New Release -- December 22nd, 2009 - UPDATE 2

[raindrops300]

I am having trouble hiring people as well as my avatar moving very slowly. When I hire they do not go to my farm at the same time I do. They may show up 3-5 minutes later. Sometimes they freeze up when they do arrive. I can't tell what is going on.

[tapelt]

Originally Posted by tdw2

Guys, perhaps you should limit the number of hires to 2 per job, while you sort this out. I personally limit the number working my fields to 2, but many farmers don't seem to realise the problems of hiring too many players at once, how it affects everyone's bandwitdh, and the consequences of already plowed/harvested fields still showing as "ready to......"
Cheers, Terry

I agree totally. I just finished three jobs in a row where I got little or nothing because of this "already done" ****. In each case there was at least a half dozen people working at the same time. I tried to work areas where no one was working, but even when there were dozens of unharvested plots (at least as far as I could tell) between me and the nearest worker I was getting "already done" "already done" "already done" "already done" "already done" "already done" again and again. OK, I go over to this corner of the farm, nope, it's "already done" "already done" "already done" "already done" I'll try another section it's "already done" "already done" "already done" "already done".

I think that FT needs to restrict hiring in the MP to 2 harvesters and 2 plowers. If you want to hire all your neighbors at once, fine. But don't do this in the MP. It is very unfair to us, because we have no idea of how many people you are hiring until we get there and it is simply impossible to avoid "already done" garbage when there are too many workers. It just simply dosen't matter how untouched an area of the farm looks or how remote it is from anyone else. You get "already done" "already done" "already done" for all your efforts.

When hiring for a large field I hire 2 harvesters with 2 plowers behind them. When hiring for a small field I hire 1 harvester and 1 plower. This is what we need to do until this problem is fixed, and until then I would like FT to make an absolute cap on hiring in the MP to 2 harvesters and 2 plowers. This would be a quick and easy way to allieviate the misery until a real solution is found.

[Molly Mew]

Originally Posted by OhComeNow

Since the latest update, everything works beautifully for me; however reading through these posts tells me that's not the case with many people. I've experimented playing FT on a number of different computers and browsers. On Compaq with Internet Explorer, I was completely unable to play the game -- the lag time was ridiculous. On several different Dells with IE, it frequently freezes. On a new iMac with Safari, the screen kept flickering every time I harvested or plowed, and each square had to be clicked 2-3 times before succeeding.

In all cases the latest version of Adobe Flash was used and cache was cleared.

The best combination: new iMac with Firefox on high speed DSL.

It would be nice if the devs would either post the minimum computer/browser configuration required to play the game successfully (perhaps they have done this somewhere and I don't know it) or create a game that works regardless of the user's operating environment.

As the game is still in beta development, the developers have not set minimum requirements as of this time.

There is a thread with some basic guidelines in the top post.

http://slashkey.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4307

As impartial forum moderators, we're not able to recommend one specific browser, ISP, or operating system as against another, although we do have our own favourites (lol)
Other players do post details of combinations that work for them, and in fact some of the information provided is used in official top posts from time to time if we feel it can help with user problems.

Originally Posted by Llama Akers

I agree with the post above.... I'm ready to quit Farmtown and I'm level 60, I'm sick of standing around waiting til the avatar is finished only to find "already done" Sorry but everytime you change something you screw it up worse!!! Can't even get the go home to work until the stupid thing is through telling you already done.... I'm too old for this ****!!!!!

We've reported to the developers that the 'already done' message is not popular with players, and they've confirmed they're reworking the idea.

[TedDead]

For what it's worth, I've experimented with both Firefox and IE, both with the latest Flash release.

IE seems to work the best. None of that "Already Done" stuff and others coming in taking the points/coin from fields you already completed.

Firefox exhibited all the really nasty problems people are reporting here. To me it is obvious that the Firefox with the lates Flash suffers from major memory leak problems (when will Adobe programmers learn to close files when they are no longer needed?). After working one or two large/complex farms, Firefox will come to a stop. Its memory and CPU usage is through the roof. You have to close it out and restart it at that point.

Of course, FT still has the server timeout and disconnect problems worse than ever. This is where you lose points and coin. You think you are doing the work, but since you got disconnected somewhere along the way, you get short changed. That's the same for either browser.

I feel sorry for the Devs trying to build a fairly complex game using Adobe Flash as the platform. Adobe (IMHO) has always turned out sloppy, unstable code.

