Archives for category: App Store

You can discuss TSTO in a real-time chat forum – read this to find out how

By rcsprinter
June 6, 2013 //
64

So, time to find out who’s an old fuddy-duddy like me, and who’s too young to know what the heck I’m talking when I say IRC. It’s all texting, or iMessaging, or Facebook or whatever else you use nowadays, but Internet Relay Chat is a great resource for chatting about something in real time.

There is a new IRC channel on the freenode network especially for the game – #simpsons-tappedout – where players may log on and discuss where they’re up to with their games, ask for friends, swap tricks and help out. Sounds great? Excellent! But how can you connect?

Simply go to http://webchat.freenode.net and enter #simpsons-tappedout for the channel name, pick a nickname and click go. If you have a freenode identity already you can log in with that, but you probably won’t so this next part can be ignored. For experienced IRC users – and perhaps there will be a few – who are using different clients (some) instead of the webchat (like me – I’ve tried so many) can simply /join.

There’s thousands of channels and networks discussing all sorts of things, so get stuck in! For a modern, touch-screen game like this you may think it a bit 1990s to use something like this but I think it will work wonderfully. Even if nobody happens to be in the channel at any one time, it will still always be there set up for visitors; though it should never be empty. Any people who think they know enough to be able to help people as they come in can ask for voicing – if you don’t know what that is you probably aren’t ready for it yet. I use irc as an everyday resource for my work with wikipedia, and you’d be surprised how many users there are worldwide. If you don’t fancy the webchat there is an app named Colloquy on the App Store which is useful as a client.

It’s not complete yet – I’m hoping to add a bot which will announce new blog posts and things like that, but it’s ready for action any time now!

Just no spam, please, or I’ll kick you out.

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Categories Android, App Store, Apple, Free, help from outside, iTunes, Locations

There’s still a glitch in the joint tasks (Agnes and Comic Book Guy update)…

By TSTO Tips
May 12, 2013 //
20

The update doesn’t seem to have fixed the glitch affecting many of the joint tasks – and that means that the level 29 task for Agnes and Comic Book Guy to go on a date is also affected. I’ll, tell you what you can do for this particular task in a moment because it’s relatively easy to deal with, but first a recap…

The glitch was first noticed right back at the beginning of Whacking Day, and you can see a post on that here. It became a bit more frustrating when the Rich Texan couldn’t stay on his mechanical bull (as the task is so long and he’s a premium character) and appeared again with Legs and Louie’s level 28 task to interrogate a squealer. You can read about the tasks affected by this glitch here, where you can also see a video that Mike made illustrating the problem, which I’m reposting below:

It seems that joint tasks are likely to be interrupted by a few things – building, decorating and cracking eggs are the main culprits, although snake whacking can sometimes cause the task to stop as well. And it seems that some tasks involving props, like the Rick Texan and his mechanical bull and some of the performances on the Open Air Stage, are affected in the same way.

The easy solution where the task is short, like Agnes and Comic Book Guy’s date, is to make setting up the task the last thing you do before you exit the game, and then to go and do something else for the two hours it takes to complete. When you return to your game, it should have finished normally. You could always spend donuts to speed over the task, I suppose, but this way is just a little easier and doesn’t require any expense.

Hopefully, this will all be resolved with the App Store/Google Play update we should get once Whacking Day is finally over.

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Categories Agnes Skinner, App Store, Bugs and glitches, Comic Book Guy, Donuts, Google Play, Legs, Level 28, Level 29, Louie, Rich Texan, Task stopping, Tasks

Was there yet another app update?

By TSTO Tips
April 20, 2013 //
68

In the last few hours or so, some players seem to have received an app update through their app store. The strange thing about this particular update is that some players seems to have received it and others haven’t – including me. Players who received the update are reporting a version 4.2.3 – on the information page of my game, I’m still showing 4.2.1, with no update registering as available for my game in the App store. As updates happen globally at pretty much the same time, this is a bit odd.

