Feedback Mill Changes (Part II), Producer Newsletter and Compensation

Howdy Farmers,

Please use this thread to provide feedback regarding the latest Mill changes, explained by our Producer in this newsletter, and additionally detailed in this official announcement and Mill FAQ.

We hope the changes, bonus code and compensations are to your liking.

We apologise once again for the inconvenienced caused and appreciate your understanding.
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Best regards,
Your Farmerama Team

 

I like that the Farmerama Team/BigPoint appears to be way more responsive than in the past. Also, from my side duly noted that the Farmerama Team/BigPoint is very generous when it comes to reimbursing players for issues, whether they are noted by all or not, or whether they fall in the teams responsibility or not.
Saying the handouts I'm tempted to want more issues to get reimbursed for......
To the whole team toiling around to make our farm a better place:
Thank you for all the shown effort, good will, patience and generosity!!!

 

Hello Michael1877

Thank you very much for your feedback and your kind words I am really happy to hear you feel this way.
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Best regards,
teddy.bear

 

Thank you Varun for giving us the third slot...

One suggestion: I would like to see that you can mill power-feed in baha mill.

 

Hello penguilnz

On behalf of our Producer and the Game Team, you are most welcome I am happy you enjoy the 3rd slots of the Mills!

As for the suggestion - it has been brought up to the Team's attention more times than you can imagine.
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Best regards,
teddy.bear

 

Thanks to the team for the compensation code, I feel it is fair. Having the third slot opened for all is nice as well.

As I do not have the cloud row, I did not realize the impact these changes will have for people who do. That is not well done by BP. Making the situation worse than what it was is not a fix. The changes to the mill need to be for the better, not taking away what players already had.

 

Though not sure how the main changes regarding cloud rows work/worked, my only concern is that the decision not to book partial produce seems a bit harsh. Unless the team then advise well in advance when the mill could be needed to mill event items. It would be painful to lose 153 hours of Powerfeed when an event needs a product milled. It makes it hard and scary to plan continuous long term milling with the possibility of cancelling.
Also, kindly clarify in the Announcement whether the third slot is time limited or permanent. The word 'now' is ambiguous to me. See below.

Overally, the changes seem to be on the right path. Keep it up.
Next, auto-harvest of cloud rows...

 

Milling powerfeed with the mill subscription and the rune was 4 hours.
Now it's 4h30. The rune effect was changed.
With the valentine's CR was 3 hours total. Now it's 4h03mn total. Not enough to produce 3 PF within 12 hours.
Somehow I don't feel I had any compensation about the Valentine's cloud row...

 

I usually try to carefully give compliments along with criticisms, but I'm sorry, this new change to the mill output (i.e. partial feed will no longer be given) is ridiculous. I mill 8 PF at a time, no cloud rows. That's 9 hours each PF, 72 hours total. So now, if I happen to be on the 72nd hour and I need to stop the mill in order to mill something for an event, all the previous 72 hours (3 days!) will have been wasted. How is that at all fair or logical? BP spent all this time redesigning the mill and setting up this queue system, presumably so that the mill wouldn't require constant attention...and I feel like now they have negated that, because people aren't going to want to queue large amounts of feed because they'll be running the risk of losing days of mill time. Usually, updates and improvements result in things becoming more user-friendly, more efficient, more streamlined. In the case of the mill, the exact opposite has happened. It's a mess. What's the point of having 2 or 3 slots, if people don't feel like they can mill large amounts of anything?

 

I think I should elaborate more. Sorry for my short post.

1.

@Bhodho I agree with you. I always cancel my productions suddenly, especially during events like the hoppy easter event. If this is going to happen I think I can't get any feed milled.

2. Thank you for the bonus code. For a player with no mill subscription and who doesn't spend money on this game, I think that it will definitely help me to mill more animal feed and power-feed. Just an opinion...

I think that bp has done a great job. The response was fast and bp was so generous that all players had a third slot and 2 weeks of mill subscription. However, please don't let us waste our mill time if we cancel the production. It might make some farmers leave the game. (especially me)

ps: Sorry if I had criticised too much. I have already tried my best to post in a nice tone.
pps:

I'm sorry, I didn't know that. Maybe I really should take a trip to the player suggestions forum.

 

BP giveth, BP taketh away. I had to look for myself. PF does indeed take longer to mill. It was a nice gesture to give 2 weeks of Mill subscription time except that now you have negated that by increasing the time it takes to mill PF. With the "full" batch processing, now one will need to mill 3 smaller batches (using all three queues) for one type of feed in order to not lose precious processing time when one of the almost every day events now asks for you to mill something just for it. Increase the Valentine Cloud Row effective time, but increase the PF time to cut down how many we can produce in that time.

