FarmVille Sheep and Pig Breeding will get much, much better

Remember that FarmVille Father's Day promotion that boosted male pattern-transfer rates in Sheep and Pigs by 100 percent? Well, we all (including Zynga) apparently loved it so much that a portion of that boost will permanently be added to the game. Soon enough, male Sheep and Pigs will have a 50 percent chance of passing their unique pattern onto their offspring. Not only will this make breeding that much more fun, it also makes the guesswork far simpler. Check out Zynga's full statement from the FarmVille forums:

Breeding is going to get better! Due to the popularity and high demand for the feature, the chance of Dads passing on their patterns to their children will go up to 50%! Moms no longer impact pattern inheritance but can influence the color of their children! So prepare your sheep and pigs, start stocking up on love potions and gather your bottles because breeding is going to get more fun!

Now when you go into a breeding scenario, all you need to know is there is a 50-50 shot that the youngin' will inherit its daddy's pattern. Female Sheep and Pigs, again, only influence colors. We're sure you are blown away by this oncoming update (not to mention that Sheep are getting Levels, too), but pull yourself together and starting hoarding Love Potions and Baby Bottles for when the boost finally arrives

Zynga Launching FarmVille Expansion

If you're looking for a change of scenery in FarmVille, good news: Zynga's got an expansion with a different theme in the works.

It's no secret that a huge source of Zynga's billions has been the runaway hit that is FarmVille. As a result, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the developer is launching an expansion to the game, though the new setting is a bit different from what players are used to.

The expansion, FarmVille English Countryside, is set to launch sometime in the next few weeks. Players will still be able to use the current FarmVille application on Facebook, but they'll be able to create a parallel farm to the one they have in the main game. The new farm will be set in the titular English countryside with corresponding themes for landscapes, animals, buildings, etc. Oh, and there will also be a mini-game that allows players to breed sheep.

According to VentureBeat, the expansion is part of Zynga's plans to boost its player population: "FarmVille has been in a steady decline as Zynga focused on launching other games such as FrontierVille and CityVille. The game now has 44 million monthly active users and 14 million daily active users."