Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Welcome to another edition of From the Mouths of Addicts, where YOU get to sound off on anything and everything in the world of Tapped Out! This week’s post comes to us from one of our frequent commenters and guest blogger…Happy Tapper!
Sam has some thoughts, musings and wishes for Christmas in TSTO! Enjoy it my friends! Here’s HappyTapper’s (Sam)…and his Christmas Wishes -Alissa
Hello fellow tappers. My name is HappyTapper or Sam and I want to start this post by saying … I don’t like Halloween. I’m WAY more of a Christmas lad. Even though we got a pretty naff Halloween event, I’m crossing my fingers for a truly fun Christmas event so that I forget “The Event to Not be Named” (Xmas 2016). As soon as I knew Halloween was getting quite repetitive and boring, I started to plan my perfect Christmas in TSTO because I’m sad, have no life and have nothing better to do then rewatch Simpsons episodes and organise an event that I know won’t even have an impact. When I thought about Christmas in the game I got quite worried because I really couldn’t think of much left to add because there aren’t a lot of Christmas episodes to pull from and the Christmas episodes that they have normally stay local to “normal” Springfield so don’t have much Christmas content for the game. BUT after some Christmas episode rewatching I had an idea for a Christmas event that pulled together bits and bobs of Festive content that I’d really like in the game.
I know that EA will be very near to finishing the Christmas event so I’m not writing this post to give EA an idea, I wanted to publish my ideas and thoughts here because I thought that if I enjoy these kind of posts then maybe some of you will. So let the ramble begin …
Snow
TSTO Winter wouldn’t be Winter without snow so I doubt EA would do an update without snow but I want to see snow be a bigger part of the season with snow fighting, snow forts, more snow sculptures and snow tiles so we can have parts of the town in permanent winter when the season ends!
I think some sort of Snow Fighting feature would be REALLY cool. Maybe you have to choose whether you want to be on Lisa’s or Bart’s team and it would be a mini-game (maybe some variation of the many Battle minigames we’ve had) where we can win snow forts, snow outfits for people and more cool prizes whilst earning event currency at the same time.
Night Mode and Christmas Lights!
I don’t know one tapper which wouldn’t love a night mode! And Christmas seems like the perfect time to introduce this awesome feature – how else can Christmas lights shine? Maybe we can get some Christmas decorating/Christmas Light competition where we see our towns plunged into darkness from specific times to parallel darkness of individual time zones.
If you’re not totally hooked on Night Mode then a quick skim of this awesome post with edited photos by the amazing ToxicShark will soon change your mind.
A Christmas Train
The Polar Express is quite an iconic Christmas film so it’s no surprise that the Simpsons made a little reference to it in the first segment from “The Fight before Christmas”. I know we have the North Pole Station in our games but it’s really not the same as having an actual Christmas train with actual tracks. If EA managed to make a monorail system, how hard would it be to make a Train station with The Cold Train – EA changed a bit of dialogue from The Polar Express to The Cold Train showing that they wouldn’t be able to name it after the original.
And if we got the “Cold Train”, we’d have to get a Train Driver Otto skin as well!…
If we couldn’t have the Cold Train then how about “The Majestic Marge”, a mini-train once at Springfield Towne Centre and refurbished and given to Marge as a gift after being removeed from the Towne Centre. Even though this episode isn’t Christmas themed, the train does like festive with the candy canes and the whole gift for marge story reminder seems fit for the season …
A TSTO Advent Calendar
This idea just seems to write itself for the TSTO team. I mean, how hard can it be to put together a screen with doors and a gift (whether it be event currency, donuts or items for the game) and have us open a door each day. I think it would be awesome and a way to encourage players to log in daily.
