Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Another TSTO Thursday and as usual I have some thoughts for you. This time I’m musing about the long lost Road to Riches and Friendship points. I’ve got a bunch of thoughts so let’s get to ‘em…
It feels great to have new stuff in TSTO, but how about EA goes back and updates some of the old stuff they promised to update years ago?!
It seems to me like EA has this history of having a great idea and every intention of letting the great idea build upon itself…and then just forgetting all about it. Letting the great ideas fall to the TSTO scrapheap with Quimby’s mistress’ underpants.
It’s like they have TSTO ADD and get distracted every time a squirrel runs across the yard.
Take Friendship points for example. They launched back in 2014, and were great. For those not familiar, or struggling to remember Friendship points this post explains them. Every time you collected a certain number of points you unlocked a special Friendship Prize.
This was great for a couple of reasons: 1. You got unique prizes to the game (and classic Simpson item, like Homer’s Car, the Olmec Head, Stampy etc.) and 2. It gave you a reason to go into your game daily AND visit your neighbors. And let’s be honest, without them was there ever really a point to visiting neighboring Springfields?
Friendship Points (and prizes) lasted up through Level 19, just about a year and a half after they started and then just abruptly stopped coming. No news that FPs were finished. They just stopped updating the Friendship Prize Track, making neighbor visits utterly useless. (especially when combined with no neighbor interactions during events)
Another example is the long lost Road to Riches…which is more like Road to Nowhere.
Launched in the summer of 2017, the Road to Riches showed so much promise initially. The basic premise was…spend a ton of money to unlock prizes. For those not familiar, or struggling to remember Road to Riches this post explains it.
With 3 prizes on the initial launch, this was a long-awaited way for players to spend in-game cash that had been accumulating since the end of level updates. With nothing new to spend cash on, this was a chance for Tappers to have a purpose to earning cash (besides donut farming). Basically, Road to Riches became the new Aspirational items (speaking of Aspirational Items, where they heck is my giant toilet EA?!)…fun items for a ridiculous amount of cash, with the promise of more coming soon, remember this?
After its initial launch Road to Riches was never updated. The same 3 initial prizes at launch became the only prizes in the Road to Riches track, with nothing more to do.
It’s like they have these ideas and they’re phenomenal, and then they fire (or relocate) the person in charge of them before they’re completed.
If EA had no intention of updating Road to Riches they shouldn’t have added the “Coming Soon????” box. No one would care, or wonder what was going on with it if it didn’t have that promise of something more. They need to either go or get off the giant toilet…
Either update the Road the Riches and then say “ok that’s it, we’re done here”…or continue to update it if that’s the plan. But don’t leave us all hanging with the Coming Soon icon…
And Friendship Prizes? Who the heck ends a level on Level 19? It’s not even a round number! 19 is a freakin’ prime number for crying out loud! You could have at least stopped on Level 20. A nice round number. Folks probably wouldn’t question a level 20. (And yes, before you correct me, I realize you can go to Level 20, but there are only 19 prizes. Level 20 appears because you don’t start at Level 0. The point still stands, with 19 actual prizes)
I just wish the TSTO design team would finish what they started. Great ideas, they just never fully see them through.
Thoughts? Care to share your own musings? What topic do you think I should tackle in my next musings post? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!
Couldnt agree more. I’ve been at the level cap since they set one. I almost have every character and building. It was nice to have something for higher lvl players. Hopefully someday out it’ll be finished
I’d like to be able to tap character icons in the upper left corner and be able to go to that character again, or build monorail track agdin, or be able to tap a building to collect money and collect all the buildings around it as well. Haven’t been able to do those things in over a year.
Seriously? Contact EA
What I’ve read over the last few months is there is a possibility of losing a ton of progress and I’m into it too much for that. I’m dealing with it. If someone has had the rollback done recently and not lost their progress or donuts/money spent I’d love to hear from you.
Me too!!
Maybe they have been working on all of these things during the recent downtime. Maybe it is the reason for the downtime…hahaha
P.s rotating different friends towns is a great idea!
EA does seem to be rolling out something major that people really want with each mini event: Golden Goose Realty, the Sky Finger [collect all] Monument, Yearbook Mystery Box, fixing the Amazon Zoom issue. All they’d need to do to be heroes is fix the roll back glitch and release a lot of SH heights land and they’d be right back in the sweet spot.
Road to Riches – I never bothered finishing it (ran out of space, I have plenty of space now, I may pick up where I left off)
Friendship points – great idea, some nice Prizes, a shame this stopped (I wouldn’t mind one more Prize)
Springfield Heights – mentioning it because it’s the white elephant in the room (come on! we’re left with this unused portion of land adjacent to Springfield Heights! we haven’t had anything new to craft in quite some time!)
Would you settle for a giant bidet?
