Update: It appears we have our first bug of the new content. Part 1 of the questline is supposed to give you Aristotle (full character) if you don’t already have him, however, it’s not. And you need Aristotle to complete part 1 of the questline (can’t send Burns without him as it’s a joint task). So quite a few players are stuck right away on part 1.
No workaround at the moment, have to wait for it to be patched. You can try to contact EA and see if Customer Support can add him to your inventory, otherwise, we just have to be patient.
Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
So it’s 10am here on the East Coast of the US and that means Marge at the Bat is now live in our games.
As I mentioned a few times, it appears there is no new content with this one. It’s an 8 part questline (that will take approx 32hrs to complete) and a bunch of returning content (some for Free, some for donuts).
You’ll have two weeks to complete the questline and purchase items you’re eyeing, as this content is slated to leave our games on April 24th.
Here’s a look at what’s inside…
This update is kind of fun, questline wise because the dialogue combines two fun Baseball/Softball episodes of The Simpsons….Homer at the Bat and Money Bart.
I’ll post a full dialogue version of the questline a little later, I’ll hold off on a Turbo Tappin’ version. But for those who want to know who to keep free/when here’s the list:
Questline is called Marge at the Bat
Pt. 1- Burns, Aristotle, and Smithers (4hrs each)
Pt. 2- Smithers and Burns (4hrs each)
Pt.3-Lenny, Barney, Disco Stu, and CBG (4hrs each)
Pt.4- Marge and Burns (4hrs each)
Pt. 5- 3 team members, Lenny, Carl, Homer, Stu, Barney, CBG, Moe, Zutroy, or Baseball Jasper (4hrs each)
Pt. 6- Lisa and Marge (4hrs each)
Pt. 7- Marge, Burns, and 3 Team Members (4hrs each)
Pt. 8- Homer, Marge, 3 Team Members (4hrs each)
Content:
Free Characters/Skins Awarded with questline…
Aristotle Amadopolis– Free with part 1 of the questline
Softball Burns- Free with part 2 of the questline (note: Softball Burns got a little makeover. The arm angle of his unlock screen is slightly different. The first image is from Tapball, the second is included with this update. Just an interesting aside…)
Tennis Marge- Free with part 4 of the questline
Baseball Jasper- Free with part 7 of the questline
Referee Homer- Free with part 8 of the questline
Returning Premium Content… (if you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you!)
Stadium Fence– $1,000
Tennis Court– 10
(in my game it costs trophies. I think they put the wrong one in, may change to premium with a patch @ 30 donuts. Awards REV 
)
Jacques and Fiesta Terrace– 150 Donuts
Wendell and Zip, Zap and Za‘- 150 Donuts
Poochie and Ramp– 150 Donuts
Lewis and the Practice Rink– 165 Donuts
Gorgeous Grampa– 75 Donuts
Toreador Grampa– 85 Donuts
Football Nelson- 85 Donuts
Simpson Laser Tag– 145 Donuts
Tailgate– 200 Donuts
Duff Brewery, Duffman, & Lady Duff– 190 Donuts
Single Bleachers- 5 donuts
Stadium Lights– 5 donuts
Double Bleachers- 10 Donuts
Triple Bleachers– 20 Donuts
Homertron- 20 Donuts
Half-Pipe- 100 Donuts
Football Target– 25 Donuts
Football Uprights– 50 Donuts
Training Bundle– 125 Donuts (includes: Obstacle Wall, Obstacle Tires, Obstacle Wire, Obstacle Log, Golf Course, Boxing Ring, T-Ball Stand and Tennis Machine)
Duff Party Bus– 45 Donuts
Duff-Barney Blimp– 70 Donuts
And that’s it guys. A new questline, sports-related returning content, and two weeks to have some fun with it all!
Thoughts on the content? Items you’ll be picking up? Excited to get costumes you may have missed for free? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!
My Springfield is full of tennis courts now…tennis courts in the open, tennis courts hiding behind buildings…So long as it is only costing trophies… I will keep on farming trophies 😁
My game has been crashing a lot ever since this update was introduced. Anyone else?
Yup, getting disconnected from the server a LOT.
