Thank Grog It’s Firday!
I’m not going to “go there,” at least not much. But this has been one of those “Math Weeks” that just makes people crazy! Simplified, modern caucuses in Iowa, that turned out to be anything but.
Then there was the extremely predictable Senate votes…that turned out exactly how everyone expected, and yet was reported like it was not expected.
And then, there is the very, very, very odd update math for the TSTO Black History Month, that defies logic, and puts you in a position for loads of tapping, for the same results. Four Acts, over 5 Weeks, that start and stop, over nine and ten day periods.
It’s almost as if EA is conspiring with the calendar to make things more difficult, without doing much more than flipping a couple of minor switches in the programming.
Let’s break this down (not the politics…that’s permanently broken). I mean the event math…
As I wrote on the Calendar post, “be careful what you wish for,” when it comes to something as open ended as “Please Make The Game More Interesting and Difficult!”
It’s like asking a Genie to make you taller and more good looking, only to be turned into a replica of Michelangelo’s statue of David. Big, tall, gorgeous…but made of stone…with no working “dating parts.”
The most annoying aspect of the “new Leap Year Math” isn’t that it uses numbers that are just inflated and stretched across 5 weeks…but that they basically just did a 4-week event, and stretched it. We don’t get more prizes. We don’t get better prizes. We just have to tap more…and longer…to get what we used to get in four weeks, more EAsily.
Abes in Toyland-vs-Black History Month – Same Number of Prizes…harder/longer to get them.
I have often joked that EA’s “programming department” for TSTO, is just one part-time guy named Bob, who also delivers pizzas the rest of the week. Well…my guess is, that the football playoffs and the Super Bowl had his pizza job so busy, that he only had time for a bit of tweaking on this event.
Anyone who knows anything about programming, knows that making a change like “How many stethescopes does it take to earn X” is literally a couple of key strokes in the program code. It could just as easily be 50 as it can be 400.
The same goes for dates. Start and end dates are already built into the code for the Acts…especially since they have been using the same format for more than a year now. 7 days is easily transcribed to 10. Click. Click.
What is more difficult is coming up with great content. On this, I do give them a couple of pats on the head. At least we get new characters, and not rehashes or skins for existing characters. However the “animated task” as a prize is kind of another way of taking things out of the hopper, and re-purposing them.
I can even put up with the relatively clunky dialogue. As always…it is the fat, dumb, white guys that look the worst. But, Hibbert’s Dad is not going to win any honors for “Father of the Year.”
The most annoying thing about this event isn’t anything I’ve already mentioned. It is that EA has decided to MESS WITH MY WEEKENDS and FORCE me to play when I’d rather not…at all. I love weekends. Tapping is not something I prefer to do on Weekends. So…yes…even though they clearly are making it harder to rush this event with donuts, I will do so on the weekends.
Let’s see… I get 53 stethoscopes per cycle…and on some of these, I need 400 per prize. That’s 8 cycles, of 11 characters at 2 donuts per character…that’s 192 donuts PER PRIZE. Five prizes…I better get to farming! And that’s more time. But, then…even if I rush… the Third act starts on a SUNDAY! Bastids!
I could also follow the advice of NicoRox13, who wrote: Instead of speeding up the 5 stethoscope characters, why not send mr. Hibbert repeatedly. You state 24 donuts oer cycle gets you 63. That’s 12 rushes, 8 x 12 = 96, which is a bit more cost effective then speeding up the 5 unit characters.
Apparently…some people love math. The savings in time is negligible. But, hey…I get his logic.
OK…
On a positive note…I have long ago given up trying to figure out why they have some of these prizes…or why they bother with the “Mystery Box” that for most long-time players, doesn’t have anything in it…or just a couple of items we didn’t want.
It makes it easier to just say, “No thanks! I don’t want to have to pull something off of my layout (because of the ITEM LIMITS) to place something I didn’t want in the first place. So there’s that.
Add to this…the lunacy of making the alternative to be 12 donuts. COME ON! You want me to tap for a couple of days to get enough stethascopes to get 12 donuts??? I can farm 12 donuts in 30 seconds. It’s just not worth my time. I take them, to get through to something I do want. But, sheesh…12 donuts? But it’s better than a sharp poke in the eye with David’s “stick.”
