Organization Help Part I

Hello my fellow farmers!

I read here in the Forums {a long time ago} that a few people actually keep written information in a notebook. Now, last time I played, I wasn't really much of a planner nor a "student" of the game.
This time, however, I'd like to keep track of things as I go. My primary goal {for now} is to earn as many stars as possible to open more Bonuses from the Tree. Over time of course, my goals will change ~ I just think if I can get organized, I'll be a much "happier camper", especially when it comes to Quests and Events

I bought a couple of 5 Section spiral notebooks {with 40 pages per section} with each section divided into 3 more or less equal pages. I'm thinking of organizing them like so ~

I. Animals .... Main Baja Moon. So right here is my first "stuck point". Am I listing only the names of the critters & how many are in Inventory {with updates over time} OR am I listing *Stables* {with their upgrades, if any}? Both?

II. Workshops .... Main Baja Moon {2/3rds of the section}, reserving the remaining pages for Products

III. Trees ..... Main Baja Moon.

IV. "OTHER" for BBs Stars Bananas FC Party Tickets TM SG SSG CC's AND "other" Inventory such as Blueprints and more important items. Things like saws, hammers, and nails would be excluded.

V. Givers arranged according to the type of bonuses they confer. So ... SubHeading 1 would be bonuses pertaining to anything related to Flowers. SubHeading 2 for Givers that increase the XP granted for other giver items and so on.

wow .... this was a long post and I'm tired. Maybe in the next few days, I'll write up Part II having to do with Crops and Breeding.

Thanks in advance for your help with this.
With much affection, Trout

 

Hi, Trout, I also am a lover of lists and need visual reminders for things to 'stick'. For the moment, the only written and printed (since I 'write' on the PC and print) lists I have are for my friends and neighbors for gifting and items needed for Cloud Rows (CR) or wished for in Gift and Trade event (the G&T is usually comprised of items needed for FS tasks). I have the second list on small notepad size and lost it several times already! The gifting list is on A4 paper and sits under my keyboard. Your idea of 5 section spiral notebooks sounds like a good idea for keeping things organized.

Personally I prefer to use spreadsheets on my PC so I can sort them more easily (A, B, C; quantity; etc.). But after playing almost 4 years, I'm finding the game does a nice job of sorting things for me. I can go to the barn and from the dropdown column, can select Main/Baha/MM categories, then the next column over I can sort by Level/Amount/Time/Value. This sorting feature seems to be available in the barn, FS tasks, Seeder function of the Assistant; Cloud Row. It's taken me a while to discover how these work, but it's been a huge help as I tend to lose things or bury them under clutter.

For Givers - having a printed list is a real help and I keep open several tabs on PC of the different types like Piccolo Box, Pets, and now Edelweiss Valley (EV) as I hope to soon open that area. The downside to having myriad open tabs is the difficulty seeing which is what. My kids are always complaining about how many I have (75+, but who's counting?!)

I truly relate to your wish to organize and I hope others will post their own methods as I know I will also benefit from their responses.

 

Hi Trout So good to see you again!

I'm also a list keeper and my preferred method is a spreadsheet with multiple tabs of categories I want to keep track of. I had a spreadsheet that I began in 2012 when I started playing, but in the summer of 2020 my computer suddenly stopped working and I lost everything. The motherboard was the problem and the tech people could not recover anything. I learned the importance of backing up my files. This was before the mysterious Cloud so I should have had a copy on a jump drive. Lesson learned.

I did attempt to recreate the files, but found it to be too labor intensive. The biggest loss was my list of givers that were sorted by size and EP/hour/plot. I could tell at a glance which ones could be replaced. There are too many givers to recreate the list (I had over 1500 and that was 2020). I have had to let that go

You mention being stuck on your Animals list. To know what you need to record, you need to clearly define what it is you want to know. I don't keep track of specific inventory as MeadowCrossing has stated, I can find that in the barn by sorting. I do keep track of specific items I would like to add to my inventory such as stables, trees, etc so I can look for them in Gift and Trade or do events that have them as a prize.

The current Detective event is a perfect example. Had the Dracula parrot prize been something I already have enough of, I wouldn't have made the effort to reach that level. However, I have just 1 dracula parrot and greatly appreciate the opportunity to add a 2nd one.

Best wishes as you get organized! Welcome back

 

I used to keep spiral notebooks filled with farming info that I entered data daily. After I started my 3rd book, I gave it up. Took too much time. I already devote enough time to just playing Farmerama, it began to feel like a job.

Now, I'm being passed up by my neighbors on levels. I do spend $$ in the game...and have started upgrading givers. But, I'm reminding myself....it's just a game. Possibly need to start new hobbies.

 

I did make spreadsheets for animal stalls and their upgrade to plan how to maximize my menageries. Same for the trees. There's no need to keep track of the amount of things in your inventory, just using the sorting options can let you know in a sec which of the items you have less of.

