Happy Musings Thursday my friends! Back to your regularly scheduled musings post this week…you’re welcome 😉 . Anyway, this week I’ve got some introductory thoughts about the newest mini-event to hit TSTO, Krusty’s Last Gasp. Some things on the event as we unpack it all, and what it could mean for upcoming events. You know I’ve got some thoughts, so let’s get to ’em…
-First of all, it’s important to note that this update hit late. At least late compared to what we’ve seen lately. The last few mini-events (and major events for that matter) have hit our games the night before they were set to launch, basically a Tuesday night (at least my time), with a launch time of 10am (ET) Wednesday morning. The Krusty update didn’t hit the files until late in the afternoon on Wednesday, after I had already left work to pick up the kiddos, and launched immediately once it was available for App Store download.
The key thing is, no one really expected this update to hit. Most folks thought, at least by early afternoon, that nothing would be happening so they sent their characters on long tasks. Sneaky, sneaky on EA’s part. But it’s kind of nice to be surprised by an update again. Even if we did lose at least 7 hours of playing time as a result….
-This update is not free and clear of bugs, unfortunately. The VERY annoying sound effect bug that hit with Simpsons Babies is still happening. Basically, your game will play audio for a split second (until you move the screen around), even if your in-game sound effects and game music settings are completely turned off. Once you move the screen they stop…but then will randomly start up again at various points in playing.
Also, seeing A LOT of you report that you’re seeing the Bart screen more and more while playing. In-particular when you’re donut farming. Not sure if this is something that has to do with device age, available memory on the device (think of your device like a computer…because it is…the more you have on it the slower it can get), or a server issue. Personally, I’m not really having problems with it. I get an occasional Bart screen, but nothing dramatic. (I saw Ebron say she got Bart screened to death over a 5 minute period) I also don’t donut farm. My guess is it’s some combination of all of those things. Hopefully, this is another problem that gets corrected soon.
-So let’s talk about this mini-event. The basics anyway. As always I won’t give my full opinion on it until it’s over. It’s hard not to notice that this questline prize track is longer than your typical mini-event prize track. As a mini-event standard, the prize track has always been 5 parts and 5 prizes. (sometimes you were awarded a bonus prize as part of the initial questline. Like Flanders Family reunion. The banner was part of a quest, not actually on the prize track) So to see 7 parts to the questline, and 7 corresponding prizes is something new and different.
Also, important to note that while the Krusty Koin goal is pretty low (100 and 120 Koins), it’s going to take some time to earn those. With just about all of the 8 characters only earning 5 Koins/turn, and only Sideshow Raheem earning 8/turn it’ll take at least 12hrs per part to complete. So unless you spend donuts to speed things up, it’s going to take you about 4 days to complete it. And let’s face it, most of us play this mini-events more casually…so it’ll take us about a week to complete. Instead of the usual 3-5 days.
This is something I do think EA did intentionally, to extend the playing time of the mini-event and make things a little more challenging. I hope this a positive sign for THOH, in that they’ll bring some challenging elements to it. Something we’ve all been craving for a while now. But hey, I’ve only been doing this blogging thing for 6+ years…when does EA ever listen to me?
-One big thing most of us have noticed is there are exactly zero new characters on the prize track for this mini-event. After two new characters on the Flanders Family Reunion mini-event prize track, the lack of characters on this one is quite noticeable. Surely they could have added at least one new freemium character to the track instead of the donuts. I’d settle for 0 donuts and 1 character, to make it a 6 part track, then 24 donuts and no characters.
-While we’re on the topic of prizes….this one feels a bit lackluster. The donuts instead of Land Tokens aspect doesn’t bother me, but I have the Golden Goose Realty so it may bother some of you that don’t have the GGR. It’s the other prizes that have me going ho-hum. 3 decorations, 1 new building, and a costume…for Lisa. As if Lisa doesn’t have enough costumes… Not exactly tipping the scales with these prizes. Then again, Flanders Family Reunion was so good, and the last mini-event we all have as a point of reference that maybe I’m unfairly judging this one. We’ll have to see how it plays out, and how I feel about designing with the items.
-Anyone think we’d see Sideshow Raheem in TSTO? I know I didn’t! So that’s a pretty cool addition. And priced at the going rate for combos…150 donuts. A fair price. (I’ll have a SIB up on him tomorrow, with the full breakdown)
The Clown College…finally! It’s only been teased for, what, 2 years? But 100 donuts seems quite overpriced for a stand-alone building. I know it’s been teased for a while, but really not priced well. I think this would have been better suited for the prize track, and Krusty’s retreat as a premium item…for say 55-60 donuts.
-One thing is clear, at least to me, this mini-event sets us up nicely for Halloween to start October 1st or 2nd. Roughly three weeks from now. I’ll talk more about Halloween/THOH as we get closer to October, but don’t be surprised if it’s another 4-week event…although that would mean it sends before Halloween actually starts…but with EA nothing surprises me these days.
-And finally…something to think about. Could Last Gasp be a metaphor for TSTO? I’ll leave that for you guys to discuss in the comments below…
And that’s it guys, my latest round of random TSTO Musings. Thoughts? Care to share your own musings on the topic? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!