New Release -- December 22nd, 2009 - UPDATE

[Raul]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

[Peggy98]

Well!
I have been playing the game for about six months and feel that it is great.
One thing I have noticed is that everytime you guys improve things for people others get unreasonably( I feel and I am sorry) upset. As the saying goes you can't please everyone all the time.
People should just accept that it is a game, go with the flow and accept the challenges each change brings.

Personally I quite like the new way - as you say it has removed the stamped for crops.

Have a great holiday

PS. I would like to be able to buy a holiday pig though!!!:)

[raindrops300]

Thank you so much for going back to old version. I prefer the was it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work. As far as potential for collisions, it is worse on this new version since everyone lands in the middle and tries to work in the same area. Personally, I never saw myself lose coins, as they would always show up as I left the job. Thank you for listening.

[Efwis]

THANK GOD!!!!
the original way was better. Please do the limited hiring practice as this will reduce the collision issue.
If you have to recode things for it to be done, please reset the game back to the way it was until you have the new code done that limits how many people you can hire.

Thanks again for listening to your valued players and keep up the great work on the game.

[Mustaine's Woman]

Ha!! Just signed up so I could have my rant about the various issues I have had with the update.....seems I no longer have to rant.

THANK YOU so much for reverting back tomorrow :-) Merry Christmas to you all!! Apart from this slightly dodgy update, thanks to the Devs for such a fantastic game, and thanks to the Mods for keeping these forums in line. (I have been lurking and reading in here for months).

I would prefer the way it was, nevermind the random xp / coin loss.....granted I do only hire one person to plow and plant most times...sometimes if I am in a rush I will hire a few to do my farm :-)

Whatever you choose is fine by me now that I know Dec 22 Update isn't hanging around too much longer.

Woooooh!!!

[Denali]

Thank you!!!!!

I never had prolems with the old way, loved it. I never lost points or coins, tonight was the first time that happened.

I like the idea of limiting the number of people you can hire, as long as there's some way to monitor when they leave, because normally i'll hire someone, then stick around in the marketplace looking for jobs, so it would be nice to get a msg pop-up or something letting you know they've left, so that your crops don't go to waste, or so you can hire someone else to finish...

THANK YOU for going back to the old way!!!!

[angelwithoutherwings4u]

I rarely heard complaints before these changes where made. I have had nothing but frustration tonight while trying to play. As someone else stated everyone is still hiring mulitple people and everyone is trying to stay close to where they are standing to work so here we are all fighting over a little screen place at a time. Before we could quickly move to different areas and work together. I just prefer the old way better as everyone was in a good mood and happy to be playing the game. I do understand updating systems and making play better but have learned to many changes at one time makes for trouble as today has been. Thank you for converting back to the old system.

[keblank]

I like it the way it was. You can choose yourself how many people you want to hire. Please go back to the old farmtown. I really love that game.

[Sassy Kathy]

I'm glad you'll be reverting back. One reason I like this game over others is that the graphics are more mature. The 12/22 change seemed to make the game more juvenile ... especially the harvesting tool being so huge. It is absolutely too slow, and all of my friends had the same complaint without realizing what had happened. (We hadn't been to the forum yet.)

I think being limited to hiring just a single worker is equally bad. Sometimes a couple of my friends get together on someone's farm and chat away while working together. I have two large farms with enough work to support a couple of workers. I think the choice should be ours. If someone hired from the marketplace feels that there are too many workers on a farm, they have the option to leave. I dread the thought of only being able to hire one person, and equally dread the thought of another day of the game being so slow. All of the fun is gone. And I simply don't have an hour to sit and watch somebody harvest my farm, plot by plot by plot by plot by plot. It's like a toy with run-down batteries.

Many thanks for asking for feedback and for listening.

[scarecrow moe™]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

Yes, 1 person harvesting/plowing is a good idea. Or the way it was before, but maybe add an option for the person hiring to either boot or warn by means of a strike anyone who gets out of line, like the people who just start clicking randomly where others are working in a straight line. 3 strikes, you're on the bench or reported or something, maybe even have it where it shows everyone else which people have gotten strikes so they can choose not to hire that person in the future. Or maybe set it up so wherever a person starts working, they can only work in a straght line till they collide with someone else, then they are finished. But this slow down that is happening now is just too slow. And for the people who just can't keep up or go as fast as others, well, they either need to upgrade their 10 year old pcs, or get a faster internet speed than dial up, or just simply practice to learn to click faster & more accurately than the more experienced people. Maybe there's a way to have different marketplaces for those with dial up, then they are all in their own room together and won't have conflicts with the vast majority of users on hi-speed connections.

Personally I like the idea of having only 1 person working at a time. Maybe you could share with us the reasons you think this would cause problems so we can put our heads together & come up with possible solutions or alternatives. Many heads are better than 1. :cool:

[ScottLanter]

I would completely support limited hiring. "Too many workers" is the biggest complaint I hear about on my farm. That is why I hire one, and sometimes two workers, maximum, to work on my farm. I have received many comment from people who thank me for limiting the number of workers on my farm. There are many people with slow connections and they're left out in the cold because of people with very fast connections. By limiting the number of workers it will equal the playing field in a more fair way, yet not slow down someone who may have a fast connection.

Another valid reason for limiting the number of workers that can be hired on a farm is this: I have been hire to work on numerous farms and have found sometimes 6 and 8 other workers there when I arrive. Some of these farms are the smallest a player can actually have in the game. I've yet to understand why 8 workers would be needed on the smallest farm in the game. But, for some reason, there are farmers who feel the need to hire that many workers at one time. That, to me, is a lack of consideration for other only to satisfy one's own lack of patience to wait an extra few minutes for one or two workers to complete the tasks at hand.

Just the thoughts of a Level 60 player here. But, I'll support the developers...no matter what they decide.

[Chicky's Place]

I'm so happy you're going back to how it was before. It wasn't perfect, but it was enjoyable and usable and my favourite game on facebook.
And if the issues with putting trees on top of your crops is caused by a separate update I would love for that to go back to how it was as well. I love having my trees surrounded by plants :)

[KeLy]

Thank you for listening to your users, it is appreciated. Limiting hires is an option. However, it is a game and meant to be competitive. Each farmer has the choice of leaving if there are too many others. Many in the marketplace make it clear that they only want solo jobs. They seem to be hired. Personally, I generally hire one rarely two. The game seems to move faster that way. But, I like having the freedom to choose how many to hire.

Forcing farmers to stay until the harvest has been completed has also been suggested. That I oppose. Most of us have lives after all and life can get in the way of a game. If one needs to leave, one should be able to do so.

[Little Critter]

I think if you limit workers to about 2 or 3 that may be a help. It seems to slow things down if more are in the room at one time. Thanks for your work.

[kaylene]

My friends and myself are happy with the new way..:)

[Sassy Kathy]

I agree with everyone's complaints about over-hiring. But I just wanted to reinforce that some of us (friends) gather on farm and work together. It's how we socialize ... talk about the kids, work, holiday plans, vacation ...

I wish the solution to over-hiring didn't have to be so severe.

[DONELLA99]

even if it is only you harvesting or plowing, the "wait i'm busy" sign is back and............................................... ......................it takes forever to harvest or plow................. too slow...................................:confused:: confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

[crodgers]

quit yelling at us all!

[jwrbruins]

Hopefully going back to the old version as is indicated will happen will also mean reducing the size of the plant/harvest cursor? I can see it being a little bigger, but my God...it was bigger than a plot of farm land. Please make my Christmas wish come true and reduce the size. And if I didn't post this in the right location...tough..

[Capt. Conor]

even if it is only you harvesting or plowing, the "wait i'm busy" sign is back and............................................... ......................it takes forever to harvest or plow................. too slow...................................:confused:: confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

That is what raul is saying, he and slash key are changing it back but he needs our opinion

[Sassy Kathy]

That is what raul is saying, he and slash key are changing it back but he needs our opinion

Yes, they need our opinion. In a nice, small, quiet font. My eyes were screaming after seeing Donella's post :eek:

[totalriffraff]

I am very thankful to hear u plan to go back to the other way i really like being able to talk to my friends while we were working this new way took that away from me i like the suggestion for limiting hires i for 1 usually only hire one to do my farms and yes i mean farms i have 3 farm on her that i love to work on and i work on at least one everyday some time all of them in a day ive been doing this for awhile now and spent many hour on here and this is the only game i use i was thinking maybe u could use your new patch for the people that use multiple hires only, that might fix things for them cause ive been victim to that cause too to many people for too little farms maybe restricting them will help i dont know

[loyall3]

Thanks for listening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The change back won't be soon enough for me!!!!

[mpmayes]

THANK YOU FOR GOING BACK !!! I've been playing a while and love it, play everyday. I don't like to work in a crowd but just like someone said I have the option to leave and do sometimes. Can I assume when it goes back my screen will quit changing all the time? When trying to plant my plowed areas would disappear and when I would try to move the farm around on the screen it would go back to where it was, very frustrating. Thanks again for going back.

[TheWifes]

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!! I registered just to complain, I did post a complaint and then saw this new thread. (sorry) Thank you for going back to the old way.

As for the hiring, I say set a limit. Small farm 1 and 1, Large farm 2 and 2 and huge farm 3 and 3. I only hire 1 and I have a good size farm but I try to use friends or someone that is under lvl 15 or 20. It would stop the over lapping, but in all honesty people are greedy and there will always be issues but if I can only be playing for 3 weeks and get to level 25 then something is working! Good luck and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

[tall-p]

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.
Thanks so much for going back Raul!

I don't see what the problem is with fast harvesting and plowing. To me it seems like a skill... heck, it IS a skill.

I only hire one person to harvest my massive crops... I do that because I get 20-30% more for the harvest. It seems that NOBODY knows that little (Large) rule. When my worker gets exhausted and leaves... I hire ONE more.

When I hire others to plow, if no neighbor is around I hire a couple workers. What the heck it's not that big of a job... until this update.

[chandrarasnic]

I tried to play tonight with the changes that were made and it was not enjoyable. If you don't chose to change back, I really don't find it enjoyable and won't keep playing. I have talked to several people and they feel the same way. Leave it an option if a farmer wants to hire multiple workers! That is just part of the game. I can't tell you how many times tonight when I played that I clicked on a plot and it told me it was already done. It is awful, takes the fun out of it and is dreadfully slow! Thanks for listening to the feedback! It shows you truly want to please your players.:confused::confused::confused:

[lcswdonna]

Thanks so much for listening, I am sorry for griping, but intolerable is still intolerable and I love this game. I like the idea of limiting the amount of workers, but there could be some control over this, for instance, number of workers linked to number of spaces available to harvest or plow. I hate showing up to harvest 300 spaces with 8 farmers present. But on a large farm, four workers can still be workable and I also love visiting with my buddies and neighbors while working the spaces. Please do not take away the ability to layer, I love my trees where they are, it is so pretty with the crops surrounding them. Trees are my favorite part of this game, but they do not give the coins, and no exp past purchasing them initially. Like the animals, they are mostly worthy of eye candy. And just stacked on the sides is not as attractive or lifelike. Although I would never be able to put as many trees in my real fields as they limit sunlight. I am so glad that I will be able to get up in the morning and complete my harvesting and planting before heading to work. You guys are the best, that's why this game is the best. While I have your ear, wouldn't it be nice to be able to water the flowers in the farms while we wait for our coins to complete? I hate just leaving those dead looking flowers. Thanks again Bye:):):):)

[ribvalred]

I always stayed till i got my coins and xp, but this new change is doing my head in, toooo slow.. if it doesn't get undone I and my friends are going back to pogo!

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

[newdawn]

even if it is only you harvesting or plowing, the "wait i'm busy" sign is back and............................................... ......................it takes forever to harvest or plow................. too slow...................................:confused:: confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

YES!! Its so bad. Im on here, often times, too long as it is.
This is way way too slow. Sometimes we are pressed for time
too. Have enough time for a quick visit but at this speed of doing
things.. there is no such thing as a "quick visit" LoL
(And I have a fast connection and good pc)
I love the concept of this but speed it up please.
Thanks Farm Town :)

[JAS0643]

I personally want the faster (queuing) of the work. I do not like the idea of only one worker but I could live with that if:



It means others will not lose xps and coins when they work.
It is just temporary until you find a fix for those that lose xps and coins.

Here are the reasons I don't want it permanently limited to one worker.



I have a farm that is all crops and usually hire 2 to 4 workers to harvest which I think is very fair.
There are groups that are friends that like to have harvest parties at each others farms and the limit will stop that from happening.
This one may seem petty but here it is. There are some that are greedy and do not the fact that others are hired to work with them, (I'm not talking about the cases of 10 people being hired for 200 fields) so to have a limit of 1 worker lets them get their way and I do not like the idea of them winning that debate.
If people would watch what others are doing and not try to run all over each other there wouldn't be a great need for a fix.


So given the choice of the way you put it tonight or limit of one worker I vote for one worker.

[theoxman]

Raul...

Thanks for uninstalling the latest release. My compliments on doing so. It is appreciated fer sure.

My feeling is that the old way was better. There just isn't a perfect solution. Even by slashkey admissions this new release only solved 70% of the lost xp problems anyway.

I don't think limiting the number of harvesters/plowers will work. That can be done but I always have the option of leaving a job if there are too many people.

Thanks again for backing out the new release. I appreciate that.

I sent you this in a private message earlier but I'm an application developer and would be happy to serve in a group that does user/acceptance testing. Just a thought.

[janisko]

Thank you! In addition to going back to the old way while you work on a better "fix," why not give us a fire tool to get rid of inappropriate employees. We've been asking for this tool for a VERY long time and need a way to get people off our farms when they are spoiling the experience.

If someone wants to hire too many people that is their business and their farm. There is nothing forcing us to stay and work when there are too many people working. We can always leave.

The more experienced players do understand that any more than one or two people working is too many. I don't even plant until everything is complete because I know it slows down my workers.

Let's all be courteous and think about our employees and not just ourselves.

[ribvalred]

Yes, 1 person harvesting/plowing is a good idea. Or the way it was before, but maybe add an option for the person hiring to either boot or warn by means of a strike anyone who gets out of line, like the people who just start clicking randomly where others are working in a straight line. 3 strikes, you're on the bench or reported or something, maybe even have it where it shows everyone else which people have gotten strikes so they can choose not to hire that person in the future. Or maybe set it up so wherever a person starts working, they can only work in a straght line till they collide with someone else, then they are finished. But this slow down that is happening now is just too slow. And for the people who just can't keep up or go as fast as others, well, they either need to upgrade their 10 year old pcs, or get a faster internet speed than dial up, or just simply practice to learn to click faster & more accurately than the more experienced people. Maybe there's a way to have different marketplaces for those with dial up, then they are all in their own room together and won't have conflicts with the vast majority of users on hi-speed connections.

Personally I like the idea of having only 1 person working at a time. Maybe you could share with us the reasons you think this would cause problems so we can put our heads together & come up with possible solutions or alternatives. Many heads are better than 1. :cool:

Good points! We're gonna give it till the new year and if not undone we're giving farmtown the boot, and back to club pogo!

[The Spicy Pickle]

I like some of the new changes...like the new graphics and functionality. Thanks for taking the time to update and make the positive changes you have been. Most appreciated! It's nice to know you guys are willing to improve!

I like the idea of only allowing one (or two) people per farm on a hire. I think that's great really and it gives a person a chance to get some real coin and xp. Perhaps then we wont have to keep going to the marketplace for new jobs if we get what we need at one or two farms.

But....please yes do go back to the old way of being able to que up the plots while harvesting and plowing. It really makes the game go by so much faster and less of a 'chore' to do the work. For some of us it's 'fun' to see how fast we can get a farm done....and it's great for the hiring farmer too!

Thanks again.....

Peace Out

[LunaDementia]

Yes, 1 person harvesting/plowing is a good idea. Or the way it was before, but maybe add an option for the person hiring to either boot or warn by means of a strike anyone who gets out of line, like the people who just start clicking randomly where others are working in a straight line. 3 strikes, you're on the bench or reported or something,

OK....reality check...now you want to tell people HOW to harvest?? Is everyone forgetting this is a game?

Look...If I want to hire only one person, I'll hire only one....if I want to hire 3 I'll hire 3. That should be my choice. I agree with the person who said if people get hired with more people than they want to work with, then they can leave. What happened to personal responsibility. As for those with slower connections/computers, well, that's life. With any game, some will have advantages. Should I be penalized because I may click faster or have a faster connection? Why not just give different colored jumpers to those who only want to work alone. Then they can decide and I know not to hire them. But as for a few people who want to work by themselves, I should not have to play the game just the way THEY want it played.

I appreciate the work of the devs and the moderators and everything they do to make this game better, but I do think sometimes they give a little too much weight to the opinions of those who just want to control how everyone else plays. We don't need a fire button....just block that person and don't hire them again. We don't need to be told how many people to hire...people can work for us or not as they choose. We don't need someone dictating which pattern we click in when we harvest. I think a lot of these players are new to online games and even chat, and they take this stuff waaay too seriously. You will NEVER be able to control strangers in a game. It doesn't work like that.

Ok...rant over....I'm very happy the game is going back to the old format. Thanks Farmtown....love you guys :o)

[ElkRiverRancher]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

Well, all I can say is, Thank Heavens! The 22nd was my birthday ... and I was thinking, 'What a terrible BD surprise, the 'new' version of FT is!'

Frankly, I thought the version working on Dec 21, where coins and xp were added to the player's totals as they clicked, instead of as the plot cleared, was fabulous! I never saw any loss of coins or xp in any of my playing, no matter how many hired hands were working with me. I heard others complain about 'not getting' their coins/xp; but when I pointed out they should watch their totals, and notice that the totals were indeed increasing as they clicked, they did so watch, and did so observe that they were not 'losing' coins, or xp, at all!

