My Farmville Strategy

Farmville Down again

2010-04-27T21:26:00.006-05:00

Farmville is apparently down again. Farmvillefreak.com is reporting that farmville is down again. It appears persons cannot access Farmville via Facebook.com or farmville.com.

It appears Zynga today released a storage upgrade. The problem, it appears that everytime Farmville gets a update, their are loading problems.

note: At 9:30 PM EST. the problem appear to have been resolved.

Farmville CO-OP TIPS Part 3

2010-04-26T20:00:00.001-05:00

Together each achieves more is an old adage for the acronym TEAM. For the Farmville CO-OP to run smoothly this is the key.

These tips were taken from a post on Farmville Freak. These are the management skills needed for a successful co-op project. Remember co-op farming is a TEAM project, you cannot do it alone.

I have seen too many jobs with one or two member planting away.

In order to ensure Gold, talk to neighbours beforehand and plan.
Find out how many plots they can put in and when. Count the plots if you have to but and estimate will do
Once agreed, start the job and invite only those people.
Plant crops only have you have joined
Follow up with them (you are the foreman). Monitor
Communicate progress

Remember, do NOT join or start co-op project unless you have available plots now. If you do, you will left with neighbors who are upset and feel cheated when you can't plant and harvest the crops in time.

Things to note.

You have to be at level 20
You can only join one job at a time
You can't remove a non-preforming neighbour/co-op member
Limited to 10 members only

Suggestions

Rotate the foreman

I tried to allocate about 50-75% of the the farm for this purpose and use the rest for the other crops. Sometimes you will have to commit your entire farm to the co-op.

See

Farmville Co-op, TIPS, The how to Part 2

2010-04-22T20:00:00.005-05:00

Getting the Job done.

Once you have joined a job, you will need to plant the crop that the job asked for. Do not plant the crops before.

Given the time sensitive nature, plan to start at a given time, start on time and you might find an alarm clock useful.

Select job that your schedule will allow you to meet.
( you don't want unhappy partners)
If the job has already started make of note when you joined and see if it makes sense.
For example. if you join a 16 hour Job for a Gold medal 3 hours after it has started you will only have 13 hours to contribute. You will not be able to plant and reap the crop in time.
Plant the crops immediately after you have joined
Meet your commitments and don't over commit.

When I started Farmville, one thing was clear. Neighbours was a must and you must find a way to get along.

In part 3 I will offer some more suggestions & pitfalls in the co-op. How are you finding the co-op? Got questions let me know.

See

Farmville Co-op, TIPS, The how to Part 1

Farmville Emails Notification opens a can of nerves

2010-04-21T20:00:00.002-05:00

Farmville on Monday started email notifications. For months the folk at Zynga has been trying to get users to give them their emails as a way to send messages and communicate. This appears to be part of the effort to decouple from Facebook.

The messages that can be recived are shown in the image below. They include, ready to harvest, comments from friends, special announcements, speack offers and promotions and reminder to feed the puppy.

You can adjust these settings easily at farmville.com by clicking on the below the settings header on the left.

User's response has been lukewarm and and launch has been greeted on some blogs with disdain and call for current complaints to be corrected before more new features are added.

Just a reminder as Lexilicous,farmville community manager, says, Farmville is still in BETA and that is another story.

Farmville Nursery Barns are here

2010-04-16T08:00:00.006-05:00

The Farmville Nursery Barn is now here. This will allow calves and foals to be stored and taken care off and harvested quicker. The storage capacity at present will be 20.

To complete the barn you will need ten(10) of the following items.

Brick
Wooden Board
Nail
Diaper
Bottle

As in other barn raising activities, you can request from and give these items as gifts to your neighbours. The items can also be purchased in the market for farm cash.

Remember to share your achievements as it gives your neighbors coins and opportunities to get materials themselves. Also remember to send gifts to your neighbours.

Analysis & strategic outlook
My take is that the barn might be worth your it given the benefits of other storage facilities such as the chicken coop, diary farm and horse stable. They will take up less space that the number of animals you put in. The barn will take up less that a 3x3 Farmville crop plot. The storage capacity however will have to increased as at current capacity comes out as disappointment.

Given the area that a foal takes up versus a calf, I would opt to put the foals in first, depending on the space available. They both harvest for 80 coins.

The barn is worth building compared to the French Maison but there are questions about the capacity.

Farmville Puppy Dog equals problems

2010-04-08T20:00:00.005-05:00

The Farmville dogs or puppies are finally here. The dogs come with a heafty price tag of 65 farm cash. The puppies where expected before the co-op but somehow the co-op made it out first.

