Friday Filler – New Land, New Questions, and the Future of TSTO

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.

  1. 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.
  2.  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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

  1. 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?
  2. 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??
  3. 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?????
  4. 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?? 

  1. Does Your Golden Goose Realty still pump out Land Tiles?
  2. How much Land do you still have to open up?
  3. What do YOU think will happen with Springfield Heights?
  4. When do YOU think the game will finally fold up shop?

83 responses to “Friday Filler – New Land, New Questions, and the Future of TSTO

  1. How can you unlock that really far away patch of land in Springfield Heights on the top-left?
    I bought all the land next to in along the mountains, but I still don’t have the option to buy it.
    Any help would be very appreciated!
    Thank you!

    • It’s not unlockable. EA hasn’t released that land to date.

      • Thank you for your response!
        I’m talking about the top left yellow boxes in the map above (in this post). They include prices.
        I know the white is not released.
        Is that yellow area somehow accessible?
        Thank you again!

        • No, that area in yellow of rows 33/34/35/36 is not accessible. That’s a guide/legend to show you what the symbols mean on the map.
          There is no additional land available on the heights side of the mountain after row 10.

          • Oh, ok!
            Thank you for clarifying!
            Can you please also edit or delete my previous post that has my full name? That was autocorrected incorrectly.
            Thank you again!

  2. 🤪✨Another magnificent Cranky summary✨🤪
    http://imgur.com/mrJYtXo
    ‘Frinkly’ we really need Prof. Frink & Farnsworth to hash all these out shenanigans, & even then it’ll still be mesmerizing🙃
    http://imgur.com/MBAsu1w

  3. I’m going to steal the “cranky” hat from Patric for just a bit and voice what may be an unpopular opinion, but this game needs to die. It’e become too big for it’s own good, and players like myself who have over 5 years dumped into it, have towns way too large to be adequately supported, it appears, without consistently having to deal with getting booted/glitches/issues/slow-down/lag/the list goes on…

    Who remembers the last time an update hit containing no glitches and/or seeeerious lag? Me neither. The new features would be amazing, Sky Finger, Golden Goose Realty, Town Snapshot, all AWESOME! IF THEY WORKED RIGHT! These comments are full of people listing and describing way too many problems with the way the game works nowadays.

    And the final straw for me was the zoom issue on my Kindle, that still isn’t fixed and from what I understand, will not be fixed. This is just insulting, to me. YOU broke your own game for a subset of your users. FIX IT. Until then, my (albeit very modest) KEM farming will continue, guilt free, and I shall harvest donuts that way without paying another red cent to this game. BUT… I have to do that on my iPhone because the game is *literally* unplayable on my Kindle. And I HATE designing on my phone.

    So if I had things my way? Continue to maintain the servers. But new content and events are gone. Make the remaining land available, increase the item limit to a reasonable amount (30,000?), and then make everything that’s ever been released in the game available to purchase for in-game cash and donuts. Then let me design to my heart’s content until I have the town I want and if desired, blow it all up and design a brand new one!

    Just my $0.02. I now return your cranky hat Patric, thanks for lending it! = )

    • My $0.02, if you can afford it, buy the largest iPad (screen size and memory) you can. Then you will have least two to three years of more enjoyment.

      FYI, if your device is older than 2 years then you should expect problems. A two years old computer is like a twenty years old television or car.

      • I play on a 6 year old iPad with no problems.

      • It’s not the device… it’s the memory.

        • It is just a general observation. Some programs might work on 20 year old computers. But as developers have better computers they design for better computers, i.e faster processors, more memory. I have a second generation iPad that is still working. But many of the older apps no longer will work (i.e those that interface with the internet).

          Take a town. Play it on a new iPad with lots of memory and one four generations back, they old will be appear sluggish. I prefer the larger screen, but that maybe slower than a phone with the same processor and memory just because there are more images to process. When I bought my last iPad I still played on older ones. But as my town grew the older iPads just seem too slow and I stopped playing on them altogether. I don’t use my phone because it just feels too small.

      • The hardware may be a problem, but it is a brand new Fire 8, with no other apps (yet) loaded onto it. But the biggest problem on the Fire is the Zoom issue. So EA’s left Fire users with an awesome solution: buy a new iPad?

        • Unfortunately I am unfamiliar with the Kindle nor the system requirements for TSTO. But an iPad is good for a lot of other reasons. I wonder what the user base of the Kindle versus other platforms for TSTO.

    • Hmmmm. Interesting. You may have given me a Filler idea..

