Building, upgrading and demolishing buildings
Building, upgrading and demolishing make up the basic cycle that every farm revolves around - first I put something up, then I keep upgrading it for dollars, and when a building stops suiting me, I tear it down and get part of the investment back. The farm only lets you do one of those three things at a time, though, so it pays to plan the order of your projects in advance. Building also goes hand in hand with looking after your workers and their happiness, because without free people and decorations production gets more expensive.
The building mechanics are simple and easy to follow, but the one construction site rule and the conditions for demolishing houses and barns can slow down even an experienced player who hasn't mapped out the order of their actions beforehand. Anyone who keeps an eye on a balanced ratio of workers to decorations and upgrades their buildings as they go won't have any trouble with building on the farm.
You can build, upgrade and demolish on the farm, but always only one thing at a time
Building on the farm always starts in the Build menu, where I pick what I want and place it on a free spot. Then the construction phase runs, and only once it's finished do I either start using the building straight away, or assign workers to it if it's a production facility.
An important rule I kept forgetting at the start - only one construction site can be running on a farm. Building, upgrading and demolishing all share the same queue, so until one action is finished, the next one won't start. That's why it pays to think the order through in advance - for example finishing a production building first and only then dealing with a storage upgrade, instead of having both actions wait on each other.
The Build menu only shows what can be built on that particular farm
In the Build menu I find all the buildings available for that farm - production buildings, decorations, houses, storage and processing buildings. Clicking a specific object brings up the details on the right, and the arrows under the picture also show information about the higher levels, even though you can always only buy the first one.
Not every farm offers the same buildings - what's available I find right in the Build menu on the farm in question. Some buildings are also only unlocked once you reach a certain player level or collect a certain number of experience points, and while some structures can only be built once per farm, others can be built as many times as you like.
Upgrading a building costs dollars and time but raises its value
I start upgrading a building I've already built by clicking it and choosing Upgrade from the radial menu. It's paid for in dollars and, just like construction, an upgrade takes some time - but once it's done, the building has a higher value.
Most buildings can be built and upgraded either for dollars or for gold. I use dollars for ordinary upgrades myself and save gold for moments when I need to hurry a particular building along, because gold is rarer while the farm earns dollars for itself from production.
Demolishing gives back some dollars, but it isn't always possible right away
I start a demolition by clicking the object and choosing Demolish from the radial menu, and the game asks for confirmation just to be sure. Demolishing takes a while, but in return I get back part of the dollars I previously invested in the building. A decoration doesn't even have to be demolished - it can just be put into storage.
Demolishing can't always be started, though. I can't tear down a house while its residents are working in production buildings - first I have to demolish the production buildings, and only then does the house become free. In the same way, I can't demolish a barn full of stock while unsold goods are lying in it - those have to be sold first.
New workers lower happiness and decorations bring it back up
Production buildings are useless without workers, so before I start building another one, I check whether I have enough free people on the farm. Every new worker, though, raises unhappiness on the farm.
Decorations work against that, because they raise happiness. Happiness directly affects how efficiently the workers do their jobs - a happier worker means lower production costs. The building plan that has worked best for me is to keep balancing out the growth in production buildings and workers by adding decorations as I go, rather than afterwards, once production costs have started creeping up.
Patches for nature reserve decorations temporarily strengthen their effect
A special case of upgrading are the patches for nature reserve decorations. I assign one to a decoration and it then temporarily strengthens a specific property - depending on the type of patch that's happiness, village happiness, diamond production or production boosts for eggs, milk, baked goods and the garden.
| Patch type | Effect |
|---|---|
| Happiness | +3 / +5 |
| Neighbouring happiness | +3 / +5 |
| Village happiness | +3 / +5 |
| Diamond production | +3 / +5 |
| Egg booster | +3 / +5 |
| Milk booster | +3 / +5 |
| Garden boost | +3 / +5 |
| Bakery boost | +3 / +5 |
Since it's always a temporary boost, I prefer to keep patches ready for moments when I need to speed up a particular production line for a short while, rather than using them as a permanent fix for happiness on the farm.