I personally thought that farmers who hired 10 workers to harvest a farm, whether it was a 14 x 14 or a 24 x 24, and then also hired another 10 to plow the same farm at the same time, were doing so to be entertained by the 'commotion' - but I always felt empowered, and intelligent enough, to just leave any such employment scene! I also felt e & i enough to just leave, if a farmer hired one player to harvest and another to plow, instead of hiring two (or more) to harvest, and waiting until all the crops that were ready were harvested before hiring the same players to plow, thus allowing both to share in the coins and xp. But, I considered it the farmer's perogative to hire as they pleased .... and my perogative to leave the employment if the farmer's style didn't suit my delicate sense of fair play! lol

Sometimes, trying to please all the players all the time just results in everyone being dissatisfied! I personally think the only 'new' version needed is to include a 'you're fired!' menu offering! And, trust me, such a button might indeed be used without justification by some farmers ... but hey, I'm smart enough to not accept employment a second time by the farmers who 'get a kick' out of a confused mess of hired hands, so I believe I'd be smart enough to refuse employment from a farmer who hired and fired 'for fun'. And I'm sure other players are equally smart! :)

[shiylo]

Hello developers I am in agreement with the people who hate the changes at level 60+ and millions of dollars it has taken the challenge out of the game made it more for the younger or people who don’t like a challenge seems these changes are to keep people in their place instead of having fun as for myself I have never lost a dollar or an xp the game was a blast now it take forever to do a harvest or plow and everything is on top of everything to me this game is now a dud.. hard to see with the huge tools and words flying all over the avatar right on top of everything not to mention it feels like your under someone’s thumb not this girl I will be finding another game seems the game has had a lot of creativity taken out of it along with the challenge of it humm could be a meany phoo but why you all know why the changes. I know what your saying the changes are for but those of us who play the game hard know better. People make things up so it looks better well it looks worse and the play has gone out of it thanks for what was a grand game it really is to bad it was the best game out their till now…The game has now become so pathetic!Also the data on your top right corner is totaly incorrect just so you know also the data on the left side...

[beviam]

Old Program vs the New Program.

I like certain aspects of both versions.

I think the bigger Issue is the Server Timed Out.

I have lost coins and XP points on both versions.

But, I must say, the times I have lost these , is because I have had the Server Time Out on me.
There is nothing more frustrating than harvest or plowing a complete field ,
then have the server time out on you.
Then you get nothing for all your time.

[meinhardt76]

I wanted to reply about old version vs new. I like the idea of one person harvest and one person plow. I dont know why so many people are in such a hury that they have to hire so many others which causes so many problems. I hire one person to do both and i get really good feedback. There is anouther problem i need to bring up. I was booted out of almost every harvest/plow job tonight. During the process of working, the system reset and sent me to the farmtown load page i lost the work and could'nt appologize to the person who hired me which was also frustrating. My husband who also is on ft as jammer, couldnt even get his aviator to function correctly and lost coins+exp because as he was workin he wasnt gettin any of either. Thank you for trying to make this game more enjoyable and also for listening to us, the people.

[Justin D]

Slash Key is going to do so good because unlike the competition, you guys listen and care about us, and that is good.

Well said!! I've complained here before but I want to say that you guys have done an awesome job! :)

As for hiring limitations, I'm for them, if the majority doesn't mind. I always only hire one worker per farm, and when I'm working for others, it's generally when the worker count is more than 2 or 3 that things really start going funky or slowing down a lot.

[marilynqb]

I love the new format for harvesting and plowing. It absolutely stops the "shotgun" harvesters from doing their thing. Now everyone has to rely on a quick finger to get the advantage. Thanx for the wonderful change

[Efwis]

Hello developers I am in agreement with the people who hate the changes at level 60+ and millions of dollars it has taken the challenge out of the game made it more for the younger or people who don’t like a challenge seems these changes are to keep people in their place instead of having fun as for myself I have never lost a dollar or an xp the game was a blast now it take forever to do a harvest or plow and everything is on top of everything to me this game is now a dud.. hard to see with the huge tools and words flying all over the avatar right on top of everything not to mention it feels like your under someone’s thumb not this girl I will be finding another game seems the game has had a lot of creativity taken out of it along with the challenge of it humm could be a meany phoo but why you all know why the changes. I know what your saying the changes are for but those of us who play the game hard know better. People make things up so it looks better well it looks worse and the play has gone out of it thanks for what was a grand game it really is to bad it was the best game out their till now…The game has now become so pathetic!

i think you missed the point of this thread. This is the thread giving feedback to the devs on which way would be better for the reversion back to what it was before today's update.

do you want the reversion with or without the alternative they have mentioned. This is a time to give a little feedback on a way to improve the previous way the game was, not the new and unimproved way.

[The Spicy Pickle]

OK....reality check...now you want to tell people HOW to harvest?? Is everyone forgetting this is a game?

Look...If I want to hire only one person, I'll hire only one....if I want to hire 3 I'll hire 3. That should be my choice. I agree with the person who said if people get hired with more people than they want to work with, then they can leave. What happened to personal responsibility. As for those with slower connections/computers, well, that's life. With any game, some will have advantages. Should I be penalized because I may click faster or have a faster connection? Why not just give different colored jumpers to those who only want to work alone. Then they can decide and I know not to hire them. But as for a few people who want to work by themselves, I should not have to play the game just the way THEY want it played.

I appreciate the work of the devs and the moderators and everything they do to make this game better, but I do think sometimes they give a little too much weight to the opinions of those who just want to control how everyone else plays. We don't need a fire button....just block that person and don't hire them again. We don't need to be told how many people to hire...people can work for us or not as they choose. We don't need someone dictating which pattern we click in when we harvest. I think a lot of these players are new to online games and even chat, and they take this stuff waaay too seriously. You will NEVER be able to control strangers in a game. It doesn't work like that.

Ok...rant over....I'm very happy the game is going back to the old format. Thanks Farmtown....love you guys :o)

I concur on many points here Luna....but ....when more/many people are hired for a job the game gets really buggy and funny and things don't show up like they should and it's hard to navigate around....and tho it is kind of a competition and that can be fun.....the technical aspect of it becomes quite frustrating. I've noticed that if I'm the only one on a hire the graphics and technical aspects go so much smoother.... So perhaps a bug can be worked out in those regards.

But yeah....really this is a game....and trying to put too much control on it is not keeping in line with the diversity of the players. Agreed there. :D

And also....it's been said elsewhere...about noobs and people who don't play that fast....well ....FarmTown is a little more evolved than other apps....so perhaps it's not for everyone.....and perhaps that is part of the problem.... just sayin...

[brandie_goddard]

i was really upset with the way farmtown was changed. i dont like that you have to wait for each spot to be done one at a time. i liked that your person didnt have to follow you as your harvested or plowed before the change. i do agree on only being able to hire one person to harvest and one person to plow. thank you

[daisy woo]

a hire option is exactly what is needed..there is no need for 10 people to be doing one field at a time it is insane..i personally only hire one person to do my field..but there has been times when i was in a hurry and hired 2 tops..i do hope you put a hire cap on people atleast no more than 2 at a time.:) Merry christmas!!!

[brandie_goddard]

i know for some people it is nice to hire more than one, but some people get really greedy and cut others off where they are harvesting that is why i think we should only be able to hire one person,, or at least just 2 people to harvest and plow

[thefarmislost]

Old Program vs the New Program.

I like certain aspects of both versions.

I think the bigger Issue is the Server Timed Out.

I have lost coins and XP points on both versions.

But, I must say, the times I have lost these , is because I have had the Server Time Out on me.
There is nothing more frustrating than harvest or plowing a complete field ,
then have the server time out on you.
Then you get nothing for all your time.

I agree! I have been timed out on every single hire I received since the update! :mad:
And, before anyone says it was the number of people hired...I was the only one working on the farm! Yes, trees, flowers and buildings were hidden; and yes, the animals were frozen. I even got timed out on someone's second farm which is crops only, no trees, flowers, or anything else.
As for the limit to hiring...on some farms, one person may not be enough. But, I think the owner of the farm should decide. If those that are hired feel there are too many people, they should just leave and find someone else to hire them.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU for going back to the old way!:D

[Little Hoss]

Not everyone hated the new update, I actually got the hang of it quite quickly and quite liked it.

I like how it stopped the peckers from just clicking wildly all over the farm and queing as many plots as they could for themselves. It takes no skill to do that, and it just forces everyone else into some sort of battle.
The new way actually took some skill and co-ordination and was actually quicker than the old way if you could master it.

I understand that I am in the minority though, and respect the opinions of those that don't like it, and will respect the decision of the Devs if they decide to change it back.

I'm not gonna sook about it and threaten to quit like a lot of others have.

[kazoom]

Glad to hear you're going to revert back, but like Sassy Kathy, I like to get together with a couple of my neighbors and we all farm together, finishing one person's farm and then we all move on to another person's farm. If you put a limit on the number of people you can hire, please don't make it less than 4. But it's best to just let us decide how many to hire. If you get hired and there are too many people there for your taste, then just leave.

[Justin D]

As someone said earlier in the thread, perhaps it would reduce our frustration if we would just leave when too many people are there, and look for other work - although that doesn't help much when others are hired after us.

Also musings on the concurrency/perf from a dev perspective... I don't know how it's set up serverside, but would a byte map of the squares (with flags for plowed/harvested states), kept in memory for active farms, with monitor locking for operations, take care of concurrency collisions? Or maybe it's shared state between servers in a server farm that is at issue? Also does any batching happen in the client/server communications?

[peckdj88]

This new system is the pits, to slow and I time out because I can't get anything done now. I'd rather see a limit of number of people hired, like 2 for plowing and 2 for harvesting.
I'd like to see a fire button also.

[kazoom]

Or maybe don't impose a limit on the number of neighbors you can hire.

[Wild]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

For what it is worth, I HATE the idea of only being able to hire one person (or any limit) at a time. Many of us have, since the early days, had "harvesting parties" where the whole point is to gather a large group together to all compete for the harvest (and now plowing). This would SIGNIFICANTLY change the dynamic of the game for me if we were limited in how many people we hired. :(

After reading the endless complaints here tonight, I went to the market, got hired and found that AS LONG AS I READ WHAT YOU HAD WRITTEN, I had no significant problem harvesting or plowing. I could NOT randomly click all over, and had to work one section of the farm at a time, but it was STILL MUCH EASIER and MUCH FASTER than it used to be a few months ago. Yes... it was A BIT slower, but still VERY REASONABLE. I am really having a very hard time understanding why everyone is SO upset about this - except that they have not given it a CHANCE, and have not made any attempt to adapt to the new way of harvesting.

I wonder how many people possibly did not have their preferences set correctly (sometimes updates reset them to an alternate setting) or how many of those (and I know it is not all of them) who are complaining are using programs to do their farming for them... Those are the only two reasons that I can see for the level of hostility I have seen tonight over this issue.

That is MY two cents worth - as a PLAYER, NOT as a mod.

[Jwebb]

I've been playing Farm Town for the better part of a year now, and was so happy when you changed it from the old slow way, and then this happened. I'm so glad you'll be reverting back! One reason I like this game over others is that the graphics are much more realistic. The recent update change seemed to make the game more animated ... especially the harvesting tool being so huge, and the seed bag... It basically takes up the whole screen! It is waaay too slow, and all of my friends had the same complaint without realizing what had happened.
I also think being able to hire just one farmer is no good either. Sometimes a couple of my friends get together on someone's farm and chat away while working together. I have many large farms with enough work to hire plenty of farmers. I think the choice should be ours. If someone hired from the marketplace feels that there are too many workers on a farm, they have the option to leave. I'm really not OK with only being able to hire one person, and can't stand the thought of another day of the game being SO SLOW. It's just not fun anymore, and I simply don't have another hour to sit and watch somebody harvest my farm, plot by plot. It's ridiculous! All the cry babies made things so much worse. I'd rather lose a few coins and exp points than keep it like this. I also love the idea of a Fire button. I have needed one plenty of times. I love Farm Town and will now look forward to tomorrow when I log on.
Thanks again Farm Town :D
http://apps.facebook.com/farmtown/?farm_id=1556526799

[granana]

I do appreciate that we will be reverting back to the previous version, until a compromise can be determined.

Limit the active workers on a farm, corresponding to the size of the farm.

Boot or fire button that when used a total of 3 times prevents either party from accessing the others farm and limit the ability of hiring/accepting job from each other, permanently.(if used as a weapon to randomly boot people, the person will eventually run out of people to boot! and the people getting booted will either learn to behave or they will exhaust the people they can harass) to clarify , it is a farmer to farmer penalty, so that the "victims" of malicious booters, do not actually get blocked from the game, just from the person who repeatedly booted them.

I LOVED this game as it was, occasional glitches and all. I am THRILLED to hear you will revert back to the game I Loved so much, prior to the fiasco of the 12/22 release!!!!

[crodgers]

I would be in favor of reasonable limits such as:

Max 4 workers at any given time on the largest size farm; prorate it down for smaller farms (somewhere drop to 3, somewhere drop to 2, smallest farm max at 1). Any mix of workers, but the max only limiting workers. People visiting you on your farm don't count against the number of workers.

If we do get limited, it would REALLY be nice to have a Fire option that would reset their screen back to their own farm, ending the hire. That way, you don't end up with someone really slow or distasteful working for you beyond what you are willing to put up with.

[uDaNe]

I prefer the old way and I'd rather see a limit of number of people hired, like 2 for plowing and 2 for harvesting.

[knighta]

I don't like the idea of one harvester and one plower. They take too long. Especially when I have a 24x24 farm of nothing but fields.

[ScottLanter]

I would be in favor of reasonable limits such as:

Max 4 workers at any given time on the largest size farm; prorate it down for smaller farms (somewhere drop to 3, somewhere drop to 2, smallest farm max at 1). Any mix of workers, but the max only limiting workers. People visiting you on your farm don't count against the number of workers.

If we do get limited, it would REALLY be nice to have a Fire option that would reset their screen back to their own farm, ending the hire. That way, you don't end up with someone really slow or distasteful working for you beyond what you are willing to put up with.

4 workers is too many. If a farmer is in that big of a hurry, they need to find another game that doesn't require as much time.

[GREAT UNCLE PETERS STEAK]

I'm glad your going back to the old way!!! I like hireing more than one person because , for reasons unknown, sometimes a worker will leave your farm and the job is not done. Is it a coin thing, where they realize they are not getting paid, has anyone complained about that. Why is the dirt path like quick sand? Everything I try to put on it sinks in? Would be fun to have farmtown album somewhere, people can put pictures of there farms and you can go there and view them. I've gotten many ideas of what to do on my farm from working on other farms. Thanks for changing back to the old way.

[lgselby]

I agree, this new format is the pits. It takes forever hitting one spot at a time while the avatar catches up, either go back to the way it was a few days ago or i won't be playing anymore. this was my favorite farm game until I came to harvest and plow tonite and it was awful. I made a couple of coins and got fed up. If people are having problems i am sorry but I loved the way this game used to be a few nights ago and now I will not be back until its fixed.

[dquartieritoo@yahoo.com]

OMG. thank you guys for listening to the users of this fun, fun game! If this is reverted back to before the "fix", I will continue to play and interact with friends from around the globe. I do not feel that limiting how many employees a farmer can hire will ultimately achieve the necessary goal. Having the capability to "FIRE" someone on the other hand would lend much more control over the situation. Also, adding a tool to go beyond "Ignore", such as a "BlackBallList" to alert other farmers of potential cheaters, etc. would be ideal. This is a game, it should remain fun to play, thank you for listening!!!!!!!!!

[SparkleSprite]

I really did not like the new system. It took me 45 minutes to finish just the harvest on one friend's farm, rather than 10 min like before. At that point she had to leave, and so 3 hours later I was finally able to spend another 45 hours helping her plow... was very frustrating, however...

I can see what you were trying to do, and I got to thinking about it. What if you just remove the avatars altogether? I mean, maybe some people will scream over that too but seriously, if there is no avatar, the crops can just instantly delete when we click, allowing them to disappear as fast as we can possibly click and no need for the avatar graphic to be involved and slowing us down at all.

The problem with the new system for me, was that I "click" about 5 times faster than the system could delete crops. Therefore there was always a wait until I could click again. I was constantly seeing the "wait I'm busy" message and I'll tell you by the end I wanted to slap my avatar lmao. Anyway, if you removed the avatar altogether would it speed up the process allowing us to harvest/plow as fast as we can click or is there a loading time no matter what?

Another possibility, might be a lot more complicated to work out, but if it could be set up so that the game automatically divides the number of crops by the number of harvesters/plowers? It could work like this..

Once the farmer begins to hire, a "queue" is established where harvesters are held until the farmer decides he/she has hired enough, and "releases" them from the queue, so they all hit the farm at the same time. While they are being held in the queue, the game calculates how many farmers in the queue and how many crops on the farm, and releases them to a farm with predesignated crops per each harvester. Technically, once the harvesters have hit the farm, all the crops have been harvested for the farmer, but each harvester would see (only) their portion of crops to harvest, and they would be required to actually do the clicking to earn their share. While harvesting/plowing their own section, it would be the same old "click ahead" system so they could go as fast or as slow as they want. ;)

Anyway, I just felt since I did some complaining that I should offer an alternative at least. ;) Thank you so much for a wonderful game, Farmtown is my favorite game and I thank you all for you hard work making it for us! (And for reverting it back...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for that lol) I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas or (insert Holiday of your choosing here), and a Happy New Year!! :D

[Leoniemd]

Personaly I like the new way of farming, stops all the hogs from marking out the whole farm and leaving nothing for the ones who may be a bit slower. If there is to be a change, maybe limit how many plots you can mark at a time ie 12 and then when you catch up same thing. Either way I lov the game:)

[Nazza]

I didn't mind the new way....but would not like the option to hire only one person - because some people aren't as fast as i would like or miss plots etc - especially on my second farm with 1020 plots.
Thank you.

[medis]

Yay! I really loved the old way! I like someone else's idea of making your ability to hire directly related to either your level or farm size. So, as you level up or buy up, whichever, you are rewarded with the privilege of hiring more people...with a cap of 3 or 4 total at one time on the largest farm of course! Perhaps one to harvest, one to plow until a large enough farm is purchased.

[shiylo]

Please this is not an alternative this is controlling the game from on high we love the game let us play few coins here and their a few xp their has to be another way but say you higher someone who thinks it is funny to let your farm go to waste we have no control over it as we gave someone the chance to work and suddenly the farm is dead because it took them hours to harvest…Raul you as a developer should already see this coming I have had this happen and had to go out and find someone to come in and get the job done if there is a limit then were down to their mercy. I say put it back keep working on a better way people who are out their begging and stuff are the ones who are wining they can’t level .
KEEP IT THE WAY IT WAS… I am in agreement with the people who hate the changes at level 60+ and millions of dollars it has taken the challenge out of the game please give it back…lol in other words I want my toy back please …giggles…Have a grand holiday from the old gal on the block…giggles:eek: need my farmtown fix...can't get it the way it is...Glad it is coming back if I am reading it right that was a nasty update

[Muckaroundalot]

Thank you so much for listening to us ..the players....
xxx

[lillysquirrel]

I appreciate that you listen to the players. The "upgrade" made things impossibly slow and time is precious. I was going to quit the game all together, but now I will wait and see.