It’s early. The dialogue may pull this one out of the hamper. But, at this point…I am ready to start a GoFundMe account, so Bob doesn’t have to work at the pizza place anymore.
Is it just me or do the stethoscopes look like pretzels?
Mmmmmmm pretzels…
Bowling lanes were do i get more? This event sucks!!!!!
I think they were only offered as premiums during the Pin Pal event and never been back since. I feel your pain, I didn’t even know you could get more than one until I saw my neighbors with them in their towns or maybe during the show off after the event was over. I’ve anxiously awaited their return as well.
I agree with Patric, this “new” format is not exactly what we asked for. Way more grinding than before to get the same kind of prices. I don’t like to tap in the weekends too, and for this event, i will be forced unless i spend a serious amount of donuts. What happened to friends interaction during events? All the side quests which made an event challaging, like some special daily tasks. Ok, we will get many new characters, but besides that, it’s just a 4 hour grindîng.
Any goal should be challenging, yet achievable.
In the past EA has pulled the goal posts back when the realized that the targets were unrealistic, I expect to see a patch at some point, unless of course EA Bob is in Orlando with Allissa.
The math is doable… but not gonna happen if you log in casually.
It is back to 4 times a day…wash, rinse, repeat. And the one premium character doesn’t help that much.
Yes it’s doable, but , i think I speak for many long time players, i don’t want that 4 times a day grind anymore. Especially when its just grinding and no challenges
Agreed. There isn’t enough REASON to tap four times a day. “Just because,” doesn’t cut it.
The hardcore “programming” for this and every event was done well over a year ago, and then just slighting modified with numbers, dates, and prizes. It really doesn’t take more than a “Bob” to change a couple of integers and go back to his pizza route. The character animations and building/decorations take more work. But all of the things you mentioned are “Bob work.”
The quests are available to March 12, so you have 4 weeks to do the first quest. No need to worry about tapping or farming this weekend. Maybe you might have a problem in the last week, but I wouldn’t worry about til then. Farm during the week if you are worried, you can never have too many donuts.
And remember…this comes from the King of Excess. Fo4mCharles, more is always better.
I don’t like how they massively raised the event money needed to complete the event. Previous on older events I could complete a stage in 3 to 4 days but now I am still working towards the second prize.
This is insanity. I don’t have time for it anymore. Just not worth my time. 400 the first? 350 the second? I have to sleep more than 4 hours at a time, and I work. Puh-leaze!! Stupidity at its finest!
Sleep is for the weak!
I haven’t slept through the night since the Terwilliger Event. Ruined me forever.
😵🔨
If I didn’t know better, I would say EA are trying to lose as many players as possible. We ask them to make the events more interesting & they make it even more boring than before !!!
I just don’t get it.
According to Sensor Tower EA revenues for 2019 was $400K. I wonder what the electric bill was.
https://sensortower.com/ios/us/electronic-arts/app/the-simpsons-tapped-out/497595276/overview
Here’s a helpful Act 1 tip which uses the both Hibbert Family Practice building and the Springfield General Hospital:
There is actually a way to split into two groups the characters used for the quests in Act 1, with each group going to a different building. You can actually send the first group to the Hibbert Family Practice building, while sending the second group to Springfield General Hospital.
This is helpful when you are near the end of each quest. You should send to the Hibbert Family Practice building the minimum number of characters needed to finish the quest, and then send the rest of your characters to Springfield General Hospital (who will be counted for the new quest).
Step-by-step instructions;
1. First, store your Springfield Hospital, thus assuring that no one will currently go there (but first make sure the hospital is empty!) Again, please make sure the hospital is empty before storing it.
2. Then send on a quest just the number of characters you need to finish the current quest – they will all go to Hibbert Family Practice.
3. Now place your Springfield General Hospital back in Springfield.
4. Send the rest of your characters on the quest. They will all go to the hospital, not to Hibbert Family Practice.
5. After the four hours are up, remember to first tap on the Hibbert Family Practice building to finish the old quest, and then tap on the Springfield General Hospital, which will credit the new quest.
