CityVille Barley crop will quickly clear out your City Cash reserves

Another limited edition crop has been released in CityVille this week, costing just a bit less City Cash than other limited / premium crops, but still costing enough that you can quickly find yourself in virtual poverty all the same. The crop is Barley, and it can be planted for 4 City Cash per square.

For that price, you'll have (of course) a crop that grows instantly, but you'll only earn 127 Goods per square planted. As a comparison, the Taro crop that's also currently available to plant in the store gives you 158 Goods per 5 City Cash, so whether or not the one City Cash savings is worth the Goods difference will be up to you.

Either way, you'll need to make your decision quickly, as you only have four days to take advantage of this crop's bonuses. It can be mastered, if that increases your desire to plant it, with the first star of mastery coming at just three harvests (you'll also gain a 20% bonus to the Goods you receive from each Barley crop planted thereafter). Three harvests does still equal 12 City Cash though, so please remember to keep the high City Cash cost in mind before diving in!

Do you frequently plant the limited edition crops in CityVille that offer you instant Goods? How many of them have you mastered? Will you plant Barley as well?

CityVille Family Vacation Goals: Everything you need to know

Before summer ends, and the kids all have to go back to school, the Stumpford family has requested your help in CityVille. They'd like to have one last hurrah of the summer on a road trip for the whole family (mom, dad and the two kids), but they can't do it without you. In comes a set of four new goals in the game, called "Family Vacation."

The Family Vacation goals offer you a trio of decorations inspired by road trips or the great outdoors, so let's go ahead and jump right in, shall we? Note: You must be at least level 30 to access these goals.

My Way or the Highway

    Ask for 4 Maps
    Collect two times from any Library
    Harvest 50 Carrots


Fortunately, this Library step really does mean "any," so you can collect once from a regular Library and again from a College Library within seconds and have that step completed. As for the Carrots, they cost 46 coins per square and take eight hours to grow, which gives you plenty of time to ask your friends to send you the four maps necessary to finish this one off. Doing so rewards you with the Giant Ball of Twine, a 2x2 decoration that offers a 5% bonus payout to surrounding homes and businesses.

Detour Guide

    Have one Giant Ball of Twine in your city
    Collect five times from any Diner
    Send 5 Tour Buses to Burger Joints


Remember, you'll need to visit your friends' towns to send out Tour Buses, so hopefully at least a few of your neighbors have kept Burger Joints, rather than exchanging them for more profitable businesses. Your reward for this goal is 400 Goods.

Camping My Style

    Have 6 Fitness Collection collectibles
    Ask friends for 4 Mosquito Repellent
    Pitch two Tents


Don't panic with this one; the Tents aren't some building project that must be undertaken - they're simply available to purchase as a decorative item in the store (a single Tent costs 5,000 coins and offers a 4% bonus to payout). Finishing this third goal rewards you with the Wooden Dino. This decoration offers just a 1% payout bonus, but it's a cute item all the same.

Hoax Busters

    Have one Wooden Dino in your city
    Ask for 10 Pictures of Bigfoot for proof
    Collect two times from any Level 2 Emergency Clinic


Apparently, the Stumpfords have stumbled upon something in the forest on their road trip, on top of some Poison Ivy - ouch! You'll need to ask your friends for the Pictures of Bigfoot, but after these three steps are done, you'll have finished this family's vacation, and will be rewarded with the pretty Hidden Lake item. This item takes up a 4x4 square area on your land, but you'll gain a 20% bonus payout to surrounding structures so it's worth the few extra squares it sits on.

All told, these goals shouldn't take you the rest of the summer, but luckily, there doesn't seem to be any time limit on completing them if you'd like to take your time.

[Goals 2-4 Via CityVille Wiki]

Have you already started helping the Stumpfords on their Family Vacation? What do you think of the difficulty level of these goals?

CityVille Dam Goals: Everything you need to know

We brought you a sneak peek of CityVille's upcoming Dam feature earlier this month, but now we know that there will be an entire set of goals surrounding the launch of the Dam, thanks to information found by CityVille Goals. These goals reveal quite a bit about the new feature, including its overall purpose: to increase your maximum energy bar. While these goals are still unreleased and could therefore change at any time, here's a best-guess for what we'll be looking at when the Dam launches in the near future.

Power Your City

    Place your Dam
    Plant on 15 Plots


Apparently, this Dam will be an incredibly large structure (fittingly, of course), as we're told that we may have to expand our land to place it, but in exchange, we'll receive some free land "once you do." We'd guess that the Dam will likely act as other building objects, requiring various building materials to complete, and once its done, will allow us to raise our maximum amount of energy points over time. Remember, this is still a bit of speculation, but we're doing the best we can on little information.

