FrontierVille's Pioneer Trail to be an entirely new Facebook app?

While we may have initially imagined that FrontierVille's Pioneer Trail would be an expansion similar to that of the FarmVille English Countryside, that just added a new section to a currently established game, it looks like the Pioneer Trail will instead be an entirely different app. CeGamers has found what look to be unreleased images of in-game pop-ups, as users are invited to pack up and move their Homesteads over to the new Pioneer Trail app for a reward of 5 Horseshoes.

As you can see from the image below, we'll apparently be given a pop-up that will introduce this conversion, including the fact that we'll need to install a "new app where the trail is." As for our progress, we're promised that "everything will be exactly the same over there," so we shouldn't have to worry about lost coins, Horseshoes or even in-game items like animals or exclusive decorations. For our effort (that is, clicking the "Pack Up & Go!" button), we'll be given 5 Horseshoes.

While this all seems fairly straight-forward, I have to admit I'm a bit scared about things being lost in translation. For instance, will our FrontierVille neighbors be carried over automatically, or will we only retain the neighbors that manually transfer as well? Will we suddenly lose our non-active friends, because they haven't installed this new app, thereby losing the easy way to clear debris or chop down trees for goals? Or, perhaps we'll be able to play on our Homesteads on both games, with the Pioneer Trail app only being necessary when we actually want to access the expansion. In that case, I would've expected the text above to read "copy your Homestead," rather than move, but perhaps I'm just reading too much into it.

Either way, if these images turn out to be real, this certainly adds another element to things, but we'll stay on top of the developments as they happen to make sure you know what to expect when the Pioneer Trail finally launches.

[Image Credit: CeGamers]

What do you think of this new development? Are you comfortable installing an entirely new Pioneer Trail app and then undertaking the move with your Homestead, or are you afraid something might get lost in the middle?