Uncle Joe's Farm Manager for FarmVille
Contents
Concept
Farm Info Sheet
Inventory Sheet
Harvest Planner Sheet
Short Growth Calculators
Limited Edition Seeds Planner
Neighbors Sheet
Data Sheets
Unlock Sheets
Updates
Using Farm Manager
Notes
Concept
During the holidays the rapid pace of updates to the game were nearly impossible to keep up with. It was almost all I could do to keep the web site updated leaving no time to update the Farm Manager sheets. Even if I could have made the updates people would need to download a new copy and enter their data to have a current workbook consistent with the game. This brought a new design concept to the workbook, one that can be updated by adding the new data to the sheets without having to download a new version of the workbook. I have tried to plan ahead for game updates and have plenty of space for the future updates. Farm Manager now comes in two versions, with and without the harvest planners and calculators. The harvest planners and calculators are now available as a stand-alone workbook for those who only want to plan crops. The Farm Manager without the harvest planners is for those who may not need or want the harvest planners. This will make it easier for those who are not comfortable with making some of the future edits such as adding rows and formulas to the crops sheets. When an updated version of the crops planner workbook is created it will be available along with a sheet containing the new data and instructions for updating the full version. For times when it is not necessary to make changes to the crop planners a single sheet with the updates and instructions for which sheets and cells need the new data will be posted weekly.
FarmInfo Sheet
This sheet is for the basic data about your farm, it is similar to the earlier version. There are tables to input the costs of land expansions, expendable items, and a summary of the investments and assets. There are tables for keeping track of your status for ribbons achieved, collections, crop mastery, and the new co-op farming tasks. I have also included a Quick Mastery Calculator to help with planning the quest of crop mastery, and a small calculator to find how many coins you found while plowing. When you add your land expansion costs your farm size is updated from this. The costs can be found on the gamedata sheet in the Land table.
Inventory Sheet
This sheet is much wider than the earlier version to allow for the updates. When new data is added to the tables on the FarmData sheet there are formulas to make the new items visible at the bottom of each table. This should be beneficial when there are a high number of items added to the game for a new or existing theme. There are tables for keeping track of what types and amounts of animals there are in the functional buildings for animals. I have included a second chicken coop and stable for future use when one may have more than a single building. The game allows for up to five dairy farms, there is a separate table for each. As new animal types are added to the game these tables are the only ones, which must be updated manually.
The limited edition decorations and flags are now in separate tables to keep the decorations table from being longer than need be. I saw a post about new State flags planned for release, which is another reason why they are in a separate table.
Harvest Planner Sheet
This sheet has been redesigned to allow for adding new seeds, trees, and animals by inserting rows where needed to keep the data flow consistent. When new rows are inserted it is then a simple matter of copying and pasting the formulas from the row above to the new rows. This also opens space on the costs and harvests data tables, which can be updated using the same method of copying and pasting the formulas. The short growth crops (less than one day) still get the data from the calculators, which have been moved to a new sheet to keep the harvest planner from being too long. These calculators are important to how the fields used and fields left cells are calculated. The limited edition seeds have also been moved to a separate sheet. The planner sheet now displays the XP for plowing and planting seeds with a total for the cycle. This is handy for planning crops for achieving an new level as opposed to planning for the maximum coins returned for the harvests.
Short Growth Calculators
FarmVille now has eight different grow times for nineteen seeds which mature in less than one farm day. As new permanent seeds are added to the game it will be much faster and easier to add new calculators without much new formatting on the sheet. Fields planted with harvest times that still allow for a longer growth crop to be planted are not deducted from the fields available for planning one to four day crops. This allows for planning a mix of short growth crops with long growth crops for maximum coins and or XP over a four-day cycle. This can also be used to help plan a strategy for mastering a seed.
Limited Ed Seeds
These are on a separate sheet for several reasons. Firstly limited edition seeds are at times released more than once such as the case with the seeds for the Haiti Relief Fund and super pumpkins, which have a mastery amount, assigned. When new seeds are added to the game it is a simple matter of adding the new data to the crop data sheet. When existing seeds are made available again it is only a matter of changing the Available column cell from No to Yes to enable the crop on the limited edition seed planner sheet. There is a cycle cell for each day, which is used to determine when the fields used become unavailable for planting any more on a given day. The data is returned to the main planner sheet for fields available, planting and plowing XP, and harvest returns. Seeds that are not currently available are grayed to help with knowing which seeds may be planted. The data may still be entered into the cells for unavailable seeds, however doing this will result in false returns on the summary tables for the cycle.
