We’ve compiled some of the known features of FS17 here for reference:
N
ew crops: sunflowers and soybeans
- Sunflowers can be harvested with regular maize headers or with the new sunflower headers. (Their benefit being faster working speed).
Cover crop: oilseed Radish
- Cultivate them when grown for +30% yield on this field.
- All crops can be cultivated in this way to get the yield benefit (unless they are dead). This however usually does not make any sense since the other crops are worth more when sold. (so use the cheap oilseed Radish instead)
New fertilizing system: (Fertilize three times for +30% each time during a crops growth cycle)
- Fields that are not fertilized will yield less crops than FS15. Fertilizing once nearly gets you to the FS15 base yield. Two times will put yield slightly above FS15 base. Fertilizing a field 3 times will yield about the same as FS15 did when you only had to fertilize once.
- Between each fertilization either the soil must be worked (cultivated, plowed, sown etc.) or the plants have to grow at least one stage before you can fertilize again.
- Actually it would be better not to call it “fertilizing-system" rather something like "yield-improvement-system", because it is quite an abstraction. Yield can improved by any of the following: fertilize (solid), spray(liquid), slurry, manure, cultivating cover crop, weeding (as long as the plants are still small).
- MOD-Info: Any of these actions adds +1 to the "Yield-Bits" (max 3). So mods equally can use this function in other ways, i.e. a "packer" (add +1 yield), "mulcher" (add +1 yield), or whatever tool could sensibly improve yield and it does not necessarily need to be called "fertilizer"
Plowing required:
- After 3 harvests the fields need to be plowed or they will start to yield 10% less.
- MOD-Info: Again; after each harvested a counter is reduced by 1. So after 3 times it's at 0 and the yield will decrease by 10%. Plowing will set it back to the max: 3. Using this feature mods can implement other fun stuff! For instance let’s say each wheel of a tractor will "compact" the ground, so a mod reduces the counter by -1 at any point you drive on the acre. After you have driven over the exact same spot 3 times the soil there would be so compacted, that it requires to plow again. Or the opposite, you can build a mod that does not plow but "loosens" the soil. Instead of setting the bits back to max 3, it could just gradually decrease the soil compaction by +1
Grass:
- There are no "meadows" :zunge: There are only "fields" on which "grass" grows. That is to say grass also now has a TerrainDetailLayer and therefore its yield can be increased like mentioned above. Additionally it means that sowing grass no longer destroys the field borders.
- MOD-Info: In GE you can still plant grass without the TerrainDetailLayer, it will be mowable but not fertilizeable because there is no layer beneath to take the fertilizer. Grass around fields and near roads should still be done this. However meadows should be created using the TerrainDetailLayer and matching field borders!
- Since grass no longer deletes the TerrainDetailLayer, what do I do when I just plowed a really ugly new field or made a mistake when combining fields? I can no longer sow grass in a straight line to clean it up? That is what the Lizard R-5000 roller is for. Its only function is to delete the foliage- and detail layers! Where this one is used nothing will be left except the original terrain. Use with care, don't buy it in MP and your fields are safe from grassing!
Helpers:
- They can now see and evade static objects (Trees, hedges, buildings etc.) When encountering dynamic objects they will still stop and wait for you to move the tools out of their way, but they'll send you a note about being blocked.
- They have various turning strategies (incl. reversing), which they will apply according to their tool and the objects around them.
- They can now also mow, tedder and windrow as well as use trailing harvesters (attached choppers and the likes) However the grass stuff they can only do on the above mentioned TerrainDetailLayer-type grass.
- On hard mode (or optionally set) they'll use diesel, seeds, fertilizer and so forth. Additionally the can take slurry and manure directly from the pits if you happen to have too much to transport, they'll just automatically grab it from the depots you can set in the options.
Physical Material Integration (Tip Anything):
- Unlike previously where any material (crops, grass, straw, manure etc.) only could exist within a container (The harvesters grain tank, a shovel, a trailer, the silos etc), materials are now always physically existent in the world until they are "used up" (fertilize, spread manure and so on) or sold.
- Therefore if you tip a trailer or a shovel the material will fall to the ground and stay there. There are no longer "windrows" in their abstract fruittype form. There now is simply straw, or grass, or hay and it is simply dropped to the ground when harvesting, mowing and so on.
- Important to say is that the system is completely dynamic on a level of half a meter accuracy and material cannot "flow" through collisions. This feature opens up so many possibilities its crazy
- MOD-Info: Material can only be placed on real terrain, Meshes will not allow this or rather if the mesh does not contain the Blocker-Bit the material will simply fall through it onto the real terrain beneath.
Extendable silos and placeables to customize your Farm:
- The crops silos have a limited storage capacity of 100'000l per crop type and this can be expanded by placing silo extensions near the silos.
