Belt System Updates -- June 2nd, 2011

[max_river]

i do not think they are going to ever make all of us happy. but i not playing to beat anyone i just play to have fun and to relax and meet new friends. I hope they can turn all this around and find a happy medium for all the players

[Oopsy-Bumpty]

Originally Posted by max_river

i do not think they are going to ever make all of us happy. but i not playing to beat anyone i just play to have fun and to relax and meet new friends. I hope they can turn all this around and find a happy medium for all the players

Oh I'm sure they will, they always do in the end.

[Taz D]

Maybe I am dense and just don't understand how people can get so worked up over a game and at that over one item in a game. Instead of threatening to quit because it isn't working right how about offering some constructive criticism or information to help the developers fix what isn't working right. Just stating you are quitting because it isn't working right doesn't help them to fix it so it does work right. Now getting off the soapbox.
My observations are these:
1. The 12 hr/1,000,000 coins is not working for many or there is a misunderstanding on this. We need a detailed explanation from Raul on this to determine whether it is working or not. The key factor here seems to be are the two parts posting bonuses (and receiving the crops) and helping neighbors with bonuses (getting half in return) tied/added together for the 1,000,000? If so then that would explain why it seems to take much longer than 12 hrs to be able to help anyone. IMHO these should not be connected. It should be 1,000,000 for each.
2. The Ingredients Requests should have been left alone. It was working fine and there was no problem with it. The amounts in the requests for this are far less in value because the quantities were lower.

[Oopsy-Bumpty]

Originally Posted by Taz D

Maybe I am dense and just don't understand how people can get so worked up over a game and at that over one item in a game. Instead of threatening to quit because it isn't working right how about offering some constructive criticism or information to help the developers fix what isn't working right. Just stating you are quitting because it isn't working right doesn't help them to fix it so it does work right. Now getting off the soapbox.
My observations are these:
1. The 12 hr/1,000,000 coins is not working for many or there is a misunderstanding on this. We need a detailed explanation from Raul on this to determine whether it is working or not. The key factor here seems to be are the two parts posting bonuses (and receiving the crops) and helping neighbors with bonuses (getting half in return) tied/added together for the 1,000,000? If so then that would explain why it seems to take much longer than 12 hrs to be able to help anyone. IMHO these should not be connected. It should be 1,000,000 for each.
2. The Ingredients Requests should have been left alone. It was working fine and there was no problem with it. The amounts in the requests for this are far less in value because the quantities were lower.

Ditto ditto and ditto.

[Oopsy-Bumpty]

Btw Taz I did ask you earlier, but did you see my suggestion earlier on?

[levarti2]

Originally Posted by capricorn1

Yes, like weighing a mix of strawberries and potatoes and using the oranges price to mark the produce in the grocery bag.

CLEAN AS A WHISTLE.

Imagine, the company you work for, using these methods to compute your overtime and actual paycheck.

ROFL

How convoluted does it have to be? Why?

This is a game. We need simple rules. We play to relax.

We do not want to keep ledgers in order to decide if we will click on a request or a bonus.

We do not want to have a spreadsheet open and keep track of our clicks.

We can do it. Some of us do it at work (using spreadsheets for work related computations - not farmtown clicks ROFL). Some of us use spreadsheets to compute our home expenses. We don't want to use them on our leisure time.

In a game, the game should do it for us.


* Do not mix the value of these goods and the value of those goods.

* State how the time window is established; when it starts; when it ends (INFORM the user; similar to the message that the farmer cannot buy products for x hours)

* State the rules clearly (something that is elusive so far).

* Have the game print the numbers in each category in the messages it is displaying. Give us the pertinent information. (similar to the messages that "you are buying product such and such and paying so much above or below the price ...")

Supposedly the game code computes these variables properly (or someone in farmtown development thinks so) ;

FARMTOWN development,
if the code performs the computations properly, then the fault for our aggravation is in the rules;

If so, then fix the problem by making the rules SIMPLE.

If the code has bugs, then fix the code;

Finally, write 3 lines of code to display the information in the messages.

... what is keeping you?

Yay ... keep it simple. Seems the whole problem with this is that it wasn't explained properly to begin with, then it was tweaked (for the better), but there's too many grey areas with the whole Belt & Dan process.

[kahra01]

Originally Posted by Oopsy-Bumpty

Ditto ditto and ditto.

and further dittos dittos and dittos to Oopsy- Bumpty's dittos to Taz's post lol.. are we all more confused now lmao

[JAS0643]

Originally Posted by Taz D

My observations are these:
1. The 12 hr/1,000,000 coins is not working for many or there is a misunderstanding on this. We need a detailed explanation from Raul on this to determine whether it is working or not. The key factor here seems to be are the two parts posting bonuses (and receiving the crops) and helping neighbors with bonuses (getting half in return) tied/added together for the 1,000,000? If so then that would explain why it seems to take much longer than 12 hrs to be able to help anyone. IMHO these should not be connected. It should be 1,000,000 for each.
2. The Ingredients Requests should have been left alone. It was working fine and there was no problem with it. The amounts in the requests for this are far less in value because the quantities were lower.

The bonuses work the same way the ingredients work. If you click on someone's post or you post one of your own all ingredients you receive count towards the coin limit. It is the same with bonuses you get 1,000,000 coins total it does not matter if you post your own post or click on other people's post it is a total of 1,000,000 coins. It was that way with the 250,000 coin limit. I can't tell you how many times I would click on an ingredient post knowing I wouldn't get anything because I had reached my coin limit but I was hoping that the person who posted would get their share. The problem with the coin limit is the amount of crops you get from someone clicking on your post is so high for some of the belts that one click gets you to 750,000 coins so when the next person clicks on your post you only get 1/3 of the bonus and then you are locked out for 12 hours from the time the first person clicked on your post. When you click on a post the game will go back the last 12 hours and add up what you have collected in bonuses be it people clicking on your post or you clicking on their post. If that amount is less then 1,000,000 you will receive some of that crop getting you up to 1,000,000 or the full amount of the bonus if that would put you under the 1,000,000 coin limit. I think where people are confused is by it taking into account the crops you receive from clicking on someone else's post and that it is not 12 hours since you posted but what you have received in the last 12 hours.

[Deanna J. Lloyd]

Originally Posted by ridgie247

The word chance imho means that you may or may not get the extra box, but the odds of getting one has now increased to a 72% chance of getting one for the top level black belt.

Having harvested my flowers my chance to get the extra boxes worked. I "nerdily" know how many flowers I have on my farms. It was nice to see for this week I don't have to plant another rose to max out my flower shop for a day and have a small surplus. it doesn't hurt to have the belts, it will never take away crops but sometimes it may give you a nice surplus.

Someone mentioned the counter for receiving a new belt was based on one non-fertilized field, while we can only guess at this point, the chance could also be based on this since not everyone has the manure spreader.

Thanks for the interpretation, Ridgie. It helps clear my fuzzy understanding of this whole process. Still cloudy, but am hoping at some point Raul will speak and explain this along with all the other fuzzy bits about the belt system -- which seems to be basically the whole system.

I like collecting the bonuses when I reach new belt/dan levels, and I like being able to collect extra product while I help my neighbors out -- but as far as understanding how this whole thing works, well -- I'm mostly in the dark.

Please, devs, work out the kinks and bugs and then give us a clear set of parameters of what we can expect and when! Please?

[Inge Jones]

1 million coins is too low a limit anyway, considering the inflation going on in the game. I can easily make 100million a day just from my factory turnover. Basically to reach that million I only have to help THREE friends with their dan belt bonuses and that's me wiped out for the day. It really limits the interactivity of the game rather than increasing it.