I want some element or part of this event to be unique and fun, something that gives us a break from a repetitive system if the 3 Act template is used (eg. snow fighting, an Advent Calendar or …
… Gift Giving
There have been many occasions where I’ve wanted to pay back my TSTO friends and I think introducing a Neighbor Gift Giving system would be awesome, totally seasonal and encourage a more selfless side to the season. It could be with donuts, extra in-game cash, inventory items or all of the above because I’m sure that there are many items that would stay in my inventory that I’m sure some of my neighbors would love.
Neighbor interaction really is a missing part of TSTO at the moment so whether it be with Gift Giving or being able to drop of stuff or have more interaction with our neighbor-eenos, Neighbor interaction just seems right for the season of family, community and love.
I can’t emphasis how much I’d appreciate this feature, especially since it would feel so nice to plan out which personal item I’d give to my TOuk Friends on Christmas day to parallel gift opening on the 25th.
Gil Deal?
It wouldn’t be the Festive Season if Gil didn’t pop up to persuade us to spend some doughy goods on whatever he has to offer and since Gil has featured in a Christmas episode, I’m sure Gil would like to have a permanent home in our games for the Winter season. I really like the character of Gil and some of the episodes he’s been in so to see him pop up once in every major event just to disappear is a shame.
I really want Gil as a permanent, fully playable character that could still introduce Gil Deals. How could he be introduced?… Well, we could see him wonder around town with his speech bubble, but this time, with a Gil icon. This could be followed by some funny dialogue that Gil has nothing else to sell and needs money for the chilly season so is willing to sell himself. Place a hefty price tag round his neck, throw in a Santa Gil costume freebie and BISH BASH BOSH you have a Gil Deal, the addition a classic character and a comical introduction!
Easter Eggs
Easter Eggs … In December? HappyTapper must be crazy. Just wait …
I’d love for EA to sprinkle some little Easter Eggs (hiding items, fun, dialogue etc.) around our towns for us to find this Christmas. Grinch Burns (see my Final Idea) could take one of Santa’s Sacks and hide some presents around town and every now and then gives little clues for us to find these items when we tap on specific buildings, make certain Characters do certain tasks etc.
It would be a really fun and interactive way to throw in some leftover Christmas content that EA want to add!
Dotted around the many Christmas orientated episodes of The Simpsons, there is quite a lot of content that I would appreciate in the game …
Christmas Content …
I mentioned the theme of Family briefly above and I think a whole Bringing the Family together for Winter would be a great theme for Christmas since we have many Family members that have been wanted from the tappers for a while. I’d LOVE for Sarah Wiggum to come into the game soon and other family members to be included could be Agnes and Nedsel Flanders (parents to Ned that always change look throughout the show!), Grandma Van Houten, Annika Van Houten, Eddie Muntz and Martin Prince, Sr and Martha Prince to name a few missing family members.
And a costume that I’ve wanted for AGES now is an Alive Maude costume that should just be called “Maude” so that I can use Maude as her normal skin and the ghost version as a costume. Rodd and Todd need a mother that isn’t constantly haunting the town!
If you watch “The Fight Before Christmas” episode there are many blink and you miss them items that I’m sure would make fun content for the game. I’d quite like to some Toy Soldiers NPCs, a Santa’s Helper Moe costume, maybe some Toy Conveyor Belts, North Pole Milhouse, North Pole Nelson and other elves from the North Pole segment.
From Lisa’s Dream the one costume I would really like is Christmas Tree Ralph because even though he has a short cameo, it’s just funny and true to the character of Ralph.
And there’s not much from the Martha Stewart segment apart from Martha Stewart herself and Toy Soldier Bart and Milhouse but these seem silly and pointless costumes to have.
Going back to random content, I’d love an Outdoor Skating rink where we could see characters skate around.
Or maybe we could get Krusty’s Kristmas On Ice from “Kill Gil, Vol 1 & 2” (S18, Ep9) along with some skating stars like the reindeer and the Star Lady
And talking about that episode, with the love shown for The Grumple and how much a return is wanted, why not introduce the whole Grumple family??…
Another item that I’d quite like is an Outside Piano as a piano is often seen in so many episodes of the show and has been featured in many Christmas scenes. Grandpa or another character could have a visual task there which includes the whole family or maybe we could see Gil use the piano including the family of Grumples. Either way I think this would quickly become a favorite item of mine if it was introduced.
