This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
I was playing FS17 yesterday evening when the Commander-in-chief looked over my shoulder and commented on how beautiful the scenery was. It is autumn at Lone Oak Farm, and the forest is just on fire with colors. As usual a mentioned a few stuff about the game and mods. But for some reason it got me thinking...
I have played FS17 for almost two years and I have seen, installed, and used some fantastic mods. Maps set in so many different countries, and with so many types of layouts inviting you to totally different types of game play. I have seen features on them that are amazing to me. Factories of all sorts with sounds, airports with plans taking off and landing, sell point with office hours you have to follow, open-pit mining, castles on cliffs by the sea with the sounds of waves and seagulls, trains running around, church bells ringing, dogs and cats walking around the farm, crackling fireplaces in houses, crop-dusters you can hire to spray your fields, radios with music you can turn on och off, roads with traffic lights and stop signs you have to respect - or risk getting a ticket... Things that just makes the maps comes alive, being realistic, and have you feel you are not alone in the world.
And then all the other mods of all sorts, and I'm not only talking about machinery or buildings. Ground modification tool. A rideable pony. Silo displays. Farming tablet. Mods that tweak how you can place other placeable mods. Unit converter the make the hud and menues easier to understand. A letterbox with your name on it for the farm entrance down the road. The imagination and creativity amongst those how know how to create mods are just incredible. I hope they get the recognition they deserve doing all this for free.
And then (of course) the Seasons mod. Absolutely brilliant. For me, it was as FS17 suddenly became twice as fun and the game it should have been from day 1. It was so obvious that I can't imagine playing a map without it. Finally some real challenge and much more realism. I wish they gone even further with it, with vehicles actually breaking down on the field requiring expensive repairs, or crops that get destroyed due to weather or pest insects.
And all this leads to these questions...
Would I play FS17 today (almost 2 years after I bought it) if all I still had was the original game with the two maps and the items in the shop? Most probably not. Would you?
And this is for those of you who (can) play FS19 right now:
Do you think you will play FS19 a year from now if all you have is what you got from GIANTS when you bought it? In other words: Is FS19 so much better than FS17 (graphics, sounds, game play modes, features in the environment, realism) that you would rather play 19 without third-party mods than 17 with all the mods?
That, to me, is the strange part of FS. A premium-priced game that I personally feel is totally dependent on other people working for free creating mods for it. Maybe that is part of my disappointment when I saw FS19 and really couldn't figure out why it was two years better than FS17. (Apart from it being extremely laggy, buggy, and not working with my FS17 controllers.) Is FS19 so dependent on a computer that allows it to run at almost the highest graphics setting, or are there so much more to FS19 than just "looking better" than FS17?
Just my 2 cents.
I have played FS17 for almost two years and I have seen, installed, and used some fantastic mods. Maps set in so many different countries, and with so many types of layouts inviting you to totally different types of game play. I have seen features on them that are amazing to me. Factories of all sorts with sounds, airports with plans taking off and landing, sell point with office hours you have to follow, open-pit mining, castles on cliffs by the sea with the sounds of waves and seagulls, trains running around, church bells ringing, dogs and cats walking around the farm, crackling fireplaces in houses, crop-dusters you can hire to spray your fields, radios with music you can turn on och off, roads with traffic lights and stop signs you have to respect - or risk getting a ticket... Things that just makes the maps comes alive, being realistic, and have you feel you are not alone in the world.
And then all the other mods of all sorts, and I'm not only talking about machinery or buildings. Ground modification tool. A rideable pony. Silo displays. Farming tablet. Mods that tweak how you can place other placeable mods. Unit converter the make the hud and menues easier to understand. A letterbox with your name on it for the farm entrance down the road. The imagination and creativity amongst those how know how to create mods are just incredible. I hope they get the recognition they deserve doing all this for free.
And then (of course) the Seasons mod. Absolutely brilliant. For me, it was as FS17 suddenly became twice as fun and the game it should have been from day 1. It was so obvious that I can't imagine playing a map without it. Finally some real challenge and much more realism. I wish they gone even further with it, with vehicles actually breaking down on the field requiring expensive repairs, or crops that get destroyed due to weather or pest insects.
And all this leads to these questions...
Would I play FS17 today (almost 2 years after I bought it) if all I still had was the original game with the two maps and the items in the shop? Most probably not. Would you?
And this is for those of you who (can) play FS19 right now:
Do you think you will play FS19 a year from now if all you have is what you got from GIANTS when you bought it? In other words: Is FS19 so much better than FS17 (graphics, sounds, game play modes, features in the environment, realism) that you would rather play 19 without third-party mods than 17 with all the mods?
