The English Countryside

Please note that I have created a little preliminary Guide for the English Countryside which you can access via a tab above this post.

Last night, Farmville finally unveiled its new English Countryside with an initial Quest to take players to their new farms in the 'English Countryside'. Only players who have reached Level 20 can participate in this. It allows a player to have a second farm in a virtual England where special Crops and Animals can be grown and raised.

The initial Quest begins with a little Event.

Look Up in the sky!
Something is coming this way... FAST!
Check it out!

An old-fashioned airship descends towards your land, belching forth steam from a number of holes. You are told to place it somewhere on your farm. Once you have done so, you must buy three Crates in order to anchor it to the ground.

An aviator from the First World War cries out:

By Jove! I've found you at last! I've brought you the deed to...
Continue...

A Second Farm in the English Countryside
Before we can go to your secod farm, we must fix my airship. Help me drag it to a safe place on your farm!
Place Airship!

The space required to moor the airship is minimal. You can place it almost anywhere. When completed:

Well done! My airship is safe. Tell every one that I've come to take you to the English countryside!


Drop Anchor!
We need something heavy to hold down my airship.
Buy 3 Crates
Place some heavy crates and I'll tie them to the airship!
Get Crate

The cost of the Crates:
150 coins x 3

Reward: 100 XP, 5 FV, 2500 Coins
Brilliant! My airship is securely anchored! I brought some of your local currency. Please accept it with my thanks!

My village is in desperate need of a great farmer. I hope you will accept my invitation!
Unfortunately, my airship was damaged in that rough landing. I'll need Cotton to make patches for it.

You now have a new Quest:

Cotton to It
Plant 50 Cotton
The sooner you plant it, the sooner we're off to England!

Reward: 100 XP, 1 Union Jack, 2500 Coins
Jolly Good! I brought this flag to remind me of home. Perhaps you'd be kind enough to plant it for me.

(The Union Jack will be in your Gift Box, to place or not as you wish. There is no Reward for using it.)

Good Show! We can collect supplies while that Cotton is growing. I'm eager to see you farming in English soil. Let me tell you about it!

The lush soil in the English countryside will help you master crops faster!

You have a new Quest:

A Nice Supplies*

*Odd that the old chap's mastery of English is so flawed here. 'A Nice Supplies' is a peculiar and incorrect usage of the language by any one's standards.

A daring adventure takes preparation! We need supplies!
Buy 1 Cow
We'll need milk for our tea. I'm sure you know where to find some.

Cost of Cow: 300 Coins
Reward: 250 XP, Aviator's Cap, 2500 Coins

Simply smashing! Our larder is well stocked for our journey ahead! You'll need this Aviator's Cap for the trip. To wear your new cap, click on your Farmer, go to the Accessories category, ans select the Aviator's Cap.

We're almost ready to lift off. Invite your Neighbours to wish you Bon Voyage!
When you write home to tell them about our amazing sheep, they will all want to visit!
In my village, you can learn to breed baby lambs and raise them into unique sheep!

You now are expected to organise a farewell party for yourself.

Bon Voyage Party
Getting Ready for Travel! Invite more guests!

Here you have two options. One is to pay for instant departure with 60 Farm Cash. The other is to invite your Neighbours to your Party. If four Neighbours agree to attend, you can leave in four days. If fifteen or more Neighbours agree to attend, you can leave in two days. If thirty-five Neighbours agree to attend or through payment of 60 Farm Cash, you will be able to travel to your second farm immediately.

This is a very clever ploy on the part of Zynga, while not being unfair in the least. Unlike some options in online games that require you to invest real currency, you are not required to do so here. It is only if you cannot withstand the temptation to see your new Farm at once that you will be required to invest. Unfortunately, I am not one of the players who can afford to invest 60 Farm Cash in the journey, so the next step in the Quest will occur in two days.
Travel Now: 35 Guests or Unlock for 60 FV
Travel in 2 Days 15 guests
Travel in 4 Days 4 Guests

Getting the party started.
When you have waited the required amount of time or fulfilled the requirements for leaving instantly, you will be able to travel to the English Countryside:

Duke: We're all ready to go! Finish the party and depart for your new farm!
Go to the English Countryside

Duke: We're all set! Are you ready to visit your second farm? I'll show you how to get there!

A perfect landing~ Welcome to the English Countryside!

Duke: The Village Farm is the heart of the community and every one depends on it. The local Pub, the Dairy and even the sheep pastures grew up around it.

My village is depending on you to make this farm great.
Rebuild it as you wish, master these new crops and don't be afraid to explore. This English Countryside farm is all yours!