Or we could even get a giant piano with a hilarious visual task for Homer …
Seeing as we have Mr Cosingtons in our game, why not throw in Mr Cosington’s Daughter is EA are short of character ideas …
When rewatching all the Treehouse of Horror segments, the Treehouse of Horror segment “Untitled Robot Parody” offered a chuckle worthy building that would be fun to get …
As tappables of a Christmas event I think it would be great to see the Hobelves from Skinners Sense of Snow (S12, Ep8) seen in “The Christmas that Almost Wasn’t but then Was” – the film shown to the children by Skinner.
We would be encouraged to tap on them to stop them from “ruining Christmas”.
On the topic of elves, I’d love to see fully playable (or NPC) individual Happy Little Elves like Moldy (the older leader), Bubbbles, Yendor, Cheery etc …
You can read this fun post by Bunny to read more on the Happy Little Elves that vanished after Winter 2014.
And to end this list of Christmas content, I’d thought I’d mention another item that vanished with Winter 2014 … SANTA!!!
Santa vanished to the Land of the Missing where he laughs daily with Lyle Lanley at annoyed tappers. But seriously EA … JUST. ADD. HIM. Christmas 2017 would be a great year if we finally got Santa as an unlockable full character.
MY FINAL IDEA
Seeing as I’ve just thrown some fun ideas at you, I thought I’d pull together some of my favorite elements and content ideas to give you a Christmas that I’d love to play through (EA, there’s always 2018 😉 ). So …
Story: After needing another source of income, Mr Burns decides to steal the sunblocker from the dump to block the sun and make an independent energy source that people would have to pay for – we’d get a Grinch Burns costume for this! After plunging the town into darkness Santa crash lands into Springfield after he lost control from the sudden darkness on a test run. Santa sees how miserable the townsfolk are in the Festive Season and decides to help the town regain Christmas cheer – This starts with a big Christmas Light turn on.
Event Currency: Christmas Cheer (heart icon?)
How to earn Event Currency:
- Every day (or every 2 days) Springfielders write a letter to Santa about what they want and what would make them happy. You have to help Santa earn a certain amount of Christmas cheer (from other options) and sometimes do other tasks (eg. Make Lisa go Shopping) to earn that item and some event currency. This would be instead of a 3 Act System.
- Examples include: Ralph wanting his mummy, Bart wanting permanent snow (snow tiles), Maggie wanting the Happy Little Elves, Rodd & Todd wanting an Alive Maude skin and the list could go on!
- Snow Fighting! – You would pick a side, build up your side with forts, upgrading people etc. and then fighting to earn Christmas Cheer (varying amounts depending if you win/loose)
- Gift Giving – giving presents to people definitly cheers people up so EA should encourage tappers to give to their neighbors (donuts, inventory items etc.) by rewarding them with Christmas Cheer/Event Currency.
- Clearing Hobelves/Event tappables
- Currency giving Buildings (eg. Christmas Station)
- Finding Easter Eggs that also give out items as well as event currency
I really hope you enjoyed my ramble of a post and now feel in a festive mood, ready for whatever EA can throw at us (please let it not be Pagans 2!). All this post was speculation and ideas as NOTHING has been released by EA. Let me know what you thought of my ideas, any content you’d like to see for this Winter and Happy Tapping!
Thanks, HappyTapper for a little Christmas Spirit…and big wishes for EA! (let’s hope they’re listening) What did you think of Sam’s post? Your thoughts on the holidays? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!
As always we love hearing from you guys…so if you have an opinion or take on something going on in the game (or something that should be going on in the game), please send it along to us TSTOAddictsblog@gmail.com…
Now that does sound like fun, but I’m not sure about emptying my store into neighbours or them doing so in my Springfield – especially with all those troll goodies getting stored.