That, to me, is the strange part of FS. A premium-priced game that I personally feel is totally dependent on other people working for free creating mods for it. Maybe that is part of my disappointment when I saw FS19 and really couldn't figure out why it was two years better than FS17. (Apart from it being extremely laggy, buggy, and not working with my FS17 controllers.) Is FS19 so dependent on a computer that allows it to run at almost the highest graphics setting, or are there so much more to FS19 than just "looking better" than FS17?
Just my 2 cents.
<-- FS17 on an iMac 27" playing Lone Oak Farm and The Western Shore -->
Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
They added John Deere! JOHN DEERE!
And cotton!
And the Komatsu forestry thing!
Have I told you about the revolutionary clouds?
This is worth 50 EUR!
*starts FS17*
And cotton!
And the Komatsu forestry thing!
Have I told you about the revolutionary clouds?
This is worth 50 EUR!
*starts FS17*
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Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
I am playing FS19 without looking back to FS17. I really like the game how it is, going back to basics (without mods), sure I miss a couple of them, but how bad is it to drive the harvester and the tractor by yourself to the destination?
I like the concept of being able to create your own farm yard and buying the land and not only the field.
Sure mods are helpful, but I can manage without them. I have played FS17 without any mod for about half a year when I first bought it.
I like the concept of being able to create your own farm yard and buying the land and not only the field.
Sure mods are helpful, but I can manage without them. I have played FS17 without any mod for about half a year when I first bought it.
Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
I like it so far but not a big fan of the maps they gave us. They're not bad I just not a coastline guy. The animal placeables are a challenge but if you work with it and take your time it works. Anyway to answer your question I could probably play game as is for a year
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Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
I'll let you know my opinion if I am ever able too get my controllers to work as they would and still do for 17.
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Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
I started on Felsbrun as it was my least favourite of the two starter maps so I thought I would use it to learn and screw things up on. Absolutely loving it now though
Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
I think a lot of the initial bad reviews were from people expecting things to be finely tuned with all their favorite mods included.
In reality, the game has delivered on everything it advertised for.
I would expect an update in the first couple weeks to solve most of the minor issues. And mods will start trickling in shortly after that.
Will seasons come? I don't know. But remember, we got along just fine before that mod existed too.
In reality, the game has delivered on everything it advertised for.
I would expect an update in the first couple weeks to solve most of the minor issues. And mods will start trickling in shortly after that.
Will seasons come? I don't know. But remember, we got along just fine before that mod existed too.
PC & PS4
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Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
I agree. Legitimate bugs aside, most of the remaining complaints seem to boil down to some deep seated desire to have Giant basically steal all the good ideas from the modders, put them out of “business”, and then make a fortune selling us all a supercharged version of FS17 with all the favorite mods built-in.
Yet, I can fully envision many of the same complainers ripping Giants if they did just that, because it was “lazy” or “stealing” and because it would run all the modders off.
For me, I’m used to the FS cycle. I enjoy the first few weeks with the vanilla game, learning about all the changes. And then I enjoy two years of watching the value of the game increase as all the mods come along. That’s pretty cool in my book.
For contrast, I think of the state of a certain ancient, but still popular Flight Simulator. It came out in 2006 and didn’t see ANY attempt at real updates until last year, well after the original company abandoned it entirely. It had a thriving ecosystem of add-ons and was/is amazingly popular for its age. Then a company came along, attempting to update it, but taking the add-on community for granted while trying to make a buck. That effort imploded in less than a year, half finished and with no add-ones to speak of. Now, it’s dead and even the new company has abandoned the franchise.
I bring this up as a cautionary tale. In my mind, Giants has to strike a careful balance between their own improvements, encouraging the mod community, and keeping fi** fans satisfied, all while staying profitable. In my book, they’ve generally done pretty well at that. (After all, I get loads more hours out of FS, for the same or less money, than *any* other game franchise I follow, by *far*.)
But, hey, what do I know? Maybe my perspective is unique; I don’t know. Sure, I think the QA slipped this round, and I hope Giants learns from that. But the other promises have been met, I believe. And I think this game could be the basis of some really great mods and a lot of play time once the kinks are out.
I just hope folks expectations don’t get to the point that the developers can’t “win”, no matter what, and it just isn’t worth it anymore.
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Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
FS19 is not a premium priced game, premium games are £45-£50. Only the Collectors Edition is priced at premium and even that doesn't compare to modern AAA collectors prices, The Sims Collectors Edition was £90, The Sims Base Game was over £40, the expansions are currently £35 each. Farming Simulator base game is £29.99 and you can get it cheaper if you look around.
Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
What a well worded post. You described exactly my thoughts when I look at this new version of FS. To me what kept me going in FS17 is the atmosphere the ambient feeling you experience on modded maps. I mean lets face it after a while all the farming stuff you do becomes repetitive. But if you load up a map that makes you believe you are cutting grass on some British countryside or planting trees in some Austrian forest...that to me is why I kept playing.
I play this game as a roll playing game, I think of a story and use that to make my decisions based on. Giants still fail to create that experience for me but they produce a base product that modders use and take it to the next level.
If any modder reading this a BIG THANK YOU to all because you guys really are the unsung heroes.
I play this game as a roll playing game, I think of a story and use that to make my decisions based on. Giants still fail to create that experience for me but they produce a base product that modders use and take it to the next level.
If any modder reading this a BIG THANK YOU to all because you guys really are the unsung heroes.
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Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
There is no way i would continue to play fs if it wasn't for the mods. In the early days it was constant compromises and you had to have a big imagination as well as just having to live with a really dull environment. I guess it was ok then as it was such a new style of game and if you liked farm equipment, you really did not care about the finer detail. Now we all expect a much higher standard and i have to say that its only in the last 6 months, with a whole host of mods and some out of this world maps, i find FS17 almost perfect for me! The boundaries have well and truly been pushed!
Going to Fs19 at this stage, well I sacked it off after about 10 hours of messing around and I've gone back to fs17. I would probably have given it more of a go if it wasn't for finding a major bug at every stage, which, just as I'm starting to get into the game, boom, its dead to me. I have started new games soo many times now, got something going, thought, this is alright and then I discover an issue which means I can't move forward with that gameplay. I start something else going and the same thing happens again and again. Its not that its totally unbearable, its more the fact that I have a near perfect game which I could be playing and enjoying rather than spending time and heartache on something that I'm not really enjoying.
Even if this new game didn't have any issues, I feel that after coming from modded fs17, the vanilla fs19 game would get very boring very quickly with a step back to the old days of compromising. The modding community have kept this game alive for years now and i really do think that giants have made a fantastic decision to leave a lot to the modders rather than trying to do it all themselves. That being said, in the past, the majority of great mods are just fixes for parts of the game that were lacking in detail/functionality which 10 years plus into the series should really be part of the game by now so that the modders can just focus on enhancing the game rather than constantly fixing it every 2 years.
I guess the trouble is, giants make a base line game and then the modding community push and drive the game forwards over 2 years. Then we find that giants make a new version of game but that has not moved forwards with the modders, so we take a step back. The modders step in, make it great and then the cycle repeats.
With this model, I think Giants should focus solely on making the base line game as near perfect as possible, ready for the modding community to drive it forwards. They have effectively got a dev team and a research team/focus group for free this way and they should be looking at how these mods are received by the players and then incorporate this into the base game.
This time around we really should have had seasons, courseplay and follow me built in to the game with more of a focus on improving what we have had and less effort put into making new features that don't really work and need fixes. Modders must be getting rather fed up of having to constantly rework a mod over and over again instead of being able to come up with new ideas. Even if we just got these mods built in, polished up, had the improvement to the graphics and nothing else, fs19 would be a great game from the start. alas, it is going to be some time before its anywhere near the standard we have been playing at for the past year or so on fs17.
Going to Fs19 at this stage, well I sacked it off after about 10 hours of messing around and I've gone back to fs17. I would probably have given it more of a go if it wasn't for finding a major bug at every stage, which, just as I'm starting to get into the game, boom, its dead to me. I have started new games soo many times now, got something going, thought, this is alright and then I discover an issue which means I can't move forward with that gameplay. I start something else going and the same thing happens again and again. Its not that its totally unbearable, its more the fact that I have a near perfect game which I could be playing and enjoying rather than spending time and heartache on something that I'm not really enjoying.
Even if this new game didn't have any issues, I feel that after coming from modded fs17, the vanilla fs19 game would get very boring very quickly with a step back to the old days of compromising. The modding community have kept this game alive for years now and i really do think that giants have made a fantastic decision to leave a lot to the modders rather than trying to do it all themselves. That being said, in the past, the majority of great mods are just fixes for parts of the game that were lacking in detail/functionality which 10 years plus into the series should really be part of the game by now so that the modders can just focus on enhancing the game rather than constantly fixing it every 2 years.