[LunaDementia]

This new build is a disaster. It's not a little slower, it's a LOT slower. I spent 2 hours on the game tonight and it was positively agonizing to harvest and plow. I just don't have days to play the game. My computer is fast, my connection is fast, and the game is chugging worse than it EVER did.

[Chicky's Place]

What if you just remove the avatars altogether? I mean, maybe some people will scream over that too but seriously, if there is no avatar, the crops can just instantly delete when we click, allowing them to disappear as fast as we can possibly click and no need for the avatar graphic to be involved and slowing us down at all.

if it could be set up so that the game automatically divides the number of crops by the number of harvesters/plowers? but each harvester would see (only) their portion of crops to harvest, and they would be required to actually do the clicking to earn their share. While harvesting/plowing their own section, it would be the same old "click ahead" system so they could go as fast or as slow as they want. ;)


I really like the first idea. Maybe not get rid of them completely, but being able to turn them off. They could be turned off automatically when you are hired by somebody, but left on for when you are talking to people in the MP, inn etc Then it wouldn't ruin the social aspect of the game, but (I assume) would make loading times faster.
As a side note which I might suggest elsewhere, the hiring farmer could have a list on the side of their screen with the names of everybody they have working on their farm. They could click that person's name to rehire for plowing or if a fire button is brought out in the future. Sometimes when you are trying to hire someone their avatar is moving to fast to click on them, or they are behind a building.
I think the 2nd idea of giving workers an allocated number of plots to harvest could be a compromise if people are worried about how fast they can harvest. I have a fast connection and know I can do it faster than someone on dialup. I wouldn't mind getting less plots, doing it at my faster speed and leaving the rest for people on slower connections. It would be frustrating for the hiring farmer to have a slow worker, although they would have the option of not hiring them again and the job would get done, albeit slowly.

Anyway, thankyou for listening to us regarding the problems with this update and I look forward to playing the game in the future :)

[Sapai]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

I usually hire no more than two people at a time. Limiting to one would not be the best solution for me.

I think many people would agree that the social aspect is one of the finer points of the game. When I want neighbors to meet each other, I can invite them both to harvest and then plow to have some time to get acquainted. Have done this more than once. If you want to limit numbers, PLEASE do not make it One.

Personally, I would rather just have it the way it was before. There are other ways to deal with the rude players. Self management and time management are the best tools. I don't take requests to plow when there is more than one other. I've been accused of being "selfish", but it IS my time after all. I've also been hired to plow solo because I was the only one not begging to plow!

Most of the players are adults, if I'm not mistaken. Please treat us that way. Decent people will find other decent people to play with. We will have a bad experience now and then, but that's minor compared to the many other wonderful people who play.

Expect the best from us. I am sorry some people feel the rude players are such an issue as to make the developers go to such drastic measures. If they themselves are decent players, they should just move on along and find those like themselves. We have plenty of work to share with them!

[CPfarm]

You are never ever going to please everyone, that's a fact. People will either deal with the changes, or quit the game. (more server space for those of us who stay!) :)

I actually LOVE the changes you made. (aside from the extremely large size of the seed bag and scythe), because it makes it SO much easier to see what you have and haven't harvested. The way it was before, it was very difficult to tell sometimes whether you got everything or not, especially when doing trees. I love not having to wait for mini me to walk to every spot I harvested and collect her 100%. This way is much faster, and MUCH easier on the eyes, as everything disappears as soon as you harvest it.

I hate to see it reverted back to the old way, but it won't stop me from playing...just as other changes haven't and I'm sure future changes won't. There will be things I like and things I don't like...but I like the game and will adapt.

Also wanted to give kudos to the team for the last update, with all the new crops and new levels. Great job! (still would like to see my white Christmas kitty with the red bow) Heehee. :)

[farmer worzel]

Reverting back to the old way and limiting the hiring 2 for harvesting and 2 for plowing at the max would be a better idea.
It is annoying when there are many people on a farm harvesting and plowing when it clearly isn't needed, that is when you get what i call "random harvesting or plowing". If people are rude enough to come right infront of me when there is plenty of crops, i just simply do the same back:)

We are very lucky here on Farmtown, the developers LISTEN to the players and respond quickly to our concerns unlike the developers of other games who don't give a c**p about the players and 9 times out of 10, ignore player feedback.

[susan0962]

Thanks for listening to the users. Fast learners/clickers shouldn't be penalized because others are slow. I really like the limited hire possibility. But with that, a fire option should be available. Some users are simply incompetent and there should be a remedy. (fire) Thank you again.

[CPfarm]

I think many people would agree that the social aspect is one of the finer points of the game. When I want neighbors to meet each other, I can invite them both to harvest and then plow to have some time to get acquainted. Have done this more than once. If you want to limit numbers, PLEASE do not make it One.



Very good point. On the weekends, I get together with my mom, my aunt, and 2 other friends and we all go around doing eachothers farms. So limiting to ONE hire, would kinda suck. It's our Saturday routine, and if we couldn't all work together...well, we wouldn't like it very much.

[HippeeSandee]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul


I like the change, you go into a field and harvest/plow.. You dont find the greedy farmers that harvest and plow all over the place and leave it for someone else to clean up, times you didnt know it was plowed or not..... They also jump in front of you

This updated new way (needs tweeking) has leveled the playing field... made it fun for everyone..

This game is for everyone and the ones that play fair, get S*****D

[Shining Starr]

The amusing thing is that the "new" way is really the old, old way... this is how it was when I first started playing back in April. I prefer it. It is a PITA to harvest with someone who just clicks randomly all over the farm - a plot here a plot there. They do it on purpose to disrupt other players. Leave it this way (needing to follow adjacent fields to keep moving expediently). I think limiting hiring to one person is a bit extreme, but I don't like harvesting with 8 or 10 either. Maybe something in between?

[sminick1]

Thank you for trying to solve the missing XP/Coin issue. Slowing things down may have been a way to go but the tide of opinion disagrees. Oh well..

One thing I noticed but did not see addressed was that, when swapping work, my storage used to reflect my partners work. Does not do so now. I know harvests are safely stored, but it can be scary. Limiting the number of helpers is great (I hate working with a dozen more people), but maybe limit to 5, with some coin penalty for each over 1.

The biggest issue I see is that I lose connection to the server after what seems like a short time (saw it once while planting on the new rev). Also I am often not informed until nearly finished on the large field I am on, which wastes a lot of effort. May be the answer to the missing XP/coin issue lies there.

Else I love the game. Am at level 60 and saving coins for the manor. Bigger or more farms always welcome.

[lgselby]

ok, there are some people slower than others. some of us are older. I personally feel i am pretty fast but i have family and friends that have health issues and they aren't as fast but they enjoy the game. a little patience goes a long way;)
Now, if we fire all of the newbies before they get the hang of the game, it would be rude and offensive. If we fire someone who is disabled (and we have no way of knowing becuz we are online and don't know everyone personally) i would feel horrified. People, its just a game. I like this game and I like the way it used to be before the slow and tedious harvesting/plowing this last day or so. The developers are terrific in listening to us and I appreciate it. I know they will find a way to handle the "issues" that plague some of us. I personally cannot handle my avatar whining that its "busy" at me while trying to work. So Thanks to the shashkey people...I appreciate your listening and all of us remember that we have many people in the world that may not have the same talents and the same cultures and the same ideas...that's what makes this world so darn interesting so let's be a little tolerant of those that are not quite as fast and also of the ones that make us a little mad...who knows what kind of day they have had. Peace, my friends, may the upcoming year be full of joy, laughter and prosperity...:D

[cokegoddess]

Ok, I understand many of you are having issues. It is not the changes made it is the amount of persons on the server. I have been doing this for a few hours this evening/morning. Yes I have had issues, but I believe it is more because of the number of persons. Kids are out of school and staying up late. Give it a go. Leave it as it is. I am actually moving much faster now than before the change.

[Sapai]

[FONT=Century Gothic][SIZE=3][COLOR=Navy]This one may seem petty but here it is. There are some that are greedy and do not the fact that others are hired to work with them, (I'm not talking about the cases of 10 people being hired for 200 fields) so to have a limit of 1 worker lets them get their way and I do not like the idea of them winning that debate.


I understand wanting to work solo. Sometimes I insist on it. It's my time and the way I spend it is up to me. No one is forced to hire me that way.

Multiple hiring should remain an option, because let's face it, not everyone has the same skill. If I hire one person who is really slow or tires out, I have the option of returning to the MP to hire a second worker. Again, it's my time. I'm not holding a gun to anyone to make them work my farm. I think I am fair.

Restricting to one hire caves into people who just don't have a good work ethic and are so competitive that they don't care if they ruin someone else's playing pleasure.

Very good point, Jas

[Suzy611]

Firstly Thank you for reverting back to the old way.

Regarding the hiring issue I only hire a max of two people but I think limiting it to one plowing/one harvesting is not so good as people like to harvest and then plow so maybe two people that can be hired so both can harvest and then plow would be good.

[MandyW]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

--Raul

Thank you Raul. And please forgive me for accusing your mother of dropping you on your head.. and all that other stuff I said. :o
I like the idea of just being able to hire.. I'd say no more than 3 or 4 people at a time. If I'm hired to work with any more than that I just leave anyway.

[Lilyfield]

It works best for me when I hire 3-4 people to harvest and plow. One worker is just not enough for a big farm, and then if they decide to leave in the middle of it you have to go back to re-hire. I tried it that way several times to give someone a chance to make good money -- it didn't work out. When there's more than 1 person they compete and clean the farm fast and good :)

[Sapai]

OK....reality check...now you want to tell people HOW to harvest?? Is everyone forgetting this is a game?

Look...If I want to hire only one person, I'll hire only one....if I want to hire 3 I'll hire 3. That should be my choice. I agree with the person who said if people get hired with more people than they want to work with, then they can leave. What happened to personal responsibility. As for those with slower connections/computers, well, that's life. With any game, some will have advantages. Should I be penalized because I may click faster or have a faster connection? Why not just give different colored jumpers to those who only want to work alone. Then they can decide and I know not to hire them. But as for a few people who want to work by themselves, I should not have to play the game just the way THEY want it played.

I appreciate the work of the devs and the moderators and everything they do to make this game better, but I do think sometimes they give a little too much weight to the opinions of those who just want to control how everyone else plays. We don't need a fire button....just block that person and don't hire them again. We don't need to be told how many people to hire...people can work for us or not as they choose. We don't need someone dictating which pattern we click in when we harvest. I think a lot of these players are new to online games and even chat, and they take this stuff waaay too seriously. You will NEVER be able to control strangers in a game. It doesn't work like that.

Ok...rant over....I'm very happy the game is going back to the old format. Thanks Farmtown....love you guys :o)

Hear! Hear! This lady knows what she's talking about.

[Anthea]

Thank you so much for restoring it to the old way. And thanx for keeping on trying to improve it. You cant get everything right everytime, I still look forward to farmtown growing and expanding.........words fail me hahahahaha

[Sapai]

I concur on many points here Luna....but ....when more/many people are hired for a job the game gets really buggy and funny and things don't show up like they should and it's hard to navigate around....and tho it is kind of a competition and that can be fun.....the technical aspect of it becomes quite frustrating. I've noticed that if I'm the only one on a hire the graphics and technical aspects go so much smoother.... So perhaps a bug can be worked out in those regards.

But yeah....really this is a game....and trying to put too much control on it is not keeping in line with the diversity of the players. Agreed there. :D

And also....it's been said elsewhere...about noobs and people who don't play that fast....well ....FarmTown is a little more evolved than other apps....so perhaps it's not for everyone.....and perhaps that is part of the problem.... just sayin...

Here's a tip. When you go to the MP to be hired, state that you will hire to work SOLO. Many farmers (as you can read in these threads) consistently only hire one or two (myself included).

If you show up to a job where there are too many people, and your graphics are buggy, click "Go Home" or Map it back to the MP.

Certainly you would agree that a million other people do not need to have enforcements in place just so your graphics do not get buggy?

[snoopy2009]

Thanks for switching it back, Raul. That makes me REALLY happy! Personally, I don't care if there are collisions... if I don't want it to happen on my farm, I only hire 1 or 2 people... but it's nice to have the option to hire more if I want... and the bigger the farm, the better it is to have the option... my vote would be to leave it the way it is and let people decide to hire less workers if they have trouble with it.

but I want to say thank you again for listening and switching it back... YEA for Farmtown! it's been my favorite game on facebook until yesterday... and I am happy I don't have to go find something else to do to keep me sane. :-)

[teemufan13]

I am happy that you are going back to the old version the new versions was very frustrating when i tried to harvest today. However limiting the amount of peopel we can hire should be left up to each farmer. I am with sassy kathy who has neighbours that meet at eachothers farms to help harvest and catch up. If you limit the number of farmers we can hire then we can not get together at our neighbours farms. I have gone to farms that are small, medium or large and they may have to many people harvesting that it looks like caous. I simply tell the farmer thank you for the hire it looks like you have more then enough workers and leave the farm. It should be our choice to stay or go. I think the limit is not fair to those that have farm parties. But a fire button which has been requested over and over would be a good idea.

thank you again for going back to the old version, and for listening to our concerns. you guys rock. trisha

[kensfreedom]

I have been playing this game for a long time now (level 60, over 440,000 XP) and have seen many upgrades. Personally after trying several hiring schemes over time, I have found for me it works best to hire one person at a time and give them all the work I have at the moment. Harvesting and plowing. I have observed that 99% of the time everyone I have hired to work the whole farm is happy to make the maximum amount of coins that can be made from completing the job. Rarely have I run across people that do not have time to do the whole farm. When I used to hire multiple people so that the job would get finished faster it resulted in people arguing over work, people quitting and having to hire more. Ultimately it takes more time to get a job done then hiring only one person. For a while I refused to hire anyone from the market and only did my own work or higher neighbors. I lost too many coins by doing it myself. I would like to see the ability to allow a single worker to harvest or plow multiple fields like we can when we do our own work. This would speed up the work. As it only takes a couple min to cover a large farm 32x32 plots is 1024 plots on a farm with nothing else. When allowed to harvest or plow 4 plots with every click you only have a maximum of 256 mouse clicks to harvest the largest farms. Results in very little time to get a farm harvested and plowed. By allowing only one person to be hired at a time will result in more work being available at the MP. By allowing that one person to work multiple plots with each mouse click results in more productive work.
I also rarely accept job offers at the MP because it is too much of a hassle to work a farm with several others for very limited pay.
Thank you for reading and considering my post.

[Sapai]

I would be in favor of reasonable limits such as:

Max 4 workers at any given time on the largest size farm; prorate it down for smaller farms (somewhere drop to 3, somewhere drop to 2, smallest farm max at 1). Any mix of workers, but the max only limiting workers. People visiting you on your farm don't count against the number of workers.

If we do get limited, it would REALLY be nice to have a Fire option that would reset their screen back to their own farm, ending the hire. That way, you don't end up with someone really slow or distasteful working for you beyond what you are willing to put up with.

I don't like the idea of this 'Fire' option. Someone else suggested just blocking that player; and that sounds like the reasonable solution.

If you do happen to fire someone, they are bound to lose coins or points. No matter how bad they are, it is not fair to not pay them for the work they have already done. How would you like your coins to be rolling and look up and you're standing in your own farm?

I don't think the developers want that headache. It really isn't up to game developers to settle disputes between players. We need to exercise our adult maturity. Don't you think?

[PollysFarm]

Too many workers on a farm is the problem of the one who hired them! If you fix the servers so they actually will SAVE, there is no problem getting your points. I wouldn't recommend limiting the hiring to only one . . . some of these farms are 'crops only' and are HUGE! Thank the Lord you're going to eliminate this new harvesting/plowing routine! I can't even describe how BAD it is!!! Thanks for listening!


Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

[shadman]

i reallllllly like the hiring one person thing ! a much better fix to the problem !!!!!!woohoo !!!!!! it is crazy hiring 10 people for a lil crop just to let people go at each other . or a max of 2 even would be awesome ! but anything other than what was done .
it is trying because the avatar does not teleport like you said it would either . and i still get run over with other avatar's being greedy as you said .so it did not fix that issue at all!
i have a huge farm and only ever hire 1 or two workers , ever cause i know what a pain it is to harvest or plow with more than that . it's a wonderful solution !!!!!!!!]
cause i am a level 40 with 5.6 mil in coins and am ready to quit if things stay like this .

[anotherfarmer]

I just came here to see what is happening today and now I know why and must say I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy its going back to old version, i would have given up otherwise........... wooohoooo cant wait :D

[kensfreedom]

I might also suggest that you could have an option of if a farmer hires only one person to do there work that one person can work multiple plots with each mouse click. How ever for farmers that think it is better for them to hire multiple people to do a job their employees are only allowed to work one plot per click. This allows for most everyone to do what works best for them.

[Ree Lynn]

I am basically in complete agreement with most ppl. I do NOT like the changes in the 12/22 update. Some of us have families & jobs & can not spend close to 2 hrs at a time trying to farm. I have been playing since the beginning & actually took a break from the game for a while because it took so long to work a full farm before the queing was introduced. Then the Devs gave us that great gift & I came back & fell in love with the game all over. Some of us have to log in on our lunch breaks or between dealing with personal life stuff to get as much done as possible on our beautiful farms. We don't have time to wait 45 mins or longer for our employee to harvest & plow just so we can start planting again. Now in saying that...YES, I know that I could hire more than one person to work on my farm to speed up the process, but I prefer to hire neighbors as I am guilty of being greedy for one, plus I enjoy hiring my neighbors to help friends out that are saving for the same things I am. I do hire from the market on occasion but mostly from my neighbor list. In my opinion that's kinda the perks of being my facebook/farm town buddy, we work together & help each other. We enjoy getting together & chatting. When I hire from the marketplace, we don't usually talk which in turn makes the long process of the new update even more boring.

