Thank Grog It’s Firday!
I don’t know about you, but I am flying through this Act, and am almost done with the prize track. Yes…I have several of the Premium Peeps (5) earning, and yes…I immediately maxed out the Bonus 20% on my Tower. So, that made it EAsier by a long shot.
But, that did open me up to a philosophical dilemma as it pertained to one, “Jack. The. Ripper.” in our towns. From what Alissa says (and checking the comments), this may be one of the most divisive characters to come to our little burgs in the history. Even more so than Nixon…or Dracula…or Herman, or…well a ton of others that seemed controversial at the time. I pulled the rip cord on our Ripper, but mostly for selfish reasons.
I’ll get into my decision on Jack, along with a look at at another outstanding new neighbor’s town…and believe me, the “Gold Standard” may have shifted…or at least been expanded.
I get that a ton of people just don’t want a “murderer” hanging around our town. Even a cartoon murderer. I’m not going to even try to point out that we already have tons of “Itchy and Scratchy” stuff in our towns (the most violent kid’s show on TV on a TV show ever). Or that violence seems to be endemic to a lot of characters in our Springfields already. The simple fact is, I wanted Scotland Yard. Period.
When I was about 10 years old, I had this little crystal radio set that ran without batteries, used a weird 
sliding tuner, and had to be listened to with an earpiece. It had an antennae that basically clipped onto any metal object, and was miraculous in what it would pick up. Living in Portland, Oregon, I was astounded to picked up KGO from San Francisco (almost 700 miles away). And every weeknight at 10pm, they would play this radio drama called “Tales from the Black Museum” which was based on true life murder mysteries from Scotland Yard. It was introduced by Orson Welles, and would scare the bejeezus out of me. But, I listened almost every night….until the tiny radio broke.
So…yes. I had to have Scotland Yard…even if it came with one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of all time. And yes…it is still unsolved. There are countless theories, including some tied to a shoestring relative of the Royal family. But, the most recent, and intriguing is one that ties “Jack” to actually being one of the most notorious mass murderers of all time, and an AMERICAN to boot. Google “HH Holmes American Ripper,” and you will see some pretty compelling evidence to this theory. Holmes makes Jack (if they are separate) look like child’s play.
If you want to listen to some of the old “Black Museum” broadcasts, click the link below.
https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Black_Museum_Singles
Now On to the 2nd edition of Town Tours.
Before I start…I have to say that I was inundated with players who wanted me to look at their towns and perhaps show them off in this segment. HOWEVER… I thought I was pretty clear, when I wrote, “If you think your town meets the Gold Standard set by Ebron…”
I thought that was pretty clear. But the vast majority (as in 99%) started with something like, “I know my town isn’t nearly as good, but…” or “I think my town is pretty special, but it isn’t as good as Ebron’s”… or “take a look at my town” with no reason to do so. Eeeeeeeep!!!!
Just a heads up…it takes a lot of time to ask to be neighbors…look at a town…do screen captures, and a video. As in a LOT of time. So…I really just want to focus on the “best of the best.”
I got enough replies to keep me busy for a year…or more. I politely have asked many of those who responded to just tell me what they think is their BEST feature, and that I may cover that in a future update…of “favorite town features.”
But so far...the closest to the “Gold Standard” that I have seen, actually came as a suggestion from “the Gold Standard personified,” Ebron!
This guy meets, and in some ways exceeds (by my standards) the lofty ideals set by Ebron. Superbeast46 is a neighbor of Ebron’s, and as it turns out, they inspire one another regularly. Like all of the best artists in the world, they have unique variations, and are exceedingly humble about their craftsmanship…as witnessed by the unraveling of a mystery I uncovered right off the bat.
One of the features I loved about Ebron’s town, was her “Water Mansion.” While perusing superbeast’s town, I saw one that was very, very similar.
Like I said…VERY similar…
Being able to go back and search comments from the admin side, I found a funny exchange online that solved the mystery. It was Ebron who purloined the concept from superbeast.