I guess the trouble is, giants make a base line game and then the modding community push and drive the game forwards over 2 years. Then we find that giants make a new version of game but that has not moved forwards with the modders, so we take a step back. The modders step in, make it great and then the cycle repeats.
With this model, I think Giants should focus solely on making the base line game as near perfect as possible, ready for the modding community to drive it forwards. They have effectively got a dev team and a research team/focus group for free this way and they should be looking at how these mods are received by the players and then incorporate this into the base game.
This time around we really should have had seasons, courseplay and follow me built in to the game with more of a focus on improving what we have had and less effort put into making new features that don't really work and need fixes. Modders must be getting rather fed up of having to constantly rework a mod over and over again instead of being able to come up with new ideas. Even if we just got these mods built in, polished up, had the improvement to the graphics and nothing else, fs19 would be a great game from the start. alas, it is going to be some time before its anywhere near the standard we have been playing at for the past year or so on fs17.
Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
Excellent post. Exactly how I feel. Having tried about 10 game restarts on FS19 to get things right, I got fed up with the bugs and most particularly the shed and animal placeables and "terrain unable to deform" type messages. I was left not being able to place anything where I wanted to because there are mounds everywhere that you can't level out again. I gave up and have gone back to FS17 for time being.Coldlandlord wrote: ↑Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:46 am There is no way i would continue to play fs if it wasn't for the mods. In the early days it was constant compromises and you had to have a big imagination as well as just having to live with a really dull environment. I guess it was ok then as it was such a new style of game and if you liked farm equipment, you really did not care about the finer detail. Now we all expect a much higher standard and i have to say that its only in the last 6 months, with a whole host of mods and some out of this world maps, i find FS17 almost perfect for me! The boundaries have well and truly been pushed!
Going to Fs19 at this stage, well I sacked it off after about 10 hours of messing around and I've gone back to fs17. I would probably have given it more of a go if it wasn't for finding a major bug at every stage, which, just as I'm starting to get into the game, boom, its dead to me. I have started new games soo many times now, got something going, thought, this is alright and then I discover an issue which means I can't move forward with that gameplay. I start something else going and the same thing happens again and again. Its not that its totally unbearable, its more the fact that I have a near perfect game which I could be playing and enjoying rather than spending time and heartache on something that I'm not really enjoying.
Even if this new game didn't have any issues, I feel that after coming from modded fs17, the vanilla fs19 game would get very boring very quickly with a step back to the old days of compromising. The modding community have kept this game alive for years now and i really do think that giants have made a fantastic decision to leave a lot to the modders rather than trying to do it all themselves. That being said, in the past, the majority of great mods are just fixes for parts of the game that were lacking in detail/functionality which 10 years plus into the series should really be part of the game by now so that the modders can just focus on enhancing the game rather than constantly fixing it every 2 years.
I guess the trouble is, giants make a base line game and then the modding community push and drive the game forwards over 2 years. Then we find that giants make a new version of game but that has not moved forwards with the modders, so we take a step back. The modders step in, make it great and then the cycle repeats.
With this model, I think Giants should focus solely on making the base line game as near perfect as possible, ready for the modding community to drive it forwards. They have effectively got a dev team and a research team/focus group for free this way and they should be looking at how these mods are received by the players and then incorporate this into the base game.
This time around we really should have had seasons, courseplay and follow me built in to the game with more of a focus on improving what we have had and less effort put into making new features that don't really work and need fixes. Modders must be getting rather fed up of having to constantly rework a mod over and over again instead of being able to come up with new ideas. Even if we just got these mods built in, polished up, had the improvement to the graphics and nothing else, fs19 would be a great game from the start. alas, it is going to be some time before its anywhere near the standard we have been playing at for the past year or so on fs17.
I find that I now struggle to play FS without Seasons, the game is just too random without it. I think when the bugs are ironed out and the modders get going this has lots of potential though. However, like you and until this happens, it's too much of a step backwards for me.
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Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
Under that circumstance, it would be best to wait 6 months to a year before buying newest version. On top of that, wait for a sale.
Playing games because they are fun. Watching movies because they are entertaining.
Long live plug n play.
Long live plug n play.
Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
I think we have enough threads like this. Be more positive.
Its time to look forward to 2019 and to Seasons coming out for this ... game.
Its time to look forward to 2019 and to Seasons coming out for this ... game.
Re: This Farming Simulator thing is a strange game...
"I think we have enough threads like this."
Weasle, be more positive.
Weasle, be more positive.
<-- FS17 on an iMac 27" playing Lone Oak Farm and The Western Shore -->