Read All About It!

Zynga seem to either be on the same wavelength as the players or keep an eye on suggestions and feedback because after the much desired Doghouse and Storage Shed Expansions we're now going to see another well sought after feature, in game messaging!

It all begins with a randomly dropped newspaper (for all players over Level 18) appearing on your homestead causing a popup asking if you'd like to build your own news stand, along with a series of four missions (all info HERE)

(If you're wondering about the historical accuracy the first newspaper was published in the United States in 1756 - The New Hampshire Gazette - so papers were easily around by the early 1800s when this game is set.)

Once you place the news stand it'll take 10 whacks to get to it's final state, then you'll need your friends to send you some interesting stuff to go in your paper! The top three items are wall requests (10 of each) the bottom three are direct requests (15 of each).

Once you've finished that, you'll get a full rundown of the newspapers effectiveness, as it's got some tricks which most players will probably enjoy.

To start using the features you click publish and, as long as you've finished Mission II of the thread the publish screen will appear.

On this screen you can write in a message that your neighbours will see when visiting PLUS (you'll like this) ask them to give you a specific item you need for a mission or building you're currently working on, replacing the random gift of before for the first three neighbours to accept the gift giving.

Now, when a neighbour visits your homestead a new welcome screen will appear, including your message and giving the neighbour an opportunity to reply back to you.

Then, when they've finished their five tends a final help screen will pop up replacing the previous gift screen letting your neighbour, if they're one of the first three to accept, leave exactly what you asked for... PLUS, can post a brag to your wall which will give you elusive tools when clicked on. (Seriously, how can you not be loving this?)

So, your neighbour has visited, done all that, and three of them have left you a lovely pressie ("Gosh? For me?! It's EXACTLY what I wanted!") how does it change for you?

Well, now when logging on your visiting neighbour will include a speech bubble... click on that and you see their message to you while they go about their work, at the same time (if they're one of the three to accept) dropping your present like a doober, so no waiting, clicking, wall posting etc, your present is right there and ready to pick up and use straight away.

So... in game messaging, gifts we actually WANT (no more socks) and the ability to ask our neighbours to do a specific thing on our Homestead... I must admit I'm really looking forward to this.

As usual for buildings it'll have it's own collection... Bundle Cord, Ink Roller, Newspaper Cutout, Newsie Hat and Press Pass that rewards a News Stand Newspaper Stack decoration.

There's also two sets of achievements, one for papers published, and one for neighbour's ads answered.

Papers Published Badge:

Publish 10 Papers - Reward: Reward: 250 coins, 50XP

Publish 100 Papers - Reward: 500 Coins, 200XP

Publish 500 Papers - Reward: 1000 Coins, 500XP

Publish 1000 Papers - Reward: 5000 Coins, 1000XP, 1 Rooster Mailbox

Classified's Answered Badge:

Answer 10 Classifieds - Reward: 250 coins, 50XP

Answer 40 Classifieds - Reward: 500 Coins, 200XP

Answer 100 Classifieds - Reward: 1000 Coins, 500XP

Answer 250 Classifieds - Reward: 5000 Coins, 1000XP, 1 Boating Puddle

Are you looking forward to being a newspaper tycoon? Like the idea of customised gifting? Perhaps you're not as excited as me? Come along to our Facebook Page and let us know.

New Market Boosts

If you're feeling flush with horseshoes the FTV market now has some bargain multibuy packs of boosts to sell you...

Bee-sy Does It...

A swarm of busy little inhabitants are needing a new place to call home, will you bee the one to give it to them?

Players who've got a spouse will soon be visited by a swarm of happy and friendly honey bees who want you to build them a hive.

If you say no, the swarm will leave but another one will appear inside the next two weeks.

If you agree you'll place a beehive for 8 wood which is only the size of a tile and just requires four whacks at four wood each. Then it needs finishing which requires just a few building materials to begin with, four standard materials and two new ones...

The first Brood Box and Comb Frame will drop from the hive once you finish whacking it, a nice touch that lets you finish it much quicker with two less things to request to begin with.

Once it's built and the bees move in you get to take full advantage of their pollinating abilities to boost your crops by sending them out to speed up growth... well, by getting crop boosts anyway! Each time you collect your Daily Bonus it'll spawn out a number of boosts for you to use, starting with clover but increasing in type to give you better boosts for the larger crops.

The upgrades use the same supplies as before but at increasing amounts. The final of the sixth upgrades will cost quite a lot...

The full upgrade prices are:

Level 1 - 2 of each building material, 1 Comb Frame, 1 Brood Box

Level 2 - 3 of each building material, 2 Comb Frame, 2 Brood Box

Level 3 - 4 of each building material, 4 Comb Frame, 4 Brood Box

Level 4 - 10 of each building material, 8 Comb Frame, 8 Brood Box

Level 5 - 20 of each building material, 10 Comb Frame, 10 Brood Box

Level 6 - 70 of each building material, 20 Comb Frame, 20 Brood Box

There's also, as ever, a Beehive Collection to go with the new building:

We'll bring you more as and when we know more! :)

Are you looking forward to some small little buddies swarming around your homestead? Visit our Facebook Page and let us know!

Get Your Ass Out Of Trouble

We need 6 strong pioneers and a lot of rope, this is one stuck ass!





