datasurgeon wrote:
I disagree with mattderes; house farming is not the best way to make money. It actually takes away from advancing in the game because you are delaying buying the buildings that also generate money and XP which are required to complete tasks. (Strange no house farmer every mentions that). What I mean by house farming is one who devotes land and cash to 50 or more houses.
Why? because the Conform-o-meter will require you to buy multiple of houses and store to reach 5 stars. Conform-o-meter is the cheapest multiplier you can get.
Why a multiplier? If Conform-o-meter is at 5 star that is 5% BONUS. If you town earns 10,000 you get 500 extra for no extra effort (plus 5% extra on XP).
At a certain point of you game development; you have to pay attention to the multiplier vs the earnings. Someone always mentions white fences and every one smirks at the suggestion. Yet for 1 donut the white fence generates .05% and generates it consistently. Don't overlook the multiplier when considering what to purchase with donuts
What madness is this? :-)
Seriously, I don't think you've done the math. A single white fence gives you a .01% increase. Not 1%, .01%, which you have to pay the equivalent of RL money for. If you collect $10,000 from your town on a visit (pretty reasonable average for a "normal" town, I think) that white fence nets you... $1. For real money! The news van nets you $200 (i.e. 200 times as much, while only costing 40 times as much).
But regardless, what you're suggesting is like passing up the five percent interest on a million bucks so you can get ten percent interest off of a thousand. You have to pay attention to the principle, not just the interest rate.
Finally, although I've unfriended people for having excessive farms, I've never seen a Springfield yet that was totally filled with nothing but the farm. These people play the game, advance the story, and build other buildings, it's just that they fill all their
extra space with houses to collect the money and expand quickly to make room for more houses. Besides which, you can have a farm and still have a good conform-o-meter. We call it "house" farming as a shorthand, but you can farm shops and other items as well. For example, I've seen farms that included a "crop" of stop signs to boost their righteousness.