I’ve always wanted to title a post with just an emoji…
Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Well, it’s Thursday and still nothing new from EA. Good times in TSTO guys, good times.
Yes, you’re bored. I’m bored too. It’s weird not having new content to write about.
And I already know, because of your comments, some of you are freaking out over the lack of updates…
And I’ll admit, it’s a bit weird to have no new content in TSTO in well over a month (Classless Reunion hit on March 13th…). But I’m not freaking out. Not yet anyway.
Call me the eternal optimist when it comes to TSTO. Some may even refer to it as being a bliss-ninny. I’ve just been doing this for so long that I don’t freak out over weirdness in this game. Too many weird things have happened in this game, followed by even weirder things, to get freaked out over any aspect of it.
Right now I know about as much as you guys know. Which isn’t a whole heck of a lot. But we’ll see what happens when it happens.
And as I’ve said over and over, we’ll still have fun content for you to check out and keep you entertained…even if nothing is going on in the game. And if/when we hear/see anything from EA regarding an update we’ll have that info immediately for you as well. Until then, let’s keep having fun…and try not to freak out! 🤯
On the plus side…the downtime allowed me to have a totally relaxing vacation with my family where I caught up with my favorite fuzzball (and his wonderful family) where Sam got to meet his “Uncle Wookiee”…and we’re not worried about the future of TSTO, so you shouldn’t be either! 🙂 
Oh and if there’s something you want to see me cover during the downtime let me know in the comments. Specific character profile? Chart? WDTCF? Other random content? Let me know below. Just keep in mind when making these requests…I have a full-time job that isn’t TSTO, two small Children, and a husband who tolerates blogging. My time isn’t unlimited. Which means…no I’m not going to write a list of every single item that ever arrived in the game, with its price point, how it got here, how the price point changed, and categorized it in a way that works best for you…but no one else. Be realistic with your requests. Something like, “Hey Alissa I’d love it if we saw a Character profile on Laura Powers” or “Hey Alissa I’d love it if you did a premium chart ranking your top ten must buys for TSTO”. Things like that.
I’m happy it’s quiet. I am busy farming donuts and buying yearbook items, so lots of old quests keeping me going.
Awww! Wookies itty bitty wookette sure looks like you! Surprised that before you said you two were friends instead of relatives. His baby sure does loom like she’s related to you! 🤗
Lol that’s probably because it is my baby. It’s baby Samuel! 😂😂😂
It feels like about time for a Stonecutters reunion! We could use some skins for other characters (Apu!) and more animated tasks. I love the “Sing the Stonecutter Song” with Number 51.
Remember the Zombie Sandwich? Can’t there be some kind of Stonecutters outdoor barbecue? Somehow I’m imagining it like a cross between Octoberfest and the Fourth of July.
I also miss the Easter streamers on the hedges and trees. Is it too late for spring decorations to drop? I always love the fall leaves. Please give us springtime, EA!
Well I’m just glad Alissa found time to enjoy a family vacation and see Wookie 😊
I was told that I was being too generous towards EA, but I still feel the same way (I’m just glad we could still farm for 🍩’s, generate Land Tokens, have a Mystery Box – you take away all three and then this Game App is in trouble!) Having zero expectations means I can’t be disappointed when there is nothing!
One look through Google Play proves my point that this Game App is vital compared to those that are similar (good grief! most of the competition does not allow you further content beyond Level 50, forces you to pay to get there, is painfully slow, hasn’t been updated in ages, should be removed by Google!)
If I could ask for just one thing from EA? Let’s go back to when there was a webpage promoting the eventual Simpson’s Ride / Springfield coming to Universal Studios Orlando! When you visited the website, you were able to create yourself as a Simpsons Character – what if EA allowed you to make a Simpson’s Character of your likeness AND choose your own Character Tasks within this Game App? I would spend real money on that!
So my conspiracy theory, since I do small business IT for a living, is that they have the game on life support because they are migrating the main server cluster to a new location or upgrading it in place at the current facility they are in. My wife’s work did this once. They physically shipped the server racks via big rig across country so they could live somewhere else and it took over a week just to move them.
Once it’s all stable again they can start flooding the servers with connection requests from all of us again.
