New Release -- December 22nd, 2009
 

****[UPDATE]**** Please see the new created thread for latest information

Hi There,

First, the Bert account was hacked recently and there were some posts made on his behalf, we are researching this issue now.

Second, we just released a new version of FarmTown a while ago. As stated before, we were going to focus mainly on the lost XP/Coins issues which are critical at this point. However, in order to minimize the lost XP/Coins issues, we had to make some changes to the way harvesting/plowing works when you are hired.

Before, when multiple people were hired on a farm, everybody starts clicking randomly on every field, and there are a lot of collisions, people harvesting/plowing on the same fields, as you don't see clearly where other people are working.

The new way is this, if you harvest fields that are close to where your avatar is, then your avatar will be teletransported and will be a very quick transition, it should be as quick or comparable to what it was before, however if you click on a field that is farther away, then you will have to wait until your avatar gets to that field to continue working.

This change will make that on some instances you work slower, on the other hand people get more dispersed while working on a farm, you can actually see them where they are working, and there will be much less collisions between them. This will also add another component to the game, now it's not just blindly clicking on the fields, you have to also consider the position of other players and your chances to avoid collisions and to get more work done. Now, when you click on a field that another player did before you, then you will see a message saying "already done", before, there was no feedback at all.

Of course, we know this release will cause a lot of complains as well, because in order to improve one area we had to change the behaivor on another area which some users will not like it, but compared to the issue of frequent losing more XP and coins, we just decided this was the way to go.

So far we have detected that there are 70% less issues with lost XP/coins that before, and it should improve with time even more.

As a separate note, the cursors on the game have been made larger and they don't get overlapped by other items on the game.

Thanks

--Raul

Thank you very much Raul. We appreciate everything you do for us.

It is faster this evening than it was this afternoon.

My only complaint is that this should be titled "22nd", not "22th". xD

thanks for the hard work. i was one of the few once i tryed it who realized how nice it was i just didnt like the wait to walk when i clicked away but now that you explained it for us i know why its done and understand thanks again. but i do love the speed and easyness when you click crops next to eachother

If it ant broke don't fix it . Well someone should have told them this before now because they broke it trying to fix it dumb dumb dumb!!!!!!!!!!

Please go back to the speed and the way it was. It is now so slow, I hate to be hired or to hire anyone.

Thanks.

If you had bothered at all to read why they changed it, you'd see that they are doing to fix something that was broken; people were not getting coins or XP in some instances, and it was clearly stated that there's been 70% less problems regarding these. Read the OP before you reply.

Thanks-although this does make work slower(for now), it also returns it to the relaxing FUN it used to be in the early days of FarmTown! No more ridiculous complaining about 'hogs', being 'greedy'; no more overlapping of fields. I have enjoyed this game ever since I became addicted (and proud of it!) last March! Keep up the good work, it's much appreciated!

If you were one of those losing coins and XPs you would have thought it was broken before.

I harvested and plowed from the market this afternoon and again this evening. It is faster this evening.

I really hate this upgrade, I would rather lose coins and xp points than have it this way. I appreciate the fact that you are trying to fix the problems, but if it stays like this I am done playing Farm Town.

Thank you for this upgrade. At last I can continue you plough and harvest quickly using a methodical method without plots disappearing from under me by 'invisible' and somewhat greedy farmers. I have not lost out at all tonight as my method is very quick unlike those who use a random method. Keep up the good work. :-)

so ok i get why u made the change but can you tell me why my screen jumps when i try to drag it to move to a new position and when i click on the arrows to move the field??

why did u guys change it back to the old way so much slower i have a 3 yearold sister to be with now its going to take forever to do work at least i hope u didn't change the plowing eaither if pple where smart they hire one person to do the job or hire 2 good friends who share the stuff this is messed up

i know u did it on the coins and stuff but i never seen anything on it at all i just don't think this is a new release becuase u basicly made it the old way like it use to be its not new i play all the time on myspace

Bye bye Farm Town.......it was fun while it lasted.

