Thank Grog It’s Firday!
First of all…yes…the snow is still hanging around. Not happy. But, that’s life…right? Something pretty, turns ugly, and dangerous, and then won’t leave. Sounds like my first wife. (*snare drum/kick drum- Ba Dum!*).
This has been a very odd mini-event. It was ridiculously EAsy…even by today’s mini-event, mini-expectations. I finished the whole thing on Tuesday. As in, more than a week ahead of schedule. And, I didn’t even tap regularly.
I was so busy ignoring the game in my downtime, with a couple of exceptions, that I wasn’t even aware of a HUGE SOMETHING that transpired…that may not just be a Game Changer, but could also be… (Gasp!!) The End Of TSTO as we know it!
Yes. I am talking about the gigantic chunk of new available land that suddenly appeared. For those who had their pantaloons in a knot over the “Lack of Land,” this was like Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving all rolled into one (with the same Biblical implications involved).
Biblical you say? Why yes….as in the “End Times” for TSTO…
Why else would EA suddenly give us a huge new chunk of land (that actually ends up making an almost perfect square), if they weren’t saying, “OK peeps…we’re done with the whole new land bit. Make Due With This!!”
Well…actually…there is a very good reason that there could be something else going on. As in…after almost 7 years, EA has loads of random ideas and code that they are trying to resolve…and they can’t figure out the best way to do it. So, they just threw in the towel and said, “Pfffttt….we don’t care anymore. We can’t please them when it comes to land…let’s just give it all to them, so we can concentrate on new content.”
My evidence for this should be pretty clear. But, I’ll list a few tidbits to back up my theory.
- Awarding Huge Chunks of Land as part of an update was a total FAIL. It started with the Krustyland bit…trying to be “fair” with people who had to move huge KrustyLand complexes into “Springfield Proper.” They gave us what seemed to be a way to keep things intact…but, those of us with Huge, Expansive Krustylands, didn’t get enough tiles to do a 1/1 swap.
- Forcing us to initially use giant chunks of land awarded for Itchy & Scratchy Land, The Zoo, and the Halloween updates just didn’t work. Most of us ended up having weird appendages of developments that looked awful, and out of place. Kind of like a skin tag that grows to the size of a small piece of broccoli. Nobody wants that.
- The “Winning Free Land Tokens” in updates and crafting got tiring, silly, and hard to manage. They never felt like a “prize,” but more like something you had to endure with a smile on your face, while waiting for the REAL prize. Like opening socks on Christmas morning, when you KNOW there is an amazing toy in one of the other packages.
- The Golden Goose Real Estate debacle. Now, I admittedly have had no issue with this one. I love it. It continues to create free land tiles for me, like clockwork. But, unlike loads of people who thought they could use it to generate Free Donuts (and then got penalized at the end, some before they had reached the so-called limit), I have just been patient, in how much land I unlock. It has more to do with what I need -vs- what I could unlock. As in, “just because you CAN…doesn’t mean you SHOULD!” And with the Item Limits, there is very little need to do so. But, I digress… The Whole Golden Goose/One-Time-Conversion-Tool bit was a complete Wild Goose Chase.
- WHAT THE HELL IS THE DEAL WITH NOT OPENING UP THE LAND ABOVE SPRINGFIELD HEIGHTS?????
Oops. I kinda jumped the gun there.
But, it is a HUGE question. My only possible explanation, is that the “team” that designed the code for Springfield Heights got laid off years ago…and took the code with them. Nobody can figure out how to unlock the zone above Springfield Heights, without rolling back everyone’s game to before July 22nd, 2015…the date that Springfield Heights was introduced to TSTO.
Here is the current land map….and the Springfield Heights Question just jumps out as “obvious.”
Click to Enlarge Graphics
Yes…once again I corrected North/South/East/West…from the map I purloined from the forum.
But maybe it’s as simple as something like, the “Smart Board” in the conference room at EA, has an “Over-Scan” problem...and the whole random chunk that is Springfield Heights just doesn’t show up on their planning grid.
Or…maybe they just don’t care.
Let’s face it…besides the random Daily Tasks that show up that makes you collect furniture or coffee cups (which I mostly just X-out and skip), and the bonus XP multipliers associated with some of the buildings, Springfield Heights is almost as forgotten as KrustyLand, before they forced us to Nuke Krustyland. But, as it does sit there…and not in a chunk of ether that requires a magical bus ride to get there, like Krustyland…it is pretty easy to just say, “Meh…the pleebs seem content with running their monorails through the mountains, and spending tons of digital ink on trying to figure out what we are going to do with the land available above Springfield Heights…so, just keep it hidden on the smart board!”
But the new Giant Chunk of Almost Perfectly Proportioned Land does raise some questions.
- Is this going to be a herculean test of wills between those of us who have been slow and measured in our land consumption, and those who “just can’t get enough?” Will they penalize those who gobble up the last available chunk with a “Sorry…that’s all, sucker!” warning screen?
- If they actually eliminated Item Limits to balance out the HUGE new chunks of land that are hindered by said limits…will it BREAK THE GAME??
- If they did combine the new land, with the elimination of Item Limits, and we all filled it to the brim with tiny plants, shrubs and fences, would it cause our mobile devices to overheat and melt because of the processing power required to display them all?????
- Do I need another cup of coffee while I try to bring some common sense back into this post????
I can only answer one of those with any confidence. #4. No. No I do not need more coffee.
But…there DOES Remain one more question. If at some point in the near future, they end up opening up another 3 block strip to the right of the screen, thus making it 36×36 for the “Springfield Proper” area (all of the land sans Springfield Heights and the water), IS THAT IT? IS IT ALL OVER THEN???
The yellow is all of the land I have not yet claimed… the pink is the “maybe this much more to make it an equal 36×36.
The tip-off that this might happen, is that the “Screen Capture” tool actually shows a small strip of land that is still obvious…yet unopened. (Zoom to see the lower small strip at the bottom right of the screen grab above). So my guess…is that the screen capture tool is a tip-off for what is still to come. Maybe sooner than later…
I’m not even going to pretend to try to figure out what is in the minds of EA these days. But, I can say…that almost without exception, the “mini-events” of late, have proven to be HUGE game-changers. They have thrown some really big, and really random curves at us during “down-time.” It’s really hard to understand where this is all going to go.
But, that’s what keeps us coming back. Right?
In the meantime…I added another 18 slots in my KEM ditch-farm. It helps generate another 15-24 Free Donuts a day…without depleting my cash. I use the water barriers to make adding/deleting the KEMs faster.
I also have started landscaping my new golf course. Which was made possible by EA raising the Item Limit THREE TIMES in the past week. I was able to add a full nine holes…but, rEAlly wish EA would bring back the Golf Holes to Purchase! Come On, EA...do a duffer a solid!
Sorry…should have posted this in the original post! I placed bunch of short track pieces (and then stored them) to see what the new cap was. It is……..
Item Limit is now 13,000 Items
How About You??
- Does Your Golden Goose Realty still pump out Land Tiles?
- How much Land do you still have to open up?
- What do YOU think will happen with Springfield Heights?
- When do YOU think the game will finally fold up shop?