  4. D’oh! I had no idea Golden Goose Real Estate generated land tokens! I didn’t pick it up.

    • Well…yes. So, one more reason to make sure you check TSTOAddicts every day?

    • I feel your pain … I didn’t pick it up either and normally check TSTO every day, but had a bit of a break. I feel really tapped out now and haven’t logged in since.

  5. I use half of my SH heights area for Krustyland and a cluster of gulp N blows as a cash generator the rest for SH junk I don’t want in the main part of the world. I did have a couple of clustered house farms too with purple and blue houses but I’m steadily integrating these houses into the new areas of the main world.

  6. As a relative newcomer, started my main world in Autumn 2017 ( I actually started a world back in 2015 but that was lost 🙁 ) I am currently approaching a situation of having more land ( due to GGR ) than buildings to populate it with. I have taken to developing a network of highways to interconnect regions, I’m also developing my monorail too ( but keep getting unwanted track pieces at the railyard ! )

    • Patience grasshopper. You too will soon be an a point where you have thousands of track pieces you can’t use…if you still play the railyard every four hours.

  7. One of the uses I’ve found for Springfield Heights is an ‘attic’ of sorts, a place to put random crap I don’t use, but want the bonus% on. Out of sight and out of mind, easily ignored.

    Alternatively, I have also used it as a hub of sorts, keeping things like GGR and the skyfinger monument there, along with a transporter… spreading the others out strategically. That way I always know where I can go to get anywhere easily.

  8. I totally agree with you, I couldn’t see the point of releasing all of that land in one go, without a realistic way of unlocking it without spending a lot of time. The Krustyland release was badly done, as I still have over half the Krustyland items in storage as there wasn’t enough land released to replicate the Krustyland layout I had, and yet they kept the Krustyland tokens as currency, which effectively couldn’t be used to do anything apart from cash exchange, and at a meagre rate.

    Not that the cash has any great value these days, I have nearly 1/2 a billion just growing by over a million a day, and nothing to use it on, unless I want to buy lots of small items and reach the item limit very quickly.

    Springfield Heights is also a waste of time, as there is not enough space to put everything that you can purchase using that currency.

    I do feel that this is slowly crawling to an end, as its now a miss-match of several different ideas that (sort-of) worked when they were released, a series of non-events that do not have the same impact or interest of some of the great past events, and lots of different valueless currency formats accumulating in different places.

    It could be fixed easily, but that depends on the developers desire to:

    1. Merge all the currencies into two: Cash and Donuts
    2. Provide things of value to buy with the cash
    3. Make land unlocking more accessible and reasonable
    4. Make the events actual events, and grow on past ideas that worked well
    5. Increase the item limits much larger than they are now

    I’ve played this since 2011, and if they keep going down this road, 2019 may be the last year for me, and probably many others. It also won’t be attracting new people.

  9. Cranky, I has discovered a new kind of golf 🏌️‍♀️,…..
    Chocolate 🍫 golf. The Parson was playing outside the chocolate dripping church ⛪️
    https://imgur.com/a/HQz1Lqy

  10. First of all I LOVE your golf course! 👍😊
    The goose is still laying tiles.
    I have tons of land to buy yet.
    SH has become the forgotten land…would like to see land balance on the other side of those mountains.
    No one knows the future….live in the present.
    On a completely different topic I would love to see a Y piece for the monorail so one could branch out and loop.

  11. 1. Yes, my Golden Goose Realty still generates Land Tiles, because I don’t obsessively collect twice daily (sometimes I forget a day). I have gotten back plenty of Land thanks to redoing my Springfield.

    2. I have tons of Land available to open up! I may never unlock all of if before this Game App comes to an end (and I am fine with that!) Since learning to take a break from TSTO, I no longer OCD over things (lol)!

    3. EA quit giving a 💩 about Springfield Heights a long time ago! Why else do we have that lol inducing patch of empty space? or haven’t seen anything new to earn? or a new Character / Building for Springfield Heights? That zone is like Krustyland – basically bailed on by EA!

    4. We are guaranteed 2 more Seasons of The Simpsons on FOX. The Walt Disney Company basically owns Fox and to an extent The Simpsons (unless they want to play smart and sell the intellectual property to Universal in exchange for getting the rights back to Marvel intellectual property – including the word Marvel – in their Theme Parks)! I am guessing this will be the game changer if the Simpsons remains under FOX / Disney, or is taken over by Universal (imagine a tie in to TSTO and the existing Springfield at Universal’s Theme Parks) and a working relationship with EA.

