Messages to Neighbors: Stop the limitations!!

I just opened a new thread regarding the mentoring system and it evolved quickly to a thread about the limitations regarding the communication between neighbors.

At this point I think this subject is worth it's own thread. So please forgive me that I will re-post some of the points made in the thread regarding the mentoring system:

Mainly I am interested in getting away with the feature that only allows me to send a certain amount of messages to my neighbors within a limited time period. Although I understand the supposed reason behind this feature (preventing spamming), I believe that this is absolutely counterproductive. It actively prevents a discussion between players unless we all are online at the same time and can meet in the chat room. And btw. no other online game that I ever played included that limitation of communication.

Especially considering happenings like the missing FAQ in the last event and the fact that a completely new Event-Mechanic has been introduced, made the communication between players an even more important part of the game (for example being able to ask for special presents like EP buffs, etc.). I let all of my neighbors know that the information could only be found in the strategy thread of the forum instead of the Event FAQ - a part of the forum I don't usually pay attention to, because I like figuring out my strategies by myself. Figuring that I am not the only person thinking that way, it was important to me to let everybody know what was going on. Passing on that crucial information took me several hours because of the cool down time for messages.

At least between neighbors we should be able to send as many messages as we want to each other; meaning that if there is spamming, we can just delete the specific neighbor of our list.


At this point CaliChrome suggested to allow a Send All button just for neighbors, which I think is a great idea.

It would be so much easier to pass along information: For example "I am a confectioner and I need Preserving Sugars." That means that they would not at all be interested in presents like Salt. I believe that this feature would help a lot, especially people that just reached level 40 and are still short on drops or that just opened up Bahamarama/Spa and would like to ask for Red Punches/Herbal Elixiers.

Right now BigPoint doesn't even let us copy and paste messages, which is really wrong. I sometimes send PJs or or even just little EP helpers like Strawberry muffins to my lower level neighbors that haven't reached level 40 yet and therefore can't buy any of those goodies yet. But that means as well that they don't usually know what I am sending, let alone how to use the buffs correctly. I tend to send a message with those special presents including some instructions on how to use them and how to get the most out of them. So now I have to write my messages in word first and save them on my computer, then I copy and paste from that file. Why I have to go through so much trouble to help out other players is just incomprehensible to me!!!

Anyway I still do it because I like the thought of mentoring new players and helping each other out, when needed. I hope that this way the game is more enjoyable for my "newbies" and let's them look forward to new features which can be opened up later in the game.

And off course getting rid of those limitations would lead to a stronger community and a more enjoyable game for everybody.

 

I firmly agree. I had an emergency and was shocked when I could not notify my neighbors that I was taking a vacation. I can see not being able to send to the entire farmerama community and such, but why not to all your neighbors?

 

You can send messages to 10 neighbors and then only need to wait 10 minutes to send 10 more. I don't see this as a problem. It's not very often that we would have the need to send out messages to everyone.

 

weedeater, normally I agree with you, but in cases like woody, you may not have much time to wait the down time to send to all your neighbors. If you could just send to all your neighbors at once you can do it in like 5 minutes max. Kinda like how it's done in another BP game.

B

 

I can see waiting to send an additional message, but not to send the same one.. particularly a "I am going on vacation" notice. In my case, I had enough to worry about, but I had to do other stuff online, so thought I would try to let folks know I would be gone. Also, the 10 is just arbitrary. Setting it at the max number of neighbors would not be a big stretch, just a minor programming change.

I guess that is probably the real point. This would not be a big deal to change, and would not really cause problems for other players, and would help some in some cases, so it seems like a reasonable request.

In fact, I would like to see a simple key/code, whatever that would just say "I am leaving on vacation now" en masse. That would be hard to abuse.

Even with that, thought, I can see j's point. As long as its just neighbors.. why not?

 

Would have been handy this morning when I let my neighbors know about the bonus code. I like woody's idea of a simple key/code. There could even be a limit of once per day on it if it's thought that it might be abused. I also like to let my neighbors know when I've achieved the needed amount of drops for an event or when I need more event drop items.

 

I agree with woody that the number of neighbors should be the measure, not a randomly chosen number as 10 (at least I don't see a technical limitation here). And, also the point made that this is messaging between neighbors and not community wide messaging is valid. In case somebody is not happy with the received messages, or receiving messages, there is still the option to block a sender or in the worst case to remove the sender from the buddy/neighbor list.

I know this is only a workaround, but until there is a in-game solution, why don't you use Notepad or Word to write your message and copy and paste it from there? This way you can easily prepare repeating messages and even archive them for later use.....

 

I agree with you and I would also like copy-paste to be available to use in the mails