But, when I pointed this out in email, SB was more than gracious, writing, “I saw Ebron’s water mansion, glad I could inspire her, and she definitely built on it and made some beautiful improvements, may have to borrow right back!”
Man. Mutual admiration society or what?
However…I figured if it was cool with them, I’d pull some changes into my smaller version.
Honor among thieves and all of that. But, again…while I like some of the features in my town, I still give myself a solid C- in comparison. I know the difference…
And there IS a difference. Again…here is a short video laying out some of SuperBeast’s town, and some screen grabs. And again, it just doesn’t do justice.
I asked him about a theory I have about designing elements that a familiar to where you live, or where you grew up. Here’s his answer…
“I’d say your theory is very sound, I grew up in Wyoming where everywhere you go is a destination. Lots of cross country road trips with the family since air travel wasn’t real easy to come by – think Wally World twice a year lol. Not a lot of water in Wyoming, but it’s a nice way to isolate the destinations – terrible at space efficiency. Once I wrap up this event and revamp some of my older areas, I want to put a well defined continuous road/water bridge to connect the islands so each area becomes a road trip destination. We’ll see if I get that far. Right now I live in Santa Monica, so I’m sure that also influences the generous use of water.”
So…seeing Superbeast’s town, Ebrons, and a number of others, I was moved to start pushing the limit on what I can do with even MORE flowers and trees…including my start for my England Section. Still not the “gold standard,” but an improvement!
Click on Image to enlarge…
To really meet the GOLD STANDARD…you need to not be afraid of limitations. Currently, the HARD limit for items in your town is 10,900. And yes…Ebron confesses that she has already hit it. “More flowers!!!” is her battle cry.
I am going to keep saying over and over again…EA…TEAR DOWN THE LIMIT WALL!!! It impedes true creativity!
I was also motivated by the amazing monorail system I showcased in last week’s Town Tour with Ztirnats! I revamped my meandering single, huge monorail system, into 2 closed loops that each run more than 4 minutes…and bisect in a way that allowed me to send a CLEAR MESSAGE TO EA about ITEM LIMITS!!!
See if you can figure out what it is…
Ah…creativity…ya gotta love it.
I’ll return next week with some more towns…and some of the “I like this the best” concepts from the myriad tappers who reached out. It is fun…even if they aren’t all “Gold Standard” designers. There are precious designs in even those who are more Copper than Gold. It’s all subjective…and fun!
Have a great weekend!
Superbeast46 designed an amazing Springfield.
It’s really inspirational.
I saw so many things I couldn’t do anything with being used wonderfully
& it really looks like a city.
He was a great pick.
These town tours are a great idea.
ebron your town has totally blown me away. I have to confess I’ve looked over your pictures again and again and there’s not one inch of your town that doesn’t leave me amazed. Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks…now if I could just get EA to get rid of the item limits(and land tiles)…I would gladly pay donuts for unlimited items and space. I’ve had to canabalize a lot more recently, leaving empty spaces all over my town where the volunteers agreed to go into storage to make it possible for this event to thrive.
Let’s have a moment of silence for all those brave buildings which will never again see the digital light of day…🎶🎺🎶(taps plays in the backgroud…)😔
I play trumpet. I can do it.
I’ve spent a lot of time working on my London area tonight and whilst I am nowhere near as imaginative as Ebron or Superbeast I am happy with how it is turning out.
I want all the buildings so now I have to get the Nag and Weasel which will wipe me out of donuts.
Patric, I know last week you suggested farming and I said I didn’t want to, but YOU have made me change my mind on considering your reply to my comment.
I am going to start with Rat Trap or Blood Mobile rather that KEMs as I don’t think I quite understand it all. I will read your previous posts again an try to work it out.
I must say that your Town Tours have given me so much inspiration to improve my own town. This is reason for my change of mind.
Thank you and also Ebron and Superbeast for allowing you to show us what can be done if you use your imagination! Their towns are both amazing.
Only too happy to help! I am planning another post soon on farming and XP Bonuses. It’s far easier than it seems…and makes the grinding that EA puts us through with these long updates, have purpose.
