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Post by michelleus66 on Oct 10, 2017 9:11:26 GMT -5
The sucky (IMO) 2017 Halloween event caused me to think about all the good times I've had playing TSTO over the years – especially early on.
This lead me to dredge up memories of the times I have thought EA has totally lost the plot and made me lose interest in the game.
So, over the past five years, these are the moments I've really hated (in somewhat chronological order):
– Forcing us to craft Squidport tiles. – This was my first real problem with the game. I mean, the main idea of TSTO is to be able to design a town. We already need to pay for land, buildings, and decorations, so forcing us to curtail our designing efforts by being stingy with Squidport tiles pissed me off.
EA later did the same thing with the monorail track, which was a big reason why that event didn't really do much for me either.
– Krustyland – A brand new area to visit, yet every character job is indoors. What's more, only a few of the characters can go there. Boring.
– Reducing awards for visiting neighbors. – What the hell was EA thinking with this move? I originally got 100 neighbors because it helped to have so many during events. But, after EA began to REDUCE awards for visiting them I didn't feel any motivation to check on anyone.
Wasn't TSTO supposed to be a social game? EA should have done the opposite and increased rewards are you went down your list of neighbors. By making the last 60 or so neighbor visits pointless, they killed the social aspect of the game.
– Easter 2014 – Pink, blue, and gold eggs... Saving up gold eggs and getting more pink or blue eggs for your efforts. The first event where I was unable to get all the content, even though I had up to that point bought every premium item EA offered. That effing wheel of chance...
This was the point when my love of TSTO pretty much just died. In fact, my anger was so strong, I took a months-long break from the game and only came back in time for that year's Halloween event.
– Three-part "events" with endless crafting of crap you don't want. – What the first one? Sideshow Bob and his family? I actually bailed on TSTO during the second part and didn't return until after the sports event.
Whatever creativity the events used to have went out the window when EA started with the three-parters.
How about you? When did things finally go south, in your opinion?
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Post by Vigilante on Oct 10, 2017 9:45:23 GMT -5
i can’t pinpoint the exact moment this game started to lose me. Perhaps it was the advent of the chance based wheels and boxes, or maybe it was when the game hit complacency with the same event mechanics. It may be how EA is incompetent, or it may be how the THOH and “Winter” events are suffering the seasonal rot the show has endured all these years. Perhaps it’s not the events at all, it may be on my lack of creativity to continue forward with excitement. On top of this I’ve been with this game for 5 years. Nothing lasts forever and sometimes it’s best to leave things behind. With all that said I will continue to play until this game is officially dead.
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Post by Sarah Wiggum on Oct 10, 2017 12:23:18 GMT -5
I haven't watched the Simpsons properly for eleven years. I'm not keen on content about episodes I haven't seen. So it's losing its appeal big time.
Also when they gave up on level stories.
I'm seriously thinking about scaling it back to an old school town. I think it's just too big.
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Post by xamovo on Oct 10, 2017 18:37:00 GMT -5
I think it was a combo of no new levels and the same style 3-act events. With new levels, you'd use random characters on the quests because by definition you'd have to have character level 28 to unlock character level 49 quest. Now it's just Lisa, Bart, Homer, Apu, Moe, Willie, Skinner, a couple random kids, premium one-off crappy character grinding for some currency, grinding to craft.
I *liked* the long wait between events and levels. Not the couple of really long gaps, but when it'd be 2, 3 weeks. It made me WANT a new event. We'd all gossip and speculate and have wish lists. The anticipation was part of the fun. And it kept the burn out factor really low. Plus it gave me time to redesign my town. Now I'd never have a chance unless I did it during an event, and as these events are all long grinding slogs, I want to spend as little time playing as I can.
I'm not ready to quit yet, but I play out of habit and hoping that they'll make it fun again.
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Post by michelleus66 on Oct 11, 2017 3:18:37 GMT -5
Yeah, EA doing away with proper levels sucked. Having a new level (with its new characters and decorations) was something I looked forward to.
Another thing I miss are the variations of the very first TSTO splash screen. Those were a lot of fun and gave the game an identity.
