Farming Simulator 17

Hi folks

I took the plunge and purchased this the other night. What an amazing game! On the surface, it's the sort of thing that you could easily dismiss, but when you get into it, it's the perfect sim! I've been playing FS14 on my Amazon Fire tablet with my nearly-four year old son and he loves it. He loves anything tractor or farm-related though. I thought I'd have a look at FS17 on Steam for the better gameplay elements. We had a go yesterday, he was controlling the accelerator whilst I was turning and using the tractor functions, and he was loving it! We'll definitely be giving it another go tonight!

Does anyone have any must-have mod recommendations for me?

Thanks all!
 
I'm a fan of the Giants "4real" modules - ground response, crop destruction etc. They give an added level of realism and difficulty and they're nice additions. As well as that, get the Giants tractors, trailers etc that are free (they were DLC for FS15 but free on FS17) to expand the range even more.

I'm a big fan of the Drumard Farm map too, it's based in Ireland and definitely favours looking after animals.
 
My old man plays this, he got it expecting to play it once or twice and leave it but he's become addicted.. I may have to give it a try
 
andreaboh1 said:
First time player, is there anything special I need to get to harvest soybean? And how long does it usually take to grow?
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I think the normal grain header on the harvesters is fine, so nothing special. And the growth depends on the settings for that save (slow/normal/fast). I think that changes it to 48/24/12 game-hours.
 
Sorry for the massive bump but was re-directed here from the FS19 thread.

Just want to add what a great game this is. Although I'm a fan of various train, bus and truck sims I always thought the idea of a Farming Sim was just a bit too offbeat. How wrong I was! This is totally addictive and very Zen. Only scratched the surface with a couple of tutorials, played around on the Russian campaign farm a bit and downloaded the superb Oakfield Map. Lots to learn, in particular more so than other strategy games don't rush out and spend your money on fancy equipment or you'll go broke. It looks as if missions are the way to make money, then buy a couple of pigs or cows and expand very gradually.
 
I'm on Oakfield with Seasons mod.

Very foggy morning the atmosphere with these 2 mods combined is just mind blowing.

Here's a comparison pic by oxygendavid.

David1.png
 
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Vern1961 said:
Oakfield is magnificent, keep meaning to load up Sabre Maps or Google Streetview and find the real location.
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The real Oakfield area is: here, but there is no Oakfield Farm as such. Looks like a small hamlet or estate where the farm is, but most of the map is real enough, including the heights.

Coldborough Park Farm is another excellent map based on a real-area. It's made by BulletBill, one of OxygenDavid's partners in Frontier Design. It's an older map (originating in FS2013), made more popular in FS15 and GIANTS asked him if he would convert it over to FS17 too. Coldborough Park Farm is a real farm and indeed BulletBill used to work on the farm and knows the area well. He also made the Lone Oak Farm American map, also based on a real area, if you fancy something a bit different to the tight and helper-unfriendly British maps, but far better than the basic GIANTS maps.

Just incase you didn't know there's some brief help in the escape menu:
fsScreen_2018_08_22_10_16_54.jpg
 
Quick question. I started a new game on the default US map, harvested my first field, baled the straw and took it to the Biogas plant. However after unloading it just sits there by the bin and I get no credits. Don't tell me I now need to also rent a forklift attachment to actually put the bales in the bin!! :)
 
Vern1961 said:
Quick question. I started a new game on the default US map, harvested my first field, baled the straw and took it to the Biogas plant. However after unloading it just sits there by the bin and I get no credits. Don't tell me I now need to also rent a forklift attachment to actually put the bales in the bin!! :)
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I didn't realise you could sell straw at the BIOGAS, but I've just tested it and you can sell straw bales for a tiny amount. You cannot sell loose straw.

What the BIOGAS is really for is to sell fermented silage (loose chaff), which can be one of three things:
  • Cut grass picked up with a loading wagon or forage harvester with appropriate header (eg the EasyFlow 300 S)
  • Any of the grains (eg wheat or barley) cut with a forage harvester and one of the direct cutter headers (eg the XDisc 620)
  • Chopped corn (maize) cut with a forage harvester and one of the disc headers (eg EasyCollect 600-2)
The chaff is dumped into one of the silage bunkers (between the concrete walls at the BIOGAS), driven over until it is compacted (check the F1 menu), covered and then left to ferment for a day or so. Once it has fermented it can be sold using a front-loader/telehandler/wheel loader/conveyer by tipping it into the red Siloking thing with the two big blades inside.