Thanks Raul for letting us know it is a permanent change. I'm pretty sure that will solidify everyone's position on whether or not to continue to participate.

Thanks again.:rolleyes:

Thank you Raul, your time and effort in this game is appreciated.
what I don't understand is when I'm working alone on a farm (at a request). Why are the xp/coins different on every square.
The new change was at a cost.... Consistancy

No, you wouldn't like losing 40,000+ coins, etc. as has happened to me. And no telling how many xp. Thanks so much for fixing this and I can work with the new way of harvesting/plowing. We really appreciate all your hard work to make this the great game it is.

Well this is a set the right way,this is the way it should of been to start with. This is almost like when the game first came out and it worked great that way. Now if I could just get the billion of coins that I have lost and the million of xp points that I lost. Other then that the game is great.

this new way is ridiculous for workers who are consistenly fast and accurate

Whew
 

i just thought i had cooties and my computer was fixin to blow!:o
no i dont really like it but i see the point --i had the collisions and just accepted the "loss" at times it's agame I am not getting pd in real life!
Got to 59 today thought u needed a way to slow me down ---after all with my dial up i got this far!!:cool:;)

my thing now is, i had layered crops. When I plow a harvested field, I get an 'already done' message, and the swuare reverts to grass. When I refresh, the harvested field come back.

I cannot delete the harvested field to get to the layer underneath it! It's on my second farm- I want the $20 back that I paid for coins to buy it!

Also, I hate the other change- you can't plant flowers and trees, then hide them, and then plow over those...

One other thing.....
its a game and we're supposed to be having fun.
There is now fun in everyting taking MUCH longer to do.
xp/coins are secondary to Realtime being lost.
there will always be another crop around the corner, worring about every xp point and every coin is pointless in this game

The layered crops and plowing over trees were glitches - which we were allowed to take advantage of. I have not tested with my layers or trees, but if we are no longer able to do so, then we must be thankful for the time we were able to take advantage of said glitch and continue on as before.

In my opinion, I think this new system sucks. I understand the reasons for it, however, I feel there are better ways to fix the said problems. Maybe instead of only letting us do one plot at a time, limit the amount of employees a farmer can hire. This new system causes the work to go so slow. The entire point of hiring someone to work on your farm is to get the job done faster. This is much slower and aggrivating.

I understand the reasons for the changes, I have lost lots of coins and XP in the past. Now I have so many of both, I couldn't really care less if I lost them or not really.
However, I do not like the was plowing works now. My avatar keeps getting in the way. It makes it harder to see the areas to click, and sometimes it is simply in the way and won't let the click take.

It is cool to watch the little guys and gals jumping all over the screen when you hire someone though!

Now if you want to make me happy, create more levels. I went from being stuck at 34 forever, to immediately being stuck at 60 now :(

I have NEVER not gotten any coins or XP points I earned. NEVER, but I sure am having a heck of a time hiring people now that it takes all day to harvest or plow.

You've made some great improvements in the past and I know you're working to fix problems as they occur, but surely the changes to harvesting and plowing today can't possibly be the solution to ANYTHING.
I hired just one person to harvest, surely that person can't collide with himself. Why not just let them hire one person and let them harvest or plow at a normal speed.

I'm sure you'll find an answer to this NEWLY created problem.

Thanks for all your effort.

I do not like the new change at all. I never over hired on my farm and If I went to a farm over hired by someone I would just leave.

I did read the entire post.

This change SUCKS. Who has time to do things like that? Really!? It has made so slow I may as well change to prehistoric internet connection, before dial up even.

So you wanted to fix something, fine, but don't make the change suck ***. Honestly, if this is the way its gonna be, I see lots of people leaving this game.

I've been one of those that noticed missing coins and XP sometimes when working someone else's farm. I can live with that a LOT better than this horrendous slowness of one-at-a-time harvesting/plowing. The gameplay is now atrocious if you hire anyone(takes them forever) or are the poor farmer working for someone else(the coins/XP earned isn't worth the excessive time it takes).