I really like the idea that a few people ahead of me brought up about allowing the amount of employees you can hire to be based on the size of farm you have if that's possible. It gives you something to work towards, just like when you first start you can't use all the plow options, or you have to have so many neighbors before you can hire. You'll have to earn it. So then we won't run into the situation of having the smallest size farm with 10 people all trying to work on it. But don't make it so a huge 2 farm player can only hire one or two people. If you get hired & don't want to work with that many people, leave & go back to the market place, you only lost a minute or less of your time. I personally have been one of the people that has lost coins & xp and to tell you the truth that really didn't bother me personally. I can see how others might be upset & I don't hold that against them. I have a gaming tower, keyboard & mouse that I have spec'd for my hard core mmorpg's with a speedy connection. It is most likely my own fault that I lost out on coins & xp for being skilled at fast farming, I have no issues personally with being punished for that by the small amount of loss I may receive, but I am NOT pleased with being punished for it by having to play the game at a snails crawl. When I work on a farm that has many other employees there also, I pick a corner do a few rows, say thank you & move on. I know that their are others out there that may plot steal but those of us that don't shouldn't have to feel tempted to leave the game because of the changes that were made to try to solve that.

I know that most people say, "It's a free game, just relax". Well some of us actually donate to the game through paypal on a reg basis to buy FarmCash, so when I think about all the real life money we have spent on a game that we may no longer have the time to play is rather heart breaking. I had decided to leave the game again due to this so I am very GRATEFUL that you are changing it back so I can stay. We don't mind donating to help support a game that we enjoy playing but if it's a chore to log & get our crops before they rot, then we won't enjoy it & will not continue to play. It was nice to see the Devs attempt to try something else to fix the problems, but the bad out weighs the good this time. It's great that the Devs are willing to listen to us & revert back when need be, unlike most of the other apps on facebook...kudos to you!! :o)

[HarleyHere]

"Hello Farmers! In order to minimize lost XP/coins we did some changes to the way the game works when you are hired, but we are restoring the old version sometime today due to popular demand. Thanks."


I'm here BEGGING that the old version NOT be restored...it's so much easier & faster the way it currently is & harvesting & plowing is so much faster & easier on the wrist too...PLEASE do NOT revert back!!!!! :)

[shiylo]

:eek:Raul my very point just happen I higherd one person to do 50 plants and it took 45 min just to get it harvested still not done all my friends are sleeping but I am a die hard so here I sit and if I couldn't rehire they would all die was out working also and nothing but crashes with avitars this is just way out of control so glad you rolling it back but my question is now if we have a number we can higher and we know no one who maybe on at the moment and get someone like I just did what can we do about it we will loose crops and time who care at this point on the money well I can say that because I am a die hard but to other it is alot but I also don't want my crops to die we need to be able to do a good higher and not depend on the first higher,Thanks for hearing our words to put the game back how it was now if we can only fix the huge tools and get real about the people we can higher so greatful for the game glad it is coming back to normal have you watched what is going on out their pretty funny now that we know it is going back to normal never have I seen so many Avitar crash into each other to funny ...glad this update is going to be gone soon...Oh and my 50 plots still not done she is just their doing nothing but walking backwards....LOL gotta go do something or loose them ...:o

[Iowa_Guy]

A job well done, the new update is great. If the developers let themselves be pushed around by a few unhappy players then that's just to bad. It seems everyone who is complaining is complaining about the speed. I've had more compliments about my speed tonight than ever before. The speed has not changed at all and now you have to make every click of your mouse count. You have improved the game for the masses and that's who the game is for right?

It will be a mistake if you go back to the way it was before 12.22.2009. With this update you have leveled the playing field and made the game more challenging and interesting. Do you want FT to be fair and challenging, the same for everyone or is the game for the few who wine the loudest. The new update does take the hop-scotchers out of the picture, some folks call them harvest hogs or plow pigs. We all know who they are, they don't know how to have a strategy with the game. The new way you had better have a strategy or you will work your way in to a corner and take forever walking to get to your next plot to harvest or plow. If the developers spend some time in the markets listening the players they will see some complain sure but the masses are still playing the game, just like before. As a matter of fact there happen to be more new names in the marketplace tonight. Raul, this game is for everyone, not just the whiners who can't really play. Make every mouse click count, have a strategy and really learn how the game works, not just wildly clicking here and there. If other games were that way think of the chaos it would cause in a shooters game, or any game for that matter. Leave the new upgrade the way it is if you really want the game to be for the masses, for the every average person who wants to play it.

I've only been able to score about 500,000 coins tonight and about 7,000 XP points. It is just like any other night if you really want to play. Give the new system an honest try before you cave in to the whiners. You've got millions of players, don't make a decision for everyone on what a few dozen have to say in this forum.

[Sapai]

"Hello Farmers! In order to minimize lost XP/coins we did some changes to the way the game works when you are hired, but we are restoring the old version sometime today due to popular demand. Thanks."


I'm here BEGGING that the old version NOT be restored...it's so much easier & faster the way it currently is & harvesting & plowing is so much faster & easier on the wrist too...PLEASE do NOT revert back!!!!! :)

You have this option even if/when it is rolled back to when it actually worked for the majority of players.

On your menu option for "Preferences", you may put a check mark in the box that reads, "Wait for each plow/plant". That will give you the same sensation and experience! Win/Win!

[Mary Johnston]

I really don't care. I do want to be guaranteed my XPs and coins so, I guess I would prefer the new version. However, take away the picture of what I am planting. Good grief. THANK YOU FOR A GREAT GAME!

[Sapai]

A job well done, the new update is great. If the developers let themselves be pushed around by a few unhappy players then that's just to bad. It seems everyone who is complaining is complaining about the speed. I've had more compliments about my speed tonight than ever before. The speed has not changed at all and now you have to make every click of your mouse count. You have improved the game for the masses and that's who the game is for right?

It will be a mistake if you go back to the way it was before 12.22.2009. With this update you have leveled the playing field and made the game more challenging and interesting. Do you want FT to be fair and challenging, the same for everyone or is the game for the few who wine the loudest. The new update does take the hop-scotchers out of the picture, some folks call them harvest hogs or plow pigs. We all know who they are, they don't know how to have a strategy with the game. The new way you had better have a strategy or you will work your way in to a corner and take forever walking to get to your next plot to harvest or plow. If the developers spend some time in the markets listening the players they will see some complain sure but the masses are still playing the game, just like before. As a matter of fact there happen to be more new names in the marketplace tonight. Raul, this game is for everyone, not just the whiners who can't really play. Make every mouse click count, have a strategy and really learn how the game works, not just wildly clicking here and there. If other games were that way think of the chaos it would cause in a shooters game, or any game for that matter. Leave the new upgrade the way it is if you really want the game to be for the masses, for the every average person who wants to play it.

I've only been able to score about 500,000 coins tonight and about 7,000 XP points. It is just like any other night if you really want to play. Give the new system an honest try before you cave in to the whiners. You've got millions of players, don't make a decision for everyone on what a few dozen have to say in this forum.


Wow. Have you seen this thread?
http://www.slashkey.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285086

A "few winers" (whiners)? You represent the "masses"? Please! Get real. You have the option of using the "new" method. It is in your Preferences Menu!

[RbnMorr4]

Thank God you are going back to the old way. Just a game and you can't please everyone all the time. Why make things slower and harder to work....sheesssh thought I was gonna get carpal tunnel just trying to harvest for someeone.
Thanks! :)

[StellaMaris]

Please do not limit the number we can hire. Many of us use the game to chat with friends while we work the farms. :D

[Iowa_Guy]

Wow. Have you seen this thread?
http://www.slashkey.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285086

A "few winers" (whiners)? You represent the "masses"? Please! Get a clue. You have the option of using the "new" method. It is in your Preferences Menu!

you just don't get it do you, what a waste.

[angeskye]

Hi,

My 2 cents worth! Lol!

In the queuing version….

* I only lost xp/coins when I got a server timeout - to avoid this I would avoid having too many plots queued and save regularly (although sometimes you couldn't avoid it which was frustrating!)
* Coins/xp would finish tally while there was still about 50% of my "queued" plots still on screen. Once "pending changes have been saved" came up I knew I could leave (not sure why so many people couldn't understand they were not losing coins!)
* Only real problem I had was this mean I missed out on ploughing A LOT cause I would have to sit there for ages waiting for coins to finish adding on before the game would let me leave (even accepting plough offer did nothing, just sat there til coins finished!)

In the reverted / old version ...

* Harvesting one plot at a time is working quicker than before queue was introduced, my mini is moving a lot faster between plots, causing less "wait I'm busy" and i do love the fact that strategy is back! Hopefully it will hold up those who randomly click plots everywhere getting in the way of my nice neat lines lol
* I could be totally wrong…. But in my memory, you could always queue ploughing when working for others, didn't we have to wait to harvest each plot but you could plough a lot then duck to real estate and all xp/coins would be added at once? I am not that happy now you have to plough plot by plot it isn't worth the time for the coins lol

Thoughts / comments …

* The new "already done" feature that is still happening now is useless, as coins/xp are still tallying behind what you are doing, I finished harvesting with coins/xp still adding (all plots on screen harvested) and then had to sit there while "already done" message came up around 30 times!

* the harvesting tool icon is just a little big now LOL :p

* People should be able to hire as many workers as they want. Collision still happening with single plot ploughing, and always will because rude players don't look what others are doing. If I get hired and there are already a large number of people, I just say ty and leave.

* I would prefer single plot ploughing over server timeouts, but maybe there could be a compromise put in place, allow queuing but restrict the queue?? eg, you can click on 20 plots, but until those are done you can not click on any more.

* This is a game, but not a competition like someone else suggested it was, kick back, relax and enjoy.

* I also think it is worth remembering that whilst this isn't a charity and I presume Slashkey are making some reasonable coins themselves (lol :D) that there isn't any need to be rude in the forum!

On a side note….

I love FT and all the new releases, but I truly believe there should be no more new releases until the memory leakage issue is fixed. I think there would be less collisions, already done etc if the screen was updating in real time, the constant split second freezes (or worse complete freezes) mean you never actually see what is going on correctly on the screen. A flash based game should not be bleeding so much and pushing upwards of 500,000k virtual mem. (Probably result in less angry posts as well!)

Thanks to the Devs and Forum Gatekeepers, I know you cop a lot of **** from people!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :)


---------------------

The Wooooooot Estate (http://apps.facebook.com/farmtown/?farm_id=779774586)

*Waiting on my farmcash to arrive so i can get my 2nd farm... that is my xmas hols taken care of lol*

"Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience"

[SunnyD]

When i had to refresh after being hired for a job and never arriving at the job I just got this message on my game screen:

Hello Farmers! In order to minimize lost XP/coins we did some changes to the way the game works when you are hired, but we are restoring the old version sometime today due to popular demand. Thanks.

Wow they do listen to us now don't they..... YAY!!!


Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks



--Raul

[Buppa]

Raul,
Thanks for hearing us. While you had to endure a lot of **** from folks ranting, there were some valid points, and you saw that. Good for you. Instead of only getting to hire one person, maybe a ratio of people to the number of developed squares. If you have 576 squares (full 24x24 farm) developed, then 3 people max, 100 or less 1 person. This would allow a farmer to move on. If you just hire one person for the big farm and they are a slowbie (some are and thats ok) you would have to wait a half hour for them to finish?
I do think it is necessary to be able to fire workers. Once they are on your farm they can do whatever, and be disrespectful, and you have no recourse. I would love it if you could fire, and then when you are in the market, hover over applicants and see their 'rating' Hire/fire ratio
Thanks again for hearing us.

[Myklaila]

I am a newbie here at the forum only because this is the first time that I have felt the need to say something. I am VERY glad that you are going back to the old plow ahead model for Farmtown. I would like to see a limit to hiring... however I dont think that limit should be set to 1 plowing and 1 planting.

My idea would be

Limit the number of total hires to 4 -- 2 plowing and 2 harvesting

I would be happier with the 4 limit than a 2 limit, due to the fact that sometimes I am simply not able to stay and wait for someone that i have hired who turns out to be slow.

So, if there is a limit to how many we can hire, we should also be able to fire someone.

SPECIAL NOTE: I rarely hire more than one... so this is not coming from someone who hires the entire marketplace to harvest 100 plots. I am a lvl 60 with 580,000+ xp points under my belt. I have two full size farms and run crops on both full time. I rarely hire more than one person unless the situation that I mentioned above comes up (someone is just slow)

This is a game. In any computer game, learning skills and getting good at that skill set is a part of the game. If you dont learn to control spyro, you die. A long long list of examples could be used, but spyro was the most simple I could think of. As in any game, those who learn the skill sets are going to advance while those who dont will not do so as quickly.

It could be said that those who can go really fast are considered greedy. I am one of the people who can fly through a farm. IF the people that I am working with are not "clickers" (my name for the folks who land and start clicking randomly all over the place), I wont ever get into their line or their area of the farm. It is entirely possible for 2 people to work together on a farm in a calm and easy way while getting the work done quickly and efficiently. Clickers though... I dont feel the need to avoid. I work in order, in rows, and I do so quickly. When a clicker interupts a row that I am working on, I simply continue on my row and ignore them. When that row is done, I go to the next row. The fact that harvesting, plowing this way gives me more of the farm than they end up with, is proof positive that the way that I am doing things is more efficient than the way that they have chosen. Simple conclusion.

I am sorry that some people have a slower connection than others. However, that is the way things are. I dont know of another game where the playing field is leveled to accomodate those with slower connections. Maybe those games exist... I just haven't seen them. There are system requirements on every piece of software that you buy. There are system requirements on almost all online games. While those on a slower computer are able to play Farmtown, this doesn't mean that they should be able to do as well as those with a quicker connection.

While I understand the wish to accomodate as many people as possible, this is a game. If you make everyone equal by force, then you are running a group activity not a game.

So... my dreamworld solution ...

***Hire 1 person to plow and 1 person to harvest (on each of my two farms 4 total) with the ability to FIRE that person if they are not doing what I need them to do.

***The ability to HIDE all decorations (including and maybe especially animals) While the new stuff is really cute to look at, when you are planting plowing or harvesting, they are just awful... especially the decorative trees

[aunties em's farm]

Thank you for listing to the players of Farm Town.
As for the limit on hiring people to 2 is not a good idea, like other I have friends that get together on each others farm to play and talk. If you limit the hires then I have to chose what friend I want to do the job. You could make it so the farmer who hires has the right to fire, or use the good old ignore button.
Again that you for listening to us. I will be back to play now.:)

[Kisa3]

Please go back to how it was before yesterday....
I would NOT like the possibility to have only 1 worker.
that takes too much time sometimes (more than i have at least)

This way of harvesting and plowing has completely destroyed my fun in the game

And yes: I uesd to love it !!!!!

Much better than all others.

What i really like(d) was the possibility to harvest/plow, wait for it to catch up and have the possibility to chat while waiting.

The chatting and working for each other is the real core of this game !!


Thanks for tha hard work and thanks for turning it back

[Spleenmonger]

i don't like the idea of being limited to only 1 person to plow or harvest, there is not enough time to wait for them to click and wait click and wait click and wait. i prefer the ability to que up the plots. if you just wait until the coins/xp points are doing appearing then you know that you are finished with the area. I haven't lost any points/coins. if this is the way that we must go for now, maybe we could randomly spawn on the farms that we are hired on so that we don't all land in the same place and have to fight over the areas closest to us.

[Baloo_uk]

Thanks indeed for going back to how it was before the change.

I do like the idea of being able to fire people from the job, as I had it before where someone would just stand around after being hired. If there would be a limit on the ammount of people you could hire I can see this being an issue.

So if you would be able to fire people who misbehave, I think this would be the best option.

[lulabelle]

Thanks for rolling back to the previous version.

Regarding the loss of xp/coin, I've never had that experience. I *thought* I lost coin once, but realized that I must have been clicking on plots that were already harvested by someoneelse. In a multiple harvester situation, watch to see that your xp and coin are adding up. When they stop, all plots have been harvested and no more coin is available. Quit harvesting. Eventually you'll see that the harvest is complete. You are not entitled to coin because someone has already harvested that plot.

[Patsy Anne]

I experienced the "new" way of harvesting and plowing this morning and just find it too slow. On the other hand, being fast, yesterday I - and my hirer - had to wait an interminable time for the coin and xp collection to catch up before i could move to the next job. A compromise between the two would be ideal!
Like others here i also think limiting jobs to one isn't necessary when as both hired and hirer you have choice to either hire one/more or simply leave a room if its too chaotic!
Anyway - glad to know someone is trying on gamers behalf - just dont jump out of the frying pan into the fryer too soon! lol

[Kisa3]

Raul,
Thanks for hearing us. While you had to endure a lot of **** from folks ranting, there were some valid points, and you saw that. Good for you. Instead of only getting to hire one person, maybe a ratio of people to the number of developed squares. If you have 576 squares (full 24x24 farm) developed, then 3 people max, 100 or less 1 person. This would allow a farmer to move on. If you just hire one person for the big farm and they are a slowbie (some are and thats ok) you would have to wait a half hour for them to finish?
I do think it is necessary to be able to fire workers. Once they are on your farm they can do whatever, and be disrespectful, and you have no recourse. I would love it if you could fire, and then when you are in the market, hover over applicants and see their 'rating' Hire/fire ratio
Thanks again for hearing us.

This last bit is a good idea, very funny, but would not have my priority..

[shiylo]

Originally Posted by shiylo
Hello developers I am in agreement with the people who hate the changes at level 60+ and millions of dollars it has taken the challenge out of the game made it more for the younger or people who don’t like a challenge seems these changes are to keep people in their place instead of having fun as for myself I have never lost a dollar or an xp the game was a blast now it take forever to do a harvest or plow and everything is on top of everything to me this game is now a dud.. hard to see with the huge tools and words flying all over the avatar right on top of everything not to mention it feels like your under someone’s thumb not this girl I will be finding another game seems the game has had a lot of creativity taken out of it along with the challenge of it humm could be a meany phoo but why you all know why the changes. I know what your saying the changes are for but those of us who play the game hard know better. People make things up so it looks better well it looks worse and the play has gone out of it thanks for what was a grand game it really is to bad it was the best game out their till now…The game has now become so pathetic!

i think you missed the point of this thread. This is the thread giving feedback to the devs on which way would be better for the reversion back to what it was before today's update.

do you want the reversion with or without the alternative they have mentioned. This is a time to give a little feedback on a way to improve the previous way the game was, not the new and unimproved way.

:rolleyes:
:p Efwis maybe you should know where you speak from before you speak this was one of the first post before Rual began talking about a roll back so if you read the whole thread you would of know this it was posted not more then 30min after the update so it isn't me out of place it is where the tread was started thank you very much and I except your apogee their is no need for rudeness when you know not where you speak from...Have a grand holiday...Merry Christmas...

