Some ideas for FS17

[matains]

Hello everyone!
I’ve been preparing myself to write this for months but actually playing the game instead of writing about it seemed more fun. However with FS2017 announced, as a die hard FS fan i feel obliged to give my feedback and suggestions. I’ve had so much fun (and still getting) from this game that i feel at this point i have to give something back, which is my ideas on how to make the sequel even better.
I’ll start with some minor things that could be implemented easier but imo would make a huge difference:
Spreading fertilizer or slurry on grass should result in faster regrowth and better yield.
Driving over a growing crop and even over soil itself should affect the yield, making narrow wheels needed for fertilizing and double wheels for seeding.
Selling silage is way too profitable
Cows are consuming way too low amounts of food. If i can feed 50 cows by mowing the grass that grow around my 2 starter fields, there must be something wrong 
Mowers with swathers would be awesome
Not all tractors, especially the cheaper and lower powered starting tractors, should have front hitch and especially the PTO (partly adressed in Gold edition with Zetor Crystal)
Manure should be worked into the soil before seeding for best result
3-4 layers of mud with different pattern instead of 1 fading off as the tractor gets washed, + different zones to wash

Then i have some ideas for realism:
When buying the tractor we should be able to pick different equipment for it, like more lights, forementioned front hitch and PTO, double wheels, front loader etc.
It would also be great if different engines and gearboxes could be picked (type of gearboxes would determine the max speed and/or how fast the tractor switches between forward and reverse .
As a result, we could get the tractor we need – wether i just need a heavy tractor that can lift stuff with a front loader, or i need pure power that can pull that big plow, or a fast transport tractor, or maybe i need it all. I believe ability to switch between exact gears would be an overkill and this level of simulation would take the fun part out.
Tyre wear
Tractors breaking down, especially if pulling too heavy equipment or crashing into stuff
Difficulty should affect cost of fields and amounts of starting tractors/equipment. Customizable difficulty sliders would be awesome.
I think that having 5 tractos when i start off on a couple of small fields is kinda absurd. Liked Sosnovka approach way better.
Radio!!

I’d be willing to pay way more for a game that’s more polished and doesn’t look as ‘lazy’ as, to be completely honest, current game looks. If i had FS13 on steam, i probably wouldn’t consider FS15 worth buying when comparing them side by side. So PLEASE make the next game worth buying.
Cheers!

[eric21]

"Cows are consuming way too low amounts of food. If i can feed 50 cows by mowing the grass that grow around my 2 starter fields, there must be something wrong "

No because you have 50 cows and only have grass....

[matains]

From my experience as a farmer (have dairy and beef cattle) you need almost a hectare per cow to supply them with the food (a little less with sown grass), doesn't really matter if fed with hay, silage or grass. I do understand that this is a game but being able to feed 50 cows while mowing only like 1/10 of a hectare is just absurd.

[Higgings]

"I believe ability to switch between exact gears would be an overkill and this level of simulation would take the fun part out."

Agree, and since we will be getting Fendt and MF ect. most of this have Vario, as I recall you cant get Fendt with out.
But of cause, it could be and option on New Holland and the like.

[IanM]

Here is my simple list of "must haves" in FS17:
Integrate SoilMod
Auto combine
Course play
Darker nights
and do a weather system that affects everything, and not just washes the dirt of things (even when under cover)
Being able to use things as you would in real life would be nice as well.
Liters....Why is every load in liters.... Some of the larger trailers when full would be ridiculously heavy... 42tonne is a monster load by any account.

[wfloyd84]

As a farmer myself and also from the south eastern parts of the US, I would love to see some more crops implemented in the game without mods and the appropriate equipment. For example our main crop here is cotton, soybeans and corn, cotton being the main one that would require more equipment added. Would also like to see more tractor varieties without modding like John Deere, Ford, and International. Those are just a dew things I would love to see implemented in FS2017 that would represent agriculture from my neck of the woods.

[matains]

Wanted to add some more things:
plowing the roads and then seeding grass over them shouldn't turn the soil back to road.
And yeah about those cows. Owning them at normal difficulty makes no sense. If you buy a cow for 2.5k, it will take 100 in-game days to get that money back at 100% productivity, not even counting the machinery expenses required to feed them. At the same time you can have like 30 harvests of crops if you invest in cultivation of any culture and/or purchase more fields. Devs should either lower the price of cows and raise the milk price (all the prices in-game are messed up so why wouldn't the milk one be too) or do something about the timeline.

[CMDRTAKEDOWN]

Making money in this game is soo easy. So why worry about how long it takes to get your money back.That is even playing on hard mode.

[BullFarmer]

I hope we get some sort of vehicle management system, it would be much simpler for large farms if we could sort our vehicles and equipment into groups so we could easily choose from cultivation and planting equipment, harvest equipment, transport equipment etc rather than having to click through all of your vehicles to find what you are looking for like you do now.

[farmerjacoby]

The farming aspect is done so well its hard to think of any improvements other than better graphics and animations, more fruit varieties.
Where there could be an improvement is your house and farm buildings. So, the player starts with a modest 2 bedroom house and a small barn, but as time passes you can access a menu which allows buying farm upgrades such as horse breeding stables, bigger house, more barns and garages, a lake/duck pond, gardens so the player really feels like all the hard work has been worth it!
I suppose it would be good to start without preformed farm allocations, ie the map is just land with fenced properties, and the player and several AI controlled farmers battle it out to see who can become the regions dominant farmer.

[trogladitez]

"The farming aspect is done so well its hard to think of any improvements"
Say what? You being sarcastic?

[farmertuck]

I would like the game to be stuck on hard mode
As people say money is to easy to earn
I wish you could walk though fields and pick weed I help with that on our farm
And I wish you had to sell the milk manually
Hope some of these things will be added in!

[JohnDeere318]

I would like the game to be stuck on hard mode
As people say money is to easy to earn
I wish you could walk though fields and pick weed I help with that on our farm
And I wish you had to sell the milk manually
Hope some of these things will be added in!

Agreed.

[matains]

One more thing that came to my mind: We should have to actually hire workers and then decide what should they do, not like it is now - if you need a worker a random guy is standing right near the field and waiting for a job xD
Also there could be cotractors that are very expensive to use in long term (basically non-profitable) but are available for you to do stuff you don't have equipment for.

[farmerjacoby]

Another nice inclusion would be Mining. Farms and mines are often situated closely,so this would add an interesting political component to the game.
It'd be cool to buy land, upon which lies a mountain range containing vast coal deposits. The player then buys everything needed to extract the coal, transport it to the shipping port and sell it domestically or overseas.