Love all of these ideas. I would love to see the tasks updated to take advantage of all the available buildings.

I agree with most of what you say whole-heartedy. Just a few additional thoughts to some of the points:skollthewolf wrote:Each character gets 1, 4, 8, 12, and 24 hour tasks. I don't know how all of you play Tapped Out, but I suspect that the majority of you use these tasks the majority of the time. This should be standard for each playable character, and they should contain a good mix of indoor (using a building) and outdoor (visible) tasks.Personally, I use the 6 hour tasks more often than 4 hour tasks, prefer 10 hour tasks over 12 hour tasks and find myself using 16 hour tasks rather frequently (although the reason for that might be that most 16 hour tasks in the game are outdoors and look great - most of all Kodos & Kang, but also Kirk, LuAnn and the wig tasks for the boys).Still I agree, there should be some standard times all characters should have, and the ones you mention sound reasonable. (Today I finally gave in and purchased Drederick Tatum, even although the prospect of a character with no 1-hour tasks doesn't look too promising.)skollthewolf wrote:Joint tasks should be at irregular hours. EA does this a bit -- Agnes Skinner and Comic Book Guy's 2 hour date, Mr. Burns and Smithers' 10 hour Ferris Wheel ride -- but they should do this more. For example, Maude Flanders has a one hour task with Ned and an eight hour task with Homer, but it becomes awkward when I'm trying to maximize the profit I get from each character by having them each do tasks (especially since my Homer has been largely doing tasks in Krustyland in an attempt to get enough tickets to buy the rest of the land). What if we made her task with Homer be a six hour task, and then make her eight hour task one where she haunts the Bad Dream House, a building which has the best animation in the game, but goes used by no one.Another example is Lisa Simpsons' eight hour "Babysit Rod and Todd" task. Initially it was worthwhile, but when Rod and Todd were introduced, suddenly both were needed to perform the task. Now the task needs three characters available to perform, but pays the same amount it did when it was only Lisa (that's another thing: make the joint tasks profitable). What if we made it a 16 hour task, and made it7 pay triple?Besides the fact I'm fairly certain that Lisa's 8 hour tasks does pay out for all three characters, I'd rather say every character should have at least one non-joint task for every standard task length (that especially concerns Smithers, who should have a non-joint 1 hour task besides his joint task with Burns).skollthewolf wrote:Give more characters Krustyland tasks. This is probably something that will come up this summer, but it would be nice. We currently have 79 available characters, but only 18 of them can go to Krustyland. It takes forever to grind enough tickets to buy land and rides. Plus, some added Krustyland duty would make certain expensive characters, such as Jimbo, more appealing to players.What I find really odd: You can place a Fleet-a-Peeta in Krustyland, but none of the Investorettes can travel there. Also, I can't quite get over the fact that Chief Wiggum will go to Krustyland, but leaves his Ralphie home. Then again, I pretty much abandoned my Krustyland after I put up my last ride there.skollthewolf wrote:Use the available buildings. As mentioned previously, many of the playable characters have the same tasks at the same length for the same buildings. The game developers should make use of all the available buildings. Why is it that nine characters have regular tasks at the Gilded Truffle, while the Pimento Grove, El Chemistri, Phineas Q. Butterfat's, and Zesty's sit empty? When will Marge abandon the Kwik-E-Mart to shop at Springfield Mall, Sprawl-Mart, or Try-N-Save?Also: Why won't Bart, Milhouse or Nelson won't enter the Noiseland Arcade?

Big fan of everything said by the OP.

kungpao214 wrote:I like this too! Perhaps it can be added to the user suggested wish list sticky in case EA reads that thread or this one gets forgotten about?[/quotePersonally I'd make this its own sticky, perhaps named task and building use wish listI agree with this but I wouldn't want to lose the mapple store task as I like the animation, the only issue you have with this, which can be avoided if you double up is that low level characters won't have many tasks to do if they're all spread to high leel buildings. We all remember bumblebeemans tasks and many weren't doable for many level,

I'm all for everything in the OP, though I'd add in 2 and 3 hour task lengths to squeeze in more uses for each character throughout the towns newer buildings. Let's hope EA has a revamp in the works and can integrate these ideas (or come up with better ones somehow).

