New Viking Farm

artful (US1)

Byron Longford (AU1) said:

@artful (US1) @Uncle John (GB1) but they have also reduced the amount for selling products so rewards will be a lot less.  Not to mention all the farm $$ you will need to spend to get lesser rewards. 

edit: forgot also due to not balance correctly you will produce less and even less rewards.

I put very little farm dollars into temp farms. After a few initial transfers, I can keep it running on its own. As I said, I put minimal effort into it, and I do mean minimal. I just churn a few fields in flax and produce only viking tunics. Not worth putting more effort into than that for me.  A few rewards bought with rune stones, and I am happy.

But you're right.  They have been reducing payout and/or increasing what's required in all aspects of the game slowly over time, thinking we wouldn't noticed.  Take the greenhouse seeds, for example. The jetty now delivers fewer of them, and also seems to hold back on one of the varieties, making it harder to skip temp farms.  Just one example. There used to be announcements when scale backs occurred, but now it's covert, esp. as they have shut down communications.

Dark Underworld (AU1)

@holidayrox (US1) books for temp farms cost the same or more gold than books for permanent farms, BUT you only use them 4 months (Temp farm books should be 1/3 of the price of permanent farm books) of the year compared to 12 months of the year.. Temp farm books total waste of money gold is far better spent on permanent farms for far higher rewards.  IMHO.  There is no way in hell I spend gold on ANY temp farm including books.  I could always finish every temp farm without them. I have bought 0 gold in 5.5years and been playing for 6 years.  No way I would spend hard to get gold on Temp

This change to viking is to hinder the good non gold buyers to give the golders more of a advantage against them

Bigtim1 (AU1)

I play in Byron's league (not his co-op!), and have come to trust his opinion over 2 years of play! You may not agree with it, but what Byron says is what he believes! These temp farms have always been a money pit, and it seems they have deepened! I note that GGS are much more aggressive with their advertising/sales pitches now! Each to their own! )

PCA (GB1)

"They reduced the payout"  does not quite give the idea 

" They reduced the payout to 10% of what it was", meaning they did cut 90 % off earnings from sales of workshop goods, now this is much more clear.

By doing this rework they have produced a crippled event, as tedious as all the latest additions to the game

When in the announcement they mention that the financial part has  been remodeled to make the event "more engaging"  they mean that they crippled the event in such a way that you are either compelled to keep clicking 24/7 with little or no result, or you will have to resort to gold use to speed things up. 

R.I.P. to a good temp farm which no longer exists  

Beside players who are content just clicking to collect flax and producing tunics, there are also players who start the temp farm with the idea to complete the chapters, just as they play the weekly events to complete all the tasks.  After this rework, attempting to complete the 3 chapters is not only infuriating but also  demotivating

The number of runestones we gain selling helmets and coats is 10 times smaller than it used to be, and there was absolutely no reason to operate this change. Moreover the new amounts of goods which must be produced are ridiculously high,  promote gold usage

This reminds me of what they did with the fishing area, a drastic 90 % cut on earnings  hidden under a ton of  mystifying words. In that case they excused themselves by saying it was wrong to start with, a mistake

In the case of the Viking farm instead the event was running perfectly, but the 90% cut to income came just the same. Another bit of fun taken off the table, substituted by tedious endless clicking, a slow game, good to satisfy the addiction, fun ? Nope !


   

Exxy (INT1)

Well, to be honest, when things changes, there's always 2 things to see , and generally people just look at the first one, and ignores the 2nd

They added Special small ducks, and special donkeys in rewards

So obviously, they have to lessen a bit the currency acquiring method ( Maybe there's more in the side tasks )

So , that a person could just not buy dozens of those buildings already

Everyone gets the free construction slot , and this round is 30 days instead of the usual 25/28

Uncle John (AU1)

@PCA (GB1)  @Byron Longford (AU1)
I have to admit that I have not yet re-done my calculation of how many dollars each runestone costs me.
Going as far as task 2.3 it used to be 1:1 and the further I went the more expensive they worked out at. But, since the DSF, I have been earning dollars faster than I can spend them so I am now looking at the temp farms as a way of buying for dollars, things that are otherwise only available for gold.

PCA (GB1)

Rocky123 (IN1) said:

I am in love with this new temp farm.

......Now i can make the 4th product cozy viking coat 5/6 times a day whereas earlier i used to make the third product only thrice a day. 

 
@Rocky123 (IN1)

Interesting !!!   Would you care to explain  how you can produce the viking coats 5/6 times a day given that each production cycle requires 5 hour 20 minutes ? 

