Thanks for asking for our input! Most of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but I want to add my "vote" for them.
1. Allow solo/small NH’s to get all 9 horseshoes in the derby.
Why: Because it’s more fair. People in solo/small NH’s work just as hard as people in bigger NH’s and deserve the same rewards. And since I know your team members don’t agree about what’s fair on this issue, please consider that letting all NH’s get 9 horseshoes has no downside. It helps the solo/small NH’s without hurting the bigger ones. The current system hurts the solo/small NH’s and doesn't help the bigger ones any more than the 9-horseshoes-for-everyone system would.
2. Allow us to choose which townies we release from a building.
Why: When there’s a derby task for a specific character, it’s very frustrating not to be able to release that one character without releasing all the others in the same building. We should be able to keep the other characters in the buildings so we can release them later for other derby tasks.
3. Make the themed derbies more fun and interesting, with more variety. Instead of just having a few themed tasks that we do all week long, it would be great to have derbies where the theme had to do with better prizes--such as more expansion permits or puzzle pieces (not just an increased probability of getting one, but actually making it possible to get more of them than usual).
Why: It’s boring to keep doing the same few tasks over and over--especially when they're long slow tasks like harvesting slow-growing crops. And when everyone is producing the same few items, the DD is a disaster. I don’t find the themed derbies more fun than the regular ones--they have the same tasks, and the only difference in what we’re doing is that we have less variety in the high-point tasks. For me, the themed derbies are a chore, and the extra points aren’t enough of a reward for the boredom of repetitive tasks and the annoyance of the flooded DD.
4. Offer better derby prizes--both as horseshoe prizes and trophy awards.
Why: The derby is a lot of work, and the prizes should reflect that. It’s frustrating to spend days on derby chores, and to have most of the prizes be tools I can get much more easily from serving townies, harvesting crops, etc. The expansion permits and puzzle pieces are great, but I wish there were more of them. I love the idea of having decorations as prizes, but I wish there were more variety. I don’t want to fill my farm with items that have horse-race and horseshoe themes. Maybe some of the special derbies could offer theme-related decorations that don’t have anything to do with horses. For example, a summer derby could have special flowers and flowering trees that aren’t available for sale.
5. Offer more natural, farm-appropriate decorations for sale and as catalog prizes and WoF rewards.
Why: There are people who prefer to have a more natural looking farm, and most of the existing decorations and prizes don’t fit with that look. Like others, I’d love more natural looking flowers and flowering trees. Instead of having almost everything in pots, wagons, tires, etc., it would be great to have them look as if they were actually growing in the ground--like the hydrangeas, which I love and wish were more available.
6. And please bring back the purple hydrangeas, which seem to have completely disappeared months ago.
Why: They're beautiful, and they're the only purple decoration you have that's natural looking and appears as if it's actually growing in the ground.
7. Give us the option to activate a new booster.
Why: It’s frustrating to get a good booster that I could use now, but my only options are to trade or trash it. I don’t think I should have to spend diamonds to open up a new booster slot, just so that I can use a new booster. I wouldn’t mind spending diamonds for a new booster slot if it would be permanent (the way new slots on production machines are), but I don’t want to spend them for a temporary slot every time I get a new booster I want to use. At the moment, the only solution to that is to reduce my booster storage so I always have at least one slot open, which is annoying. There have been a lot of times that I trashed a good booster for that reason--and then got a new one that I didn’t like as much as the one I trashed.
8. Create double confirmation of ALL diamond spends, and improve the current double confirmation procedure.
Why: It’s much too easy to accidentally spend diamonds. I know you’ve improved this over the way it used to be, but it still needs more work. You consider a pop-up to be the first step of a double confirmation, but often I don’t see the pop-up at first, or it’s so close to something else--like the mailbox--that when I try to tap the mailbox I accidentally tap the pop-up. And where you do have a double confirmation procedure, it’s too easy to tap it the first time without realizing it, because you often put the diamond-purchase option in the way of what I’m trying to do. I spend a lot of effort trying to avoid tapping those, which is annoying in itself. And it’s more annoying when I tap one without realizing it, and then before I know it I’ve spent a bunch of diamonds unintentionally. Please don’t make the diamond-purchase options so front-and-center. And I like the idea someone else suggested of haing a slight time delay between taps, so there’s less chance of two quick taps causing me to lose diamonds.