Some awesome designs around, just shows how much effort people have put into this great little game over the years. Also loving this thread/topic Patric 👍
My little town is 4-5 years in the making (actually cant remember the moment I started!). It’s been rebuilt loads of times but it’s now so big I have to settle for moving parts rather than whole redesigns.
I design my areas by type/event so I have a Vegas Strip, Christmas, Halloween, Future, Sports areas etc… the new land unlocking process has stopped me sorting out the new event which is annoying but hey, it’ll come. I try to incorporate as many decorations and items as I can to my designs with the monorail linking it all up.
If you fancy a look Patric or anyone else I’m NJUTD81 😉
I’m definitely going to have to get in on this probably next week after I’m able to fully build a little italy. Ebron can I use you as a reference?
Sure…but to get Patric to visit, you’ll still have to email him with your request and your game name. He’s been so buried with requests, that’s the only way to get a visit now. I stopped pestering him when I realized how many towns he already has lined up to visit.
I’d say visit my town but I’m not sure I’d call.it ‘gold standard’ there are parts that are, but definitely parts that are plopper because I hit a design funk and it’s stuff that has to be out because of a character…..
Question to the community: when it comes to buildings tied to a character, if it doesn’t meet a design anesthetic that you like in your city do you store ot along with the character? For a long time I had robo burns and robo smithers as well as paris texan stored because the island thing she comes with doesn’t work in my town anywhere I like and the future college thingy for robo burns and smithers didn’t either…
I hide any of the character buildings I don’t need. Currently AmericaTown is hidden behind one of the big resort buildings from Springfield Heights.
I probably have 10 or 15 building/character combos stored(haven’t ever counted them)…the most recent being the Refridgatorium (spelling?) from the Outlands event. After the event, I had to shrink the space and it just had to go. Paris has been stored (with the billionaires hangout) for over a year…just too big and I don’t have a traditional SH area to put it in. I stopped worrying about what I store vs leave out after I hit 1000% bonus…there are always more characters and buildings coming at us, and my game generates more cash than I can use already. My motto is “If you don’t love it…fix it, move it, or replace it”(or throw flowers at it, that always works😆).
The Nag and Weasel! I love this bar…was always wishing I had a simple peasant style pub to put in my Halloween area….Ta-Da! And an old English Homer (who is a full character and does earn event currency) as a bonus. Today I’m a happy camper😁👍😁.
https://imgur.com/a/kKXA4
Shout out to ebron. WOW how amazing is your town. Absolutely love your imagination and thought to detail. Must take you ages to design. I don’t know if you are accepting new neighbours but I have put in a request, if you have room for a British lass. stiggygd33 Though my town pales in comparison. Ok I’ll stop gushing now lol
Gilly…Thanks so much for the nice compliments. After the town tour hit last week, I was buried (in a nice way) with neighbor requests. I’m afraid that I now have a full neighborhood, but I can keep your request in case someone quits playing. 😄
Thanks Patric! I’m loving this new feature. I’d stopped working on my town because I’ve grown really frustrated by the limits and especially the land situation but Ebron and Superbeast have inspired me to dive back in. For the first time (playing since Clash of Clones) I’ve stored large sections of my town (my Christmas area covered over six tiles) to free up space in hopes that by the time the holidays come back around EA will have resolved the land issue and I’ll be able to put it all back. (I just couldn’t bring myself to store my Halloween area lol) I’ve always enjoyed having Everything out in my town and have tried to find ways to keep it cohesive but the limits had forced me into plopping and I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I was getting really close to walking away but this feature has brought me back with the hope that one day I’ll have a ‘gold standard’ Springfield worth showing off. Thanks again!!!
p.s. Had to to get Jack right away!
I think playing this game without taking the time to design…is really missing the real fun. Happy to hear you are back in the game!
I love designing funny things. I have a sprint race track with a solid wall at the end and Obstacle Bowling Lane.
