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Comparing the Two Main Gameplay Strategies Integrating Vinesweeper Into Other Farming Activities

One of the most interesting aspects of Vinesweeper is that it is an inherently multiplayer game. This goes beyond having many players dig and flag on the same playing field; the game is actually designed to encourage groups of players who work together. The rewards for playing in a group come in the form of extra points, but there are also some potential downsides as well. Let’s take a look at the issues.

There are two conditions for getting a share of the points another player earns for flagging a seed. First, you must be near the flag when it is dug up; in my tests, I’ve found that the range seems to be eight squares in any direction. And second, you must be actively playing yourself, by digging holes and/or flagging seeds—this was obviously put in place to prevent lazy players from leeching off the work of others.You get points in Vinesweeper from two activities you perform: digging holes and flagging seeds. However, you also get points from seeds that are flagged by other players who are in your immediate vicinity; similarly, they get points from flags you correctly plant. This means there is an inherent teamwork benefit in the game: two good players who work near each other can, theoretically, each get more points than would be possible for either of them working alone.

Understanding the number of points you get from someone else’s flag is, unfortunately, much less clear. It is always a fraction of the number of points that the seed flagger obtains, but the fraction isn’t consistent: it appears to be based on the level of both players, with a random component thrown in as well. In general, you appear to get a larger percentage of the other person’s points when you are closer to their level. My guess is that this measure was implemented to prevent low-level people from getting lots of points simply from working near high-level friends.

The points you get from other players are the attraction of playing in a group, but there are some important drawbacks that make doing so far from a “no brainer”.

First, while the point sharing makes Vinesweeper in a group a cooperative activity, the fact that the player who plants the flag gets more points makes it also somewhat competitive. Simply put, if two people who have the same Farming level and degree of skill are playing together, and one of them plants 2/3 of the flags while the other plants 1/3, the first person will get a lot more Vinesweeper points.

Second, unless the players know each other and have worked out a way to work in harmony, they will step on each others’ toes as they try to dig and flag the farm. Remember that you have to stay within eight squares of the other person’s flag to get points from it, and that’s really not very much when you think about how much working room is needed for the game. There is a lot of potential for players to interfere with each other, such as one planting a flag, which leads to an area being reseeded that wipes out the other person’s numbers.

Third, the impact of mistakes is compounded. If you work by yourself, you only mess up your own work if you accidentally dig up a seed. If you’re in a group of three, any mistake by any person could mess up the work of all three players; overall, this is three times as likely to happen.

Finally, working in a group restricts the types of strategies you can use to dig the field and plant seeds. You will pretty much be forced to use the “reveal the field” strategy, because “dig and flag” can be quite confusing in a group setup. The former method inherently provides fewer points than the latter, which negates some of the benefits of group play.

Given these limitations and concerns, my personal feeling is that most players will likely find it simpler to just use the “dig and flag” technique by themselves than to try to work in a group. That said, there are a few situations in which I think group play makes sense.

Reports I have received from several players suggest that at high levels, working in a team can result in meaningful improvements in XP totals. As mentioned earlier, this does require that the players know how to work well in a team, and make a concerted effort to play efficiently.

Another obvious case where group play makes sense is where players simply want to work together for social reasons. It’s usually more fun to do something with a friend than to do it by yourself, and that can be far more important than any practical matters related to point totals!

Next, consider a case where one player has a lot of knowledge of how to play Vinesweeper and the other does not. Working together allows the more experienced player to teach the less experienced one, and they can benefit from the point bonuses at the same time.

A player with a high Farming level can also help a friend with a low Farming level get a lot more points if they play near each other. It’s true that, as I said earlier, the percentage of points you get is lower when your level is lower, but it is also the case that the points are more useful. For example, when I played with a friend about 20 Farming levels below me, she got around 1/4 to 1/3 of my points most of the time; in contrast, a friend about 50 levels below me got only around 1/10th of my points. Yet, the points yielded by that 1/10th were worth quite a lot to the low-level player.

Comparing the Two Main Gameplay Strategies Integrating Vinesweeper Into Other Farming Activities