How do I get the Dog?

The puppies are found in the market under the category 'animals' then under category 'pets'.

One Dog can be purchased for 300,000 coins. This dog's color is Red and is a Border Collie. You can purchase only one dog with Farmville coins but as many as you want once you have the Farmville cash.

Further customisation of the 300,000 dog is allowed in terms of the following along with the related charges. Those purchased with farmville cash can be customised for free.

Gender - Free
Name - Free
Color (chocolate or black) 65 Farm Cash

It should be noted that the "300,000" coin puppy comes with one day's supply of kibble and 14 days if purchased with 65 farm cash.

Dog Care

The puppies must be fed with kibble for 14 days daily. If you fail to do so, that the one purchased for 300,000 coins will run away. and so will your 300,000 coins. The ones purchase with farm cash will remain. The puppies will eventually become a full grown dog, if they are taken care off.

The Kibble can be available for 5 Farmville cash or as gifts from friends. If you dog runs away it will be seen behind bars. You can rescue the dog after paying a fine for 3 Farm Cash, i guess for puppy abuse.

I have not decided if I am buying the dog. Will discuss it with my wife, it is her farm after all.

There have been some problem as usual see, Zynga's Forum

Farmville Co-op, the how to Part 1

2010-04-07T20:00:00.002-05:00

One of the biggest questions being asked in Farmville is exactly how do you join a co-op, how do you start a job, how does this work?

Requirements
You have to be at level 20.
You can't do it alone (unless you have multiple accounts
From there, the key thing is you have to jump in and try. Ensure you can find the co-op icon as shown in the diagram to the right. Click on it and you will be brought to the co-op board. This is where the fun begins.

How do you join or start a Job in Farmville co-op

First thing to note is that Farmville will provide the jobs. You can either start a job once you see it listed or join a job as invited.

1. When you click on the co-op icon you can see the jobs as soon as they are available. On the "all Jobs" you will see a list of jobs and you have the option to join a job. These are jobs that your neighbours are involved in and you have been invited.

Once you have joined a job it will be listed under "Active jobs" and you can "Request Assistance"

2. The next option is that you can start a Job and then invite a friends. This apparently seems to appear after you have joined an existing job. I did not see this option until I joined a Job.

In both cases you can request that other persons join in to assist. This results in a news feed being post as seen below. In this way, persons can also join the co-op and work on the project.

The details of the project is outlined. In the example above

Project: Pumpkin Pie O'plenty

Target 1400 pumpkins

Time left: 1 day and 12 hours

In part 2, I will provide some suggestions on getting the job done and it part 3 some pitfalls in the co-op. How are you finding the co-op? Got questions let me know.

Farmville Stallions explained

2010-04-06T20:00:00.004-05:00

The Stallions have been creating a bit of confusion. Since being released on March 19, 2010 persons have been not quite sure how they work. Hopefully we can explain what is this works.

New Stallions can now be found wandering around FarmVille that will allow you to get Foals from your Horse Stable! When you opt to help a wandering stallion is is given shelter in the barn. To see what is happening, Zynga has added an enhancement. Click on the barn and select "look inside". At the top left hand corner you will now see and icon, indicating whether or not the wondering stallion is in or out. See screenshot below.

According to Zynga, the wandering stallions do not behave like how the Bulls behave. The wandering stallion is an event and not a permament fixture. This is very important to note as the stallion will not be counted as other horses inside the barn.

What happens

1. Wandering stallion has appeared on your farm.. when you share the feed, ten (10) of your neighours will be able to click on the feed and give shelter to the stallion

2. The stallion will be in the stable and you have a chance to receive a foal next time you collect 'horsehair".

3. When a foal is born, five(5) neighbours will have a chance to get a foal.

So be kind and take care of the wandering stallion and remember to share with your neighours.

Farmville Co op Problems being resolved

2010-04-04T06:00:00.001-05:00

Farmville co-op got off to a problem-plagued start according to feedback from users. Zynga for their part as acknowledged the problems and asked users to patient.

The question on the virtual farmers lips in Farmville is how will this work? Apparently is working sites such as Farmvillefreak.com are reporting users completing their tasks but problems persist.

Complaints

It is interesting that many of the complaints from virtual is not only about this feature but Zynga's ability to fix the bugs, lost gifts. As it relates to the co-op, some users seem upset that the product could be rolled out with so many bugs while others call for patience given, that the product is free.

Are you still having problems? Let us know.

Farmville co-op Farming is here.

2010-04-02T16:45:00.011-05:00

Farmville co-op Farming is here. This is a new feature we have been seeing promotions about. It will involve you working with your neighbours on specific tasks.

