honesty. I could not have said it better. This event you could have spend over a thousand of D for prem. How should users do it? We all have to work hard for the money. Ok ea has to work hard too to bring us new chars and stuff, but in the end they beat the game by themself. So why not use this option…
First off, I don’t have any issues with donut farming. Using the in-game mechanics to farm currency is hardly new to video games. Hacking the game for donuts? Yeah, that’s a no-no. But there’s nothing wrong with donut farming.
And honestly, EA brought on the popularization of donut farming themselves. This is a mobile game and people are going to spend what they’re going to spend on these games. And giving us an onslaught of events back to back which are steadily declining in overall quality is going to give people pause from spending actual money for content they’re not impressed with. If this Halloween event was overloaded with fantastic content I’d have no problem plunking down some cash to be able to afford it all. Sadly, that’s not the case one bit. We’re given 40 days of rehashed items and a handful of stuff that you don’t need a SIB post to know aren’t worth it (we still appreciate them, Alissa).
So naturally people are going to turn to donut farming to grab older items that were once free but now have a ridiculous donut price tag on them. They’ll farm to be able to afford the final prize in the quest line because the event was too boring to bother grinding for the event currency. They’ll farm to be able grab items that will increase their bonus % so they can keep earning money and donuts without having to check in and play as often because they’re not having as much fun anymore. They’ll farm because there are still plenty of items to buy from years past when the game was so much better.
In my opinion the only positive thing I’ve seen from this game in the past year was the introduction of the Vault. Otherwise, they’ve had a couple of solid (not great) events since then. Overall though?…Meh.
I guess this means I don’t have to write one for the shop keeper?
OMG Alissa. I’m actually starting to see your side of things. I’m not going to stop farming, but I can definitely appreciate your point of view.
Lol welcome to a new perspective 😉
With the Rail Yard being non-stop now, I had to quit doing it. I could justify grinding once a week for it, but I don’t want to consistently be grinding. KEMing is much easier and rewarding.
I farm every four hours with my normal rotation and build and sell only 24 KEMs averaging about 24 bonuts per day and 110 per week (subtracting the collider cost). The Railyard seems more of a grind to me nowadays as it requires the staggered time shifts that do not fit my 4 hour patern well. I buy a good amount of the event premiums but certainly not everything. I’m an addict not an obsessive!
I started farming 2-3 month ago and started playing years ago .. I made several breaks but I come from a time, where it was easily possible to build big house farms. So I still have ~ 700 blue houses in my Springfield, which earn around 1 Million IGC together with the 4-hour-character-tasks every 8 hours. My Multiplier is at 450 + 150 hidden from SH. I farm 58 KEM which fit perfectly between my Spy-Area and Dino-Area and align to the top of the screen, so placing them can be done in 30-40 seconds … With this I’m able to get 12 Donuts every 4 hours and with minimum 4 Log-ins per day it’s 48 Donuts – 2,5 for EXP Collider (which is running all the time). I would like to increase my multiplier so that I can farm less, but have the same amount of Donuts. But I’m already more than happy with this, because finally I’m able to get all these great Premium Characters. I spent money from time to time but can’t afford much and think the Donuts are really overprized. I stopped playing for month just because I got frustrated that so much was locked away from me. Some of you may think I’m insane and a freak, and that’s ok. But I’m just a gamer, a completionist, a collector .. I try to fill the damn Pokedex in every game. I wouldn’t spent more money on the game if I stopped farming, but I definetly would lose a lot of fun.
My manner of playing has certainly changed too. I started Feb of ’14 and was blown away by this fun, portable game. My initial excitement did lead me to spend maybe…$100 total the first few months of playing. I can’t imagine ever spending real money now, hah. That said, I’ve never been in the mood for doing the grinding in this game. I have 1 of every building I can acquire but that’s it. I don’t do the the railyard (i don’t even have the monorail up and running ’cause that would require re-doing Springfield which *would* mess up my memory of “find maggie locations”). I’m over halfway on SH but only work on that when there’s not an event or they double the payouts. I do contribute to the “Cecil Development Fund” or whatever its called since cash isn’t difficult to acquire. At this point, I rarely even read the scripted words, etc…I just tap thru everything until I can start and if I don’t pick up the mechanics I check here hah. It’s really a habitual thing at this point and while I do enjoy building up my Springfield, I can’t do all the other investments of time they offer. That said, I do find it satisfying to buy a premium character with freemium donuts.