Yep, the latest injured animal has hit the Frontier and it needs your help to get out of a very sticky situation.

The Brown Mule is discovered when clearing grass or harvesting crops and is stuck in a hole, needing a good yank to free it and allow it to roam your Homestead.

First you need to click the mule yourself to try and dig it out (using up three energy) then it says you're not strong enough and need to get some help!

You do this by requesting (in the same way as asking for blankets or berries) help from your neighbours to pull.

Once out it becomes a collectible animal dropping injured animal collectibles every 24 hours plus the usual mule bonuses.

A Flying Visit?

Most people will have been seeing this pre-loader when starting up Frontierville now...

Well, it seems Zynga have listened to the players and done a variety of code tricks and optimisations to speed up visiting neighbours so we see a lot less of Jack asking us to hold on...

So far there's no concrete answer to the effectiveness of these changes, certainly when it first appeared yesterday it seemed to cause some issues instead of fixing them... but now the patches and changes are widespread we should hopefully be finding things running a little smoother.

Are you finding it a sprint to visit neighbours or still stuck in the mud? Any thoughts about the new optimisations come and let us know on our Facebook Wall

Wait, what's the date?

Yes folks, we have an admission to make, Rattlesnake Canyon was... our April Fools joke.

A little photoshopping (actually a lot of photoshopping), some inventive thought processes about what such a place could be and an inbuilt desire to do something quality for April Fools all combined to make that post.

All the admins come from countries have a long tradition for good April Fools jokes that are a little better put together than a simple prank, and hopefully you all see this as a creative bit of fun :)

We promise, this was our one time to make stuff up! ;D

With a cheeky smile that begs to be forgiven...

The Admins.

Rattlesnake Canyon! [UNRELEASED EXCLUSIVE]

[This game feature is unreleased and the information has been gathered from unofficial sources, as such some elements may change.]

Get the anti-venom ready for Rattlesnake Canyon! Yes, just when we were all expecting to hear more details about the Oregon Trail it seems Zynga has other ideas on where to send us! All those teases are apparently to guide us in the wrong direction, away from the REAL destination of our first expansion.

As has long been suspected it would appear that you visit Rattlesnake Canyon via the signpost on your homestead, the graphic and text will have changed just like the Oregon Trail...

You'll soon spot that Toto, we're not in Kansas any more! We believe you'll be welcomed and guided through the Canyon in the same way as Jack introduced you to the original homestead but we don't know if the grizzled one will be there again or if a new NPC will be introduced. Hank, Fanny, Bess etc are all left back at the original homestead so it could be that Jack is too, this is unconfirmed.

All coins, wood, food and inventory move across, a "derelict" cabin is provided straight off and in the screenshot you'll see that some animals and crops can be planted. From what we can tell there will only be limited crops available because of the different land type perhaps? The canyon's yellow background suggests a more arid environment than the fertile fields of the old homestead.

So far it appears that only tomatoes, potatoes, flax, corn, sunflowers, wheat and cotton survive from the old homestead and no trees, BUT the eagle eyed amongst you may well have spotted this:

Yes, it appears CACTUSES are now harvestable items, apparently in the same way as trees are now, so not disappearing and needing replanting. Whether they will still only be available as debris or a horseshoe purchase we really don't know. It appears the Markets vary depending on where you are so even if Cactuses are buyable, it doesn't mean that they'll be available on the homestead for coins.

There will also be a limited choice of animals it seems, with just goats, cows and oxen open for purchase but there is a suggestion of new animals including proper brown buffalo that begin in the same fashion as the injured animal but actually grow.

Because of changes to the game some varmints are also not in Rattlesnake Canyon, there are no Foxes or Coyotes, seemingly because there's no chickens, geese or turkeys (we've yet to discover if "disallowed" animals in your inventory can be placed, probably not) and there's no bears because there's no lumber trees growing (Wood can only be got as a resource from the original homestead although we believe thorns might grow in the canyon).

Groundhogs will still pop from crops but at a reduced rate. Obviously with the name of the place Rattlesnakes can also appear and apparently have been set to attack from more than just debris, they can also appear when harvesting crops and tending to animals. However, instead of the multi-clobber varmints they are on the homestead the bigger chance of them appearing is offset by them being a single-clobber varmint, in the same fashion as the Coyote.

It would appear that new missions are being brought out specifically for the Canyon, and each set of missions, Home and Canyon, will only appear down the left hand side of the specific location:

As you can see, the missions so far seem to be introducing the new harvestable Cactuses and requiring the planting of wheat, possibly a plotline about setting up camp and making sure the new area has food? As it stands we don't have specific details on these missions but we'll try to bring them to you ASAP.

Apparently the new Missions window will show missions from both Homesteads (we're not sure if the mission numbers are specifically coloured blue for Home and yellow for the Canyon or if this is just random). It seems though that nothing you do on a different stead will count towards the other, so harvesting wheat at Home won't count towards the mission on the Canyon.

As you can see, it appears that any mission from Home will have a return button under it to take you back to your original homestead.

So, limited market items, a change in varmints and being able to harvest debris! Although I'm not sure it'll be worth the many bites I think we're going to get... (anyone else spot the bit about "medical supplies", eh?)