Nothing less than the toilet will do
TY Alissa! I love your musings! Especially since they are usually right in line with most of ours, (that we are often grumbling to ourselves about). FP Prizes is one of them. It has had a “been stuck in limbo” feeling so long. That it was far from over, but stuck in the Springfield Tar pits. Needing a Dev to throw it a lifeline and get it back on track. Love, love, love Rusty’ 10 “random mystery neighbors” idea!!!
Which event(s?) was it, Tap Ball or Super Hero/Villain event(s) that allowed us to battle a “random mystery Springfield”? I LOVED that!!! I always have an “Anonymous Springfield” going, (especially if I get a new device) and it was awesome to have an event that allowed my mini to do the Friend Action aspect of the event. Plus if I remember correctly, losing changed your standing %, & I hated doing that to a friend/actual neighbor.
Heights has been a sore spot! Hate the unbalanced feeling of the land mass with the main SF. I too have so many ideas (but insufficient space to begin)! I mean, why give us a heights, but not the space to make an actual Heights!? (Where all the privileged rich people live, (mansions with obscenely big yards & decor). The more Frou-Frou (Froo Froo) shops & eateries..etc.. Using land tokens there would be awesome, but if we have to craft to onlock, well…ok… But if they aren’t gonna unlock any land for us there, at least let us store the dang crafting buildings so we have more room!!! So many things we aren’t allowed to store. Also too many pointless things in storage that we can’t sell, or stuff we get from “Digging” or sending Do hope & his fellow I’ll on task. I mean… How many stone toilets and tv’s does a person need!? Let us sell them!!! *Rolls eyes exasperated*
Great post Alissa. Been waiting for EA to update the last quest on Road to Riches. Never thought about the Friendship points, but that sounds like a great idea. I don’t remember the giant toilet episode, but I laugh every time you mention it.
Also the vault is a bit stale, which they would cycle all available decorations with a bonus, since I’ve missed a few. Sure there are others that feel the same way.
I find Road to Riches last prize a disappointment. So maybe it was for the best. You have a beautiful, scenic dam, then these glorious big mansion garden, and then… Something that’s not what you’re expecting at the end of the road for a millionaire. But oh well. That said, they probably ran out of ideas for a 160million-worth prize, and eventually just stopped thinking about it.
A bit off-topic, but I’d love to be able to enjoy past events. I used to play the game anonymously a few years ago, then got bored, and about a year ago decided to open an account. I remember having some beautiful buildings and neighbourhoods from good events (things that don’t come with the Yearbook Mystery Box), and I’m sad that I lost them. It doesn’t even feel right to collect prizes from the Yearbook without every other element that belong in the same event. Oh well, but that would be a dream (one I know would irritate a lot of older players).
Be nice if they offered bundles of items from past events in the vault.
They have a few NPCs. But we’re missing a few buildings and such… It’s like owning the 3rd book from a trilogy but missing the first two!!
They could release several limited-time boxes, each from a different event, and put all the prizes and goodies (even the small ones), to buy as much as we like, with donuts. It would be nice and fair.
All in, the game is life ruining fun, and will distroy any sound mind, but it’s only a game, a game that’s need some life put into it, as of now it has 0%, as for the addicts, plenty years left lol ✔️⛳😂🤷♂️⛱️🎁⚡💥
I would love to see more friendship prizes. Since I’m at my friend limit, I try to visit a few times a week. I never did the road to riches quest. It was just too expensive when I first saw it.
I have a new incentive to return daily to my game, I’m rewarded with an immediate “level up” and a chance for 3 donuts. The first time it happened I thought it was a glitch, but now it happens every day I visit my town. It’s been happening ever since I started taking a few days off at a time, and now is a regular occurrence… guess they’re trying to encourage me to come back and play more regularly. Or maybe it really is just a glitch…if so, hope they don’t fix it anytime soon. 👍😁
Same thing happening here. So, BOOM! Love it. No matter what the reason or intent.
This started for me quite a while ago (like an event or two before the current one) and I think only occurs after I finish whatever the current event is.
It’s a side effect/bug of the sky finger monument if you have to many buildings.
Just rsync your game after using the SFM and you will get the donuts box
Cool, thanks for the tip😁
Has anyone else not been able to log into their game? I play two different Springfields and I haven’t been able to get into either in 2 days
I still visit neighbors because I like to see other people’s designs.
What I would like to see is:
Better items in the vault, at better prices.
More prizes for visiting neighbors.
A random neighbors feature. Each week you get say 10 random neighbors added, then the next week it gets replaced with 10 new random neighbors and so on. Your Springfield also gets randomly placed in 10 others neighbor list. Participation would be voluntary.
It would be neat to have new neighbors each week.
