The Ultimate Guide To Seasons On Hard?

[fenixguy]

You can opt to not use seasons then I guess. I'm exclusively doing animals on TVTOF and I've had plenty to do with 6 day seasons, no money cheating, and the only trees I've cut were to expand fields. I find when the farm is small and with no animals, 3 day seasons might be the best. Once there's a lot to take care of and time is limited, go for 6 or 9 or more. The way I play (before and after seasons) is get a particular job done in a day and 120x to the next one. So I've really not changed the amount of farming I do and downtime is actually less now since I have to feed animals more frequently and I can skip night time.

I'm looking forward to starting an all arable crops map (or keep using Lawfolds) with seasons to see how that goes. I find the opposite to be true; seasons put the simulator in Farming Simulator... at least got it closer to one.

[Hairy Bob]

+1

[FarmerJimbob]

I do like the added dimension Seasons has given FS17 and I agree it makes it more of a simulator. But, I have to agree with Farmer216 in that I now do far less actual farming than before. I typically have a few fieldwork jobs to do each day, top up the animals' feed and then I'm speeding up time to the next day. Maybe its because I don't like being on accelerated time when I'm doing field jobs, I still run it on 1x. Its nice that its a bit more laid back and its great having the scenery change with the seasons but as far as making money goes it's a real grind.

[Robbh6]

Another +1 for not understanding how people have nothing to do.

I'm playing 9 day seasons, on hard, periodic plowing enabled, 3x fertilisation stages, 20 cows (for now), 10 sheep, own 6 fields, just about to buy the 7th , playing on 15x time speed, and skip nights.

I only own 2 tractors, the little massey 600c from the old massey pack with front loader for animal work, and a fendt 700 for field work.
I still don't even own a combine harvester. I lease one for harvesting. Although I own the header.


Always have a field to tend to, whether that's plowing, seeding, weeding, fertilizing, whatever.
Moving around seed and fertilizer pallets is also quite time consuming.
As I don't personally like to use the refill points. I prefer to use the pallets and load machinery manually.

The animals create enough work to fill the gaps between field work, cleaning, mowing grass, tedding, baling and stacking.
Don't use auto stack trailers either. Load a flat bed manually with pallet forks.


In winter I tend to speed up time to 30x but even then struggle to fit the snow clearance and animal husbandry in. My last winter it snowed for 5 days out of the 9.


Honestly. I really don't have much time for forestry work. I did a little woodchipping at the start of my save game, but nothing major. Mostly if I needed a little extra cash.
I think I'm in year 5 (possibly 6) of seasons and it's going rather well.

It was a bit of a grind to start with but now slowly but surely expanding my farm gradually and at a pace I'm happy with.

I absolutely love seasons!

Although I cannot wait to get back to the West Coast once the update comes along.

[FarmerJimbob]

Another +1 for not understanding how people have nothing to do.

You're playing on 15x speed - thats the answer right there.

Playing on 1x which is what I've always done, and having been used to turning around the whole GCV map on a daily basis I find myself accelerating time a lot with seasons. I'm doing 3 day seasons on Sosnovka - I own about 12 fields, 100 of each animal, and have all the options on hard setting (though the economy is Normal). Fieldwork takes up maybe a couple of hours a day then I tend to the animals and top up my grass/hay/silage reserves and that'll probably take me to about midday. I'm not griping about seasons, just offering up an explanation as to how some people are saying there's a lot of time with nothing to do.

[SimulatedSphere]

I dont understand the people that say they dont have anything to do except log or speed up time. I never log and rarely have nothing to do and im playing 9 day seasons on 5x speed

I use 30x and I get to finish a task everyday . Sowing , fertilizing, Tidying , Selling Eggs .

[SimulatedSphere]

I do like the added dimension Seasons has given FS17 and I agree it makes it more of a simulator. But, I have to agree with Farmer216 in that I now do far less actual farming than before. I typically have a few fieldwork jobs to do each day, top up the animals' feed and then I'm speeding up time to the next day. Maybe its because I don't like being on accelerated time when I'm doing field jobs, I still run it on 1x. Its nice that its a bit more laid back and its great having the scenery change with the seasons but as far as making money goes it's a real grind.

Do s9me c9ntracting . You know , working for other farmers.

[FarmerJimbob]

Do s9me c9ntracting . You know , working for other farmers.

Pays peanuts with Seasons, not worth my time anymore.