I agree with you completely sir. I’ve been playing since August 2012 when I got back from a deployment in Afghanistan. And I’ve spent easily over $1500 over the past 5 years. It’s disgusting I know but I have also in the past 3 weeks started to KEM Farm. Went from 34 donuts 3 weeks ago to 518 as of this morning. Since I’m already grinding out every 4 hrs might as well get some donuts. I saving up for Xmas. I’ve spent more than enough money on this game. No more!
I started playing in 2013. My strategy from the beginning was to increase my bonus % and focus strictly on items that would do that. Back when we had levels you would get bonuts between level ups.
I would grab premium items using my donuts that would increase my bonus % the most. This strategy came into play greatly when the levels ended and we were leveling up at such small numbers and getting bonus for each level up. I continued buying premium decorations with those items that have me the most bonus % to donut spent.
As a result, I’m now at 1000% and my XP multiplier is always running. I’m game cash is incredibly abundant and I can purchase about 20 rat trap trucks a day. I get 3 donuts for every level up since I am at level 939 now. Add that to my monorail grind and I can easily get over 300 bonuts a week. I could get even more if I KEM farmed more.
I feel zero guilt. This is the first event EA has made in a long time that the items are easily achievable without bonus characters. Until this event, EA gave you a choice: log in every 3-4 hours 4-5 times a day or cut that time in half with premium characters.
I look at people who have spent over $500 on this game and I think EA has really taken advantage of them using a freemium model of games. If any of us went into a video game store and saw a game that was $500 we would laugh and walk away. But freemium games have become a model for companies to take in millions more than they ever could by selling a video game for $50 and you own it forever.
I will never buy a donut again. My total spend on this game has been around $75 since 2013. That’s more than enough. I will continue to exploit every donut making opportunity TSTO has to offer, just as TSTO will continue to add more premium items in games to prey on the pocketbooks of completitionists.
Personally I don’t understand why EA are making it so easy to farm donuts now. I remember a couple of years ago I saved up enough donuts to get Barney’s Bowlerama. It was such an achievement that took months. Now, through the various farming methods, saving 250 donuts can be done in a week. It’s almost taken the fun out being a freemium player.
If farming ruins your enjoyment of the game, maybe stop?? It doesn’t matter if other people are doing it. You don’t have to.
I don’t farm regularly. I find it boring and tedious. I also can’t purchase most premium items. It doesn’t bother me that other people do. I enjoy how I play. And that is what matters. I think that all versions of gameplay are valid. House farming, KEM farming, Rat truck farming, and no farming.
I farm, but mostly spend donuts on mystery boxes (to raise my %) or things I like, but wouldn’t spend donuts on if they were harder to come by. So my farming counteracts the ‘inflation’ of donut cost, and fuels my impulse buys. I do miss the old days, though, when we could get REAL buildings from events that paid money, rather than vanity/consumerusm/etc. that were maxed out long ago, leaving them with no REAL value.
I don’t let farming rule my life though; when I have time to clear, I clear. When I don’t, I know Springfield will be waiting patiently until I return.
Just as it’s not wong to work the railyard, or play Where’s Maggie then it isn’t wrong to build KEM farms.
I figure EA gave the tools for this, but did used to wonder at the cost of IGC until I finally realised the prices are based on how many KEMs you have, not how many you ever built.
I did a very expensive spurt in Homerpalooza to get the 2 rockers that cost around $30m, and I kept the last 150, and added 10 more to go with the 96 I always had in order to make 8 blocks of 32, then realised why the comments about KEM costs and advice to check storage, bit the bullet and sold off all 256 that were used as a cash farm.
With the collider on and my bonuses 45 KEMs gives 3 donuts, and add in the railyard that’s 20 a day and a couple more from task and building reward XP
I stopped playing Where’s Maggie as I failed to find too often, and if I did then I’d hit the box for 1 donut with my luck !!
I didn’t screenshot mine so borrowed this from the addicts flickr, but figured this says it all re KEM farming…
http://gstech.ezyro.com/tsto-pics/HomerLevelUp.png
I only started Farming this year. I’ve been playing since the game was launched on Android. I went over all my purchases on the app about 2 years ago and it was ~$650.. at that point I decided to try and not spend so much. Luckily my love for TSTO is known to friends/family as I always get some gift cards for Birthday/Christmas. So I tend to spend a good chunk of those on the game. I also got the SVT skin and Magic scratcher during this event.