Neighbors Sheet
It was requested that I add a sheet for tracking information about neighbors. I added this sheet for convenience it has no impact on the data returned to any of the summary tables. By noting the status of the neighbor it will return a message of how many current neighbors, pending neighbor request, and have quit playing the game. You can track their level, game activity, gifting information, and notes about their farms. There is also a cell for noting if they have a chicken coop to help prioritize the order you visit and help on their farms.
Data Sheets
The data sheets are the workhorses for the Farm Manager. Each sheet has a specific purpose and help with keeping the data and formulas separate. Without separate sheets the data sheet would just be too huge to move around and add data as needed. This also allows for the tables to be side by side with only a few exceptions with plenty of room to add as many new items as the developers see fit to add to the game. For example decorations can be expanded to contain over 65,000 items, which is about what Excel allows a sheet to have.
The FarmData sheet contains the information and formulas for the Inventory and FarmInfo sheets. The CropData sheet contains the information for the HarvestPlanner and Limited Ed Seeds sheets. The formulas calculate information for the fields used, plowing and planting XP, and coins returned for harvests. The GameData sheet contains the data and formulas, which are used globally by the FarmInfo and Inventory sheets. This should only need to be updated when new seeds with mastery assigned, new ribbons, and new collections are added to the game.
Unlock Sheets
To un-protect and protect sheets with Excel you will need to use the Tools Menu, choose Protection and either Protect Sheet or Unprotect sheet options. When prompted for passwords just click OK without entering a Password. To do this with Open Office you will need to use the Tools Menu, Protect Sheet, and click on the Unprotect or Protect Sheet option. Most updates to the Farm Manager will not require this, the cells allocated for updates are not locked.
Updates
Updates will normally be posted the weekend or sooner after the normal Thursday and Friday changes to the game, dependent upon how much was added. Most updates will only require copying and pasting new data to the data sheets. Below is a sample of what the update sheet will look like; this is from a pre-release test of updating the sheets.
For more information on how to update the Farm Manager see the Update Farm Manager
Using Farm Manager
The biggest task is the initial set up of the Farm Manager. Inventorying the farm takes the most time unless you have kept track of the information as you progressed in the game. I usually take the inventory as an opportunity to re-arrange the farm, deleting the entire field plots to create space to move and group items for easier counting. Once this is accomplished and all the information is added to the Inventory and Farm Info sheets it is just a matter of updating your information as it changes. Inventory will need to be modified as items are received, purchased, or deleted from the game. The Ribbons table on the Farm Info sheet only needs the No changed to Yes when a new ribbon is achieved. The Collections table is similar to the Inventory tables by increasing or decreasing the amount of collectables as they change on your game. Crop Mastery is a little tricky in that for Levels One and Two when achieved only enter the amount needed to complete the level not the actual amount harvested. Subtract the amount needed from the actual amount and add the difference to the next level. As you change the numbers the message will change with the amount needed to achieve the next level. The game will display the amount you have harvested toward the next level along with the total amount needed for the level not what is needed, players need to figure the amount needed. The Crop Mastery table does this for you. The Quick Mastery Calculator will help in deciding when and what seeds to plant to achieve the next level. This data used with the Harvest Planner you can plan how to maximize your efforts and fit the farming into your daily schedule.
Notes
During the process of completing the spreadsheets the numbers for Crop Mastery were adjusted in the game. When I updated the data many of the crops I had mastered changed to show there were still more needed for mastery and some levels below mastery had dropped from level 2 to level 1. I checked the mastery status in the game and adjusted my numbers on the table to reflect my current status with mastery and to return my mastery status to what it should be. In the future when the numbers may be again adjusted you may need to do the same or on the initial setup of the sheets you may need to adjust the numbers to show your current status.
I have added tables on the inventory sheet for the functional “Buildings That Matter” with extra for when we may have more than is allowed at this time. These are just handy to keep track of the animals inside the buildings. The Harvest Planner sheet has a column next to the Trees and Animals sections to input the numbers of each you have on the farm for reference.
On the Short Growth Calculators sheet there are extra blank tables for each growth period for future use if more crops are added to the game. Of course when new crops are added to the regular crops the Harvest Planner sheet will need to be edited to show those crops. The Limited Edition crops should only require a little maintenance from time to time.
I always invite input from other users about improvements, additions, typos, bad formulas, or anything else to make this a better tool for everyone. Please feel free to contact me using the email link on the Farm Manager Page or with the email link below.
The new design concept for Farm Manager should make it much easier to have a current version of the sheet without the need of downloading a new workbook and adding the existing data from your current worksheet each time the game changes.
mailto:unclejoe@farmaddicts.com
I hope you enjoy using the new Farm Manager.
Uncle Joe