And also why would you do all that if then when you sell all what you produced in 1 day will yield an income that is so much lower than you used to earn with a single run of the workshop ?

A quick calculation:

Old event: 
1 run (8 hours) 120 coats, each sold for 12200 runestones.  Total = 1.464.000 runestones

New event:
1 run (5 hr 20 minute) 120 coats, each sold for 1200 runestones. Total =  144.000 runestones

A 10 fold lower income against the ability to complete 4 runs instead of 3 (assuming you stick around the farm day and night).

Take into account how much material you need to produce those coats and you will see you are better off producing flax and tunics, or even disregarding this ridiculous set up completely

PCA (GB1)

Uncle John (GB1) said:

@PCA (GB1)  @Byron Longford (AU1)
I have to admit that I have not yet re-done my calculation of how many dollars each runestone costs me.

.......But, since the DSF, I have been earning dollars faster than I can spend them so I am now looking at the temp farms as a way of buying for dollars, things that are otherwise only available for gold.

Then @Uncle John (GB1)  what you are saying is that you don't care that with this change you can buy (investing the same amount of farm dollars) 10 times less of whatever you were buying before the change ?

This is what you haven't calculated, the number of runestones  you can earn is that much lower, 10% of what if used to be

Rocky123 (IN1)

PCA (GB1) said:

Rocky123 (IN1) said:

I am in love with this new temp farm.

......Now i can make the 4th product cozy viking coat 5/6 times a day whereas earlier i used to make the third product only thrice a day. 

 
@Rocky123 (IN1)

Interesting !!!   Would you care to explain  how you can produce the viking coats 5/6 times a day given that each production cycle requires 5 hours 20 minutes ? 

And also why would you do all that if then when you sell all what you produced in 1 day will yield an income that is so much lower than you used to earn with a single run of the workshop ?

A quick calculation:

Old event: 
1 run (8 hours) 120 coats, each sold at 12200 runestones.  Total = 1.464.000 runestones

New event:
1 run (5 hr 20 minute) 120 coats, each sold at 1200 runestones. Total =  144.000 runestones

A 10 fold lower income against the ability to complete 4 runs instead of 3 assuming you stick around the farm day and night.

Take into account how much material you need to produce those coats and you will see you are better off producing flax and tunics, or even disregarding this ridiculous set up completely

It takes only 4 hours at max level .Also u get more dung and orchard products as their times have been reduced. So, its still a better way than producing flax or tunics which i used to do when i was at lower levels. U get 3 times more peacocks,tree groves,dung,etc than earlier in the same time now but yes they were compensated by ridiculous loss of value for products.

Yes, i checked and found better ways to earn runestones , deleting my posts . I agree that setup is quite painful to play with and produces less. 

PS : 
I am now playing with only seal ponds lol. I am better off doing that and getting good amount of runestones(5M+ a day) by buying seal feed , need to only login thrice a day .
http://prntscr.com/plhejd

Thankfully my friend Mohiuddin(IN1) let me know about this lol before i started to play with that.

artful (US1)

PCA (GB1) said:

"They reduced the payout"  does not quite give the idea 

" They reduced the payout to 10% of what it was", meaning they did cut 90 % off earnings from sales of workshop goods, now this is much more clear.

By doing this rework they have produced a crippled event, as tedious as all the latest additions to the game

When in the announcement they mention that the financial part has  been remodeled to make the event "more engaging"  they mean that they crippled the event in such a way that you are either compelled to keep clicking 24/7 with little or no result, or you will have to resort to gold use to speed things up. 

R.I.P. to a good temp farm which no longer exists  

Beside players who are content just clicking to collect flax and producing tunics, there are also players who start the temp farm with the idea to complete the chapters, just as they play the weekly events to complete all the tasks.  After this rework, attempting to complete the 3 chapters is not only infuriating but also  demotivating

The number of runestones we gain selling helmets and coats is 10 times smaller than it used to be, and there was absolutely no reason to operate this change. Moreover the new amounts of goods which must be produced are ridiculously high,  promote gold usage

This reminds me of what they did with the fishing area, a drastic 90 % cut on earnings  hidden under a ton of  mystifying words. In that case they excused themselves by saying it was wrong to start with, a mistake

In the case of the Viking farm instead the event was running perfectly, but the 90% cut to income came just the same. Another bit of fun taken off the table, substituted by tedious endless clicking, a slow game, good to satisfy the addiction, fun ? Nope !