I have tested this out several times to make sure it works.
Instead of 12 donuts they should give you enough to skip a level
That’s actually a great idea! Let us skip to the NEXT prize…
IT’S BACK!!! The Golden Goose Realty is available again!
Boycott this event and its premium content. Show EA they can’t keep doing stuff like this to us
You would think the amount of Tappers who’ve quit the Game App since 2018 would be noticed by EA …. unless more new Tappers are joining then anyone can imagine (but are the Noobs going to last as long as those of us since 2013?) 🤔
If I am not happy with an Act during this Event, chances are I will skip that Week (or I may skip spending sprinkles on the Premium if it’s not worth it). 🤦🏼♂️
So much potential still with this Game App 🤷🏼♂️
Maybe we should all abandon the event for a month. Nothing really worth picking up and it will end up in the yearbook sooner or later. We need to do a large scale protest to stop this kind of thing from EA I’m already considering not bothering next week as I donuted this week to completion And it’s probably better to just wait for reappearances.
Dude….they don’t care.
They don’t 🤦🏼♂️
Because no matter what we encourage …. it’s not going to be implemented in the Game App (we still don’t know if Fox – Disney will renew past Season 32 and/or if The Simpsons will move permanently to Disney+ without broadcasting new Episodes on FOX)
I’ve been “abandoning the event” since before Christmas…I don’t think it makes any difference to EA if I’m playing or not, so “not” wins. Nothing in the prize list this time that excites me. I guess I’m getting spoiled by the “BuildIt” prizes…this is the Alpine Village that we earned by tapping in the BuildIt Winter Event. There’s even nighttime in the game…pretty cool.
Still hoping a real Spring event shows up…till then, I’m building a Chinese New Year section with a Dragon Parade and fireworks.🎇⛩🐲🏮
https://imgur.com/a/Le2PTUW
Oh my……
You are tempting me.
Lots of grinding involved (producing, buying and selling goods and providing things like power, water, hospitals etc) and much more challenging, but I kinda like having a challenge again. Makes the prizes that much more valuable and they are certainly lovely to look at. Designing a Dragon Festival street fair now…complete with active fireworks, floating lanterns coming up from the park, and animated parade figures. 😄⛩🐲
https://imgur.com/a/8n1stOb
Thats really cool!👍👍 Miss u on here!!!😞
Still lurking…hit the Addicts pages pretty much every day…just not adding anything to my town for now. If they would raise the item limits I’d be back, but I don’t want to strip my town to add stuff thats’s just not all that exciting.
Maybe they’ll hear me? 🤔
Looks like we have a potential replacement for TSTO once L-EA-Z-Y allows it to officially go R.I.P. (except isn’t SimCity also from EA?) 🤔
Oh what the heck, let’s just keep SimCity open as a TSTO replacement 👍🏻
Yup…also an EA product….seems like they have more than one person running this division, tho…😆
I downloaded it. Pretty cool…and graphics are amazing. Just started messing with it…but can’t figure out how to earn free donuts.
Nope…Afraid there’s no free ride in this game, just “tappa, tappa, tappa”. Once you get your factories set up tho, you can start generating Simoleans. If you want to visit, just look for Pixel Ridge in the Marketplace. If you tap on something I have for sale, it will take you to my town.😁
Mmmmmmm, donuts!
Going by this comments below I thought it was maths Monday lol
All we are missing is Safi trying to sell us some t shirts or hoodies.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 😎
On prize 2: need 350 decorations so one less cycle of sending characters on job. When act 2 appears will use the premium character Hibberts Father on Act 1 since he may not be of use in act 2.
Act 4 may be donuts time to ensure I get all the prizes. Thanks for all the help from everyone.
Either EA will offer 1 new Premium Character (maybe a Combo, maybe not) per Act to help obtain Event Currency …… or they may offer a Premium Character (maybe a Combo, maybe not) that helps obtain Event Currency for the whole Event (I have a feeling that EA isn’t doing this for the 1st time). 🤔
I think the next premium combo will be The Patriarch with the Megachurch followed by Stogie with Hard Lad nightclub then finally Mabel Simpson with the Canadian border crossing.