Not bad logic… except that this program is a “Two stage connection.” The ID servers are different than the content servers…and a load shared across several zones around the world. EA does appear to be having issues with the Origin servers. We’ll see…
TSTO “End Game” it’s fitting and right on time
Of course it only exists in your mind.. so there’s that
Try going to your neighbors & back again after using skyfinger. I find this sorts this out & you should have all your cash etc.
When this game does end, will you people continue this blog site to help us Addicts through the stages of withdrawal? You could rename this site TSTO ADDICTS ANONYMOUS. I know a lot of us long time players are going to need SERIOUS HELP!!!
We’ve always said the site will continue to exist as long as you guys stick around
I am still a fan of the old levels in play….that way I could play at my own speed, had more time to see friends towns, for design ideas & to visit them. Plus still had the events on top of everything else, I was a happy with that format.
In the old days I remember it sometimes took a very long time before we got something new. In fact the constant ‘new’ things are not that old. I do think EA will give us some new things bur not at the rate they have done before. Although i’m a long time player I still have a lot in that box. So now and then I buy some stuff and then again i have some questlines. Probably they meant it to be that way. All in all, i’m not unhappy for now, let’s see where it goes
Maybe that’s a thing a thing Alissa can find out.
What was the longest time before an update?
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/03/19/tapped-out-up-dates/
I’m not unhappy either. I’m getting characters and quest lines faster than ever since it doesn’t take long to farm 30 donuts. I’ve gotten more premium characters since the yearbook was released than at any other time of my four years playing.
Hey everybody, I heard somewhere that storing numerous items into group storage and the re-placing them in your town can circumvent the item limits (Sorry if this has been discussed before and I missed it!). Thought this sounded fishy, but when doing so I do see that when your group is highlighted when bringing it out of storage and you’re able to move the group around finding placement for it, the screen *does* display “Items: 1.”
Anyone know if grouping and restoring will count your entire design as 1 item? Is there a way to confirm this?
I am enjoying the Simpsons trivia during the down time. I was able to get enough donuts to try my hand at the mystery box and got Brandine and Booberella. I have been wanting them for some time now! Now the three month wait for a baby Spuckler begins 😉
My second baby sparkler is due in 9 days haha
For what its worth, EA is still posting on the TSTO facebook page.
I’m not freaking out over the recent lack of new content and the frequent breaks lately. I am however annoyed that EA is not giving us advanced warning about these breaks because it would really help players to relax during those break periods.
Also, (although some of the errors are probably the result of my poor internet connection) it occurs to me that the increased frequency of the “cannot connect to server” errors may be an indication that EA needs to upgrade its servers before they can give us a major game update, and maybe they are using these breaks to slowly perform those upgrades. The question is whether or not they will temporarily take the game offline in order to finish those upgrades.
What I would really like to know is what is currently going on behind the scenes with EA (in general), and with TSTO (specifically). It seems to me that they still have a lot of source material for several really great ideas for the game, so what’s the holdup with using those ideas. In other words, what is the reason for why EA is not giving us a major update, yet, and why do some of the updates that they have given us also give the impression that EA is running out of ideas for the game. That’s why I want to know what’s going on behind the scenes.
I’ve noticed the dreaded “cannot connect to server” more frequently as well, and starting today, I’ve had to sign back into my account twice. I doubt they’re spending any money upgrading servers, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if they are “scaling back” on the amount of processing power they have available for TSTO. It is expensive to run servers, and if they see demand is down, it would make sense to release some of that processing power back into the wild.
We need to re-learn to be OK with boredom, to not be ever running after which ever goals/appointments/rewards. Just sit back and relax. I’m OK with the downtime so far.
I think that the TSTO developers disappeared in Thanos’ snap and since EA pays so little attention to this game they never noticed.
Just this morning I saw someone being tapped (crushed) by Skyfinger 👇in Epsisode 10 of Season 29. Some writer is pilling our leg 🦵
If EA wants to give us something to do that would not take a lot of effort on their part while they work out whatever issues they are having, they could open up more land in Springfield Heights and just let us grind to earn land tiles. I would like to rearrange things in that area but have long run out of room.
All I want is a REGULAR event. None of this mini-event nonsense. Until then, I am content to farm donuts for the yearbook and redesign some parts of my town. I’ve been having pretty good luck with the yearbook and have only gotten a few duds (like Handsome Pete).
Y’ARRR…..he dances for nickels!
Come on….what’s not to love???
