Starting out in a co-op may seem a little daunting at first. All those little tabs, talk about doing a project and starting research, it can be a bit much to soak in. That is why we made this handy overview of all the terms and possibilities of a co-op. Let’s review each tab in the co-op screen.
Overview
This is found under the handshake tab.
In the overview you can see some info about the co-op, like how many people there are and can be in the co-op, but the most important features on this page are the news and the donate buttons. The news contains important information about projects and research, so make sure to read it every time you log in. The donate buttons are also important, since the co-op needs farm dollars to start research. You can read more on that in the research section of this post.
There is also a gold donation button but you are in no way obligated to donate any gold.
Members
This is found under the little business man tab.
Here you can find information about all members of the co-op. Who is the chairman, who are the deputies, levels, online status, you name it.
Chatroom
This is found under the green text-balloon tab.
Our chatroom is always busy. We have a very lively chat because we have members from all around the world, so at any given time there are nice people to talk to.
Projects
They are found under the rake and shovel tab.
We do projects to level up our co-op, because just like your own farm, the co-op has a level and needs experience. Levelling up opens up more research possibilities so we can boost all kinds of things for our members, more on that in the research section. Before we can start a project we need to donate collectables into it, those things you sometimes get when working on your farm such as tractors or cash registers. After that is done the management of the co-op can start a project. Every project requires different products to be made in a set amount of time.
Lets look at “The complete movie experience”, at this time it requires us to make 14.000 corn in 24 hours (until we level up the project itself). Every time you make corn on your fields while this project is active you contribute to it. And it works the same for all projects, so no need to sell things, collect things or click a special donate button (like in some quests). Every harvest of the required product counts towards our project. After a project is completed we get a certain amount of experience for the co-op (the co-op level can be seen in the top left corner of the cooperative screen) and after a few times we might also get a level up on the project itself, this means it will be harder the next time.
During a project it is a great idea to start a mission for the same product, in this case collecting or selling corn. It makes sure you have a double reason to be as active as possible, plus you have to make the corn anyway, might as well win a mission while doing it.
At the moment of writing this we can do 6 different projects, but levelling up the co-op will unlock more.
Research
This is found under the orange flask tab.
There are 3 different types of research; cooperative project, farm management and cooperative.
In the little drop down menu, under the main tabs at the top, you can select which category you want to look at.
The researches in “cooperative project” are for making projects simpler to do and start.
Under “farm management” you can find researches that boost the money you get for all kinds of farm products.
The “cooperative” section holds researches that have to do with the co-op itself, like expanding.
Once in a while you will get notice, both via a group message and in the news section, that we want to start a research. If this happens we would like you to sign up as a researcher as soon as possible.
It is very important that you sign up as a researcher before donating dollars directly.
All research requires members to provide a researcher and also each research has a start-up cost that is paid directly from the co-op general fund. Since you can only sign yourself up once, and we occasionally need as many researchers as we have members, we sometimes have to wait for all members to sign up before we can start the research. If you are donating directly to the co-op general fund, and thus don’t have enough money to become a researcher, everyone is waiting on you, while if you sign up first, everyone else can help donating the money that is needed to start.
While you can use gold to sign up as a researcher, you are in no way obligated to do that. But if you want to buy a researcher for gold, that researcher can come in alongside the one you bought with dollars. You could even fill all slots with gold if you wanted, but I have to stress this again, you are in no way required to do so and we are actually opposed to this. We like to give everyone the chance to participate and together get a feeling of achievement for starting and finishing a research. We feel this is what a cooperative is all about.
Some extra explanation about some other terms:
Missions
Missions are the timed trials where you need to make, start or sell products. These are very good to do because the worst that can happen is losing Reputation Points, even a last place will get you 1 experience and some money. And losing RP isn’t even a bad thing, because you get paired with people who have about the same RP as you have, so the lower your RP the easier it gets.
You can even force low RP by entering a mission, which costs a entry fee of RP, and exiting it immediately so you lose that RP. This way you can get very low on the ladder and be paired with low levels. Or people who use the same trick…
Quests
These are the requests and suggestions the farmhands make on the left side of the screen. Consider this a tutorial or a nice bonus for stuff you are going to do anyway. When in doubt what to build next, check out what quests you have and base a decision on that. Sometimes the rewards are very big for a simple task. Also, you don’t need to complete quests immediately if it will reduce your farm’s capacity or leave you with too few farmdollars to continue. One strategy is to wait until you need the Experience Points to level up and then complete the quest(s). Whenever possible upgrade your buildings during the time you will be logged out.
I hope this was informative and clear for everyone. In a future post we will make a picture guided manual for how to sign up for research and how to donate, or retrieve, collectibles.
The Larino cooperative.
Larino's Corner 