Unlike FarmVille, which left users eagerly anticipating the English Countryside expansion for weeks or even months, Zynga's team behind FrontierVille has started the festivities relating to the Oregon Trail just hours after releasing an official trailer for the new expansion. New content has launched in the game today, in the form of the Oregon Ho! goal that we told you about just this morning.
The goal contains the same three requirements that we told you about in our sneak peek: Collect nine pages from the Medical Journal, watch the Oregon Trail video, and collect 10 Snake Bite Kits. However, you'll receive a set of decorative items along the way that we didn't know about before (and that you can learn about behind the break). But first, the Snake Bite kits are earned through a general news post asking all of your friends for help, while the Journal pages are earned by "performing various actions on your Homestead."
Indeed, I received pages of the Medical Journal by simply accepting friends' help with feeding animals, and by clearing debris on my land. This is the same sort of setup as seen back in the Rango mission released back in February. That is, as you collect Journal pages, you won't just earn progress towards the Oregon Ho! goal, you'll also earn three exclusive items as prizes along the way.
Your three items are the Weiner Campfire, the Pelt Line (earned at six Journal pages) and the Paisley Medical Kit, which is received when you've found all nine Journal pages required. On top of all of this, for completing the Oregon Ho! mission itself, you'll also receive 100 coins, 300 XP and a Camp Pack, like the one seen at right (that normally costs more than 7,000 coins in the store).
As you're told at the beginning of this quest, Doc Auburn's nephew, Doc Paisley, is headed off to the Oregon Trail on May 30, presumably the day when the entire Oregon Trail expansion will launch. Sure, that's a long time away, but as we're already receiving tasks to work on related to the Oregon Trail, we can only imagine that the next few weeks in FrontierVille will be very interesting indeed.
What are you waiting for? You don't want to be left behind when Doc Paisley heads off on the Oregon Trail, do you? Complete this goal and then head back here to learn more of what to expect from the upcoming expansion, as we bring you all of the latest news as it becomes available. Or, you can just play the old Apple II version of the Oregon Trail that has inspired it all to pass some time. It's up to you.
Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here.
Are you excited for the Oregon Trail's release in FrontierVille? Were you hoping that the Oregon Trail would work as the English Countryside in FarmVille, giving you an entire second Homestead to build on and grow?
Thứ Sáu, 30 tháng 12, 2011
FarmVille Let's Build feature allows for faster use of building materials
Remember how we were promised a new way (a quicker way) to complete our building projects in FarmVille, by simply being allowed to more quickly use each individual building ingredient we have in our Gift Box? Well, the time for that merciful change is now, as Zynga has released the "Let's Build!" feature in the game today.
To activate this mode, simply click "Use" on any building ingredient in your Gift Box. You'll then see your farm magically (ok, maybe not magically, but automatically) transform, showing you all of the buildings/items that currently need that particular ingredient highlighted in blue. As an example, I clicked on a Shovel in my Gift Box, and was then shown a bright blue outline around my Storage Cellar and my Duck Pond, as both need Shovels to expand.
Hovering over a building turns the outline from blue to orange, and your cursor changes to show you how many of that particular ingredient you can add. In keeping with my Shovel example, you can see that I have five Shovels in my inventory, and that my Duck Pond already has two of the Shovels it needs for its next expansion. I'd simply have to click on the Duck Pond one time for each of those five Shovels to be used. That is, one click per one ingredient, not one click to use every Shovel I have.
The same can be said for my Storage Cellar. What if I chose to use just one Shovel in my Duck Pond, and spend the other four in my Storage Cellar? I don't have to return to my Gift Box, I can simply navigate by clicking and dragging to the Storage Cellar on my farm and use some of my Shovels in it instead. It's an entirely seamless process. Once you choose your building ingredient, you can use it on as many, or as few building projects as you'd like. To disable the use of building ingredients (say I wanted to save some Shovels for another time), you'd just click back on the arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen, to reactivate the "multi-tool" as my cursor.
