Christmas is here! Prizes doubled for today and a free reindeer for everyone.
Also, Frank Scorpio headed to his lair to find a present for Homer. Did anyone else get this quest? Wonder what it is.
The Denver Broncos?
Apparently, it’s Hank, not Frank. My bad. 
And the gift is a bunch of gift cards.
Yay.
Only 37 more days + small change 'till my Corn! Actual Corn! is ready.
Snow Monster acquired.
One more.
Bring me ClausCo!!!
I was very happy to receive a reindeer today. I didn’t want to spend donuts on one, but it was the one Christmas thing I wanted that was premium. Yay.
I got a mystery box in a mystery box in a mystery box today. Then 3 white fences. Usually when I have the nesting boxes, I get something fairly good (the white fences have a small multiplier, therefore are better than wooden ones or a parking lot).
I got 30 donuts in my mystery box today. I’ve been playing 10 months and never had that.
Also, I’m pissed that the gift cards you get from neighbors towns were not doubled. I thought I’d get 60 per town today. Still only 30.
I was surprised by that as well. After all the towns I went through this morning I thought I would end up with two coins when I went back to my Springfield. I was surprised to see I hadn’t even racked up a thousand cards yet.
I just want to say that if I don’t get clause co. And the yeti I will quit this game.
I have until this stupid wheel thing is over on the 7th (i am guessing). That means about 4-5 spins a day until then.
I have hit cash, which is only on two spots on my wheel 5 times in the last 6 spins. The 6th spin brought me a house with lights that i already have. I thought that once you won something, it came off the wheel, but apparently not.
The other thing i still have on my wheel is Barney’s Plow King. But i already have won that. I guess since I don’t have Barney, the program doesn’t know I have won that prize already. Or something.
The wheel is really starting to piss me off as a concept and here is why. I think of the wheel was a legitimate wheel, and each prize on the wheel was equally likely to land, then that would be fine. But since the odds are weighted so much, you know that a spin is being manipulated by the software. It is really frustrating how many times I have just “missed” the clause co. Building or the yeti. Always one space above or below those two prizes. Tonight, i actually thought I had the yeti, as the wheel clicked on the little pin that separates the two prize “wedges”. But no, I got $1000. Whoopie. Again.
And this is the other problem for me, i don’t mind going to everyone’s town, but to gather all of those gift cards for three spins, only to get $3k is just not worth it. Or $2k and a bunch of house lights I already have. That’s not fun, it’s annoying.
So, we shall see. But i am losing my enthusiasm for this game rapidly. It’s a shame, but that’s what the wheel has done. It has given me so many duplicates, cash and gift cards? Are you freaking kidding me? Gift cards! That’s worthless AND insulting. Why not give us an extra coin or free spin instead of gift cards?
Serenity now.
Serenity now.
Serenity now.
This is a friendly reminder to check that your ‘confirm donut spending’ button is on. I guess some update or another unclicked it for me and I didn’t notice. I scrounged for 6 months to get up to 100 donuts and was scrolling through the premium stuff looking for something I might want or seeing how many more I needed to save when I accidentally purchased freaking Hans Moleman.
I’m sure Mr. Moleman is a fine citizen but ever since he shouted Booo-urns instead of Boooo, I haven’t had much respect for the man. Also I don’t care about his stupid quests and he doesn’t bring me any awesome buildings or increased %age.
USCDiver, that truly sucks. I would imagine your pissed-off meter was high right after realizing that you lost your donuts like that.
I have come close to losing mine as well, and would have if not for the “Are you sure?” Question that popped up right after i mistakenly hit the button for the object.
This will make you feel better. I got 4 spins for the wheel today and got 50 gift cards, $1000, $1000, and 50 gift cards.
Not exactly giving me a warm and fuzzy feeling about ever getting Clause co. I have nailed the wheel wedge between the yeti and ClauseCo so many times, it defies belief. It is almost as if the other side of the wheel doesn’t exist, AND the only place the wheel seems to stop is right around, but never on, Clause Co. The wheel has NOT been kind to me the last 4 days. (grumble). 50 damn gift cards makes me crazy. I spend all this time tapping boxes to get 1000 gift cards, and all I get for my trouble is a spin and 50 lousy cards? That is worthless. At least give me money, EA! You bastards.
One thing i’d like for EA to do is to get rid of the stupid scratch-off ticket at the kwik-e-mart. Just give me $100 and be done with it. There is no thrill for me to pay $250 to get the ticket, and then scratch off the first space, only to see that fucking bomb again and again. Then, it’s the club, followed by the axe, and $350. Whoopee. Has anyone won the $10000 prize? And even if you have, is it worth the scratching off each and every ticket? I think they should reduce the ticket to once a day or once a week, make the prizes more substantial, and/or give me a way to opt out of it. I have started to just leave that stupid ticket icon on top of the mart and not selecting it. I don’t want to scratch anymore $350 tickets! So, unless I hit the icon by mistake, i am not going to bother with it any longer.
I finally built the TV Station, and I have the floating 6 up. So feel free to hit that icon for me if you feel so inclined.
I haven’t exactly figured out what the reward is for me, but I assume it is money. Does the thing die after 24 hours like the crop does? Because i’ve lost two crops now by not being able to get back into my app before the 24 hour window had passed. Still, i have been able to pick up a few extra dollars thanks to folks hitting the crop icon, so thank you all for doing that (those of you that have done it, of course. 
)
My town is a mess right now, since i haven’t had time to fix up the layout. I don’t expect I will have time until after the Christmas thing is over.
