Tuesday 21 January 2014

A new Four-Ingredient Machine in Family Farm

One reason Machines, aka Gear, are unlocked only at specific Levels in Family Farm is because of the Ingredients that they require to produce Items.  Machines can be as simple as using a single ingredient.  More sophisticated Machines use three Ingredients.  Now, there is a Machine that requires four different Ingredients.  It is the Stir-Fry Machine.  Required Ingredients are: Salt, Ginger and Bean Oil.  It is the fourth Ingredient that determines the Item that is produced.  In this case, when I studied the List of 'types' of Stir-Fry Dishes that the Machine can produce, I noticed that they basically were Vegetables that were not used in any other Machines or anywhere else  except possibly in the Kitchen.

This makes the Stir-Fry Machine of interest to the high-level Players who gather Achievements in every Crop and probably have hundreds of Winter Squash, Bell Pepper, Lentils, Green Beans and other high-level Crops in their Barn awaiting a potential use.  For the low level Player, it makes the Stir-Fry Machine a bit daunting.  The price tag attached to the unfinished Machine, in the form of 50,000 Coins, is a little daunting as well.

Recently, though, I have made a practice of purchasing every possible Animal or Machine in Family Farm.  I therefore purchased the Stir-Fry Machine, decimating my store of Coins, without any knowledge of the Ingredient List or number of Ingredients that would be needed.

It is an interesting Machine.  At my current Level, I have unlocked many of the Ingredients that serve to determine the type of Stir-Fry made, apart from Radicchio, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts and Broccoli.  This brings me to another aspect of Family Farm that I ignored at lower levels.

Whenever a new Crop is released, it is available ordinarily to ALL Players for a limited time, irrespective of their level.  It may be connected to a special Quest or Mission as well.  Even if a Player is not interested in completing the Mission, it is not a bad idea to grow a few of these Crops before the time period expires.  What occurs when the time period expires is that the Crop is given a Level Requirement that usually is quite high.  At that point, you no longer will be able to grow the Crop until you reach the Level of Experience required to unlock it.

A little note here about Machines or Gear in general:  I am a deeply conflicted person in a way, as my natural inclinations are to prefer an unmechanised society to one that is ruled by Machines.  Like Tolkien, I see the ugliness produced by Industrialisation but at the same time, I write strategy game guides for MACHINES.  Gaming systems and computers are Machines and they are a big part of my life as well as my own creative landscape. 

It is ironic though that my favourite game on Facebook is a game that features Machines.  In fact, I have a friend who no longer plays Family Farm because of the focus on Machines, although she would be pleasantly surprised by the nature of the Machines added to the game in the past year.  Originally fairly functional, new Machines now are incredibly attractive, whimsical or inventive.  Cases in point are the Marzipan Machine, the Machine that produces Hawaiian Leis and the Ornament Maker that features little Elves inside a Snow Globe dancing about while they make Christmas Ornaments from the lovely Tinsel Crop and one other Ingredient.  The Machines in Family Farm are fun and creative.  They could seduce any Luddite into abandoning his or her rejection of Machinery.

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