FS17 Let’s Play–Pine Cove Farm by Stevie–Episode 1
I realize I once said that I wasn’t interested in playing a map based from the Goldcrest Valley template. But Stevie was the first map modder I was introduced to back in the days of FS15 and I’ve played just about everything he’s ever created. So naturally when I began hearing about Pine Cove Farm….I knew I had to make room for a series of play on this wonderful map. While Stevie used the base Goldcrest template, he’s changed it up significantly and it is a beautiful work of art. The map is version 1.0.0.3 (the final version according to Stevie). The only modifications I’ve made to the map are in the form of starting equipment and the number of owned fields.
In this series, I’ve been asked (along with my silent investor partners) to restore the village of Pine Cove back to the vibrant community it used to be. Most of the local farmers in this area have finally fallen victim to the poor economy and even the local industry has suffered. Through a large scale effort, we plan to return the Pine Cove area back to what it once was. As was the case in my Goldcrest Valley series, I’ll once again enlist the trusty help of Billy Bob, Jim Bob and Stan to help with the daily tasks on the farm.
This series will begin on Day 2, Mid Spring and I am using the Seasons Mod which is still currently in Beta. Each season will consist of three game days, for a twelve day year. We are running large herds of dairy cattle, sheep and pigs in this series and will also be operating the produce market, compost plant and Bio Gas facility. As we have a number of large fields, the operation will employ the use of AI workers in the form of Auto-Combine and Courseplay. In addition, large equipment and multiple combines will be required to get the job done.
I hope you like the color John Deere Green, because you’ll certainly be seeing a lot of Green on the map. PCF requires BIG equipment and that is just how we’re going to play this map. Go BIG or GO HOME!
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For most of us long time Farming Simulator gamers, there is a list of “must have” mods which many have already started to appear in FS17. I’m talking about mods like CoursePlay, GPS Mod, AI Vehicle Extension Mod (AKA Auto-Combine). Additionally, many of us have truly longed to experience seasonal farming. Unfortunately, for the Farming Simulator series developed by Giants, it’s always a mix of Spring/Summer/Fall. But things ARE about to change.
In what I believe will be the game changer in FS17 just like SoilMod was for FS15, the FS17 Seasons Mod is here. Please note: The FS17 Seasons Mod is still in BETA. There are issues, there most likely be many more issues discovered. This is how beta access works. In other words, use at your own risk.
Please watch my review of the FS17 Seasons Mod which I cover how to download, install and discuss many of the features of this wonderful mod. Information on where to download will be included in the video description on my YouTube Channel. If this video has helped you, please consider visiting my YouTube Channel and leaving a Like. Additionally, I hope you’ll also become a Subscriber of my YouTube Channel for more videos like this and of course my “Let’s Play” series.
Thank you for your time! I truly hope this information helps you enhance your virtual farming experience.
I realize it’s been a while since I published a blog article. While I’ve been busy playing Farming Simulator 17 and recording much of my game play for the GrizzlyBearSims YouTube Channel, I’ve not turned away from this medium. While video blogs (or vlogs) are popular, I believe the written form of blogging is very much needed and I don’t plan to cease creating content in this form. By the way, Farming Simulator 17 is truly awesome. If you’ve been on the fence regarding upgrading from FS15 to FS17, I would certainly recommend making the move. New mods are coming out daily and while we still await CoursePlay, there is still a lot of goodness about FS17 to make it worth the move from FS15.
If you’ve watched my YouTube “Let’s Play” series on Goldcrest Valley (GCV), you know I’m about ten episodes in. For the most part I’m playing it in career mode. My approach to GCV was to take advantage of the new mission system and do as much work for the local farmers as I could. This does two things. First, it generates a nice sum of income. Second, it raises your reputation with these other local farmers and in turn, reduces the asking price of their additional fields. After all, one really can’t begin making a fortune in virtual farming until you own more fields. But I’ve wanted to do something different for some time and have decided to take a new approach to how I start a new map.
Perhaps you are aware of the new farm simulation game called Cattle and Crops (CnC). CnC is due to release (early preview) in the Spring of 2017, then the full version in late 2017. One of the highly anticipated new features of CnC is how it is supposed to simulate seasons. Cool huh? The Farming Simulator franchise (FS13, FS15, FS17) doesn’t simulate seasons by default. The addition of Soilmod sort of helped, but still….it’s spring/summer all year long. While Soilmod is not yet available for FS17, there is a mod called Growth Manager which (in my opinion) provides better crop growth management than what is available in the default game. Yes, it’s still spring/summer all year long….but we can still simulate seasonal farming with a little help from a few mods and our own imagination.
