The Big Farm Theory

[kechibam]

Woohoo!! I got a Segway! Down to a few hundred in cash now . Is there a way to earn cash quicker besides raising animals/growing vegetables and selling them after?

[leilani]

I haven't figured out a fast way to make cash other than to raise and sell things. I'm a little disappointed, $3k for a segway and I can't use it anymore. I don't know if something glitched or if it's only good for so long. I'm getting a little irritated with that little meter in the upper right corner that shows you leveling up for collecting goods. I can get to level 5, but when I try to keep going for level 6 I either get a wolf or yeti to fight or it won't do what I'm clicking on and it ends up dropping back down to 1. You shouldn't lose your progress because you have to choose a weapon. I tried not killing the wolves, but that's when it won't do what I'm telling it to do.

[kechibam]

What?!? The Segway goes away? What's the point in getting one then? 3k down the drain just like that? I thought it was a permanent purchase . I saw the "renting" timer for the Segway was going down...so it disappears after? What a bummer!

I've noticed the meter on the upper right corner but never paid much attention to it. It's a multiplier of some sorts, right?

I don't see why we can't have a dog following us around instead of a cat. Why a cat?! Sorry, no much of a cat person .

[leilani]

Not much of a cat person? Oh you may get in trouble for that one. I'm not sure if it's a multiplier bar or if it just keeps track of your collection level. There are a couple of tasks that go with it. I'm trying to get to level 6 on that meter and it's making me very cranky. The poor dog has heard "are you ------- kidding me" so many times in the last couple of days he won't even sit with me. It's probably because that's the same thing I say when he crop dusts us, so I feel kinda bad about it.

[Deleted]

Not a cat person???!?!!? My ears!!! Lol!

[Raven]

Not a cat person!!!!!!! oh myyyy

[kechibam]

Lol! This was suppose to be my sanctuary away from the cat lovers. Looks like there's no place to hide...I still prefer Scooby over Garfield ;D . ruff ruff!

[judyreno]

I had the Segway for a day or two before I figured out how to attach it to my farmer. Go to Edit mode, and click on your farmer. The popup menu will let you attach the Segway. I've not lost mine since I added it. The farmer does dismount to work but zips off on the Segway as soon as he/she moves.

Regarding earning money--once you can make hybrids, you can gain money faster. Also, you can spend gold to speed up growing times for plants and animals. You can also earn money chopping down trees and hacking at rocks.

I see no advantage in keeping an animal past its maturity. It will just get hungry again, costing energy or leaving an arrow over its head to bug you. Sometimes, I leave a mature turkey around, just because it's Thanksgiving season.

JayeGirl, I'm not seeing you on my Friends list. Add me in GameCenter if you like.

[judyreno]

There is a nice site describing the Facebook version of our game

www.jaydax.co.uk/TBFT/index.htm

The author has gone much farther than I have. I was interested in his notes about how to be a good neighbor, both in setting up your own place and what not to do at someone else's.

Leilani will like some of the charts.

[leilani]

Lol Judy, you know how I love my charts.

I am so aggravated with myself. I went to buy 5 turkeys for a challenge and was told I had to buy the turkey house, so I spent the $9k to build it only to notice that I had already started building one elsewhere on my very small farm. I can deal with forgetting things, happens all the time, but the failure to pay attention to detail is irritating. I ended up selling the 2nd one for a whopping $675 and still have to finish the first one. Dumb, dumb, dumb.........

[judyreno]

I've been playing for 1 3/4 hours this morning and have burned through my daily allowance of 500 gold ($25 real)! I used some to complete buildings that called for material in the final step that I knew would take me a long time to obtain. But what really sucked up the gold was using the Speed Up Elixir that I had won somewhere along the way. I chopped through 2 medium forests and 2 large stone plus fed 10 animals in about 6 minutes. This called for lots of energy at 10 gold a clip! Not for the faint-hearted.

As I play, I think of things I want to share here, but fail to make notes. I'll start another post so I can list what I recall with headers for better reference.

[judyreno]

Penalty Goals

Read new goals carefully to see if the material you collect will be "used up" at the end of the task. Read that "taken away from you". The prize for completing the goal may not be worth it. When I first put this together, the goal was to accumulate 15 Powder. I kept using what I accumulated to make Artillery Cucumber Seeds and kept the loss at bay for awhile. Goals you don't complete gradually fall to the end of the list. I'm hoping to let them stay there unless I find I need to finish to advance.