I’m optimistic too. If people weren’t playing the game, I’d be worried.. but it’s still very popular. I remember “back in the old days” of TSTO, there were very few events and lots of down time. That’s when I was playing Mystery Manor as my primary game, and would pop in every now and then and play TSTO during events. TSTO started to become really fun, and I eventually deleted Mystery Manor to become a full time TSTO addict. Then as I got more into it, I discovered that while the events were fun, I enjoyed designing even more. Let’s face it, we’ve gotten spoiled lately with one event after another. I’m thinking EA is just scaling back a tad because I’m sure it costs a lot in time and money every time they do an update. Is it the end of the world for TSTO? Naaaaah! The programmers are probably reading these comments and enjoying the speculation. And with their warped sense of humor (I meant that as a complement), it wouldn’t surprise me to see an “end of the world” event.
End of the World sounds too much like Bart Royale – don’t make Alissa angry…
She’d probably prefer nothing to more of that 😉
Yes. No more Bart Royale!
Yes. No more Bart Royale!
In the medium term, the game will either end or it won’t…
It has run for far longer than I expected it to, but I’d like it to carry on 🙂
In the long run, the game will end, if only because the Sun will eventually expand to swallow the earth, along with the TSTO servers :-O
I turned 60 at the UK’s Easter science fiction convention, and retired from work last Tuesday, so realistically I’ve got other things I should be doing, like organising a genuine, keep heading east (or west) all the way, round-the world trip with SWMBO next year…
Oh, and she keeps muttering strange, nonsensical phrases like “housework” and “Clearing stuff out”.
Since She let me buy a shiny new Jaguar as a retirement toy, I suppose I’d better listen! 😀
Anyway, whatever happens to our silly little game in the future, a big thank-you to Alissa and the rest of the crew for running this madhouse, and thanks to all you other Addicts out there for making it such a good place to hang out!
Oh and thank you to EA for giving us a mostly great game – where would we be without them, after all?
Happy retirement! Hope it sticks! Mine…not so much.
SWMBO – does that work across the pond? And congrats on the new Jag!
I think EA has much bigger problems right now than TSTO…we are most likely on the back burner until they solve the player fall-off issues with their major cash earning games. I wouldn’t be surprised to be in a holding pattern for several months, if not longer.
Is this based on something concrete or just speculation?
Google BioWare cutbacks and Anthem poor performance.
Bioware devs have been screwing around for years now, so no one (except for maybe some uninformed EA shareholders) really expected Anthem to become anything more than mediocre…
But what exactly does Bioware have to do with the development of Tapped Out or vice versa? Did EA take some Tapped Out developers away to help take Bioware out of their (sad to say: well deserved) dirt?
You answered your own question…EA shareholders…they don’t care which part of EA is to blame, only the bottom line. When your arm is hemmorhaging, the entire body suffers the blood loss and shuts down non-crucial systems. I think TSTO is about as non-crucial as it gets at EA.
Agreed. You are spot on.
I don’t say this lightly, but maybe they should rather cut this specific infected arm (BioWare) off. They’ve done that kind of operation several times before, they know how it goes. The arm can’t be saved. But the body will heal, unless they just let the infection spread…
The game would lose a ton of players if it went on hold for many months.
Hi all. I’m quite enjoying the downtime. Coincided with a move to a new city & a new job. Now have a bit of time to tap. I just have a random question which I’ve posted before but never got a response, or missed it. Now everyone has time on their hands🤞In my b game the sea cpt can’t do the ghostly ship task as it’s locked. How can I trigger it please if at all. Thx. 🧡X
Maybe a stupid question. Did you buy the ghostly ship?
It wan’t intentional on my B game. It was ‘gifted’ in a mystery box gamble thing 😊
Maybe a stupid question. Did you buy the ghostly pirate ship? You should have Blackbeard roaming around in your Springfield.
https://tstoaddicts.com/2017/06/23/should-i-spend-donuts-on-blackbeard-the-ghost-pirate-airship/
Neither can those of us that got it after that event ended – whatever the trigger was, it seems to have been part of the event…
TIMJIMCARSON – Thx. I went to the link that Rudi sent. My comment from 2017 is there. Oh well, maybe EA will address it one day. A tad annoying that I was forced to take the ship but can’t make use of it fully…..😓. Thx for letting me know I’m not alone. Appreciate the reply…..🧡X