Suggested map for someone new to seasons

[JusGSi]

Hi All

So I've been playing FS since it was free on Playstation Plus, so I'm still a newbie to whole FS world.

I've played a variety of maps now but I'm thinking of dipping my toes into seasons.

Do you have any suggestions as to a good map to start using seasons on?

Thanks
CLG

[Noraf]

Making map recomandations is hard, as ones taste in maps vary enormously (as can be seen by the amount of different maps awailible).
That said, if you got a map you really enjoy, and it's marked as seasons ready, just finnish your harves, make sure all grass/hay and straw is collected and stored indoors (except for silage bales), then you can add in seasons on that map, and let seasons restore growwth on the fields, and you're good to go with seasons.

[Mwal]

Maybe just make sure that the map is seasons ready, which most are and it usually says in the updates but if unsure you could ask here. Other than that any will be great it just depends what you like. You could give a little info on how you play and I’m sure someone here knows a map that you may enjoy.

[Bryan83]

Really, whatever your style suits as long as the map is compatible. Any map is a good map for seasons, but just remember, either start a new save, OR, if you want to add it to am existing save, harvest or till under all of your fields so no crops are planted when you activate it. Reason being is seasons will change the way the crops grow and depending on what stage they're in, they may not finish growing.

As far as starting seasons, I'd recommend 9 day seasons to start, so you get the full breadth of the mod. If you're going to change season length after that, remember that Realismus recommends you make those changes in the late winter period to avoid unintended consequences.

[JusGSi]

Thanks for the comments and advice so far guys, much appreciated.

I generally prefer english maps and have played Oakfield, Six Ashes and Sussex farms recently. I quite like doing cows so a map that has animal potential would be ideal.
I'd prefer not to do a map I've already played really, want to try something new.

Would 9 day seasons not be too much to start with? Leaving time to try and fill with work, especially during winter?

[Dairydeere]

9 day seasons is probably the best starting point if you're new to Seasons. Especially if you like to do a lot of the work yourself, it gives you a few days per seasons to get your crops in and out. And if you ever want to shorten or lengthen it, you can easily change that number in the Seasons menu whenever you like (preferably in winter since it will affect the least amount of things

[Noraf]

Personally I play with 6 day seasons.
Be aware though, that you might end up losing crops if you play with few days.
I found 6 is reasonable, don't loose crops to often

[Bryan83]

Would 9 day seasons not be too much to start with? Leaving time to try and fill with work, especially during winter?

Winter comes with it's own work in seasons. This post might go a little long, but bear with me. I have a schedule that I've set up to handle my winters to keep me busy;

Day 1: Get the combines (without the headers, and I'll explain why in a bit) in to the shop for service and repair, along with my 2 sprayers. Then I drive them off to their winter garage off the main farm.

Day 2 & 3: Generally, this is about the time crop prices are spiking, so these 2 days will be spent emptying silos and hauling to market.

Day 4: I run my 5 semis and most if not all of my truck trailers through the shop, then park them in their winter garages.

Day 5: If all the semi trailers are done, I start bringing implements into the shop. Grain carts, plows, cultivators, except I'll leave one seeder and one planter out.

Day 6: This is for the wheel loader, skidsteer, UTV, pickups and pickup trailers to run through the shop. .

Day 7: The 5 tractors take their turn for servicing.

Day 8 & 9: These are the spare days because during winter you may need or want to do some snow plowing to move around your map. In lieu of that, if you'd like to can do some logging during this time.

Now each day starts with making sure the animals are fed, they will eat more in the winter. As to why I leave certain equipment out of the service rotation, usually I have to wait 2-3 days in spring for the ground to thaw out before I can start planting. So for a realism in my gameplay, I bring the seeder and planter up to the shop these days to simulate real life gearing up for spring planting season. And the combine headers I bring to the shop in late summer for fall harvest prep. I'm usually waiting on crops to finish and contracts start to slow down during this time anyway.

EDIT: I forgot you can also usually pick up a transport contract or 2 during the winter, and some maps even have snow removal contracts as well.

[JusGSi]

Thank you for the support and help everyone, given me a lot to think about

[j_maybury]

It's a no-brainer because seasons adds so much to the gameplay, it is like playing a whole new game.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Personally I play with 6 day seasons.
Be aware though, that you might end up losing crops if you play with few days.
I found 6 is reasonable, don't loose crops to often

I tried 6 days a little while ago and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It was on a small map with small fields so I thought I would try it and it was a disaster. I went 3 consecutive years without being able to get a hay crop off, had to silage everything then buy hay back, and 4 out of 5 years I lost 25% of my grain crops because it rained too much then snowed. I was just barely breaking even, switched to 9 and I started actually making money.

[TobiHH]

I guess you have an additional GEO installed.
I play on a 4x map with relative big fields, and don`t have any problems with 6 days per season.
Don`t have any extra Geo installed, and usually play with 5x speed. During harvest i sometimes go back to 1x.

Never had any issue to make hay or lost crops with this setting.

[Noraf]

But isn't crop loss part of the game?
It's one of the reasons i play on 6 days, to get somecrop loss. So what if you can't get hay every year, atleast you'll end up with plenty of silage

[fenixguy]

I have tried everything from 3 to 9 day seasons and it all depends on your playstyle and what you're actually farming. For myself, I always play on 5x speed. Unless I absolutely cannot get something done it time, then I'll bump it to 1x. But that's extremely rare.

I find 6 days is the sweet spot most of the time. I did run into an issue with 6 days and not getting a dry day to put up hay. But, I chalk that up to more realism. I also find that I sometimes have to work late into the night or start early as possible in the mornings during the busy times of the year like planting and harvest, which is awesome.

9 days can get tedious if there isn't anything to do. I was running a pig/sheep/beef cattle farm on 9 days and seriously ran out of stuff to do. Had to fast forward through a lot of days, which is something I don't like doing.

As far as a map, just pick the one you like that is Seasons-ready. There's really no right or wrong map to use.

[GrimGandalf]

I got into farming simulator very much the same way as you JusGSi. I was able to try it out while doing a free subscription for then the XBOX game streaming service 4 1/2 years ago right before 17 came out. I really got into the base game. I enjoyed it so much that I didn't really try out seasons until 19. Even then, before I switched to seasons, I played over 150 hours on Ravenport and enjoyed it immensely. Now I'm hooked on seasons and can't even imagine going back to the base game, but I feel I do it differently than most. My absolute favorite set up currently is:

3 day seasons
Simplified Europe Geo
Your choice of seasons ready map(currently I'm really loving Ravensberg)

The simplified Geo keeps me able to plant what I want, and for the most part harvest when I want(providing moisture is good), but adds in the seasonal change. You can harvest a couple times a year on this geo so it's more of a faster pace. I reccomend it if you enjoyed the base game. It may not be for you if you're looking for a more realistic approach though.