New Release -- October 15th, 2011

[Raul]

See Known Issues and Post Release Changes at the end of this post. Last changes released at Oct 28, 12:10AM EST.

Hi There,

We just released a new version of the game with the following features and bug fixes:

1. Halloween Items (coins): Most items were released a few days ago. Today we released a new Halloween Gate.

2. Workbenches (FC): This tool allows you to Start All productions for a product with one click on any facility that uses workbenches: Sewing Mill, Knitting and Knotting Factory, Shoe Factory, Jewelry Factory, Cookware Factory, Furniture Factory, Sawmill, Toy Factory and Musical Instruments Factory.

3. Join and get Joined by other online farmers: When you click a neighbour picture in the Neighbour Bar at the bottom of the game (or the double-green-man in the Buddy Window which replaced the green circle) you will see 2 new menu options:

a) Join 'User': Sends a message to 'User' asking for its permission, if user accepts, you will navigate to where that user is located.

b) Ask 'User' to Join You: Sends a message to 'User' asking if he/she wants to Join You. If user accepts he/she will navigate to where you are located.

These options work in every place, you or the other user can be anywhere, including farms, marketplace, realtor or inn.

Notice the online status (The double-green-man) in the Buddy Window is pretty accurate but the online status in the Neighbour Bar (green circle) is not, it's only updated when the game loads and on some specific occasions during the game. So if you are sure a user is online you can still send that user a Join Request even if he/she appears offline in the neighbour bar (without the green circle).

4. Item Storage Slots Increased by 50%: For each neighbour you have you now get 15 slots instead of 10 in your item storage.

5. Orange Mobile Sprinkler (FC): If you already own the Red Sprinkler you can buy this Orange Sprinkler to double the growing speed of your flowers, trees and crops at the same time. This tool will replace your Red Sprinkler.

6. Market and Facility Window Performance Improvements: The Market and Facility Windows should now open immediately even if you have lot of different types of products and facilities in them. Scrolling and Selling Products in the Market is also much faster now.

7. Facility Improvements: Tomato Sauce and Ketchup now require half the amount of tomatoes as before. The Mixer tool can now be used in the Pool Bar. The Packaging Machine can now be used in the Natural Remedy Shop.

8. Mobile Utility Carts (FC): This tool allows you to Start All productions for a product with one click on any facility that uses mobile utility carts: Sports Accessories Factory, Flower Shop, Office-School Supply Factory, Home Supply Factory, Farming Tools Factory, Gardening Tools Factory, Fishing Accesories Factory, Animal Accesories Factory and Medical Supplies Factory.

9. More value to facility tools by selecting what to start: If you own any of the 10 facility tools, you will now see checkboxes in the top left corner of each product. When you click the Start All button in the top right only selected products will be started. This works the same way in the Facility Manager. By default all products are selected which is the same behavior as before.

10. Gifting System Improvements: The gifting/invite system now use the new invite/friend selector windows provided by Facebook. Most of the time when sending gifts it will be a 2 step process instead of 3, first pick the gift then pick the friends and send the gift in the same window.

But The most important enhancement is that now there is a new 'My Requests' tab to the right of the 'Play' tab which includes a counter with the amount of Farmtown requests (gifts, neighbour requests, etc) you have pending in facebook. There you will be able to accept those requests, exchange gifts and send gifts back all within the same page.

This only works for new gifts and requests, you have to continue using the old method for the old gifts you already had in facebook.

Also, if you prefer, you can continue using the old method to accept the new requests, but the new flow is much faster.

11. Belts for Fish (coming early next week): Earn belts for each type of fish so you can increase your chances of getting more fish with each catch.

12. Minigames: We have moved the old trophy icon to the extended tool box and we placed in its place a white dice icon for you to play farmtown minigames. They will be all very simple farm-related minigames that you can play alone or in multiplayer mode with other users in your farm.

At some point you will be able to earn farmtown coins, ingredients and more while playing those minigames.

The First minigame is named 'Round Ups'. The multiplayer support will be added in a few days.