[fenixguy]

Doing work for other farmers never has been worth my time. I've got my own farm to run. I run whatever time acceleration makes sense (always have). For hay, I use 1x so it doesn't start raining half way through. For taking care of animals, I use 5x or 15x depending on how "long" I want it to take. For hauling, moving pallets/bales, everything else, I usually keep it on 5x.

You know it's an option to use the seasons mod right? Personally, I'll never play without it again if I can help it.

[Mythtaken]

There seems to be two basic camps for FS players. In one, you have the folks who are out to win the game by reaching some goal; own all the fields, get X amount of money, buy all the equipment, etc. Once they've "won", they move to another map.

In the other camp, you have the people who just play at farming. They focus on working the fields and caring for the animals, with no particular vision of an "end game". For them, the every day routine is what makes the game, not making piles of money or getting all the toys.

I think the Seasons mod is made primarily for the second camp of people (in which I count myself). We aren't bothered by the restrictions on planting and harvesting imposed by the mod because there's always work to do on the farm. I suspect many of the folks in this camp are more likely to take on more of a role-play style in the game, and likely use fewer workers, automated assists (auto-loading trailers and such) than the goal-driven players. I'm not suggesting one type of play is better or more "correct" than another. I just think that this mod was created for those players who fit into the second camp. So it's probably a good idea to understand your own play style before you start with Seasons. If it doesn't suit your play style, it can make FS less enjoyable for you.

[fenixguy]

^^^Very well said^^^

I'm in camp 2 for sure. Except I use helpers and automation whenever I can (usually). Seasons is a role play mod. I like that description.

[deddycantshoot]

i guess im a mixture of 1 and 2, i like to win ,but i also like to take time to do the small things as well,and i really like seasons,will never play again without it.

[NCFarmer3842]

Camp 2 for me as well. I'm playing on TWC and I know it's not optimized for it but I love the map it doesn't really bother me. To me the game is about farming not winning. I have no end game I just want some new equipment as I have a lot of cheap old stuff. I'm in year 2 and still trying to buy a new Case.

[PrincessJessi84]

i would mostly fall into the second group as well.. there r some things i like doing more than others and for the others i hire help.. but thats how i have handled it irl as well.. for example when i was on the road the first couple years i did everything myself.. but after a couple years i learned that all the manual part of the job was a quick way to jack my nails up not to mention the stupid calluses so i hired a loafer (for those unfamiliar a loafer is a person hired to do the manual labor in a semi.. strapping and unstrapping things like steel, removing tarps, reconnecting the hydro and electric lines from the trailer, etc).. im the same in the game except i like manual labor because neither my keyboard nor my remote messes up my nails lol.. but yea i typically like small farms with lots of tiny tasks and i love role playing.. for example i like to simulate cutting and splitting my wood.. just a couple trees through the winter and cold part of spring.. make a nice neat little pile (or as neat as possible with the weird physics that come with handling the logs by hand) then through the fall and winter i sell my "seasoned" fire wood a truck load or 2 per day.. its not really profitable but it really adds to the game for me as i have done that work irl.. also i like to simulate getting paid to plow parking lots and certain roads in the snow.. i havent really figured out a great way to add any money to my account for the work done so honestly its just free work done for the sake of doing the work.. when im on pc i tend to use the mods to prevent vehicle resetting and tabbing and things like manual attach.. those things really add alot and make the work more what im used to from having done most of these things irl

[Hairy Bob]

You hit the nail on the head there, Mythtaken.
I started off playing fs15 firmly in the first camp, spamming silage and forestry to earn millions quickly, and found myself getting bored and changing maps every week or two, then I started introducing arbitrary rules to make the process take longer, and started trying to emulate seasons by not planting anything until all the harvesting was done, spending money on fields instead of bigger machinery so there was always plenty to do.
Since I got 17, just after seasons was released, I've only played 5 maps (I've driven around plenty more), all with seasons, and got past the hundred hour mark on all of them. I've stuck with the philosophy of buying many fields and keeping 4-6m equipment, and just role play running my farm. I set myself targets, like buying up another farm, getting an amount of animals, getting into root crops or whatever.
I use courseplay for most fieldwork and a lot of transport, so I can jump on whatever machine I feel like piloting. I've only been doing forestry as a means to clear land for more crops or placeables, and I grow as many different crops as I can.
I'm enjoying the game more than ever, and far from having to skip time, I often have to slow from 5x to 1x to be able to get everything done, even with extensive courseplay use. I'm playing with 6 day seasons and thinking of going to 9.