Cooperative projects and mastering teamwork

Cooperative projects are shared tasks I tackle with the whole cooperative at once - first we all have to finish collecting the material for the project together, and only then can the cooperative leader or a deputy launch the project and start the countdown of the limited time to complete the task. For a successfully finished project the cooperative earns reputation points that raise its level, and the more often we pull it off, the higher the difficulty of the next tasks climbs and the bigger the reward for them gets. Besides projects, I also work with the cooperative on building our shared cooperative village, which we put together from materials donated by members.

I see cooperative projects as one of the few places in the game where the activity of the whole cooperative feeds straight into its reputation and level, so it pays off to get as many members as possible into the collections - the village build then works as a second, slower run of the same teamwork, one that rewards cooperatives that donate regularly rather than in bursts.

Cooperative projects pull the whole team onto one task

Every task hides behind a short story that hints at what to collect and why. In my time playing in a cooperative I have run into these versions, for example.

• a cheese dairy needs milk to make gouda for the Dutch embassy
• a baby food producer is after apples, while the by-product goes to the greenhouse as humus
• local kindergartens are collecting eggs for art classes
• a school is asking for straw for scarecrows and cabbage for the canteen
• a cinema needs corn for popcorn, and salmon farmers want ground corn as feed
• a botanical garden is after meadow flowers and fertilizer for a new butterfly greenhouse
• a farmers' celebration needs a delivery of almond muffins
• a hospital is collecting dandelions for its young patients

One of the projects even pits the cooperative directly against a rival team of farmers over who can split feed production more efficiently.

The collection decides the start, the clock decides the outcome

Before a project can even begin, the cooperative has to finish collecting the required goods - and every single member can join in at this stage. Once the collection is done, the leader or a deputy launches the project, and from that moment a limited amount of time runs for completing the assigned task.

A cooperative only ever works on one such project at a time - the next one starts once the current one ends. The game also shows who contributed the most to the collection, so you can see whether the project is really being carried by the whole cooperative or just a handful of active players. From experience, this overview also helps me judge how demanding a project the cooperative should take on next time. If the task is not finished within the time limit, the project simply fails and the reward is gone.

Difficulty grows with success and unlocks further levels

For a successfully completed project the cooperative receives reputation points, which raise the level of the whole cooperative. The more consistently projects succeed, the higher the difficulty of the next tasks climbs - they get tougher, but the reward grows along with them.

You can track progress across projects too - the game shows how many successful projects are still missing before the next difficulty level. Once the cooperative reaches it, it unlocks a new, or straight away the highest available selectable difficulty level for that type of project. The more reliable the cooperative is, the higher it climbs in this ladder - and the more it needs every single member pulling their weight, not just a few of the most active ones.

The cooperative village grows from donated materials

Teamwork in a cooperative is not just about projects, but also about the shared cooperative village, which the cooperative builds and upgrades from materials donated by individual members. Before construction can start, the required building materials have to be handed in - and the whole cooperative should chip in, not just a few people.

Leaders and deputies can also donate gold or village dollars straight from the cooperative's account and buy up to three kinds of materials with them. Once the collection for a given upgrade is complete, either the leader or a deputy starts the construction immediately, or at least one third of the members votes to begin it. The cooperative always builds only one building at a time.

If the collection is not finished right away, the building loses at least 1% of the accumulated material every day - you can prevent that if at least one member donates at least one material every 24 hours.

Donating repeatedly also raises the village experience point multiplier, so it pays off to donate steadily rather than just once in a while.

The storage and the factories keep materials together

Material for building the cooperative village piles up in a shared storage, where you can see both the personal and the cooperative amounts, and also how much the cooperative has collected online. The storage is split into building materials, products from the wood and textile factory, products from the minerals and metals factory, items from the horse pasture, gifts from the adventurer and other products.

The two cooperative factories - the one for wood and textiles and the one for minerals and metals - produce exactly what comes in handy during construction and the regular upkeep of village buildings. For every building under construction, the storage also shows right away what stage it is in - whether materials are still being collected and at what percentage, whether it is ready for construction to start, or how many days are left until completion.

Buildings and products mentioned in the text

GreenhouseMain farm · from level 34 · 14 × 32Minerals and metals factoryCooperative village · 13 × 12MeadowFlower farm · from level 38 · 13 × 10GardenGourmet farm · from level 19 · 9 × 7DairyMain farm · from level 149 · 7 × 6Almond muffinsBasic product · Gourmet farmFertilizerProcessed product · Main farmDandelionBasic product · Gourmet farm