PC Negatives

[Pict]

I've never owned or used a console and any ideas I have about them come from reading this forum.

Initially I thought that it was well named, "console" as in console yourself with a console prize, but after a bit of time I came to another conclusion altogether.

When I read console players posts, they are really into the game and play it way more than I do. That's because much of my FS time is spent testing new mods, trying to make them work the way I want or rebuilding my control config because it's now spammed with mod junk commands.

Console players on the other hand make do with what they have and work on their game and go ahead with it.

What's better? Hard to say really, but I suppose if you had the resolve and dedication console players are forced to have, but play on a PC and just take the absolute best or most required mods with a hard ceiling limit of say 100 mods max in your folder, 50 would be better. Then you would probably be better on PC.

Depends on what you want out of it all?

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This subject reminds me of an idea I had recently to start a PC does consul challenge to give PC players who are interested a better idea of the console players way of doing things.

This could be fun. A map and mod selection picked out and a set number of hours to see who makes the most of it. Or something like that.

[Mobias]

I moved from console to PC and there is a bit of an argument in favour of consoles in that console players definitely make do with getting a lot more out of a lot less. Its a simpler experience on console so you end up playing the game more I think. I moved from console to PC during the FS-17 days when there was a much bigger gap between the two versions. FS-17 on PC really did feel like playing a totally different game after playing it on PS4 for over a year. From a purely visual point of view the gap between the PC and console isn't as great with FS-19. Unless of course you use shaders on PC, as I do, and you can get it looking much nicer. Its a bit of a faff though but worth it in the end.

On PC you'll need to get used navigating your way through the darkest depths of all the mod sites out there. Outside the safe world of the Giants mod hub its the wild west of broken and/or bad looking mods. Still, its worth for the good ones and all the variety you get. Plus of course you've got all the game changing mods which rely on scripts like coureplay and Follow me.

For me the best thing about moving from console to PC was using Giants editor. You can get behind the scenes of all your favourite maps and customise things to your liking if you wish. I spend way more time working on my own map and mucking about with other maps than I do playing the game these days.

[aklein]

Your best responses will be from former console players gone PC. As has been mentioned before as a PC only player the negatives are going to be somewhat one sided but I think I can paint a decent comparative picture.

Slot Count... On console most folks seem to obsess over slot count. on PC we say whats a slot count. we have no such thing we can buy what ever we want and how ever much of it we want. We can have thousands of bales on a map and as a result sink the ship that is FPS count and performance. Slot counts are there to attempt to keep the game running smoothly for console players because of the limited memory resources they have. On PC we do not have a slot count but maybe for the sake of some game saves we should (blasphemy i know). On PC we can do all kinds of things to ruin our game experience with out limits so player beware its up to you to manage your own equipment bloat.

General Mods.... On console your limited to mods from the Giants modhub. In 17 this meant that you had for the most part decent mods that worked as advertised. With 19 that works as advertised seems to have faltered a bit but in general the mods on the mod hub are going to work and be fairly stable. On the PC side we have literally tens of thousands of mods and I would say a good half to 3/4 of them are total junk and should never ever be downloaded and used. We can also get mods from hundreds of mod websites and who knows how many FB pages. PC mods are like the wild wild west, if you don't know what your doing you can find yourself in a nasty bar fight that leads to a shoot out on the street in dealing with bad mod sites that just upload who knows what from who knows where or a mod author that does about 60% of the work to get a mod working and then releases it to the world to say here it is i'm done with it someone fix it the rest of the way. Then you hope you can actually find an actual fixed version.

Script based mods... On console you have seasons and now straw harvest that fall into this category thats it. On PC you have the category that is the holy grail for console players in mods like courseplay, follow me, autodrive and GtX wonderful storage shelves, bale stacks and the like. So many mods that make PC game play really stand out do so because they are script based and these can be true game changers for game play but they can also introduce a whole host of additional complexity and sometimes frustration when they do not work as expected.

Maps... On console once again you have the maps on the giants mod hub and thats it. In 19 there have been alot more mod maps released for console than 17 but still the number of maps available on console is a drop in the bucket to whats out there for PC. There are some excellent PC based maps and there are some rather unremarkable ones also. Once again having only access to the mod hub maps console players are shielded from a huge list of problems that came come out of a bad map that is riddled with errors. Not saying modhub maps are perfect at all but by the time they get to the mod hub they should have had alot of the issues found and corrected. Just like with mods gamer beware and with a little caution and education in knowing what to look for one can weed out the bad from the good. PC players have standard size maps, 4x maps and beyond as far as map sizes to choose from. Additionally given the wide range of possible PC performance a map could play smooth as butter for one player and another could struggle to get 20FPS on the same map. Unlike console where you have one or two fixed hardware profiles for each platform.