Until today's "upgrade" this was a fun game to play. Now it's a whole ton of "Wait...I am busy" and total slowness. I guess it's great if you are 5 years old and want to see each space harvested or plowed individually and slowly, but c'mon, this is terrible! Losing coins/XP sometimes was much more tolerable than this. Switch it back!

You messed up hte plowing and harvesting, put it back !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

The problem with losing xp and coins was the users problem, for not being patient, not yours. If you want to make this game better, and are concerned with so many people being harvested on one field, then don't allow multiple hiring. The larger icons for the tools just gets in the way, and keeps people from using it correctly. There are more than a few complaints, the net is rampant with the problem. I fear that if the changes are not renegged, and soon, you are going to lose a lot of users, and very much so with me. I am not going to wait six hours to harvest my farm, I will either have it done before a time out or I will delete all of it.

I have layered crops, just tested, still works

haven't checked out the planting over trees yet. I'll go try that now.

I read the pages and understand what Raul is trying to do. But ... there should be a more efficient way to get the plowing done than the New! Improved! way things are going today. I have an old (4 years old!) computer that barely kept up with the plowing and harvesting pre-change. This new "change is for your own good" modification that was done is truly not in my best interest. I do NOT like what's happening.

Raul, thank you very much for explaining the situation. No, Im NOT too pleased with how things changed, but I DO understand the reason behind it. I was not one that lost money and points, but one of my dearest friends DID, and I felt so bad for him. Now, he wont worry about that.

I am also one who does NOT like "slobs" working with me LOL .. and this will avoid that. YAY. I always work in a pattern, methodical rows ... I like to be organized (sometimes too much so LOL) and THIS helps with THAT.

I hope it does get better though in the fact that it wasnt showing when someone else already did the work until AFTER you click .. and therefore got messages stating "already done" after doing a lot of work. that is the next glitch I hope is resolved lol but we shall see.

as for the poster who stated that they dont like how they can no longer layer plant and such? well hun, that was a glitch that we were able to take advantage of, and sometimes, we just need to feel lucky we had the chance to use the glitch when we did lol. it was just a matter of time before they fixed that glitch ... so dont complain that you spent money to take advantage of a glitch ... you took the chance to take advantage of a glitch, and spent your own money on it .. its a chance you chose to take. sorry hun.

Thanks again Raul for all the work you do.

Wait I'm busy
 

I ALWAYS stay in one place and methodically harvest or plow.. I DO NOT go all over the fields. This is a better way to AVOID collision as you put it. Slowing my ability to plow or harvest in order to avoid collision is a moot point for me and therefore a ridiculous adjustment in the game. I can't plow quickly now. I have two farms. I've worked hard to get them and maintain them.. if you don't help me to be able to work hard AND fast as I have been I'll quit this game in a heartbeat. Maybe you are trying to get people to quit so you won't have such a cumbersome game to try to handle?

Your new fix sucks. Major.:mad:

I think Farm Town is now in the running with RollerCoaster Kingdom for most botched FB game right now.

I appreciate the fix. But it has slowed down the harvest and plow far too much. I know I may be asking the impossible, but why does this have to apply when there is only one person hired?

I agree with most of the posts. I do NOT like the new changes. Ive lost lots of xps and coins, but I think I prefer it over this slowliness. I just left a pineapple field, cuz I just couldnt be bothered to work this slowly.
I agree, I also think it would be way better to just limit how many ppl a farmer can hire at one time.
I appreciate all the hard work you developers put into this game though.

I'd MUCH rather lose points than have to put up with the slowness of this new system. Are you trying not to let people get the the next levels or make money? So what if people click a few squares away...those of us who are consistent in harvesting and plowing just ignore those that aren't. Maybe limiting the amount of people who can be hired on each farm at one time would be much more helpful than slowing us all down to less than half of the speed we could move before. Farmville is quicker than this!

Please fix it back to how it was this morning. Keep the majority happy rather than the few who can't keep up and don't know how to play.