Reputable Mod Sites for Farming Simulator Mods

In recent days, we’ve heard of even more mods being ripped off and uploaded to questionable mod sites without the original mod authors permission.  In many cases, the individuals who are perpetrating these offenses may also edit out any credit to the original mod author and some will even go so far as to take credit for the work themselves.  These acts are killing our hobby and often lead to two possible outcomes with the first being the modder simply quits modding, or an even more damaging action is to take his/her mods underground where only a select few individuals/friends have access to the work.  I actually view the underground/privatization of mods to be more damaging to the hobby than the modder actually quitting, simply because it limits the audience who can have access to the work.  In other words, this action punishes those who just simply want to enjoy the mods which of course is the intended action.

What can be done?

In today’s environment, the short answer is nothing!  Until there is a secure and reliable system in place which would allow a mod creator to lock, protect, encrypt his/her work AND the software intended to be used with these mods (Example: Giants Farming Simulator 17) offers the mechanism to recognize an authentic mod and ignores un-authentic mods, absolutely nothing can prevent these types of crimes.  YES!!!!  Absolutely, these are crimes.

Mitigating Steps can and should be considered

While it is true that nothing at the present time can be done to stop the mod theft we keep hearing about, there are steps we can all take to help protect and support our modding community.  The first one is actually rather simple and doesn’t require a lot of effort.  It’s something we should have all learned at a very early age and it’s called “showing appreciation”.  I think the vast majority of modders fully understand their work will be subject to theft.  However, I think often the issue might be that we as the majority who make up the user community don’t always show our sincere appreciation of the hard work our modding community does for us.  Often times we act like a bunch of spoiled brats by bugging the modding community asking stupid questions like “When will X Mod be available” over and over and over.  Or even worse, we too easily criticize these works because they don’t work, look or function the way we want them to.  Guess what people???  Just like my favorite artist, Peter Paul Rubens, The modder who most likely created that mod, created it in his/her vision.  They didn’t create it just for you.  So please keep this in mind.  Also, I would challenge everyone to say “THANK YOU” to all the mod creators you know or come into contact with.  A little act of kindness goes a TREMENDIOUS WAY!!!!

But what else can be done????

So here’s where this article will better match up to the title or subject line.  Keep in mind there are dozens and dozens and perhaps even more mod hosting websites on the internet.  Which are reputable and which are not?  Where can you go to ensure you are downloading an authentic mod which hasn’t been stolen and posted elsewhere?  I’m going to share my list of sites which I use and why I use them.  But before I do that, let me also recognize that some mod developers may host their own mods on their own website.  Two really awesome mod developers come to mind and they are Blacksheep Modding and GTX Mods.  This blog posting is more geared towards the hosting sites which are not privately operated and the list of those will now follow.

Giants Mod Hub

The Giants Mod Hub for obvious reasons is my top “go-to” mod site for FS17 mods.  The mods uploaded to the Giants Mod Hub are controlled by Giants and while a mod might be uploaded which has been tampered with without the original mod authors permission, Giants will quickly remove it when they have been made aware of the offense.  The simple fact that mods can be downloaded/installed/updated directly from inside of Farming Simulator 17 is also a really big plus.  While I wish Giants would further develop their mod distribution system to allow for searching and perhaps would organize the mod listings in the same fashion as the game organizes them, would certainly serve as a huge benefit to the users.

PC-SG

I’m not only a proud member of PC-SG, I’m also an admin and part of the management team.  I know the owner of the website and other members of management very well.  Each of us are active in the simulation gaming community and each of us has a passion for helping others.   Last year I wrote a detailed piece about the PC-SG Community and every word of that continues to stand today.  But even since that article was written (11 March 2016) we have expanded our mod hosting capabilities by creating our own Mod Review and Testing Team.  The individuals who make up this team are all outstanding individuals and many are also mod developers.  All mods hosted on PC-SG are stored on our own fast/efficient servers.  We don’t bombard you with rude and crude internet pop-up ads and we don’t throttle our download speeds.  We have earned the respect and trust of some of the best modders including Stevie, Blacksheep Modding, Johnny Vee, SOB Modding (just to name a few).

