New Release -- December 22nd, 2009 - UPDATE

[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.

[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.

[becca's digs]

I fully concur with sassy kathy. she couldn't have said it any more eloquently. new harvest+plow=bad, hiring up to farmer, you can get stuck with some real slooughs that way, though i usually use my buddy list.
thank you for a great game, and thank you for heaaring us. look forward to getting on later (as of right now it's the same) and finding it back to it's previous state.

thank you very much and happy holidays!!

[ms cindy]

Just adding my little opinion here. I dont have a problem with the new updates, and i had no problems before the updates. Whichever version becomes the final outcome is fine with me. However, please please please, DO NOT limit the amount of players one can hire to work a farm. That would drasticly change the dynamics of the game. The social aspect is what makes it fun to play, and what distinguishes it from other games.
I fully trust the developers to make wise choices over the next couple of days

[scarecrow moe™]

Originally Posted by 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

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.

[ribvalred]

Originally Posted by scarecrow moe™

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.

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!

[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.

[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.

[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