[Vee.]

I am thrilled to read you are reverting to the old way of harvesting/ploughing. For the first time ever, this afternoon, I actually asked my neighbour to hire someone else to finish her farm because I simply didn't have the time (nor the inclination) to hang around while my avatar screamed "wait, I'm busy" over and over again... Thank g-d you've listened to us!!

I disagree with implementing a change that will only allow us to hire one or two people. Personally I usually only hire one person to harvest then rehire them to plough, occasionally two people if I'm in a hurry to get the work finished but I do not think it is fair to place a limit on how many people can be hired at any one time. I certainly disagree with the fact that proposed limits be based on the size of one's farm because not everybody has their whole farm filled with crops. Some people have the largest size farm but only have a few small sections dedicated to crops and it would be unfair if those farmers could hire three people (for example) while someone else who has the smallest farm and has filled the whole thing with crops can only hire one person. What about those of us who have two farms? How many people would we be allowed to hire?

I would be happy if things went back to the way they were with no hiring limits and no firing rights. If people aren't happy to arrive on a farm to find a dozen other workers already there, then they can just leave. If I hire someone and I'm unhappy with their work I will set them to 'ignore' (so that I don't make the mistake of hiring them again in the future) then I will head to the MP and hire someone else to finish the job. Being able to fire someone is just plain wrong, imo. I can see too many people using this option and then the forum will be filled with people complaining about being fired. Let's keep it simple - it's the simplicity of FT that makes it so much fun.

Thanks for reading. :)

[Token]

Thank you so much for listening. I prefer the way it was before. I don't know how widespread the problem was, I've never seen it. Don't ruin the game for the majority because of a few problem people.

[gordonfan]

Yes, 1 person harvesting/plowing is a good idea. Or the way it was before, but maybe add an option for the person hiring to either boot or warn by means of a strike anyone who gets out of line, like the people who just start clicking randomly where others are working in a straight line. 3 strikes, you're on the bench or reported or something, maybe even have it where it shows everyone else which people have gotten strikes so they can choose not to hire that person in the future. Or maybe set it up so wherever a person starts working, they can only work in a straght line till they collide with someone else, then they are finished. But this slow down that is happening now is just too slow. And for the people who just can't keep up or go as fast as others, well, they either need to upgrade their 10 year old pcs, or get a faster internet speed than dial up, or just simply practice to learn to click faster & more accurately than the more experienced people. Maybe there's a way to have different marketplaces for those with dial up, then they are all in their own room together and won't have conflicts with the vast majority of users on hi-speed connections.

Personally I like the idea of having only 1 person working at a time. Maybe you could share with us the reasons you think this would cause problems so we can put our heads together & come up with possible solutions or alternatives. Many heads are better than 1. :cool:

I totally agree about being able to boot someone for jumping around...that is so immature. I hate when people do that...it's like they are scared they are going to miss out on something. Yeah..like ebay...Bad feedback for the ones that don't play right lol

[Token]

Can you turn the crop time off until you roll back the new version. Thanks.

[sir win-a-lot]

Raul, limits on workers would be a very sensible solution to the problems people are having. I normally only hire one or two at a time anyway, and walk away from jobs that have been over-staffed, besides which, with the fast harvest and plow, I see no need for anyone to NEED to hire lots of people to work!

Another possibility that might speed things along is to just total the harvest or plow and add in one lump, rather than one field at a time. this would also reduce the network traffic. I can see where some might be concerned about this idea though, but it could work, and when working on our own farms, the save back to the server is quick enough, not having to write back each field!

[Wayne L]

I personally only hire 1- 2 ppl to do both harvest & then Plow my farms Recently I have played a lot more because the last thing for me to try for i sthe Million Points since I only started in July under the original scheme & attained level 34 before plowing came available. I would rather see plow except for just neighbours be made only available to those ppl that have elevated to being able to purchase second farm.

almost to my million will start playing again to get there
Wayne(I won't work in chaingangs)

[Redhedsmom]

The changes are absolutely awful. Go back to some way, the old way, another way, something anything but this unholy mess.

[Applepiecake]

i am very much in favour of the 1 person hire alternative. it would remove the problems with coins and it would also re-introduce a more positive feel to the game. i only hire one person anyway since i hate the competitions and unpleasantness that often happens if i hire more than one. i have a very large farm and whoever gets hired makes a lot of money. i've also made a lot of friends that way.
when i am hired myself i hate it if there are lots of people and they snatch fields from under my nose.

please please NEVER change the mature graphics, they are the reason i love this game and i suspect that they are one of the main reasons why farm town appeals to so mamy more people than its competitors.

[ehoser #1]

I think we should be able to hire up to 2 people to work on our farm. for most people this would be enough people to do the work. hope you can work this out & still have it fast, because the old way SUCKS !!

[krbrown2000]

I like the idea of only being able to hire one, which is what I always do anyway. If the one worker you hire doesn't have time to do the whole farm, you can always go back to the MP to hire another one to finish up.

Here'll be the complaint, though: if you are allowed to hire only one harvester and one plower at the same time, the harvester will get mad because what's the point of harvesting if you aren't allowed to plow? So I would (personally) still only hire one to harvest, then let that person plow if they wanted to.

Also, from reading the forums, it seems that some folks grow a whole field of stuff then have harvesting/plowing parties with their friends. I've never done that, but it does sound kind of fun. Being able to only hire one would eliminate that. The others could come and visit, but they couldn't work.

Anyway, I like the idea. But others won't. :(


Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

[Jpfoh]

I thought your upgrade was OK, I'm a straight line harvest/plower. I don't like showing up on a job and finding 8 farmers there already. I usually hire 1 person to do my farms, but I think the number hired should be up to the Farmer. Set a reasonable number say 4 or 5 to max. Let them decide with that option. As for taking 2 hrs to harvest/plow a farm, I plowed a 24x24 with almost nothing on it in 20 min. I really didn't see the game as that much slower.

I do like the fact you going to roll back the change in response to the negative feed back you received. I hope it not because of all the threats not to play the game again. Thanks again for the work you do on the game.
FarmerJ
Level 59

[Franklyn]

I like the new way it is actually quicker if you know what you are doing. I think most of the complaints are from people who haven't developed effective ploughing/harvesting strategies.

As for limiting workers I think that should be left to each farmer to decide. I never hire more than 2 anyway and always give them the option to plough. Whenever I am employed to work on a farm that is already over run with workers I simply leave.

I don't think a fire button is necessary and think that could be open to abuse.

A happy farmer here please keep the changes!:)

[Skye9988]

I like your alternative. One hired to harvest and one to plow would be fine, or even two to harvest and two to plow. It seems like the more people who are hired, the crazier some of them get. I like the social aspect of working alongside others, chatting while we work. I've met some great people that way, but when there is a farmer who has hired more than two to harvest or plow, no one really gets to socialize--everyone is just trying to get a little something before someone goes nuts and starts that random clicking.

Thank you for your consideration in listening to our concerns and making changes to keep everyone happy. This game is fun, and I really enjoy all the little details that the developers have put into it . (The buildings, for example, have such realistic details, like the shadowing on the big farmhouse and the copperlike shingles on the big waterwell.)

Skye

[SunnyD]

I am one that hates to go to a farm with a ton of others being hired.... but on fun days i like to run around and see how many of the crops i can get .... to me that is kind of fun.... if your hired and there are too many people you can leave.... but then again there are the dorks that do come to the market and hire like 10 people and only have two trees on a 12x12 farm.... Perhaps you can hire so many people if your farm is a certain size or your level is at a certain rank? .....as for firing people I think that would be totally abused.... like I was hired for a job and I am working my fanny off and oops that persons friend shows up and wants all of them pineapples so they fire me and hire their friend.... see where I am going with that??

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

[kdr]

Hi, I'd like to start by saying I have enjoyed playing Farmtown very much.

The update yesterday did not work very well for me. It took at least 2 and a half to three seconds on each harvested field or plowed field.

I am glad you are going back to the former system for harvesting and plowing. One reason I like that is that we can click ahead of our avatar and then be able to chat while the avatar catches up.

The main thing I want to request, though, is that you do not put an arbitrary limit on the number of people we can hire to harvest or plow on our farms.

I have a group of friends who have harvesting parties, and there will be a bunch of us all working together on each others' farms. It makes it such a fun cooperative game. If you limit the number of hires, that will spoil our ability to choose to do much of our farm work in that community spirit that we've developed.

Thanks for listening.

Karen

[sunray1028]

Dear Farm Town creators, I feel that you should have freedom of choice as to who you hire & how many ppl who you hire. If someone thinks that there is too many ppl on a farm than they can leave & go back to market to look for another job, until they find happiness & comfort. I farmed last nite 12/22/09 & it was awful. It was so slow & it took me so long to plow on my second farm. I have 3 farms, one in my husbands name. I have met soooo many nice ppl & sometimes we all farm together on one persons farm & we all chat it up and have a social party/gathering. To take that away would just be wrong!! FREEDOM OF CHOICE. To take that away would be like you (FT) are working for the Obama admin. trying to make changes & you are screwing everything up and not really listening to what the ppl want, just running a campaign to get what you want & BTW, I have heard it rumored that starting Jan of 2010 that FT wants to charge $14.99 per month to play!! I for one will not pay!! If this is to be true than I say to you , that you used us in your BETA stages & now you want us to pay!! Again, thats just wrong & unfair. In todays economy, we are all trying to find comfort and peace of mind and for some just getting food on the table or trying to make ends meet and with the unemployment rate being so high, that maybe, sad and very sad but for now the only job we have is to play farmtown.. Ya all can say get a life but you know what, I have been trying for over a year to look for a job & with the unemployment rate down so bad & major companies closing all the time, its very difficult for those who are really trying. SOOOOO you say what does that all have to to with FT?? Some ppl find there comfort zone where they can & to start charging ppl after all of there feedbacks for you and for some themselves, would not be right.. I would like to close by saying that I for one will not & can not afford to pay to play. One of the things I use the internet for (aside FT in my little free time) is to struggle to look for jobs where I can provide for my kids. I hope someone agrees & understands my thoughts & comments. HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL & TO ALL, THIS IS WHAT I WISH FOR ALL OF YOU IS THE FOLLOWING:
MAY YOUR HAPPIEST DAYS OF YESTERDAY....BE YOUR SADDEST DAYS OF TOMORROW :)

MOD EDIT: I felt the need to add an edit here rather than respond and take a chance of it being missed...

We have heard NOTHING about an intent to start charging for the game and do need to ask members NOT to spread unfounded rumors on the forums. They have a way of taking on a life of their own - like the hoaxes going around.

Also... this forum is NOT the place for discussing politics and religion and although I have let these comments stand, this should NOT be seen as an invitation to have this thread deteriorate into a political debate if you don't happen to agree with this poster's political views. All posts debating politics and religion are removed without notice to the member posting them.

Now... back to your regularly scheduled programming. :)

[gcpntball]

it would be un feasable to hire one harvester for my fields, i have 2200+ trees on my farm it would take hours to harvest my crops. i also have full fields under my trees and that would take longer yet. still love farmtown and keep up the great work. pntball

[jolrnr]

Myself I liked the new way. What I don't like about the old way is having to wait to plow because of lag time. Everyone else is plowing away and I am sitting waiting to plow and sometimes there is nothing left.

[debharders]

i like the new way of harvesting & plowing. Please leave it for a few days, and let people get used to it. Some will complain about any changes. I think it's great!

[barneyboy]

Thank you so much Raul, I am so glad you are going back to the old way. This slow version of one plot at a time just took the fun out of the game because it is too slow. I personally never lost coins, I would hit save and they came back with me. I usually only hire one person to do a farm then hire them to plow, sometimes two. I like it that way, because it seems fair to that person and they have the option to plow after if they want too. I do not like to hire a plower while another is harvesting. I like to wait till all harvest is completed. Just works great for me that way and never had any problems.
Thanks again for listening to us. Have a blessed Christmas and New Year.
One more little note: FarmTown is by far the best farming game I have ever played.

[Dad11]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

Raul, sometimes, when I am plowing for someone, the target thing that looks like a field ( the one that goes red or green) is missing. This is wonderful. That little field jerks around so much that it makes it hard to quickly put my cursor in the right place. If there could be a setting in the preferences screen to turn this off or on it would help me a lot and grossly reduce the problems created by that last upgrade.
Anything that could quickly mark a field area in red (no detail like a crop, just a red block that all could see) Might help prevent accidental double plowing and harvesting.
Thanks for the work you guys are doing. Dan

[Bunkysmonkey]

I want the new version to stay! It's faster,it lets you know what is and isn't done it's just awesome. However,I'm not going anywehre if you change back to the old way. I'm a Farmtown junkie:)

[countrygirl31995]

I liked the old way best, the one time I lost coins they were added back on. This upgrade is better than the original but definately a step back instead of forward. People need to use their own judgement about hiring and if I go to a farm that is overhired I just leave. The other way allowed people to work at their own pace, now I have to wait on my avatar and with the her bouncing around or saying "wait I'm busy", wreaks havoc with my eyes and is much more frustrating and confusing instead of fun and relaxing. I do hope you reconsider and go back to the other way. Thanks

[TedDead]

Thank you for reverting back to the previous version. Things are so bad as they are that I am not going to do any work for anybody until it's fixed.

With that said, perhaps you can fix the real problem... that is the constant server timeouts. I'm sure you know that this issue is the real cause of lost XP and coin. You harvest and plow only to find out that you've been timed out and all your work is lost. Bad for the worker and bad for the farmer.

As for the idea of limiting how many people can be hired... I have mixed feelings on this. Yes, some people hire way too many people to harvest and/or plow. When I'm hired that way, I simply leave the job. I will usually tell the farmer that he/she doesn't need that many people for the scope of work. On the other hand, I am a level 60 with two farms. One is 1020 squares workable plots. I find that hiring 3 or 4 people is just about right for this size farm. I really think it would be way too slow if I was limited to just one hire. Perhaps you could base the number of hires on how many squares were available to be worked?

And, what's with the huge icons when seeding? They are so large they are frightening. Who thought that was a good idea, and why?

Good luck with the fixes.

[farmergaylord]

I liked the old way best, the one time I lost coins they were added back on. This upgrade is better than the original but definately a step back instead of forward. People need to use their own judgement about hiring and if I go to a farm that is overhired I just leave. The other way allowed people to work at their own pace, now I have to wait on my avatar and with the her bouncing around or saying "wait I'm busy", wreaks havoc with my eyes and is much more frustrating and confusing instead of fun and relaxing. I do hope you reconsider and go back to the other way. Thanks

I too would agree that the old way was better. Having said that though, I'll also state that I have never had a problem with losing coins or XPs. I attribute that to the fact that in the 6 (or so) months I've been playing the game, I have NEVER hired more than one worker at a time. Maybe if/when you revert, you could "warn" people that multiple hires "may cause problems with coins and/or XPs", and let people decide for themselves whether or not they're feeling lucky that day. :-)

[PeggySue0514]

I'm sad to learn that Farm Town is reverting back to the old way for harvesting. The change was one of the best I thought you had made. When I would harvest with the old way before it was so much slower to work and I was CONSTANTLY getting this error box in the middle of the screen and would often have to quit my jobs before I was finished. I would add almost every farmer I worked for as a "buddy" so I could go back and finish the job if I got booted because I hate not finishing my work. Not everyone has a real fast computer and the new way leveled the playing field as it were.

Today you revert back?? Too bad is all I can say! It's too bad that all the people (me included) that loved the new way didn't send the compliments because I'm thinking they would have outnumbered the people who wanted it changed back.

[causingchaos]

I liked the old way best. As someone who hires people it will be problematic when I get those people that never actually finish harvesting but stay on my farm. If I can only have one hired person on my farm at a time that means I can't hire another person to finish what that person won't. I could totally see people pouting about not getting to plow after harvesting just sitting there as a hired harvester never finishing and not letting more hire someone else. I can see this causing more problems than it solves.

If people are upset about how many people are harvesting on a farm they can leave and seek out another job.

As a harvester I enjoy harvesting with other people. I don't much like going on to large farms and having ot harvest all the crops on my own. The only reason I take jobs at all is to kill a little time but I typically don't have enough time to kill to sit and harvest that entire farm on my own. If you change the rules I will likely not help other farmers ever anymore.

I've never had any lost coin or experience points.

[unicron77]

that harvesting and plowing technique is bull if you as me, it took me more time to level up one time then it would the old way and yes i have lost xp and coint points but thats not the issue i like being able to not only harvest ahead but plow as well. please keep the old version and scrap the new on and if people want the harvest/plow technique that is where they turn it on in there preferences. Thank you

[LChambliss]

I AGREE TOTALLY THAT THIS IS MUCH BETTER!!!!! It is a sure thing that people will ALWAYS object to change...just because it is different, but the new version is the best since I started playing. It is much more stable in more ways than one......PLEASE dont change it back.

Leslie

[Katie29]

Hi,

I have been playing farmtown for about 6 months. Love the game.
However, I have just been working farms and harvesting and plowing are way to slow.
If the game remains as it is today, I will no longer be able to play. I do not have the time to wait for people to do my two farms (which are large) in this capacity.
I usually only hire one person at a time to work my farms and at this pace I would be there for an hour or so.
I really hope you will look at this, as I feel you might lose a lot of supporters.

I have reached level 60 - I was wondering if you are going to expand the game again.

I really hope you will look at my concern, as I do not want to stop playing.

Thanks,
Have a great day.

[Farmtown_Ckahle]

I have lost points and coins in the past but I thought that was fixed weeks ago. The change yesterday was terrible. It was very slow. It maybe because I use a laptop without a real mouse.

Hiring one person per farm wouldn't work for large farms and people do not want to harvest if they can't plow. If you need to limit try 4 or 6. Yes there are people out there that hire 6 to harvest and 6 more to plow.......yes that's crazy but they do it.

I always go in a straight line (well as much as the mouse will let me) but when the servers are slow it can take 5-10 seconds per square. It's faster to do it myself then to hire... people won't like not getting hired...

One more time the law of unintended consequences applies.

Thanks for trying.....I planted so I don't have to do anything else until Saturday.....
Hope it is fixed by then.

[darkenwald]

I for one am sorry to hear we are going back to the old way. I and two friends harvest and plow for one another daily and we were remarking to one another yesterday how nice the change was that the avatar stayed right with us as we worked now and did not lag behind causing us to have to wait sometimes 10 minutes between finishing harvesting and plowing just for it to finish what it was doing. And we could not be re- hired to plow before the avatar finished harvesting or we would not get the coins or if we did not wait for it to finish plowing we lost coins and XP's. So we found the new way much faster. We will be so sorry to lose it after only one day. The complainers did not give it much of a chance, if you ask me.