Get the Dam Working

    Finish your Dam
    Supply your Dam
    Ask for 6 Reflector Units


Here's something that's interesting. Will the Dam be a large business, rather than a community building, or even something unique? We're interested in learning more about why the Dam needs to be "supplied," but perhaps this is a case where we must invest a few energy into the Dam only to receive a massive boost on the other end.

Making Progress

    Harvest 20 Plots
    Send out 10 Ships
    Increase your Energy Cap by three


Apparently, as we continue to use and reuse the Dam, we'll have the opportunity to raise our Energy Point cap by three points to finish this goal, but don't worry - we'll be able to increase it even more in the next goal.

Fill'er Up

    Collect City Works 2 times
    Unwither 20 Plots in your friends' cities
    Increase your Energy Cap by seven


See? I told you the next goal would see an even larger increase in our maximum energy caps. At the end of this goal, we'll apparently reach the end of these Dam Goals, but I wouldn't be surprised if more goals were added to the line in the future. After all, it seems like with the release of the Dam, Zynga has created a feature that will forever be able to sustain the increasing of energy caps, so the CityVille team could just add more layers as they're needed.

Either way, we'll make sure to give you all of the concrete details about the Dam and its goals when it launches in the game in the future. For now though, use these goals as a sort of timeline to plan ahead.

Are you excited about the Dam? Will you use the feature if it means increasing your overall energy cap?

CityVille: Post your in-game achievements to the Facebook ticker

Here we are again, mayors. Another Zynga game is asking for additional permission to share your gameplay information with friends via the new Facebook ticker that appears along the right side of the screen when playing games on the site. First it was FarmVille, and now comes CityVille.

This "new permissions" set is at least far more detailed than the FarmVille request, which left many users wondering exactly what they were giving Zynga access to. Here, we're told straight up that by giving Zynga these additional permissions, you're simply allowing it to share your gameplay activity in the ticker (including achievements you've earned or goals you may have completed while playing) with your friends. Facebook apparently requires it to do so, so here we are.

You'll be able to give Zynga permission (or deny it) when you see a window like the one at right appear in your screen. From there, you can either hit "Allow" to let yourself appear in the ticker, or "Don't Allow" to keep yourself hidden. Your own gameplay experience won't change, and nothing in the game itself will change either. This all goes back to how much information you want to share with friends about your gameplay activity, all in the Facebook ticker. That being the case, feel free to choose whichever option you wish without the fear of penalty.

Will you allow Zynga to share your gameplay activity with your CityVille friends? What do you think of the Facebook ticker as a whole? Sound off in the comments.

CityVille Mexican theme expands with Statue of Independence, Cantina and more

As promised, here we are again with news of more Mexican Independence items that have been added to CityVille's store. You know, I honestly thought that this would be a one-time release, but leave it to Zynga to release more items even after the holiday in question has passed (this holiday being the Mexican Independence celebration). There aren't as many items here as in the original release we told you about earlier this week, but there is a new crop here, if you happen to be into that sort of thing.

Statue of Independence (Decoration)

    * Costs: 36,000 coins
    * Payout Bonus: 12% to surrounding businesses and residences; bonus 12% to Mexican themed items


Cantina (Business)

    * Costs: 3,800 coins
    * Requires: 95 Goods
    * Supplies: 640 coins


Quince Anos Party (Decoration)

    * Costs: 12 City Cash
    * Payout Bonus: 12%; bonus 12% to Mexican themed items



Fine Arts Theater (Community Building)

    * Costs: 80 City Cash
    * Allows: 7500 citizens added to maximum population cap


Agave Crop

    * Costs: 5 City Cash per square
    * Harvest Time: Instant
    * Supplies: 450 Goods per square planted
    * First Star of Mastery: 3 Harvests


See? There aren't as many items in this release, but luckily, we're given plenty of time to purchase them either way. You'll have 12 days to do your shopping for these new items (the original section of this theme is down to a 10-day time limit), so just make sure to go shopping eventually before these items do actually expire.

What do you think of these newest CityVille Mexican-themed items? What sort of cultural or geographical theme would you like to see released next? Sound off in the comments.

CityVille 13 Comments CityVille Neighborhoods: Everything you need to know

Here we go, mayors. A new feature has been launched in CityVille that will help one of the biggest concerns I personally have with the game (and I know I'm not alone). A new Neighborhoods feature has launched to players above level 30, with at least 620 population, that will allow you to move homes (including high rises) into smaller areas to save space. This feature, you guessed it, is similar to the Mall feature, but here's a complete rundown of how this works for homes.

