Santapalooza: SantaCon 2014 Strategy

solo - I think you will be fine...you need less than the daily average and we still have 2 days to go.

As a side note: event crops do not typically give the best drop rate since they are short(er) timed crops so growing extra event crops for drops is not a good strategy. Grow long crops overnight and you will see a difference in your morning harvest.

 

Question: Longest growing crop or Event crop on lower levels? What difference does it make, if any?
Let me explain you why I ask:
The basic time the even crop needs is 6 hours (without bonuses to decrease the time).
My crops with the longest time I can grow at level 34 are Cabbages, Rosemary and Beans, all 4 1/2 hours without bonuses to decrease the time.

So... for me, the longest growing crop is actually the event crop. So, if I'd be going for the longest growing crop to plant overnight, I'd have to plant the event crop, thinking along that line, that is.
Is this indeed the way to go? Besides all the trees, that is? Cause the trees all take a LOT longer, of course.

 

yes, Sheriziya - for you, growing the event crop overnight is best. Good luck!

 

Thanks, Pnp, for confirmation! Good to know I've made the right decision

 

Whew - done. They really were tight on the drops. Fortunately somebody sold 2000 dogs at 10cc each on my market, so I bought the lot and upgraded my animal trophy!

 

Jute - Done
Animals - Next.
Time - Challenge...

 

May the wind be behind you....

 

It actually doesn't matter what crop is grown. In the example above, better results may be achieved by planting cabbage or whatever in that growth time range twice. Or whatever shorter more than twice.

What does matter, the key thing, is to keep fields busy, with little to no idle time, considering also as "idle" the time between maturation of the crop to be harvested and actual harvest. Minimizing idle time is the best any player can do to increase her/his chance of getting more drops -apart from the long set of other suggestions in this sense (see Suzee's thread on event strategies)-.

That's why I always say that always betting for the longest growth time crop is somewhat misleading. If a player doesn't need any more event crops but does need event drops and plans to be around rather frequently, then it's better for him/her to plant whatever s/he needs, whatever it is (I've seen more than 1 Santa Hat popping up even from fields with carrots or wheat in 1x1s...).

 

I agree completely Aluntino. The example above was about overnight crops and with the longest crop being only 4.5 hours, fields remain less idle if planted with event crops. I know it has been said by several of our sage farmers that it is best to plant whatever fits your schedule best in order to keep fields turning over. Lower levels will find that harder to do for overnight crops when they haven't reached a crop of 'overnight' length.

I have carnations unlocked but I don't always use it overnight because my sleep habits mean that I would be sitting around waiting for them to be ready so I do plant what fits my early morning schedule best.

Good luck to those still working!

 

In the past, I have had just the opposite experience, a LOT more drops than crops. That said, i am quite a bit short. I harvested 2 full fields, one with the trophy, and got no event drops at all. I don't move my trophies to each field before harvesting, no. I can try that. I DID, however, have a spring bouquet (boosting EP) AND a Carrot Apple Chutney (presume that's the CAC you were referring to?) I use the comfort fields for all my supergrow, and 1x1 for the rest.

I am planting just Jute, but overnight I used the comfort fields with supergrow. now I am out of supergrow, and I also have enough event drops.

I have over 3.000 Jute right now, almost enough to finish, (will have enough when I harvest what I have planted) but I have not gotten enough hats to finish even one more level since last night. What I have gotten has mostly come from Baha.

Right now, I am planting various shorter term crops to harvest, and plan to do a longer crop tonight.

You seem to be getting slightly more presents than Santa hats, but it does not seem to be an unusual variation. What do you want us to see?

At any rate, I am totally jealous. I got just 29 Santa hats from harvesting ALL my fields this morning. The regular ones were full of Jute, Baha had pepper, bamboo and pandas.

 

I have completed this Event Earlier today but was to tired to post, until now as I was out nearly all day yesterday....

Anyway I did make a Great Posting on How to Boost Event Drops in old forum...But here are some basic Pointers that will Help those who are short on event drops...

1) Before An Event Starts try to Maximise your Farm to get Best Event Drops when harvesting your Farm, That way you under less pressure to get the remaining needed event Drop Items.

2) Try to Avoid Idling your farm whenever you can, the more often you can reap your farm the more Event Drops you can Get

3) If you have Howie Donuts use them before havesting you farm to boost Event Drops

4) If you not got Living Legend unlocked plant your Animal and Crop Trophy before harvesting those Fields

There is a way to get Better Drops than growing your Longest Time Crops....simply growing lesser time Refined Crops......Refinement is a way that reduce growing time on varies crops as to each crop the growing time is more effective than others using the means of supergrow, Manure or Water

As I am Refining my crops all the time, As i can get more event drops on lesser time crops than my longest timed crops....As Carnations is my longest timed crops without refinements but i no longer need to stock on carnations....