[Roozter]

THIS SUCKS!!!!!!
I was not playing yet to know how the game worked "before"...but, whatever changes have now been made are absolutely horrible!! I can't imagine who thought this would be a better way to harvest/plow...I presume the whiners that can't handle it when someone else is a little faster.
I click and click and the hash mark shows up on just a couple of fields. The only thing my avatar does now is wander around saying "WAIT I'M BUSY". Half the time nothing at all happens when I click on a square even if I have waited. And to have to wait for the slow-as-molasses avatar to wander across a farm to the next field...torturous!!
The game was already time consuming enough with the amount of XP it takes to level up, but I kept at it because I really like it. Plus, I worked out a system by which I could move pretty quickly through my jobs (with no "random clicking"!). But this is horribly slow! There may be people out there who have this kind of time for a game...the rest of us have a life, jobs, other activities. If this is the way it's going to be permanently, I will probably have to give it up, in spite of how much I like the game.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm really upset...the last upgrade came just when I was getting to a level where I could make my farm the way I wanted it. While I love the new items (except the tree changes!) it has taken a long time to work my way back up. Plus, I'm almost to the point where I can get my second farm...and now this!
I would really appreciate it if the game could be adjusted to move along faster when harvesting/plowing. It's just too slow!!
Thanks for listening,
Roozter

[olsakovsky]

When the hiring pane comes up for a hiree put that he/she is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc to be hired for this job. Let the hiree know that the field will be crowded and the risk for collisions/lost coins may exist. Same for plowers.

[LChambliss]

I totally agree about being able to boot someone for jumping around...that is so immature. I hate when people do that...it's like they are scared they are going to miss out on something. Yeah..like ebay...Bad feedback for the ones that don't play right lol
YES! I have thought every time that someone was doing a "slash and burn" and getting into everyones way by jumping all over that we should be able to boot them off.

Leslie

[VousDeux]

Wow, thank you for listening to the masses! I guess maybe I will have to carry this Farm Town monkey on my back for some time to come :)

Some of the biggest problems I saw with the new method was that since those who planned to work methodically, by observing the others for a moment then picking an unpopular corner to start in, were basically penalized by the fact that we how have to wait for our avatar to walk all the way over (possibly around fences, hedges, and bridges) before we can even get started. By the time we begin, the other 6 people that were hired have already chewed up the middle beyond recognition and are now hacking their way into our planned field of attack. We spot yet another unpopular corner, but now we have to wait yet again for our avatar to make it's way all the way across the screen before we can begin.

When we finally do get to start clicking, there are so many messages popping up, and our pointer and avatar are dead smack in the way where we can't even see where to click, let alone the fact that our avatar is right there making it difficult to click at all on the intended target around its big fat head. And if you miss a spot....forget about it (wait, I'm busy)!

I too agree that a potential better solution would be to limit the number of people that are able to be hired, but I think one harvester and one plower might be a bit extreme. I would propose two of each, or maybe three at the very most.

As for the problem of some being so fast that others don't get much work done before the job is finished....boohoo! I mean seriously, when I first started I was slow as molasses, but over time I developed more disciplined control of the rate and aim of my clicking and my speed improved to the point where I was often accused of somehow cheating. I was NOT cheating. If you want to go faster you have to practice!

[LChambliss]

I totally agree about being able to boot someone for jumping around...that is so immature. I hate when people do that...it's like they are scared they are going to miss out on something. Yeah..like ebay...Bad feedback for the ones that don't play right lol

THIS SUCKS!!!!!!
I was not playing yet to know how the game worked "before"...but, whatever changes have now been made are absolutely horrible!! I can't imagine who thought this would be a better way to harvest/plow...I presume the whiners that can't handle it when someone else is a little faster.
I click and click and the hash mark shows up on just a couple of fields. The only thing my avatar does now is wander around saying "WAIT I'M BUSY". Half the time nothing at all happens when I click on a square even if I have waited. And to have to wait for the slow-as-molasses avatar to wander across a farm to the next field...torturous!!
The game was already time consuming enough with the amount of XP it takes to level up, but I kept at it because I really like it. Plus, I worked out a system by which I could move pretty quickly through my jobs (with no "random clicking"!). But this is horribly slow! There may be people out there who have this kind of time for a game...the rest of us have a life, jobs, other activities. If this is the way it's going to be permanently, I will probably have to give it up, in spite of how much I like the game.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm really upset...the last upgrade came just when I was getting to a level where I could make my farm the way I wanted it. While I love the new items (except the tree changes!) it has taken a long time to work my way back up. Plus, I'm almost to the point where I can get my second farm...and now this!
I would really appreciate it if the game could be adjusted to move along faster when harvesting/plowing. It's just too slow!!
Thanks for listening,
Roozter

I disagree. I am still able to move as fast as ever, and I manage to get a lion's share of the plowing or harvest. Cant imagine what you are doing that this slows you down..all you have to do is click save and wait about 20 seconds at most to insure you collect all tht is due to you so that you can leave. Any one that works at my farm has moved quickly too.

Leslie

[Roozter]

I forgot to mention that I have never had a problem with lost coins or XP even though I am up to a level 40, with XP 142690, and over three million dollars in my bank. I don't hoard either...my farm is fully outfitted and then some.
Thanks again,
Roozter

[sg48ma]

This mornings update is NOT a good idea. It was greatthe wa it was but I will agree that limiting the number of hires would be a great idea.

[Roozter]

Hi Leslie,

I appreciate your point of view. But, 20 seconds per square? Almost half a minute for ONE square! I think that's silly. But, I am not known for my patience (<:

Roozter

[LChambliss]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks


--Raul
I think the developers are wonderful and reactive to problems with the game. The newest changes are wonderful!!! Please do not change it back. I have read posts and I do not understand what is slowing people down? It is much more efficient this way. Maybe the problem lies in not saving when you work, or when you have folks working for you? I prefer the improved stability of the game.

Thanks, Leslie :)

[DISPATCHBABE]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU FARM TOWN for listening to your loyal players and changing the harvesting/plowing back to the old way. I would have payed you a million coins to change it back. The game was fun again with the new 2nd farm and other goodies you added but when you made that change i was on my way out the door. I was sad to say goodbye to FARM TOWN but that change was to much to take.
I do appreciate you listening to us because this is and always will be my favorite game.
They idea of limiting the number of ppl you can hire is a good idea. Would solve a lot of problems actually. NO ONE need 7-10 ppl to harvest or plow.
THANKS AGAIN FARM TOWN

[DISPATCHBABE]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

I am so happy you are changing it back and the idea of limiting the number of hires is a good one. NO ONE need 5-10 ppl to harvest/plow. Make it a limit of 3 for each. Thanks for listening Raul

[DISPATCHBABE]

I think the developers are wonderful and reactive to problems with the game. The newest changes are wonderful!!! Please do not change it back. I have read posts and I do not understand what is slowing people down? It is much more efficient this way. Maybe the problem lies in not saving when you work, or when you have folks working for you? I prefer the improved stability of the game.

Thanks, Leslie :)

Leslie,
I don't know how much you have used this new option but I did a friends entire 2nd farm last night and it took almost a half an hour to do 1024 squares. That is just way toooooooo long.
Merry Christmas

[susan gardner jimison]

i like the faster way of harvesting and plowing, this new way is awful. i had to leave 3 farms yesterday because it was so slow and they hired so many people that u did not make any money. please please go back to the faster way of playing, i hope today. waiting for her to plow or harvest each square is for the birds. i lost some coins and xps before but i dont care i would rather work. thanks for your hard work to try and please everybody but this was a bad move. i like the idea of hireing 1 person to work but what if that one person leaves before the job is done? will i be able to go back and hire another one? thanks and make this a merry christmas by going back to the faster version. by the way can u fix the gifts back to where we can send 60 gifts a day instead of 20, i loved it when i could please all my neighbors. thanks

[Joy64]

I think it would be good to make the game so that everyone does have to harvest in a straight line. Many times crops are overlooked when random harvesting. I try to plan my harvesting and it is quicker in a straight line but then right in the middle, somsone hits with a ramdom harvester. You a removing all over the field trying to get the strays. Can't you correct the coin/xp loss without this new version? Make it so you collect as soon as you click on a square whether harvesting or plowing. Frankly, I kind of like the new version with the exception of having to wait to cross the field. That is like the harvesting and plowing before the update before the 22nd. Thanks for listening

[ElkRiverRancher]

Maybe the problem lies in not saving when you work, or when you have folks working for you?

Thanks, Leslie :)

Hmmmm ..... Leslie? I believe the 'save changes' feature regards not the 'farming' work of harvesting, plowing and planting, but the 'change' that occurs when a farmer decides to 're-arrange' features on the 'farm', such as moving the location of the 'buildings', 'fences', the trees and planting plots.

That said, I believe no one was 'losing' either coins or xp - the change that was made in that regard was that the 'hired hand' was getting the coins and/or xp points 'at the click' of the mouse, instead of 'at the completion of the 'progress bar' on each worked plot. Because the earlier version did not add the coins/xp until the progress bar on each plot went from '0%' to '100%', players were 'used' to seeing their 'numbers' increase, even when they'd stopped 'clicking'. So, when that version was changed, players were concerned and upset, because they had not been paying attention to their numbers whilst they were 'clicking', but only after they'd 'clicked' all the available work, when the progress bar had not yet shown the played plot at the '100%' completed stage. That was the problem - players thought the uncompleted plots they had worked were not being accumulated on their 'totals' board, when in fact they'd already been added when the plot was CLICKED.

That has been the 'problem' all along, with this game. There is no way for the developers to INSTALL A NEW VERSION OF "PAY ATTENTION" into the players! lol!

[dixiegirl]

First Let me say... Merry Christmas.
You have certainly made my merrier. I was one of the complainers. I love this game, call myself addicted, my friends laugh at me about it. But when i got the new release it made it almost impossible for me to play. I simply do not have that much time at one sitting to play.
So Thank you so very much for listening to your players and changing it back!! I will continue to play the game I love.
As for limiting the number you can hire, im not sure, needs to be more than one because some farms are to large for one. And I like to let the farmers that harvest plow also. Most want to plow because they need the points. I think it needs to be at least 3, or just let us continue to chose. We can always leave the farm, and I have, if there are to many there.

But mostly....THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!

[shellyjnx]

Thank you so much for reverting back to the way it was....In my opinion :-) which don't count for much, why limit anyone to how many they can hire, sometimes I am in a hurry and have to hire a few people, but most of the time I only hire one or two anyway, and really if you get hired and there are 10 people on the same farm, you have the ability to leave on your own. No worries, thanks again for putting it back!

[Roozter]

@VousDeux...
Like you, I tried to pick the out of the way place to start when there were multiple harvesters. However, I never had to wait for my avatar to reach the area I wanted to start. I would start clicking and it would make its' way over. Worked great for me.
I do totally agree that it takes way to long now to wait for it to get where one wants to work and between clicks. Not to mention the stuff that gets in the way..."I'm busy", avatars' head, etc.
And, like you say, practice makes perfect...I have also developed a "method" that enables me to work quickly and efficiently. Those who are not as quick just need to keep working at it. I find a trackball style mouse really helps here.

I also don't agree with limiting number of hires even though I hate it when there are too many...in which case I just say thanks and move on...problem solved. Personally, I never hire more than one unless multiple friends come by.
Instead of having the devs control this issue, I think it's better if we solve it on our own. One way is to utilize the Buddy List and neighbors...harvest and plow just for each other when possible.

Roozter

[Franklyn]

I have just planted my farm. I see what people mean now about the size of the seed bag. It's huge. Didn't interfer with planting though.

[gin@]

I like the idea of limiting the amount of people that you can hire. It is frustrating when someone hires to many people for a small job that should only be for 1 person.
There r some people on here that are mean and greedy!! They do not want to stay in one spot, they always want to jump where i am trying to harvest!!!!

[Lil Abner]

I am glad you are considering going back to the old way of plowing and harvesting. I never had any problems losing coins or points, and work went a lot faster. However, I do like the idea of limiting the number of workers you can hire. Too many workers on one farm tends to slow everything down and cause confusion. I generally only hire 2 people myself to harvest first and then plow so they both get equal shares of the work.

Thanks and Merry Christmas to everyone.

[jean hiscock]

come on guy's one step forward 2 steps back today playing this game is honorable slow person is constantly busy jerks as they move have to click 2 or 3 times been playing for almost a year and have seen may issues solved confident this will be solved also
thank you
have wonderful holidays

[Iteach80]

Thank you so much for going back to old version. I prefer the was it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work. As far as potential for collisions, it is worse on this new version since everyone lands in the middle and tries to work in the same area. Personally, I never saw myself lose coins, as they would always show up as I left the job. Thank you for listening.
I completely agree, and also want to thank you for your decision to change FarmTown back to the way it was. As for the collisions, I have always felt it was a matter of people being over-zealous, stingy, aggressive, or whatever you wish to call it. All we have to do is pay attention to what's happening and we'll see each other. There should be no reason for "collisions". And as I've always said, it is just a game. But it is a great game, and we all love it. Thanks!!!!!!!

[Little Hoss]

A job well done, the new update is great. If the developers let themselves be pushed around by a few unhappy players then that's just to bad. It seems everyone who is complaining is complaining about the speed. I've had more compliments about my speed tonight than ever before. The speed has not changed at all and now you have to make every click of your mouse count. You have improved the game for the masses and that's who the game is for right?

It will be a mistake if you go back to the way it was before 12.22.2009. With this update you have leveled the playing field and made the game more challenging and interesting. Do you want FT to be fair and challenging, the same for everyone or is the game for the few who wine the loudest. The new update does take the hop-scotchers out of the picture, some folks call them harvest hogs or plow pigs. We all know who they are, they don't know how to have a strategy with the game. The new way you had better have a strategy or you will work your way in to a corner and take forever walking to get to your next plot to harvest or plow. If the developers spend some time in the markets listening the players they will see some complain sure but the masses are still playing the game, just like before. As a matter of fact there happen to be more new names in the marketplace tonight. Raul, this game is for everyone, not just the whiners who can't really play. Make every mouse click count, have a strategy and really learn how the game works, not just wildly clicking here and there. If other games were that way think of the chaos it would cause in a shooters game, or any game for that matter. Leave the new upgrade the way it is if you really want the game to be for the masses, for the every average person who wants to play it.

I've only been able to score about 500,000 coins tonight and about 7,000 XP points. It is just like any other night if you really want to play. Give the new system an honest try before you cave in to the whiners. You've got millions of players, don't make a decision for everyone on what a few dozen have to say in this forum.

This is the best post about the new method yet.
Well said Iowa Guy, I agree with every word.
The new method actually takes a bit of co-ordination, skill and stratedgy and once mastered, is actually faster and more precise than the old way.
I'd like to see the Devs give it a week, then I bet a lot more would see what we mean.
I wish they wouldn't change it back, but I'm not gonna whinge about it and threaten to go to leave if they do.

[Chuckcbr]

I don't know why people hire so many people to work on their farms..I only hire 2 at the most and never did i loose points or coins and I'm at level 60'''More than once I was hired on a farm that had more than 8 people working on it,,,,Why do people do this?? the max should be 3 and this would solve a lot of problems...

[meandyou505]

I believe to implement a system of not being able to refresh your screen until the job is finished...and you should only be able to hire like 2 people per max field to harvest and 2 people to plow at the same time..it makes it easier to block the number of people rather than slow down the process altogether.

[primrose711]

That is the solution - only hire 2, 3 or 4. When I am on a farm with more than 4 - I get off. If the developers can change the game to limit the amount of hires, things will go more smoothly. And thank you for considering changing back - contrary to what a few claim, it was far more frustrating and time-consuming. A "game" should be fun, not work - we do that during the day.

[Yanina]

all i can say is go back to the way it was fast plowing and harvesting or you are going to loose a lot off players on farm town






Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

[tjleers]

THANK GOD!!!!
the original way was better. Please do the limited hiring practice as this will reduce the collision issue.
If you have to recode things for it to be done, please reset the game back to the way it was until you have the new code done that limits how many people you can hire.

Thanks again for listening to your valued players and keep up the great work on the game.

I agree thanks for going back to the old way. Changes like only hiring 1 person would be ok. I wouildnt mind that
Thanks again

[sagacious-su]

I agree with most on here and will be extremely happy when it is changed back!!! Takes way tooooooo long now and not only that,but, my avatar walks backwards half the time...almost like she has no interest in what she is doing... :) Merry Christmas All!

[crazyredneckmomma4]

Thank you farm town for going back to the way it way. I was so affraid that i would have to go to farmville. I love farm town(the way it was) and would hate to leave.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for going back to the way things were

[primrose711]

;)My suggestion: reduce the number of farmers you can hire to maybe 4 for either harvesting or plowing. When I am hired to work a farm with 7, 8, 9 or 10 other farmers, I immediately click off to avoid "collisions" etc. I think that is the most simplistic answer: reduce the hired hands to no more than 4.
Thank you for taking into consideration everyone's concerns about the most recent change. It really was way too frustrating.:o

[Yanina]

if you want to solve the prob of people hiring more than 1 person at a time limit it to 1 plower 1 harvester, but please bring back the fast plowing and harvesting, i spent 40 mins last night doing a farm ... people are going to loose interest and go to the other farm appts available,

[JonVDB]

You should really revert back to the way it was last Spring ('09). You had to be able to "read" the fields and layout to harvest really fast. It was fun and competitive and encouraged some chat interaction to help new people. Then came "qued" harvesting... that really sucked... unfinished fields, quitters, you name it. Now, I see it is click by click, one at a time... just encourages field flooding. Go waaaaay back to the format of last spring, and make the game fun and competitive again. I am level 60 (want more levels), but like to help new people. Don't bore me away from the game with these enhancements that aren't an enhancement. Thanks!!

[Roozter]

Unicron77 is correct...if players wish to wait for the avatar with every click they can choose that option in preferences. Those of us that like to move more quickly have no such option.
It's far more efficient to be able to click more quickly, have the coins/XP credited as we click and to be able to be hired to plow immediately.
I was kicked out by lost connections much more before the upgrade = unstable! And means a loss of coins/XP unless thay are credited when clicking.

