Seasons Mod Thread #2

[RODHA]

logging, animal husbandry, greenhouses, fruit trees... but mostly I play on 5x-15x speed so that I don't get too much spare time.
3rd alternative is cheat money, buy the entire map and you get no time to spare whatsoever.

[Farmer216]

Completed my second year and I think i'll remove seasons. Too much spare time with nothing to do

What do you guys do in between to keep yourself entertained?

I feel you. I'm lucky enough to have 3 TVs in my living room, so I'm not "bored". But i'm not really playing FS17 anymore.

I'm trying to make this work. I like the skip night, loans based on property value, vehicle maintenance, the variable price market, decomposing grass, snow, etc..
I've tried 3 different ways so far, each one Legit, LOTS and LOTS of fast-forwarding.

Seasons #1 ~ 9Day@120x (24HRS) (slow to 5x when working). Arable farming only. 45-60 mins at x120 then you can play for 20 mins. All I do is fast forward.

Seasons #2 ~ 9Day@30x (100HRS) ~ Sold all equip/bldgs. Bought 1 MF 600, 1 tree harvester ~ $1million+ from trees, $100k from farming. I cut down a forest, de-stumped it, plowed and seeded before 1st crop harvest. All I do is logging.

Seasons #3 ~ 9Day@120x (72HRS) Sold all equipment/bldgs., maxed the loan, Bought solar panels and beehives. 3 game years later, its paid for. I don't do much, mostly just collecting eggs. I planted grass in my fields, I'm just now getting to the point where I can buy a tractor.

I've watched sooo much Netflix while my game fast forwards.

I would LOVE to keep seasons active, but I don't feel like a farmer anymore.

I feel like "Slow crop growth" should be an option. I know its not realistic, but it would make this MOD playable. Have it Default to "Seasons", but give me the option.

I don't like to cheat, but I kind of feel like its necessary.

[Thefisherj]

Im on my 3rd year going onto the 4th year. I tend to skip days when I'm not doing anything I have animals to clean and feed and now going to have a couple of greenhouses and going to save up for the straw harvest add on pallet production building. I tend to work on 1x but going to up it to 5x/15x to see how it goes.

[Rahkiin]

Are solar panels affected by Seasons?? Seems they make more $$ in the summer.

No, currently that is not a feature we have. It is on our todo list but will not be coming to console for FS17. They are only normalized over a year and have the new upkeep algorithm.

I have 9 solar panels. Property income should be 19,440 everyday.Day 1 of Autumn property income was 3240.Day 2 of Autumn was 19440.
Edit:Day 3 of Autumn 10530.

This is strange. You did not change the length of a season in this time? Or add more panels, remove panels? Are these panels the only property income you have?

[TacoFarmer]

No, currently that is not a feature we have. It is on our todo list but will not be coming to console for FS17. They are only normalized over a year and have the new upkeep algorithm.

I have 9 solar panels. Property income should be 19,440 everyday.Day 1 of Autumn property income was 3240.Day 2 of Autumn was 19440.
Edit:Day 3 of Autumn 10530.

This is strange. You did not change the length of a season in this time? Or add more panels, remove panels? Are these panels the only property income you have?

Day 5 9720.I forgot to see day 4. I didnt change time. Only 9 panels nothing else.I bought all 9 at the same time.

[Robbh6]

Completed my second year and I think i'll remove seasons. Too much spare time with nothing to do

What do you guys do in between to keep yourself entertained?

This isn't so much what I do in between but generally how I play with seasons. I have little to no spare time.
Might help, might not.

On 9 day seasons, playing at 5x speed most of the time. On the West Coast. I own 8 arable fields, 5 grass fields. Always skip nights to simulate going to bed.

I don't use hired workers, takes much more time than when you just drive around carting. I may consider using hired help when I've expanded to double the amount of fields I have now. But even then the fields on the West Coast are not the best shape for hired help.


I try not to teleport too much although this is difficult when you need several machines in the same field. Unfortunately being on Xbox means no follow me etc.
Animal husbandry can take up a fair bit of time especially in the summer when you have grass, hay and silage to make for feed.
I also don't use autoload trailers. I prefer to load bales onto trailers myself with a telehandler.

I don't use the automatic seed and fertiliser refill points. It's cheaper buying pallets. And money can be tight sometimes.
I make myself go to the shop each time. Load pallets onto a trailer, then refill the seeder with the telehandler.
Too cheap to buy a seed tender at the moment....

I also have my fields in a rotation for plowing, I have 2-3 fields to plow after each harvest. This itself takes forever. Sometimes don't get it finished in time before the ground freezes so finish next spring. And then I'm already behind.....