The best part of this entire setup? It works when using Watering Cans on Mystery Seedlings as well! No more clicking and waiting for each Watering Can to be used on a single seedling and waiting for the image to catch up. You can now grow a tree in less than ten seconds! I could literally cry tears of joy.
While the new building cursor may sound complicated in writing, in practice it saves so much time, as you don't have to use each ingredient, wait for the Gift Box menu to reappear, pick your ingredient, choose the proper building and so on and so forth. This is an absolute blessing for those users that like upgrading each and every project to their highest or greatest level, and I am personally so glad and thankful to Zynga for implementing it, even if it did take them a while do to. Better late than never, right?
Do you like the new building ingredient tool in FarmVille, or did you not mind using each ingredient individually via the Gift Box?
To activate this mode, simply click "Use" on any building ingredient in your Gift Box. You'll then see your farm magically (ok, maybe not magically, but automatically) transform, showing you all of the buildings/items that currently need that particular ingredient highlighted in blue. As an example, I clicked on a Shovel in my Gift Box, and was then shown a bright blue outline around my Storage Cellar and my Duck Pond, as both need Shovels to expand.
Hovering over a building turns the outline from blue to orange, and your cursor changes to show you how many of that particular ingredient you can add. In keeping with my Shovel example, you can see that I have five Shovels in my inventory, and that my Duck Pond already has two of the Shovels it needs for its next expansion. I'd simply have to click on the Duck Pond one time for each of those five Shovels to be used. That is, one click per one ingredient, not one click to use every Shovel I have.
The same can be said for my Storage Cellar. What if I chose to use just one Shovel in my Duck Pond, and spend the other four in my Storage Cellar? I don't have to return to my Gift Box, I can simply navigate by clicking and dragging to the Storage Cellar on my farm and use some of my Shovels in it instead. It's an entirely seamless process. Once you choose your building ingredient, you can use it on as many, or as few building projects as you'd like. To disable the use of building ingredients (say I wanted to save some Shovels for another time), you'd just click back on the arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen, to reactivate the "multi-tool" as my cursor.
The best part of this entire setup? It works when using Watering Cans on Mystery Seedlings as well! No more clicking and waiting for each Watering Can to be used on a single seedling and waiting for the image to catch up. You can now grow a tree in less than ten seconds! I could literally cry tears of joy.
While the new building cursor may sound complicated in writing, in practice it saves so much time, as you don't have to use each ingredient, wait for the Gift Box menu to reappear, pick your ingredient, choose the proper building and so on and so forth. This is an absolute blessing for those users that like upgrading each and every project to their highest or greatest level, and I am personally so glad and thankful to Zynga for implementing it, even if it did take them a while do to. Better late than never, right?
Do you like the new building ingredient tool in FarmVille, or did you not mind using each ingredient individually via the Gift Box?
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Gift Box update coming soon?
In an update that just might be as fantastic as the recent upgrade to building material usage in FarmVille, it looks as though a "Gift Box 2.0" of sorts (Or would we be on 3 or 4.0 by now? Anyway...) will be launching in the game soon.
While the standard buttons appears to all be here - the Re-Gift, Sell, and Use buttons - the best part about this Gift Box redesign looks to be the inclusion of sub-categories, or tabs, that we'll be able to click on to sort our items, perhaps by theme, or by animal, building, and decoration type, just like we do in the game's marketplace.
While this could just be coincidental, it's also worth pointing out the quantities of these placeholder items (yes, all of which are apparently watering cans). If they are all available in quantities of 122, then that gives us the thought that perhaps an expanded Gift Box capacity will be coming with it. Either way, if you're an item saver, that tends to always hover around the 500 item cap (like I do), the new sorting ability will definitely be better than nothing.
