New Release -- May 9, 2010

[SueW170]

Originally Posted by Steve Leonard

You can always purchase another facility and put it on another farm. You can have more than one facility to process items, but it needs to be on a separate farm. I have 2 windmills to process flour.

I'm losing interest in the facilities -- so far have kept the ones I have producing since I have several very active FT Neighbors and it's nice to give them the opportunity to work my facilities, get some of the products they may be looking for and earn a few Exp. Points. Other than that, doing the facilities has become "same ole, same ole" real quickly. At least plowing, planting and harvesting offers a little variety in choosing what to plant.
At Level 63 and over 2 million coins, I really have little incentive to gain more coins or points since any further expansion of my farm #3 (now wtil 12x12) will be by buying FT Cash over time. Until then (which will be a chance to try some design ideas) FT is becoming pretty boring. I've been playing since early March. FT is a good application and I've stayed with it longer than I ever have any game on or off the computer.

[SunnyD]

Originally Posted by SueW170

I'm losing interest in the facilities -- so far have kept the ones I have producing since I have several very active FT Neighbors and it's nice to give them the opportunity to work my facilities, get some of the products they may be looking for and earn a few Exp. Points. Other than that, doing the facilities has become "same ole, same ole" real quickly. At least plowing, planting and harvesting offers a little variety in choosing what to plant.
At Level 63 and over 2 million coins, I really have little incentive to gain more coins or points since any further expansion of my farm #3 (now wtil 12x12) will be by buying FT Cash over time. Until then (which will be a chance to try some design ideas) FT is becoming pretty boring. I've been playing since early March. FT is a good application and I've stayed with it longer than I ever have any game on or off the computer.

Ok maybe I don't understand.... forgive me please......but you have to plant and plow to run the facilities and now with so many you get to plant more things...... and you can expand your third farm with coins you don't have to use farm cash to expand it....

[John P Darrow]

Originally Posted by JustHikk

Cheese isn't the limiting factor, tomatoes are.

Not actually true. One of each end product facility, and three each of red windmills and dairy processing, requires 2182 plots kept continuously growing to meet a full production load. This means that if you can keep 2400-2500 plots and harvest, plow, and replant them as soon as possible after they're ready, it's actually possible to produce enough of the planted crops, even tomatoes, to keep up. It's just a lot of work. (Getting friends to gift you blueberries and especially pineapple helps a lot, as it frees up a lot of plot-hours for other production.)

Cheese, however, _is_ an absolute limiting factor, at least under the one-of-a-given-facility-per-farm limit. Back when only the pizzas and the cheesecake required cheese, it was possible to cover them using three dairy processing facilities - the six pizzas together required six cheese every two hours, plus another two every four hours for cheesecake, for a total of 14 cheese consumed per four hours; since cheese produces at 6 per 4 hours, having three facilities met the requirement. But the sandwich facility added another three per hour (twelve per four hours), and nachos another two per four hours, pushing the total requirement up to 28 every four hours, or almost five facilities' worth. Since you only have three farms, making cheese at the required rate is simply impossible. And cheese isn't giftable.

The main issue is that the rates for the production of intermediate goods (flour, cheese, etc.) were set back when there were far less final goods that required them for production. For example, when cheese was first added, there were only three kinds of pizza and the cheesecake, meaning two dairy processing facilities easily sufficed; now, lots more things use cheese, but cheese production still happens at the same speed - it's never been rebalanced.

Another aspect is that many of the facilities' production options seem to reflect a developer's original intent/mindset of a facility with a limited number of production slots, where, for example, you'd have six different types of pizzas available but could only make two types at a time, so you'd have to choose which ones to make based on what toppings you have in stock; whereas, the way the facilities actually work now, production profit efficiency basically demands keeping all six types cooking at once.

[JustHikk]

Originally Posted by John P Darrow

Not actually true. One of each end product facility, and three each of red windmills and dairy processing, requires 2182 plots kept continuously growing to meet a full production load. This means that if you can keep 2400-2500 plots and harvest, plow, and replant them as soon as possible after they're ready, it's actually possible to produce enough of the planted crops, even tomatoes, to keep up. It's just a lot of work. (Getting friends to gift you blueberries and especially pineapple helps a lot, as it frees up a lot of plot-hours for other production.)

Assuming you max each facility once a day.

Juice Factory needs 600 Tomatoes to max it out.
Sandwich Factory needs 720 Tomatoes to max it out.
Preserve Factory needs 720 Tomatoes to max it out.
Pizza Parlor needs 2160 Tomatoes to max it out.

