What are Neighbours and Buddies for?
Neighbours can help you with features in the game, like gifting, requirements to buy your 3rd farm, Refuelling criteria, Item Storage capacity, some types of quests, trains, ships, facility chains and other features of the game.
Buddies on the Website are far more important and useful now, than they used to be. They can't help you with every feature in the game where only neighbours can help with, but Buddies are very useful to help you with things like gifts, working your facilities, sending ingredients and bonuses to mention a few.
The old Buddy list has Changed to be your Farmer Lists.
This new method will help you make new Neighbour/Buddy connections and meet up with Neighbours, Buddies as well as adding a connection to any Facebook friends you had prior to the game leaving Facebook.
There are icons you will need to know about to be able to use them.
We will explain how to use these icons to add/remove neighbours, buddies, current Facebook friends with no connection you in game yet, and also how change neighbours to buddies, and the other way around!!
These are the versions of the Farmer Lists Icon.
You may see the one on the left (brown background) in your game bar at the bottom of the game screen when you first start playing.
If you don't see it there, click on the Yellow Toolbox then look for the one with a grey background at the bottom of the the far left column.
The Farmers List icon also shows at the top of the game screen next to the message envelope.
When you have any requests your Farmer Lists Icon will have a number showing on it. The Toolbox will also have a number, but remember that the Toolbox icon numbers can also mean ships at your port and trains for you to boost.
Why has the method to add remove neighbours and buddies changed?
The Older type of Facebook friends list was used in FarmTown on Facebook for features like:
- sending gifts,
- sending train boosts
- posting & working facilities
- ingredients and bonuses.
Now that Farm Town is no longer on Facebook the Website no longer has access to know who your Facebook friends are, their names and profile pictures or when you or your friends on Facebook may change them.
Farm Town can ONLY use the Neighbours and Buddies you have on your Farmer Lists, to help you with many features of the game.
The Neighbour capacity has already been expanded by 33% and the Buddy Capacity expanded 3 times to give you more farmers to help.
It is important to know the Differences between Neighbours and Buddies and how they will help you.
Neighbours and Buddies can be a one one way connection or a mutual connection.
A mutual Neighbour connection, means that you can see a specific friend in your own Neighbours bar at the bottom of the game screen AND that specific friend can see you in their own Neighbours bar at the bottom of the game screen.
A mutual Buddy connection means you have a specific friend in your own Buddy List and that specific friend can also see you in their own Buddy List.
One way connections are still very useful for helping other farmers that may be starting to play and for you to work out who will, won't or can't yet participate in all of the possible features in Farm Town. Having Buddies also gives you far more farmers to help you with things like facility work, gifts, ingredients, bonuses. Should a Neighbour stop playing or participating in a feature it will then be much easier to swap them for a current Buddy that is participating/playing regularly.
Examples of a one way Neighbour connection:
- You can see a specific friend in your Neighbours bar at the bottom of the game screen. This means you have that friend as one of your Neighbours.
BUT that specific friend can not see you in their own Neighbours bar at the bottom of the game screen. This means that specific friend does not have you as one of their own Neighbours. You may be one of their Buddies instead of being a Neighbour.
- A specific friend can see you in their Neighbours bar at the bottom of the game screen. This means your friend has you as one of their Neighbours.
BUT you can NOT see that specific friend in your own Neighbours bar at the bottom of the game screen. This means that you do not have them as one of your own own Neighbours. They may be one of your Buddies instead of being a Neighbour.
These one way connections can also apply to Buddies!!!!
You do not need to have a friend as both a Neighbour and a Buddy. That would just use more of your capacity limits which is the least effective way to maximise the amount of farmers that can help you and who you can help. That extra capacity could be used to connect with someone else that isn't already one of your Neighbours or one of your Buddies.
If a current neighbour sends you a Buddy Request, you can still accept it so that they have a connection with you, but you do not need to add them as a Buddy as well as you already have them as your Neighbour.
Remember, that some features of the game you may want help with, can only be done with Neighbours.
It will be up to you to decide who can help you with what you like to do in the game to know who to put on which list.
Those that are not a Neighbour or Buddy and you are not trying to hire at market so that they earn a bonus chest, you need to make a connection with in game with so they can help you with other features like working facilities, sending gifts/ingredients/bonuses, ships, trains and any other features you like to participate in.
You can also add non-Facebook friends as Neighbours or Buddies on the Website. Some farmers prefer not to have a Facebook account.
The examples below show who can and can't work facilities:- For other farmers to work YOUR facilities, after you post them.
ONLY the farmers that have you as a Neighbour OR Buddy will see your posts.
(THEY can see YOU in the Neighbours bar at the bottom of their game screen
OR THEY can see YOU in their Buddy List)
- For YOU to work other farmers facilities, after they post them.
YOU will see ONLY the posts from farmers that YOU have as a Neighbour OR Buddy.
(YOU can see them in the Neighbours bar at the bottom of YOUR game screen
OR YOU can see them in YOUR own Buddy List)
No connection within Farm Town on the website means that they are NOT ANY of these:
- Not one of your Neighbours
- Not one of your Buddies
- You are not one of their Neighbours
- You are not one of their Buddies
Which means that any new Facebook friends or any new Website friends without a connection to you as a Neighbour or Buddy:
- can NOT work your facilities as they won't be able to see them
- you WON'T see their facility posts to be able to work them
- you CAN'T send train boosts to them as they won't be shown as part of the neighbour or buddy lists
- they CAN'T send you train boosts as you won't be shown as part of their neighbour or Buddy lists.
- You won't be able to help them with ingredients or bonus posts, send them gifts. They will not be able to help you with your own ingredients or bonus posts and they won't be able to send you gifts.
This lack of a connection can also affect other features within the game that requires it.
You can have roughly up to 500 farming friends which will be a combination of Neighbours and Buddies.
To maximize the amount of farmers you interact with it's better not to add the same farmer as both a Neighbour and also as a Buddy.Keeping different farmers on the Buddy List than you have as your Neighbour gives you more farmers that can help you.
The Buddy capacity is larger than the Neighbour capacity.
A fine balance has to be maintained within the game that doesn't adversely impact all the other features of the game which may require only neighbours to help, which is why the Neighbour limit is a smaller amount.
There is information within the Farmers Lists that can help to you know what your capacity limit is for each type of List and shows many Neighbours and Buddies you currently have.
More Information on Neighbour/Buddy connections:- Ships - when the Neighbour connection is only at their end you can still receive their Ships if they have you as a Neighbour.
You can not put them on your own Logbook until they are one of your Neighbours.
- Trains - when the connection is only at their end you can still receive their Train boosts and Boost them.
You can NOT send them a Train boost until they are one of your Neighbours OR one of your Buddies.
- Bonus Chest - Currently Neighbours and Buddies don't earn the Bonus Chest when hired at market which gives additional rewards for hiring a stranger (extra box) and being hired by a stranger at the Job Marketplace.
UPDATE 19 OCT 2023: There is now a new indication when clicking on an avatar and in a received job request that shows you when a farmer is one of your Neighbours or one of your Buddies. Those will also show up in other areas of the game like when you work facilities for others.
- Neighbours can only see your super facility trading buckets in the Sell Super Facility Products to Neighbours section.
- In the NCC you can send Thanks to Neighbours and Buddies.
- You can ONLY use Neighbours to BOTH Import and Export from in the Facility Chains
If someone has a you as one of their Neighbours, but you do NOT have them as your Neighbour. You can Import from them, but you can NOT Export to them until they are also on your Neighbour list.