And you would be correct, sir… in that you are guessing, even if it is not correct. Next up…Stogie.
So it’s a new Premium Character Building Combo for each Act and not one will work to obtain Event Currency beyond the Act it is available (yep, EA was paying attention to which Premiums we spent sprinkles on before – but they haven’t factored in that some Tappers can still say “nope! not participating!”) 🤷🏼♂️
I guess my math was wrong?.. that’s why am not a teacher… lol
It’s FRIDAY …. an I just want to wash my 👀 ‘s from the taint observed in the news (from Washington DC, of course) all week …. ok, there is still an amusing meme going around the internet since Monday (thanks to someone’s Superbowl Celebration – but we all agreed to stop going further down this rabbit hole!)🤦🏼♂️
Well, I obtained that Token this morning, then picked up Lewis Clark with the Mighty Pigs Practice Rink (so that competes my Kids Bracket – yay completist me – lol!) from the Black History Month Mystery Box! 🙋🏼♂️
It’s down to the final Act 1 Prize (Clarissa Wellington!) who I don’t expect to be voiced in TSTO (I wonder why she wasn’t offered last year during – oh never mind! ‘that Episode’ hasn’t been used in TSTO (“A Star Is Torn”). 🤔
Now remember, “No Continuity is the New Norm in TSTO!” 😂
Are things more Interesting? (this can be a Yes and No, courtesy of L-EA-Z-Y execution of this Event so far) ….. more Difficult? (yes! but not in the engaging way Tappers have asked for!) So, I agree with Patric 💯! What you ask from EA isn’t exactly what EA is going to offer for you in the end (and the Character dialogue – ugh, yeah!) 🤦🏼♂️
FYI – worst Prize this Week? (my opinion) Martin’s New Visual Task! It’s not a Premium! It wasn’t worth Tapping for! (and I don’t think Alissa can defend this!) 🤷🏼♂️
So, I still have choices (we all do) –
1] spend sprinkles to rush obtaining the 450 Event Currency required to obtain the last Act 1 Prize (I will probably do so when I get home)
2] Tap or No Tap on the Weekends (I am definitely taking Weekends away from TSTO)
3] get Bob a raise, send Bob gift cards (maybe this will encourage more effort from EA’s skeleton crew running TSTO?)
4] Farm 🍩’s on Monday / Tuesday \ Wednesday (a little at a time, because you know the Bart Simpson Screen is back!) before Act 2 begins
5] thank Patric and Safi for keeping TSTO Addicts going while Alissa is on vacation (I think we can have Open Thread for the weekend, aka relieves everybody from having to write a post until Monday)
6] wish Alissa & Family “a fun & safe vacay” (emphasis on safe, because I’ve seen the weather forecast – yikes!)
You’re welcome!
Don’t give Bob too much of a raise. If you do he’d probably be off to Orlando and then we’d have a different issue.
If Bob hasn’t quit already, then Bob is quite the masochist 😂
Mega early Friday filler, it’s usually Saturday lol, anywho, getting fed up with this and no fun EA get a grip, that’s all 😟
Totally agree with you on this one Patric! 👍
Seriously EA Bob get a grip! 😐
Making the targets higher and the event longer does NOT make the game more interesting or indeed challenging it is a total BORE. 😬
Thanx for including my typos!
Another way to look at the math, and yes my career is very math intensive, is:
400 ÷ 8 = 50,
And
400 ÷ 5 = 80
So, speeding up the premium costs you:
50 × 2 = 100 donuts
80 × 2 = 160 donuts
And that’s just one prize.
If you are farming, you can see that it would take less time with the premium characters.
Additional points: when act I finishes, the premium character cant be used in later acts. So you can at least run that character to finish Act I. Similarly in acts II and III.
When the event ends, in the past EA has allowed you to finish the act that you are currently working on. If that holds true, you only need worry about getting to the last stage of each act by the time the event ends.
As for act IV, you may need to rush some jobs to get to that last prize level. So if you are light on donuts, it’s not as big of a deal as you may think.
Happy tapping and have a great weekend.