Modding Central

Like PC-SG, Mod Central is operated by individuals who truly care about our hobby and community.  They have a very professional and easy to use website and offer mod downloads both hosted on their own servers and also some linked to external sources.  Mod Central also offers a friendly member forum to ask questions and obtain support for many of the mods hosted on the site.  Modding Central is also a partner with PC-SG.  The people behind Mod Central are some of the most talented individuals you’ll fine in our hobby.

American Eagles Modding

American Eagles Modding (AEM), is another friendly community with member forums and a variety of mod downloads.  Typically if I’m looking for equipment for an American style map, I’ll first look to AEM.  Many of the John Deere pieces of equipment I feature in my YouTube “Let’s Play” series were downloaded from AEM.  AEM hosts their own mods and I’ve never experienced any delays or rude pop-up ads when using their website.  Like PC-SG, AEM also has a review and certification process for mods uploaded and hosted through their servers.

FS-UK

Finally, FS-UK rounds out the list of my typical “go-to” websites when searching for mods.  I like their mod organization where I can see both new and trending mods and also search based on the version of Farming Simulator.  In addition, they also include a member forum and some of the best modders will feature their “Work In Progress” mods on FS-UK. FS-UK also has a mod review team and I believe they work hard to test and certify many of the mods hosted on their website.

Marhu.net

While Marhu.net may not be as user friendly for us English only speaking individuals as others I’ve previously listed, but with a little effort and using the right internet tools we can still do OK in navigating their website.  Some of the very best mods for Farming Simulator will be posted to Marhu.net by their original mod creator.  Unfortunately, the mods listed on Marhu.net most likely will be hosted somewhere else with a link provided to that location.  These links may direct you to a dropbox location or perhaps to another mod hosting website.  In some cases, the link will take you to a mod hosting website called uploaded.net.  Now if you are a subscriber of my YouTube Channel then you know I often (and very frequently) opine about my dissatisfaction about uploaded.net.  I have my  reasons and for the sake of educating my viewers, I’ll share this information in just a few minutes.  Keep reading!

Other Considerations

If you are an active mod user, you may be thinking that I’ve left out a long list of other mod hosting websites.  Some might be accidental, but some have been omitted intentionally.  For sake of overall professionalism and courtesy, I’m not going to call out or blacklist particular websites or mod hosting services.  As stated, there are many…but most do not go to the same level of not only safe guarding the original mod author, but also safe guarding the individual user from extreme internet pop-up ads, click-baiting schemes and possible mal-ware infested server downloads.  I’m not opposed to internet advertising as it does cost real money to operate a website with the server capacity to host mods.  However, I believe some of these websites could dial down the amount and type of pop-up advertising they are subjecting their visitors to.

But are any of the sites not mentioned used by the original mod creators?  Yes…absolutely!  You’ll find mod developers using a variety of mod hosting websites which I have not listed by name.  I may also visit these sites and very often will download mods.  If you look through my extensive mod list, you’ll see links to many of these sites I’m referring to in this section.  Are 100% of these mods genuine?  Keep reading to find out.

Now just a few moments ago I spoke about uploaded.net and how truly irritating that website is.  I don’t know who operates that website, but I believe it is safe to say that they are only in it for the $$$.  Meaning, I don’t for a minute believe they care anything about the gaming community or the users.  They subject visitors to rude and often times crude internet pop-up ads, click-bait ads and throttle their download speeds for non-paying subscribers to something resembling that of an old school 1200 baud modem.  Again, while I’m not opposed to supporting the costs of running websites and server hosting sites, the cost of membership for uploaded.net is expensive (in my opinion).  Uploaded.net premium membership fees start at $5.99 for 48 hours of access, $10.99 for one month, $27.99 for three months on up to $108.99 for two years.