First and foremost, yes, you can have more than one Neighborhood in your town, and there are different types of Neighborhoods depending on the kinds of homes you'd like to store. Gated Communities cost 10,000 coins and store up to 15 Family Residences. Uptown Estates cost 15,000 coins and store 15 Apartments and finally, Palm Towers cost 20,000 coins and store 15 Vacation Home.

For our example, let's say you wanted to build a Gated Community in your town. You'd go into the store to purchase the base, as seen below, and would then need to whack that base six times to build up the frame.

From there, you'll instantly have access to two storage spots, of a possible five on the first "block," or "floor," if we're comparing this to the Mall. To fill these spaces, simply click on your empty Neighborhood and then click on "Fill" under one of the empty spaces. This will cause all of the buildings that can fit inside to glow. Click on one and voila! It's stored inside your Neighborhood, which will change shape and complexity as new buildings are added to it.

To unlock additional space inside your Neighborhoods, you'll need to ask your friends to staff extra spots, as seen above. The rate of one user per one storage slot isn't bad, really. Once your first block is full, you'll have to go through the process of asking for building materials to open up the second block. In our particular example of the Gated Community, you'll need five each of Red Bricks, Crossing Signs, Roof Tiles, Cement and Lumber. These are earned either by purchasing them outright with City Cash, or by asking your friends to send them to you.

When you've unlocked your second block, the process will repeat (and so on until you've unlocked and filled all three blocks, with more building materials being required the second time). Again, at first, these Neighborhoods may be incredibly space-consuming, but once they're full, you'll find them to be fairly space-saving, especially if you choose to place the largest homes in each category into storage. Don't worry about losing their stats, though, as you'll be able to collect rent as normal while they're inside. That is, you'll be able to click on your Neighborhood, and will then be asked to spend a larger amount of energy to collect from all "ready" buildings inside, just as you collect profits from your Mall.

All told, these are some fairly time consuming building projects, but if you're willing to go through with building them (and have plenty of friends around that are willing to help you out), you'll end up saving tons of space for future purchases, whether residential in nature or otherwise. We'll make sure to let you know when other kinds of Neighborhoods, for other kinds of homes are released, so keep checking back with us.

Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

What do you think of the Neighborhoods feature? Is the space you saved substantial enough to warrant building them? Sound off in the comments.

CityVille says Viva Mexico! with new Mexican themed items

To celebrate Mexican Independence, Zynga has launched a full theme of Mexican themed items in CityVille this afternoon. These items range from small decorations to large landmarks, so we'll make sure to give you a complete rundown on these items to know what to expect. Keep in mind, while they do have a longer time limit than usual at anywhere from 12-14 days (the usual being a week), they will eventually vanish from the store, so do some shopping sooner, rather than later. Here's what's available:

Ice Cream Cart (Decoration)

    * Costs: 5,000 coins
    * Payout Bonus: 3% to surrounding businesses and homes; bonus 3% to Mexico themed items


Guerrero Residence (Home)

    * Costs: 40 City Cash
    * Population: 600-1200
    * Rent: 296 coins every 18 hours


Sombrero Store (Business)

    * Costs: 6,800 coins
    * Requires: 170 Goods
    * Supplies: 1,024 coins


Garcia House (Home)

    * Costs: 13,500 coins
    * Population: 120-240
    * Rent: 18 coins every five minutes


Watch Tower (Decoration)

    * Costs: 24 City Cash
    * Payout Bonus: 24%; bonus 24% to Mexican themed items



Mayan Pyramid (Decoration)

    * Costs: 72,000 coins
    * Payout Bonus: 12%; bonus 12% to Mexican themed items
    * Not Limited Edition!


Morelos Fort (Community Building)

    * Costs: 70 City Cash
    * Allows: 2,000 citizens added to max population cap


Hacienda de Dolores (Home)

    * Costs: 65 City Cash
    * Population: 1850-3650
    * Rent: 451 coins every 3.1 days


House of Churros (Business)

    * Costs: 40 City Cash
    * Requires: 305 Goods
    * Supplies: 1648 coins


On top of all of this, there's also a Mexico Mystery Crate available for 40 City Cash that contains one of four items: the Morelos Fort, Hacienda de Dolores, Guerrero Residence or House of Churros. Sure, you'd get two items from this crate at a discounted price, but remember that there's no guarantee you won't receive duplicates when purchasing more than one crate. That is, if you're going for both the Hacienda and the Fort, you may very well end up with two House of Churros instead.

Either way, we'll make sure to let you know if other items are added in this Mexican Independence celebration theme, but we wouldn't be surprised if it's a one-time-deal.

What do you think of this new theme of items? Which ones have you purchased for your town and which ones will you skip? Sound off in the comments.