Introducing Upgrades! (new category each weekend!)

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Yes, the upgrades system is finally ready for public testing! “Silently” debuted during our world emoji day… event… the upgrades system lets you pay additional money to upgrade eligable objects when purchasing them or even afterwards, on the same panel that lets you return objects to inventory. These upgrades can make the object match more expensive versions for motive gain, benefits and even add some extra functionality the object never had before! Our emoji day example was a thinking emoji that spins when you upgrade it, but the real targets are more… practical than that.
Today, we’re debuting the first set of functional object upgrades that aim to free house builders from only using a small slice of the catalog. Soon, it will all be viable. 😌

Visitors will know when an object has been upgraded, as stars will appear next to the cursor when hovering it!

Upgrades for Beds, and where to find them

The Moroccan Bed in TSO is famous for being the only one that is bearable to green with. It’s an important staple of any popular ingame lot, whether it fits in with your property’s theme or not. Rustic style, artsy, scifi? Still Moroccan. Finally, those days have come to an end!
(See the top image for the upgrade panel location and look!)
Four upgrade levels are available for the beds – Cheap, Moderate, Expensive and Very Expensive that have been based on the existing objects and their prices. For example, the child’s bed is at the Cheap upgrade level, the scifi single bed is Expensive, and the morrocan/heart beds are Very Expensive. From the upgrades panel, you can select a higher upgrade level and pay the difference to get its benefits.
As the upgrade levels are the same for each object, and the target price always corresponds to a “flagship” object from each level, you can pay the same price to get the best version of any bed. Note that bunk beds and double beds have a different pricing scheme to single beds, as they have their own benefits.
The Upgrades Panel can be found on the information panel that appears when you pick up an object or select one in the catalog. By clicking the red star button on the top right, you can see a list of all available upgrades along with which is currently selected. You can buy upgrades in bulk from the catalog, or upgrade individual objects after the fact… this will cost you more depending on the object’s level of wear, but the object will be good as new after the upgrade.
When you upgrade an object, it is permanent! I even worked extra hard to make sure that even if the server crashed shortly afterwards, the database would remember that you upgraded the object and not need to roll it back. Good for expensive upgrades! 😉
Bunk beds will cost you a little more to upgrade to max, but they’re essentially two beds in one.

Gradual Rollout

Upgrade Tables have to be created manually per object, and we need to reason about where those levels lie by looking at the tuning and prices of every object in the category (collected in a spreadsheet). To reduce the wait and get more thorough testing of each category, we’ll be rolling out new Upgrade Tables as they are created.
Each weekend for the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out Object Upgrades for a new class of objects. For example, this week we’re rolling out upgrades for Beds, next week will likely be Chairs, and so on. Early on, upgrades will use existing tuning, for object categories that are already somewhat balanced or aren’t game critical. However, some upgrade rollouts may end up changing an entire category’s tuning (such as the Fun category, which is very unbalanced), and enabling purchasable upgrades for certain objects that add something entirely new.
During this time we hope you try decorating with objects that might not have been viable before, and report any upgrades that you think are not working. While we’re gathering feedback on the system and tuning, we will continue working on the rest of the items on our roadmap in parallel.

We’ll be posting short summaries each time we debut new objects, ingame and in the discord. Check in often for the latest developments! Hope you enjoy the changes, and unleash your creativity with the full catalog.

– Rhys

4 thoughts on “Introducing Upgrades! (new category each weekend!)

  1. Wow. I’m surprised that this new program revitalized TSO, but we’re in a new era now where players can’t fully “Be Somebody. Else.” (TSO’s tagline) due to social media, data privacy, etc.

    TSO came out during a time where online anonymity was guaranteed, and no one asked to see who you were in real life since there was no Facebook, Instagram, etc. “Connect your Facebook account to your sim!” — this is how I picture TSO in this present time, and it makes me cringe!

    TSO was my escape from the real world when I was younger. I even met my best friend (now ex) of ten years thru TSO. We kept on contact for years after TSO closed, and people like her definitely shaped the young adult I am today. So, I’m glad I got to experience this game during a time when the internet was still a bit new for many.

    I was addicted to TSO as a teen, and I missed it terribly once it shut down in 2008. However, MMORPGs will never have the same majesty as they previously did before the dawn of social media, and once I realized that, I was able to fully let TSO lay to rest…

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