Podcast Transcript 2010-07-23

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= Official FarmVille Podcast – July 23rd Transcript =

Hey Farmers and welcome to this week’s installment of the Official FarmVille Podcast! My name is Lexilicious and I am here to bring you all of the latest news about FarmVille from Zynga. This week’s podcast will be slightly different from others we have had in the past. As I am sure some of you know, the new Crafting feature was released this week… and it’s a big one. We will be spending most of this week’s podcast walking through this new feature which will provide some helpful tips for users who already have access to it, and it will give people who don’t have the Crafting feature a heads up as to what to expect when it reaches them. In addition to this, I will be giving you guys a very brief sneak peek as to what will be coming to FarmVille in the near future.

Now, I have seen a lot of questions from players lately asking why some users have the Crafting Buildings and others don’t. Please be aware that this feature is being rolled out gradually to all of our users to ensure the stability of the app and to make sure it is working as intended. I know it can be frustrating to have to wait for a big release, but please know we would not choose to release the feature this way if we did not feel it was important to do so.

And on that note, let’s get into a quick walk through of FarmVille’s latest release.

If you are level 25 and above, you will be able to turn your bushels into crafted goods with the new Crafting Buildings.

Once you have access to this feature, upon logging into FarmVille, you will see a tutorial. This tutorial explains the basic functionality of this release. I want to highly suggest that all of our players take the time to participate in this tutorial so you can better understand how Crafting works.

Once you have read the information, it’s to pick your profession. There are three types of Crafting Buildings available; The Winery, Bakery and Spa. Each building features its own unique set of recipes you can use to create crafted goods.

If you did not pick a profession when the Crafting Buildings preview was released, you will see a different pop-up than users who have. This pop-up shows you how many of your friends have selected each type of building. Clicking “What is this” will give you more detailed information on each of the buildings. Once you have decided on your profession, clicking “Yes, Place” will close the pop-up and let you place your new building on your Farm for free.

If you already selected a profession in the Crafting Buildings preview, you will receive a different pop-up. If you are happy with your initial selection, simply click “yes, place”. If you would like to choose a different profession at this time, click “choose another”. This will bring you to the menu mentioned above where you can select the building of your choice.

Your Buildings Recipe menu will automatically appear once you have placed your building.

In this menu, you will start with a good that is 1 minute from completion. You will also see one empty crafting spot.

Clicking on “Make a good” will bring you to your recipes menu. Here, you will be able to make your first crafted good. Depending on what profession you have selected, your default recipe will be different. Click “Make it” from the bottom of the menu to create your good. Remember, to make recipes, you need to collect bushels from your friends. These bushels are the key ingredients for your goods. If you would like more information on obtaining Bushels, please visit the Official FarmVille forums for a guide on the Farmers Market feature.

Once you have made your good, it needs time to cook. Click on “Make Goods” to return to the main menu. Once you have done this, you will see that the level 10 good you started with is now complete.

Clicking on “goods I am selling” from the crafting menu will show you the goods you currently have for sale. Selling goods improves existing recipes and unlocks new ones! Each time you sell a good to your Neighbors, you will receive 1 recipe experience point. One important thing to know is that selling your goods is the easiest and most efficient way to level your recipes. Down the bottom of this menu is your “Sales Report”. This report shows you what goods you have sold and how many were purchased. If Neighbors purchased from your store while you were away, a bouncing arrow will appear over your building.

All farmers earn 90% of the sale price of items sold. The Daily Sales Report will display the amount of total coins and experience earned in your absence. Now, if you wish to make a thriving business, you will need to level your Building. The level of your Building determines the number of crafting spots you have available for use. Leveling your building will also unlock new recipes. You can level your Building with Farm Cash by clicking the “Cash Upgrade” option or you can level with coins by unlocking the option. To unlock the coin option, you have to level a certain amount of recipes.

Now, leveling a recipe is quite simple. Each time you make a recipe, it will count towards your level progress. Simply keep making goods of that type to level your recipe up. The higher level your recipe is, the better your crafted goods will be. There is no limit on how high you can level your recipes. Currently, your Crafting Building can only be upgraded to 5 Stars. Once you have a 5 star Building, the buttons to level with coins/cash will disappear. In addition to selling your crafted goods to your friends, they can also be traded for rewards. To access goods that you have in your inventory, click “Use” from the crafting menu and select “Goods”.

This menu will display how many crafted goods are in your possession. Please note that you can only have 200 Crafted Goods in your inventory at a time. If you click the “use” button underneath a good, you will trade it for fuel. The higher the level of the crafted good you use, the more fuel you will get. You can see your fuel gauge increase within the inventory menu. Please know that in the future, there will be additional rewards for trading crafted goods besides fuel, so make sure you work on leveling your recipes before they make an appearance!

Alright, now that you know how to use your own crafted goods, it’s time to move on to purchasing goods and bushels from your friends. There are two different ways you can visit your Neighbors Buildings.

From the Crafting menu, click “Buy”. You will then see the option to select “Shop for Goods” or “Shop for Bushels”.

From this menu, you can select the type of good you would like to purchase. Clicking “select” underneath a good will bring up another menu that will automatically display the highest level goods for sale first.

Alternatively, when visiting a friends Farm, simply click on their crafting building to open the menus mentioned above.

Upon purchasing an item from your Neighbor’s store, you will receive a pop-up allowing you to post a feed to their wall informing them of your actions. The first 3 Neighbors to click this feed within 24 hours will receive 1 good of the same type as the one you purchased.

Remember, Goods purchased from your Neighbors can also be traded for fuel, so make sure to visit their shops often.

And if for some reason you wish to delete your Crafting Building, all progress on the level of the Building and recipes will be saved. However, you will lose all goods that are being sold in your store. If you wish to purchase a new Crafting Building, it can be purchased from the “Buildings” section of the Market for 100,000 coins, provided you do not have any other Crafting Buildings on your farm at the time. If you wish to purchase the two additional Buildings, they can be bought for 80 Farm Cash apiece. This ability to purchase a different building for coins is very important, as you can change your profession later on if you do not like the building you currently have.

If you are looking for a more detailed guide on how this new release works, it can be found in the “game updates” section of the FarmVille Forums. And as with all of our big features, we want to hear your feedback. If you have any thoughts or opinions you would like to share with us about the new Crafting Buildings feature, please make sure to visit the Official FarmVille forums or www.famville.com.

Now this week’s coming soon segment is going to be much smaller than normal Farmers. Over the past few months, we have been hearing tons of feedback from you guys expressing that we release a smaller amount of content and focus more on fixing bugs. Well, we’ve heard you. The FarmVille team just released an enormous feature, and we want to give you a chance to absorb Crafting Buildings before throwing more big stuff at you. Right now, let us clean up the experience for a bit and we will have more great content for you soon.

However, I am happy to let you know that over the coming weeks, we will continue to release more stuff from the New England theme to help you finish decorating those Farms, including great items like the Miniature Horse, New England Mansion, a coastal beach and more.

Alright folks, that’s it from me this week. Again, my name is Lexi and I would like to thank everyone for listening. I will back next week to bring you all of the latest news from around the Farm. Happy Farming everyone!

= See Also =
 * Official FarmVille Podcasts
 * FarmVille Updates