You may have received the update if your game has still been a bit glitchy. I know that some players lost the Whacking Day icon and splash screen with the update earlier in the week, and this may be the reason why some people received an update and others didn’t. I’ve had no problems with my game at all since the update earlier in the week, so perhaps the update has been designed to target those with problems of this kind. I haven’t heard of an update to the game doing this before – but it’s the only thing I can suggest.

It’s unusual for an app update to be this selective – but it’s the second time that’s happened this week. To those of you who received the update, have you noticed any changes to your game?

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Categories Android, App Store, Apple, Bugs and glitches, Google Play, Update

Update: Now there’s an update for Apple players, too!

By TSTO Tips
April 17, 2013 //
157

There’s now an update for the game for players on Apple devices and, like the one earlier in the day for Android Players, it’s not an in-game update. You’ll need to download it from the App store.

As usual, there’s no information from EA on what the update actually does – but hopefully it fixes some of the numerous bugs and glitches we’ve all been experiencing. Let us all know here if you see any improvements in play.

Update: It seems there was a second App Store update (and I was prompted to update again) – perhaps to fix some errors in the way the first one was deployed (including reverting to the non-Whacking Day icon and spash screen). Despite a comment, below the version number showing in the App Store is 4.2.1.

It’s worth reading the comments below, though – everyone is reporting a different experience, which makes a very weird update, indeed.

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Categories App Store, Apple, Update

My friend has newer content? But I’m up to date!

By TSTO Tips
April 17, 2013 //
17

A number of players who have recently updated are getting a message when they try to visit friends that their friend has newer content and that they they need to update. This is a really misleading message in many cases (particularly for readers of this blog) – you’ll see this if you haven’t updated yet and your friend has and it will also appear when you’ve updated and your friend hasn’t (or, for that matter, if you both haven’t).

It looks like EA haare now moving towards what’s called a “forced update” – where players who haven’t update to the Whacking Day version of the game have no choice but to so so. It usually happens within a few days of a major update, and it will be your true indication over the next day or so as to which of your friends play the game regularly and which don’t.

Note: Don’t be in too much of a hurry to delete people, though. As I’ve said in other posts, it can take up to 3 days for everything to work it’s way through the server – and that includes sychronizing updated version of the game as well as adding friends.

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Categories Android, App Store, Apple, Google Play, Update, Whacking Day

The Whacking Day update is now available!

By TSTO Tips
April 11, 2013 //
136

Download it now from the App Store and Google Play. (Note: The Google Play update arrived a couple of hours later!)

Here’s the App description:

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And here’s the new splash screen:

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Categories App Store, Events, Google Play, Update, Whacking Day

What time will we see an update on Thursday and what kind of update will it be?

By TSTO Tips
April 10, 2013 //
41

In the past, I would have said to look for an update on Thursday afternoon US Central time (around 2 or 3 pm) – however, EA have been playing around with the timing lately, so any time in the morning is just as possible. The short answer is – any time really. Just as well I’m working from home that day. (For players outside the US, we’re talking Thursday US time here – the update happens simultaneously all over the world.)

As to what kind of an update it will be – my guess is that it won’t be an in-game update. Halloween, Christmas and Valentines were all App Store updates – and if the “something bigger” is what I think it is, my guess is that this update will come through the App Store/Google Play as well.

And, for the people who’ve asked, I really think it will be genuinely bigger – an event that lasts for several weeks, rather than something that’s over in 3 days (and quite possibly the Whacking Day event, but that hasn’t been confirmed by EA). I’m keeping my fingers crossed, though.

Note: for confirmation that the Valentines update was an App Store update, see here.

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Categories App Store, EA, Google Play, Update, Whacking Day

Those Whacking Day rumors…

By TSTO Tips
March 25, 2013 //
10

As some of you have seen, there are rumors around about a very big Whacking Day update for the game scheduled to begin sometime next month.

I’ve been hearing these rumors for a while, and I know that EA had planned a Whacking Day event for last year until they had to withdraw the game from the App store to work on its stability. That’s why there’s been a long-standing reference to a Ninja Homer in the game’s raw files. At this stage, however, the rumors are just that – rumors. There are quite a few things in the files that haven’t happened in the game and may or may not happen in the future.

