Almost had enough...

I've been playing this game daily for several months, and i'm getting quite frustrated. My goal was to find a background game to get through some more menial tasks at work. Something not very time intensive whose cost would be equivalent to what I input.

IMO This game can be fun, but ONLY IF you invest some $ into the Harvester, Seeder etc. But i'm sorry, it is not worth 20 USD a month I'd pay to use all the features and not worry about ads or Fyber. And yet... The offerwall is filled with scams... Fyber has a solid 1 star on the BBB for a reason. I found that out the hard way after being cheated repeatedly and given the run around if you complain to customer service. The 1-2 BB i can get from the "movie theatre" helps, but it just isn't enough to supplement and keep the costs down.

So what are the rest of you doing to actually enjoy this game in the long run? Are you not using the feature I find essential to stay sane? Are you investing more that I find reasonable for the gameplay?

 

I buy the monthly harvester subscription (all functions) every month when it goes on sale, the price is then reduced by 30%. It is on sale right now for a few more hours. Personally I wouldn't play the game without the harvest helpers or if I did I would have to change my play style a lot to make it work. The events require so many crops to be grown you need to use 1x1 plots with CAC to finish most of them, and I wouldn't harvest them all by hand. That said, there are farmers who have played this game for years without buying anything, and also doing the events. That is more time demanding though. You can also shift your focus in the game to things that are less click intensive, like raising animals and playing the market.

 

I've been playing this game for close to 9 years now and haven't spent a single cent on it.

The beauty (in my opinion) of this game is that it is so multi-faceted and multi-layered that you can choose how you want to play it. No aspect of it is mandatory. Do you want to be an event player? Do you want to be a quest player? Do you want to play the market? Do you want to do some menial farming? You can be and do what you want, and don't have to do everything.

Naturally, paying for the game brings many advantages. Most events these days have such high crop requirements that 1x1 plots and CAC are necessities. That is physically demanding to harvest. A seeder and harvester is really helpful there, and I'm sure there are payment options that help boost CAC levels as well (directly or indirectly). This is why I rarely play events. It is not practical for me to constantly be harvesting, planting, watering and manuring multiple fields worth of 1x1 plots several times a day, by hand. I hoard my coupons and use them for events I do choose to partake in, or on the rare occasion where I'm in a rush to harvest. I have chosen a style of gameplay where I am mostly working towards personal goals, and leave the events to others.

In many ways, I find the free gameplay to be a wonderful source of mindfulness. There is something quite therapeutic about methodically harvesting every morning, of gradually getting closer to completing a quest, of setting targets and slowly reaching them. As I said, I rarely partake in the fast-paced, stressful events (I have said elsewhere that I am very partial to the holiday events, especially the Christmas events, so those are the only ones I go all out for). I have chosen to focus my efforts more on completing quests, building up stock in the barn or increasing my CC level.

Again, this comes with it's downsides (depending on how you see it). In nearly 9 years I have only made it to level 93 on the main farm. There are many early quests I am yet to complete. But I am not interested in this game for fast progression. I do not care what level I am or how fast I reach the next one - that is not my goal. I am more interested in the methodical practice of having goals and working hard to reach them. I even give away my coloured pens and tree upgrades in favour of working with the basics, because I am less interested in fast-tracking the completion of a quest and more interested in doing everything by myself from scratch. I do not buy feed; I make it. If I don't have enough manure in stock, I go without, instead of buying someone else's. Again, that is the beauty of this game - just as I can choose to be 100% responsible for my own farm, others are free to use the shared resources of others, if that's how they want to go about it. Either is fine.

It is an excellent way of practicing some of the more virtuous aspects of life. It is very easy to see the rewards of an event and immediately want them. The fact that many players have fantastic givers and cloud rows that progress them through levels much faster than I do is not a fact that has passed me by. I am well aware that I do not have as many givers, cloud rows, pets, animal stalls, wonder stables, wonder trees etc. as others. But seeing the rewards of an event and skipping it anyway is a wonderful way - for me, at least - of practicing not being able to have everything immediately, of practicing not having as much as everyone else and being ok with that.

I don't buy 100 wonder trees as many do. I rely on the cinema for my BBs, so I use those sparingly. I can always get those trees later through gift and trade. As I'm sure you've gathered by this, my game style is very much about doing what I can do, reaping whatever rewards that naturally offers me, and being ok to wait until a later time to get what others have now.

But it's ok if that game style does not suit you, and if it does not, then playing without paying is really challenging. It's all about choosing how you want to play, and whether or not that requires payment. From my end, it is very much possible to play this for free and enjoy that - if the slow-paced, mindful way of playing is your cup of tea. If it's not, maybe free play is not all that fantastic.

 

Your goals can change depending on your available time or money. I think the best part of the game for me is the strategy. Strategy involves managing well the available resources. These are time, BB, cc, farm space, supergrow, ect. If the resources were unlimited it wouldn't be any fun. When I had more money I used to like to use the BB just because it added a layer of complexity to the game; a limited resource that I could manage.

You get to pick the goal(s) based on your current situation.

Right now I'm a quest player. I set up my farm to win quests. Not long ago I was farming at the library. I had no money for Wifi at home. I didn't win many quests that way. Sometimes the prizes are not bad at the beginning of a quest, and they can be achieved without much work. I make a goal to finish the first 5 tasks, then go back to regular farming.

The way you describe why you started playing, you could farm once a day with long acting stables, workshops, trees and crops, and leave one or two fields for short growing things to break up the workday. That way it isn't too time consuming.

I have even planted comfort fields with long acting crops just to force myself not to farm those areas except every few days. If I know when a quest is coming these comfort fields often give great drops at the beginning of quest as well. Of course, there are opportunity costs for what you might have grown if you had not tied up the field with crops that are not worth that much.

Strategy involves do I want to grow specialize and grow only those things of the highest value to sell in the market, and buy what I need? How much should I diversify to make sure I have what I need for quests? (or provide what is needed for quests at much higher prices) Can I anticipate the next animals that will be available for breeding. I want to be on the selling side when the prices are high because of a quest. How can I accomplish that?

Another example of strategy: I buy the 30 tree pack to ensure I get the most current tree. I do this maybe every two years. My goal is to make up for those trees I haven't acquired for a couple years, and get a current tree to have something to trade for neon staples. I really want the neon stalls, but I buy the tree packs or stable packs every couple years because other farmers want the current trees, and are willing to trade neon stalls for it. I have two horse neon stalls and 3 pink horse stalls. (Neon give 4 animals, pink give 3.) I had over 5000 horses at the recent event just from keeping those on the field.

I never try to do the new quests. I'll sell the higher priced things to players that want to do these quests first, and come back and do the quests when the price drops.

The possible strategies are far to complex within the game to even be able to articulate them all. Players approach it differently which is what makes the game work.