New Release -- December 22nd, 2009 - UPDATE 2

[Jilly Moon]

I've only harvested so far, not plowed, but so far I love love love the compromise!!! Worked smoothly, everything adding up & harvesting instantly....very nice.

[Happy Milkmaid]

Its slow slow slow and frustrating! It's also sending weird messages like You need more money...when I'm trying to plow on another farm and it won't plow at all......what's that about??? Also some people still seem to be able to harvest and plow quickly whilst others like myself are getting the Wait I'm busy every time you move along.
Much more of this and it's good bye Farm Town; a great game ruined by constant messing about with it.

[Gangis]

I say thank you all for all your hard work and looking at new ways of doing things. The changes yesterday was quit shocking And i'm glad that the issue was handled in a timely way. Although I do see a problem where my Avatar gets in the way of me clicking on a plot. It would be nice if there was a 3 to 4 plot delay from Avatar to plot being plowed.

Once again.. Thank you all for your hard work.

[Sweetp340]

I just want you to know i love the new way to plow it keeps some that love to hog a job from doing so i would love it if you keep it this way and not change it back.

[courtneycjr]

hate the new way i prefore the old way i never seem to lose any coins or money

its bad enough that it takes for ever to plow and harvest now its just as slow as yesterday

[Kelsey]

Originally Posted by Raul

Hi There,

We closed the other threads related to the latest release to make it easier to collect feedback.

A new version was released an hour ago, it is very similar to the way it was before, and at some times it will be even faster as the avatar is still teletransported when is working on close fields, this may have the effect of the avatar been closer to where the people are working most of the time, which may also contribute to have less collisions.

This version still contains many other improvements targeted to minimize the amount of XP / coins lost, we don't expect it to be as efective as with the latest version, but we still expect improvments on that area, so may be this is a good balance at the end.

Please provide feedback on the new experience.

Thanks

--Raul

SUHWEEEEET!

I finally went on to see this new update for myself.
Hired someone to harvest and she is zooming away.
As I hired her, I was hired to harvest. Wholly fast batman!! I love it!
I was hired with a bunch of other people so did not stick around to try plowing. Hired my hire to plow - cannot see what she is doing. Not losing coins or gaining xp and cannot see any plowed plots though she is running all over the place. (my farm is layered which could be the issue)

But the harvesting .... yeehaw!

[Sapai]

Originally Posted by Raul

Hi There,

We closed the other threads related to the latest release to make it easier to collect feedback.

A new version was released an hour ago, it is very similar to the way it was before, and at some times it will be even faster as the avatar is still teletransported when is working on close fields, this may have the effect of the avatar been closer to where the people are working most of the time, which may also contribute to have less collisions.

This version still contains many other improvements targeted to minimize the amount of XP / coins lost, we don't expect it to be as efective as with the latest version, but we still expect improvments on that area, so may be this is a good balance at the end.

Please provide feedback on the new experience.

Thanks

--Raul

Yes and No. Much improved over the 12/22 disaster. But not as good as pre-release.

I've just worked one job with another player. When my avatar was completing harvest, in between a few last coins (I guess), the message ALREADY DONE was flashing. Same for the plow. I marked many more squares than I received credit for.

Pre-release, we could see the fields that were already done much better. There were some issues with plowed fields not appearing plowed, but when they were clicked and instead of a hash mark, we got a plowed field, we knew it was already done. This way there is no way to tell until the avatar actually encounters a field that was ALREADY DONE?

In my opinion, this is going to cause MORE hard feelings on jobs with more than one hire. I know I have some now because I marked many more fields than I was paid for. So that doesn't seem to really address "lost" XP's. I clicked but received no XP. Instead of "lost XPs", I now just have LOST clicks? How is that better?

This is not the only problem, but so far it is Major. I hope you give this a few days to settle down to get all the feedback and can make corrections accordingly. People are not going to like doing a huge portion of a field only to have their avatar traveling over ALREADY DONEs for long periods of time.

Is there no way you can make the fields update WHEN they are done? In another thread, a fellow programmer made a suggestion on how that might be accomplished, IIRC.

[daddyjake]

The rollback is better than ever. Thank you for making the game even more fun than before. Keep up the good work and listening to your constituency. Have a merry Christmas and a splendid new year

[Wendybird]

Just to say I have tried harvesting and plowing for the first time today and WOW!

My little avatar dudette is jet propelled now ! LOL It takes a bit of getting used to but it is great!

Nice! Loved the ease and speed of this!

Thanks Raul (and Bert of course - btw where is Bert? does he had a December job that involves wearing a red suit and saying Ho Ho Ho? )

Thanks again guys this update is fab!

ps: The harvest icon etc is a tad large though!

[farmer worzel]

Thankyou very much for changing it back. I can now que crops again and harvesting spped had almost doubled

The developers of this game do a great job, they listen to what the players have to say, had this been another game (i'm sure you all know which one), player feedback would have been ignored.