Roozter

[sallyjoann]

I hire one person and give them the choice of whether or not they want help.

[bradwill]

Ahhh...an early Christmas present of FT going back to the way it was before yesterday's fiasco! THANK YOU!!!

I agree with Luna several pages back to forget about hiring limits and farmers always have the option of leaving if there are way too many hires. That regulates itself.

About the only change I'd suggest for the game going forward is a "fire" button. Farmers right now can leave if they think there are too many hires on a farm, but the farm owner has no options. Get a "fire button" and then everyone can enjoy the game on their own terms. The ones who like everything as slow as possible can fire those that they think are "cheating" or randomly clicking all over the farm, and someone with a huge farm of nothing but crops can hire as many farmers as they think they need to get their farm done in X amount of time.

[aneciap]

PLEASE ! PLEASE !

Revert this update ! I have been a loyal FV player 4-ever, but recently came over to FTs side.... now I'm thinking is was wrong to do that !! I love FT and personally think its an updated version of FV but I cant STAND this new update ! I harvested someones farm today and actually got maybe 50 0f 400 crops cause of the new updates ! It takes 4 EVER to harvest even the smallest of farms !!! Plus i think its okay to limit the amount of people you can hire, but PLEASE dont limit it to JUST ONE worker !! Two or three should do no matter what size farm you have !

I have often come to this forum to get updates and help, but have never felt compelled to post myself until today! Please hear us out! EVERYONE I have spoken to says that they can't stand this new version of harv/plowing! I hope it doesn't happen, but I fear you will begin seeing deserted farms and a dead marketplace if you dont listen to your users! I myself will be going back to FV & letting them know why I'm sorry I ever strayed !

[TommyD]

Since you have to be at a certain level to hire people to plow, can you limit the number of harvesters/plowers that are hired based on the size of the farm? So if someone has the small farm they are limited to one but if you have a 24X24 farm you can hire 3 or 4. I try to hire as few as possible but there have been times when they were so slow I had no choice but to hire someone else to help out. Limiting to one harvest and one plow on a large farm is going to once again slow things down.

PS. Thank god you're going back to the old way.

[Wild Rose]

Although I was very quick with the new version (coins from 90 fields still counting after I had finished harvesting) I found that the sythe and the avatar got in my way so after much consideration am glad that you are reverting to the previous version. To my knowledge I never lost points or coins and I am level 60 with 2 farms and 2 second farms.

As for limiting hires, this should stay as it is. I find that the vast majority of farmers do not overhire and as real life interfers with game play sometimes people have to leave, or get booted, or just choose to leave so you may only end up with 1 anyway. Occasionally, I have hired 2 but only on a full farm with all crops. Both harvested and both plowed. If you don't want to be there - leave. Someone may be in a hurry and have only overhired just the once.

Not everyone has a new computer and/or great internet speed but this is life and as in real life you take your chances and work with what you have got.

If any change was to be made, I would like to see a "fire" button that can be activated only after a warning for whatever - lack of manners, hogging the job, random working, rude language...... Only wished I had one of these twice in 5 months.

Love the game and would not have left even if the new version had stayed.

[CoDa]

I honestly think it is better to revert to the system whereby you can click on a field far from you. Let the people who hire 15 people to harvest 20 plots be limited to the number of hires they can have or whatever.
Personally this has made harvesting some friends farms a nightmare!! Think how long it takes to harvest a full farm now. It took 5 minutes before...just harvest away... when you have your coins you can pop off. Now I have to wait to harvest each plot. It seems like a backward step to me!
Take the attached thumbnail.... my sons farm, where he is trying to create a jungle. Took me 10 minutes to harvest all his trees!!

[olsakovsky]

OK, l so I'm trying to harvest a neighbor this am using the "new" way and tearing my hair out waiting for poor avie to jump around - - when what happens????

The server connection times out.

So in addition to this horrible update, it takes so long to harvest, my session times out and I lose my connection to the farmer who hired me. The farmer now thinks I'm a deadbeat.

So WHEN is the old way coming back? Exactly? I'll set my alarm.

In the meantime, my crops will go bad and I'll lose points. But by golly, it'll be worth it.

[mfisch2001]

Limit harvester/plowers to 4 max based on farm size. It will reduce the wait on coins/exp catching up and make the game fun again. With more than 4 harvesters, it becomes a free for all.

[n-angela]

And for the people who just can't keep up or go as fast as others, well, they either need to upgrade their 10 year old pcs, or get a faster internet speed than dial up, or just simply practice to learn to click faster & more accurately than the more experienced people.

MAYBE, you should remember that this is a game and that not all people in the world has the same opportunities regarding internetoptions....:rolleyes:
And yes, there are people from ALL OVER the world playing the same game...:D
I still have problems, I have a brand new pc (1 week old-HAHAHA!) The best internetconnection and YES I am a pretty gooood player!!! Merry christmas!:)

[Lynjoe]

I was a little perturbed last night but after playing it for about an hour, I understood the changes. As long as I once in a field alone, it was actually easier to harvest/plow. The confusion came when a farmer would hire many to harvest/plow.

I can live with either way, but...I too would like to see a limit to the number that can be hired. I will often hire more than one because I might step away from my computer while my crops are being harvested. Hiring one farmer to do it, sometimes results in no one doing it because the farmer will quit or get kicked out. I try to never hire more than 2, 3 at the most on a really large field.

Since beginning the game, I have related the concepts to real life. Sometimes I get kicked out..(it started raining). The new changes..(the gov't just put more regulations on us to keep us from making too much money..it happens..its life). :cool: I adjust, adapt, and go on.

I love the game. My husband and I have been playing since late June 2009 and it is something that we enjoy together. I am so glad that we stumbled upon Farmtown. Thanks for all of your hard work. Please ignore those who are rude and call you names. (They're acting like Dems!)

[sisterchris]

I agree that the update slowed things down too much. Maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it and adjusting your plow/harvest strategy.

I'm not crazy about the idea of limiting hires to only one harvester and one plower. Yes, you get those annoying people who hire 8 workers for a tiny farm, but it's nice to have 2 or even 3 on a big farm.

Is there a way to eliminate "avatar lag" so the avatars aren't still wandering around long after the actual work is done? Maybe add a "done" button to push when you are ready to stop, that will take away your plow or harvest tool, change the fields over to look finished instead of having a stripe, and move the avatar to the center.

[Wild]

I'm sad to learn that Farm Town is reverting back to the old way for harvesting. The change was one of the best I thought you had made. When I would harvest with the old way before it was so much slower to work and I was CONSTANTLY getting this error box in the middle of the screen and would often have to quit my jobs before I was finished. I would add almost every farmer I worked for as a "buddy" so I could go back and finish the job if I got booted because I hate not finishing my work. Not everyone has a real fast computer and the new way leveled the playing field as it were.

Today you revert back?? Too bad is all I can say! It's too bad that all the people (me included) that loved the new way didn't send the compliments because I'm thinking they would have outnumbered the people who wanted it changed back.

Yep. I agree, but unfortunately members tend to be VERY vocal when they don't like something and much more quiet when they do! :(

[Roozter]

So some people have time to earn 500,000 coins/7000xp in one sitting...are you serious?! Sorry, I don't...and certainly not with this latest upgrade!

[soooozeeee]

Until reverting back to the "old" version today (12/22) harvesting and plowing had been moving along rather well with the previous version. You could move fast, didn't have to wait for the farmer to walk to the next spot/field before you could harvest/plow and you could leave the farm and the plots would load. This saved alot of time. Today, I had to wait until my avatar got to the plot for it to highlight, although it did load immediately, then had to wait for my avatar to "walk" to the next field before I could "highlight" and harvest/plow there. Can't imagine how incredibly slow it would have been if I had to do the trees too. AND when plowing (my friends farm) it subtracted big time coins and xps (totalling around 400ish coins and 40ish xps) for a few of the plots before it settled down to adding properly to my coins and xps. How can people possibly think this (the older version) was better???? PLEASE go back to the version that was being used prior to today's mess.

[webb1950]

I don't know what's been done, but it just took me a half an hour to plow for someone. It would not let me skip around and kept telling me I was busy, wait. I have never had that happen before. It would only let me plow one field at a time. I couldn't keep going like I could before. Horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[richard_seeley]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul
my wife and i think that you should limit the amount of workers on a farm at one time. 2 to 3 workers should be good. We both love this game and have maxed out on levels but we also hire only 1 to do our farms and seem to have no issues with that...

[phyllis.niese]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

The only people complaining are those with the faster computers, the new way keeps the playing field equal. I personally like the new way. It works great for the rest of us and the new players.

Thank you

[MELANIEPOOO]

i do like controling how many har vest and plow at one time .. as it causes irratic game play and tempers and then crops dont get done properly.. as far as overal game play etc i liked how it was the other way.

[iots028]

They could make the new way of harvesting optional. That would give everyone a chance to try it. I thought it was awful and there was no way I could harvest as fast as I had been. Maybe there is a difference depending on your computer, line speed, or browser. All I know is that I would no longer work on other farms if they leave the new update in place. I am quiet when I like things because I am happily playing the game. I think that's what the developers want. FT is the best app on Facebook and I have never stated a negative opinion before. This change obviously adversly affected a lot of people.

[shalou]

Thank you for changing it back. As for a hiring limit, I like the idea of 2 people per job, total of 4 if you hire different harvesters and plowers.

I also think that the green/red square that shows when plowing should be optional. I like having it when I am plowing/rearranging my own farm but would rather not have it when plowing on a neighbor's farm.

Thank you for listening to us.

[babybumblebee]

Personally I don't have a problem with the new update. I got used to it pretty quickly - I feel like people need to just get over it and either continuing playing or quit. If you do go back to the old way I really hope you implement limited hiring - 1 harvester/1 plower per farm. My biggest pet peeve with this game has been people who hire 7, 8, 9, 10+ people on their farm - I've seen it happen many times. There is no farm size in this game that justifies the hiring of that many people. I think it would be difficult to implement a warning/firing system because you can't actually tell who's doing the random clicking (I guess you could during harvesting, but not during plowing). Another idea would be to divide farms into quadrants (not sure how this would work programmatically) - that way you assign each person to a quadrant which means they can't click all over the place and then those who like to hire a lot of people can hire up to 4.

[Old Goat]

When the 22nd change came out I immediately hated it. As the day went on and I used it more, I liked it a lot more. Not as fast as I was but did manage to get a fair amount of speed up. It was going fine! Until early last evening.

My wife and I tried it out different ways before we came to a final decision. We didn't like it. When being hired on a farm with as few as two others it would often get extremely slow, much more so then we had ever seen it before. Waiting for your avatar to catch up to where you had clicked to harvest took so long. Everyone hired had the same problem. Not just 'slow' but almost inoperative.

Thought I had the problem licked with bumping into my own avatar but no.

Timing out was a problem before the changeover but was much worse last night. People my wife had hired also timed out more often. It was necessary to hire several times to get a job done. This was hiring a single person every time.

We wouldn't like to see the number of hires limited. Ourselves, family and friends enjoy meeting and chatting together on 'the farm' There must be another way!

[OldMcDonna]

Oh..THANK YOU..THANK YOU..THANK YOU!..so glad you are changing it back. Actually I am one of the users who suggested the 1 Harvester and 1 Plower method. The competition would increase, but the rewards (coins and XP) would be worth it. Have you ever thought of a rating system, where the person hiring you rates your performance?..that way you would inspire people to "behave", be friendly, effecient etc..and you could see a persons rating before hiring them?

[freemanwpb]

i personally love the new way with only one problem. that is the travel time for the avatar trying to get through the fences and over the bridges.

[craftykitty]

For 3 months or more l cant hire because when l go to the market place there's no one there, now l have noticed l dont get paid all the time for harvesting or plowing is this issue going to be sorted sometime soon?

I haver posted here because it seems with the new release that you are now removing away it was supposed to sort out some of the issues!!

thanks

[bradwill]

A job well done, the new update is great. If the developers let themselves be pushed around by a few unhappy players then that's just to bad. It seems everyone who is complaining is complaining about the speed. I've had more compliments about my speed tonight than ever before. The speed has not changed at all and now you have to make every click of your mouse count. You have improved the game for the masses and that's who the game is for right?

It will be a mistake if you go back to the way it was before 12.22.2009. With this update you have leveled the playing field and made the game more challenging and interesting. Do you want FT to be fair and challenging, the same for everyone or is the game for the few who wine the loudest.

IN your first post, you stated you knew you were in the minority that liked the 12/22 update. You seem to have forgotten that all of a sudden. It's not just a "few whiners," it's an overwhelming majority that HATE the update. Not just "dislike" it and wished it hadn't happen, but despise FT and will quit. You do understand that less players=less money for Slashkey and they are in the business of making money, not catering to the whims of the terminally s-l-o-w who are obsessed that someone might not be clicking in an orderly fashion or play the game somehow differently than what they think they should. The "few people" are the ones who liked the update and whine about all the rest of the people that hated it.

The playing field wasn't leveled with the update; it was slowed down to a crawl to address the issue of lost XP/coins that may or may not happen frequently. Some seem to not understand the purpose of the update had nothing to do with the few Nazis on FT who want everyone to do exactly what they do and won't tolerate anything else but instead to address the XP/coin issue. The resulting slowness made a few happy and all the rest extremely PO'd.

Anyone who thinks that yesterday's harvesting/plowing was somehow "faster" than the days before is really doing something terribly wrong.

[floridafarmer38]

I hate the new way of farmin! I like the old way there was nothin wrong with it! The other thing that I hate is the server keeps timing me out, I will be in the middle of a job harvestin or plowin and just says server timed out what is up with that! It has gotten worse with this new way I can get a single job finished I hope you all can fix this!:(

[moondog48]

i have been having problems with this game started messing up december 22 when i get hired to plow or harvest i start but can only do one square then it says wait im busy i click on the square that needs harvested or plowed and it dont do any thing fix this game if its new version go back to old hope this game aint like yoville if so i will get rid of it dont understand people putting out games that dont work rite 2 me make shure all the stuff is running rite b 4 you put games out no one wants to play apps that are messed up fix this game i started playing this about 2 weeks ago and never had any problems un till december 22 2009 and to day december 23 2009

[opheeelia]

I tested harvesting for someone last night, it was no big deal, although I have to admit it was weird to once again wait for my avatar to catch up if I moved far away.

Hiring people this morning has been a bit frustrating though. It's taking FOREVER to get my farms harvested and plowed. Also I had a weird occurence of plots layered over my original plots and had to run around removing them. Not sure how they got there, but they were there.

I really do NOT like having to hire only one person, my second farm is large and I like to hire TWO people to harvest and plow. Please don't place a limit on people we can hire, that should be left to the judgement of the farmers.

Reading some of these posts is a real eye opener, alot of whining and frankly untruths regarding faster computers, etc. It's not some huge conspiracy and some people are hysterical like it's the end of the freakin world.

[iots028]

I don't think it is necessary to limit the number of farmers hired. People already have the option to leave if they feel there are too many workers. I enjoy getting together with my friends. If you don't like the social interaction, Farmville is always an option. Those with slower computers can always upgrade. Don't program to the lowest common denominator. This game was great until yesterday, I am very glad you are going back to that.

[~Farmer Tom~]

IN your first post, you stated you knew you were in the minority that liked the 12/22 update. You seem to have forgotten that all of a sudden. It's not just a "few whiners," it's an overwhelming majority that HATE the update. Not just "dislike" it and wished it hadn't happen, but despise FT and will quit. You do understand that less players=less money for Slashkey and they are in the business of making money, not catering to the whims of the terminally s-l-o-w who are obsessed that someone might not be clicking in an orderly fashion or play the game somehow differently than what they think they should. The "few people" are the ones who liked the update and whine about all the rest of the people that hated it.

The playing field wasn't leveled with the update; it was slowed down to a crawl to address the issue of lost XP/coins that may or may not happen frequently. Some seem to not understand the purpose of the update had nothing to do with the few Nazis on FT who want everyone to do exactly what they do and won't tolerate anything else but instead to address the XP/coin issue. The resulting slowness made a few happy and all the rest extremely PO'd.

Anyone who thinks that yesterday's harvesting/plowing was somehow "faster" than the days before is really doing something terribly wrong.



Bye bye, have a good one......:D

[floridafarmer38]

Please fix it put it back the way it was avid ft fan!

[lolcat]

OK....reality check...now you want to tell people HOW to harvest?? Is everyone forgetting this is a game?

Look...If I want to hire only one person, I'll hire only one....if I want to hire 3 I'll hire 3. That should be my choice. I agree with the person who said if people get hired with more people than they want to work with, then they can leave. What happened to personal responsibility. As for those with slower connections/computers, well, that's life. With any game, some will have advantages. Should I be penalized because I may click faster or have a faster connection? Why not just give different colored jumpers to those who only want to work alone. Then they can decide and I know not to hire them. But as for a few people who want to work by themselves, I should not have to play the game just the way THEY want it played.

I appreciate the work of the devs and the moderators and everything they do to make this game better, but I do think sometimes they give a little too much weight to the opinions of those who just want to control how everyone else plays. We don't need a fire button....just block that person and don't hire them again. We don't need to be told how many people to hire...people can work for us or not as they choose. We don't need someone dictating which pattern we click in when we harvest. I think a lot of these players are new to online games and even chat, and they take this stuff waaay too seriously. You will NEVER be able to control strangers in a game. It doesn't work like that.

Ok...rant over....I'm very happy the game is going back to the old format. Thanks Farmtown....love you guys :o)

I could not have said it better Luna! Just what I've been thinking and I agree with all points stated.

This is a game ... Most importantly, meant to be enjoyed! The less rules the better.

[floridafarmer38]

For those who have only been on only a few weeks try being for months then have this change put on you I hate it and I do not want a limit on hiring!!!!!!

[mr aka]

Thanks for going back to previous version, people like the competition of trying to get as much harvest as you can its part of the game. As for lost coin,xp issue someone whos worked on that farm somewhere gets them, you can see when you are getting the coins or xp and when your not when you are replowing or reharvesting a bit that has already been done perhaps you could show a counter which shows how many fields are left to plow or harvest which counts down as each one is done then people can see when it on zero its not worth continuing working on that farm. Anyway if everybody paid attention to there xp or coins total going up then this issue wouldnt even arise.

[mbauer72]

Hi Raul,

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to give feedback. I like being able to work faster ....the previous way. I still think this new way will have users complaining about those players that are faster than them at harvesting/plowing. I hope you go back to being able to click ahead of your avatar in harvesting and plowing..it makes life much easier.