Of course, the above mentioned fees are also being shared with those who upload mods to that website.  Meaning, a mod developer who uses the uploaded.net website to host his/her mods will earn a small fee for the number of downloads.  I’m not going to get into whether this practice is right or wrong.  I’ll let you decide based on your own feelings whether this is a good or bad idea.  But I will just remind you, that Giants also rewards the top mods (and their developers) with a small monetary compensation.  You can read more about that here.

Verifying Authenticity – Can it be done?

Short answer, yes….longer answer is not easily and certainly not with any absolute accuracy.  The reason behind the longer answer goes back to what I mentioned earlier.  At the present time, there are no security measures in place to prevent someone/anyone from making changes and/or uploading elsewhere.  What I’m going to say next might be somewhat out of character for me.  But for most mod violations where simply a mod has been downloaded from the official location and uploaded elsewhere, the individual doing this is just simply too ignorant to edit the mod to strip away the actual ownership/credit information contained in the mod.  They simply download it and upload it to another site and pretend they are the original creator of the mod.  While it takes some effort to verify this information and of course the mod needs to be downloaded to confirm, it certainly can be done.  But in many cases the operators of these websites are too slow to act in taking down the unauthentic mod and the damage is already done.

I ran into a situation a few months ago where I created a YouTube video to showcase a popular mod.  The video contained artwork which I had created to use as the title and thumbnail artwork, this artwork also contained my YouTube name of GrizzlyBearSims.  Another individual after watching my video, decided to download the mod then take a screenshot of my video logo and upload that to another mod hosting website.  Another YouTube content creator discovered this and mentioned it to me.  At first I wasn’t going to do anything about it.  But after careful consideration I determined this could confuse someone into thinking I had uploaded the mod and I didn’t want to set that impression.  But it took me several emails to the admin of the website to have the mod removed.

Final Thoughts

As I stated at the top of this article, at the present time NOTHING can be done to stop the abuse and unauthorized distribution of mods.   While we can list out every reason why this behavior is bad for our hobby, at the end of the day it is left up to each and every individual (YOU and ME) to do the right thing.  Doing the right thing is more than just not stealing and uploading mods without the consent of the individual mod developer.   I believe it is just as bad to continue to use a mod you know has been compromised, yes…even privately.  Finally, as a YouTube content creator…I believe we have a responsibility to never violate the trust of our modding community by using mods of questionable backgrounds in our videos and live streams.  While I pride myself in maintaining a current mod spreadsheet which lists each and every mod I use, along with the location where the mod can be downloaded from…I will happily place my right hand on a stack of Bibles and swear that (to my knowledge) each and every mod listed is genuine and hasn’t been compromised.  But in an effort to do everything I can to protect the modding community, I plan to perform an extensive review and will remove the physical mods and the listing which I can’t be certain of.  Will you do the same???

Thank you Mod Developers

To any original mod developer who may be reading this article, I believe I can speak for the vast majority of enthusiasts who dearly love and treasure the hard work, dedication, attention to detail and passion each of you put into your works of art.  Many of us just simply can’t do what you do.  Even some of us (myself included) just don’t have the desire to learn…it’s just not something we are interested in doing.  But we genuinely recognize how your pieces of work (regardless of how little or big they are) change the game play for us in such awesome ways.  Farming Simulator is an awesome game.  But without mods, the game wouldn’t be as enjoyable and exciting and certainly wouldn’t be so over a long period of time.  Your mods allow us to lose ourselves in our own little virtual worlds and in my opinion, is better (and less expensive) than any shrink on this planet.  Please don’t stop creating.  Please don’t take your mods underground.  Please know that we love what you do (even though we don’t always show it) and know we will always support you.

Until next time…

Happy Farming!!! (with authentic mods only)

Jerry

Hello States v6

I’m slowly in the process of starting up a new map adventure using the much talked about States v6 map.  States v6 is only available from American Eagles Modding and you must be a member (it is free to join) in order to download the map.  I’m not about to give up on Ringwoods Farm, but as I’ve been farming Ringwoods for the past month or so and before that had been farming the default Westbridge Hills (Ringwoods is based on Westbridge but mucho better), I felt I needed a change.  So I have been looking at map alternatives and set about defining a few requirements.