If anyone wants something specific tapped, it would be a good idea to move your tree near the item. I have done my best to hit tiles, crops or the channel 6 icon, but with 100 friends now, it is much more time-consuming if I have to scroll to the boardwalk and/or look for the farm or channel 6. So, keep that in mind if you would like folks to tap on items other than tickets.
I’ve won the $10K prize several times, and have even won the Jackpot on a $0.99 donut scratch-off once. (I buy one about once a month).
But as you point out – nobody’s holding a gun to your head. Don’t like the scratch-offs? Don’t do them. I promise not to point and laugh (Nelson will, but only if you make him.)
Thanks for letting me know that winning the jackpot is possible. I honestly had no idea that it was ever won by anyone.
I should probably start tracking my statistics, but i would say that out of every 10 tickets, 8 are the $350 winners, 1/2 is a $500 winner, and maybe one is a $1000 winner. I have never won more than $1000.
I also just went through and got my 3 spins from visiting towns. Each spin stopped on the EXACT SAME SPOT ON THE WHEEL. I think EA must be monitoring my posts, because each spin was a 50 gift card prize. So for 3000 cards collected, I turned them into 150 gift cards. Yeah, that’s a good feeling. Sonuvabitch!
And my wheel is set up where i have the yeti, the gift cards, and then claus co. The three spins were all started at different spots on the wheel, and they all landed in the exact same pie wedge.
I noticed that the wheel “puts on the brakes” at some point during the spin to slow it down and make it land where the odds are highest. It is almost imperceptible, but it is there, and you can see more or less how the software can determine the odds of the prizes won.
I wondered when this first started how the odds for each prize were different based on what the prize was, and now I understand how they could do that. I’m not sure what triggers the wheel to stop on a certain prize vs another. And clearly people have won the Clause Co. Building, but I’m not seeing how I can possibly win it when the wheen is working like it is right now. Perhaps a reshuffling of the prizes would help. I’m not sure. But 3 straight spins on the same exact spot on the wheel? The odds of that happening on a legitimate wheel would be amazingly high.
I feel like the guy in Rick’s Cafe Americain in Casablana, where he goes up to the young man who is losing at roulette and says “have you tried 22?” , the guy puts his chips on 22, it hits, and Rick says “Leave it there.” And it hits on 22 again. Someone asks “Is this place honest?” And the reply is “Honest as the day is long!” I think EA was working that roulette wheel in Rick’s.
So, my 50 gift card slot seems to be the 22 on Rick’s roulette wheel in Casablanca. Except I’m not enjoying my winnings! 
This morning I woke up to the dreaded message that “There is a Level 1 Springfield already on this device”, which makes me think about (A) how much time I would need to rebuild my Springfield to Level 37, which, in turn, caused me to think about (B) how much time and money I’ve wasted on this game. Fortunately, the fix detailed on this EA Forum post (FYI for those unaware of it) restored my progress. The issue of whether my time and money has been wasted reaching my current level of progress is still unresolved.
Reentering my town, I appear to have run into a cap on the number of Squidport tiles I can have (211), and my completed Channel 6 handshakes have disappeared. Hopefully, folks will still be able to click my Arnie Pye program once it completes.
The annoyance of trying to play this has become such that I am throwing my hands up in surrender.
On two of my four accounts, I can’t play a game for more than a few minutes without a crash and the other two are spotty. If a game crashes three times, I give up on it now instead of trying to at least finish clearing my town and setting characters on tasks. Going for visits to other towns is almost impossible in the two bad towns.
And now, one of my towns is no longer receiving coins from gift cards. I was fine before the last update. I can still get the one from the building, but that seems to be it. If I tap the coin on the taskbar it shows, “1000/1000 coins collected!” This is a known glitch, apparently.
I have been hoarding my gift baskets to pass out on Christmas because of the rumors they would be worth double. With my four accounts, I could have given everyone up to 20 bags (if you’re friends on all four). But I couldn’t get into three towns to give or receive; I was able to manage only one.
What is the Arnie Pye program?
I believe there IS a limit on SP tiles, but I don’t know the number. It may very well be 211.
Can I ask if you can tell me about the channel 6 handshakes? Do they stay up like the tile handshakes, or do they disappear after a while, like the crops? I lost my last channel 6 handshake due to either a mistake tap on my part, or a glitch in the software. Not sure, because I don’t remember tapping it, but it wasn’t there.
Getting Arnie Pye unlocks a program on Channel 6 that is worth $7500 and 2100xp to you for every tap you get after a 2 day wait.
The Channel 6 handshakes do not expire like crops, but they do seem to clear (as do the Squidport tiles) when there’s an update. By the way, if your crops wither, your friends can revive them; I have revived several moonshines recently. Hopefully my corn will get a lot of business when it’s ready in March.
Arnie Pye is a premium character that will get you a lot of money if you have him do a helicopter report for Channel 6. If you see an annoying helicopter getting in the way of tapping when you are visiting another town, that’s him doing the report. Once he’s done, you’ll get an icon like all of the other Channel 6 tasks.
The Channel 6 handshakes will stay, just like for the Squidport tiles. For me, they are much easier to “mistake tap” because the station is a building and, even though I have the station set off to the side, I’m usually just trying to hurry through and tap everything. Mine also do not stack like they do for other people for some annoying reason. I know people are going in and tapping on them because I will go in and tap from one of my towns to the other, but when I go in to clear the handshake, it will show a different name, like someone has tapped after me or something.
Damn. Mistakenly got homer and Lisa out of the treehouse. Now I can’t go back to hunting Simpsons.
I did that the other day too - I was so pissed.