Editorial: “Blockers” and unnecessary delays in Farmerama Quests, and the inability to complete Short-Term Quests

One of our readers has asked us a couple of times to pass comment on the way some of the Quests are constructed.

There are two aspects to our friend’s enquiry. On the one hand the fact that not all the short-term quests can be completed by all players, and their other enquiry relates to what we refer to as “blockers” within the quests. That is, elements of the quests which one has to wait a long time to be able to complete only to then find that the following levels are already achievable at a lower farming level.

Inability to complete Short-Term Quests (or to achieve required targets)

The first part of our friend’s enquiry is very easy to answer. The short-term quests are specifically designed so that only players at the higher levels will be able to complete them.

We understand the disappointment one feels when something that one particularly wanted from the quest is just out of reach, either due to game level or simply a shortage of time, after all we’ve all been there ourselves at some point in the past. The option is provided to be able to “buy” one’s way through the various incomplete levels although we realise that not everyone has the capability to do that, either for technical reasons, due to financial restraints, or simply because they choose to play the game for free. But to be fair it is not a locked door.

The simple fact is, however, that if everything within each short-term quest were to be achievable by all players then there would be no incentive to try harder to progress within the game, and there would also be no sense of achievement when one does finally manage to get that sticker or “giver” item the next time.

Effectively there would be no “fun” any more, no desire to improve, and no reason to try experimenting with other ways of farming to see if one can improve one’s performance.

“Blockers” and Long Waits within Quests

Although this can relate to both the Standard Quests and the Short-Term Quests we will use a couple of the Standard Quests as examples of the situation our friend is referring to.

The following diagram shows the game level requirements for the Gaga for Greens Quest.

You will see that between Levels 4 and 5 of the quest there is a delay of 44 game levels in order to be able to progress with the quest. To us that seems ridiculous, especially when, on top of that, one also needs to have reached level 17 in Bahamarama. Everybody farms differently, but our newest farm is at level 76 on the Main Farm yet is still trudging through level 16 on the island. Once we make level 17 on the island we will immediately be able to complete the remainder of the quest. Even for somebody who has devoted more attention to the island, or bought their way onto it earlier in the game, the final level of the quest only requires Main Farm level 1 and Bahamarama level 9.

We agree with our friend that it’s crazy.

For the second example we will look at the Kindergarten quest.

Here again there are a mixture of “Blockers” and inappropriate delays.

Level 3 of the quest only requires the player to be at level 8 within the game, which is 2 levels lower than the previous challenge. Then one has to wait until one has reached level 3 of Bahamarama before continuing to level 4 in the quest. How long is that going to take?

When one has done that the fifth level is quite straightforward because it is only one level further on in the island and the Main Farm level is pitifully low.

For level 6 of the quest one only needs to be at level 49 on the Main Farm, and that is a virtual “gimme” if one has made level 4 on the island, and then the top level is a throw-away too!

It really does make no sense to us that there should be such large gaps in the game level requirements and that the requirements for each next level of the quest should not be incremental as one makes progress.

There is a rumour of some new quests being added to the game soon. We could certainly do with new challenges, but please don’t throw them all at us at once like you did before and mess up the Market for months.

Some of those new quests are likely to relate to animal breeding as we are about due for the next addition to that part of the game, but if there are more Kindergarten style quests coming along too we hope that Bigpoint will think long and hard about how those quests are constructed and will make them follow a more logical path.

There is no fun in waiting months to be able to do the next level of a quest only to find that after all that time you can then complete the final 4 levels as well.

We would welcome comments from other farmers on this issue.