13. New Okra Crop: Used in the 2 new restaurants

14. Vegetarian Restaurant (Coins): Produces Vegetarian Food. You can produce Tofu in the Food Preserve Factory.

Grilled Mushrooms
Mushroom-Lentils Burger
High Protein Salad
Steamed Vegetables
Tropical Fruit Salad
Ratatouille
Chocolate Mousse

15. BBQ Restaurant (FC): Produces BBQ Food. You can produce BBQ Sauce in the Smokehouse.

Corn on the Cob
Corn Dog
Fried Okra
Pulled Pork Sandwich
Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
Beef Brisket and Slaw
Back Ribs and Beans
Fried Catfish and Slaw

16. Fishing Tackle Shop (Coins): This is a Service Facility that can be stocked with the products below:

Seawater Bait
Freshwater Bait
Rubber Boots
Hook Set
Creel
Chair
Float
Lobster Trap
Lure
Gaff
Fly Rod

17. Mini Mall (FC): This is a Service Facility that can be stocked with the products below:

Sneakers
Clogs
Dress Shoes
High Heels
Rabbit Fur Slippers
Body Wash
EAU de Toilette
Cologne
EAU de Parfum
Perfume
T-Shirt
Shirt
Overall
Tie Set

18. Bug Fixes:

- The Waste time for Crops and Flowers is now calculated correctly
- When moving frozen flowers they don't show up fully grown anymore
- X25 errors minimized considerably when moving animals to and from their buildings
- Sometimes when placing animals on farm too quickly some of them would end up in the same position in the farm one behind the other, in those cases, if Later on you move any of those animals to another place in the farm or to the storage, some of the animals were lost. This is now fixed.

Farm 12 and new levels coming on the next release.

(All manufacturing facilities are now covered by tools)

Thanks

--Raul

Post Release Fixes - Oct 18, 6:20PM EST:

-When you are sending gifts to friends there is a new tab at the end named 'Facebook Friend Lists'. In that section the friend selector dropdown will show you all your friend lists so you can easily filter your friends. Also, we will automatically add 2 lists at the end named 'My Helpers' and 'My Neighbours'. My Helpers will contain all the friends that help you or work for you regularly, these are the same friends that appear at the very bottom of the game, this way it's easy for you to reward them.

-Exchanging a gift for an animal gift was having issues in the Chrome browser, this is now fixed

- Checkbox selections in the market and facility windows for items like Bucket & Hose, Milking Station, Rhubarb Pie, etc now works as expected, their state is now maintained

- All animals can now be added again to their buildings

- In the Buddy windows you will see now the double-green-man when a user is online, clicking on that icon will gives you options to join that user

- MySpace send gift page is now fixed

Post Release Fixes - Oct 21, 4:30PM EST:

-FIXED: When you accept a gift from facebook you land in the old gift confirmation page, if on that page you send a gift back to a friend then that gift will not appear on the 'My Request' page

-FIXED: Scrolling issues in Facility Manager

-Mouse over info tooltip in facility products now showing again

-Bait can now be loaded into the Fishing Tackle Shop

-The filter options when you send gifts to friends have changed, now you will have:

All Friends: When the friend selector window shows up, you can use these filters inside the window: All Friends, Farmtown Players and Friends to Invite.

Farmtown Farmer Lists: When the friend selector window shows up, you can use these filters inside the window: My Neighbours and Farmers Helping Me (this last filter are the same users appearing at the very bottom of the game).

Facebook Friend Lists: Due to a facebook limitation we had to provide an alternative solution for you to use all your facebook friend lists. When you click this option a drop down will appear with all your facebook friend lists, when you select your desired list the friend selector window will show up.

Post Release Fixes - Oct 26, 11:10PM EST:

-When you worked at your neighbour's Fishing Tackle Shop you were getting the baits into your storage and this was causing issues when loading your own fishing tackle shops with baits, from now on, all baits will always end up in their corresponding bait counters, not in the storage. To check for available baits just mouse over as usual over water items in your farm.

-Accessing the checkbox in facility products to make selections was very difficult in some instances, this is now corrected.

Post Release Fixes - Oct 28, 12:10AM EST:

Practice mode of the Round Ups minigame is live. Multiplayer support will be added in 1 - 2 weeks.

Known Issues - Oct 21, 4:30PM EST:

None related to latest release

[blue nile]

Thank you!! I love updates!! Looking forward to the weekend now lol.

[al_bundy]

Fantastic Thanks Raul

[Harvest Moon]

excellent update..they are always worth the wait..thanks heaps to ALL the team

[charlies4ng3ls]

The Improvement on the Facility Manager Rocks!!!!! Awesome thank you x

[catherinesfarm]

Really happy we can select what to Start in the facilities, thanks for that.

Looking forward to the games.

[suemack]

Thanks guys!! Going to be fun exploring all the new stuff

[val913]

thank you as always , love the game but always great to have new things

[jcassemjr]

Thanks for the update. I'm excited that we have a new crop. The mini games were suggested in the forums. Thanks for listening! I hope they add a little excitement to the game, and attract some players back.

With the new "Orange Sprinkler" does it work like the red sprinkler, or are we able to use it every time we plant? The description was a little vague.

On the fish belts, are the fish we are catching now, and the belts we already earned counting toward the "coming early next week"? Or are we getting reset?

[holla]

Thanks Raul and the team, You Guys are AlwayS TOP NOTCH!!