   

I actually agree with what you are saying. The event has become another non event, another chore, which is why I say I put minimal effort into it. A few clicks and I get a few rewards, and I move on. I have given up on expecting GGS to keep events fair and fun, so most of them have become "minimal effort" and I mostly farm.  Really is a shame, isn't it?

gavinfarms (US1)

Surely they are going to fix this before it ends.  The sales prices are ridiculously low.  I cannot believe that they let this happen.

BigSparty (US1)

Corvid (GB1) said:

event ruined

unless you sub and throw gold at it, pretty pointless

who ever did the rebalancing is brain dead from a player point of view - 1440 tankards at 60 per round lmaooooooooooooo

dude whoever you are, go play the game and get all those tankards and see how much fun it was for you

LOL I hear ya, i have been making tankards for 2 days now and hope that maybe tomorrow on day three at some point I Might finish them!  I like trying the temp farms. but in my opinion the candy farm is the worse.  Talk about boring on so many levels.  I may not bother with it in the future. 

I successfully finished the tropical island and got all three sand castles and didn't need to spend a bunch of gold doing it.  Next time i'll do it just for the shells.

This is my second time with the viking farm and i find it interesting that some tasks in the first chapter required less goods but so far the second chapter requires so much more and produces so slowly that it is becoming tedious.  The tankards are tanking everything!

Corvid (GB1)

the way they've geared it is that production of crops etc has sped up considerably so you need to be at your comp all the time to acrue significant resources and the production of goods has also sped up considerably BUT the numbers required are off the chart and, again, if you're not at your comp all the time they're going to take an age

there's only so many ways you can look at the changes -

it's been done to encourage subs (being able to repeat harvest is an obvious advantage altho wont help with production of workshop items)

it's been done to encourage gold spending to speed up production in the workshop (dropping the production times brings the gold cost down per round - so doesnt look so expensive on the surface) as the numbers required for items have been hiked to ridiculous levels (and the gold expense per round all of sudden accumulates big time)

or both

which is probably the correct answer...

some may say there are other reasons - eg to make if more fun (yeah right, tankard lovers) but i can't see any reason for the changes apart from the above

it wasn't an event that needed fixing, it was tough to complete but the rewards in runes was worth it (i dont buy gold so if i do spend gold on it, it is very little, you dont need gold to complete it old style and you didnt need to complete it anyway to get lots of runes, there were other strategies) and personally i found viking/tropical island more fun these days than the main game.

i get that it's a free game and so there will be elements to encourage buying gold, they have to make their buck to have a viable game, yeah, i get it, but in the mix of all the ideas and weekly meetings and brainstorming for ways to increase profits, you'd think on the whiteboard written in red would be the qualifying phrase "is it fun?" (cos that clearly wasn't a consideration at all - dont fall for the blurb, the decision makers dont play the game and would have no idea - or regard - if the event was less fun or not)

the game by nature has always had a pay to win element to it, since they introduced subs it's purely pay to win and with that recent push, changes to the game reflect that pattern and now temp farms have taken a dive to fall in line with it

gavinfarms (US1)

Is GGS going to respond at all?

Is a fix coming?

MRG1 (US1)

Corvid (GB1) said:

i get that it's a free game and so there will be elements to encourage buying gold, they have to make their buck to have a viable game, yeah, i get it, but in the mix of all the ideas and weekly meetings and brainstorming for ways to increase profits, you'd think on the whiteboard written in red would be the qualifying phrase "is it fun?" (cos that clearly wasn't a consideration at all - dont fall for the blurb, the decision makers dont play the game and would have no idea - or regard - if the event was less fun or not)

This paragraph needs to be repeated to the powers-that-be at GGS  @WascallyWabbit

WascallyWabbit (FormerMod)

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the feedback as always, which we will be passing on. Some of it has already been discussed among the mods, as there are similar claims from other communities.