Is it just my game or does everyone else still have the YEARBOOK MYSTERY BOX catalog from the previous update going strong in their game?
Yep!
Yep, I’m also stuck w/o Aristotle to start the game. Thanks for the update.
Just wondering if anyone else is having significant disconnection problems. After weeks of steady play, it seems like I am getting disconnected about every 5 to 10 minutes.
Was asking myself the exact same thing, seeing quite a lot of Bart Screens since the start of the update-which-is-no-update…
Happy to have the stadium pieces available. May invest in the skins, maybe not. Glad that there is an event. Kinda looking forward to a major one now.
Was pleased to get Aristotle Amadopolis in my second world ( only started in September last year ) So any free character is a bonus, otherwise this event seems pretty meh.
Do you unlock Jasper (the character) if you complete Pt. 7 and you don’t have it?
I would like to know that too.
I would guess so. I had the “Baseball Jasper” skin for a long time before I got him.
I’m pretty sure the baseball theme is because the MLB season just started.
I honestly think that what’s been going on is the result of plain old budget cuts. It makes sense…the game is quite old in terms of mobile game apps, all of the content that make most people want to play has already been released, the number of players has seriously dropped, and they aren’t making the money they did a few years ago. Thus we’ll be seeing less updates and new content, and bugs may become more frequent and may take longer to fix. >shrugs<
That seems to me the most sensible interpretation of events I’ve heard so far.
I think they’re in a holding pattern until the sale with Disney is figured out in terms of how it will impact EA’s longterm licensing rights.
Is anyone else having logon problems? I am getting booted out every time, and have to delete and reinstall to play again…super frustrating
I wish they’d give marge a few skins. I occasionally change skins on characters just to switch things up – and it’s a shame there are only a few skins for marge….
They’ve got Shapes gym and her bodybuilder skin in the yearbook. And one of the first prizes in the event brings back her tennis skin. I just got that today.
Some inspiration for the sport items offer to us by E.A.
https://imgur.com/gallery/MxPkiZn
I haven’t started the event yet but noticed tonight that my bonus % has increased by 4.0 %. I keep a list of any items I add that provide % to track the progress and the last increase was on Sunday for a dig torch at 0.20 %. Is there an item that now earns % that didn’t before? This is reeaaaaaally bugging me. Any ideas ?
Aha!! It’s the Bicycle-Basketball Ramp from the Poochie Dog Dayz Event – it now earns 4%.
At the cost of 150 donuts but it is Poochie
And Poochie’s tasks pay the premium rate now too.
As it should be. Premium price, premium payment.
I hate to be negative but what a disappointment. The whole point of events is new content. There were so many possibilities. I was hoping for Daryl Strawberry, Jose Canseco, Ken Griffey jr. and company. We already have the Springfield Mystery Spot. We could have even had Dancing Homer and even stuff related to Capital City or the Isotopes. Wonder bat Homer, hunger strike Homer etc. Not even a baseball stadium. Also, can there ever please be anything in the game that doesn’t cost donuts? I have millions of game cash that is next to useless. Why not let us buy some donuts for game cash and tickets. Even if it was very expensive it would be worth it.
You can. It is called donut farming.
Donutology is given by Safi.
https://tstoaddicts.com/2018/07/27/addicts-5-year-look-back-kwik-e-mart-farming-for-free-donuts/#more-59393
I decided to get more tennis courts (after all). I don’t need them, but they’re nice to have (even if in my inventory).
Place them in hidden spots for a % bonus per item placed! You don’t get the bonus if in the inventory!
Thanks the new pieces of land, I was able to place the green tennis 🎾 courts far from my Springfield, completely out of sight.
Yes. I know. Thanks. As I said in a different post- I already have a super high XP %. So I really don’t need anymore. I don’t want to clutter my town with 100 tennis courts.
I have made an old fashioned tennis stadium 🏟 sponsored by Duff.
Didn’t go through all the replies, but you said there’s no work around if you don’t have Aristotle…I have him already so I don’t know if this helps, but couldn’t you get him in the yearbook? Or is he not there? Just trying to help.