Multiplayer... On console you are limited to local hosted MP with fellow console players. I do not know if Xbox can MP with PS4 or not but I think the limit is maybe 4 players also or maybe its 4 farms and 8 players? On PC we have the wonderful experience (IMO) of dedicated servers. A dedicated server is a PC that you either own an additional copy of FS and run yourself from your home or you rent from a game host. The server could be configured to run 24x7 and players connect to it when ever they wish. Time can be set to run on the map so you could connect in the morning and its day X at time Y and then connect in the afternoon and its day Z and time Q. PC players can have up to 8 farms and 16 simultaneous players but we can not MP with console players.

Thats my take on the good, the bad and the ugly side of PC Farm Sim.

The biggest takeaway from all of that is this. IMO many former console players go mod crazy when they make the move to PC. This can at first give a sort of euphoric experience of the whole world being open to them but can quickly crash and burn on them as they collect to many bad mods and could find themselves in a world of frustration and the ever time consuming task of figuring out which mod(s) are breaking their game play.

If you make the move to PC be cautious of what mods you get and where you get them from. Start out with just mods from the giants mod hub. Expand out from there slowly as you have a chance to explore and navigate the wild wild west of PC mod sites. And never download a mod from a mod site where they do not state who uploaded the mod and never download a mod where the uploaded is not the same person who has been marked in the credits as creating the mod.

[Mobias]

If you're moving from console to PC one thing you'll notice pretty quickly, especially as far as maps is concerned is that quantity massively outweighs quality. With FS-17 there were a lot of really great mod maps that never made their way onto console for you to discover. With FS-19, for whatever reason, there seem to be a lot of very bland cut and paste maps being churned out. As far as I can see there's now more of an even playing field between console and PC for the really good quality maps.

[aklein]

If you're moving from console to PC one thing you'll notice pretty quickly, especially as far as maps is concerned is that quantity massively outweighs quality. With FS-17 there were a lot of really great mod maps that never made their way onto console for you to discover. With FS-19, for whatever reason, there seem to be a lot of very bland cut and paste maps being churned out. As far as I can see there's now more of an even playing field between console and PC for the really good quality maps.

Oh for sure there are lots of great maps available on all platforms. The big map limit now is the desire for larger fields or a larger world in general above the 2KM x 2KM square that a standard map offers. With 4X maps being limited to PC there is only so large fields can be on a standard map vs a map that is 4 times larger or the long drive to get to a sell point over winding roads on a 4x map vs a standard.

[EURO_FARMER]

I see no negatives playing on PC than on console. I understand that someone would prefer to sit comfortable on his sofa instead of sitting in front of PC. Well, there is a solution for this :

Get an HDMI cable, a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse and you can still sit on your sofa enjoying the game with your controller/gamepad.
For those who mentioned about viruses, well, if you are with Linux then there are no viruses at all, plus the fact that if you try to download from "suspicious " sites, Linux will protect you by blocking that site or by giving you a warning.

Of course, travel back in time when we had to Insert Coins in order to play Pac-Man for example, when we wanted to buy Attari the first console, we are happy to be able to play on PC

Imagine if we had to Insert Coins to play Farming Simulator

[Mwal]

Your best responses will be from former console players gone PC. As has been mentioned before as a PC only player the negatives are going to be somewhat one sided but I think I can paint a decent comparative picture.

A fair amount of the commentators here are former console players, myself included

Slot Count... On PC we do not have a slot count but maybe for the sake of some game saves we should (blasphemy i know).

It is blasphemy, there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to do whatever I want on my high end pc just because someone has a cheap pc that runs the game no better than a console. On pc you self limit yourself that’s the beauty of owning one of you want someone to tell you that’s what console is for.

[Mobias]

When I moved from console to PC one of the things I was really looking forward to trying out were the big X4 maps. For me though the novelty soon wore off. Many of them lack the attention to detail I like and the few that do have a nice realistic feel to them just become really boring. Even with the very largest equipment big fields can take forever to work so you then rely on course play for everything and by that time the game just becomes a farm management sim. That was just my experience though. I know some others love huge X4 maps. Scaled down X2 maps probably get the sweet spot about right for size.

[humbe]

I have an xbox and a ps3, but both consoles are dated now.. Playing on PC has several obvious advantages to me:
- I use it a lot for non-game stuff, like being able to have a home office.
- The games I like, typically aren't on console. Like Civilization, Diablo & World of Warcraft for instance.
- It's in my office which isn't occupied by people watching TV.
- I can leave a wheel clogged to my office desk, and even get joysticks and/or sidepanel, but in the living room I'd better pack away that console controller when I'm not using it.
- Sitting too long in a sofa kills my back.

But I do agree I've used time meta-gaming that I wouldn't have done on console. But I chose to do it freely.

[Kimpak]

Get an HDMI cable, a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse and you can still sit on your sofa enjoying the game with your controller/gamepad.
For those who mentioned about viruses, well, if you are with Linux then there are no viruses at all, plus the fact that if you try to download from "suspicious " sites, Linux will protect you by blocking that site or by giving you a warning.

