Royal Wedding, English Co-ops and Increased Market Stall Capacity

Despite all the furor over the Royal Wedding and its virtual celebration on Facebook and in Farmville's English Countryside, the BIG news is the increased capacity of Market Stalls. Finally, Zynga has increased storage capacity from 100 Bushels to 200 Bushels, making it less likely that players will lose valuable Bushel Sets when they complete a Co-op Job, and allowing them to plant and harvest to their heart's content without too much anxiety about wasting Bushels. Often, Recipes call for ingredients that are not available immediately. When the storage capacity was 100 Bushels, players often had to sacrifice Bushels that could not be used immediately. Now they can save those Bushels until the other ingredients become available.

Today, which is the date of the Royal Wedding in England, Farmville announced a pending visit by the Royal Couple, requiring the placement of a Party Tent and a flurry of invitations to the party. Not to worry! The party deadline is 8 May and as usual in these circumstances, the Rewards a player receives will depend on the number of acceptances. A player can attend more than one Party, so do not hesitate to accept an Invitation from a Neighbour!

Meanwhile, new Quests have appeared in the English Countryside, heralding a new option to participate in English Co-op Jobs. The three Jobs that are available at present are as follows:

The Cornflower Contingency

Grow Cornflowers to make table decorations!
Reward: 575 Coins 575 XP
Requirements: Seed and harvest 1200 Cornflowers in 2 Days
Gold: 18 hours, 59 minutes, Reward: Cornflower Pot
Silvwer: 1 Day, 4 Hours
Bronze: 2 Days, 0 Hours

The Great Rabbit Caper
Grow Radishes and Turnips to feed the Rabbits
Could you seed and harvest the following?
700 Radishes, 700 Turnips
Gold: 1 day, 10 Hours, Reward: Brown Spot Rabbit, 950 Coins, 950 XP
Silver: 2 days 4 hours Reward: 825 Coins, 825 XP
Bronze: 3 Days, 15 Hours, Reward: 700 Coins, 700 XP

The Amazing Asters
Grow Asters to teach Henry
Could you seed and harvest the following?
1200 Pink Asters
Gold: 18 hours, 59 minutes: Reward: Love Potion, 575 Coins, 575 XP
Silver: 1 day, 4 Hours Reward: 500 Coins, 500 XP
Bronze: 2 days, Reward: 425 Coins, 425 XP

The Cornflower Contingency is one of the tasks in a new Quest for players.

Other news from Farmville includes the option to breed Pigs. When you complete a new Pigpen, whether on the Home Farm or in the English Countryside, you will receive a Green Boar to facilitate breeding. Piglets like Lambs now can be placed either on the English Farm or the Home Farm and both Sheep Breeding and Pig Breeding can occur at either or both locations. Once placed, however, an Animal cannot be transferred to a different farm.

New Love Potion Crafting Option

After players suffered through a terrible day or two in Farmville, with such problems as incapacity to log in, incapacity to breed sheep, incapacity to STAY logged in, incapacity to share items or post on players' walls, new options have appeared, including the option to breed Pigs and to create the Love Potions required for breeding. The Love Potions Recipe is found in the Pub and is as follows:

Love Potion:

Ingredients:

4 Bushels of Field Beans
3 Bushels of Pink Asters
5 Bushels of English Peas

Who would have guessed that so many Field Beans would be needed? One does recall, however, a correlation in ancient Rome between Beans and Fertility. Peas actually have the same significance in ancient cultures. Pink Asters? Well, any flower is linked to fertility in almost every culture and the other flowers in Farmville are used extensively in the Recipes in the Pub. Time for the Pink Asters to bloom...

Clever Marketing and Double Mastery

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There are new English Countryside Quests that are linked to a new Mastery Crop. Today, a temporary Neighbour in the form of Frito-Lay was added to the Neighbour bar of every Farmer. As is the case when any temporary special Neighbour is added, you are asked to visit the Farm to help. When you do, you will receive special Items.

In this case, the special Item with a farming effect is the Frito-Lay Stall. It can be placed on either the Home Farm or the English Farm and when placed, will give double mastery to the player for 2 days. As there are English Countryside Quests that require Crop Mastery, it is suggested that players wait until they reach one of these Quests before placing the Stall.

The first Mastery Quest requires 1 Star Mastery of Bluebells. The second requires 1 Star Mastery of Hops.

The clever marketing part is, of course, the way in which avid Farmville Farmers can be manipulated into placing an item on their farms that they may find repugnant initially when they discover its effect. I do not like brand advertising and I hated the thought of destroying the integrity of my English farm with an eyesore emblazoned with the logo of Frito-Lay. I capitulated when I discovered the effect of the stall...

New Quests in Farmville

New Quests finally have appeared in the English Countryside in Farmville. These Quests are not unlocked by any particular accomplishment on the part of the player. They simply were released a couple of days ago and will be found now at the end of the first sequence of Quests in the English Countryside.

The new Quests begin as follows:

Next Quest:

Hello There. I'm Lily. Is this your farm now? I own the Dairy and I have a problem. We depend on this farm for goods, so if you can't revive it, I'll have to move. But if you can help me I'm willing to pay. Can you deliver the goods I need?

How Dairy You

Get a new Cow
Wouldn't be much of a dairy without cows, would it?

Harvest 100 Bluebells
Good milk starts with happy cows, and cows like pretty fowers. It's a fact.

When completed:

Lily: It's more efficient if you have your own Dairy Barn. Let me help with that. I admit I'm impressed so far.

Reward: 100 XP
1 Dairy Barn
2500 Coins

Next Quest:

Lily: You've got the basics covered, but I need to know I can count on you. Here's a challewnge! To make cheese, I need Cheese Culture and milk. Can you do it?

Yes!

Say Cheese!
Cheese-making is both an art and a science.

Get 6 Cheese Culture
Ask Friends
Skip for 10 FV Cash

Cheese Culture is what makes milk into delicious cheese.

Harvest your Dairy Barn twice.
Skip for 20 FV Cash

Option to play both Farms in Farmville now

After many players complained about the mandatory 'pause' in the game that would 'pause' one farm when a player traveled to the other, Zynga made the 'pause' system optional. Now, whenever a player travels from one farm to the other, he/she has the option to choose either to allow time to continue to run in both farms or to pause time in the farm that has been left behind. This is much more attractive to players who have Orchards as well as Crops and who were placed in the unappealing position of being forced to stay physically on one farm previously.

Flasher Sheep and Colouring Sheep for Easter

N.B. The Sheep Pen in the screenshots is not mine. I do not own any 'flasher sheep' yet. There is one Ewe in the centre of the bottom row that changes colour. Each screenshot shows it in a different instant as it changes colour rapidly from moment to moment!

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In the past week, I have become involved in the English Countryside Sheep Breeding option but I was unaware of the extraordinary Rams and Ewes known as 'flashers' until a Neighbour was given one this morning. 'Flashers' in Farmville are not naughty men who display their privates to unsuspecting members of the general public by opening their coats or macs momentarily to reveal their nakedness. 'Flashers' in Farmville are very special Rams and Ewes who 'flash' different colours every instant. I have yet to uncover the secret of breeding flashers and indeed, have yet to own one myself unfortunately, but hope to do so in the future.

As with non-flashing Rams and Ewes, there are countless permutations in terms of colour. If a flashing Ram or Ewe has dots or stars, it appears that the colour of these is set but the base colour will change instant by instant. Although all flashing sheep, it appears, will display one hue within each primary colour and secondary colour, the actual tones will vary from animal to animal.