Happy Tapper, thanks for posting and I hope EA take note.
Unless there was restriction on what can be placed or given.
Perhaps there could be a request type button where a neighbour can request a certain item that they would like to have.
Especially if we do not want that building or have multiples (like Lard Lad Doughnuts) from all the mystery boxes
You are describing the system of games like Township.
Sorry, I don’t know the game Township…
But at least it is still a nice idea of how to give items to our neighbours that they want 🙂
And not just emptying our inventory box i our neighbours town.
That would only happen if they were on Santa’s naughty list 😛
And the option to delete items from our inventory is still very high on the ‘want’ list for a lot of people I’m guessing.
*in our neighbours town.
Township is as old as TSTO. It is made by Playrix.
IIRC winter ’15 you could drop gift boxes for event currency in neighbours towns, kinda like the Homerpaloza lawyers – but I’d like more to drop to stop me from having to pick and choose, and rather than random drops let the player choose where to drop them so they can be found.
TBH, my town was awaiting a redesign so I only had a parade ground/exercise square of around 40 road tiles and no other roads meaning I could spot those pesky lawyers, but many struggled or didn’t bother or the timer ran down and they vanished.
I like your idea of letting us choose where to drop the items.
When we could drop gifts in 2015- I would try to leave them at my Neighbours Simpson House, but sometimes they would bounce and land somewhere else. 🙁
Perhaps EA could have a decoration that is part of the event where the gifts or items can be placed, so neighbours will know where the best place to leave the item is.
I didn’t like the idea of the timer either, especially for neighbours in other time zones who would not be able to get their lawyers people sent them.
It has already been done with a Christmas tree which looks like a coat hanger.
Rudolpovanwijk, that’s a good point, but newer players won’t have that item and it is not connected to future events..
Perhaps it could be an item that makes/triggers the screen to start from there (like it does with the Simpson House)
Otherwise, like Graham-S wrote, items like the lawyers are harder to find.
If we are all good, maybe we well all be on the nice list and EA will make all our Tapped Out requests happen. 🙂
Christmas stockings you could fill ??
I’ll be good, or at least careful not to get caught !!
I like your Christmas Stocking idea.
LOL, good advice. 🙂
I think i’m on the ‘naughty but nice’ list 😛
Thanks for the hard work Sam. Awesome article😉
Great post! Really awesome ideas! Hopefully EA takes them into consideration…
Wow!! Love all these ideas! Now I want these!
Really hoping EA will read through this post and comments and see that people want a Traditional/commercialised festive event 😂
Me Too! I’d love a lazy but traditional Christmas event with an Advent Calendar countdown (open a window or box a day from Dec 1st to 25th) It could have gifts; donuts; or maybe coal for the naughty element? – Maybe gather the coal to trade for a better prize?
I loved the last interactive Christmas event some years back; The drop presents element in friend’s towns was a nice way to say “Thanks”
The ugly metal tree from an Xmas past worked reasonably well as long as it was placed within a clear area. (& from memory one released elves from their home to gather those unfound gifts hidden behind buildings etc)
Traditional is the way to go for me! I only see snow in my Springfields! This is coming from an Australian who celebrates Christmas in sometimes very hot weather.
Reusing the Elf Cannon would be fun to get rid of pesky elf’s.
rEAlly random question, but are you concerned about net neutrality? How can it affect this site, if at all?
Nope. Not even a little bit.
And that’s not to leave to door open for a debate or discussion on it. The question was asked and answered. Done.
got my outdoor skating rink
https://flic.kr/p/Zr4jtX
Now all we need is some skating tasks for the kids!⛄️
Wow! And I thought all I wanted was Christmas lights (having missed them by starting the game late). These ideas are phenomenal! You are SO creative!
Same here, no lights for me also. Asked about how I could obtain them but never did recieve an answer. Maybe more luck this time.
