What effects your decision to help others?

[pfkcmk2001]

I fill like 150 crates daily (I got a little over 700 boat points yesterday). I often buy and fill. But of course, there are some items that I will hesitate in filling such as sugars, dairies and jams. I do still fill them in NH very often. But when I came across a shop with a lot of BEMs and SEMs (not just a few), I may often fill those items too. So, what I bought did affect my choice.

Speaking of that, shepherd pies are what I often fill when I have them. I often keep a stock too. Its just that I didnt see that ad

[powdermonkey]

My main decision metric is: do I have it in stock? If so, I will put it in your boat, because I want the points. (And yes, because I like to help people too).

Some modifiers I apply to the metric relate to my own needs--if I need the items for my incoming boat, I hold back the number that I think I will need. I also keep a reserve of jams, and there are a few items (like fish, cream, and sugar) where I feel that the points offered by the boat order are insufficient. To get these reserve items from me, you either have to catch me on a day when I really have a lot in reserve, or you have to have been a helpful neighbor in the past, or you have to have just sold me something that I really needed.

I regards to the OP's issues with shepherd's pies, I have noticed that the scarcity of those is increasing, and I don't really know why. I have supposed that it might have to due with the increasing number of other products that can be produced through the pie maker, and due to the increasing number of products that use bacon and carrots. (I used to call it "garbage pie" because it was such a great way to use up those ever-accumulating items, but now I can make BLT sandwiches and BLT salad, and feed carrots to my horses and donkeys. Now when I go to make "garbage pie" I often find that I am low on ingredients!)

~powdermonkey

[tarasparks4]

How many I have in stock, and how long it takes to make the product. In other words, if someone is wanting two blackberry jams and I have only three or four in my barn, forget it. However, if it's bread or popcorn, I'm more likely to be generous, knowing I can make up the deficit in a hurry if I need those products myself.

And I tend not to do dairy or sugars either.

Yup this is usually how I operate.

I browse the adds for purchasing and helping. I'll tap on any bush/tree but when it comes to helping boat orders, if I have it and I don't need it for my own orders then i will help another. If it's easy and cheap to replace, i will give my last bread or corn. If it's end of night and someone needs help with a premium good that i have in production over night, then i will help. I have helped a handful of sugar/dairy orders, just to find out hours or moments later that i need the same goods for the next boat order, so i don't help with those anymore. I can barley keep up with my own dairy/sugar needs that I can't help out too much. It's especially difficult to help those on higher levels as they often need help with goods I can't make yet. The other day someone needed help with an item they had in their RSS, I bought it and used it to help with their order. If i see the item listed for sale somewhere else and i'm not loosing too many coins on it, i will buy it and go back to the add needing help. The only exception to my process is that I won't give my last anything to farmers with 10 ads of eggs for 180 coins. The 180 coin egg adds are a constant annoyance to me. For the most part, I ignore them but if i am in 'helping mode" I will look and see what they need. If I have lots to spare, I will help, otherwise I don't.

Sometimes, It's a very busy day and I only have 15 minutes to check in, buy and get everything going for the rest of the day. Sometimes, I am focused solely on earning enough coins to buy a machine. If i'm on a buying spree I don't even look at the "help", I just buy what I need to plant or fill an order and get back to work, more so during events where i can make more coins.

I think a players barn capacity plays a role too. Expansion items are hard to come by, I don't have the barn space to hold onto 10 of everything. I tend to help more at night when my barn is full, production ques are filled for the night but I have to empty my barn every night to make room for the nights production.

As for buy/help etiquette: When I post items for sale, I do so to make coins. Buy it all up folks. If you can help, help, if not move along and happy farming. Although I understand the frustration of not getting help when you see so many people come and buy your goods, there are a lot of variables at play that determine a players ability to help or not. When your selling goods, your doing so to get coins, any help beyond that is a gift from another player. I also go to the farms that have helped me to see what they are selling. I have bought a few things from the very people that helped me with a boat order. I think there are many ways to give back to those that help you, whether that is filling their boat orders or buying their goods. It's just not reciprocated back the way you want it to.

As i say all this, my neighborhood consists of 2 people, my boyfriend and I. We play alongside each other and help each other out every day. If I had a healthy helpful neighborhood then I would give priority to my neighborhood.

[Aishling]

i DO NOT help people outside my neighborhood very often with their boats because my farm would be temporarily linked to them. i help my own instead. and its strictly the raiding issue.. if they resolve that ill be more helpful outside my neighborhood. like PRIVATE sales! or Neighborhood only sales!