Farmville Co-op Tutorial (the how to)

The simple tutorial is summed up in four lines and attempts to outline how the co-op will work. The instructions are:

Folks in Farmville(i.e your neighbours) will ask for help in completing farming jobs.
Recruit friends to join your job and help you grow crops
Grow enough crops before time expires
The faster you finish the bigger your ulitmate rewards

Bascially the there is Job Board where you will be able to see and overview, details of the jobs and achievements.

Jobs Completed vs Attempted

Medals

Gold Medals
Silver Medals
Bronze Medals

Plus

Job Completion streak
Average co-op size
Biggest co-op size

There are instersting prizes such found under the ribbons tab

Co-op Job Ribbon Achievements

Employee of the Month
Fabulous Foreman
Best of the Rest

The co-op icon can be found where the delete tool was. The delete tool is now part of the under the multi-tool icon

How do you?

From the Zynga Famville forum, it appears the Jobs will be listed under the All Jobs and Active Jobs tab. You will then be able to

Select a Job ( It appears when you do you will have to options to post it as a via a facebook feed for your neighbours and friends to see)
Recruit Friends to help

So it appears we will have wait until the job pop unto the "Jobs To Do" Board.

However for more information visit the Zynga's Farmville Forum

Not All Chickens are not Equal on Farmville

2010-03-28T20:00:00.004-05:00

It is not surprising that chickens can be found on Farmville, but what becomes clear is that all chickens not equal. So far I have come across four types of chickens:

White
Brown
Black
Golden

Here is the breakdown of coins on , harvest time and selling/harvest returns:

White Chicken
Harvest: 8 Coins
Harvest Time: 1 Day
Sell: 20 Coins

Brown Chicken
Harvest: 16 Coins
Harvest Time: 1 Day
Sell: 20 Coins

Black Chicken
Harvest: 32 Coins
Harvest Time: 1 Day
Sell: 20 Coins

Golden Chicken
Harvest: 64 Coins
Harvest Time: 1 Day
Sell: 20 Coins

Analysis

As can be seen the return from a golden chicken is 8 times that of a white chicken. The return on a black chicken is 4 times that of a white chicken but half that of a golden chicken.

The coup can be expanded to hold 60 chickens, so at the balance of chickens you have for maximum reward and least effort.

The other thing to note is the distribution of the chickens in Chicken Coop. Depending on the ratio of types of chickens, it will determine the probability of the type of mystery chickens you will probably find from the chicken coup to share.

Farmville Gold Rush Ends Today

2010-03-23T01:00:00.004-05:00

The Farmville Gold rush ends today. The actual time is 9:00 p.m. PDT. Farmers therefore have the next few hours to complete. The Gold has allowed users to gain extra fuel, XP, among other gifts.

Farmville outage on Facebook

2010-03-22T16:57:00.005-05:00

Virutal Farmers are having problems accessing their Farmville accounts via Facebook. A message on the Farmville fanpage on Facebook reads:

"If you are unable to load FarmVille from your Facebook page, you may try to launch from FarmVille.com."

Interestingly the problem seems to be affecting at least one other Zynga Games as Virtual Chefs are having similar problems access Cafeworld via Facebook.

Farmers can still access Farmville via FarmVille.com and this might not be a bad thing.

Farmville now has stallions

2010-03-21T20:00:00.002-05:00

The information below is incorrect. A post with the corrected information will be posted soon.

In this week's round of releases, Zynga has released a Stallion that you can now add to your horse barn. This works similarly to how the Bull works in the Diary Farm with the Cows.

This is a interesting development as now you will need to find space on the farm for foals, as that will be natural result of the union of stallions and mares.

What you will need to do if you have your barn filled with horses(mares) is to remove one and add the Stallion as soon as you have found one wondering on your farm.

The information above is incorrect. A post with the corrected information will be posted soon.

Framville releases new items; no dogs yet

2010-03-20T20:00:00.000-05:00

This week Farmville has released a few new items. They can be found below. As for the pet dog, the annoucements says the A small percentage of our users will see the new Golden Retriever Puppy in the Market for varying prices while others will just see coming soon.

However the Dog is not available but it appears it will cost Farmville Cash not Coins to get the puppy when the release is final.

Limited Edition Items:
Provencal Shed - 24 Farm Cash
Café - 42 Farm Cash
Bike with Basket - 2000 Coins
Horse Sculpture - 5000 Coins

Decorations:
Dogwood Tree - 4 Farm Cash

Animals:
Percheron Horse - 20 Farm Cash

Outlook

I am not sure I getting any dog for the farmville. It cost Farmville Cash, I will do with out. However, for some users it will prove a nice feature.