However, in the meantime, there is also another side, claiming that it is actually playable & not as bad as it 1st appears to be. One of the Russian mods, who plays & completes every Temp farm, has posted  some helpful info HERE  

Translated using Google:
The mill is level 4, without books, round, for 3 hours makes 110 feed. This is enough to feed 3 penguins without a break and there will still be food.
The Viking Farm can be played without decor. Production costs are very small, even with a big minus of happiness. We build houses and upgrade our penguins to level 4.
3 penguins will produce 5400 manure in 3 hours.
5400 manure = 270 fertilizers in 4.5 hours in a level 4 silo.
In order to produce a fur coat (production time is 4 hours at a workshop of level 4) we need to run a sheep of 4 levels (40 fertilizers - 4 hours growth) 1 time, 2 times a berry of 1 piece (40 fertilizers (20 + 20) - 4 hours, a total growth of two launch), 2 spruce groves level 4  (40 fertilizers for 2 starts) = 120 fertilizers.
If you produce a tree without a break, this is + 40 fertilizers (if we have 2 groves). Then fertilizer consumption in 4 hours = 160 fertilizers. 
270 - 160 = 110 fertilizer is a plus. A difference in fertilizer production of 30 minutes will not affect anything, production will overlap.
Flax is easily produced with special seeds that cost a penny.
Any other, more modest production is considered on the same principle.

She also says that the 4th penguin is only for a side task, but not needed for the chapters & she removes the seals after their task...

For a full game, WITHOUT BOOKS, we need:
Level 4 Mill
Level 4 workshop
Bank - 7 levels
Silo Tower Level 4
1 sheep lvl4
1 berry lvl 4
2 spruce groves lvl 4
+ -3 fields 4 levels
3 penguins 4 levels (or more if there are books)
I hope I haven’t forgotten anything. This will allow you to continuously collect fur coats. as soon as we build it all

Obviously everyone has their own way of playing, but if you are struggling, there may be some help there. If you have any questions for Bethany, please do not post them on the Russian forum (unless you speak Russian), you can ask them here in English.

gavinfarms (US1) said:

Is GGS going to respond at all?

Is a fix coming?

@gavinfarms (US1) We get asked for player feedback on new stuff, after it has had time to run for a bit & any changes normally come with the next run.  We do not usually get them while the event is still running, unless its a unplayable, as we all know what a mess that can make

Corvid (GB1)

this is not a criticism of the post above and im sure it's of help to some but it kind of makes my point

you need to be at the comp 'all the time' pretty much

you are using runes to be able to complete the tasks as outlined there (SS etc, which are deductions to your overall haul of runes at the end of the event - which i'd suggest that is the main reason most players do the event) - whereas before you didnt need to use runes, the temp farms, while very expensive, were viewed as a dollars for runes exchange

and on that subject im interested to see what my overall rune haul will be compared to what it usually is - im expecting it to be so small it's pretty much pointless doing the event but that remains to be seen

as an aside - the fact the event is watered down from a view of value to a player, i've just realised the decos have lower happiness than before. I wouldn't use any (or only the last one) anyway but surely the fact GGS nerfed the decos shows even they realise their tampering has devalued the event

and that's how the event comes across to me overall - NERFED

what is the main reason the most regular players of the temp farms did them? of those i know, to build up a large haul of runes to convert those to useful items - ie seaweed or WoF tokens, in short a conversion of farm dollars into those items. In a way it's 'free stuff' as i call it and it's been a blatant policy for changes over the last year or so (not sure of exact timing) for GGS to remove or water down 'free stuff' (eg GML's in hwe and so on) which is well documented on the forum - the movitve obviously being to 'encourage' players to use gold for the valuable items in the game and not get them for 'free' and this version of viking farm falls in line with that approach in spades

The Lonely Farm (CZ1)

PCA (GB1) said:

A quick calculation:

Old event: 
1 run (8 hours) 120 coats, each sold for 12200 runestones.  Total = 1.464.000 runestones

New event:
1 run (5 hr 20 minute) 120 coats, each sold for 1200 runestones. Total =  144.000 runestones

A 10 fold lower income against the ability to complete 4 runs instead of 3 (assuming you stick around the farm day and night).

Take into account how much material you need to produce those coats and you will see you are better off producing flax and tunics, or even disregarding this ridiculous set up completely

Just to complete this calculation:

If you count the runestone-value of all the material needed for one coat production, you'll find out, that it is even MORE WORTH than the result of the coat production. If you would sell the material directly for the runestones, you'll get 147.600 runestones. For the 120 coats you'll get 144.000 runestones. Thats simply less. Who would produce a coat now? Just a fool...

Exxy (INT1)

Well, the strategies are different now

I'm thinking about trying a whole seal strategy

Since feed is easy, you can buy it directly , and still do 26k runestone profit every 2 hour

Currently doing the chapters ( as they are much easier than before )

But will adapt , Seals running for 2 hours, are quite nice

I'm gonna look into handbooks whenever we get a sale !!