I can understand the disappointment of some veteran players with this update; I personally started playing last year during Itchy and Scratchy Land so I’d be pretty satisfied if they keep bringing back old content and keep the Yearbook Box, and just keep the game running. Out of these items, I only have Poochie; I’m going to buy Lewis + Practice Rink and the Training Bundle since I can still get the other items in the yearbook.
Considering you can send Sideshow Mel on a 8hrs task that earns 24 awards, that is probably the best bonus return.
Sideshow Mel and Bob are busy earning them together with Roger Meyers. 48 awards in 8 hours.
I know you said it might correct itself, but it hasn’t yet so I just used all 300 of my statues to buy tennis courts and have 70% bonus XP as a result. I think I’ll be farming for statues!
I know right. I had recently finished maxing out all my Heights currency, cuz I hate having the floating icons all the time.
As am I on both my games! Not that I heed all the extra XP – But why not do it anyway & hide the courts in behind other buildings & etc for the bonus?
This “event” makes me think maybe they are winding down the game. They’ll still keep offering new quests to keep new players engaged while offering them recycled content to spend their money on. I suspect EA probably don’t much care about long term players at this point since those types of players can get generally donuts for free from KEM or Rat Trap Truck farming.
Playing “devil’s advocate…”
What percentage of TSTO players actually farm donuts? I only began KEM farming late last year. Prior to that, I earned my donuts the old-fashioned way (e.g., Find Maggie, Monorail, tapping neighbors’ buildings, etc.) and, of course, simply buying them when I needed more.
In fact, I’ve spent a good deal of money actually buying donuts on the game. Aside from those of us who visit websites like this, most people that I know who have played the game just don’t know how to “donut farm” anyway.
If everyone were simply farming, then for sure EA would end the game or patch it so you couldn’t farm.
So there must be enough people paying to play. I farm a bit, but dropped $6 this week on donuts cause I was tired of grinding.
Just slight alteration in the game software would donut farming impossible
Yes…as has been discussed innumerable times.
That discussion is almost getting to the point of “ad nauseam”
Hard to say what percentage of players farm, but I’m guessing it’s a higher percentage among players that have been playing for several years. I’m not saying there’s still not people that spend actual money on the game and I don’t think farming is really that effective for newer players.
I’m just guessing that many players that have reached max level have figured out farming and have the option of getting premium stuff for free if they want to. Therefore, EA may be shifting events towards newer players that are more included to drop real money on the game.
Under normal conditions, a new player can get their bonus level up to a level where they can get everything they want in about a year.
How’d you define “normal conditions”? Frantically reading forums from day 1? Starting the game with buying a boatload? I’d rather say that most new players don’t even really know the importance (or power) of the % bonus for quite some time because they’re just playing the game. It took me at least 6 months before first reading about donut farming, about another 6 months getting ready for it and then at least another year (or rather two) to get to the point where I could afford “everything I want”…
As for “normal” conditions, if you started a new game today with the knowledge of KEM farming, the collider and buying 6 donuts Mystery Boxes within a year you will be able to generate enough donuts to buy everything available during an event. Not normal conditions: (a) things that increase your bonus rapidly, for example the tennis courts currently being offered (b) large offering such as the Yearbook mystery box (which you might not be able to buy everything in the time available) (c) glitches (for example your characters stuck in a task) that allow you to rapidly increase your cash. For example, recently I was able to generate $700K a minute in my anonymous (Epsilon), and thus buy allow the remaining land tiles available for cash. This also allowed me to increase my KEM farm up to 400. (Until recently, this was a non grind game).
I chronicled on the site my test game (Delta) to examine the benefits of KEM farming. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1k2HxB8nTpt23PLS7T92Jer7BpLOkg-iV (6/17 to 12/17)
In about six months I was able to buy everything available. Then they put everything in the vault. Now they made a lot more available for a lot less.
From my experience I believe if anyone decides to “grind” and concentrate on increasing their bonus they can quit “grinding” in less than a year and still generate enough donuts to get everything they want.
Charles is our original “Mega Farmer.” This is great info… providing TSTO is around in a year.
I was slow to come around. And still don’t grind to increase. But, I am beyond being a casual farmer…for sure.