[Via and image credit: FV Nation]
What do you think of the upcoming changes to the FarmVille Gift Box? Would you collect more items from your friends' news feed posts if the Gox Box limit was increased or removed entirely? How else would it affect your gameplay?
While the standard buttons appears to all be here - the Re-Gift, Sell, and Use buttons - the best part about this Gift Box redesign looks to be the inclusion of sub-categories, or tabs, that we'll be able to click on to sort our items, perhaps by theme, or by animal, building, and decoration type, just like we do in the game's marketplace.
While this could just be coincidental, it's also worth pointing out the quantities of these placeholder items (yes, all of which are apparently watering cans). If they are all available in quantities of 122, then that gives us the thought that perhaps an expanded Gift Box capacity will be coming with it. Either way, if you're an item saver, that tends to always hover around the 500 item cap (like I do), the new sorting ability will definitely be better than nothing.
[Via and image credit: FV Nation]
What do you think of the upcoming changes to the FarmVille Gift Box? Would you collect more items from your friends' news feed posts if the Gox Box limit was increased or removed entirely? How else would it affect your gameplay?
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Moat Bridge, King's Castle, Brown English Spot Rabbit
A new trio of unreleased item images have appeared for FarmVille today, with two of these items filling in the blanks seen in the massive set of moat items we brought you a sneak peek of just this week. Now, with this Moat Bridge, and the King's Castle, we'll clearly be able to build an entire medieval expanse on our land, and will be able to rest easy knowing that our imaginary citizens can walk to and from the castle safely, without falling into the deadly waters below (ok, so I guess no one says the waters have to be deadly, but it makes it more dramatic that way).
The third item is a brown recoloring of the English Spot Rabbit. We're assuming he will be called the Brown English Spot Rabbit, although there's no telling whether or not he will be released for the same cheap price as his predecessor, of it this will be yet another Farm Cash animal users will have to splurge on.
Either way, we'll make sure to bring you all of the news about these new items as they officially launch in the game, so keep checking back.
The third item is a brown recoloring of the English Spot Rabbit. We're assuming he will be called the Brown English Spot Rabbit, although there's no telling whether or not he will be released for the same cheap price as his predecessor, of it this will be yet another Farm Cash animal users will have to splurge on.
Either way, we'll make sure to bring you all of the news about these new items as they officially launch in the game, so keep checking back.
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Storage menu update coming soon
While the Gift Box update that's coming to FarmVille is enough to satisfy most users (including myself) for quite some time, there is another, even more archaic system currently in place in the game that few would argue against changing. That system is the Storage menu, which lets you scroll through page after page (after page...) of decorative items and buildings, without holding your place, so you have to scroll through all of those pages again to find a subsequent item.
Needless to say, this all makes redecorating your farm for a holiday or "just because" a lot of hard work, and very time consuming. Apparently, though, just as an update is coming to the game's Gift Box, so too is a massive overhaul coming to the Storage menu. It's about time, I say! Just check out the image above, and you'll see everything we expect to launch. It looks as though there will be a way to look at both items stored on your Home Farm and your second farm via tabs at the very top, you'll be able to search for a particular item, and perhaps most importantly, you'll be able to sort your items by category, whether that item is a building, decoration and so on.
While it's likely that the Tree and Animal tabs in this placeholder image are just that - placeholders that will be changed in the final product - I personally think it would be great if we could store such items for future use. After all, this would allow you to store any trees related to a specific holiday, so that when you pull them back out, they're all the more special as you see them again as if for the first time.
Also, it's possible that an expansion to your total Storage capacity may also launch, as there is a button here dedicated to expanding your storage amount. Hopefully, Zynga has finally learned that unlimited storage is best, even if we have to work at it. It would make users purchase more items (even with Farm Cash) in the long run, if they knew they would have a place to safely store them, and not having an infinite inventory limit is simply an outdated, and unneeded limitation at this point, but maybe that opinion is just my own - what do you think?
