Thursday, July 16, 2009

A More OCD Look At Farm Town Flowers.

This is probably my Farm Town version of Female Blood Elf faces or Female Draenei Faces.

The more bored detail oriented Farm Town players may have noticed that if you click on your flowers, there is an option to "Freeze Growth." Flowers take 3 (or is it 4? I forget.) days to come to full growth & there are intermediate stages along the way. There are actually 4 stages, the first one showing stem/leaf growth without any buds or flowers.

When we first got flowers in the game, I planted them all over the place & they grew. The zinnias are pretty crazy. You can hide corpses in full grown zinnias. I ended up Selling most of the zinnias on my farms (don't ask) because they were simply too big.

I personally think the Blue Hyacinths actually look better proportioned when frozen in early stages. The zinnias have different growth stages but the 3rd stage is so minutely different from the final stage that it seems like it goes from a clump of grass directly to full bloom.

Below are pictures of Roses & Daffodils in the 3 flowering stages. Pretty, huh?

Sunday, July 5, 2009

My Farm

By now, you guys are thinking, "Since Lauren makes so much of everyone's designs, I wonder what kind of design she has." Well, wonder no more. Actually, I'm futting around with 5 (yes... 5) farms so this is just one of them.

I've taken shots of my immediate neighbor's farms in miniature & placed them at the appropriate sections so you can get an idea of the spatial relationship between individual farms (I actually do plot out my farms trying to be considerate to my neighbors. I know, it's dumb. But so is Facebook.).



So yeah, my farm is kind of boring compared to the other ones. But frankly, my ideal house is --- you remember where Superman lived (Fortress of Solitude) in the Superman Returns movie? Well, that's one possible ideal. I like space. If there are trees & sunflowers & livestock then of course I can't have a big fortress made of ice, but I can still have space.

You don't see a lot of space on O'ahu. Out in Haleiwa I've seen some quaint little houses set in the middle of huge, grassy lots flanked by large, overgrown trees & I thought it was wonderful. In many more areas on the mainland this would be considered normal.

I also like simplicity. I don't want things to be too busy. So, no scarecrows for me.

My main farm --- this little one --- is low level & not anywhere near a symmetrical or organized as I would like, but once I've gotten all my land upgrades (level 25 is the last one, I believe) then I'll sit down & seriously plan my design out. I have a couple of farms that are 25+ (one of them is my neighbor there in the SE) & I'll post screenshots of them later. Editing these pics takes awhile. =)

Gran's Family Farm

Now that's a lot of pumpkins.


What I liked about this farm was that there was, as the name suggests, an entire family living here. As someone living with a grandparent, I can appreciate having pleasant accommodations for an extended family.

Here on the West side are the main house, where I would expect Grandma lives possibly with Mom & Dad. Or maybe Mom & Dad live in the cottage in the far West corner. Close enough to walk over for breakfast but far enough so that they can have sex once in awhile.


Then there's the East side of the property, where the barns, animals, & silo are. A bit of overkill with the scarecrows. This is probably the least desirable of the living quarters on the property; one imagines it's hot, noisy & smells like poop. Whoever lives here has to take care of the livestock & probably deal with all the storage workings. This is either the abode of the hired help or the bastard grandson.


And then, the Resort area. Here's where the favorite grandchildren (all of them, perhaps) all have their own little cabins, a playset, & general vacation-style surroundings. Grandma's estate has provided well for them. All this place needs is a tennis court & a gym. Even the private pumpkin field is landscaped with a flowered path.


A lot of farms make great & practical use of trees as hedges. This not only makes them quite convenient to harvest consecutively, but has a functional aspect in the design as well. Grandma has to Hide her trees when she harvests her pumpkins but this is not a big deal. Pumpkins take 4 days to mature, so that's 80 hours that those trees are in the right place.

The Aussie!

I've met a lot of folks who hail from Australia in WoW, & so far (knock on wood) just about all of them have been really nice. Maybe it's the fact that they keep calling me "Mate;" I'm not sure. lol

This guy's farm just made me smile. He was very innovative with the use of bales of hay, flowers, & wooden crates.


The living area is very pleasant too; on the NW side of the property with a clear view of all the livestock. This person must really like his cats too.

Green Thumb Acres

It was this farm that made me decide to start collecting screenshots of people's Farm Town farms. Some people get very creative. It's awesome.


Here's the West side of this player's property. I've never lived on a farm (although my grandmother thinks so sometimes) but it makes sense to have the animals around the barn. Shorter distance to transport hay! Even though this is a game, the projected functionality of your farm is still a fun aspect to factor in to your design.


This is the South end of Green Thumb Acres, & this is where the farmer herself lives. It's a cozy sized lot with a lot of flowers. I just wish it had a back yard, but I suppose the entire farm is her back yard. Her path to the gate is nice & feng shui; meandering through the front yard. I find it interesting that the house is situated facing AWAY from the property, but I think it's a matter of wanting a South corner house coupled with buildings that can't be rotated. Everyone else puts their houses in the North or Northwest because of this, so it's refreshing to see a house on the South end.


And then here's the East side, which is probably my favorite corner of the property because she's got a quaint little guest house there. Or maybe it's for the hired help. It looks like a very pleasant, cozy living area, far away from the main house for privacy. I do like the pine trees. I can imagine how they sound.