NEW RELEASE - 22nd December 2012

See Known Issues, More Information and Post Release Changes at the end of this post.
Last changes released at Jan 7th, 5:50PM EST.

Hi There,

We just released a new version of the game with the following features and bug fixes:

1. Holiday Items (2 weeks ago) and 7 new Winter People (this Release)

2. 15 New Levels (coming later next week): There are only 15 new levels this time, however the most advanced users that are already at the top level and play the game before the next release will receive 2 FC for each level they move up. This is a one time thing only, future releases will continue in 25 levels increment and 1 FC per level. Top level is now 400.

3. Farm 17: Here are the prices in coins (FC prices remains the same):

12 x 12 Farm 16: 17000000
14 x 14 Upgrade: 14000000
16 x 16 Upgrade: 15000000
18 x 18 Upgrade: 16000000
20 x 20 Upgrade: 2100000000
22 x 22 Upgrade: 2200000000
24 x 24 Upgrade: 2300000000
26 x 26 Upgrade: 3000000000
28 x 28 Upgrade: 5000000000
30 x 30 Upgrade: 4000000000

4. Belts and Dans for Facility Products: The next 10 Facilities (in order of appearance in the Store) now have Belts and Dans enabled for each product. With each Belt or Dan you achieve you will increase your chances of getting a "free" Batch automatically for every Batch you start from that point on.

Free Batches means that a new Batch is sent to production without consuming any ingredients or coins. See December 30th Release Post for the benefit % table.

5. Tree Shaker 12 x 8 (FC): If you already own the Tree Shaker 8 x 8, then you can by this new Tree Shaker to harvest faster, up to 96 at a time.

6. Job completion bonus for employees when Hired by Strangers in the Marketplace (coming later next week): To increase workforce availability in the marketplace and to improve the quality of the work performed by employees, we have decided to duplicate the potential benefits for those employees. For example if an employee plows for another farmer and earn 1000 XP and 5000 coins, if that employee complete the job fully in the farm, meaning there is no more plow to be done, then ONLY at that time the employee will have the option to collect a special bonus of an additional 5000 coins and 1000 XP.

The same applies for other types of work, in summary, employees have the option to duplicate their benefits but only if the job that he was hire for is completed fully on a particular farm. The employee is responsible for collecting the bonus on each farm by clicking the Chest icon on the top-left.

7. Time Manager: There is a new (clock) icon in the extended tool bar that will provide timing information for different areas in the game, right now you can see how much time you have to wait to:

- Refuel
- Resend Gifts
- Rework Facilities
- Rework Service Facilities
- Request Ingredients
- Posting Belt Bonuses

A green check mark indicates that the operation can already be performed. in the future we will continue providing more timing information like:

- Fertilize Farms
- Irrigate Farms
- Receive Ingredients
- Buy Products from Others
- Next Quest
- Next Quest to Expire
- Receive Minigame Rewards
- Train Arrivals

8. Quick Hide tool: There is a new tool in the extended tool box (a closed eye icon) which will allow you to hide items faster.

9. Supreme Freight Locomotive: This is a faster locomotive that visits all the markets in only 5 days. You can now have 3 trains dispatched at any given time, one with a Standard Locomotive, one with an Enhanced Locomotive and another one with the Supreme Locomotive.

10. Train Alignment Bug: There was a bug that sometimes allowed a miss-aligned freight car to be recognized as part of the train. When that happened, it was not possible to continue adding more cars behind the miss-aligned car. Moving forward, you will receive a notification when this happens so you can fix the alignment.

11. New Crops: Sorghum and Quinoa

12. Charcoal Retort: This is and existing building now converted to a facility that produces carbon.

Charcoal Sack
Activated Carbon

13. Fodder Factory (Coins): Produces Fodder.

Animal Fat Supplement
Straw
Silage
Hay
Copra Meal
Pig Pellets
Equine Mix
Poultry Mix

New products on other facilities:
Molasses in the Sugar Refinery

14. Water Utility Supplies Factory (FC): Produces Water Utility Supplies.

Water Pipe
Gate Water Valve
Water Tank
Sewer Hose
Water Meter
Sedimentation Tank
Water Filter

New products on other facilities:
Activated Carbon in the Charcoal Retort

15. Animal Feed Store (coins): This is a Service Facility that can be stocked with the products below:

Animal Fat Supplement
Straw
Silage
Hay
Copra Meal
Pig Pellets
Equine Mix
Poultry Mix

16. Water Plant (FC): This is a Service Facility that can be stocked with the products below:

Water Pipe
Gate Water Valve
Water Tank
Sewer Hose
Water Meter
Sedimentation Tank
Water Filter
Man Hole
Fire Hydrant

New products on other facilities:
Man Hole and Fire Hydrant in the Metal Mill

Post Release Updates (Dec 28th, 7:00PM EST):

- 15 New levels

- Hiring for chop only and for crops and flowers only should show again the bigger tools for employees if they own them

- Job completion bonus for employees when Hired by Strangers in the Marketplace: When this feature was released a few days ago the employee had to collect the bonus before changing tools and starting other jobs on the current farm, otherwise the bonus was lost. Moving forward, the employee can change tools in the current farm freely, the only requirement to collect the bonus is to have finished all the jobs for which the employee was hired in the current farm, meaning, if the employee was hired for plow, chop and fish, the current farm must be fully plowed, all trees chopped and all fish caught in order to collect the bonus at the very end of the job.
 

Post Release Updates (Jan 2nd, 6:40PM EST):
 

- We fixed the 'Expire' message when collecting the employee bonus, this happened when working alone or when multiple workers were present in the farm. You will not have to click on the Save Disk icon anymore to avoid the 'Expire' message.

- FYI, the fact that there are multiple workers at the same time on the farm should not interfere with the bonus collection process.

Post Release Updates (Jan 7th, 5:50PM EST):

- Employees should now be able to collect bonuses on farms containing frozen or unwatered flowers.

Known Issues:

- None

Enjoy!
--Raul