NOTE / Spoilers warning: if you understand the limits and don’t want spoilers, it’s best to read this after unlocking all the features on your new land.
In this article, we will explain:
- General concept
- Gameplay reasons for the changes
- Technical considerations
- What’s new
- “Average farm” max limits
- How does buying the first land work?
- What are Farmer Skill Points?
General concept
We developed this expansion based on your most asked features.
Many players wrote us asking for 3 things: more land for crops, an orchard, and a place to âstore the animalsâ (coming soon). And, most importantly, you told us you DON’T want ANOTHER farm. We heard that loud and clear, and we totally get it. An identical second farm would diminish the importance of your beloved farm.
In real life, when you want to grow and expand, you purchase more land. And obviously, your new property looks and is different from your current one, not a clone. And you start the joyous task of figuring how to best utilise this new land and learn its particularities (who the neighbours are, what can be done there, and so on).
We believe we found a simple and natural solution to answer all your requests — more land, and NOT another farm.
After searching long and hard, we found a peaceful and idyllic place, just west of your current farm. The soil is ideal for farming, and the views cannot be beaten. It’s called Bellflower Meadow. The area has protected status, it must be kept as pristine as possible, so industrial activities are not allowed. The only allowed activities are working the few available plots of land, growing plants and exploiting other various resources in a non-invasive way.
When you click to try the new beta expansion, NOTHING HAPPENS right away. Changes and limits will apply only when you buy your first patch of the new land, at any time you wish.
By “moving” the crops and trees that occupy a large portion of your farm to your new property, you will free up lots of space on your farm. This will both improve the game performance, and will add the possibility for each farmer to display their decorating talents, and make each farm unique.
Also, by redistributing some Farmer Skill Points (a way to increase limits in certain areas and decrease them in others), each farmer can develop their own strategy to advance in the game.
In a way, you can say that Bellflower Meadow is an extension of your farmland area, and your farm is the built-up area.
In Bellflower Meadow, you cannot have production animals (except Bees), gear, buildings, or decorations. Only crops, greenhouses and trees. So, your farm will remain the only place to decorate and have animals, etc.
The prices for the new land is, overall, exactly like you paid for the expansion in your farm. But, by unlocking this new land, you will also have more opportunities to earn coins (that you will have to discover).
Overall, when you purchase all the new land parcels, you will have more plots than you have now.
You will have less plots in the beginning, but by purchasing the first 3 – 4 parcels (expansions), you should have about the same number of plots that you have right now.
Gameplay reasons for the changes
Letâs face it: now, most farms look the same – jam packed, without any free space. Even if we have our things in different places, if you zoom out, they look more or less the same.
And, if we wouldnât have the “average farm” max limits, in 30 minutes we would end up filling them back up with stuff — we tried it.
What we aim in the near future is to produce more with less gear, and we will implement solutions for this very soon. Why have 20 Gear on your farm, when you can produce the same with 10? There will be less objects, and your game will run better. This is possible only with these “average farm” max limits.
Not interested in decorating? No worries. The good thing is, your game will run much smoother, because there are less objects in it. And you’ll produce more and advance in the game faster, because there are more opportunities to earn coins.
We know there are no limits for decorations, but so far, from what weâve seen on farmers who decorate their farms, we donât believe most people would fill up the farm with decorations, like they do with other items (because they feel they have to, in order to progress faster).
Technical considerations
First of all, letâs establish what it was never going to be: more land next to your actual farm, and for technical reasons.
There are simply too many objects (in maxed out farms, around 80.000, that the processor has to compute) and the game would get really sluggish if we were to add even more objects. It’s a bad practice we inherited, this was the way things were done a while ago, and it was lazy gameplay design — to just throw stuff there that people will put on their farms, without any connection to the story or sense of place.
As said above, we aim to decrease the number of Gear and produce the same with the ones you have, this being possible only because we have the “average farm” max limits.
What’s new
- more plots and trees overall, if you buy all the new parcels.
- removed the plot / yard limits
- about the same number of gear, animals and production buildings.
- selling will be possible only by train or truck.
- several new ways of earning more coins and advance in the game faster.
“Average farm” max limits
How do we come up with the limits?