For those who do Refined Crops as it can be even more effective using them with comfort fields certain crops that are too short time to be used as overnight crop can become ideal for overnight crop used with refinements using comfort fields

 

Mooboy, Thank You! I just came on here to see if I can get some pointers on helping with drops. And you're here! With the answer! Great timing!

I don't have a Howie Donut (sure wish I bought one from that pirate guy at a discounted price now), but I do have refinements. Adding them right now.

I don't have comfort fields on this farm yet, but Blazie does, so that will help there with refinements.

Thanks again!

 

What is a Howie Donut? Was it an event item or can you still buy them?

 

woody - I tried to send you a Santa hat but received a popup you don't exist. If you send me an IGM, I will send you a drop.

 

woody,

Since you don't tell if you already have -at this time (earlier, 2/3s)- 80% or more of the drops you need for the goals you have set for yourself for this event, it's hard to assess if you're OK or not regarding the event's drops and if you really need to do something more than what you're already doing.

But from what you do tell, I gather that you're indeed already OK and just need to be patient. Unless you won't be around, it appears to be that you'll be way more than OK by event's end, provided you get your farm busy most or all of the time and you allow yourself the least possible idle time in any field. (In my 2 lower lvl farms, crops are done but I'm still short of both event's drops: I'm not worried at all because I know there is more than enough time left to get them).

Bahamara event's drops are always better than main farm's. I guess it's related to the higher (B-)EP/plot/hr yield they have. Though drops performance is not tied to EPs yield but more to total time of plots actually producing something (the less idle time, the better drops; the less individual time for each plot, the better drops -that's why, for example, XXL trees are better than XLs and these are better than the plain ones, for drops maximization purposes-) and total quantity of single plots in production (the more plots, the better drops), I've been observing that Baha crops and pens (not trees) usually yield more event's drops per hour per plot than any plot used in any way in main farm. But you won't ever get all needed event's drops from Baha.

 

my farm name is wuddy. I certainly appreciate all the hats I can get right now!

 

I finished earlier today and what do you know, now it's raining Santa hats!

 

Thanks to those who have gifted me hats.
checking the time, looks as though I will get enough hats for the cheese factory and baker's delight, but not the nutcracker, (already have the pyramid).

That is not a bad "take". I will try to collect some of the other odds and ends, but I won't take the cloud row unless I can get the nutcracker.

 

Post #7...
https://board-en.farmerama.com/index.php?threads/general-event-strategies.10970/


Because of my goof, I still need 21 presents on my 2nd farm. I should have those in a few. Explanation below.

I've never bothered to track drops by field. Only the whole farm. Mostly the whole day. Since... "All drops are random."

Does this help? I wasn't able to edit the other one. I had to completely recreate the table since they don't provide the HTML.

	Recent Harvest	Previous Harvest	Difference
Farm #1
Presents	682	542	140
Santa Hats	629	490	139
Farm #2
Presents	583	531	52
Santa Hats	532	492	40
Farm #3
Presents	717	589	128
Santa Hats	558	453	105

When I was planting my overnight crops...
My auto-pilot failed me. LOL! As I was planting Farm #3 that night it dawned on me I had probably planted event crops on Farm #2. Sure enough... I goofed.
Event crops are 6h. Carnations are almost 19h. Watered 6h crop takes almost 5h. Watered "refined" carnations take 13:01. I can grow one round of "refined" carnation in the time it takes to grow roughly 2.5 round of 6h crops. I did get up at 2a to check the plumbing but was too drowsy to fuss with the computer. That is why I have roughly 2.5 times more drops on Farms #1&3 than on #2 from that one harvest.

Consider using 4.5h crops in comfort fields... 4.5h x4= 18h w/ water 14:24? w/ water & manure almost 13h
4h crop might be better...

You can use Illy's SOS thread to request drops.

BTW: The low number of Santa hats on #3 is an example of "All drops are random". And maybe the difference of random number generator on the different servers.

BTW2: If a cloud has a grayed out image... click on it to see which item is required. If a cloud is white you can put almost any giver on it. Click to see which ones. For 1x2s I used some sandcastles that we were able to daily gift each other for a while. Also Mummy's from Jack's Shop. Not saying it's the best use of your MM crops. Maybe we have another G&T someday...

I think I saw some Santa's sneak over to the Spa. Hats optional.

 

Sorry, but this does not seem to mention where one get's the howie donuts. Are they no longer available? If you can still get them, where. Are they a craft item available in the market or something sold in the "store"?