In addition to the Growth Manager mod, I also highly recommend the RealTime mod. This mod changes the HUD in the upper-right corner of the screen to show the game day number. With my new approach to virtual farming, this value is important in understanding the season I’m currently working in. Outside of these two mods, the rest is left up to your imagination.
Let me set the stage…..
First, there is no absolute right or wrong way to how you go about playing farming simulator. You certainly can start out in career mode and earn every hard earned dollar, euro or pound. This IS absolutely fun and extremely rewarding. I recommend following this method on at least one map. I think the satisfaction in knowing you built your farming empire from just a few thousand dollars and basic equipment, is key to truly getting a high level of enjoyment from the game. But, just as importantly….there is no wrong way of doing it either. Enter stage right, North Brabant for FS17.
The North Brabant map is situated in the Netherlands (very near Belgium) and for all intents and purposes, the fields, farms etc. very much look the same between these regions. You may have heard about the North Brabant map in FS15. It was quite popular and Mike-Modding has converted it over to FS17. I believe it is still a work in progress (WIP), but even in its version 1.0 state…it is very much playable and challenging. By default, when you load up the North Brabant map for FS17 you already own a fairly large number of the 47 available fields, 32 to be exact. With the exception of about 7 grass fields, the remaining owned fields need to be planted. Actually, they would need to be plowed, cultivated then planted if you want the highest crop yield.
A Seasonal Approach
My new game play for the North Brabant map, will find us in the Spring (April to be exact). If I understand the Growth Manager mod correctly, each game day will represent approx. one calendar month. In researching available information on the internet, I’ve created a rough schedule of how and what I’ll plant to achieve my seasonal style of play. Remember, with exception of the two mods I’ve mentioned….the rest is going to be left up to your imagination and your own desire.
My researched information and plan is not specific to the Netherlands, Europe or any particular region of the world. I determined through researching several US States agriculture sites when most of the FS17 crops should be planted and when they should be available for harvest. Again, due to the limitations of FS17….this is all only limited to your individual imagination and desire. In an effort for variety, I plan to plant the following crops: Wheat (Spring/Winter), Barley (Spring/Fall), Canola (Spring/Winter), Corn (Grain and Silage), Potatoes (Summer/Fall), Soybeans and Sugarbeets.
As I previously stated, each game day will represent approx. one calendar month. I’ve divided each season (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) to represent three game days each. Again, I’m starting in Spring and day 1 is April. The general idea (all subject to change as I truly get rolling) is to avoid the practice of just planting/harvesting over and over in the same fields without any consideration to the challenges of also factoring in the Winter season. In other words, placing a high level of importance of ensuring you have collected enough hay, straw and silage to sustain a large animal population from late fall until ????
Withering Off
Unfortunately, because the game itself will not automagically detect the slower winter growing season (example Wheat) I’ve turned plant withering off. An example of the collected research I’ve performed, shows that winter wheat crops are typically planted between mid-September and mid-October and will be ready for harvest around June the following year. This growth cycle is twice as long as wheat planted in the Spring. So therefore, I’ll simply ignore the fields I’ve identified as being planted in winter wheat until the appropriate time (June). Again, this is all about imagination and good note taking.
Animals Everywhere
From day one, I have established 100 dairy cows, 100 sheep and 50 pigs. Thankfully the Buy Bales Mod is your friend. I’ve used this mod to purchase enough bales to enable me to provide bedding and the creation of TMR for all my animals.
Winter Month Activities
There will be a period of time (approx. Nov. through Feb.) where no planting or harvesting will be performed. However, there will be no rest for the weary. This will be a great time to fire up our greenhouse operations and of course, animals will still need daily attention to keep them fully productive.
Measuring Success
This could all end up in a huge mess, be extremely successful or fall anywhere in between. I’ve changed most of the starting equipment and have purchased just about everything I can imagine that I’ll need. I’ve also paid off the bank loan and started with $60,000. If my calculations are correct, the milk income alone from 100 dairy cows should generate a net income of approx. $30,000 each game day. While I’m using some hired labor, I’m making an effort of keeping that cost as low as possible. But the general idea is not the amount of money I’ll have at the end.
You can follow along with my new approach to virtual farming via my YouTube channel and the new North Brabant series. The first video will pickup after about 5 hours of off video work which was required to get everything situated, animals up to 100% productivity etc.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has subscribed to my new YouTube channel and “Liked” my videos. I will occasionally provide blog updates on how this approach is working and at a later date, I’ll share my spreadsheet which I’m creating to help keep track of what I’m planting and when it will be available to harvest based on the seasonal approach.