If you have the game on Steam, you could also setup steamlink to play via your LAN to the TV. Some TV's have steamlink built in, but you can also setup a relatively cheap Raspberry pi 4 to be a steamlink and play your games in 4k (assuming you can get a wired LAN connection to your TV)

[PunkinFmr]

Thanks for the input. I think I’m gonna spend a few hundred $$$ extra on a “work” computer. I have seen several sites recommended on here for mods. Is there a list compiled somewhere of mod site to not visit or trusted mod sites?

[Illinois Farmer]

Modhub, yes mods, modders Facebook pages/ groups, some modders upload to nexus, American eagles modding, modhoster, ls modding, and simply safe mods. The squad promotes modnetwork, but I have seen stolen and bad mods on there as well.

[EURO_FARMER]

If you have the game on Steam, you could also setup steamlink to play via your LAN to the TV. Some TV's have steamlink built in, but you can also setup a relatively cheap Raspberry pi 4 to be a steamlink and play your games in 4k (assuming you can get a wired LAN connection to your TV)

No, unfortunately I don't have it on Steam, I bought it directly from Giants with digital download. Besides, my 27" monitor is more than enough so I don't need to connect the PC to the TV. The only times I do it is to watch F1 and Champions League.

I wish Giants could let us activate the key on Steam, I could use Steam Proton for Farming Simulator, but on WINE FS runs OK too. Next month with LinuxMint 20 (now is in beta version) we will have better Nvidia drivers, and it seems I'll have to activate the game again

[dbump]

Another console & PC user here. Some really great comments from other folks who have made the move. I still game on Console, and love it. I'm definitely not in the PC master race camp. I do find myself playing the game less, and customizing more--but that's also fun, it's just a change to be aware of.

Being able to open a map you love in Giants Editor and delete that infuriating wood pile that's exactly in the way of making a turn halfway through harvesting one of your fields is awesome--but as mentioned, it's also really addictive.

I've worked in IT and security for 22 years, so I'm super leery of any of the non-Giants mod sites; I've re-imaged way too many computers infected just by visiting a site that was malicious or compromised. That said, even in the official modhub, you get a bunch more mods to choose from on PC. I'm currently only running 2 mods not from the official source, and 1 beta of one that's official (AutoDrive). I'm more comfortable with getting a mod directly from GitHub. It seems like the serious modders tend to work there, and the site itself isn't laden with ads and dodgy content. I've seen very few errors--probably because of the above. Occasionally I open my log.txt to check for noise, and clean something up as called for. I wouldn't really even call that a downside.

I mostly use my xbox controller--it's just that good. I almost never use the mouse in game. It is nice to be able to hit the occasional command on the keyboard, but then I did that on XBox too--you can plug a USB keyboard into your XBox and use it; even some of the developer console commands (at least those worked in FS17). If you are going to run two monitors, you might consider running FS19 in windowed mode (but at full resolution), as that allows you to alt-tab to your second monitor and then back so you can watch MrSealyP while you farm. At least in my setup, the default full-screen settings meant I could see either FS19 or any other Windows window, but not both at once.

There is also some fun hardware you can experiment with, like button boxes. I've recently been spending less time playing and more time configuring and tweaking a small MIDI controller (Behringer X-Touch mini) for use as a button box, using MidiKey2Key (written by a guy who plays Train Sim using his MIDI controller). It's pretty cool to be able to turn a knob to start the engine, turn a second knob to quickly adjust the cruise control speed, and a third knob to cycle through AutoDrive destinations, then press down on that knob to send my vehicle off on its way to that destination. Dedicated buttons for lights, implement on/off, up/down, and I can label everything so I don't have to memorize keystrokes. I guess that's one very specific example of the possible downside to a PC: there are a lot of rabbit holes you can fall down, so don't be surprised if you find yourself farming a little less, but still enjoying yourself.

[IceUul]

For PC is superior if you have knowledge, time and wish to use these extra features PC is offering.

Most negative thing about PC is the TIME!
Let's say you have 1000 hours free time to use for playing in year.
For Console players it is easy, fast boot Console, run the game, check new mods, download something you like,
play rest of the time. This way you can use this 1000 hours all for gaming.

For PC, boot PC, check different mod sites, download all the mods, test them out, delete 90% of them, then find
out that game starts to stutter and fps goes low with new mods, look log.txt which ones causes problems, sort them out,
learn how to use Giants Editor, modify the mods you need, finally you have running game with lot of mods
(i have around 1000 for example), then play, find out some mods causing problems, then try to figure out which ones,
then if you are lucky you finally get selection that works fine. You can start playing the game, but now you have
used all your free time and there are not much left to enjoy all these nice selection of mods what consoles does not have.