Item Selection Frustration!

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Welcome to Tapped Out

Lord-Peem wrote:
Now I'm sure this matter is raised all the time, but I just don't understand it.

Why, when you click on an item, does it select every item around it before it selects the item that you want? It's not like the game doesn't understand where you're tapping, because you're forever clicking on tiny characters without a hitch. I've been building a maze for about an hour now and I'm having to constantly move hedges - I'm nearly ready to tear my hair out.

Can anyone shed some light on the matter or are we all doomed?

It's been discussed in the past. The behavior you describe seems to occur most often when the user selects an object, moves and places it, and then decides immediately thereafter to move it again. The presumption is that there is an algorithm in place which "guesses" what object the user is selecting and is assuming that the the user would not wish to move the same object twice in succession and is therefore selecting objects that are nearby. Only after exhausting all nearby objects does the code seem to realize that, yes, you really want to move that same object again.

yeah, super annoying, and it's not my fat fingers because its done the same thing when I used a dialing wand. I think that the "touch zone" for items is much larger than the item itself, probably bacause selecting small items on a small screen could potentially be difficult, but when multiple items reside in that zone it selects by advancing through "layers", probably starting with the last untouched item in the group, and advances through the layers with every touch.


I think that the game also has a dead zone on the far left, it seems like I can't touch anything within the space of the task column except for the task menu itself when it's open.

It would just be so much better if you could just select whatever you tapped. No need for crazy algorithms. If there's an item behind another item just move the blocking item then select the item that was behind. Not so difficult.

ThorButtockth wrote:
I can understand it when the item is just a few squares away. It's not much different when I have a bunch of people come out of the 1 Hour Kwik-E Mart task at the same time and if I clicked in the middle of the group, it'll select anybody, not exactly the character I'd like. So I can understand why the game has close items "tap in rotation". I don't understand it when it's almost 10 squares away, though, which sometimes happens. It'd be nice if the developers can pin point that, but I think they did it this way taking fat fingers (or small screens) into consideration.

I think your point about small screens is a good one. I've speculated that with respect to this touch issue, the program seems to assume a sort of worst case scenario; i.e., the user is playing on a device such as an iPhone with a small screen. In other words, it doesn't take advantage of the greater screen resolution available with a tablet.

I got everybody beat. Lately I'd tap on say Luigi's (currently on the bottom of my town, farthest south and west). It will scroll the screen all the way over and highlight like the Gulp N Blow at least 4-5 land plots northeast-ish.

kelekod wrote:
I got everybody beat. Lately I'd tap on say Luigi's (currently on the bottom of my town, farthest south and west). It will scroll the screen all the way over and highlight like the Gulp N Blow at least 4-5 land plots northeast-ish.

That happens to me alot. I'll try tapping someone, and it will scroll across my town.

sherryt07 wrote:

kelekod wrote:
I got everybody beat. Lately I'd tap on say Luigi's (currently on the bottom of my town, farthest south and west). It will scroll the screen all the way over and highlight like the Gulp N Blow at least 4-5 land plots northeast-ish.

That happens to me alot. I'll try tapping someone, and it will scroll across my town.

So frustrating. I think it only happens when I'm trying move a building or something. I am not sure if I saw it when the town is in a normal non-edit mode.

Erik319 wrote:
You think so? Just now I tapped on my Springfield Sign and my game selected a $25 shrub in my friends game on his iPad while he was playing...

...in China.

Impressive! Never saw it go to another town.