Helping your heighbourhood only isn't cold it's being a good neighbour.

To me , what sounds cold is calling people down for playing the game by the rules. And not by the ones that others are arbitrarily deciding are they way they should be.

if it's in your RSS it's for sale. If you don't ever want anyone outside a select group to buy it then you're doing it right, helping ie exposing your farm and its delectable goodies to only those you wish to sell to.

To call anyone down for playing another way is discriminatory and tantamount to bullying.

[willow]

My decision to help isn't based on any planned approach. It is influenced by stock on hand, difficulty of replacing the items, and reciprocation.

i keep extra items for helping others. I check help needed from friends, neighbors, and helpers frequently and help players in the DD. I use the extra items till they are gone. After that my decision to help becomes more contingent and includes consideration of difficulty to replace and helping others who have helped me.

In the DD, if I purchase hardware or a rare item, i compromise my minimum stock level to fill their crates no matter the item because I feel I owe them. Sometimes, though I buy a premium item from someone's shop, i discover i do not have enough stock to fill their crates. I feel bad about that, and shop for the item till the paper expires with the hope I can find it and fill the crate. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes not. Way it goes.

when I need help, i list a mundane item and keep peppering my store with nice items with the hope it will inspire help, but I don't expect it. Too many variables to know reliably why someone may buy my premium item without filling the crate i have flagged.

[LaneLily]

I have no control over whether I help your boat or buy stuff from your shop. My fingers just dart about by themselves and whoosh! It's done. ( but if they buy something I do TRY to help your boat)

[inspirit999]

Helping your heighbourhood only isn't cold it's being a good neighbour.

To me , what sounds cold is calling people down for playing the game by the rules. And not by the ones that others are arbitrarily deciding are they way they should be.

if it's in your RSS it's for sale. If you don't ever want anyone outside a select group to buy it then you're doing it right, helping ie exposing your farm and its delectable goodies to only those you wish to sell to.

To call anyone down for playing another way is discriminatory and tantamount to bullying.

I shall respond to this cleverly worded comment here. First of all there is not one name i used, so if fact no one personally was singled out. So your tantamount bullying charge does not hold water. Just because you choose not to help others again does not make one a bully, it makes them a separatist. And treating your own as a special group, a close nit group excluding outsiders makes one elitist, so again not a bully. You need to brush up on your terms and not dispense with the latest media influenced age of toleration buzzword.

[inspirit999]

Helping your heighbourhood only isn't cold it's being a good neighbour.

To me , what sounds cold is calling people down for playing the game by the rules. And not by the ones that others are arbitrarily deciding are they way they should be.

if it's in your RSS it's for sale. If you don't ever want anyone outside a select group to buy it then you're doing it right, helping ie exposing your farm and its delectable goodies to only those you wish to sell to.

To call anyone down for playing another way is discriminatory and tantamount to bullying.

Also i would like to add people have their own rules and they have every right to shut others out of their world.

[Cricks3]

Looks like a comment was misunderstood and things are now getting aggressive and personal. Ease up and keep it light or this thread will be closed.

I didn't realise there were so many rules for people to help others

i only help strangers if they are a low level (and likely don't have a big barn or many friends), or if I bought something good from them. I don't EXPECT them to be selling good stuff, but what I mean is that if I buy 5 bolts from someone, I feel rude not helping them if I can.

as for neighbours, I just help whoever needs help if I have the excess to spare. I have a handful of neighbours (maybe 5?) that I will help no matter how low I am - i.e I gave someone 8 brown sugars the other day when I only had 12 left and had a boat wanting brown sugar on the way myself. That handful of people (I think all from the forums) I always help because they regularly help me with dairy/sugar/jam, etc.

nit complicated here!

You didn't realize there were so many rules because they don't exist. All of those rules that are confusing you are not rules made by SC but rules made by individuals on how they wish to play their game and some people try to enforce those made up rules on others.

You need to just ignore those made up rules that hinder YOUR way of playing as no one can force you to play the game their way. If someone mentions that they prefer things a certain way and you don't agree, well you don't have to do as they ask. However, if you prefer to respect their wishes, you can do that, too, if that makes enriches your own game play.

The way you describe your play sounds like the kind of neighbor most of us would love to have.

[Gust1me]

If I have it I will usually help. But if animals are all lying around hungry than nope.....and yesI know they aren't real lol. If dairy or sugar usually only friends,there is simply never enough. And newbies just to make them happy.