When you explore your small farm, you will find that it contains a small stone cottage, Stone Walls, a broken Combine, a ruined Stable, a Pen for animals that is attached to the Stable, an Apple Tree, an Apricot Tree, a Dwarf Almond Tree and two white Sheep. The three Trees and two Sheep are ready for harvest.

The Quest sequences once you reach the English Countryside will be found in the little Guide. There are some general points about this, however, that deserve special mention here.

The English Countryside basically is a player's 2nd Farm, available only after he/she attains Level 20. The reason for this probably is the fact that many of the Quests require crafting. There is no cost for the 2nd Farm, but you will have to pay to upgrade it once you arrive. The first upgrade actually is part of one of the initial Quests.

If you can find surveyors for your Farm, you can pay for upgrades with coins rather than Farm Cash. 'Surveyors' are Neighbours who accept your Request to survey the farm, making the requirement similar to the Neighbour total requirement for upgrades on the Home Farm.

One peculiarity of the Farmville English Countryside is that time will not run at all on the farm you have left. In other words, when you are in the English Countryside, your Home Farm will be 'paused' and vice versa. Crops will not wither, but they will not grow either. Trees in Orchards will not become ready for Harvest, nor will any of your Animals.

There is another twist to this that is very inconvenient for your Neighbours. When your Character is on the Home Farm, Bushels that have been harvested there will be available at your Stalls but, when you travel to the English Countryside, only those Bushels currently displayed on your English Stalls will be available to your Neighbours. In other words, your physical presence is required if you wish to offer Bushels to your Neighbours from a specific farm. This is not really fair to your Neighbours as they cannot control your comings and goings.

A number of little tips have been included in my English Countryside Guide, but there is one general rule to follow: Do not buy buildings for Animals, Storage or any other purpose when you arrive. Most of these will be given to you upon completion of Quests.

Special Seasonal Crafting Recipes

During the Thanksgiving season, each of the three Crafts in Farmville offered options to create two special Seasonal Items. Now, with the St. Patrick's Day celebrations underway in Facebook games, one special Seasonal Item is available for each of the three Crafts once again.

All three use the special Limited Edition Green Roses Crop:

Green Roses:
Cost: 80 Coins
Harvest in 1 Day
XP Gain: 2
Sell for 170 Coins
Possibly no Level Requirement

Green Rose Water
Ingredients:
3 Green Roses Bushels
3 White Grapes Bushels

Lucky Wishing Well and Leprechaun's Cottage

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Quests and special festival Collections are some of the new options in Farmville. Each seasonal holiday has its own theme and its own method of giving special limited edition items to players.

For March, it is the St. Patrick's Day theme, with a Lucky Wishing Well, a Pot of Gold and a Leprechaun's Cottage that more resembles a treehouse than cottage. The Wishing Well is particularly entertaining as it is a gambling venture, wherein gold coins thrown into the Well are transformed into items in a Collection. There are four Irish 'collections' attached to the Wishing Well game, each with its own Reward.

The Leprechaun's Cottage is a construction project. When completed, it can be harvested daily for 'gold' in various forms. The Gold can be placed in a Pot to be redeeemed for prizes. For Valentine's Day, the project was Cupid's Castle, harvested for Valentines.

There are other Rewards that are based on daily access to the game. Fuel now is given each day to players for their 'loyalty'. During the Valentine's Day season, there were 12 sequential gifts given each day for 12 days, rather like the 12 Days of Christmas. If you managed to collect all 12 of the Gifts, you would receive a special Valentine Cow.

Quick Money-Making Option in Farmville

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The new Greenhouse in Farmville makes it easier for low-level players to increase their income and experience. First of all, in a visit to any Neighbour, a player now has the option to harvest a random type of Crop from the landowner's Greenhouse. Any visitor who harvests in this manner can share the results on his/her Wall, giving another player the option to collect hybrid Seeds.

A year ago, there were few activities for a visitor to another Farm. Now, any visitor can perform the following actions:

1. A total of 5 actions to fertilise or unwither Crops or to harvest from Trees or Animals;

2. Feeding the Chickens in a Coop;

3. Accessing the Animal Trough for Feed;

4. Harvesting from any seasonal Building such as Cupid's Castle during the Valentine season or the Leprecaun's Treehouse during March;

5. Feeding the Pigs in the Pigpen.

Whenever a visitor feeds Animals in a building, he/she will earn Coins and sometimes will obtain another reward, such as a Mystery Egg from a Coop, Animal Feed from the Animal Trough or Slop from the Pigpen. From any seasonal Building, the Rewards are specific to that season and the total will depend on the size of the building. The largest upgrade usually yields a total of 3 items. The smallest will yield 1.