Events also used to have complex questlines that might keep certain characters busy for days at a time. Now, just about every quest is a run-of-the-mill 4-hour one.
It's too bad EA has never re-run the early events. The 2012 THOT event was epic, so reviving it would have been better than the cookie-cutter 3-part snooze-a-thon they went with this year.
The THOT events used to be the most creative ones each year. It's just sad that they've become the same as everything else.
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Post by Duff Dawg on Oct 11, 2017 9:50:28 GMT -5
The very first day an every day after that
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Post by mokkabee on Oct 11, 2017 10:35:04 GMT -5
Reducing awards for visiting neighbors. – What the hell was EA thinking with this move? I originally got 100 neighbors because it helped to have so many during events. But, after EA began to REDUCE awards for visiting them I didn't feel any motivation to check on anyone. Wasn't TSTO supposed to be a social game? EA should have done the opposite and increased rewards are you went down your list of neighbors. By making the last 60 or so neighbor visits pointless, they killed the social aspect of the game. This point you are making is exactly the same thinking I had done. Why on earth they reduce awards??? I ask this question to myself 100 times... I miss the events in where you had to visit neighbors so that you could make sure you don’t miss any of the content. That was fun. EA killed the fun because EA doesn’t understand fun. Apparently |
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Post by Bluestem2722 on Oct 11, 2017 11:01:33 GMT -5
Reducing awards for visiting neighbors. – What the hell was EA thinking with this move? I originally got 100 neighbors because it helped to have so many during events. But, after EA began to REDUCE awards for visiting them I didn't feel any motivation to check on anyone. Wasn't TSTO supposed to be a social game? EA should have done the opposite and increased rewards are you went down your list of neighbors. By making the last 60 or so neighbor visits pointless, they killed the social aspect of the game. This point you are making is exactly the same thinking I had done. Why on earth they reduce awards??? I ask this question to myself 100 times... I miss the events in where you had to visit neighbors so that you could make sure you don’t miss any of the content. That was fun. EA killed the fun because EA doesn’t understand fun. Apparently I agree that this sucks. Helping neighbors has (had) always been an extremely satisfying component of the game. I'll speculate that their servers can't handle big spikes in the volume of activity, and that EA's goal is actually to reduce the amount of time we spend visiting -- probably even to reduce the amount of time we "need" to spend in game at all! They want to keep us involved (thus the introduction of mini-events), but not at the frenzied levels of the early big events. I agree with so much of what's been said here. Yet I'm still in the game multiple times a day, playing every event, checking the forums daily, etc. The game isn't living up to its potential, but it's still a nice place to visit! |
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Post by Bluestem2722 on Oct 11, 2017 12:14:57 GMT -5
Something else I really miss in the game are glitches! It feels like forever since we’ve had a good glitch! (At least one I’ve been privy to.) Nothing gets the core more amped up than earning quantum amounts of event currency (and/or bonuts) at breakneck speed until the glitch was fixed! It was usually the funnest part of the event. I even wondered if ea had built them in like an Easter egg, especially in those cases when it took them several days to patch. Awwwww, probably giving them too much credit!
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Post by usdpc on Oct 12, 2017 13:49:27 GMT -5
These 3-Act, useless crafting, 40+ days long events are killing it for me. I'm just getting really burned out doing these. They need to return to the original way events used to run - back when they were getting tons of people to play.
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Post by Beemer on Oct 12, 2017 17:37:26 GMT -5
Easter event.
Wheel.
Crafting that has got worse on every new event. The adding of “leveling up” for thousand of points, instead of buying what we want and as many as we want. Very controlling, so you end wasting your hard earned points or get a lot if rubbish that goes directly to inventory.
No new levels that give permanent buildings and characters for in game $ and fun story lines.
The bault, now everything is “limited time”. So pay up or you will miss it!
Three level events, just a chore to finish and you are with Christmas in mid January.
This Halloween is a sad disappointment. Where is it? If they are so lazy to create anything original in content and format. Please give us a repeat if Halloween 2012 or even 2013.