[Image Credit: FarmVille Feed]
Either way, we'll make sure to keep an eye on this exciting update as it gets closer to launch. Let us know what you think of these new Storage menu options in the comments. Would you purchase more decorations if there wasn't an item limit?
Needless to say, this all makes redecorating your farm for a holiday or "just because" a lot of hard work, and very time consuming. Apparently, though, just as an update is coming to the game's Gift Box, so too is a massive overhaul coming to the Storage menu. It's about time, I say! Just check out the image above, and you'll see everything we expect to launch. It looks as though there will be a way to look at both items stored on your Home Farm and your second farm via tabs at the very top, you'll be able to search for a particular item, and perhaps most importantly, you'll be able to sort your items by category, whether that item is a building, decoration and so on.
While it's likely that the Tree and Animal tabs in this placeholder image are just that - placeholders that will be changed in the final product - I personally think it would be great if we could store such items for future use. After all, this would allow you to store any trees related to a specific holiday, so that when you pull them back out, they're all the more special as you see them again as if for the first time.
Also, it's possible that an expansion to your total Storage capacity may also launch, as there is a button here dedicated to expanding your storage amount. Hopefully, Zynga has finally learned that unlimited storage is best, even if we have to work at it. It would make users purchase more items (even with Farm Cash) in the long run, if they knew they would have a place to safely store them, and not having an infinite inventory limit is simply an outdated, and unneeded limitation at this point, but maybe that opinion is just my own - what do you think?
[Image Credit: FarmVille Feed]
Either way, we'll make sure to keep an eye on this exciting update as it gets closer to launch. Let us know what you think of these new Storage menu options in the comments. Would you purchase more decorations if there wasn't an item limit?
Thứ Hai, 26 tháng 12, 2011
Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty takes cue from social games in China
Call of Duty
And here we though the day would never come: The pinnacle of hardcore gaming, Call of Duty (CoD), has succumbed to the pressures and potential profits of Facebook games ... in China. VentureBeat reports that Activision Blizzard announced a new CoD game today, though the game will be a free-to-play affair for Chinese audiences only (at the moment). The company made the announcement in an earnings call today, and said that it will create a "best in class digital platform" to support the game.
"Today, Call of Duty is part of the cultural landscape," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, in the earnings call. But to succeed in foreign lands, the game will have to adapt to cultural landscapes as well. Free-to-play games supported by micro-transactions are what Chinese gamers expect these days, and Activision plans to deliver. Not to mention that the company also created a studio known as Beachhead to make an online community for CoD players worldwide. The platform has been in development for two years already, and Activision expects it to be ready in time for the expected fall release of the next CoD.
According to VentureBeat, details on the next CoD developed for Western audiences will surface in the coming weeks. And Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick promised that this next CoD will be the best experience that the company has ever made. If the company is aware of what resonates with Chinese gamers, surely it's considering the massive social games movement in the US. In fact, with EA already offering free-to-play versions of its Battlefield franchise, Kotick has at least mulled it over.
[Image Credit: G4TV]
Do you think CoD will adapt to a more social games-esque distribution model in the states as well? Would you be more interested in the franchise if it was presented like this?
And here we though the day would never come: The pinnacle of hardcore gaming, Call of Duty (CoD), has succumbed to the pressures and potential profits of Facebook games ... in China. VentureBeat reports that Activision Blizzard announced a new CoD game today, though the game will be a free-to-play affair for Chinese audiences only (at the moment). The company made the announcement in an earnings call today, and said that it will create a "best in class digital platform" to support the game.
"Today, Call of Duty is part of the cultural landscape," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, in the earnings call. But to succeed in foreign lands, the game will have to adapt to cultural landscapes as well. Free-to-play games supported by micro-transactions are what Chinese gamers expect these days, and Activision plans to deliver. Not to mention that the company also created a studio known as Beachhead to make an online community for CoD players worldwide. The platform has been in development for two years already, and Activision expects it to be ready in time for the expected fall release of the next CoD.
