Discussions about Layering
 

This thread is strictly for your feedback on layering.

The instructions for using the Freestyle Farm Designers will be allowed. Examples:

• overlapping of waters on water, or moving them off the edges of a farm
• or overlapping facilities on facilities, or moving them off the edges of a farm
• moving buildings and decorations closer together

You may discuss other types of layering BUT you must not post any type of instruction on how to do those.

Instructions on layering or staggering crops, trees, flowers or placing of anything on top of those are not permitted to be posted on the forum by anyone so please do not ask for help with those. Those will be removed by a moderator.

Feedback on Layering of Crops
 

On Feb 21, the devs posted a poll in the feedback section of this forum. The poll asked players if they layered, stacked, did both, or did neither when they planted crops. After noticing the poll, I attempted to vote, but was not able to. I messaged the mods and was told that I should have been able to do so. (I was signed in to the forum.) While I discussed this issue with Taz and Marymarcel, there were 129 votes posted on 2/26/16. Currently, there are 131 votes posted, and I still cannot vote, and the thread is closed. ?

Hi ckpeer,
The poll has been close so no one can vote now. The developers got the information they wanted to see which was the percentage breakdown of layering vs stack/staggered vs none. Over the course of a week the poll stayed consistent for the percentages. I am sorry you didn't get to vote.

Is there a trick to harvesting farms that use layers? It takes me forever to harvest. I'm new here and was wondering if maybe there is a quicker way to harvest layers that I am unaware of. I never know if I am getting everything done.

anyone else have this issue
 

with doing work on farms where the crops are stacked layered? where it takes ages...I did some work on layered farm but it was so slow..I went to write the farmer a note to say I could not finish but FT refreshed

Some things you can do: Hide everything, only have crops ticked, as the more things the game has to load, the longer it takes and if you don't have a top of the range computer and good internet etc. you may run into difficulties. In Preferences have checked that the Eye toggles between Hidden and On, not on dimmed. Do a section, then keeping the tool you are using in hand, refresh that farm using the green diamond .. don't refresh the game.. and click on save as you work. Also sending a message to the farmer before you start work is a good practice if you think you may get booted.

have a reasonably fast computer and on fibre..eye is on hidden..I do this when I am doing any work.

99% of the time I end up leaving the farm anyway...it seems to be only layered farms..managed to finish 13 or so farms on another farm no worries at all (no layered crops)

I deal with lag all the time. I have discovered that if I hide all the things you're now doing at that moment - even facilities and decorations - it helps with the lag. Less stuff to load up. If the job requires you to go from say crops to trees - just hide the crops and show the trees.

Yes, keep the Eye closed when harvesting layered (stacked) farms. That will definitely help keep the screen clear of visual clutter when harvesting. The Eye can, however, be toggled back and forth to aid with difficult harvests. Most laptops and many older desktops/towers may be slow to respond when processing 30X30 and above layered/stacked farm data, and especially the very large farms. I personally have 2 older laptops and a newer tower (with a very fast CPU), and 300Mbps internet connection (which I actually do not ever attain on any device). The tower is by far faster to use, though, and I also have large capacity tools and combine. I usually do not notice any extreme slowness when using the tower, except on an occasion once when I was harvesting a 40X40 layered farm.

Crops missing
 

Why is there suddenly a problem with people layering their farms? I have layered my crops since 2009/10. What did FarmTown do to the tools that changed the number of crops I've been planting/harvesting/plowing?
I have been putting the number of crops for each farm so I know how many I have. Suddenly, since the last update, the number of my crops has completely been reduced by 75%...

Hi knolan,
To the best of my knowledge nothing has been changed with the tools. Since creating layering is not supported by the developers and can eventually cause problems then you are on your own about this as we are not allowed to help with any instructions.

Regardless of whether or not the company supports layering, that's the way most of us have been playing since your game first began. You can't get any more loyal than me & the others that have spent thousands of dollars & millions of hours on the game. It's not just a coincidence that so many people are having the same problem at the same time.

Hi knolan,
You can believe what you want, but the developers have not changed anything with the tools. The problem with layering is it eventually causes problems such as missing plots, trees or flowers. I am sorry, but there is nothing we can do to help with this.

You have copied & pasted the same message with others, which indicates to me that you have anticipated this happening. I would recommend that whatever the developers have done to create this problem, should reverse it, so that we can all continue playing as we have done, without a loss. A company can't maintain a high level of player spending all of the time. So, if they were trying to find a way for a player to cut back on something in order to increase buying, this is not the way to do it.

Hi knolan,
We copy and paste the same message to others because that is the fix when they have a problem. I am moving all of these posts to the General Feedback as you do not seem to havea specific issue.

I have been playing FT almost since the beginning. Since layering seems so be ok for us to do now, considering there are tools to help layer. I was a good soldier and never layered because I thought it was not a fair thing to do. Now I would like to know how since those that do have a leg up on the games. Is there someplace I can find out how to layer or stack?