[Sensualbliss]

Wondering if this will EVER get fixed so many complaints NOTHING getting done ! Unless of course the developers are on holidays which is fair enough and would explain the time it seems to be taking to fix the issues ! They are usualy pretty quick to fix things up when so many complain , so the only reason i can think for this LONG delay is either holidays or no idea how to or technical difficultys :S

Oh and for the record i am not using firefox, so no that's the problem , maybe for some not others ! Why keep passing the buck and blaming our operating systems when everything was fine before the new release. Guess it's always the easy option to sftuff people around by blaming our systems, making us do this or that , clear this or that and when u do it all and it doesn''t work any way .

Or you have BRAND NEW system with the latest of everything installed which worked just fine before the NEW release! But nope it's always the players systems never the developers! People PAY REAL MONEY on this game to buy the farm cash, for the items you can get using only farmcash or upgrade farms, if this issue is going to continue then i feel a REFUND for all the farm cash we brought would be in order !

People say it's a free game, and yes it is and yes it's upto that particular player to decide to buy or not to buy farmcash or coins , either way i look at it, those that do buy farmcash or coins ARE SUPPORTING the developers financialy along with advertisements ! We all know the items are just pixels on a screen and that is all they will ever be, but that is not the point here , we chose to spend our money on a game that frustrates us 70% of the time, but that;s okay to me they weren't a major thing and never really bothered me until NOW this latest glitch is making me want my money back and making me want to leave this once enjoyable game for dust ! So over it !!

I understand the moderators have been in contact with the developers and passed all the information and complaints on which we thank you for ! How ever where is the response from the developers ?? Why doesn't Bert leave a little note on the forums with some kind of update, as the mods are only told so much and can only pass on what they have been told !

I don't blame the moderators for any glitches with farmtown after all you look after the forums not the actual application for FT , and what you do is appreciated !

I may have gone on a bit with this post but i felt the need to vent yet again ! :S

[meinhardt76]

I have a complaint I been getting timed out I did everything you said to do on page one uninstalled the flash cleared my cache and reinstalled it again nothing is helping I keep getting kicked off my job can you please fix this thank you all the rest seems to be working great except that thank you for all the work your doing to make this game better.

Sarah Meinhardt

[Sapai]

Before someone tells me I don't have to play, I assure you I KNOW THAT. I am giving feedback because this game has been really good and I would like to see it continue and succeed. I assume that's the developer's goal. I'm taking MY TIME to come here and give feedback. I would RATHER be playing the game as it was before this started on 12/22.

Some things have changed and there are new issues besides the ones already mentioned.

The second farms are messed up. When trying to plant, the black box pops up "enquing plowed field" on every plant. This was resolved by going back and forth between farms a few times.

I just harvested a 2nd farm and the pointer and harvest tool are way out of alignment. The highlight point was different on every square, and with some of them I even had to point to the harvested field below it to get it to highlight. The scythe is just completely random with no association to where the crop is.

Also on this 2nd farm, she had the same problem I did earlier with the other player disappearing. She logged out and in to see me again. I logged off a couple of times and then changed browsers (which also logs off and in).

The fields are paying from the clicks but still way too much lag to make it an effective solution to the multiple player issue. It works ahead in MOST cases but not all.

Time outs are out of hand. The game stopped paying me during a harvest. I exited to the Market to come back for rehire and THEN got the Server Time Out msg. This, after I had clicked about 70 more squares. If it's going to time out, we need to be notified in a timely manner. And believe me, it IS going to time out.

Bottom Line: It was become much more WORK to "play" this game. Not many of us are going to be interested in using something that is meant to be a relaxation to exhaust ourselves dealing with FUBAR. I don't want to be this tired from playing a game.

Finally - FYI there are Minimum System Requirements posted in the FAQ which you can access from the game interface.

[skyrange]

So how do players find out what's going on? Tonight, no one can hire. It would be nice to know in advance if maintenance is scheduled. It would be nice to know what they think is fixed. It would be nice to know if they are even working on some of the problems. The past week+ since 12/22 have been a frustration at best. There needs to be some kind of info box or something where we can find out what the _____ they are up to. ("They", in this case, would be the developers). So what about crops that expire while I can't harvest them ? Even self-harvesting is not working properly right how? Please let us, the players, know what's going on !

[Raspberry Gril]

i don't know about the first one,but i like the new system now (hiring,harvesting & plowing)...but i'm getting a lot of timed-outs...all the time!...i'm lucky if i get to finish a job without being timed-out...lost a lot of points and coins that i should have earned T_T

[Garden Dana]

One issue I have with the new Avatar movement is it is darn near impossible to catch a hired hand and rehire them for plowing!
At least in the most recent version they are close to the end of the work done when they are eligible for rehire.
The other issue I have is if you are clicking near your Avatar, it often interferes with the plot you selected. I have to get around this by sending my avatar elsewhere and clicking fast to stay ahead of him when he starts to catch up. I guess it makes a new mini-game within the game.
This is a great game and I appreciate your continued efforts to improve the game!