I redid my giver parks so that I can know exactly what I can change. I keep my givers that hand out crates at the bottom of my screen (I manyally placed the there). For me crates are more powerful than EP/TEP. Gaining levels may be an option for Bahamarama because that's the easiest way to get Golden Bananas, but gaining levels on the main farm just adds more FSQs to work on and they don't hand out anything good... After placing down my crate giving givers, I just fill the rest of the space with my best EP/TEP givers from the top down until the parks are filled. I've put my best givers on the first giver park because you can activate a 10% more EP rune in the Wisdom Tree. Then I go do the same for the other giver park, etc.

When I get a new giver I replace the first one that touches my crate giving givers (it's my EP/TEP that offers the lowest amount) and just go back up. If I get one giver that is only meant for the main land or baha, I replace the lowest giver there. At some point you'll have an eye to spot where your lowest giver his and you can replace it.

If you have nothing in the Haunted Manor park, always check if you can place your givers there. That's an easy way to keep more free space on the other parks. There's also the pet playgrounds where it's a good idea to only place them there and not on "normal" parks. Just to help you out, Hamsters fly traps can be placed there and they're good givers!

I don't keep tabs on the cloud row bonuses, except that I aligned flower/MM bonus' cloud rows together for one day and the next day for veggies. My flower/MM cloud row day is my best day, all new EP/TEP boosting cloud row are assigned to that day (the best cloud rows are usually 48h long). My "veggie" day is where I harvest less cloud rows. When I get a new cloud row I decide on what day to assign it.

This makes it easier to know how to harvest givers too! You could place your high EP/TEP givers in Baha at first and once you have opened everyting with your Golden Bananas, move them back on your main farm parks. This all depends on the style of play you want to do. Good luck with everything and don't forget that you can always change your mind about something!

 

First, I want to thank you all for your responses.

Second, because of what you posted, I have a NEW organizational plan and would appreciate your thoughts about it.

What if I looked up Quests and selected the ones I think will be the most beneficial? Now because most of them do not give very good rewards, I don't necessarily do all 3 levels per task. For example, if there are six tasks with 3 steps each, I look at the rewards & decide which steps I will or won't do. So in that example there are a possible total of 18 steps & donations to get through. However, I often only do, say, 10 to 12 or 13 of them.

Okay, so with the above in mind, here's my new tentative plan:

(A) Research quests
(B) Select which I'd like to do for Baja and/or the mainland.
(C) Make a record {in my notebook} of what is required.
(D) Use the Drop Down Menus to see how much I have of the requirements.
(E) From that information, record how much of each thing I need to acquire OR if I have enough inventory already.
(F) Get busy!



Thanks in advance, Trout

 

Hi, Trout, that sounds like a good plan, especially as you like writing down things. I wish I was more able to do the same, but I have way too much paper - and notepads - scattered around). Especially with our recent move/new language, etc. I am buried under paper, so for now, need another way to organize myself.

In the game, I tend to use the drop down sorting feature and keep it at 'Progress' so the ones I am working on - usually two or three - are at the top. I check what they need, and place or remove critters/trees/crops accordingly. For example, I'll select the pumpkin (for MM quests), then in the next column, click that dropdown and select 'Progress'. I used to try to do about a dozen at a time, but my progress was slow, and someone suggested I focus on a few at a time and that is working better for my style of play. Some quests definitely take much longer than others (breeding quests are the bane of my game!), so sometimes I look for ones I can knock out quickly and which also reward things like Tree Stars because I want to open EV! I have also done as you plan to do and just do steps/levels which reward things like SG/SSG/Stars (over bananas). I think you're doing quite well in developing a strategy which works for you!

Be sure to keep a list of items you want/need for this month's Gift & Trade and post to the Forum when the event goes live.

Wishing you a lovely day and happy farming!

 

Wow .... didn't know there was a G & T coming up ~ stands to reason though, with this being Christmas time.

 

December Preview Calendar has it down for 27-30 December!

 

You can mark your favorite FSQ with the green bookmark, just click on it inside and it will fill up and turn green. After that you can sort your FSQ with the bookmark option and only see those. You can keep track of what is needed, gather everything you need and then complete it or you can donate after each harvest. Don't forget that you can purchase up to 300 crops each day in your seed market (of course you'll need to have activated the rune in the Tree of Wisdom for this). There's not much to be had from the FSQs prizewise, even in the Bahamarama FAQs you'll likely get stars instead of golden bananas...

Good luck @nwTrout1 !

 

The only list I have at the moment is the list of crop numbers I need to grow, and how many I have grown so far, for the quests I'm working on. I've got a bunch of those really high-crop quests underway and I want to grow everything I need before donating. It will probably take me a few years! I'm 46.3% of the way (my spreadsheet calculates for me what percentage of the way to completion I am for each crop). It's such a handy way of keeping track! I do need to start a clearer system for tracking what buffs I have and when to use them, and I also want to create a list of the stables and trees I have so I know what to get rid of vs keep at various trade/train events