You can’t right now. You have to wait to see if they bring them back into the game.
Thank you very much – often described as creative and I think that’s what gives me a love for designing and imagining updates 😊
I hope they have a vanacy at EA
Wow! Very thoughtful post, Alissa. Really great idea’s.
No no, these are from happy tapper (sam)
Well thank you for giving Happy Tapper a voice.. 😉
I found out about this game and started playing just after Christmas of 2014, and have been hoping beyond hope that they will offer Christmas light skins for the generic houses/buildings once again. I’ve been let down the last two years, and I’m crossing my fingers for this one.
I hope somebody is listening! I leave some of my Christmas lights on year round, especially near the river. You need this!!
EA, KISS: Traditional Christmas stuff! Santa, candy canes, egg nog. Not Pagan crap or some other weird crap.
Brilliant post, Sam…so many good ideas in there! I think you just gave me my first true feelings of Christmas spirit this year! 🎄 😀 🎄
Aww, thank you so much 😊 – lovely reading through all these comments!!
I just want to see a traditional Christmas – Santa Claus instead of pagans or other non-traditional themes. The first couple of Christmas and Halloween events were great, but it seems like EA is getting farther away from normality with each year. Yes, I realize they are trying to do something new each time, but the last Christmas and Halloween events used concepts that just didn’t fit the holiday spirit.
I would also like to see interaction between neighbors, like when we were able to drop presents in neighbors’ towns.
A final request (not holiday related) – to be able to delete unneeded items from the inventory.
What a great assortment of really well thought ideas. Please EA, pay attention.
Great ideas sam 😄🏆🥇
I’d love an event that lampoons the recent lootbox controversy. It could build on the Cyber Monday deals we already know are coming.
But I doubt EA are laughing about the situation. 🙂
Wow! Grrrrreat ideas!❤️ Enough for EA to craft a few Christmas ideas. ☺️
I’m off to turn on my Christmas lights! 😄
If you have Homer’s Christmas Light Plunger it’s a doddle to switch those lights on (and off)
Just a quick reminder that the liquor stores will be closed on Thanksgiving .
🎬🎥🐒 . See ya bye . 👽
Great ideas….Thanks Sam 🙂
I like these ideas
Love those ideas. Especially the train idea.
I was recently thinking it would be better if they had a proper rail road track as well as the monorail. I recall Lisa’s substitute teacher (Mr Bergstrom) catching the train. (Season 2 Episode 19.”Lisa’s Substitute)
Also the “Lisa goes Gaga” episode could maybe be incorporated.
“Lisa’s Substitute” is my FAVOURITE Simpsons episode and Mr Bergstrom is a character that I really want so a train would bring so much opportunity for ideas and more content 😊
EA READ THIS POST CAREFULLY AND ACT ON IT!
My iPad seems to have been infectied by the CapsLockStuck virus 😟
Cleaned it, now all is fine.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! 😂 (CAN YOU SEND ME A LINK TO THAT VIRUS CLEANER?)
Love all the ideas Sam. Lot of work there. Well done 🙂
❤️ love it
This is amazing…..you are the new official EA ceo and creative director. Get to work……make it better….NOW.🎅🎄🎁
Thank you very much for the comment and the new job! *salutes and gets to work* 😊
Very nice post 🙂
I wish YOU worked for EA!
Thank YOU very much 😊 – working for EA would be the dream (wink wink EA!)
Great post Sam loved every idea particularly the Sarah wiggum part that I’ve been wanting for years now.
Wonderful ideas Sam! I really hope EA are paying attention 🎅
I love a lot of the ideas, especially the night vision with the lights. And according to the different time zones, that would be great! I do not like 5he idea of giving very hard earned donuts though. I could give gifts from my box of goodies, but bonuts? Hmmmmm!
You should work for EA Sam. Thanks for that.
Don’t want much for Christmas then? 😂
Zing