Thats a total of 4200 Tomatoes [/]per day[/i] to max out on tomatoes. Tomatos grow every 2 days. That means that every time you plant, you have to plant enough tomatoes to max out for 2 days. Thats 8400 plots of tomatoes. Since each farm only has 1024 plots maximum for a total of 3076 tomatoes max every two days, it leaves you about 5,000 tomatoes short ever two days and that makes it impossible.

Even if you drop the tomato juice and ketchup (that can be gifted) it leaves you needing 2880 tomatos per day, 5660 every time you plant, and its still impossible to do.

Cheese:
Sandwich Factory needs 1080 Cheese per day.
Bakery needs 180 Cheese per day.
Pizza Parlor needs 1080 Cheese per day.
Snack Factory 180 Cheese per day.

2520 Cheese per day.

540 Cheese max production, takes 5 "fillings". That is beyond what you can produce daily with one filling since you can only have 3 facilities producing. But, you aren't limited to producing that cheese on your own farm. If you had 20 neighbors that had 3 dairy facilities each, and you were the first one to work each day, you could run max cheese and not even own a dairy facility.

Both of those make tomatos the limiting factor, not cheese.

Anybody thats having trouble keeping up with cheese I can add as a neighbor to work in my facilities. I have two dairy farms now and can add a third one. Whenever you want to work, send me a note and I will make sure the cheese is maxed out so that when you work you get the maximum benefit of working. At 540 cheese per facility, and the worker getting 20%, if they are maxed out then the worker earns 324 cheese per day from me. I will also be glad to work in dairy facilities to help people get more cheese.

The other thing thats a mark against tomatoes is that in order to be able to max it out, you have to stop growing tomatos to grow the other stuff you need to go with it. Onions, Mushrooms, Pineapples (can be gifted though), etc.. so you lose tomato growing time.

Originally Posted by John P Darrow

Cheese, however, _is_ an absolute limiting factor, at least under the one-of-a-given-facility-per-farm limit.

No, because your own facility is not the only way to get cheese. With enough neighbors, you can have enough cheese to max out daily without even owning a dairy facility or a cow.

Originally Posted by John P Darrow

Back when only the pizzas and the cheesecake required cheese, it was possible to cover them using three dairy processing facilities - the six pizzas together required six cheese every two hours, plus another two every four hours for cheesecake, for a total of 14 cheese consumed per four hours; since cheese produces at 6 per 4 hours, having three facilities met the requirement. But the sandwich facility added another three per hour (twelve per four hours), and nachos another two per four hours, pushing the total requirement up to 28 every four hours, or almost five facilities' worth. Since you only have three farms, making cheese at the required rate is simply impossible. And cheese isn't giftable.

Cheese isn't giftable but the milk is, and, you can work in other facilities to gain cheese. The *only* way to get tomatoes is to grow them.

Originally Posted by John P Darrow

The main issue is that the rates for the production of intermediate goods (flour, cheese, etc.) were set back when there were far less final goods that required them for production. For example, when cheese was first added, there were only three kinds of pizza and the cheesecake, meaning two dairy processing facilities easily sufficed; now, lots more things use cheese, but cheese production still happens at the same speed - it's never been rebalanced.

Another aspect is that many of the facilities' production options seem to reflect a developer's original intent/mindset of a facility with a limited number of production slots, where, for example, you'd have six different types of pizzas available but could only make two types at a time, so you'd have to choose which ones to make based on what toppings you have in stock; whereas, the way the facilities actually work now, production profit efficiency basically demands keeping all six types cooking at once.

And the impetus to keeping all six maxed out at once is tomatoes, not cheese

[dottyF]

Im finding that it is impossible to use the sandwich bakery and pizza at the same time. there is no way to produce enough cheese to use all 3 of these . If there is I haven't found it. My pizza facility is becoming useless to me.

[JustHikk]

Originally Posted by dottyF

Im finding that it is impossible to use the sandwich bakery and pizza at the same time. there is no way to produce enough cheese to use all 3 of these . If there is I haven't found it. My pizza facility is becoming useless to me.

Cheese isn't the limiting factor. You can produce 1620 cheese per day on your own if you have the cows to do it. Thats 540 Cheese per factory with a dairy facility on each of 3 farms. Add to that working in neighbors facility and earning 20% of the cheese produced, you can get enough cheese. Then, you will realize that tomatos are the limiting factor, not cheese.

[Gloria Platt Coplen]

Originally Posted by dottyF

Maybe we need a grocery store.

Just work someone else's facility. They maybe making cheese, therefore you would get some extra cheese that way.