My point is that most people see Farmers as cheaters or scammers.. and maybe some are… But as you pointed out the rising costs of premium items are the reason I started Farming. I don’t make hundreds of donuts a day, I don’t buy every premium item, and I’m happy to spend money on the game (Just can’t afford to spend as much as I used to).
I think EA has gotten a little lazy with the updates… Maybe they’re stretched thinner than they used to be or maybe they just don’t know what to do to make people happy. I don’t think they’ll turn off the updates any time soon.
Honestly, if they need more money I wouldn’t have a problem if they did what EVERY other game does and incorporate (Optional) Ads. For Daily Challenges you could either do a 4 hour task or watch 2 ads. If it would help them put more resources into the game I personally wouldn’t have an issue with it. Again, it’s pretty normal these days.
I typed way more than I was planning to. Thanks Patric.
I don’t see how anyone could see farming as “cheating”….it’s playing well within the confines of the game and anyone can do it. Plus, it’s pretty clear to me that EA is aware of it and there are plenty of things they could do to squash it, if they wanted to. They could limit the number KEMs one could have to something more “organic.” They could make bloodmobiles and rat trap trucks unique items.
Thank you Sandra. I’ve been saying this for at least a year now. I’m glad to have people like you on my side.
Patric,
I do agree with you in respect of EA making a ton of cash, but I suspect that it is a lot less than the tons of cash they made in the earlier days of the game. Your points regarding the inflation rate are very appropriate, but we have to take into account that this is basically a profit and loss account for EA, and will have to make a return in its own right, as they will not subsidise it with other income. This I feel is reflected in the quality of the new content, which I feel reflects the resource that EA puts into the programming. Farming undoubtedly reduces their income, but so does unending monorail tasks, so they are partly responsible. You could argue that creating a situation where you can farm renders them totally responsible! Unfortunately, I cannot see the situation improving, as it is highly unlikely that people will stop farming and start spending their hard earned cash.
Mark
I’ve a question, completely off topic :p
I was wondering why The Daily Play Combo is gone. Maybe a little late, but I just realised it..
It was replaced with the Daily Challenge System a while back.
https://tstoaddicts.com/2016/02/05/daily-challenges-rundown/
I too farm them only when I need them (because that’s one of the few things that can affect my money level) thanks to the XP Multiplyer and the bloodmobile (does this makes these donuts blood money?).
That’s the main advantage to KEM farming over bloodmobile or rat trap truck farming…if you do it “right,” it didn’t decrease your cash (or at least not significantly).
I’m with Safi on this one as well. Only farm the rail yard if and when I feel the need. But this EALP also has me not wanting to waste valuable time on something that is seemingly more and more an afterthought rather than something that is intended to grasp and keep the end user interested and waiting for the next big thing.
Here’s to hope that EA will eventually extract their heads from their hind ends and bring back the joy of this game instead of making it feel like a grind to log into 3 or 4 times a day!
I wasn’t much of a KEM farmer before, but I have been doing a lot lately since I can no longer afford many of the items otherwise. I have spent a lot on the game, so no guilt here. A couple of my former games put out a ton of content with less involved gameplay before they ended. Hope that is not happening with TSTO.
My theory is that EA wants players to farm, and the reasoning is that when you farm, you’re playing the game every 4hrs. In order to farm efficiently, your multiplier needs to be really high(mine is 800%), otherwise it’s just not worth your time. Farming isn’t going to ruin EA cuz only the players who have been playing for a very long time can rake in donuts in bunches…
I do KEM farming, grinding 4 or, mostly, 5 times a day (after harvest I put on the timer for 3:55, sound “Sci-Fi” on my iPhone, makes spooky theremin sounds 🙂 ).
Being at 513% + 153% Heights I earn about 80D a day with 72 KEM. 30D are for the Mystery Box (according to Charles’ list – which I can approve – 7.8 donuts per 1% bonus), so after 6 months farming I’m at a point where I need 3 days to purchase a 150D-character-building combo.
No need to say that with this support I feel not so much ‘farmium’ but premium and actually PAY for additional donuts when needed. So EA has it’s share, too.
Some aspects in the game become more and more boring. Developing my KEM farm, recording and calculating the values and prospective outcome is REALLY FUN 🤓 (Excel is your pal 😀 ).
But I do Maggie (1D/3d) and railyard, too (5D/1d) because this is actually PLAYING this game.
One last note:
Some of my neighbours are farming, too. Occasionally or an a regular base.
Their KEM are well arranged but on plain grass.