I just finished storing 4 buildings and all their decor…had hit the ceiling again and just had to do it. The first time is the hardest, after that it’s kinda like “do I love it, or is it just taking up space?”. EA is throwing so much content at us all the time, I have to constantly decide what stays and what goes…but it does keep the game fresh and challenging (I’m a “glass half full” kinda gal…actually I’m more of a “you know, you can refill that glass” kinda gal).😆😆
We need a store/restore area command. It would be possible remove, as an example, the Xmas area and place it again when Christmas is approaching.
Would love to have a “save/store” function for whole sections. If we can highlight/save a block of land while we move it, why can’t we just save it (to place later)? If we then decided not to use it, we could just return it all to the inventory.
Patric, I would like to make a comment, not about the great idea of starting to share creative ways of town designs, but about honor among thieves.
What a perfect way to sum up the exchanges between Ebron and Superbeast. When I saw the screen grab about how the two paid compliments to each other, it reminded me of the stark contrast at my work place of a team member who blatantly steals ideas and presents as her own. Great to know such great characters still exist, even more rare in such a community where folks remain anonymous and can easily take credit. But at least, there’s 2 of them who don’t. Thanks for sharing!
The world is a better place for honest thieves…lol!
I don’t think we need to worry about Jack as mass murderer because many of us have Death walking in out towns already. All others chars are amateurs compared to him.
See these towns are good. But the whole point of the game is to rebuild a Springfield! And that’s the therory I use in my game. I only place items that are found within spring field and try to make it feel actually real. I saw Patric added me as a neighbor the other day and I hope he can see the real flow of my town and realize that I have a ton of content, enough to hit the limit, but only utilize Springfield content. (No holiday or limited event items).
He will also notice hat I have not even began to play this event for that same reason…zero Springfield items are available.
Great tour, but you really need to get your geography straight:
– The Danish flag is red with a white cross
– The Norwegian flag is red with a white and blue cross – and that is the flag shown in the video
Even though Norway and Denmark have been in unions several times through history, it is now as insulting for a Norwegian to be called a Dane as it is for a Dane to be called a Norwegian. So congratulations on insulting two nations with one mistake! 😉
On a more serious note, though, keep up the good work. I love the updates you all make.
PS:
The Danish flag is called the “Dannebrog” and is recognized as being the oldest nation flag on the planet.
Man..another “flag warrior!” So yes… I clearly made a mistake… To me, all of the Scandahoovian countries all run together. I’ve even visited them… And have a hard time telling them apart, except for the flags. I have always found it interesting that such a small geographic area as Europe, can be so resolute and proud of the differences that a map, a border, and a flag make. But then again, those of us in Oregon take pride in not being from Washington. Go figure. But at least we speak the same language…unlike those from Boston, whose dialect makes some words unrecognizable. And let’s not bring Canada into this…it’s aBOUt (uh-bowt) not aboot!!
The real problem I have with a lot of European flags, is that they are very similar, with just a flip-flop of the colors and bars. It’s like they all came out of the same design school. But I get it… If you’re going to Insult someone, start with the flag.
To make my point…go here…https://photius.com/flags/alphabetic_list.html
And eliminate all of the flags that either are three horizontal or vertical stripes… and all of those that have a cross made from two colors. The field for originality gets pretty darn thin.
Oh…and here is a site that calls “the oldest” into question.
https://www.patriotwood.com/blogs/news/17943449-the-5-oldest-country-flags-in-the-world
I have to strongly agree: Superbeast46’s Springfield is most beautiful town of all TSTO community. When I visit my neighbours I always take a stroll through this marvelous town.
thank you macbdotcom, I always enjoy carousing through your town as well, it’s too bad there’s no way to give props when visiting your neighbors!
On Jack – Isn’t the point of Jack to make fun of criminals? Isn’t that what the Simpsons do with other criminals? This event is criminal based so introducing a “good guy” doesn’t make sense in context to the event.
Thanks for sharing another awesome Springfield, very nicely detailed! Some very nicely designed areas. I was trying to beautify my London area today when the dreaded ‘CongrEAtulations – you’ve built the maximum number of buildings and decorations our coders have been able to include in the game.’ Well maybe not worded exactly like this… but close 🤣 Now having run out of land is not really the main issue! It’s hard to improve your design when faced with such limitations.