Farmville Dog coming

2010-03-19T08:00:00.001-05:00

We have seen the teasers and more clues are coming. The last clue is that the supposedly found in Petville. According to FarmvilleFreak the pet likely be a dog and this has pretty much been confirmed.

Now Petville is just one of the many games that Zynga has. Zynga appears to be trying hard at cross promotion of their products.

This is being doing in many ways as outlined in the examples below. However, I have some issues with the cross promotions that I will address.

Hot Rod Tractors in Farmville for Mafia Players at a certain level
Poker Players to meeting in Mafia Wars
Invite your CafeWorld Friends to play Farmville and now
The find out more about the Pets, you will need to go to PetVille.

Now I have no problem with the mixing of Petville, CafeWorld, FishVille and Farmville as I believe those are fine for a general audience but Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker are for a different audience.

Zynga should try and keep the games as open to people of all persuasion by providing flexible options that will not be offensive to beliefs. For example, there are no Pigs on the farm I manage.

Allow people to chose the games the love to play and promote the right games to the right people.

See

Keep Mafia Wars out of Farmville

Farmville and the Chicken Coup Expansions

2010-03-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

Farmville owners are only allowed to purchase on Chicken Coup. The coup can house initially 20 Chickens. The Coup can then be expanding twice.

20 to 40
40 to 60

You can either purchase the expansion or you can get your friends to help you. You will need to get your 10 friends to help you

For those you have Farmville cash $10 will buy you an expansion.

Analysis

Given the low return per click(yes my mouse click is valuable), getting your chickens in the coup is critical. One click allows you to collect eggs from up to 20, 40 or 60 chickens depending on the size of the coup. Unless you have farmhands, purchased or gifted, putting your chickens in a Coup makes common sense.

Look out for 'not all chickens are equal', as we look at what chickens to keep in and out of the coup or at all.

Farmville St. Patrick Promotions end today

2010-03-17T20:00:00.005-05:00

Unless there is some change, The St. Patrick day's promotions should end to day. After igniting a Gold Rush, St Patrick's day is here.

Many like myself might not have known what St. Patrick's day was about. According to Wikipedia, also know as St. Patty's day is annual feast days that celebrates St. Patrick a patron saint of Ireland and is generally celebrated on March 17. A big part of the tradition surrounding the holiday is the color green.

Like many holidays it has a Catholic tradition with it. It is celebrated as a National holiday in Ireland, a bank holiday in Northern Ireland but is widely celebrated in the English Isles, United States, Australia, New Zealand and Montserrat in the Caribbean.

Well Easter is now around the corner so you can expect the Zynga folks to be doing something for that season.

Farmville introduces Comment Box

2010-03-15T20:00:00.000-05:00

Farmville has introduced the comments box. The comments box allows the following

See who visited your farm
Place a Signpost
Send Gifts
See who fertilized your farm
See who fed your chickens
Send comments (or messages) (which can be posted on Facebook and or Signpost)
Email Comments

Zynga, the makers of Farmville seem to be lining up to ensure that what Facebook pulls the plug, the many users can still communicate with each other effectively.

Shamrock,Green Hellebores, Green Roses and more for Seven Days

2010-03-12T20:00:00.000-05:00

Farmville announced another 7 day Special, yesterday March 10, 2010. This time it is in the seeds and animals area of the market. This special promotion should end on St. Patrick's day., March 17, 20101. It features Shamrock, Green Hellebores and Green Rose as three of the limited edition offerings.. This is the same time that the Rush for Gold will end. The details are shown below.

For those interested in more statistics, the following represents the coins earned hour and XP (i.e. Experience Per Hour)

Shamrock
XP/Hr: 0.50
Coins/Hr: 6.25
Time: 4 hours
Level available: 5

Green Hellebores
XP/Hr: 0.19
Coins/Hr: 5.25
Time: 16 hours
Level available: 15

Green Roses
XP/Hr: 0.17
Coins/Hr: 6.25
Time: 1 day
Level available: 30

For those who want to spend Farmville Cash there is the Mystery Box and the Kelly Green Cow

Strategic outlook ( At level 32)

If you are able to plant 4 hour crops, Shamrock is good for generating experiences and are in-line with most crops that fall in 4 hours and under harvest time category. Where it falls down is in terms of coins per hour, with Blueberries and Blackberries still being better options

For crops in the 12-24 hour range, Green Hellebores and Green Roses are good choices and should be definitely considered. In terms of XP/Hr, Hellebores are ahead of Green Roses but on Coins/Hr, Green Roses are best. Overall, I would give the edge to Green Roses with the primary reason being planting a 16 hour crop is tricky for most Farmville farmers given their schedules. Make Hay while the sunshines.