This must have been a chore since the game clutters the KEM unless you arrange each of them manually.
A more easy way:
https://flic.kr/p/FS2pkT
Surround a strip for 2 rows of KEM (as much as you can afford) with water (or something which blocks from building upon).
Center the right-bottom corner on the screen.
Place your first KEM. Adjust it when needed.
Then place the next and the next and so on. The KEMs are placed automagically adjacent to the left of the previous one.
Like a typewriter’s cursor there is a carriage return at the end of the row, the KEM row above will be filled from left to the right.
The 72 KEM farm shown in the image is filled in 30 – 45 seconds.
Have fun! 😀
I just recently got tired of adjusting occasionally. So I added a castle wall (you can use anything that cannot be sold) between each side of every KEM. Then i just add one randomly in the rectangle and keep on clicking. Mostly it just fills the area before jumping out.
i suggest offsetting each row instead, laying 2 rows down the map at a time, going from right to left. the only adjusting required is with the first 3 kems you place (in the far right corner of your plot), and once you get that right, the rest of the kems alternate rows, snapping neatly into place. as long as you don’t accidentally adjust the screen center, they will continue like this indefinitely. then just rinse and repeat for the next two rows, and so on and so forth. here’s an example i took a while back, showing how the kems need to be oriented.
https://i.imgur.com/n9OubEJ.png
One of my farms. Normally I don’t have to due any alignment to fill.
https://imgur.com/gallery/COuTW
The problem with your plan in the “added note of reference,” is that the comparative results can change hugely depending on what your bonus multiplier is. And, because that number will naturally creep up (even if you don’t go out of your way to buy mystery boxes to make it go up more quickly), you’d need to periodically redo the comparison. And, of course, your results would be almost meaningless for anyone else to use, unless they just happened to have the same bonus multiplier as you.
I will say that I can make more donuts farming 11 KEMs once, than I can after competing a round at the rail yard, which generally takes me a couple of days. So why do *I* continue to bigger with the rail yard? Because it gives me a little fun challenge. Maybe if we get to an event that offers an equally fun challenge, I might finally stop with the rail yard for that time.
Sandra…your points are valid… Except that I am comparing where I am TODAY…and not after a protracted period of grinding/buying to raise my % which is currently at 287%. This still comes down to the time commitment for me.
I’m not making a global recommendation…just a personal comparison and choice.
Oh, I get that, and respect that. I’m just saying that, as you naturally collect more items, some of which are bound to have a % attached to them, you may want to periodically recheck to see if your situation has changed. Or not…if the rail yard is more fun for you, and you feel like you only want to do one or the other, I definitely vote for doing the more fun thing! This is, after all, a game and you don’t want to end up feeling like the “Time to make the donuts” guy! 😉
I would happily give up doughnut farming if the prices of things were more reasonable. As far as I’m concerned 100 doughnuts should be $1. They seem to be forgetting the “micro” part of “microtransaction”.
I look at the items in the store, let’s say 150 doughnuts and I think “Would I pay $1.50 for that? Yes, probably” but with the current prices of things I have to say “Would I pay $6-10 for that? Heck no”. Note: The real price of 150 doughnuts depends on how many were initially purchased with current packages. I could justify spending $10 for ALL characters and buildings in an event, but for 1 or possibly 2 items? Uh, no.
It’s not even about whether I can afford it (I can, easily), but about value for money. I know how much content $10 will buy in other games, so I won’t spend my real money here.
I KEM farm when needed. Sometimes for a week or two & then stop for awhile. I’m not a big fan of grinding & while true we can do the monorail for bonuts endlessly, it too has become a grind to do. I don’t bother with finding Maggie because my iPad is so sluggish, it’s like trying to wade through thickening molasses to get from one side of my town to the other (the game also zooms in to the max zoom if I touch the screen a certain way while trying to go from one area to the other, usually hitting buildings for rent (I like to collect certain areas at a time & this messes up my OCD) or sending me into build mode (it thinks I’m holding & dragging)), so it’s the monorail grind, daily bonus, or occasional KEM farming for me.
I agree with the clutter part & I try to keep it to a minimum in my Springfield, unlike some of the neighbors I have. I have one neighbor with so much clutter, it takes 2 whole minutes before I can do anything in that town. Some neighbors towns are so cluttered, I’m glad they aren’t actual RL city planners because no one would want to live there with street segments all over the place that don’t connect or go anywhere, if they even have streets at all.