Thanks!
Mary Ann

[SPOTSROCK]

A HUGE THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO US FARMERS.. :)

maybe there can be a way to hire for how much harvest has to be worked? as in a huge field two workers.. small fields can't hire more then 1 worker..
My new lot 24X24 .. all in fields.. i find that two can get the job done nicely without bumping into one another.. and they get the benefits of the whole job..

again THANKS..

[L'il Srek]

I first thought there was something was wrong with Farm Town. After I read on the Forum that this was a new release I just went back and played the game. I actually found that my plowing and harvesting speed was the same or a little faster. The biggest plus was that there wasn't any other plowers and harvesters just clicking all over the screen to get as many points/coins as possible, i.e. not plowing and harvesting in a logical manner. Please don't change it back.

[JimDownSouth]

Raul,

I have long missed the old(real old) way to harvest. It required some practice and skill. I hated the newer way because people would click away as if they had their eye closed. There can be some really immature and inconsiderate people on here at times. I think the 22nd update was wonderful and I could harvest as fast as I clicked as long as I kept a straight line. I think the people complaining never learned to harvest politely in the first place. PLEASE keep the update as it is!
Level 60 450,000 XPs

[Lil'Punkin]

Didn't even know about the update until I signed in to post about a problem with a hired plow. Only 1 of 300+ plots is showing plowed after hiring a single person to plow. Has anyone else experienced this since the update?

[gjnic]

NOOOO. The new way is better. It keeps the gang harvesters at bay. Please consider leaving the update in place.

[Token]

There's no need to limit the number of workers hired, people have the option to leave if they feel there are too many workers. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. FT is great the way it was before the last change.

[Meranna]

I first thought there was something was wrong with Farm Town. After I read on the Forum that this was a new release I just went back and played the game. I actually found that my plowing and harvesting speed was the same or a little faster. The biggest plus was that there wasn't any other plowers and harvesters just clicking all over the screen to get as many points/coins as possible, i.e. not plowing and harvesting in a logical manner. Please don't change it back.

totally agree with this! should give newer farmers time to learn just like I had to learn the "old" qeue system. I am doing fine & making $$ & XP's by harvesting/plowing in a row. Even told farmers on 5 jobs to stay in a row & they would not be jumping all over. Many players just haphazardly clk all over & mess the field up just to grab what they can. Let them gripe, who cares.

Seems the lowest common denominator is alive & well on FT! :-(

[missjackie19]

Thank you so much for going back to the old way, I find harvesting and plowing slower than before. Also, limiting the number you can hire would be a good idea. I dislike it when people hire like 6 plowers when they only need 2 for the job. It's not worth my time to stay and plow, so I leave when there are too many.

[tlc_24_88@yahoo.com]

I don't know what's been done, but it just took me a half an hour to plow for someone. It would not let me skip around and kept telling me I was busy, wait. I have never had that happen before. It would only let me plow one field at a time. I couldn't keep going like I could before. Horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe if you would quit skipping around, you wouldn't have a problem! Wow! What a concept! They made this change to STOP people like you! but you just don't get it..... If you harvest and plow in an organized manner instead of clicking around randomly running everybody over, it is just as fast.

[GrannyMo]

Hi There,

We have been monitoring you feedback and most likely we will be reverting to the old version early tomorrow and try to find a better compromise.

One of the alternatives that we considered was to only allow one worker harvesting and one worker plowing on your farm at the same time. This was also suggested by several other users on the other thread, however we thought that was going to be even more problematic.

Please provide some feedback about this other alternative on this thread, or if you rather prefer the way it was before, unlimited hiring, faster work but more potential for collisions and lost coins/XP.

thanks

--Raul

Raul, for what it's worth, I think it would be a mistake to revert back to the previous method.

I will admit that, at first, I was disconcerted at the loss of the queued fields and the fact that I again had to wait for my avatar to mosey over to where I was working (flashbacks to last summer!). However, if people would just give it a chance and WORK WITH IT for a while, they might find -- as I did -- that the change is not such a big deal as they think. XPs and coins credit right away, moving around isn't as tedious as it used to be pre-queued fields, and it doesn't take all that much more time to harvest/plow. If certain automated considerations don't work with this now, well, they weren't supposed to be used in the first place (if you'll pardon me for mentioning it).

I find it strange that you would consider retracting a change less than 24 hours after its implementation, based solely on demands here, and especially since the other possible fixes you have in mind are less satisfactory and even more likely to receive an outcry. What will you do then? Dial everything back and forth as people demand it?

With every major change to how the game is played, you've had posts in the forum that demand it be changed BACK or they'll leave the game and take all their neighbors with them. They're not indispensable, new players come on all the time. You have far more players who are willing to adjust and give this a try (ever hang out in the MPs? Last night and this morning, nobody was having a cow over this, just jumping in and working).

Please at least give this particular change a bit of time for people to stop b_itching about it, work with it for a while and THEN provide something more constructive in the way of feedback before you make a knee-jerk retraction, Raul. It sets a bad precedent.

[iots028]

The only way the new way is just as fast is if you are very slow. Physically impossible.

[allerks]

I would completely support limited hiring. "Too many workers" is the biggest complaint I hear about on my farm. That is why I hire one, and sometimes two workers, maximum, to work on my farm. I have received many comment from people who thank me for limiting the number of workers on my farm. There are many people with slow connections and they're left out in the cold because of people with very fast connections. By limiting the number of workers it will equal the playing field in a more fair way, yet not slow down someone who may have a fast connection.

Another valid reason for limiting the number of workers that can be hired on a farm is this: I have been hire to work on numerous farms and have found sometimes 6 and 8 other workers there when I arrive. Some of these farms are the smallest a player can actually have in the game. I've yet to understand why 8 workers would be needed on the smallest farm in the game. But, for some reason, there are farmers who feel the need to hire that many workers at one time. That, to me, is a lack of consideration for other only to satisfy one's own lack of patience to wait an extra few minutes for one or two workers to complete the tasks at hand.

Just the thoughts of a Level 60 player here. But, I'll support the developers...no matter what they decide.

I agree with Scott, I too, have had people thank me over and over for allowing them the whole farm to do..

One Idea may be to limit the number of people you can hire by the level you are at, then put a cap on the number once you reached higher levelsl. Like everything else is... As Scott describes, why hire 8-9 people on the smallest farm...

I believe that people hiring more than one feel that they are going to make more $$$ but the truth is it cost you more. I do understand that we have the option to leave as I do many times. But then you have people who just like to watch the avatar's bumping into each other like a pin ball game....
Like everything else in society you can't control courtesy and being considerate.
I am glad that you are reverting back to the old version, will just have to wait till all the plots are done before leaving the game....Thanks for listening to us..You've done a great job.

[tlc_24_88@yahoo.com]

I'm very disappointed that you all are chickening out and going back. I think it would be great if people actually gave it a chance. I LOVED that it stopped the people who click all over randomly. However, I think putting a limit on hiring is a great compromise. I think you should be able to hire 2 for each task tho because people with really big fields actually do have enough for more than one person to do.

[iots028]

Raul, for what it's worth, I think it would be a mistake to revert back to the previous method.

I will admit that, at first, I was disconcerted at the loss of the queued fields and the fact that I again had to wait for my avatar to mosey over to where I was working (flashbacks to last summer!). However, if people would just give it a chance and WORK WITH IT for a while, they might find -- as I did -- that the change is not such a big deal as they think. XPs and coins credit right away, moving around isn't as tedious as it used to be pre-queued fields, and it doesn't take all that much more time to harvest/plow. If certain automated considerations don't work with this now, well, they weren't supposed to be used in the first place (if you'll pardon me for mentioning it).

I find it strange that you would consider retracting a change less than 24 hours after its implementation, based solely on demands here, and especially since the other possible fixes you have in mind are less satisfactory and even more likely to receive an outcry. What will you do then? Dial everything back and forth as people demand it?

With every major change to how the game is played, you've had posts in the forum that demand it be changed BACK or they'll leave the game and take all their neighbors with them. They're not indispensable, new players come on all the time. You have far more players who are willing to adjust and give this a try (ever hang out in the MPs? Last night and this morning, nobody was having a cow over this, just jumping in and working).

Please at least give this particular change a bit of time for people to stop b_itching about it, work with it for a while and THEN provide something more constructive in the way of feedback before you make a knee-jerk retraction, Raul. It sets a bad precedent.

There was a huge outcry from the people who play the game. It's commendable that the devs listened.

[DARLENEW]

RAUL, I GUESS NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO THERE ARE ALWAYS GOING TO BE COMPLAINERS, AND I DID COMPLAIN WHEN THE HARVEST/PLOWING OPTION WAS CHANGED BACK TO THE OLD WAY, BUT YOUR HARD WORK IS APPRECIATED, AND I AM GLAD YOU ARE GOING BACK TO THE NEW WAY OF DOING IT....IF FARMERS DON'T WANT TO PUT A LIMIT ON THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THEY HIRE, THEN THEY SHOULDN'T COMPLAIN WHEN THE HARVESTERS ARE RUNNING ALL OVER THE FIELD, AND THE HARVESTERS SHOULDN'T COMPLAIN ABOUT IT, EITHER....I KNOW YOU ARE DOING YOUR BEST SO THANKS FOR THE HARD WORK AND FOR LISTENING TO US,,,YOU ROCK!!:o

[tlc_24_88@yahoo.com]

The only way the new way is just as fast is if you are very slow. Physically impossible.

You are so wrong. I've had multiple people comment on how fast I was before and I still move just as fast with the new way because I work in an organized way, harvesting and plowing in straight lines. The only way it is slow is if you skip around.

[JonVDB]

The only people complaining are those with the faster computers, the new way keeps the playing field equal. I personally like the new way. It works great for the rest of us and the new players.

Thank you

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

Competition(s) (games) should always be enjoyed more by those who are better equipped. I remember last spring when I was helping people add memory, upgrade Flash, etc.

All this playing field "leveling" is way to communistic also. lol

Good, old players will always be there to coach the newbies in better technique and shortcuts.

[Kafarmer]

My 2 cents:

I liked the update. The way FT was before only faster. It took skill and made the game more challenging and fun and not so monotonous as just clicking on squares and then waiting for them to be done.

Also, I know that the update wasn't for this but, it keeps the ones who like to ruin the experience and play the "mine mine mine" game at bay. With the update I was able to see who was being hog or just plain mean and stepping in front of everyone. This enabled me to be able to hire to plow accordingly.

I say that if the developers put in place that you can only hire one person then so be it. They have to fix the problem one way or another. And although some people (I won't speak for everyone because I CAN'T speak for everyone) didn't like the harvest/plow way that was implemented last night, I think it would be a lot better than only being able to hire one person to do each task. That's going to take even longer for those in a rush to do something else.

I think that some people need to learn how to compromise. :) Everything can't go your way all of the time. I'm an only child and I went through my phase of learning this. So, please, cut the devs some slack and at least try something out for a few days before you come and just tear them down about it. They are making this FREE game for us. If we were paying them to play the game, then I'd understand the big uproar. Even stating that you don't like the update in a civil manner would be better than the "I HATEEEEEEE ITTTTT. CHANGEEEEE IT B4KKKKK!" that I've seen.

-Kafarmer- :)

[MsAngelita]

I only hire 1 to 2 people on my farm at a time .. I like the faster harvesting & Plowing better ... this mess that U have done is BADDDDDDDD .. go back to the faster harvesting ... someone is always gonna complain .. no matter whatcha do ... just keep making it bigger & better .. we need to expand more & to Level up more ... 60 isn't enough ....

[kccluck]

I think it is a great idea to be able to hire one to plow, one to harvest. It slows me down so much to have ten people harvesting or plowing at one time. i have quite a few crops and only hire one or two people to work them, and they are usually finished very quickly.
Nana Cluck ;)

[Efwis]

Originally Posted by shiylo
Hello developers I am in agreement with the people who hate the changes at level 60+ and millions of dollars it has taken the challenge out of the game made it more for the younger or people who don’t like a challenge seems these changes are to keep people in their place instead of having fun as for myself I have never lost a dollar or an xp the game was a blast now it take forever to do a harvest or plow and everything is on top of everything to me this game is now a dud.. hard to see with the huge tools and words flying all over the avatar right on top of everything not to mention it feels like your under someone’s thumb not this girl I will be finding another game seems the game has had a lot of creativity taken out of it along with the challenge of it humm could be a meany phoo but why you all know why the changes. I know what your saying the changes are for but those of us who play the game hard know better. People make things up so it looks better well it looks worse and the play has gone out of it thanks for what was a grand game it really is to bad it was the best game out their till now…The game has now become so pathetic!

i think you missed the point of this thread. This is the thread giving feedback to the devs on which way would be better for the reversion back to what it was before today's update.

do you want the reversion with or without the alternative they have mentioned. This is a time to give a little feedback on a way to improve the previous way the game was, not the new and unimproved way.

:rolleyes:
:p Efwis maybe you should know where you speak from before you speak this was one of the first post before Rual began talking about a roll back so if you read the whole thread you would of know this it was posted not more then 30min after the update so it isn't me out of place it is where the tread was started thank you very much and I except your apogee their is no need for rudeness when you know not where you speak from...Have a grand holiday...Merry Christmas...
I'm not going to apologize for what i said, and yes I did read this post and have been reading the thread as it developed. it was posted AFTER Raul mentioned the roll back. go back to page one, or was it page two, where you posted it in this thread.

therefore, YOUR apology is gladly appreciated and duly noted.

[~Farmer Tom~]

Raul, for what it's worth, I think it would be a mistake to revert back to the previous method.

I will admit that, at first, I was disconcerted at the loss of the queued fields and the fact that I again had to wait for my avatar to mosey over to where I was working (flashbacks to last summer!). However, if people would just give it a chance and WORK WITH IT for a while, they might find -- as I did -- that the change is not such a big deal as they think. XPs and coins credit right away, moving around isn't as tedious as it used to be pre-queued fields, and it doesn't take all that much more time to harvest/plow. If certain automated considerations don't work with this now, well, they weren't supposed to be used in the first place (if you'll pardon me for mentioning it).

I find it strange that you would consider retracting a change less than 24 hours after its implementation, based solely on demands here, and especially since the other possible fixes you have in mind are less satisfactory and even more likely to receive an outcry. What will you do then? Dial everything back and forth as people demand it?

With every major change to how the game is played, you've had posts in the forum that demand it be changed BACK or they'll leave the game and take all their neighbors with them. They're not indispensable, new players come on all the time. You have far more players who are willing to adjust and give this a try (ever hang out in the MPs? Last night and this morning, nobody was having a cow over this, just jumping in and working).

Please at least give this particular change a bit of time for people to stop b_itching about it, work with it for a while and THEN provide something more constructive in the way of feedback before you make a knee-jerk retraction, Raul. It sets a bad precedent.


Well written, and I agree.

I will add though that the fact still remains that people are complaining of losing coins and xp. A fix was released, and then removed due to complaints on the forum. The forum doesnt even represent 5% (active users) of the total amount of people that play this game. Yet for some reason, the fix was short lived, basically due to apprehensiveness to the reaction of a small percent of people that post in this forum.


I wonder what would have happened if Thomas Edison would have quit when people said he was crazy?

Bottom line here is that Slashkey has alot of time and money invested in this game. Its thier game to design how they see fit. Sometimes, unpopular decisions must be made in order to better the game in the long run. This is one of those times.

Raul, Bert, and the rest of the team and moderators, Look forward past the clouds to see the horizon. Dont let a few blur your vision.

[Little Hoss]

The only way the new way is just as fast is if you are very slow. Physically impossible.

Nah, you're wrong, I was always complimented on how fast I was at harvesting and plowing using the old queing method and have been complimented a few times today at how quick I've mastered the new method. It just takes skill and co-ordination.

Have ya noticed how many more people have posted in this latest thread that the new method is actually good???

They're the ones who've given it a chance and actually get it.

[Travis (The Plower)]

I would like it if the developers would just forget about trying to update the harvesting and plowing. It worked fantastically how it was and didn't need any alterations. I don't think that only allowing one person to harvest and one person to plow is a good idea either. My vote is that you put it back to the way it was. If you should decide to implement a "one harvest, one plow" thing, you need to add an option to fire someone if they work too slow. I don't think that i should have to sit around and wait for the slowest harvester on farmtown to take four hours to harvest my farm, and that could easily happen. Would you apply a time constraint for how long one single harvester could be allowed to harvest a farm with 1024 plots? I am just worried that my farm would be hijacked by a person i hired and they sat around and did nothing, thus making it necessary for me to harvest my own crops so they don't spoil before they get done.

[ants eyelashes]

The new format is awful..It takes forever to plow.. Thank you for returning to the old version. I would have left the game for good. The operative word being game. It's supposed to be enjoyable and not a great frustration.

[Token]

Nah, you're wrong, I was always complimented on how fast I was at harvesting and plowing using the old queing method and have been complimented a few times today at how quick I've mastered the new method. It just takes skill and co-ordination.

Have ya noticed how many more people have posted in this latest thread that the new method is actually good???

They're the ones who've given it a chance and actually get it.

Then please explain how it is faster. I always plow in a line in order. Since the clicks are queued, I can go as fast as possible. If there is a better way to use the new method maybe you could share it.

[FarmerCB]

The new changes seem to work fine if there is only 1 harvester OR plower, but the second person hired seems to run much slower, whether they are hired to plow (behind a harvester) or as a second harvester/plower. I have no problems hiring only 1 person, but found it frustrating when I was hired as a 2nd (or 3rd) harvester/plower, only to have the first peron there "run circles" around me. (My machine has adequate memory and I'm at level 49, so not an experience/computer issue). My avatar only "teleported" when I was the first person hired... otherwise she plodded along quite slowly, regardless of direction of harvest (right -> left, top -> bottom, willy nilly :-))
I would suggest that you need to equalize the speed for all hired, rather than (what appears to be) a "First hired gets priority" system. Incidentally, I never lost coins/XP... they always registered correctly after a jump back to the market. I saved frequently while harvesting/plowing, tho, which may have helped.

[hhunting]

Thank you for reverting back to the old version! I spent an hour getting my two fields harvested yesterday and was starting to wonder if it was worth it. I don't hire three people -- just one usually -- so that slow version is REALLY slow.

I don't know about restricting to one, but how about 3 people harvesting or plowing? Nobody should need more than that and I've been on farms with 10 people hired.

Thanks again Bert for listening!!