First, while I have nothing against maps based in the UK, Europe etc. I really wanted to stick with a USA based map.  Second, while I truly love the challenge of all the fences, gates and trees in Ringwoods…I also wanted to find a map with less fencing and gates.  Third, I’m really not into the logging/forestry aspect of the game…so my map selection could certainly exclude this and I would be OK.  Finally, after farming on Ringwoods and getting spoiled to some of the “bells and whistles” such as conveyors and the mixing station mod, I was looking for a map where these types of features were already built in.  I also wanted the ability to raise pigs, beef and chickens for market and wanted the variety of the additional fruit types (cotton, oats, sunflower, soybeans and sorghum).  I had heard about States a few weeks ago and with the recent release of version 6, I decided to give it a try.

Some fine print before I proceed.  I’ve been watching a few YouTube videos regarding the soil mod.  I also printed off all the documentation I could find on this mod.  I’ll be honest and say upfront that I’m perhaps more confused after reading it than I was before hand.  I’ve decided to leave out the soil mod (for now) and just spend some time learning the new map and farming at my pace without the needed worry about pH levels and those dreaded weeds.  But understand, I said the same thing about the PMDG aircraft a few years ago.  I said they were too complex to learn etc.  Both the PMDG 737, 777 and 747 are some of my favorite aircraft and I rarely fly anything other than these aircraft.  So having said that, I will eventually experiment with the soil mod and I’ll learn it and when I do, I’ll share it all here in this blog.  But for now, I’ve left the soil mod out of States v6.

The States v6 map is a large map.  It features wide open spaces and really is designed for BIG equipment and lots of it.  It includes all the features I had desired in a new map and even some new features to try out.  From the start you own four fields (1, 5, 6 and 9).  Fields 6 and 9 are planted with wheat and soybean.  The map is also pre-populated with 250 dairy cows and 100 sheep.

As I just stated, States v6 is HUGE.  You start off with a lot of equipment including four New Holland Combines (CR10.90) with the BIG 45’ headers.  You also get three New Holland T8.435’s (Trax models) along with one NH T9.565 and the massive Case Quadtrac 620 (which I sold).   You also get mowers, tippers, loading wagons, wheel loader, fertilizer spreaders, sprayers, baler…and more.  I ended up selling the mowers, baler and a few other pieces of equipment so I could afford the Krone Big M500 mower mod from OEB Modding.  With three large fields pre-planted in grass, I wanted something with a wide working width and the Big M500 will row the grass.  This will save both time and effort.

On day 1, I used Courseplay to get the Krone Big M500 cutting grass.  I split the initial grass harvest between getting the cows and sheep fed and moved about 200,000 liters to the silage bunker just next to the cows.  I already compacted and have it fermenting.  The rest of the grass will be moved to the BGA.  Also, I put one of the four combines to work in field 6 harvesting wheat and moving the straw to storage.  Just as soon as the grass has fermented into silage, I’ll have all I need to mix up the first batch of TMR.  The way I figure, as I already have 250 dairy cows I need to get them producing at 110% ASAP to take advantage of increased milk production as well as manure and slurry.  While I don’t plan to use either as fertilizer, both can be sold to help increase my available cash.

I’m also seriously thinking about selling two of the four combines and headers.  It may be some time before I can actually get all four combines working with enough tractors/tippers to support them.  I really need to generate enough cash to purchase the Krone BigX and get a field of corn planted to cut as chaff to send to the BGA.  Selling silage at the BGA is a quick way of generating a lot of income in a relatively short period of time.  You can read my blog article titled Getting Rich Quick on Ringwoods Farm which very much applies to States v6 as well.  I may also try out theRental Mod as well for a few pieces of equipment until I can get enough available cash.  We’ll see how it goes…

Until next time…

Happy Farming!!!

Jerry

GrizzlyBearSims

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