yes it is lol.
I already built a farm that’s so big that when I found out I needed to make some detail changes I basically abandoned it 
If you widen it from 6 plots to 13 you will improve your compactness. And while 22 is a low compactness you are not restricted from placing any more plots until your rating reaches 0.
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luckily I planned it out block by block in an excel file already so its infinitely expandable lol
As long as your compactness is over 0 you are ok. Just be careful and mindful of where you’ll be plotting next 
You might be able to just make a separate beacon beside to increase the compactness.
Using separate beacons to bypass the compactness is viewed as an exploit and can lead to the plots being removed. per James
“Circumventing the system by using an extensive collection of smaller beacons is not allowed and also banned.”
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I think that applies more for long beacons like bridges but adding more beacons to form a square shouldn’t be a problem, thats how malls work.
He’s not making a long road. Widening your farm in a separate beacon is not an exploit. And I’m sure James would agree. I have random beacons from different alts all over my base. Not for compactness because I’m 100% compact but because ages ago I need more plot and would start a new alt to get a bunch quicker.
He is not forming a square so I think this is moot. He could but since it is a farm and owned by one player, why would he use more plots than necessary? If his compactness is 22 and he widens to the 13 he had planed then he should not have a problem. A wider build will be more square so he should end up with a better rating.
Well you may have gotten by then, but if you read the actual statement made by James it is aimed at sprawling builds and not roads. So your assertion that compactness only applies to roads may be your interpretation, but there are no developer statements to back that up.
Quoted
" The Known Worlds are shared by everyone and only together can we create a thriving civilisation. Beacons are an essential part of creating Settlements and collaborating on builds. To help everyone expand their Beacons in a fair way for all Citizens, we’ve added a new set of plotting rules to the Beacon system.
Now, as your Beacon expands there will be plotting limits to help keep your Beacons collectively compact and reduce excessive Beacon sprawl. A compact Beacon prefers to expand locally rather than meander across the landscape. Settlements can still grow and become large. But the sprawl needs to be proportional to the size. Once Plots are claimed they become unavailable for others, so the system now encourages you to claim Plots closer to home, leaving those further afield for others.
That was because people were using the plot protection to reserve massive amounts of area. Not someone building beside there own build to gain more compactness. This person it’s trying to do the right thing by becoming more compact. If the devs are against the multi beacons. Then I guess Jivita’s video showing how to do it should be removed… not likely going to happen.
As far as my plots. They were like that a good year before compactness became a thing. So I didn’t get by on anything.
So just separate it. If your not hurting anyone your fine. People do separate beacons all the time for foot fall as well.
Go to TNT and put on plot view.
I will disagree and until the developers state there are exceptions where bypassing the statement James clearly made is ok, I will continue to disagree. By your logic he could build a farm that circles the planet and since it is not a road it is ok. He is not reserving anything and it is not a road but a farm. I do believe that is why James specifically stated sprawling builds. But in any case, the OP should not have a problem as he is not needing to get longer but only wider.
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No because that is exactly what’s stated you can’t do. And at no point am I suggesting that. If youre going to make speculations about someone’s intent then you could just as easily say I’m separating the beacon for a build you intend to give others perms on.
You could separate each crop if you wanted to give certain people perms to farm specific crops for a public/guild farm. If I want to separate part of your base to let someone else use it. Is that not allowed?
So NO you can’t build a farm around the world. But yes you can add beacons to your build and separate your build. I have never heard anything about you have to build in one beacon.
Sure it is allowed. . and I never said you could not. what they have said and I repeated is that using beacons to bypass the compactness is not allowed. So using beacons to extend a build in a single direction could end up being seen as an abuse. Intention or type of build has nothing to do with it because then you have the developers having to determine the intention of every build. If you have 100 mostly square beacons that are arranged in what is still mostly a square then you meet all the compactness requirements. My point is if I have 100 mostly square beacons that run east to west in a way that as a single beacon would not be allowed, you might end up in a conversation with the developers as you have abused the system and again intention has nothing to do with it.
Yeah again not what I was suggesting. Putting one beacon on one side or the other is not doing what you’re suggesting. And making up a “what if” scenarios is not something I’m going to take part in.
Good luck.
Even if his build kept an overall compactness of 22, it would still be ok. So all of this is not really a problem and a little pointless.
What you can do is to keep expanding like you wanted to, while trying to expand in a more “even” way to try to keep a better ratio of long/wide. But it should be fine 
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The system prefers a more dense/squarish overall shape, over a long squiggly one or one with long roads leading away from it.
As long as your compactness is above zero - as others have mentioned - you’re fine. If you can’t place a plot one day, you might have to add more plots within your space to raise the compactness.
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I got a mining strip on McRib in the lava layers long before compactness. When compactness went live, I was far under zero with my 1-wide 2 high, and very long strip. I had to get a friend to help by plotting next to me. Now 5 wide I am still seeing under 30 compactness. I have no plots more to widen it, and I havent had time to work on my mining strip to comply to the new rules…
I am thinking of making some plotting in the air, because i dont want to plot the existing land (I want it reserved so I can mine for diamonds with cover from hostile mobs.
compactness considers the horizontal space plotted, not the vertical.
Dear devs, About my Mc Rib mine, I’ve had higher gaming interests, so altering my Mc Rib mine has been put on the backburner, but I havent forgotten about it. I hope my “Lava Tube” is ok. I want just one straight line for my Coal and Gem needs, without hostiles.
Like the others said 22 is still good. 0 and - is the problem zone.
As you eventually plot further keep in mind to go from one side to the other and not plot at random. 
once it gets wider your number goes up.
Chances are you end up plotting more down the line anyway, like most of us end up doing most of the time 
.
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