Farming Simulator 19 needs Seasons! Ideas – Chapter #6
Farming Simulator 19 needs Seasons! Ideas – Chapter #6
So, Farming Simulator 17 has been out for a good while now, and the modding community is in full swing, testing the limits of what they can get FS17 to do in neat and interesting ways. I’d like to start off by saying I was pleasantly surprised by the features that were included in FS17, primarally because a number of them I had already seen as mods available for FS15. That said to me that the people over at Giants payed attention to the FS community and took a lot of their ideas from there. And because Giants has demostrated that they are open to player feedback, I thought I would offer up my ideas and opinions.
Now, this isn’t me trying to tell the developers that they should do things a certain way, or that I think I know better than them. Far from it, I just want to put forth some ideas and give Giants a bit of feedback. And do feel free to reply with your own ideas, if you have any.
1. IC Controls.
One thing that a lot of modded vehicles like to do, which has been lacking with vehicles in the vanilla game is In-Cab or In-Character controls. While personally I don’t use them very often when they are available, they do add to the realism and immersion of the game. And this being a Simulation game (Simulator is in the title, after all), anything that adds to the realism is generally a good thing. However, I understand that IC controls may not always be easy to use for everyone, especially those playing on consoles or with a controller. For that reason, I don’t feel they should be required for anything vital. Things like opening doors or hoods, or tilting the steering wheel serve no practical function to the gameplay, but do add to the realism. Like with most of the mods that include IC controls, these little extras can be thrown in as a ‘treat’ for those players looking for that extra bit of immersion.
2. Farming Simulator 19 with Seasons.
While there is a mod that attempts to add changing seasons to the game, it seems extremely lacking and rather poorly implamented. I don’t mean that as an insult to the mod maker, but rather to point out that FS17 doesn’t have any suitable way to express the passage of time beyond simple day and night cycles. The changing weather is nice, but often very random and (aside from not being able to harvest in the rain) gives no real effect to gameplay. Idealy, after every so many days (which could vary based on difficulty and/or crop growth speed), the weather in the game could start to change it’s patterns, affecting not only visuall elements like weather effects and ground textures, but the speed of crop growth, crop yeilds, and even sale prices (more on that last one down below).
This could even effect a player’s decissions on which crops to plant, which ones to sale or store, or even to hold off on farming for a season to focus on other tasks like tending animals or logging. For example, wheat may grow faster and produce more in the summer, but sells for more in the fall and winter. In this case, a farmer would have to decide if he wants to sell his harvest now for quick money, or store his wheat till the winter when demand for it will be high. This could also open up the game to additional crop types that grow better in colder or wetter weather. This could also include changes to the weather system, where extremely dry and hot periods could effect the amount a crop produces, simulating difficulties real farmers have to plan for. They could even add new equipment to help players prepare for these events. Irrigation trailers and spraying towers to combat droughts and the like.
Logging: I don’t like the idea that you can start cutting down trees in other people’s backyard, so to speak. You have to buy a parcel of forest ( on the hills and side of the map) ground and plant trees on it. Buying forest ground is cheaper than farmland, but not suited for other crops. At the beginning of the game you already get a parcel with some trees on it, you’ll have to replant them or buy another parcel. You can’t cut down or plant a tree if the parcel is not yours, but you can plant them anywhere else ( for example on the grass borders)
At the start of the game you should be able to pick a category. For example: if you choose logging you already get a parcel with trees on it. If you choose animals you already get some cows and some basic equipment such as the watercontainer. If you choose farming you get extra farmland. Or, for the die hards, you only get the same equipment/parcels as you do now.
The missions are too lucrative. You should only be able to do the missions with your own equipment. When your harvester is full, you’ll have to call an AI-helper to unload the crop. No time limit. Fixed price per hectare for labour depending on sowing, spraying, plowing, harvesting,… When you have a bigger harvester, it takes less time to complete the mission. Time is money people!
Collecting the gold nuggets and then you get one million euro. Seriously? Maybe a gold coin pops up after plowing a field and then you get 1000 euro for it. 100 coins makes 100000 euro.
Credits:Farming Simulator 19