Corvid (GB1)

Exxy (INT1) said:

Well, the strategies are different now

I'm thinking about trying a whole seal strategy

Since feed is easy, you can buy it directly , and still do 26k runestone profit every 2 hour

Currently doing the chapters ( as they are much easier than before )

But will adapt , Seals running for 2 hours, are quite nice

I'm gonna look into handbooks whenever we get a sale !!

am i missing something here? my seals take 8 hours not two

Exxy (INT1)

Ha ha, I was completely off ;o

its still 8 hours

Guess i got distracted by the easiness of running seals ;p

Penguins definetely runs faster than they used to! ;p

Rocky123 (IN1)

Exxy (INT1) said:

Well, the strategies are different now

I'm thinking about trying a whole seal strategy

Since feed is easy, you can buy it directly , and still do 26k runestone profit every 2 hour

Currently doing the chapters ( as they are much easier than before )

But will adapt , Seals running for 2 hours, are quite nice

I'm gonna look into handbooks whenever we get a sale !!

Exactly the perfect strategy for now . Built 18 seals(and levelled them up) and feeding them nonstop . Making a good amount of runestones from it. Not even bothered about doing chapters/building anything else.

jitu7 (IN1)

By the way I thought GGS is working on removing pranks from the game. 
But the new VF rewards are giving new pranks.
Seeing this one for the first time:

BigSparty (US1)

Nice!  I see nothing wrong with pranks and think they give the game another twist.

DebRN (US1)

You have obviously not seen the destruction and harassment some have endured at the hand of mean spirited players.

WascallyWabbit (FormerMod)

The Lonely Farm (CZ1) said:
If you count the runestone-value of all the material needed for one coat production, you'll find out, that it is even MORE WORTH than the result of the coat production. If you would sell the material directly for the runestones, you'll get 147.600 runestones. For the 120 coats you'll get 144.000 runestones. Thats simply less. Who would produce a coat now? Just a fool...

@The Lonely Farm (CZ1)  This has been reported & is already being looked at by the balancer.

jitu7 (IN1) said:

By the way I thought GGS is working on removing pranks from the game. 
But the new VF rewards are giving new pranks.
Seeing this one for the first time:

@jitu7 (IN1) Thankyou, this has been reported already & there was a different one on a favorite offer that has been reported too.

BigSparty (US1)

DebRN (US1) said:

You have obviously not seen the destruction and harassment some have endured at the hand of mean spirited players.

There's all kinds out there.  Some use pranks to win and others use gold to win.  The end result is the same.  As far as I am concerned the pranks help level the playing field when low level players are paired up against people with fully developed and fully upgraded farms.

To think that people at level 80 can compete fairly against those in levels 300 and 400 is ridiculous.

artful (US1)

The pranks are mean spirited, and "leveling the playing field" by using them is frowned upon by many coops. Our coop doesn't allow using them. The game is hard enough with bugs and unfairness every where you turn ... we don't need more.

BigSparty (US1)

WascallyWabbit said:

The Lonely Farm (CZ1) said:
If you count the runestone-value of all the material needed for one coat production, you'll find out, that it is even MORE WORTH than the result of the coat production. If you would sell the material directly for the runestones, you'll get 147.600 runestones. For the 120 coats you'll get 144.000 runestones. Thats simply less. Who would produce a coat now? Just a fool...

@The Lonely Farm (CZ1)  This has been reported & is already being looked at by the balancer.

jitu7 (IN1) said:

By the way I thought GGS is working on removing pranks from the game. 
But the new VF rewards are giving new pranks.
Seeing this one for the first time:

@jitu7 (IN1) Thankyou, this has been reported already & there was a different one on a favorite offer that has been reported too.

artful (US1) said:

The pranks are mean spirited, and "leveling the playing field" by using them is frowned upon by many coops. Our coop doesn't allow using them. The game is hard enough with bugs and unfairness every where you turn ... we don't need more.

Then do away with kites giving extra rep points, boosters and gold since some people live on fixed incomes and place people in events based on levels so that new people are not up against long time players.  Make the game more equitable for everyone.  To keep so many things that favor only some and not all is unfair.

PCA (GB1)

BigSparty (US1) said:

DebRN (US1) said:

You have obviously not seen the destruction and harassment some have endured at the hand of mean spirited players.

There's all kinds out there.  Some use pranks to win and others use gold to win.  The end result is the same.  As far as I am concerned the pranks help level the playing field when low level players are paired up against people with fully developed and fully upgraded farms.

To think that people at level 80 can compete fairly against those in levels 300 and 400 is ridiculous.

So your solution is to prank them as if it was a choice made by those level 300-400 to compete against low level players

where is your logic I wonder