..and on top , I downloaded ios 11 something or other my iPad is a mess!
Time to give up on this I think and go and have a stiff drink and forget about the frustration.
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Post by A Bad Example on Oct 15, 2017 0:10:20 GMT -5
I got too sick to play just before a crafting event, and when I could play again I just couldn't believe the time I was wasting doing that.
So I deleted the game two years ago.
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Post by MonkeyDashunderscore on Oct 15, 2017 12:20:30 GMT -5
Krustyland – A brand new area to visit, yet every character job is indoors. What's more, only a few of the characters can go there. Boring. Martin can ring toss and I think Homer plays a game too but that's it. |
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Post by jimmyu72 on Oct 16, 2017 9:33:57 GMT -5
I think about three or so years ago, I was locked out of my town for a couple of months. It felt fine not to play anymore since I've felt that I did all that I could do. My town fixed itself and I played again, but even if it was permanently broken, I don't think I would miss it.
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Post by keys1980 on Oct 18, 2017 18:29:21 GMT -5
Decoration limits. Whenever that became a thing. Once upon a time it wasn’t.
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Post by MonkeyDashunderscore on Oct 20, 2017 5:19:28 GMT -5
For me it's all these events with magic stuff or monsters and whatever.
I want to make a good looking Springfield city. But it's now got Old West, Medieval, Egypt, Europe, Future and whatever else taking up way more space than normal city.
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Post by Sarah Wiggum on Oct 21, 2017 5:31:10 GMT -5
For me it's all these events with magic stuff or monsters and whatever. I want to make a good looking Springfield city. But it's now got Old West, Medieval, Egypt, Europe, Future and whatever else taking up way more space than normal city. I'm with you on this. I'm very slowly working on taking down the nonsense parts of the town, and sticking with the Classic town look. |
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Post by Bluestem2722 on Oct 21, 2017 18:18:46 GMT -5
For me it's all these events with magic stuff or monsters and whatever. I want to make a good looking Springfield city. But it's now got Old West, Medieval, Egypt, Europe, Future and whatever else taking up way more space than normal city. I'm with you on this. I'm very slowly working on taking down the nonsense parts of the town, and sticking with the Classic town look. I'm on this track as well. I got rid of the Old West a while ago. While I liked the event okay and thought the area was "cute", it just never felt right in my town. And I stowed most of the future Springfield stuff as well. I'm taking a new tack and trying NOT to buy any new land. There are 2 or 3 rows on the south side that I have not purchased. I'm trying to edit my town as we go -- things I like less or have grown tired of go into inventory, making room for the newest (perhaps temporary) toys! |
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Post by Duff Dawg on Oct 21, 2017 18:23:45 GMT -5
It was actually pretty fun during that festival event I was really into it but I dreaded their Halloween update knowing how bad they've been the last few years and here we are as expected with a miserable event. Hopefully when halloweens over we'll get something better. As far as I remember last year was the first time the xmas event was bad hopefully they learn their lesson and improve on it.