We simply made an average of what people have, for each expansion – gear, animals, production buildings, and made that the limit. Except for the plots and trees, because you will basically “move” some of those to your new land.
Why the limits? / Limit benefits
Because, without these limits, you would free up the space, then you would put the same number of things there, and the novelty would wear off in 30 minutes — we tried. And the farm would look exactly the same and would run exactly the same, and you only would have to do more of the identical same thing.
With the “average farm” max limits, we can finally remove the plot / yards limit so you can decorate or rearrange the farm any way you want.
Other benefits of having limits for gear is we can make double-capacity gear, so you can have twice as less gear on your farm, so your game will run a lot smoother.
But I want more animals on my farm!
We have a solution for that too. We totally understand some are animal farmers and others prefer to process their produce in gear only. Each farm strategy is different.
To accomodate for this, we have the Farmer Skill Points. If you want more animals in your farm than the average, you can redistribute the Farmer Skill Points to have more animals or gear, or any way you wish.
And in the future, this specialization might yield really interesting new things to do, in relation to other farmers specialized in other areas. đ
Limits (per expansion)
Average:
- gear
- animals
- production buildings
Lower than the average (until first parcels of land are purchased):
- plots
- trees
Why lower than the average?
Because you will basically move some of your plots to your new farmland, and in the end you will have MORE plots and trees than you have now, plus a ton of space for decorating the farm. And about the same number of gear, animals and production buildings.
Will the limits increase? / How do limits increase?
With every expansion you purchase, your will increase the maximum number of animals, gear and production buildings you can have on your farm. Remember, these limits are based on all players average, so if you usually are within range, you won’t feel any difference at all!
But I donât want more land!
If you donât want this new expansion, then simply donât purchase the new property, and you wonât have the limits. But the plots / yard limit will remain as it is now.
Keep in mind however, that you will be at a disadvantage compared to your fellow farmers purchasing the new land, because they will have more plots and trees, foraging areas and about the same gear as you do now. đ
How does buying the first land work?
When you try to buy the first patch of land in Bellflower Meadow, if you are above the limits for your expansion in your farm, you will be asked to sell whatever Gear, Animal or Tree you want, until the limit is reached. You will be reimbursed the full price from the shop (coins or RC), but only for the items above the limit.
If you are the average for your farm size or below, you wonât have to do anything.
When you buy the land, the limits will be in place, the plots/crops limit will be removed, and you will be able to rearrange your farm any way you want – put your plots north.
Why did you remove selling from Barn?
There are new transport features implemented, and having things vanishing from the barn when selling simply does not fit into the narrative.
What are Farmer Skill Points?
Farmer Skill Points are a way of increasing your “average farm” max limits and redistribute them based on what you prefer to have more of on your farm.
So, if you only want to have chickens and corn, you can take some points from Gear and add them to your Animals.
They are accessible from the XP bar > Stats & Skills > Skill Points.
You can earn a maximum of 10 Farmer Skill Points.
You can also redistribute 5 Farmer Skill Points right from the beginning, even if you haven’t earned any, to accommodate for players who have only chickens or only trees, for example.
Each Farmer Skill Point is either of the following:
- 4 plots
- 2 trees
- 1 animal
- 1 gear & production building
You can earn Farmer Skill Points by filling up the silo in the Skill Points tab with grains.
- completing normal Orders – 1 grain, up to a max of 5 / day.
- selling with the Train – 1 grains, up to a maximum of 5 / day
- being a daily player – each 7th consecutive day with the “Daily Player” badge gives 20 grains
- being a speedy farmer – each day with the Speedy Farmer badge gives 10 points
- donating to charity (Charity Orders to Robert) – 3 grains per order, up to a maximum of 2 orders / day.
To add the grains to the silo, just pull the rope hanging from the bucket đ
Even if you did plenty of the above farming activities, Farmer Skill points are only available in relation to expansion size, at expansions 16, 20, 25, 30 and 35.
So, in order to be able to earn a Farmer Skill point, you will have to expand your current farm until the next expansion where one is available.
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Without further ado, we have the pleasure of finally presenting you with your new adventure: Bellflower Meadow!