    • Rusty Shackleford

      They should allow us to sell off Springfield Heights buildings at the Red Blazer Realty. Make it so your SH value and accrued bonus got locked in via the Realty building. Those that want to keep SH can, but the rest of us could ditch unwanted stuff and free up some space.

    • Wellllllll. Yes to all. Except…the game is actually owned jointly by EA,Gracie and Fox/Disney.

      So…not sure Disney holds all of the cards.

  12. Keith1Roon991

    Don’t understand why EA don’t release the SH land unless they plan to have another SH event, I have loads of land still to buy with tokens but with item limits I just save the tokens for now and have some land available to place items. Does anyone know what task the presedents have were they interact together?

  13. As long EA doesn’ issue th the Sing Fat Lady, the game may continue.

  14. My ggr is still doing tiles. 🙂 I’ve not actually got any land to buy that requires them yet though. As for SH, I maxed out the value when they did that bonus thing a while back and now ignore it. I also close out the tasks that ask me to collect stuff I’m full of. I haven’t been able to get a second monorail tunnel though which is frustrating because I can’t loop it.

  15. I really want them to open up the remaining Springfield height area. Since its inception I have imagined having all the mansions and millionaires houses up there along with a snowy Christmas items area.
    I want this far more than any other land. If they are ending land I hope this plot is opened.

  16. Hmmmmm. I only just noticed today that there seems to be a timer issue with the golden goose realty building. Is it still pumping out land tiles? Yes. But now I’m beginning to wonder on its consistency. For example: this morning I got a land tile, but it’s now 5 hours later, and the timer says 11:59 left until another tile. That’s not right.

  17. I’ve been using farmed donuts to acquire as many free land tokens as possible with my GGR, I still haven’t collected enough to purchase all currently available land. I’m curious to see if GGR switches to just generating cash like all other buildings one I have enough tokens to purchase all available land, even if I don’t buy all available land.
    I’m not sure SH will ever have more land made available for purchase. But just in case I’m beyond maxxed out on SH currency. ie. chairs, coffee, smart phones, trophies, etc.
    I rEAlly hope that TSTO never ends!!! It has become such an integral part of my daily routine that I’m not sure I could ever find a comprable thing to keep me entertained and killing time as effectively as TSTO has these past years.
    Thanks for another thought provoking post Patric!
    ~MIB👤
    P.S.
    “i’m mr. messeeks. look at me!”
    God bless the creators of Rick and Morty.

    • It has been reported that it switches when you have enough tiles to get all of the land…even if you don’t redeem them all.

      But who knows? All bets are off these days.

      • I have all the land and yes it switches to money

        • Oh well, i guess i’ll go back to buying vault items to boost my bonus%. I’ve got more than enough land unlocked for a while, I guess I was just hoping for a glitch that would allow me to stock up on enough land tile tokens to buy everything the Next time they open up more.
          ~MIB👤

  18. My Springfield Heights stuff is continuing to act wierd…I just pulled out my 5 fully completed Hideaway bases and 2 of them had gone back to level one. They allowed me to update them all over again (and earn more bonus percents all over again). I now have 5 base units and 7 sets of everything else. Gotta love these SH glitches.👍😁

  19. 1) YES – No issues
    2) ALOT now. I was closing in on opening it all via tile collection.
    3) Heights – Right now it’s my repository for all the buildings I don’t know what to do with, all my bonus items that add percentage that I can’t readily and with design aesthetic place in the regular area, AND the heights buildings themselves that add bonus and generate heights currency. I’m at 1.7 billion dollars with no incentive to try for 2.
    4) Not any time soon. So long as they aren’t pine-ing for TSTO V2.0 the video game and the show keeps going there will always be new content they can build in to the game. I played a few BLIZZARD games for at least 10 years that were supported during that time. Boils down to money and if it still makes money they keep it going.

  20. The game is a cash cow, players are hooked and still spending money on donuts, meanwhile they dos minimal work to keep it functioning, and just plan enough updates to keep people engaged.

    As long as they can sell enough donuts to pay the upkeep costs they will keep it running.

    • This is a true statement. However…they can also say, “Enough with the land, already! Try using what you have efficiently!”

    • I earn 90-150-225 donuts per day right now with KEM farming and other methods but anytime I accidentally tap the Golden Scratch-R for $1.39+tax, I buy it and am happy to. Probably spending $10 per week max.
      If all players switched to KEM farming, we’d likely see the end on the horizon, but I have a feeling there are still whales out there paying enough.
      I read this game was making up to $30K per week a couple years ago, down from the 100M they had earned by October 2013, so even if earning numbers are halved from that, it’s still a viable property.

