Farming simulator 21 release?

[Mwal]

Just out of pure curiousity, why would that make more sense to you?

Seems a strange thing to leave out of the game in the first place due to it being the biggest uncontrollable factor in farming, and even stranger that a group of people get together and improve your product so much and you don’t hire all of them on to make it part of your product going forward. Now obviously that’s my opinion outside looking in, it could be a totally different situation and probably is knowing actual facts

[this_is_gav]

The game would need a few changes to add seasons as an option. The ability to skip to the end of a season for example, and filling in 'empty' seasons with jobs which are both fun and rewarding.

There's nothing that could kill the franchise off quicker than GIANTS forcing something akin to seasons in its current form, as that would turn off a heck of a lot of casual players (which will almost certainly be the majority).

I, like cwattyeso, can see seasons being added at some point in a fairly basic way, and leave it to the likes of Realismus to implement the more hardcore and in depth aspects of the Seasons mod.

[Mobias]

Surely Giants could add Seasons as it is into the base game but just have it as an optional feature with a simple on/off toggle? Wouldn't have thought that would be hard.

It makes sense for them to add it to the base game since it would be there for day one. I think for a lot of people FS-19 didn't really start proper until the seasons mod was released.

[theSeb]

Just out of pure curiousity, why would that make more sense to you?

Seems a strange thing to leave out of the game in the first place due to it being the biggest uncontrollable factor in farming, and even stranger that a group of people get together and improve your product so much and you don’t hire all of them on to make it part of your product going forward. Now obviously that’s my opinion outside looking in, it could be a totally different situation and probably is knowing actual facts

The rest of us are old men starting to show grey hair and deeply entrenched into their career paths and life choices, or are ‘youngins’ who have no interest in pursuing a career working for a game development company at this point time

[blue_painted]

I am asking why would it make more sense to have seasons as part of the core game instead of as a mod though.

Simply that seasons (small s) be included in the base game on the day of release.

[theSeb]

Thank you for all the responses. It is always interesting to read.

[Mwal]

Thank you for all the responses. It is always interesting to read.

At the risk of coming off fan boyish I will say this. The amount of hours of entertainment and joy you guys have brought to this game for me and others I know who had been losing their interest in it do to the Groundhog Day nature of the base game is sincerely appreciated and much thanks!

[Drmattymd]

Thank you for all the responses. It is always interesting to read.

At the risk of coming off fan boyish I will say this. The amount of hours of entertainment and joy you guys have brought to this game for me and others I know who had been losing their interest in it do to the Groundhog Day nature of the base game is sincerely appreciated and much thanks!

Agreed. I preordered FS19 and piddled around with it when it came out mainly to get controls set up and just figure out the new features but put it down after a week or less until Seasons was announced. SInce seasons was released I play it almost daily for at least an hour or two.

[Farming Girl]

I am asking why would it make more sense to have seasons as part of the core game instead of as a mod though.

There are two main reasons to me why ii think seasons be a part of the core game,

First of all the level of realism that seasons brings, should be at least the benchmark of which Giants should be aspiring for in a simulator! to me the game was not realistic before, you could plant crops and harvest the next day, i grew up around farms, and to me it didn't reach the mark! Seasons changes the game from a game to a Sim, my opinion!

The second reason to me is as a console user having to use some of my allotted mod space for what to me is a major part of the game just *censored*!

To me seasons gives purpose to the game and i think it is a fantastic mod, it just irks me that Giants need Modders to make the game from ok to great!

[this_is_gav]

Remember though that FS19 has never been a true simulator. Like most "simulation" games in the last 20 years it's a pick and play approximation game rather than a simulation. Other than the name, it has never pretended to be a simulator.

For example, look at the way fields have been managed for the last decade; you get fixed percentage incremental improvements in yield. In reality fields and soil are a never a constant and you will never get a perfect yield across a given area.