- Sugar beet, potatoes, wood chips etc. can now be stored anywhere using the physical material integration.
- There are various shelters and some functional buildings like the workshop which can be placed. The workshop for instance allows you to reconfigure your machinery without having to pay the mechanic and to do it at a more convenient location than at the shop.
Economy:
- Crop prices fluctuate much stronger and differently at the various selling stations so that no longer the same crop will be deliver to the same station all the time on average.
- Like in FS15 on average all activities have an on par economic value. For instance the price of wheat is much lower than canola, however canola also yields a lot less grain per hectare than wheat. Silage was "nerfed"! :lol: I assume a leprechaun played tricks on the price factor in FS15... *cough* Silage is now back on par with other activities in terms of economic value. Of course activities that involve many manual steps are usually priced higher to reward you for your work accordingly.
- Animals are very expensive, this must be so to even keep up economically with fields that grow in 3 days!
- Likewise maintenance and renting costs are very high to balance against the incredibly fast growing crops.
- Great demands still exist, however they are far less strong in order to stop people hoarding crops. It is now much more sensible to check the prices for crops daily and to sell at a good opportunity than to wait for a demand, which may at the time be a good deal but may still be lower than that super price the bakery is paying right now.
- The prices overview has been overhauled and is much clearer now that the crops are in the columns and the selling points on the rows, than the wrong way around! #WhatWhereTheyThinking!
- Generally there are a lot more info tabs for costs and prices to the benefit of the clever farmer that does not want to run his farm into debt
- Slurry and manure can now be sold at the bio gas plant.
Mission System:
- All fields not owned by the player are owned and worked by other farmers (behind the scenes for performance reasons) However this makes the map a lot more alive because there are now all types of crops growing everywhere instead of the barren wasteland that was FS15 fields.
- When you interact with the field icon you can talk to the fields owner and he will usually offer you a mission/job on that field according to the type of crop and growth stage that is on it. For instance fertilizing crops or harvesting sunflowers. To do the job he will give you the tools needed you do not bring your own. This is incredible fun in the early game where you have no money to afford all the cool things you get to drive when doing missions. And of course there's quite some money to be made this way to offset your own running costs.
Animals:
- You already own chicken and they can neither be bought or sold.
- Pigs, sheep and cows can be bought and transported.
- They will reproduce if fed well. Pigs will reproduce the fastest as their only economic value is being sold to the livestock dealer.
- Productivity and Reproduction Rate:
- If animals have no water their productivity will be 0%!
- 10% is reached with straw bedding (except sheep) and another 10% with a clean trough area.
- The remaining 80% are generated through proper feeding.
- Sheep:
- Simply need grass or hay = 100%
- Pigs:
- 50% Base food: Corn
- 25% Grain: Wheat or Barley
- 20% Protein: Canola or Sunflowers or Soybeans
- 5% Root crops: Potatoes or Sugar Beets
- The feed does not need to be mixed, just drop it in the trough, the pigs aren’t very picky. If you don't really need 100% simply go for maize and wheat (or barley) to reach a nice 75%.
- To max out at 100% you have to feed them everything. Or you buy expensive pig food in BigBags which already contain the perfect balance of all 4 types.
- Cows:
- 50% Base food: Hay or Silage
- 30% Power food: (is contained partially in TMR)
- 20% fresh grass.
- You can now feed cows on hay and fresh grass alone and still go up to 70% productivity. (Btw hay stays hay in the loading wagons now!)
- To max out at 100% you have to feed them TMR (which counts for base food and power food at the same time) which will go to 80% and then on top add some fresh grass to reach the full 100%.
Various:
- Play as a Farmer or Farmeress
- The bale trailer and others have dynamic tension belts that can be used to strap down bales, wood, pallets or BigBags for safer transport.
- Small physical objects can be picked up, carried, dropped or thrown. Initially intended to allow the player to pick up the small wood leftovers which are hard to grab with a front loader and throw them in a chipper, this was extended to allow to pick up any physical object that's small and light enough to just play around with.
- Internet radio streaming or other music can be played in the vehicles radio.
- You can drive trains and one selling point is exclusive to train delivery.
- Corn can now be chopped in the last still green growth stage as well!
- Head- and Eye-tracking support. (Track-IR etc.)
- Beacon lights can be set to use real lights (IF your PC is powerful enough).
- The yellow/black striped trigger markings can be removed if you already know where stuff is and don't need them.
- The mini map can be expanded to large, set to normal gps size or completely hidden.
- In the map menu you can zoom and scroll on the map, set beacon markers for better orientation and teleport directly to places without the need to park a vehicle to tab there.
- The vehicle cameras last position and orientation is saved per vehicle!
- AI traffic works in MP or can be turned off in the settings.
This list is not complete, just jotting down the things i could quickly think of Cheers
