New Release -- December 22nd, 2009 - UPDATE 3

[katgmeyers]

Since the latest update I have been having problems loading my farm. It is taking a very long time to load and then the ponds are going through 3 "retry's" and then still not showing on my farm.

Also, when working for others I keep getting an error message and have to reload the game, which then takes me back to my own farm. I have started sending the person who hired me a message in the hopes that I am able to get back tothe farm before it is completed by other workers.

I enjoy the game a lot, but these problems lately are a real headache!

[lVladDrag0n]

Originally Posted by Raul

Hi There,

A new version was released an hour ago, we are working around the clock to try to improve the current version by fixing the most common problems our users are experiencing.

1. There should be a lot less "already-done" messages, on most cases you will never see them during a full hire session

2. When you run out of fuel, you get the feedback immidiately

Please provide any feedback as usual, and thanks for your patience during these latest release.

We are currently working on the slowness of the avatars when working for others.

Thanks

--Raul

Thank you SO much, Raul. All your hard work is appreciated at least on my end.
On server WF23 at least so far for me, the plowing/harvesting issues, while still rather slow, seem to be mostly solved. Plots are NOT being taken by other workers once I have clicked a plot. The server seems to be keeping up better with what is done and what isn't, and I have gotten NO "Already done" messages in about 6 or 7 jobs. During harvest, the progress lines appear right when someone clicks on the plot, so no one else can claim it, and the plowed field or the progress line appears right when someone clicks IT. Well DONE!! NOW, if we can just get the actual job speed back up as the credits for doing each plot is still slow and the avatar, while quite a bit faster now is still a tad slow. All in all.....a very good fix. (At least on WF23) If the others are the same, then you will have a lot happier farmers. If the others I have been working on are still the same as before, then I will post here the server numbers for you to refer to.

Quick update on 01/01/10:
Every server I have logged into have behaved in the manner above. I can only assume that this is getting around to the hundreds in service for the game. VERY nicely done, dev team! (WF2, 1, 43, 20 that I can remember. I'm still making the rounds of servers every time I refresh or log in.)

[The Spicy Pickle]

Agreed with Mad Dragon.....

The slow is really slow on my plowing tho.

[Oregon Grandma]

After reading the string here I realize that it is most likely not me or my computer, my problem with the slow processing and having my Avatar stuck for several mins at the end of a job didn't start until the update that added the new levels.

I love Farm Town, just added my second farm but am getting extremely frustrated with not being able to effectively work on anyone else's farm.

I have cleared my cache and even removed many of the animals from my farm but it makes no difference.

Is there anything else that I can do, or is this a Farm Town problem.
Is there a fix in site.
Addicted Oregon Grandma Farmer

[VousDeux]

I was hired to plow for someone today while at the same time someone else was harvesting. After a couple of minutes, while both I and the harvester were still working, the farm owner started seeding too. A few minutes later I observed as my XP counter was going +1, -1, +1, -1...to the net effect of zero. Additionally, I was seeing my coin counter going down with -15 and -40 flashing up on the screen. What appeared to be happening is that as I was being paid for my plow work, I was also paying for not only the plowing, but the crop that was being planted...and it wasn't even my farm! I was just hired to plow. Not only did I not gain any XP, but I paid for the work and the seeds for the farm owner. Nice deal...for HIM!

[meinhardt76]

I just had my first timed out today with the connection was doing great till now thanks for all u do to make this game better.

Sarah Meinhardt

[SunnyD]

what effects has the new release had on layered farms?? Any one know???

[Kelsey]

Originally Posted by SleepyHallow

what effects has the new release had on layered farms?? Any one know???

I layered a farm this morning with no problems. Planting was actually quicker for me than it has been lately. I layered at ... somewhere between 6 and 8am MST. Have no layered farms ready so cannot attest to the harvesting/plowing yet.

[JAS0643]

Originally Posted by farmergaylord

I've been begging for a roll back to pre 12/22 in various threads for at least a week now. My problem was/is I suggested the developers add whatever code needed for the old release so that it limits the number of HIRED HELP (not visitors) to one person per harvest/plow session. Seems a lotta folks here don't want to TEMPORARILY be limited to ONE hired hand even for the amount of time it takes to fix the problem. I dunno why.)

I truly do appreciate the hard work the devs do, but at some point it's gotta become prudent for them to stop releasing updates to the 12/22 version which was a mess, and is getting messier with each update. I suggest they revert back to the older version, and start recoding from there. While the pre 12/22 release was not perfect ... It worked better than every version I've seen since.

Originally Posted by farmergaylord

I think you're confused. The problem isn't/wasn't "others" being charged for a farm you plowed, it was YOU being charged (instead of being credited for) plowing the farm.

Anyway, glad you are not experiencing as many time-outs. :-)

And a Happy, HEALTHY New Year to you, and everyone else reading this as well.

Yes there was a problem with the fix they put into place last night but it has since been fixed. I was just working at a farm that had plowing going on by others and I was not charged for the plowing other where doing so it looks like that has been fixed. Also the fix seems to me any way to fix the problem of people not getting coins and xps now since the fields they click on are queued until they walk over to them instead of disappearing like before.

Originally Posted by farmergaylord

Yup. It's either in the game code, or as others have suggested, it's a server issue in that the servers can't keep up with, or properly track, multiple workers.

Which is WHY I've been BEGGING for the developers to TEMPORARILY limit hires to one person per harvest/plow session until they can figure out what the problem is. But hey? What do I know, right? Well I know THIS:

If I only hire one worker at a time, there's never a problem with workers getting properly credited for coins/xps on either of my farms.

By the way? I'm level 60 and have 2 farms, both maxed out real estate wise.

I'm not a developer or a mod but I do help out a lot in the help section and I have been watching all the post on not getting coins and xps and although it is several people that is having the problem it seems to be 2 types of people having this problem they are:

1. The ones that would just lose a few coins or xps when working close to others
2. The ones that would not get any coins or xps when working for others.

For the first group although it can be frustrating it was not that big a deal because it was just a few fields here and there and you know or at least I did that it was just a glitch in the game a lag of not seeing what was done by others while the game loaded for you.

Now the second group is a different story there where some that would be working on a farm and not get one coin or xp for the work they had done it was not a case of the above. Now this problem in my opinion is server based and not game wide. For that reason it would not help the developers to limit the hiring to just one person they need to know what servers have this problem so they can look into which servers need to be fixed. FYI there are over 300 servers so it is not easy hunting down servers that are having problems that is why most official threads will ask what server you where on because it is information they need to know.

[Capt. Conor]

I love it thanks raul, i like all the time you are putting into this game and all the other developers are.

Thanks again and it is a great new way