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Post by MonkeyDashunderscore on Oct 23, 2017 4:47:12 GMT -5
For me it's all these events with magic stuff or monsters and whatever. I want to make a good looking Springfield city. But it's now got Old West, Medieval, Egypt, Europe, Future and whatever else taking up way more space than normal city. I'm with you on this. I'm very slowly working on taking down the nonsense parts of the town, and sticking with the Classic town look. I'm working all the weird stuff into an Efcot centre. So it's like a theme park. Two problems. 1. It means Efcot is ENORMOUS. 2. It means Efcot is an incredible day out as opposed to the last place you'd want to go like it's advertised. |
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Post by michelleus66 on Oct 28, 2017 18:36:07 GMT -5
I'm with you on this. I'm very slowly working on taking down the nonsense parts of the town, and sticking with the Classic town look. I'm working all the weird stuff into an Efcot centre. So it's like a theme park. Two problems. 1. It means Efcot is ENORMOUS. 2. It means Efcot is an incredible day out as opposed to the last place you'd want to go like it's advertised. Funny you should mention this. My town has an EPCOT center, that I'd tried to base on the one in WDW. I used that sphere-shaped building as EPCOT's Spaceship Earth and had the monorail circle around it. For the World Showcase, I used the national flags for each specific country and tried to find a building that would tie into it. TSTO has since been deleted from my devices, so I can't double-check on this, but IIRC, these are some of the buildings used: – The ski chalet for Norway – The taco restaurant for Mexico (very stereotypical, but at the time, it was the most "Mexican" building availble) – For China, the Chinese theater got the nod. – Germany got The Hungry Hun or one of the other German restaurants – Some colonial-looking building was used for the USA – The sushi restaurant depicted Japan – France's building changed a few times, but I think the current/final one is the brothel...  – That British casino was used for the UK – And a stack of beer barrels was what Canada got.... (lol!) As for Italy and Morocco, I can't really remember, but I think Italy was the villa.. The size of this are was huge (likely spanning more than 12 land segments), as there was also a large lake that the country areas circled. It was hard to get characters to visit, but Otto got the munchies in Mexico, and the French section got can-can dancers from time to time. |
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Post by Peruhomer on Nov 1, 2017 20:58:06 GMT -5
I, myself, am a true addict. Loved it when it was great, couldn't leave it when it turned bad and like a long lasting marriage, now take my comfort in the familiarity of it. The low point is between the whacking day event (built up in my mind to be something amazing but then turned out to be crushingl disappointing) and the torture wheels. However, the festival event, for me at least, was a step back to the very best early incarnation of the game. The current event is, in the history of the game, at worst, mediocre. I can live with that and have recently found that there is more enjoyment to be had in playing the game than in taking shortcuts. In saying that, crafting for mystery monorail pieces and the decoration limit still blows. I also feel in writing this I have used too many commas. Fuck it, you only live once.
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Post by rvbfan on Nov 12, 2017 12:40:43 GMT -5
For me Homerpalooza was the last straw.
Mega three parter, needing all the same characters when we had over a hundred useless ones available.Crafting crap I didn't want, pointless friend visits, and just the shear amount of time I was wasting on something I didn't find fun anymore. Seemed I was only playing out of habit.
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Post by HobbesIsReal on Nov 12, 2017 14:47:06 GMT -5
I'm with you on this. I'm very slowly working on taking down the nonsense parts of the town, and sticking with the Classic town look. I'm working all the weird stuff into an Efcot centre. So it's like a theme park. Two problems. 1. It means Efcot is ENORMOUS. 2. It means Efcot is an incredible day out as opposed to the last place you'd want to go like it's advertised. Halloween and Christmas were always the events I really looked forward to and are what hooked me in the beginning so many years ago......but this year felt like they forgot to plan for and threw it together the last week before it launched. Here is to some hope for a redeeming Christmas event. Actually though....i stopped playing for about 1 1/2 years and came back Sept last year when I was bed ridding for 2 weeks w recovery from surgery. This break I think helps me enjoy the game more now than if I never took that break. I always like my town to be livable town with some realism... so I have actually gained back a little interest in the few months for 2 reasons...... 1) I too have been enjoying working the off the wall items into a realistic setting. For example, I would never see a pterodactyl in the middle of a town....so I took my museums and made an area where you would start at the museum and then can wander to the left for a prehistoric park or to the right for an Egyptian display. It looks nice and now has context and looks in place in my town. 2) I have hit that breaking point where donut farming is pretty easy and profitable. I am at 480% plus with my SH maxed out whatever my hidden XP is. So I can easy earn 30 to 45 donuts a day......and over 300 donuts a week. So i can start to buy things i could never afford before. |
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Post by Dromtsul on Nov 13, 2017 22:57:37 GMT -5
I played daily for over four years. I ran out of donuts at the end of an event and was too lazy to request more. Not only can they not add as many, but I can't remember my temporary password or open the email to create a new one. otherwise I'd still be slaving away in my lazy, misplaced town.
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Springfield Springfield! It's a hell of a town, the school yard's up and the shopping mall's down. The stray dogs go to the animal pound. It's a hell of a town!