(BTW: The new newsletter wasn't "mostly" devoted to the mill restructuring, it was "only" devoted to the mill restructuring.)

I am still not satisfied that 2 weeks of Mill sub is an adequate compensation for buying the Cloud Row considering that those that did not buy the CR get it too.

 

While I agree with, and thank you for, the good and positive aspects of the Mill changes
- and love the Bonus Code! - I also have to agree with steph2014 above. If we have already given our time to mill X-amount of power feed, then it should be given to us - we have earned it - NOT taken away from us after all that time expended!!! This will negatively affect Events from now on till this is rectified. Sorry, guys, this is a very bad move.

Edit: I had not noticed the PF milling time (which has always been tooooo long in the first place) has also been made even longer!! This move is really baaaad! The changes to Power Feed production will so badly affect responses to Events as to almost negate all the good changes made. Sorry again guys - NOT a happy camper.

 

Although I appreciate the bonus code, but why should others benefit who did not buy the cloud row.
I do not know the complexities of setting up these codes but only us who bought the cloud row in question and have had the trouble associated with it should receive compensation.
I still thank the BP team but????????!!!!

happy farming
Steve

 

Is this a joke?

Time to mill 6 power feed:

	Mill subscription	Mill subscription+cloud row
Before	24 hours	18 hours
New mill	24 hours	22-23 hours
Now	27 hours	25 hours 48 min

We were promised fair compensation, not punishment This is ridiculous beyond words.

I have things I need to focus on in my RL life right now, and cannot afford to get upset (again!). Otherwise I would be really upset.

PS. The other change that you loose all milling time if you cancel, is also a bad change, but I don't have the energy to care

 

Greetings lovely Farmers,

Thank you all for your feedback, both positive and negative.

In the previous newsletter, it was mentioned that future slot(s) will come in the future. The decision was changed, and a new slot was added now, with this change for everyone - the slot is of course, permanently unlocked. I have added a note in the announcement as well.

Constructive criticism is always welcomed - the more details, the better - no need to keep it short.
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Best regards,
teddy.bear

 

Ok but to be fair, whenever bonus codes are given, they are always given for everyone. Think back to when we've gotten bonus codes for free craft items (for example) to compensate for something going wrong during a timed event. Not everyone did those events, either, but they still got an extra ZAB or whatever. Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, everyone's miserable now (whether they have the cloud row or not) because of this "no partial feed" thing. BP has succeeded in alienating everyone this time, not just those who bought the cloud row.

 

I don't understand why with the rework of the mill .... to FIX the issue .... it now takes me more time to mill 6 power feed than it was before .... talk about a kick in the pants ......

maybe they should unfix it would be of more benifit!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Oh dear the phrase ' trouble at mill ' springs to mind!!!!!! I understand where you are coming from Steph but I only started in November so did not receive that code you mention. But I thought BP were trying to be fair obviously not.

 

Count me in the "not happy" group.

 

I don't understand how the buffs are being applied-- there are only 3 that affect the mill: the tree rune, Cloud row and mill subscription. It does not make any sense that buffs which are supposed to save time are now actually adding time. I do not have the mill subscription but will enjoy it for the next 2 weeks (thank you for the bonus code). However, a temporary compensation does not erase the permanent damage of how the mill works now. I don't understand why the partial completion is removed. It eliminates large feed production. I would not want to cancel any order and have that time lost even though the resources themselves are not lost. By removing the partial completion, it also means increased micromanagement instead of less direct oversight. Smaller and more frequent batches would have to be made. Without the mill subscription, I can only mill 2 PF before the cloud row expires. While I appreciate the bonus code and the third slot, it really does not 'fix' the problems of the mill but actually creates more issues. PF aside...for even regular feed....finished feeds need to be available as soon as they are ready in order to either use for own personal consumption or for sale. I am not happy either but am trying my best to not be as upset and angry as I was previously. Maybe it is a good thing I have RL plans today and will be away from the farm. It really is hard to believe that anyone at BP considers this a fair adjustment to the game. I would rather have the old mill back than all these new 'improvements.'

The monthly newsletter does not address other scopes of the game. It has now been 2 months with no word on future development (coral reef, Gift/Trade...). This one is only addressing current issues. Information is lacking. Sorry, but I think newsletter should encompass both current issues and future plans. With only monthly newsletters and time needed to adjust problems, it leaves too much time in between updates. If BP wanted to address just current issues only, then the stars issue should be addressed too. BP acknowledges that they made a mistake by removing them but have yet to put them back for events and the new FSQ released that is a permanent quest does not award stars and we were told that permanent quests would keep stars.