Hi lndknyn,
I am sorry, but even though layering has been let to go on the developers still do not support setting it up and will not allow instructions for layering to be given in the forums. They have provided tools only for working layered fields and not for setting them up.

Ok, Taz, I got the message but hardly seems fair to me. Those who do it illegally get tools to help them do it illegally?

Hi lndknyn,
Check the Extent tools. There are seeders, harvesters and the combines for working the staggered fields to help those who do the harvesting replowing and seeding. There are no plows for the extent tools that will set it up. These tools were released mainly for those who get hired to do all those layered farms.
Those who set up their farms in staggered fields do not get any tools to help them do this.

Despite all the tips and tricks, I find that harvesting a layered farm is only easier if the layered crops are not all ready at the same time. Otherwise, with my trembling hands and bad eyes, it takes forever even on full screen. I would just appreciate being asked if I will do layered fields before being hired. The answer will be no, I do not.

I was playing Farm Town when layering first started and I remember then it was made quite clear it wasn't supported and that players who layered would be on their own if it all went wrong. Now personally I think the devs should have either put a stop to it or supported it, not sat back and thrown up their hands, but that's always been the situation. Layer at your own risk.

The only way to cut down on or stop people from layering is to cut down on the sometimes ridiculous amounts of crops, flowers, trees, and fish we need for a facility. That isn't going to happen so people are going to continue to layer.

I don't agree--layering started long before we had anything like this number of facs.

Layered farms
 

I noticed my farms have been reduced from 10 layers to only 2 layers. is this what we can expect now? I had 19 50X50 farms with 10 layers that are my primary reason for continuing to play farmtown after 10+ years with thousands of hours and dollars invested.

All good
 

My 9-layer fields are unaffected. Did you have some glitched layers that actually had plots on top of plots?

Low harvest
 

Today was the first day I noticed it. My layered green grapes were on a 50X50 farm and I only harvested 667000 grapes instead of the usual 2,000,000 (approximate). Yesterday everything worked as expected.

I've noticed lower than normal harvests on everything but I think that is because I am having to do the work myself instead of hiring a stranger from the market.

I get quite upset when I read that layering fields and plowing under buildings, trees, etc is a "trick" It may have started out that way, but, devs have provided tools like the purple hand that HELPS and SUPPORTS the "tricks". I also have it on very good authority from a friend who writes code for a living, that the devs can programme the "tricks".
The "tricks" have become so much part of the way we play that devs and moderators should really consider NOT calling them tricks any more, and see them as the integral part of the game they have become, and give them back to us. Soon!

Hi Poppy,
The layering has been an unintended addition to the game. They are still tricks and still cause problems with your farms if you do excessive amounts. For that reason the developers will not allow any instructions or help for that in the forums. The purple and even the green hand will allow you to "stack items yes, but there still has to be at least one clear spot (tree size) to set something down. The #EX tools were made to allow the working of existing layering of crops, but no tool has been made that will layer the crops for you.
How much of the layer is available later as the game is being put back together will depend on how well it works in the new language.

If the Devs completely remove the ability to layer then I will quit the game permanently because without the ability to layer it is impossible to keep my facilities full. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels like this. My only regret is that I have already spent a lot of money on this game

Suddenly, the approximately $600 I have spent on FC doesn't seem so extreme anymore...
That being said, I would be highly disappointed if the devs suddenly killed the ability to have stacked farms. On some of my farms, I have three layers of crops under flowers under trees under lakes and rivers under facilities... my end goal being every farm maxed out in size three layers of crops, a layer of flowers, a layer of trees, multiple layers of fishable water, and facilities out the ying-yang lol It'll take a while to get there, but I will.

layering
 

There are tips n tricks on how to layer trees on top on flowers etc, also plots ontop of plots .Before these tips were found you couldnt do this. its not how the developers indented it to be. They just never fixed the glitches. now since the new switch you just cant do this.

Just to be clear, we do not know what layering will be able to be programmed back into Farm Town yet. The developers want to get all the normal functions added back in first to get the game back to normal function. Then they can work on correcting minor problems and adding what layering they can.

layering is called cheating by the makers of farm town. yes we all do it. i guess you should wait until the game comes back to full operation and see if it still works then.

When they supplied us with tools special for layering it ceased to be cheating.

Hi DeniseDJ :)

Tools allow you to work the layering fields, but they dont allow you to do the layering.

1336382078 Not sure but wife and I both have layered farms with large combine and it works great, faster than before! Get into FT with Google. Google is or browser also.
50X50 farms layered 3 times. 20 of those and 11 36X36 also layered 3 times. I use a desk top and wife uses lap top.

Hi Chet,
It depends on how you have layered. Parts of it will work fine. Some of the heavy layering may not. We don't know how much of the layering works yet and how much the developer can do for the rest of it.

My layered farms work fine. I have notice you can not layer new farms I've tried every laying trick I know and nothing works