AGREED!!!
EA…TEAR DOWN THAT WALL OF ITEM LIMITS!!!!
One thing I”ve found to help reduce this is to find large buildings. If anything is shadowed by the large building, meaning it’s behind it visually, I remove it. That helped me reduce my count considerably with worthless wall pieces and trees where nobody can see them cause the huge honkin building is in the way.
Great, yes I’ll definitely have to go through and weed out hidden items, that’s a good idea!
I have remove all rentes. They are useless. Springfieldians won’t let them fence in.
Another great design. I love all the water and separate areas for different themes.
I am also with you on going for the Jack deal. I had to have Scotland Yard in my town.
I’m lucky to be neighbors with both Ebron and Superbeast, and you’re right Patric Superbeast has some really great designs and I love how he uses water to separate areas and makes islands. It’s just a really nice and unique set up. Really pleasant to visit and see.
it’s great having very inspiring neighbors as well, like you, macbdotcom, and of course Ebron 🙂
How can I make you look at my town, I kinda missed the message about this project xd.
(My TSTOname is ayourivb99, I hope you want to take a look 🙂 Dunno if this is the right way but yeah..)
It’s not. Email me at tstopatric@gmail.com
Such a fun tour! What you said is true…it would take hours to see all the details in Superbeast’s town. He has such a wonderful gift for whimsey, but somehow it all comes together beautifully. Well done!
And again…you are too humble.
Hate to say it…but between the two of you, the bar is pretty darn high.
thank you Ebron, always a pleasure cruising through your town, such a great job of combining elements… the underwater house surrounded by aquariums and ‘kelp’, brilliant!
Patric, Thanks for all you do I think that I have a town that could be up to the gold standard please take a look and see what you think.
Kellydahl744
Regards Kelly
Addict from Victoria Australia
Will take a look…may take me a while, but will do. Could you drop me a line of reminder at tstopatric@gmail.com?
Thank you for showing SuperBeast’s Canada bit! I’ve been struggling with what to do with that “Welcome to Canada” thingie, and now I am inspired to grab a bunch of maple trees and put them and it in front of my logging area.
Better yet, it will fill in the space left bare after I moved my French district — love it when it all comes together like that. Ridiculous how excited i am about this.
Great town! So much detail is great to see! I do believe my town might be worthy of such a comparison if I can say so humbly. I’ve been playing for years and while there are definitely areas of items/buildings I obviously have yet to get to, I am pretty proud of the town as a whole, and would appreciate any feedback!
Username: BigMD2117
Email me at tstopatric@gmail.com We’ll put it to the test.
Although it’s expensive I liked the look of New Scotland Yard too much to pass it up.
I’ll admit I was surprised by the reaction to Jack the Ripper as a character – for me Jack exists as two separate entities, one is the historical figure and the other is the character in popular culture (even Captain Kirk has fought Jack the Ripper).
A middle finger to item limits!
Something quite perculiar has happened in my town. I currently have 2 tower of Springfields one the original and the other a duplicate that I cannot assign tasks to. The duplicate is one I can move around yet not store?! I hope this is all harmless! Great post btw 😀
My brother had build a crystal receiver. After some experiments, he discovered , he could use it as a transmitter by connecting a small home build amplifier to the earpiece output.
You tuned the now transmitter to an AM station and was able to transmit. The sound piggybacked on that frequency. The range was at least 500 meters.
Pirate! LOL~
Wow. Just wow.
Well, you actually reminded me about the pending Gil deal that I dismissed when it appeared. I have a fair selection of premium characters doing heists so I finished the prize track yesterday and am now completing the outstanding questlines from Nigel and Wilde/Chaucer while collecting bonuts along the way with the other characters.
I thought that even though Jack is a bit pricey, heck, I have almost 2300 donuts sitting in my account, why not spend it on this celebrity?
In the end, more characters also mean more money to burn with Rat Trap Trucks, i.e. earn more donuts.