Cost of Buildings

This is going up to the point that it is using all my wood. On the other hand, I'm a couple of levels away from expanding, so it's not a big deal now. There is a hidden cost in that the buildings take up space. I'm no longer able to plant the largest forest.

I am building the smaller animal houses now, as the cost of the larger ones in gold and space is not worth it. Also, who can afford to feed more than 5 animals of a type?

Neighbor Help

I'm trying 2 new things: Leaving Strawberries for you to harvest if you need to harvest neighbors' crops. You can always harvest more at Nicolas's farm. I am working at leaving stones on your farms with 1 strike left, so you can get credit for removing the stone. Let me know if this seems valuable to you.

Feeding the Cat

The cat in the Facebook version seems to be involved in collecting, but I don't see that in our game. While he is hungry, you can ask for help multiple times from the same friends. (I learned this from you). Do this so you can accumulate more for the next day. Even at my advanced rate of playing, I don't "find" enough sour cream in one day to feed him.

Hybrid Animals

These earn the most money and as far as I can tell, do not need a supporting animal house. I haven't run out of support for turkeys plus Disco-Turkeys. Then, again, I'm not sure I've ever had more than 20 turkeys at once.

Manufacturing Weapons

Since I don't find much else worth creating in the Workshop, I have been able to keep up with monster needs by creating more weapons at the regular rate of speed. I usually go create more materials if I am short. Exceptions are Green Paint and Neon which I sometimes buy. I haven't paid for any weapons in awhile.

Monsters

These are appearing more frequently, especially as I clear a forest. I can usually tell which one it is by sound if I can't see it. I sometimes mistake Yeti for Wolf. You can kill a monster with a higher level weapon. I keep an eye on the weapon level before I choose the weapon to use.

A grouse is that whatever chops I've clicked ahead on disappear when a monster has to be dealt with.

[leilani]

Judy, when do you get the workshop? I've looked in the store, but I can't see it in there and if it's something I already have I can't figure out how to use it. Also, do you get more land at some level or do you have to pay to expand?

[judyreno]

Leilani, The Workshop is one of the tabs in your Lab. I think I have a Workshop building which must have come as the result of a quest. Can't believe I've forgotten already!

Expanding comes when you have completed enough tasks or gained the right level. You won't miss it, as you will get a series of tasks to help you through.

[leilani]

Found it, thank you. It seems I have to do something first because when I tap it nothing happens.

[judyreno]

Nicolas Smith

You get 5 free activities to do a day. If you don't have a quest to satisfy, try harvesting his hybrid veggies to the far right and up a bit. You will get interesting materials and some food.

Leilani, I added a response about expanding to my previous post.

[judyreno]

Muddling along

For several hours, I have been playing without the the use of gold, since I have used up my self-set quota for today. It's hard to keep up with the animals, but I am doing pretty well in the lab. I have many ways to go there now, and am starting to ignore the quests more and go for what I want.

[judyreno]

That cat..

When I got enough sour cream and activated him, I magically got 30 energy! I would not have noticed if I had been playing my usual way.

[leilani]

Thanks Judy. I'm glad I will be able to expand without buying gold. I'm still not convinced that I'm going to stick with this game, so I don't want to spend any money. Not to mention, I don't really like that you have to click buy and go to the app store in order to find out how much each bundle costs. I know it's probably the same as all the other games of this type, but they really should put it in the description so you can see it without clicking buy.

Ok one more question for the day. When I go into the lab to study seeds of cream tomatoes under the requirements needed to research on the far right is something that looks like a little chair. What is that? I'm sure I'll feel dumb once someone tells me, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is and I need 2 of them.

[judyreno]

Leilani, The chair has to do with the Decor level. The way to advance is to buy items from the store or make them in the Decor area of the Laboratory.

Here is a chart I made with Numbers. For the life of me, I couldn't get the decimals to round to 3, so I did it manually once pasted in.

Gold Cost Unit cost
Units
15 $0.99 0.066
50 $2.99 0.060
165 $9.99 0.061
365 $19.99 0.055
1000 $49.99 0.050
2350 $99.99 0.042