I picked up Farming Simulator 17 during a sale last October-ish; I think that was about the launch time of the most recent version (FS'19). I'd been watching a youtuber(Daggerwin) for a long time, he does ETS and FS video's. Being into ETS 2 I had always enjoyed his FS 17 gameplay/roleplay content as well; So it wasn't a stretch to contemplate playing FS'17 myself. When push came to shove, an older game at a sale price, I took the plunge.
Initially I played the (short) tutorial, did some "getting started" research(here, here and here) and did a bit of faffing about. It didn't click with me but I still found it interesting and worthy of further attempts. So it was put on the "long finger". There it stayed until this week.
I'm going to be as basic as I can in describing my experience, to both help any reader who has no idea of the game and because I really am a 'noob'. I'm sure to have missed some really obvious stuff for sure. Always the way of gaming. Everybody starts somewhere. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing so when I do mention stuff I'm gonna try to give context.
While I did look up some game mods (GPS mod / Follow me) and the Lone Oak Farm, I decided to play out the 'beginner level' without them and get my head back into the 'base' game.
A bit more research from discussions & a closer look at 'A beginners guide to Farming Simulator 17' helped. In game I re-acquainted myself with the equipment and fields, being the starter farm that didn't take long. 3 fields, 1 harvester(and header), 3 tractors(2 attachments and 1 trailer).
In retrospect my last save had been left in a good place. Two of the larger fields were ready for planting and the 3rd (smaller field) was ready for harvest. And I can't express this enough, the game speed was set to 1.
The time speed acceleration in this game is not a "normal games speed acceleration". It's a concept that takes a moment to get the old noggin around. Time settings in this game still confuse me a lot.
I see the Time/game speed settings as only relevant to two things, crop growth and time of day(day or night). If you set a worker on a field and increase the time speed to be x120, the worker will still be active as if the time was set to 1, but the crop under the worker will age. The acceleration is down to if the worker(but more the player) is in daylight or the middle of the night. 24 hours also account for expenditure. Each days costs are removed at the start of the day, vehicle maintenance etc. There's no sleep cycle, your character isn't really a character, yet he/she kind of is. You have the magical power to jump from vehicle to vehicle at will, even over long distance without moving to it, just by pressing the tab key. So your a character out of a vehicle(walking around) but not really when your in one, you are the vehicle. So for as much as FS 17 is a real simulation, there are elements that really aren't.
I still find that I exit and walk between vehicles on my farm rather than tab for an instant transfer.
Anyway having the time set to 1 from my old save let me faff about and allowed me the time to rediscover how important the time setting was. Thank you past me.
What I've described about time is all based on having settings set as I have. There are 4 kinds of timers in the game. Plant Growth "fast", Plant Withering "off", Timescale "Realtime" and the in game Day cycle speed(also linked to growth). All very confusing. With those settings I can get a lot done each day, not be worried about ruined crops (I iz noob) and still have time left over. I speed up time to x120 until the crops are ready for harvest and have that as the start of the work cycle (not necessarily the next day).
I don't need to know about seasons(mod)!
So back to my save game. I started by harvesting my crop, placing it in the silo and then cultivating the ground readying it for the next phase, planting. Only I stopped there. I was still getting my head in the game. Parking and tidying up the equipment I decided to do some work for the other farmers. This lets you make some money as well as see other crops and equipment. I was still betting used to things.
Fertilise fields:
Harvesting crops:
Working for the other farmers can be a quirky game mechanic in both good and bad ways.
Good in that you may not have completed the task but it pops up saying you completed it and get rewarded. Bad in that you may have completed the task and the clock is still ticking then it fails you. Given how long(real time) it takes to play this game that's the really frustrating part. Work done, time lost but no reward for it.
What I learnt from all this is that doing work on even even small fields without a.i. workers takes a lot of time. I can only imagine the costs and co-ordination needed for larger more diversified farms, even with workers.
I've read a lot about not having the a.i. workers set to auto-buy seed/fertiliser refills but I found it handy to just let them do it. I can hear the gasps from the crowd now but I'm making enough money that it's not an issue for me.
Working the fields is a process, a ballet of timing and co-ordination. I've not been adding in complexity for complexities sake. I can just about handle things as they are.
I can see the challenge in larger setups but for me this game hasn't hooked me the way other sims do. I thought I was into micromanagement but not this type of micromanagement. It's a workload with a lot of practical elements. Not like running a settlement or space base. Farm Sim 17 needs you to be both overview manager and practical worker. It really is a Farming Simulator!
I harvested, cultivated and planted the "middle" field (#14) of my farm and timed myself to see how long it takes without workers.
Harvesting took me 33 minutes and included unloading/silo work.
Cultivating took me 28 minutes because driving in straight lines is freaking hard.
Planting took me 25 minutes because driving in straight fine lines is also freaking hard.
Even with a bit of faffing that's nearly an hour and a half of real life. This is where the game is very, very much a simulation. It reinforced to me that using the a.i workers is not a crime!
Map overviews and it's filters are a god send for seeing where you are at with crops/work.
If your at a loose end in game just set the speed to x120 and walk away from the game or alt-tab out and do something else for 15 minutes. Important to do especially at night. Working at night is just a pain for a noob like me.
Changing the Timescale to x5 is awkward to me, it's like trying to appreciate a song while it's on fast forward.
Harvesting and planting feel very monotonous to me, but cultivating is somewhat mesmerising. It's the dirt as it's churned up and the clinky clanking noise. It's hard to describe, but doing it doesn't feel like it takes as long as the other tasks.
At this stage I had a good bit of money, about 100k, so paid off a loan(40k) that the game never tells you about but which expects daily repayments. I also got a chainsaw for no other reason than to get the achievement of cutting down a tree.
After more work and some good sales I splurged on a small baler. I'd been chopping the remains of the crops back into the ground so it seemed the next logical step to making more money.
I'd been keeping 1 tractor for the cultivator, one for the planter and the 3rd for the trailer hauling grains etc. But I could also now use that tractor with the baler. It involved some swapping as I went. especially when using the other vehicles with workers. My initial mistake with the baler was to empty the bale onto the field instead of in the barn(sale point). In retrospect I'm glad it didn't auto eject the bale. I have no vehicles that can pick up and move them. This lead to some interesting tractor bale football. Thankfully the games physics engine is "lenient".
Very lenient in some cases.
Extra funds allowed me to get a power washer.
I sold an unused shed as well as more grains and bought a front loader. My expectation is that the worker doing the bales will leave them in the field and I can use the loader with a bale spike to move them from field to the barn sell point.
I might get to use it as well in a pinch with the trailer if all else is in use and the harvester needs to be emptied.
A bit more work and I bought a new header for the harvester so that I can plant and harvest sunflowers/corn. However I think I need a new planter to be able to do corn or sunflowers.
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| A growing line up of machines. |
I think I gave the game a fair chance. I can see it's appeal. The management, the planning and execution; The co-ordination and timing. But it's far too hands on for me to give it a long term life. If I did I'd find it all consuming. I might pop in and out of it when I get the urge for something 'different'. It may be a game that grows(pun?) on me over time.
The daily increasing costs for vehicle maintenance means that new tractors/harvester are on the cards. That's a big investment.... I might just drive what I have into the ground as they are next to worthless(except the front loader).
Not my field, don't care! DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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