I KEM farm casually but don’t search for Maggie, visit Krustyland, etc. My monorail is in storage (caused the game to lag for me and I don’t really care for it) and I have TONS of pieces of track I am not using. KEM (or rarely rat traps) is faster for me than the others. I primarily purchase characters and couldn’t care less about most of the decorations and many buildings. I do have a large amount of new vans/I&S billboards, but they are stored at the far bottom of my town.
I’ve played since the beginning and there is a ton of stuff I’d love to sell or dump if we ever got the chance. If it didn’t take so much time to rebuild, I’d nuke and redesign, but I certainly don’t have time for that.
You can hide vans and billboard in the shadow of other items.
Yes, but that would take a lot of rearranging/time. I am just now purchasing a good portion of land, so my town is high on the map. I’ve got one tennis courts that also hang out on the edge of town. 🙂
Actually related to this post… I find KEM farming the least “grindy” of tasks I repeat when I log in. Since you can sell all of them at once, and just tap the button to buy repeatedly, it doesn’t take much time. It’s much quicker than Maggie or the railyard and pays off much more. EA has a lot of my money, and since they make me buy past event stuff out of mystery boxes instead of letting me choose, I’m a lot more tempted to buy second tier stuff with farmed donuts.
I’ve been buying more regular mystery boxes to up my bonus, and I came across some info in the KEM farming post on how to most efficiently buy mystery boxes, but I didn’t really understand it. Is there a best way to buy them that’s simple? Or, is it about following the patterns and stopping at a certain point? Buying so many consecutively?
It doesn’t matter how you buy mystery boxes, but if you want to see the “average” is under 9 donuts per %, you have to buy until you get the 30 donuts after buying the van.
It is that simple – buy them. There is a repeating pattern that others have observed. It averages out over time, so days feel better than others but it works out the same.
I buy 10 at a time. no pattern, just self control 😊
All of the patterns, except one, are in sets of 25 mystery boxes and after the 10 donuts after the third van. The other pattern has only two billboards and two vans and ends after the 10 donuts after the second van. What varies in the patterns is what you get in the “value item” positions (10, 30, or a Lard Lad), and exactly which of the non-value items you get in the “non-value item” positions.
For the record: KEM farming even once every per day is ALOT less tedious and character committing than Railyard and pays off 4 times better.
I stopped railyard months ago.
For those that a time poor, you simply stockpile cash until u want to run a 24hr Colider. Run KEM’s and the balance of cash into Rat Trucks or Blood Mobiles.
I’m not time poor and can afford EASILY, a minimum of 3 KEMS per day. Running off 10day continuous activation of Colider.
Here is a tip if u want to look at running Fast, not tedious KEM’s.
Get some land dedicated to it, block off every row in single formation with a wooden barrel (which can’t be sold) so u can put down KEM’s in single file without the screen moving or positioning a KEM’s further away or in a weird angle from single file.
I run a minimum of 45 KEM’s up to 76 per 4hrs & it takes me 15 seconds to put em down. Nothing tedious about that.
Go from 300 donuts to 1200 in between acts. Waiting on new content to spend it on.
Waiting on Burns dragon NPC deal to come again, as now I have bonuts to “Burn” (pun intended)
Not related to this post but my sister is now having problems with the beasts. You mentioned the bug. Any fixes?
She didn’t have it for the first stage. It showed up in the second stage.
Not at this point. Should be a bug fix coming… but have her shut her device down all of the way…log back in…then go to Krustyland or a neighbor and see if it resets.
Correction, she is able to do the beasts, and get the tower, but unable to actually get any of the main prizes. It doesn’t show any progress. She’s been able to farm for donuts.
She’s done the shut down and start, and went to Krustyland and neighbour with no difference.
Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions on a fix?
Thanks!
Never mind. I think she’s looking at the wrong thing. I looked in her town and found some of the prizes.
Not related to this post in particular, but it most recently happened to me while reading this… Anyone getting stuck on the video ad between the post and comments? Once the video loads, I can’t scroll away from it (up or down). Happens constantly on both Android and my Kindle Fire.
Yes..i reported it to word press. I’m hoping it’s fixed soon. It’s really annoying & I’m sorry
Thank you Alissa. I’m having the same problem. I thought it was my tablet.
Me too….thought my phone was jacked up!
i’m having that problem too, and i know it isn’t my tablet because i’m vigilant about scanning it, but on the laptop i don’t see the ads at all, i’m glad it isn’t just me. it’s frustrating not being able to read the comments!