Granted mods like SoilMod and Seasons have added more complexity and variation to managing conditions, but thus far GIANTS haven't looked interested, and they've had ample opportunity to do so and it's something the game engine can easily manage across current platforms - it's just a case that probably >80% of their player base have little interest in such realism so why dedicate the development time to it? The game is growing exponentially with each release - why risk adding complexity for a minority of players? You can't have toggle options for every aspect of the game, especially something as core as a seasonal aspect.

It's very much against the grain (pun intended) in FS land that the Precision Farming project is being brought into the game, and tentatively the initial preview of soil conditions look fairly encouraging. Given GIANTS' repeated use of the word "modular" suggests they're not considering the upcoming aspects to be part of the main game, but more likely release it a mod (or mods) for FS19 initially, like they did with the official 4Real mods for FS17 - whetherit will still be a mod in FS2x or beyond, or even in the game at all, is obviously unknown.

[Mobias]

I've never really bought into this whole idea that if the base game had seasons, had more realistic and weightier physics, and whatever ever else, then the average casual gamer would be put off it. I think thats a bit nonsense. When FS-19 came out and I was reading around on general gaming forums like Steam and Resetera the common line of thought was that gameplay has no real structure or challenge to it, something which of course seasons addresses. Also, the casual gamer, regardless of their age does want some level of engagement and challenge in what they play.

If 50% or even more of the people who buy FS on console or PC play it for a couple of days or even a couple of weeks before getting bored and moving on then they're going to do that regardless of whether it has more realistic physics or seasons anyway. Thats just the nature of gaming. Even big AAA titles have a short shelf life these days.

The more engaging and involving Giants make the FS experience the more people will take an interest in it. Thats why I'm always quite puzzled by Giants approach to releasing the game. As it is the game gets pretty average reviews at launch because there's not much of a game there until all the mods start coming out. If they released the next FS with a few maps of Frontier Designs type quality plus seasons in the base game the critics would think a lot more of it, give it better reviews and the game would sell more copies. I don't think a lot of gamers stick around long enough with it to see all the great mod maps and other stuff. When I discovered FS with FS-17 on the PS4 I was clueless to the fact that the game was really made by modders. Thank god OxygenDavid released Chellington early on with FS-17 otherwise I would never have stuck with it.

[CowsGoMoo]

if some of you players left the time at 5x instead of real time you wouldn't be working an entire map in one game day and harvesting every day like so many complain about doing and making game too easy. There is a reason giants left all those options in the settings menu.

[farmerdonnie]

well after the harvest the odd time why cant it snow for say three days or so at random then melt and boom your in spring ? i like seasons as a mod but i could see a simple version in base game too really in the future ? i dunno just my thoughts or have a snow on /off switch period in base game

[FarmBoss]

I am asking why would it make more sense to have seasons as part of the core game instead of as a mod though.

Just my opinion for what it's worth.
It wouldn't really make more sense, but it would certainly make a lot of people happy to have it from the beginning of a release rather than waiting months for you folks to convert it.

I think if Giants was to add a smaller level of detail from seasons, it would go a long way to keeping seasons fans happy and quiet until the full seasons was ready. For those who don't play with seasons, it's my guess that the higher levels of detail take away from their relaxing experience.

[Minecraftchest1]

I'll admit I forgot about this thread until searching for somthing yesterday that brought it up as a search result. Anyways, I understand that there is not likely to be a fs21. As I have read this thread, I was reminded of a thought I had when I started it. My thought was what if Giants made a base game (basically just the rendering engine, saves management, time scale, and map management), and created hooks into everything that stuff such as farming, animal husbandry, vehicles, etc could be added onto the base game. Giants could then create core addons that actually make the game a game (such as s farming simulator addon) that users can install and remove, while allowing the community to do the same. Mods and stuff would be added on top of the addons but be handled by the game itself. This would create a whole new level of customization and flexibility. To make it easier for new players, Giants could create packs that include different addons.