New Quest Options in Farmville

With the advent of the Greenhouse, new Quests are available in Farmville, making this popular online game more attractive to fans of Harvest Moon and Rune Factory.

In Farmville, once a player has unlocked a specific Crop by achieving the required Level, the Level requirement no longer appears. I therefore was unaware of ANY Level Requirements for the new Hybrid Seeds that are grown in the Greenhouse until a new player contacted me, complaining that he was unable to grow them.

There may be a Level Requirement for the Greenhouse itself. I would love to have confirmation of this from a low-level player. As with the Crafting buildings, although the Buildings do appear in the Market with a price attached to them, as soon as you reach the Level required to unlock them, Farmville will GIVE you the Building for placement. The prices, therefore, are applicable solely to the acquisition of a SECOND crafting building or Greenhouse.

The first Greenhouse Quest in Farmville requires that you have attained Level 16 as you must grow 50 Fire Peppers, a hybrid Crop that you can create in the Greenhouse only when you have reached Level 16 as one of the Crops required for it is the Jalapeno Pepper which has a Level 16 Requirement. Although you can obtain ANY of the hybrid Crops at any Level when a Neighbour 'shares' them on his/her Wall, the Quest will not activate on YOUR screen until you have reached Level 16.

Incidentally, the Level Requirements for each of the Hybrid Crops are based on the Level required to unlock both of the Crops that are used to create them.

Note that the Hybrid Crops were Crops that formerly were unlocked only through Mastery of other simple Crops that were related to them.

New Greenhouse Option

Farmville recently took a page from the Harvest Moon universe to create a new Greenhouse option where hybrid Crops can be grown by combining two types of Seeds.

The Greenhouse costs 5 Coins, if you were not playing the game on the day of its release and is a construction project that requires 4 Nails, 4 Wooden Boards and 4 Bricks. As with most construction projects, once completed, it can be expanded.

The creation of any hybrid Seed takes three days but, with the help of Neighbours, you can speed the process.

Another new option is the Duck Pond. A construction project as well, once completed, it can house all types of Ducks and Swans. Harvests of the Duck Pond produce coins or Ducklings of various types. A Duckling can be grown either by help from Neighbours or by paying Farmville Cash.

If you choose the Neighbour Help option, you have a total of seven days to obtain the help of seven Neighbours. Initially, you can choose between seven different varieties of Ducks and/or Swans. With the passing of each day, one type of Duck/Swan no longer will be available as a choice.

The Snowman Option in Farmville

After a month or two when I lost interest for the most part in Farmville, my excitement was rekindled somewhat by the ability to craft items at Level 25. As my game progressed rather sporadically, my commitment increased when the Advent season brought many new festive buildings and options. The Holiday Workshop and Christmas Tree, for example, allowed one to collect Gifts. As with most of the holiday buildings, the Gifts generated then could be traded for limited edition Items.

Orchards came into existence during this period, allowing one to harvest from 20 trees at a time and providing the option to obtain 'Mystery Seedlings' that would grow into rare Tree types. A Holiday Tree that was offered as a Free Gift from the Farmville Site could produce Ornament Tree seedlings, although I have not been that fortunate yet with the Mystery Seedlings from my own Orchard.

Other rather gorgeous Trees released over Christmas and the New Year included a Confetti Tree and a Mistletoe Tree.

Zynga cleverly has increased the ways in which one can obtain such useful items as Fertiliser and Watering Cans. Beehives now can generate Fertiliser while a new Snowman building project, when completed will produce Watering Cans. The Fertiliser is a random result, but I do believe that a Snowman ALWAYS will produce Watering Cans.

The Snowman project allowed one to build a Snowman using piles of Snow either obtained in Snowball fights or through requests to Neighbours. Piles of snow were the basic building material, but green buttons, a red scarf and a Magic Hat provided the finishing touches. If the Snowman were completed at the highest level, he would begin to dance. This was rather delightful but I was even more thrilled to discover that I could harvest Watering Cans from him.

As with other holiday buildings, the Level of completion determines the number of items harvested. With the Winter Workshop, Level 1 yields a single Gift, while Level 3 yields 3. In like fashion, a basic Snowman gives a single Watering Can, but a Dancing Snowman with his Magic Hat firmly set upon his head yields 3.

10 Watering Cans are needed to grow Mystery Seedlings. Mystery Seedlings produce rare varieties of Trees that otherwise can be obtained only with Farmville Cash.