I’m a little slow getting my new FS17 series rolling. I spent the past two and a half days playing and recording content for the series and have really just now stopped to take the time to edit, produce, render, upload etc. Unlike with my Paradise Hills series where I introduced each episode with a new blog post, I’m going to just start the series with this one post and have you look for future episodes directly on my YouTube channel. So do please subscribe if you haven’t done so already.
Farming Simulator 17 is everything I had hoped it would be. While there are still some bugs with my controllers, I’m confident Giants will fix these issues. Mods have already started to roll in. Some of the really “must have” mods have already been released and I’m keeping my spreadsheet current of the mods I’m finding and using in FS17. Just look on the FS17 tab at the bottom.
In this first episode, I sort of setup the storyline and provide some brief introduction to what FS17 has to offer. But because there is already so much content out regarding FS17 and Goldcrest Valley, I have limited what I share to just the content I feel applies to what I’m doing in this series. Like my FS15 series, I’m a little slow in getting my audio levels set correctly. So please bear with me.
Regarding my FS15 Paradise Hills series. There are just two episodes remaining. These will release on Friday and the finale on Saturday. For now, FS17 Goldcrest Valley will release daily (Monday – Friday) usually in the morning before 8 AM MST.
Enjoy episode one, Goldcrest Valley and Farming Simulator 17.
Note: This is a fictional post to setup a story line (fictional of course) for an upcoming “Let’s Play” series in Farming Simulator 17. This new “Let’s Play” series will begin soon after the general release of the new Farming Simulator 17.
For Sale: Paradise Hills Farm
Located in beautiful Paradise Hills, USA. I’m selling up….lock, stock and barrel. My family and I are in the process of moving to Goldcrest Valley where we plan to start our new life. Much of the proceeds from the sale of Paradise Hills will be used to pay college tuition and set us up in the new location. From the sell of most of the equipment on Paradise Hills, we’ve managed to scrape together enough to purchase our new farm and starting equipment. But things will be very different.
Our new farm will consist of a very nice farm house, barn and three fields (F12, F14 and F15). While the fall harvest has begun, the previous owner (Mr. Richards) did harvest field 12 and 14 but has left us with field 15 planted in wheat. From what we’ve heard, field 12 is ready to seed and field 14 needs to be cultivated first. The grain silo does have a small amount of wheat, barley, canola, sunflowers, soybeans and corn. Mr. Richards has also left us with enough seeds and fertilizer to take care of getting the fields turned around. However, we will need to purchase a plow and either a fertilize spreader or sprayer sooner rather than later.
With regards to equipment, the previous farmer has left us with three tractors (New Holland 8340 and two Case 1455XL’s), a Case 1660 Axial-Flow Combine Harvester complete with the 14’ 1030 header, a small Metaltech 8,000 liter tipper, a Kuhn cultivator, a Great Plains seeder and an old farm truck.
My wife (who also is my business manager) has informed me our available cash-on-hand after all is said and done will only be $20,000. We may have a small line of credit available from the bank, but we will need to be extremely frugal with our spending in the early days. However, I’m also very much committed to keeping Mr. Richards farm hands gainfully employed. I’m meeting with them very soon and I hope they will decide to stay on. I really need them.
Life in recent years hasn’t been easy in Goldcrest Valley. The local economy has all but stalled and many area farmers have suffered as a result. As we’ve known for some time, good help is also hard to find. But there is work available if you know where to look and I plan to do all I can to help the local farmers. I believe this will prove helpful in earning some good money on the side. Some of these local farmers may also be looking to sell some of their land and when the time comes, this will certainly help us grow.
Yes, I’m extremely nervous about this change. We have a pretty nice setup in Paradise Hills. But the wife wants to be closer to her family, and well….you know the saying “Happy Wife, Happy Life”. Plus the oldest will start college in the nearby area. The stakes are high, but the rewards are even higher. Can I make this work?
Final thoughts…As you can see from the screenshot below (this is from my Steam FS15 Achievements) I didn’t seek out the gold coins and more importantly, I also never went negative on my bank balance. So I do plan to do a little (actually a lot) of gold prospecting in my spare time and we’ll see if I can keep my operation out of the red. Time will tell….
Look to my YouTube channel for Farming Simulator 17 videos coming very soon.
As I indicated in my post yesterday (Friday), I have several episodes of Paradise Hills recorded, edited and queued ready to go on YouTube. I also have a few more episodes I plan to record this weekend. However, starting Tuesday 25 October (as soon as FS17 downloads to my PC) I plan to begin a brand new series with Farming Simulator 17 on the brand new Goldcrest Valley map. Until then, I plan to release an episode each day for Paradise Hills until all have been released. I hope you enjoy.