Rusty, you’re a genius…what a great idea. This way, if you came across a town that you really liked you could send them a neighbor request. I’m sure there are hundreds of terrific towns that we’ll never get to see the way things are set up now. I hope EA considers this idea…maybe a bus like the Krustyland bus to take us to Mysteryville with 10 random towns added?
GENIUS!! I love this idea. I try to have my neighbors be the “creative types” that inspire me (Ebron included). But, I would love to see some other towns on a random basis. I remember that this was one of the things I really enjoyed about the Clash of Clones event (even though you were going to random towns to destroy their castles). I liked being surprised with new looks.
Thanks Ebron and Patric!
Yeah I think random neighbors would really be a fun addition.
I love seeing what others have done…plus it gives me ideas to use!
And for those that want to opt out, just add a field under settings that you check if you want to participate.
OY! I agree completely. I really hate it when people don’t finish what they
🥁
LOL!
You are soooooooo right Alissa. EA is a little cuckoo. Of course- we’re talking about the Simpsons. Nothing is supposed to make sense. The game is based on a cartoon (where literally anything is possible). Ending the friendship prize track at level 19 makes perfect sense in an animated universe. Having said that……..it would be nice if EA paid a little more attention to following up on concepts that have been introduced into the game, but apparently abandoned.
I mean after 30 years Lisa is still 8 years old so…. 🐤🐤
This has nothing to do with the game but it is about the Simpsons. The reruns of the shows I love!! I see they are becoming shorter with adding in Family Guy on some days. But…. the RERUN of the Simpsons movie come on I know it by heart and would desperately love to see a new one. Like it is way overdue.. And yes I know there isn’t any plans but re-showing the movie over and over again. I would ove too see the ratings they get on watching the movie alone.
They’re splitting airing The Simpsons reruns between FXX and Freeform, since the Disney takeover. (which is why you see less on FXX)
As long as I don’t lose the ability to watch “Every. Episode. Ever.” on the FXX Roku channel, I’m happy!
My understanding is you will. That’s leaving FXX for Disney + once it’s launched, at least that appears to be how it’s phrased here. Simpsons World online site is shutting down once Disney + launches. Now that’s the website, not 100% sure about streaming..but I would assume…
https://deadline.com/2019/05/freeform-the-simpsons-off-network-rights-share-fxx-1202614164/
I will be super bummed if it does leave FXX streaming (which is free, at least if you have FXX via cable subscription) for Disney+, which I’d probably never subscribe to.
(I currently get Netflix free with my cable subscription and Amazon Prime with, well, my Amazon Prime subscription (duh!), but, considering that I pay a LOT of money for cable (which gives me a zillion channels, including all of the HBO and Showtime channels, plus other premium movie channels, on top of all of the network and cable channels), it’s unlikely that I’d spend my already-tight funds to subscribe to any streaming channels. And, if I did, first up would probably be Hulu….Disney+ would be way down the list.)
I cut the cable in January. Still get (live +dvr) every channel we watched with cable and we’re saving $90 a month.
I have Netflix but plan on canceling it once Fuller House is over. Ever since they pulled Disney movies off of it (which Riley watches) I’m basically paying $12 a month to not watch it, except for Fuller House.
12.99 from June 1 if I am not mistaken…
Really enjoy your musings posts 🙂
Thank you my friend 🙂
Excellent post. I would definitely visit friends more often if there were continually prizes to work towards. I already have all the prizes they have offered so far. As it is, half my friends don’t play often if at all and the rest are like me: we visit occasionally but not everyday. As far as the road to riches, I’ve been waiting for awhile for the next prize to drop. I’m running out of things I want to spend money on and since I can’t spend it to earn donuts or land, my account just keeps growing. I don’t know what the maximum amount of money one can have is but I’m concerned that at some point, I’m going to go over it and then all the collecting of taxes for people and buildings will be for nought. So EA if you’re reading the posts on this subject, please consider adding prizes in both of these areas. Thanks
http://tstoaddicts.com/2019/01/28/super-safis-monday-morning-math-mayhem-04-4294967295/
Check out this post, it’ll breakdown the max amount of money
Cool. Thank you.
Collecting the income from buildings is never “for naught” even when you’re maxed out on cash (which happened to me for the first time last week) because you still earn XP from those buildings and XP earns you donuts.
I would also like more land available in Springfield Heights. More room to expand the area as well as more land to put my monorail through those mountains and through SH’s. Lots of good ideas but no room to support them on that side of the mountains. I sure do enjoy the land tokens every 12 hours though! 😻 🌷
Land tokens every 12 hours? I haven’t gotten a land token in quite a long time. I’m obviously missing something!
You’re missing Golden Goose Realty (aka GGR)…
http://tstoaddicts.com/2019/01/11/should-i-spend-donuts-on-the-golden-goose-realty/
It’s not currently available, but be on the lookout for when it comes back to the stores so you don’t miss it again.