      I’m more worried about the changeover to the house of Mouse and the differences between Disney’s idea of profit versus Fox.

      Just my thoughts, happy tapping.

  21. Italian Beauty

    I think the time to worry about the game as a whole is when Disney takes over the show in a couple of years. If they’re smart, they’ll leave it alone and keep things running as normal and what has worked for the past 30 years. Unfortunately they will think that they can make it better and greater and mess it all up.

    I’ve got a lot of land left to unlock so Golden Goose still awards Land Tiles…when it wants to. Would be nice to expand my Heights. It’s too crowded. Fingers crossed for an event that features the Heights AND includes getting more land in that section.

    • Good points…and agreed!

    • I have nothing against Disney, but the odds of Disney ever acquiring “The Simpsons” are beyond astronomical. “The Simpsons” are too financially successful for that to happened, certainly not any time soon, short of a sudden, apocalyptic sized, financial disaster. Also, the cost of the production rights alone are probably so expensive that it would really, REALLY, hurt, maybe so much so that it might take a few years for any acquisitioner to financially recover from the cost.

    • Rusty Shackleford

      Never underestimate the ability of a big company to screw up something they acquire. But, other than that, there is a low probability that this game will close down anytime soon.

  22. Funnily enough, I was driven to unlock all the land back when it was cash based, but once it became token based I just unlock it as needed. My GGR is still happily generating tokens. Still got lots unlocked

    Good idea on the water ditches for KEM furrows! I’ve got a road bordered block sized for 4 x 17 KEM which is quite fast to recycle (2 x area select to sell). I usually need to manually position the first 2-3 KEM in at least 2 columns for it to pick up the distribution pattern though, so I reckon yours is better. I might give it a try next harvest. 🙂

    Cheers

  23. Sounds like we dated the same girl ;
    but unfortunately you married her . ( LOL )

    🐒🌎 . SEE YA BYE . 👽

  24. Is anyone having an issue with the timer? For example: I go in the game (after hours of not playing) and my KEM say 2 mins. It takes 3 mins for a KEM to raise money. Similarly, my white houses say 12 hours left when I haven’t touched them for hours!

    • I’ve been noticing that happening in my game recently,,also. It’s especially noticeable with the Kwik-E-Mart. Haven’t paid much attention to other timers. Makes sense though. Geez,,,not another glitch!!

  25. Here are my answers in order, yes, a lot, personally I don’t care and finally, maybe. (Cue Peggy Lee)

  26. Ydouneedtoknow

    1. Yes
    2. All landed added this last time plus half of 5 columns opposite water.
    3.land released with an event.
    4. I think game goes on after show ends. Game becomes a way to release “mini” episodes. Why else make all these awesome changes when the show is probably ending soon.

  27. So…what is the current item limit? Seen a few different numbers bandied about, but not sure which is correct.😁

  28. With the minievents I dont need new land, I use one or two peices in other areas only. We will never get the 6 weeks event back with a complicaded way to get through them.

  29. I have an idea to shake up the system. This is something I’ve thought about for the past couple months. I know it may be controversial, but this may explain why we don’t have diagonal roads.. they may all be diagonal.
    dun dun dun
    https://imgur.com/gallery/RHnVwcq

  30. Does Your Golden Goose Realty still pump out Land Tiles?
    A game, used donuts to buy too many tiles – hit limit. B game- had a glitch and I was able to generate free tiles just by visiting neighbors and returning, til hit the limit. C,D,E games – not buying tiles so they still generate.

    How much Land do you still have to open up?
    A,B – None. C and D, a lot E, still have cash areas.

    What do YOU think will happen with Springfield Heights?
    They are waiting so everyone thinks they are getting that “special Christmas gift”.

    When do YOU think the game will finally fold up shop?
    Using Moore’ law, memory becomes cheaper. Processors become faster and cheaper. So the company can add more land and more items. So as long they generate enough money to pay for the electricity, it should go on.

    • Charles, you’re a beast! (compliment)
      *mind blown, bows head in respect*
      A, B, C, D.. E!
      I can spend up to 4H per day in my Springfield if it’s a bad news day. The thought of managing multiple towns makes me as anxious as Wendell riding the school bus.

    • What really bothers me is the Big Finger. If I tap it before gathering my land tile I lose my land tile from the GGR.

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