I was a few thousand away from a donut bonus last night and decided not to go for it by using tokens. I'd have been in better shape if I'd had a little more time to play yesterday, but I'm OK with it because it allowed me to preserve my tokens for the last couple days after I unlocked crafting tier 2. I hoped that by unlocking the tier early gamblers might randomly drop some champagne glasses or stuff like that, but that didn't happen till act 2 started. I was also careful not to upgrade the casino club any further since the next prize was 1250 tokens, and I wanted to make sure that happened in act 2 instead of act 1.

Of course the last phase of the redwood is Lisa only, so that task is going to go on hiatus until she's no longer earning event currency.

Lucius ended up out of my reach and I used a few donuts to nab Britannia, simply because that gag on the show was so, so funny. As I look at these prizes and the premium items, I'm reminded of just how much gambling is on the show! I'm tempted to spend even more donuts here and there. Events like these prey on my sense of nostalgia, UT that's nothing new. In the last ten years, they've sold G.I. Joe in the original packaging for my real money, I can toss a few freely-earned donuts on some stuff from my favorite show.

This event has me wondering about people who have gambling addictions or tendencies playing these sorts of games that have so much chance built into them. Maybe it's not actually gambling because there isn't real money at stake? I don't know. Just wondering about that for the first time, really.

I will say, and part of me feels very square saying this but it's how I feel, I do NOT like how this event forces me to cheat. I don't want to tape up a photo of Barney to trick Moe. I don't want to pound on the machine to get a match. I've worked hard in my adulthood to rid myself of intentionally taking advantage, cheating, etc. in my personal life and even if it's within the vein of the show - and it's my favorite show - but I just don't dig that aspect.

It may not technically be gambling, but the addiction is real. Just think of the millions of dollars being spent on stuff like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga. When "free" games are advertising on network TV, you know that there's some serious cash flying around. I just googled Candy Crush yesterday to settle an argument, and a 2013 article said the game was earning $633K of IAP per day.

I applaud your sense of honor, sir! I don't worry about it too much myself, though. The designers intended it that way, or they would've made it a straight-up game with better odds. I know you know this, though, and that it won't help.

Pounding the machine isn't cheating. The wheels get stuck. Moe even sees you do it.

I'd imagine that gambling addiction comes more into play with something like the SWGoH chromium packs. I think Tapped Out was trying to move in that direction with the Christmas/Valentine wheels and the Easter boxes. Why sell you something for 200 donuts, when they can rope you into tossing in a few thousand on the chance to win it?

Got the Britannia Casino last night a couple hours from the next level.

Used about 250 tokens in Cletus's Dice Den to get Lucius Sweet.

Haven't been able to progress in Redwood quest for a while because the character selection isn't available.

Anybody else run into this?

Hmm, that's a new one to me. I'm still on the Otto level of the Redwood so no interference with the new event.

Burns' dialogue about how there's a little strip of debauchery popping up in town is like he's reading my mind. There's gonna be a big ol' neon strip in the bottom of my town at the end of this event!

Not sure what you mean by the character selection isn't available. Do you know what level of redwood you're on, and can you see any character selection at all? I always had Lisa and usually had someone else too.

I didn't get Lucius. I was unaware the event had started before the game forced me to update that Saturday... was 3-4 days behind and never fully caught-up. I gave up chasing him and focused on leveling-up to Tier 2, which I achieved last night.

Now, I'm stockpiling Coasters and Martinis for the Spruce Goose (it'll look great at my airport) and am using Keychains to continue to level-up as much as I can toward Tier 3. Tokens are spent playing dice at Cletus' place as soon as I get them... I always play 7, I nearly always win 110 Chips plus several bonus trinkets, which will help with the Tier 3/Goose quest. Characters that can't help me with the ongoing quest or earning Tokens at Burn's place are sent to work on the railroad, and those who can't do /that/ go to Springfield Heights to earn me material needed to expand the boardwalk up there as much as I can... I'm planning to move the Casinos onto the SH Boardwalk once I have enough room.

I wish I had reliable data service at work - I'd be much further ahead.

As far as the Redwood goes, it's stalled just like the Burns Money Mountain got stalled. Whenever the game gives me more real estate to buy, I use my money to buy-up that land. The priorities are:
1) Get $3M in the bank
2) Once I have that, buy the next segment of land and return to (1)
3) If there is no more land to buy and Burns is available, throw cash at the Money Mountain
4) If I can't do that, or if the Mountain is complete, then if the next character in the Redwood quest is available throw cash at the tree
5) If I can't do THAT, just stockpile cash until (3) or (4) can be done.

Redwoods Part 4. When I tap the "Do it" button, the assignment screen isn't visible.

Yup, that's not right.

Have you tried sending individuals to the tree from their own menu? For instance, Fat Tony is one of the characters who can "fertilize" your tree IIRC... does his task menu have a tree task listed there?

Whenever I have an issue, something it's not doing what's supposed to do, I go to visit my friends/neighbors and force a sync with the server.

Sure, let's add another quest for Lisa when I already have her on a quest and ignoring casino, redwood, and monorail tasks.

Try force closing the app. Then see if you can put the tree into storage. Pull it out and check it again. I'm not sure whether the assisting character was Fat Tony or Quimby for that section. Try cycling them through storage. If you have Jesse Grass, do the same with him.

Storing / retrieving Quimby worked.

Looks like the Lisa quest line only unlocks the option to buy a couple of premium items. Pass.

Yeah, I kinda like the look of that thing, but it looks pretty much the same as the tailgate party, and after splurging on that one, I have neither the donuts nor the inclination to get this one.

The event currency is still annoying me. Moe and Cletus have tasks in their casino buildings, but they just earn $ and XP. It's only the Burns Casino jobs.

If you're talking about the "Space Is Hot Right Now" quest, there's at least one non-premium building that it unlocks for free (Exploration, Inc. Headquarters).

The quest ties up Lisa for 2 hours, and then later the Rich Texan for 3 (not sure what happens if you don't have Rich Texan).

Ughh. How do you guys have so much cash? I'm hovering right around zero all the time, between paying for maggie donuts, and paying to build the tree and collecting I just about break even.

At some point, I just had more $ than I could spend. It helps to avoid buying land unless you absolutely need it and skip all the aspirationals until you've got a better income.

It's possible we've just been playing longer than you? What level is your town?

I kind of thought that Homer's House of Cards would unlock by now.

I'm at 4200/22750 for Cregg Demon, the last prize for act 2. My casino crafting level is level 2 with 5 more spots to unlock level 3. I haven't crafted any prizes lately as I;m trying to get to level 3 since there is a building there to get.

My players club is level 7, I need 35 more points to get to level 8.

I've ignored the Princess Pride quest as I bought her with all the free donuts I've been collecting. But since she earns event currency, I've been having her and the other 6 characters that I have that earn event currency doing that exclusively.

My redwood tree is level 8. Its taking a while since only one character earning 10 points at a time takes a while when they want 360 to get to level 9.

I unlocked Craig Demon today. Now I'm just going to stock up on tokens so I can hit the ground running in act 3.

I've unlocked level 3 prizes, but I haven't really crafted anything yet. I plan to do that with any doodads I get from tapping gamblers.

If you haven't unlocked it yet, tap the golden token icon in your task list. You need to finish the Have a Vice Day quest before you can build it.

I just unlocked it today and did the one required card game. Like the dice game, I won't use it and will stick to the slot machine as the payouts are better.

are payouts really better?
I mean, I think the same, but I haven't done any proper analysis. I'm sure someone in one of the forums already did that. Just curious about that.