Thank you!
I agree with your Post… many things are forgotten in TSTO game.. Friendship points and prizes, road to riches, Springfield Heights, Krustyland, even the Monorail seems forgotten (am still waiting for a task to send character to ride the monorail, not just Homer), Springfield Squid Port… but still fun to play…
Springfield Heights has become another KrustyLand a good idea at the time but another forgotten update.
“They just stopped updating the Friendship Prize Track, making neighbor visits utterly useless.”
Actually, even after the friendship prizes stopped, visiting friends was still useful for the occasional bonuts you could earn from doing that. (Remember when earning a single free donut was exciting?) But now that there are much faster, more reliable ways of earning bonuts, the only value to visiting neighbors (outside of events that use that) is to check out other folks’ designs and to just be “neighborly,” neither of which encourage visiting more than once in a while.
So I agree that bringing back the friendship prize incentive would be nice. I don’t have time these days to make daily neighbor visits like I used to, way back when, but it would at least encourage me to visit far more frequently than I currently do.
Oh the stray donut…
Remember when we’d get excited about getting a donut from clearing trash?
Those were the days…
I still get a donut from time to time…. but now an issue I am having is that, when I click on the icon to go to my neighbors page, half the time I don’t have any neighbors only the “other springfield”. I have to go back to my Springfield and back to the Neighbors screen to see the list… or some times just reset game all together… so annoying..
The no neighbours thing seems to be happening more often lately.
Does anyone know the rules about getting free donuts when visiting neighbours, or is it just random?
Love your post Alissa 😊. I still get anywhere from 1 to 3 donuts, sometimes 5, by visiting my neighbours. I think that is where my stray donuts migrated to … 😂
Most of the time I was getting 0 donuts from friends, so I stopped going… the best was once – 4 donuts, but it was an exception proving the rule
In the era of donut farming…looking for donuts in neighbor’s towns is a horrible waste of time. I go to tag, and see their designs.
🎵Those were the days my friends, those were the days. 🎵 that’s all I remember from the song !!
Alissa, this this is really a LOL post. Great post. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏😀😎 . Also, I agree with just about everyone’s remarks. Have a happy, happy Friday everybody.😎
It was so disappointing when the friendship prizes stopped.
Springfield heights feels left behind with not enough land to do what I want and why do I want to build all the same buildings, I haven’t unlocked billionaire island because I got bored of the same buildings and no place I wanted to build them. I agree we need something to spend our cash on in the game , makes it not fun playing if you don’t have to earn anything, too much is designed for newbies, there cant be any newbies left to play the game
Great post, “19 is a freakin’ prime number, love it” and totally agree, i liked the friendship points and prizes not so much the roads to riches, but what about the Springfield hights, i feel this is incomplete with all that land sitting waiting to be opened, EA should do something with it and bring back friendship points and neighbour visits 😁
I agree with everything you said, it would be nice to at least have some closure of sorts with things they’ve started and haven’t finished. I would have loved to continue with friendship prizes too, however it wouldn’t help me at this point anyway, because my neighbors all disappeared. After all that time with no updates, this new content is released and I happily go into my game to find all my neighbors are gone. Did this happen to everyone? I’ve also noticed that since this latest update, every time I try to go into my game I get the bart error screen, I hit retry, it asks me my age, then tells me I’ve been logged out. I go through this multiple times a day. Anyone else dealing with these issues?
They’ll come back it’s a server issue. They’re not really gone
When I get the Bart try again screen, I hope my finger on it for a few seconds and it opens the game.
The very simple answer is that EA is a corporation and corporations DO NOT care about their customers, only making money, that’s their raison d’etre!
TSTO is no longer the cash cow it was so their main focus has shifted on to more profitable things, that’s all.
Ok but it was (highly profitable) in 2015 when they stopped adding fps.
And why add coming soon in 2017 if there was no intention to finish it?
Thanks for your thoughts, Alissa. I agree completely, friendship prizes gave a sense of purpose for visiting neighbours, an activity that I admit I found myself doing on few occasions.
More Road to Riches goals would be a nice, especially now that I reached 1 B $ 😂
If I had to suggest a musing, I’d probably talk about the discomfort of traversing the whole city to reach the limits, it would be nice to be able to “save” a building, i.e. a feature that instantly moves to a building (city hall, unemployment office etc.), much like the characters feature, that teleports on the character shown in the top left corner 😊
That’s why picking up Frink’s Teleporters was a must for me in the Yearbook. Between those 4, and my Krustyland bus stop, it’s super easy for me to zip thru my town
I actually made the effort to at least get the dam. I’d started it a while back but never finished spending the money on it
I don’t have a great desire to get the other two items, but if there were other items after those which were interesting, then I might be compelled to continue with it
let’s not forget all that empty land called Springfield Heights.