Haha sure, if you know this perfectly optimized way of playing even BEFORE you start your town and if you’re willing and able to focus all your efforts into increasing your multiplier you might reach that point of “donut-richness” in a year. But I wouldn’t call that kind of powergaming “normal conditions”. I’d rather bet that 95% of new players got no clue about KEM, collider, mystery boxes, Beach Hideouts and whatnot 😉
If you already have a game, it will not take you that long. I am just saying that from scratch if you want to buy everything for free it will take you less than a year to do it. I spent the first 3 years of the game without farming. It will take a lot less time if you don’t want everything or you already have a head start.
If you look at the pdf of the spread sheet it took me 6 months to get to a bonus level of 329 (Delta game). In my Epsilon game, I was at 834% on 12/8. With the Yearbook Mystery Box I went from 1346% on 2/14 to 2070% yesterday. With the tennis courts, in one day I increased to 2121%. Once you get above 2000% you really don’t need to farm (KEM or RTT). I the last 2 years in my first 3 games I have only farmed a few times. In one game to purchase all the land tiles. And in my Delta game to purchase everything in the Mystery Boxes And most of the time I didn’t send my characters out leaving them available for quests. Just visiting them enough to complete the quests and playing the games was sufficient to collect enough XP to earn all the donuts I needed.
And again……. how much TIME did you put into hitting this? And when do you start designing, and actually using all of what you win?
There are so many ways to play. Your way is one way. I get it. There are some who simply play for the numbers. There are others who value their TIME as the most important currency.
We get it. Really.
I have five games so I have a lot of time. I switched to playing TSTO to keep me occupied while walking on the treadmill. I stopped doing the intricate design when I hit item limits (and in no way was as good as Ebron or even you) put I have different designs using all the buildings in four games. I have my Praiseland/Zoo in one game. Christmas land, mazes in my Treehouse of Horror area, Waterpark/Krustyland/Movie Studio Parks, government centers, sporting centers, wilderness areas, monorails, etc.
Collecting and farming are pretty much robotic activities that I can do while doing other tasks (e.g. writing this). Occasionally I will redesign one town or experiment with an area. Temporary messy areas in my town don’t bother me. When I need to I had house farms, KEM farms or just a place to that holds all the new items. Sometimes it is a challenge to find a place for a new items, like the superheros buildings. Then I decided to use them as rides, back lots,etc in the Move Studio Parks.
All good… but damn…that is a LOT of time, even while doing something else. Grinding is an every 4 hour task when building XP. You know I’ve done posts and real-time videos on how much time just clearing and placing your town takes. Yes. Where you are now in your game makes it all easy. But, getting there takes a TON of time. Most of us simply have other things we do, where have a pad/phone open is not an option. I’ve tried to golf while updating. Doesn’t work. I keep losing my phone on my backswing. Multiply this by several towns, and the time you have spent, is…well…pretty unimaginable to most players.
Yeah just what Patric said: I didn’t want to criticize that way of playing or even say it was impossible. If you wanna drive down Optimization Road and have fun doing so that’s absolutely fine. Did it myself before in a lot of games. The only point where I contradict is calling it “normal conditions” as I think that merely a small percentage of players plays that way.
The “normal conditions” was a reference to what was/is available in the game versus how one plays. A glitch, loop holes, getting bonus items for SH currency (relatively cheaply) and massive Mystery Boxes are not “normal”. The collider, the 6 donuts Mystery Box, RTT and KEM farming, house farming are all normal conditions now in the game.
Correct. Like I said. There are myriad ways to play the game. None is incorrect. But, clearly…some take a TON of time.
Yes it takes a lot of time, to start with. In my Epsilon game while on the treadmill and watching the news for 30 minutes I was able to farm about 500 donuts, run through a few quests, farm a couple of tennis courts, and collect all the income for the town. This included being disconnected four times.
In my Gamma (C) town, it took me just 2 minutes to run the current event tasks, collect my land tile and a boardwalk tile. While waiting for HQ to start I played my games (insanity cauldron, rocket ship and digging for relics), built four tennis courts and generating more SH currency. for about 5 minutes total. While playing HQ and collected income from my buildings earning 9 donuts. Had I sent my characters out on tasks, I would have earned 30+ donuts.
