There have been many handy references for this game, but for me, there was still something missing. As with most successful games attached to social networks, the designer's goal is to keep your face attached to the screen for as long as possible, which means they need to include interaction with your friends and make it fun so you'll want to keep coming back. To that end, many Farmville guides highlight the crops that will yield the highest profit. That's great, but what if I want to know what crop to plant before I go away for the weekend, or run out to do some errands? Time is a big deal in this game, because what I decide to plant makes a big difference in what I'll do next. My goal is not to cheat, but rather to make the best use possible of the time I do give to the game.So here is what I've made to help out a little:
You can see all of the crops are listed, along with what time they would be due to harvest if you were to plant them right now. Beside those, we have color ranked information for how many hours the crops take to grow, daily profit for a single square, and daily experience points for each crop. So far, this is the same stuff you can figure out for yourself or get from any other Farmville Guide.
Now the fun begins. If you have your own method, you are welcome to it, but you are also welcome to use mine if you so desire. I'm going to add 2 or 3 things to make it so you never have to miss harvesting your crop. EVER. I have recommended to many of my Facebook friends that they try setting up reminders so they don't miss crops. I'd be the first to admit this is easier said than done. Only those in the habit of setting reminders for themselves are going to actually do it. This spreadsheet can actually set a reminder, for any crop you choose, in two mouse clicks. The hard part is actually in preparation. Here's what you need to do. Follow the directions here to set up Twitter and Remember The Milk. Finished? Good. Don't forget to set up your mobile phone with Twitter, if you have text messages to spare, and set your Twitter account to send RTM's updates to your phone.
Now you are set up to interact with Remember The Milk through Twitter. As long as you are logged into Twitter, you can start clicking away on the links in the table above. Each click will open a new Twitter tab (or window, depending on your browser) in your browser with a message formatted to tell Remember The Milk when you need to be reminded for the crop you planted. It doesn't really know what you planted, so don't get overzealous with your mouse, okay? If you have your phone set up properly, you should get a confirmation from RTM, via Twitter, that says when your reminder is set to go.If you are using a browser that lets you load bookmarks in the Sidebar, like FireFox, then I have a special surprise for you. Click on this link to open your surprise. Now bookmark it and set it to open in the sidebar. In the case that you aren't sure how to do this, read about it here. Once you've got the first one, rename it and bookmark the XP and Time sheets the same way. You can fancy it up by arranging these bookmarks on the bookmarks toolbar right above where the sidebar pops out, or throw them all in a folder in the same place if you need the space. Now you have a handy reference that won't disappear when you are playing Farmville!
If you want to be able to check off your reminders after you've completed them, read further for some handy tips on letting RTM know you are finished.
- Using Twitter (phone or web) type d rtm !complete harvest _____ (your crop) to send a direct message to RTM, telling it to mark the task as completed.
- Use RTM from your sidebar, too! This link is for the RTM iGoogle gadget, which looks really nice in the sidebar. You can view your tasks and check them as completed for each crop you harvest.
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