Some fields I'll direct drill winter wheat or Barley. Others oilseed radish as the first step of fertilisation. Which will then be cultivated in spring followed by seeding.
3 stage fertilisation is a must!

The only time I really struggle for something to do is in winter so crank my game speed up to 15x or 30x depending on how much logging I feel like doing which more often than not is none at all.
Usually the cows give me enough to do through the winter ticking along at 30x speed. Along with getting the vehicle maintenance done ready for spring.

As for where I'm at in my second year...

This autumn it's possible I'm going to loose some crops. I'm 5 days into autumn and I've only been able to harvest 2 fields before rain and wet crops stopped play. And I've still got rain forecast for 2 of the last 4 days of autumn. Plus the baling I will need to do, ploughing, seeding, animals need sorting in between jobs also....... got some long nights ahead!

[VMB-TAN]

Thanks for the replies But to be honoust no handy tips for me.

[hpmc13]

Thanks for the replies But to be honoust no handy tips for me.

I start every map on three day seasons. Only a couple of fields, no animals yet, very little to do? Nine day seasons are way too long. I generally run at 5x unless I get tight on time (then realtime) or I know that I can finish what I need to or have nothing to do and I'll speed things up. When it starts to get hectic, or I have critters, I'll switch to six day seasons and try not to go below 5x. There is still some down time. I have yet to go longer than six day seasons.

[IseOlen]

For those that say there's nothing to do:
1. turn on 3x fertilization
2. turn on plowing
3. turn off autobuying seed/fert/manure/digestate
4. when you have extra money, always go for more fields first, then animals, then better equipment.
5. Do logging using a chainsaw, load logs onto trailer using a tractors front loader grapple (or even better - cut pieces so small you can toss them into woodchipper)
6. Do (round)bales, don't use autoloaders.
You'll never feel "too much fast-forward" again.

@solar-panel variable income.
I have a feeling (not tested) that you get (or maybe it's just marked in financials) variable (lower) income on days where you loaded the game.
To test:
1. start new game,
2. sell everything and buy 1 solar panel.
3. FF for 2 days. Mark down daily income.
4. Save game in the middle of the day.
5. Exit game.
6. Load game, FF for 2 days. Look for daily income.

[IseOlen]

@Rahkiin/RM,
Does the "cows don't get grass on winter" count (negatively) towards the animals health?
I bought cows long time before pigs and just noticed pigs got better health (90% vs 88%) while both animals always had everything (food, water, cleaned).
As grass feeding in winter is limited by the Seasons engine itself, this would not be fair/right.

[aklein]

I am playing 24 day seasons, first year I had plenty to do running at 15X speed and 96 day game year.

If you do not have enough to do then your either
1) playing with the clock speed to slow. bump it up to the next highest level.
2) playing with to many hired helpers. Slow down and do the work yourself vs hiring workers to work multiple fields at once. after all you have plenty of time if your running out of things to do.
3) play with smaller equipment. Instead of using the allrounder to cultivate the field pick the 4M Kuhn cultivator.
4) purchase more fields
5) get into animals if you do not have them
6) make sure you dont skip plowing and three stages fert.

I played 6 day seasons at 15X speed and OMG you have to plan out everything you do and make sure you do it in the right order or time will run away from you very very quickly.

15X clock speed assuming you skip night once its dark gives you about 55 minutes of real time per game day.
5X clock speed using the same assumptions is 2 3/4 hours of real time per game day.

[Rahkiin]

@Rahkiin/RM,
Does the "cows don't get grass on winter" count (negatively) towards the animals health?
I bought cows long time before pigs and just noticed pigs got better health (90% vs 88%) while both animals always had everything (food, water, cleaned).
As grass feeding in winter is limited by the Seasons engine itself, this would not be fair/right.

Yes, but very slowly. We modelled it and it is only a few percentage points.

[traveler87]

It would be really neat if we could review an annual balance sheet at the end of each year to evaluate our overall performance throughout each year. It could even follow the same format as the end game cash analysis page but with annual totals instead.

With the seasons mod, as is in real life, influx and out flux of capital varies throughout the year, and as of yet we don't have a proper way of evaluating the annual effect.(PS4)

[VMB-TAN]

My main "problem" might be the fact that I love to hire workers. All the work they can do, is work I don't like doing...

Thanks again for the replies

[Rahkiin]

I tried to reproduce the solar panel issue but without success. I changed season length: worked perfectly.

If someone can reproduce it with the steps given by @iseOlen, please tell me