According to VentureBeat, details on the next CoD developed for Western audiences will surface in the coming weeks. And Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick promised that this next CoD will be the best experience that the company has ever made. If the company is aware of what resonates with Chinese gamers, surely it's considering the massive social games movement in the US. In fact, with EA already offering free-to-play versions of its Battlefield franchise, Kotick has at least mulled it over.
[Image Credit: G4TV]
Do you think CoD will adapt to a more social games-esque distribution model in the states as well? Would you be more interested in the franchise if it was presented like this?
FarmVille Tips & Tricks: Quickly master trees with Orchard rotation
It's no question that the higher the level you reach in FarmVille, the less new things you have to work on. That is, by the time you reach level 75 and above, you've likely come to greatly understand bushels, crafting, animal breeding and the like, and might be looking for something else to occupy your time. I was in such a situation until I finally decided to hunker down and master the dozens of tree types that were quickly filling my Home Farm.
Sure, Tree Mastery has been around for some time now, but if you're only casually participating, or you delete more trees than you plant, you're missing out on a fine opportunity to expand your Mastery Sign collection by leaps and bounds. Luckily, there's a surefire way to master each tree much more quickly than if you had simply left the trees to grow on their own, harvesting them every two days (or less often) and then moving on, and this all has to do with your Orchards.
For those that have yet to undertake the Orchard Rotation trick to master trees in FarmVille, we've got a detailed guide on how to get you started. Just be warned - once you start, this addictive (yet admittedly time consuming) process might pull you in and you won't want to stop!
First and foremost, there are some ground rules to consider. Most importantly, the amount of time it will take you to master a particular tree will be greatly decreased by each individual Orchard you have. If you're going to undertake the Orchard Rotation strategy, you'll want to build as many Orchards as you have materials to build. I'd suggest having at least 10 on hand at all times, if you really want to earn the most bang for your proverbial buck.
From there, you'll need to make sure that your trees are organized. The best way to master trees is if you've been able to assort all of your trees in groups of like-species, so that all of your available trees can be used in this trick at the same time. To setup your farm, you'll want to place just one tree (either the type of tree you're trying to master, or some random species) into each Orchard, so that the overall Orchard becomes "ready" to harvest as normal. Place all of your desired trees to master in the first Orchard on a line, and then wait for everything to become "ready" to harvest before moving on.
Once your farm looks similar to the picture above (I keep each Orchards separate visually by placing incredibly different trees in each as the "starter" tree), you can begin. Each time your full set of Orchards is ready to harvest, click to harvest the Orchard that's full of your current active tree. If you're like me, you'll gain up to 19 individual mastery points with that single click. From there, do not harvest any of your other Orchards, but instead, remove all of the trees from the Orchard you just harvested, and place those trees into the next Orchard in the line (remember to leave one tree inside). Since you haven't harvested the second Orchard, these moved trees will instantly take on the "ready" status of the entire thing. Once full, harvest the second Orchard, earning another 19 points of mastery.
And so on and so forth the system goes. It's best to click slowly as you move trees from one Orchard to another, so that you don't accidentally harvest a ready Orchard before it's full (trust me, I've done it before, and losing all of those points is disappointing, to say the least). Once you've harvested every Orchard in your possession, you'll be pleased to know that you will have earned dozens or even hundreds of mastery points, all on a single type of tree, all within a single 10-15 minute session simply by following this plan.
Again, the more Orchards you have, and the more trees you have of that particular type, the more effective this strategy will be. We'd suggest even leaving some excess trees outside of your Orchard, if you have that many extras, so that they can continue to grow as normal (a few extra points never hurt, after all). In this way, you'll quickly find that you can take a tree that requires over 500 points to master, and whittle that point-earning process to a matter of a week or even just a few days (again, depending on the number of Orchards you own).