Note: Coins/Hour represents net coins gained per hour. 1 Farmville day actually is 23 hours but calculations are done using 24 hours=day.

Farmville and World Food Programme

2010-03-09T21:00:00.001-05:00

Farmville is not all about games. When the earthquake struck in Haiti, Zynga launched the Zynga releif fund. According to the banner below, taken from the Zynga Website, 100% of the funds will be contributed to the World Food Program. Users in the USA, can text "Zynga" to 90999.

The video below is feedback from the work be done in Haiti. It interesting to note the Farmville scarf being worn by the speaker in the video as he thanks the Farmville players for their contribution.

Fuel on the Plow

2010-03-05T07:48:00.001-05:00

The availability of fuel has been a big problem to tractor owners in Farmville but now it should get a little easier. Things are now different and you should be able to get fuel quicker and easier.

How you can now receive fuel.

As you plow - The fuel can now be shared with friends.
Fertilise your neighbours' farm
At level 12 and above

Once you are at level 12 you are eligible to receive fuel and you will now receive fuel from your neighbours' feed - up to 150 neighbours

Tractor and Fuel use

With the greater availability of fuel, owners of larger farms should find using the tractors a better option. These tractors are not fuel efficient but they are must faster than manual labour. Here is some details on fuel use.

Each Tank contains 150 units of fuel
1 unit is used for 1 plot of land used

This means that a 12x12 plot will consume 144 units of fuel or close to 1 tank of fuel.

Use Wisely

The key to making the best of your tractor is to ensure your lots are arranged.

properly aligned - If they are not the use of the tractor is a waste
in 2x2 blocks i.e 4 plots. or 3x3 plots i.e 9 plots if you have the Hot Rod tractors

The tractor is able to plow, seed and harvest for 4 plots (2x2) or 9 plots (3x3) at a time. This can reducing plowing, seeding and planting time by as much as 75% to 89% compared to the manual way. One mouse click per plot versus four(4) or nine(9) depending on which tractor you are using.

Clearly Fuel sales could be a good source of revenue for Zynga. Fuel is available using Farmville Cash, paid for using your credit card or paypal, for between 3 -65 Farmville cash for 1 fuel tank to 50 fuel tanks.

If you are a Farmville Addict, the greater availability of Fuel will be welcomed.

Farmville Wishlists are here

2010-03-03T05:34:00.000-05:00

In an early post, I had mention that Farmville was going to allow users to create a wishlist of items they need. The wishlist is now here,apparently released overnight, and you can go ahead and start creating those wishing for those items.

It should be noted that some items can only be added to the wishlist based on following:

Your level attained
Access Point: some are Farmville.com exclusive

If you access Farmville using Farmville.com rather than Facebook, you have access to more gifts.

How To add items to the wishlist.

Once you click on your gift box, you will see an option to create make a wish. Select the item and add it to your wishlist.

Farmville Wishlist

Farmville Wishlist

2010-02-27T22:53:00.000-05:00

Farmville is announcing that a wishlist feature will be coming soon. This will allow Farmville farmers to place the items they need on a wishlist. This will include items such as those needed to build a barn or collectible items needed to complete a collection.

Neighbours will be able to see this wishlist on a news feed and send their fellow Farmville farmers the items they really need. This should help and prevent people sending things that their neighbours don't need right away.

This was announced on Farmville's weekly Podcast series. Farmville has a Youtube channel where you can get the lastest updates on the Farmville.

Farmville Podcast Channel

Farmville Perfect Bunches & Pretty Garden

2010-02-26T08:06:00.000-05:00

I am still getting my hands dirty on Framville and yesterday I discovered the Garden Shed and their use for storing 'perfect bunches'.

When you plant a crop of flowers, as it it harvested, you will from time to time reap 'perfect bunches'. The perfect bunches could be then shared immediately with your neighbours. However, the Garden Shed changes things. You can now store the perfect bunches for use later or share them with your friends at your own convenience.

The Garden Shed cost 30,000 coins or 30 FV dollars and provides 600 XP. It is found in the Market sections under Buildings. You are limited to 1, possibly depending on your level.

Pretty Garden Reward
When you use 10 or 25 bunches on your farm, you are get a Pretty Garden awards.

10 - White Ribbon
25 - Red Ribbon

Strategic Outlook
Farmville farmers should get a Garden Shed, it is worth it. You can earn coins (and medals) and XP from using those stored 'perfect bunches'.