There's more money to be made (and it's easier) by making silage bales (cut grass baled and wrapped) and then either selling them at the BIOGAS (dropping each bale into the Siloking) or by unloading them at the main farm in the drive-through barn (literally labelled "Barn" on the map) with the straw inside (you can also sell straw bales and loose straw there). The 2nd method at the farm is easier as you can sell multiple bales at once.
 
Was lucky, I got it at £7.99 in the sale mainly as a taster for '19.

In fact we are so hooked, my missus has just bought a copy for the PS4 so we can play it together on the big screen.
 
Vern1961 said:
Was lucky, I got it at £7.99 in the sale mainly as a taster for '19.

In fact we are so hooked, my missus has just bought a copy for the PS4 so we can play it together on the big screen.
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Yeah I remember it being on sale a few weeks ago, so annoyed I didn't pick it up then.
 
If it hasn't been mentioned before, you should try the CoursePlay add-on. It allows you to automate your tractors. For example one of the most used "modes" it has is the combine emptier mode. You record the track that takes the tipper from the field to the silo and back, then switch it on. It parks on the field, waits for the combine to become nearly full, drives to it, drives along side, empties the combine and returns to a safe place to wait. When it's full it drives to the silo to empty and returns to the field. If you assign it to a particular combine it can service multiple fields with one track.

That's only the start of what it does. Don't expect it to have that much intelligence, though it will avoid most obsticles if it can. It won't work well on tight maps, better to run it on things like Hobs Farm or Central Kansas type maps with huge fields and open spaces.

My favourite type of play on farming sim is different to a lot of people. I aim to automate as much as possible and max stuff out.

Here is a challenge. Give yourself a 5,000,000 loan (edit the save game file), then buy 1000 cows. Now, using CoursePlay and the feeder mixer mods, try and feed them. If you can manage that, try 2000, or 3000 cows. I think I maxed out about 2500 before I started to fall behind with two mixer stations running flat out constantly, then got bored.

https://courseplay.github.io/courseplay/
 
After a bit of experimentation I got a baling fork set up on the front of my tractor at which point I was finally able to put them in the bin at the biogas plant. As noted above you don't get that much, about £430 per bale.

Next up is to plough and seed my three starter fields then see if I can sort out sheep as apparently wool is quite lucrative. Of course that also means buying (or leasing) a grass mower and handling equipment plus a water transporter so may need to do a few missions first to fund that. The logistics side is great fun and this is very much a game that requires you to think and sequence what you're doing.
 
Vern1961 said:
After a bit of experimentation I got a baling fork set up on the front of my tractor at which point I was finally able to put them in the bin at the biogas plant. As noted above you don't get that much, about £430 per bale.

Next up is to plough and seed my three starter fields then see if I can sort out sheep as apparently wool is quite lucrative. Of course that also means buying (or leasing) a grass mower and handling equipment plus a water transporter so may need to do a few missions first to fund that. The logistics side is great fun and this is very much a game that requires you to think and sequence what you're doing.
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Bales don’t sell for a huge amount on their own, but when you consider that you’ve also sold and made money on what you harvested, not making bales seems silly to me. Sure, it takes time but so does everything. A large field can get you about 24 - 30 bales. That’s quite a decent return for just a bit of effort. I also lease equipment that I need at the start if I can’t afford to buy stuff outright. Although I should probably look into the leasing mechanics a little more because I’m not sure how cost-effective it is. Getting a loan might be better in the long run.

Also, you can just load up your bales onto a bale collector and then sell them at your barn. There are yellow lines near both of the doors outside. Unload the loader inside those lines and you’ll sell eight bales of hay in one go.
 
Silage bails are the big money earner in FS17 if you want some quick cash. On normal difficulty they sell for £2646 each, so £21,000 for a trailer of each.

Of course you need to buy the wrapper (or if you have the Kuhn DLC you can use the all-in-one baler-wrapper), but two loads of silage bales pays for that, though you'll also need a mower and windrower too if you don't have them already.
 
I'm also finding the missions quite lucrative. Ignore the large fields (for now) as it takes too long but even the smaller locations can pay nearly $10k (with time bonus) for about seven minutes work and quite often stack - i.e. collect the harvest then you get a follow up to spread silage. That is currently funding my equipment expansion quite nicely.
 
I believe that CoursePlay will allow you to do the missions automatically while you head off to make some pizza or watch TV.

Other normally tedious things that make a load of money is shovelling silage into the biogas plant from the large bays. You can use conveyor belts and courseplay. Course play will even drive the leveller.

Placing the conveyor belt for loading, so your truck can dump at the entrance and you move the (chain of) belts to load the bunker from the back forward is often faster than the leveller though.

An interesting challenge is to make 1 million units of silage and sell it. If that isn't challenging, try filling the mega bays on Hobbs Farm.
 
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