I'm 99% sure joint tasks pay out for all parties. The reason why I don't like Lisa's Joint babysit task and never use it is because there's no animations. Meanwhile, The Flanders/Banner task and the Homer/Maude task I use all the time and I don't care about the payout because I LOVE the animations. Glad we got that Thanksgiving skin for Lisa so now she has another 8 hr task. I just kept sending her to KL for an 8 hour task. And Rod and Todd do have a 4 hour task. It's together.I'm with you, re the rest of your points. SO MANY buildings now remain unused. If they could at least give us more characters using SP and give Ralphie a 4 hour task, I'd be happy. This is the VERY MINIMUM.The other thing I'd like is, if you're going to make a premium character, they should have more animated tasks. From what I've read Jimbo has only 2. No voice and only 2 animations? For 120 donuts? LuAnn has 3 (awesome) animations AND a building for 150. (And the fleet a Pita s/l. More grub pts for KL! and gluttony pts for SF!) Perhaps I've been spoiled by Kang, who has all visible awesome tasks.They don't even have to change tasks for the existing characters. I'm a fan of 2,3,6,10 and 16 hour task lengths.@MrWhiplash, I find I don't mind so much that Tatum doesn't have a 1 hr task. He does have a 2 hour task which is much less annoying when you've sent burnsy to exercise without Smithers.

A Modest Proposal -- Overhauling Character's Tasks

kylstrk
11 years ago
This is a great post, you should start a tsto blog. I'd read it every day!
blueathena62
11 years ago
Have you actually noted the amount of cash and XP you receive after putting Rod and Todd on the four hour task? I did the math once and I did get the correct cash and XP one would expect from two characters.

Otherwise, I love everything you said. I want everyone to have a 4 hour task, darn it. And I would love for there to be alternatives to joint tasks so, as in your example, Smithers can still do something even if you send Burns on a walk.

I would love to see more tasks with the new buildings and more tasks with premium items. I
I would have purchased the hot tub a long time ago had I realized it gave Fat Tony an awesome 10 hr task that gives extra cash and XP.
bettyseek381
11 years ago
Well thought out post. I like it !
killjoygee173
11 years ago
They need to make the pets have tasks; I don't remember how but I got SLH for free. All these pets have moments in episodes that could be established as tasks; SLH could go "swimming in neighbours pool" if we get a pool deceration or "'visit' the race track".

I also think the Frog Prince and King Skippy need tasks; even the Funzos.
redwagonner
11 years ago
Great thread! It's been mentioned before in older threads, but I think that professor frink should be paid at a higher rate in the observatory than skinner or Martin. Premium character in a premium building. Also, Shauna needs a one hour task.
skollthewolf
Rising Novice
11 years ago
biebel wrote:
You shouldn't use 'A Modest Proposal' as title and have a serious proposal. It just doesn't seem right.

Why not? I was modestly proposing something. Besides, it was a reference to the Jonathan Swift essay.
letsridebikes
11 years ago
skollthewolf wrote:
MrWhiplash82 wrote:
Besides the fact I'm fairly certain that Lisa's 8 hour tasks does pay out for all three characters, I'd rather say every character should have at least one non-joint task for every standard task length (that especially concerns Smithers, who should have a non-joint 1 hour task besides his joint task with Burns).

Lisa's eight hour "Babysit Rod and Todd" task pays out at $275, the same as Bart's solo eight hour "Skip School" task.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9770971.page#30555184
datasurgeon
11 years ago
Excellent post. I only have a small contribution. characters can have multiple tasks in the same time frame, Check out Kirks 8 hour task. If you buy the Cracker factory he can also work there
epolng
11 years ago
Very good ideas. I wouldn't mind seeing characters have multiple tasks available of the same length, especially if one was for a premium building and one for a regular building. Maybe pay out more for the premium building task than the regular. Or make the *off* length tasks for premium buildings and the 1,4,8,10,12 and 24 hour tasks for regular ones. Not really fun for folks without a lot of premium content to get a task list that is shut down because of missing premium stuff. (That Mapple Store quest hanging out there just bugs the heck out of me *LOL*.)
coffeemars
11 years ago
http://imghumour.com/assets/Uploads/Warning-thread-bump.jpg

I had to dig to find this thread. I remember starting to read it when arriving to work but didnt get a chance to read it all.