Orchard rotation may take up a lot of your free time, but with Orchards only becoming "ready" once every two days, those extra-long gameplay sessions don't have to take over your life. And as the mastery signs start piling up, I'm sure you'll agree that the process is worth the hassle. We can only hope that Zynga doesn't remove this "exploit" of sorts from the game to ruin our fun, but for now, take advantage of this great earning potential while you can!
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Tips & Tricks right here.
Do you currently use the Orchard Rotation strategy to quickly master trees? Do you consider this to be "cheating," or just an effective use of items already freely available in the game?
Sure, Tree Mastery has been around for some time now, but if you're only casually participating, or you delete more trees than you plant, you're missing out on a fine opportunity to expand your Mastery Sign collection by leaps and bounds. Luckily, there's a surefire way to master each tree much more quickly than if you had simply left the trees to grow on their own, harvesting them every two days (or less often) and then moving on, and this all has to do with your Orchards.
For those that have yet to undertake the Orchard Rotation trick to master trees in FarmVille, we've got a detailed guide on how to get you started. Just be warned - once you start, this addictive (yet admittedly time consuming) process might pull you in and you won't want to stop!
First and foremost, there are some ground rules to consider. Most importantly, the amount of time it will take you to master a particular tree will be greatly decreased by each individual Orchard you have. If you're going to undertake the Orchard Rotation strategy, you'll want to build as many Orchards as you have materials to build. I'd suggest having at least 10 on hand at all times, if you really want to earn the most bang for your proverbial buck.
From there, you'll need to make sure that your trees are organized. The best way to master trees is if you've been able to assort all of your trees in groups of like-species, so that all of your available trees can be used in this trick at the same time. To setup your farm, you'll want to place just one tree (either the type of tree you're trying to master, or some random species) into each Orchard, so that the overall Orchard becomes "ready" to harvest as normal. Place all of your desired trees to master in the first Orchard on a line, and then wait for everything to become "ready" to harvest before moving on.
Once your farm looks similar to the picture above (I keep each Orchards separate visually by placing incredibly different trees in each as the "starter" tree), you can begin. Each time your full set of Orchards is ready to harvest, click to harvest the Orchard that's full of your current active tree. If you're like me, you'll gain up to 19 individual mastery points with that single click. From there, do not harvest any of your other Orchards, but instead, remove all of the trees from the Orchard you just harvested, and place those trees into the next Orchard in the line (remember to leave one tree inside). Since you haven't harvested the second Orchard, these moved trees will instantly take on the "ready" status of the entire thing. Once full, harvest the second Orchard, earning another 19 points of mastery.
And so on and so forth the system goes. It's best to click slowly as you move trees from one Orchard to another, so that you don't accidentally harvest a ready Orchard before it's full (trust me, I've done it before, and losing all of those points is disappointing, to say the least). Once you've harvested every Orchard in your possession, you'll be pleased to know that you will have earned dozens or even hundreds of mastery points, all on a single type of tree, all within a single 10-15 minute session simply by following this plan.
Again, the more Orchards you have, and the more trees you have of that particular type, the more effective this strategy will be. We'd suggest even leaving some excess trees outside of your Orchard, if you have that many extras, so that they can continue to grow as normal (a few extra points never hurt, after all). In this way, you'll quickly find that you can take a tree that requires over 500 points to master, and whittle that point-earning process to a matter of a week or even just a few days (again, depending on the number of Orchards you own).
Orchard rotation may take up a lot of your free time, but with Orchards only becoming "ready" once every two days, those extra-long gameplay sessions don't have to take over your life. And as the mastery signs start piling up, I'm sure you'll agree that the process is worth the hassle. We can only hope that Zynga doesn't remove this "exploit" of sorts from the game to ruin our fun, but for now, take advantage of this great earning potential while you can!
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Tips & Tricks right here.
Do you currently use the Orchard Rotation strategy to quickly master trees? Do you consider this to be "cheating," or just an effective use of items already freely available in the game?
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