At this stage there is no confirmation and there are no images that can be pulled from the files (Simpsonswiki qualifies its information by saying that they could be a mix of rumor and fact – however, the original source for the information is usually reliable). Based on the rumors, though, the event seems much bigger than I would expects – bigger, in fact, than Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s day put together.

But there are four things that are important to know:
- the big events happen every couple of months and we are due for one in April;
- Whacking Day (May 10) is an important enough Springfield event to celebrate in the game and, like Halloween, the celebrations could begin about about a month before;
- when it comes, it will be an App store / Google Play update, as the splash screen will need to change; and
- the friend dimension that’s been suggested could well mean that Android players get Origin in time for both the update and the Samsung Galaxy 4 release.

Does that mean there won’t be anything for Easter? We’ll just have to wait and see what happens this week.

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Categories App Store, EA, Google Play, Whacking Day

The App Store and Google Play descriptions now reflect level 27!

By TSTO Tips
March 22, 2013 //
8

Running a little behind the update, the App Store and the Google Play descriptions have finally been updated to reflect the release of level 27. Here’s what you should be seeing now:

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Categories Adult Education Annex, App Store, Carl, Google Play, Lenny, Level 27, Moe's Tavern, Mount Carlmore, Springfield Buddhist Temple, Update

A new update is now available for download!

By TSTO Tips
March 19, 2013 //
46

A new update is now available for download from the App Store (although it’s unclear at this stage whether there is anything new in Google Play).

St. Patrick’s Day is still mentioned in the game information, though – and Springfield’s rivers are still green. In fact nothing appears to have changed yet except the version number of the App, which is now 4.1.50 (the Google Play version is 4.1.3 and the St. Patrick’s Day information is also still showing there).

There’s nothing in the App description to describe what it’s all about – but that doesn’t mean nothing’s changed. It could be a bug fix – although there’s conflicting information coming in on whether it’s done anything for players who have the infamous harp of death).

Or it could simply be that something’s on the way…

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Categories App Store, Bugs and glitches, EA, Update

For parents: How to stop your kids from spending all your money on donuts!

By TSTO Tips
March 16, 2013 //
18

With two limited time premium items only with us for another couple of days, this news report from a couple of days ago is a timely reminder to parents that there are a couple of steps you need to take to make sure that your kids aren’t spending your hard-earned cash on donuts.

Widely reported last week was the case of an 8-year old boy from Belfast who clearly wanted his Springfield citizens to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in style. In the process, though, he gave his parents a nasty surprise by spending £980 (approx. $1500) on donuts. Fortunately for the parents, Apple gave a full refund, which they were under no obligation to do.

This article from the UK’s Guardian newspaper sets out step-by-step what protections parents should set up on their kids’ devices to make sure that this never happens to them. Maybe you’ve already done everything the article suggests – but if you haven’t, it’s certainly worth a look:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2013/mar/13/stop-children-spending-money-in-ipad-games

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Categories App Store, Apple, Donuts, Premium characters, Premium decorations

Now that we’ve had an update, when can we expect level 27?

By TSTO Tips
March 7, 2013 //
26

As anyone who plays several times a day will already know, EA released a game update a short time ago through the App Store and Google Play. For the moment, absolutely nothing has changed in the game and, for the moment, EA are keeping quiet about what the update might or might not contain. So, when can we expect any of the changes that may be lurking in the update files to materialize?

Based on recent experience, Thursday or Friday afternoon US Central time seem to see something new happen, so I’ll be making sure I check in then (or as close to it as I can, given that I’ll be traveling again). But exactly what we’ll be checking for remains a question that we’re all asking. Here’s some of the speculation:

- level 27
- a new Gil deal
- a new episode promotion
- an Easter event (with the update released early to avoid the Valentine’s update issues)
- some new premium and regular characters and items to tide us over until a Whacking Day event, which may or may not be scheduled for April
- just some bug fixes (although it’s clear that it doesn’t include a total harp fix)

Anything I missed? Feel free to join in the speculation – but I’m pretty sure that something’s on the way soon.

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Categories App Store, Bugs and glitches, EA, Easter, Google Play, Level 27, Update, Whacking Day