[Gloria Platt Coplen]

I'm having trouble growing enough wheat and flour to keep up with all the sandwich, bakery and pizza places. I try to have different stages of growth going so that I always have some growing but it limits my growth of other things needed. I can't believe it but I ran out of grapes the other day. I've been keeping my selling of the juice up high but may have to cut back on amount sold per day. Still ready for a roaster/grinder for the coffee beans.
My only complaint is to go to work a facility for someone else and they have two of each item and by the time you get there it's already done. I suggest they wait until they have a good amount to work the facility before advertising it as workable.

[Little Wing]

Can I ask: when did the game - for those who seem unhappy with the facilities and such - stop becoming fun for you? Why does it have to be so much of a chore, to the point where you worry about how many cows, how many crops of this or that, in order to get cheese, flour, berries, whatever?

You are computing, instead of just having fun. I saw the same thing last year when FT players started whipping out the calculator to figure out how much pineapple to plant, versus anything else. For most of us who have been playing for more than six months (for example), we have plenty of money and enough room to plant and then to produce at whatever facilities we own. Why angst over it?

I've been playing for about a year and three months. I have three farms, all but two of the facilities, many millions of coins and I play every day. I've had a total blast collecting all of it, and I never worried a bit; I just enjoyed.

If I have enough wheat for flour, then I produce it. If I have enough flour for pizza, then I make it. If I don't, then I either play with something else on the farm or I step away from it until my crops are ready and I can harvest and start producing again. I still go in the marketplace and help other farmers, and I still pop on my neighbors' farms for a shout-out. I'm still having fun and it's not costing me a second's tension or stress.

I guess I don't understand. I know some people thrive on stress and tension, many people are very competitive when it comes to games and others are just worry-warts. The creators of FT have given us every single thing we have asked for. Think of it: when I started playing in March 2009, the highest level was 34, crops were very limited and so were the decorations and such. We didn't have any flowers. We barely had fencing. Now, we have so many wonderful things to play with, and people are still agonizing, now over things like how much milk they need to make cheese.

Sit back and enjoy it! So what if you can't keep all your facilities pumping at top speed? What are you going to do with all those coins, anyhow? Collect them until we are allocated Farm Number Four? That's a good idea, but why worry about it when it may not ever happen? Enjoy what you have now, have fun, and maybe give a little 'thanks' shout-out to the game gurus who have worked so hard to keep everybody happy.

So, with that in mind: Thanks, Farm Town Gurus! I'm still having a blast.

Little Wing

[Tony D]

Originally Posted by Little Wing

Can I ask: when did the game - for those who seem unhappy with the facilities and such - stop becoming fun for you? Why does it have to be so much of a chore, to the point where you worry about how many cows, how many crops of this or that, in order to get cheese, flour, berries, whatever?

You are computing, instead of just having fun. I saw the same thing last year when FT players started whipping out the calculator to figure out how much pineapple to plant, versus anything else. For most of us who have been playing for more than six months (for example), we have plenty of money and enough room to plant and then to produce at whatever facilities we own. Why angst over it?

I've been playing for about a year and three months. I have three farms, all but two of the facilities, many millions of coins and I play every day. I've had a total blast collecting all of it, and I never worried a bit; I just enjoyed.

If I have enough wheat for flour, then I produce it. If I have enough flour for pizza, then I make it. If I don't, then I either play with something else on the farm or I step away from it until my crops are ready and I can harvest and start producing again. I still go in the marketplace and help other farmers, and I still pop on my neighbors' farms for a shout-out. I'm still having fun and it's not costing me a second's tension or stress.

I guess I don't understand. I know some people thrive on stress and tension, many people are very competitive when it comes to games and others are just worry-warts. The creators of FT have given us every single thing we have asked for. Think of it: when I started playing in March 2009, the highest level was 34, crops were very limited and so were the decorations and such. We didn't have any flowers. We barely had fencing. Now, we have so many wonderful things to play with, and people are still agonizing, now over things like how much milk they need to make cheese.

Sit back and enjoy it! So what if you can't keep all your facilities pumping at top speed? What are you going to do with all those coins, anyhow? Collect them until we are allocated Farm Number Four? That's a good idea, but why worry about it when it may not ever happen? Enjoy what you have now, have fun, and maybe give a little 'thanks' shout-out to the game gurus who have worked so hard to keep everybody happy.

So, with that in mind: Thanks, Farm Town Gurus! I'm still having a blast.

Little Wing

Great post Little Wing - I totally agree As far as I am concerned same goes for Farm Cash - If I have it I buy things , if not I make do with what I have.