Outtatheblu
06-26-10, 11:24 AM
Hi there,
I spend way too much time on this game, but it's starting to lose its appeal.
Suggestions:
1) In the app store, the 'sales pitch' for this item says there are over 100 plants, trees and flowers available. I only counted 37. Where are the rest? Are some of them not available on an iTouch? I can't wait to see what new items are added in the next update!
2) Ease of use: As farms increase in size, there is a dramatic increase in the amount of taps we need to replant a crop; a 20x20 farm would require 1203 taps (assuming you don't miss) to first collect, then plow, then replant all items. Where is the fun in that? I definitely don't want to do that every 4 hours, let alone every day or two. Some have suggested tractors, but I think the easiest way to improve this function would be a click-and-drag to select an entire area and either harvest, plow, or replant all squares in that area.
3) Pricing of gems: I know there are people out there who will spend $250 on this game without thinking. I have one app where the top player in the world has spent a minimum of $5,000. However, counting on those few people with more money than brains is not going to sustain a business. If you see the pricing for items on a farm, it costs $3 for one duck, $5 for one horse, over $10 for a dog, and $10 for a building that's not even that spectacular. If you wanted to capture the most 'premium' players are willing to pay, you need to offer a higher variety of differently-priced items. Lower the price of gems (by at least 50-75%) and then add other 'special' items whose actual cost is $10 or higher. This gives players who would normally not spend anything on the game tan incentive to spend $.50 or $1 for one item, and opens up an entirely new demographic of paying customers. I make decent money, but I'm never going to spend $10 on a building. I would however consider spending $1.
4) Neighbor sorting: I would like to see a couple different report options for neighbors. The most useful to me would be to sort by who has most recently watered your farm. The way I'd suggest programming this sort option is to determine how many 'waters' that player has left for your farm (i.e. those with 0 would be at the top, because they have watered your farm 10 times). Those with 10 left would be at the bottom of the list, as they have not watered your farm that day. You could also add a column showing how many waters you have left on their farm, which would eliminate me visiting a farm twice. These options would increase server load, but it would also really decrease the load on the comment board, as I won't need to add a comment on my neighbor's farm to let them know I've watered.
5) I really like the one idea I saw on here that suggested alternate bonuses for some of the higher cost items (i.e. a water pump giving you one extra water for your neighbors, the barn adding coin value for your animals, a grain silo increasing the time before your crops wilt). This idea deserves an additional post.
Thanks for listening!
I spend way too much time on this game, but it's starting to lose its appeal.
Suggestions:
1) In the app store, the 'sales pitch' for this item says there are over 100 plants, trees and flowers available. I only counted 37. Where are the rest? Are some of them not available on an iTouch? I can't wait to see what new items are added in the next update!
2) Ease of use: As farms increase in size, there is a dramatic increase in the amount of taps we need to replant a crop; a 20x20 farm would require 1203 taps (assuming you don't miss) to first collect, then plow, then replant all items. Where is the fun in that? I definitely don't want to do that every 4 hours, let alone every day or two. Some have suggested tractors, but I think the easiest way to improve this function would be a click-and-drag to select an entire area and either harvest, plow, or replant all squares in that area.
3) Pricing of gems: I know there are people out there who will spend $250 on this game without thinking. I have one app where the top player in the world has spent a minimum of $5,000. However, counting on those few people with more money than brains is not going to sustain a business. If you see the pricing for items on a farm, it costs $3 for one duck, $5 for one horse, over $10 for a dog, and $10 for a building that's not even that spectacular. If you wanted to capture the most 'premium' players are willing to pay, you need to offer a higher variety of differently-priced items. Lower the price of gems (by at least 50-75%) and then add other 'special' items whose actual cost is $10 or higher. This gives players who would normally not spend anything on the game tan incentive to spend $.50 or $1 for one item, and opens up an entirely new demographic of paying customers. I make decent money, but I'm never going to spend $10 on a building. I would however consider spending $1.
4) Neighbor sorting: I would like to see a couple different report options for neighbors. The most useful to me would be to sort by who has most recently watered your farm. The way I'd suggest programming this sort option is to determine how many 'waters' that player has left for your farm (i.e. those with 0 would be at the top, because they have watered your farm 10 times). Those with 10 left would be at the bottom of the list, as they have not watered your farm that day. You could also add a column showing how many waters you have left on their farm, which would eliminate me visiting a farm twice. These options would increase server load, but it would also really decrease the load on the comment board, as I won't need to add a comment on my neighbor's farm to let them know I've watered.
5) I really like the one idea I saw on here that suggested alternate bonuses for some of the higher cost items (i.e. a water pump giving you one extra water for your neighbors, the barn adding coin value for your animals, a grain silo increasing the time before your crops wilt). This idea deserves an additional post.
Thanks for listening!