So yes, it does take time to get to the a high bonus level. But once you are there you save so much more time. If I had only one game, I could spend just 10 minutes a day to do an event.
And how much time did it take you to GET to that point of XP? Come on Charles… you really need to admit that when it comes to “normal” with the average TSTO player, you ain’t it. Normal you are not.
Of course I am not normal. I have five games. I am retired. But I never set an alarm to log into my game every four hours. In my first years I spent days without logging in (thus missing the start of events). I never worried about whether or not I would finish an event. I didn’t purposely get up in the middle of the night to log into the game. I wasn’t obsessed whether a character would enter the game or if the game was “canon”. I not obsessed with the game, it just gives me something to do while I do other stuff. Sometimes I like to design, sometimes I like to follow the quests.
It wasn’t until I “stumbled” on this site and shortly after read about KEM farming that I became a “dedicated” player. But I probably spend more time reading and writing on this site (and now building the database) than I do with the game itself.
While some consider “KEM farming” grinding, I find it more zen-like. Not a chore but something that is enjoyable because of the “non-thinking” aspect of it.
But the “Time” spent is relative. The more you increase the bonus the less time needed to generate the donuts you want. There is a point where the time spent earlier on to increase the bonus is saved it the future and from then on out it is all gravy.
I agree, this game seems End of Life. Here is an event that has no prize track and no new content. So I am tapping away just to read dialogue. I kind of suspected this after the huge release of previous content in the Yearbook Box. I will give it one more “event” after this one, and if it is the same I am done with the game.
So, how is everybody displaying all these tennis courts? Kind of hard to hide it behind anything.
You could add a couple to the YMCA, a couple to the Ziff indoor tennis court, a couple to the Quimby estate, four or six to the Country Club, and there are lots of upscale houses/mansions that could accomodate one or two, not to mention all the hotels and resorts.
I think I have a total of ten or twelve around my town…more than that, I guess you could buy a long finger of land in the right upper corner and place them all there.
I created a park area in my Springfield. I used walls, added trees and park buildings along with various sports-related options. Many towns and cities have public parks with multiple tennis courts side-by-side. So, that’s exactly what I did.
I play tennis so I am a fan of the courts. The rich folks will have their own private courts. The schools will have a bunch, as will the hotels, resorts, public pars.
*parks
My plan for these is build as many tiny tennis court parks among my housing developments of pink, purple, blue, white, and orange houses. The rest will be hidden behind larger objects, and may even make a line of em hidden behind the mountain range separating SH and the main area.
Pretty sure I’m going to end up with more courts than I can find places to put/hide tho. Is it just me, or is this the most %/least cost of any item previous excluding items that were granted during an event that either were or became premium?
Definitely the least cost. With the Googlplex you can generate 5 awards by spending 2 donuts. So 4 donuts gets you 10 awards or 1 tennis court.
So something like 1.4 donuts per bonus %.
I’m stocking up.
Could also line them behind buildings along the mountains 🙂
I have some on display near the premium schools; Some near Ziff building & others that Ebron suggested; The rest I hide behind other buildings – So I still get the XP – but don’t have to look @ a mass of tennis courts.
My Springfield University has a couple rows of tennis courts, similar to what you might see at other colleges. Springfield really is a tennis-loving town, apparently.
EA can add new content by adding more characters to visual task we already have in game, like give us more bowlers, give us more sunbathers, give us more stage acts, give us more bar flies to place..maybe a night mode?. im sure you guys can think of tons of stuff too. Longtime players should have an incentive to complete this storyline IMHO..hope everyone is well
Hi Sharky! 🙂
It appears the glitch has corrected itself. I have just been able to start Burn’s 4 hour job 🙂
I was late starting the event (stupid job keeping me away from tsto), and when I went into the store to view the new content, Aristotle was instantly unlocked.
I did not get an extra update so maybe going into the store unlocks him?
I was late starting the event, and no new update was pushed to my game.
When I went into the store to view the new content, Aristotle was unlocked. So maybe you just need to visit the store to get him added to your game.