I'm looking to put together a basic farmville-esque game.

There are several interesting bits about this.
The primary one being that others will be able to craft an independent UI if they desire.

I'm looking for game mechanics or concepts that you have come across or thought of, that you found cool/nifty.

These ideas may or may not be incorporated.

The submission of an idea here in no way entitles you to ANY non-existent monies made at some point in the futures.

Lodlaiden

I haz all the letters: SME, BA, QA, PM, DEV, DBA, UAT, SE, HD

Well, if it's farmville-esq, then I imagine it'll be online - so it'll be pretty much automatically a cross-platform game.  If that isn't in the cards, I'd like to suggest it up front.

Otherwise, surely you've thought of this sort of thing:
1. Ability to trade w/other players
2. Ability to "buy/sell" at store
3. If it's a "pay for" game, perhaps you can build in a free and paid version?  Not sure this'd be a "feature" just an idea.
4. Zoomable, rotatable, movable - in other words easy to navigate - map
5. Built-in Chat, which I suppose is pretty much a given with an online game in our day.
6. Language filters - if/where useful.  For instance, if there is any foul language in any script, some people would want to be able to filter the foul language.
7. Ways to "friend" other players and block other players from chat, etc.
8. Parental controls/accounts.  With younger and younger players playing all the time, this would be good.  I think of on the Wii, you can set up parental controls to allow/disallow Internet connection, when can connect, whether the child can buy stuff or not, or how much they can spend... etc...
9. Rating system if applicable - though this would more likely be a per game rather than per game portion deal.
10. Silly one-liner jokes/sayings IF/when they fit - say for farm animals, people/characters...
11. Instead of robotic help language, make any language more human, possibly humorous when fitting.

Well, give other ideas or suggestions, I'm sure, but I'd better cut off the idea tap before this response gets too long.
 

1. Planned (Phase 2)
2. Planned (Phase 2)
3. Not anticipating any pay-for components yet
4. Oh, have you played Pocket Empires for the Android? NO ZOOM
5. Still on the fence about this one. I'm anticipating the first iteration of this being a single player, till the mechanics are working well
6. That's part of why I'm still on the fence about chat
7. Planned (Phase 2)
8. Are you indicating a Parental access account which can "oversee" a standard account?
9. Do you mean a ranking system? Planned
10. Interesting. I did get a kick out of that in the games that did it.
11. Duly noted.

Thanks for the reply,
Lodlaiden
 

I haz all the letters: SME, BA, QA, PM, DEV, DBA, UAT, SE, HD

8. Yes/Maybe - depends upon whether applicable or not, and then how possible, etc.
9. Yes