I know in previous episodes of Paradise Hills I spoke about the possibility of continuing the Paradise Hills series and continuing game play on FS15 due to the lack of immediate mod support for FS17 in the coming weeks/months. However, over the past few days I’ve watched many hours of FS17 game play from those lucky enough to be named preview partners to know that I really don’t think I will have much desire to go back to FS15. I truly believe based on what I’ve seen from my own two eyes that FS17 is awesome and Goldcrest Valley will keep my very busy until such time as new mod maps are made available. Plus…mods are already starting to become available and it’s only a matter of time before even more truly great mods are made ready for FS17.
The talented people over at Cattle and Crops have released a new video showcasing AI Controlled Vehicles. Of course, AI controlled vehicles are nothing new in the world of simulation gaming. Even in the “Farming” genre we have had AI vehicles for some time. We of course also have AI controlled workers either through the default game play or through mods such as CoursePlay, AutoCombine etc. These AI workers (and their equipment) must be very closely managed and we must also hold their hand to get them started in whatever task we need them to do.
Even when I first started playing FS15, I thought it would a great feature to be able to hire a worker and without driving the piece of equipment to the field and then having them start the task, just be able to say “Hired Worker Fred” go to field 5 and plow it. Then Fred would drive his tractor and necessary equipment (all by himself) to the field and begin his work. In the short video below (released from CnC on 21 October) they demonstrate just what we’ve been longing for.
TGIF! And thankfully this is the LAST Friday before the release of Farming Simulator 17. The game play videos I’ve been watching on YouTube and Twitch have been amazing. While haters will hate, ignore anyone who tells you that FS17 is just a carbon copy of FS15. FS17 is very much different from the two year old FS15. Tuesday can’t get here quick enough.
In this episode we plow and cultivate field 5 to create our new orchard. I’ve also made some new changes to the opening slides of the video with adding royalty and YouTube safe music. I hope you enjoy and I hope you’ll continue to watch my videos.
As this is the 14th video I’ve released on a consistent Monday – Friday schedule, I’m planning to release a new video both tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday along with new videos each day next week. Over this upcoming weekend, I’ll most likely start the process of winding down life on Paradise Hills and FS15. I plan to start recording content on Goldcrest Valley (FS17) on Tuesday and that will become a brand new series on my YouTube channel. As I struggle to walk and chew gum in my older years, I probably won’t be able to juggle multiple maps, especially across multiple farming sim versions. I have a feeling that once I start playing FS17 it would be near impossible for me to go back to FS15. Plus I believe the Goldcrest Valley map will keep me busy until new modded maps start to become available for FS17.
Once again, thank you so much for watching my videos and your continued show of positive support to my new channel. I really appreciate it.
In this episode on Paradise Hills, we deliver milk to our milk buyer and drop it off in their milkmax homogenizer. In this episode, I discover an issue towards the end where I couldn’t figure out how to pump the milk from the homogenizer. I figured the issue was caused by an old mod of these Kotte Universal tankers. I’ve downloaded the correct mod and all is working. I’ll demonstrate this in a future episode.
Before I close this post out, yesterday I watched a few FS17 preview streams. If you’ve read some of my blog postings in the past few days you know I’ve been really excited about the release. You also know that I’ve said that FS17 is MUCH MORE than just a copy/paste or re-issue of FS15. After watching about 3-4 hours of FS17 preview streams, my feelings regarding the differences between FS15 and FS17 were proven to be absolutely TRUE. Of course, I’ll a more in-depth review of FS17 once I’m able to dive into my own game play. But if you’ve been somewhat on the fence in your decision making process, wanted to wait until FS17 comes out….etc. etc. Why wait? Pre-order today so you can join in on the fun on Tuesday.
Episode twelve includes the second day of activities for game day 5. We start off mowing, start up our sheep operation and move compost to the greenhouse site.
As we are now officially less than one week away from the release of Farming Simulator 17, I’m really starting to get excited and yes, even a bit nervous. I plan to record FS17 from day 1, minute 1 and hope my mistakes are few and far between. Giants has done an outstanding job promoting FS17 the past several weeks. The information in the past few days has simply re-assured me that FS17 is MORE than just a re-skin of FS15. I think one new changes I’m most excited about is the “Tip Anywhere” feature. But there are so many more. I’ll be honest and admit it’s somewhat hard to take in all the many cool changes and I’ve even forgotten some….but that will just make it even that more special when I begin digging into FS17 on Tuesday, 25 October.
As always, thanks for reading my blog and thank you for watching my videos.
