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More Courseplay

July 3, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

While the Courseplay mod is perhaps the one mod I almost could not live without, it is not without its share of issues which lead to frustrations “Down on Jerry’s Farm”. Several weeks ago I provided a somewhat detailed review of the Courseplay Mod and pointed out some of the issues which we all must deal with if you desire to use this wonderful mod. Yes, I do use the words wonderful, extraordinary etc. to describe this mod at the best of times.

As you know by reading some of my recent blog postings, I’m currently playing on the Ringwoods Farm map. I truly love this map and even with all the trees, fences and gates….Courseplay does a pretty darn good job managing the tasks I assign to it. Or should I say, the Courseplay hired workers do a pretty good job managing the tasks assigned to them. With almost every field owned and planted on this map, there is no way I could keep up with the demand without Courseplay.

In the earlier posting I touched on the issues we all experience when using Courseplay. I don’t fault Courseplay (or the brilliant development team behind the CP mod) from running a tractor/tipper into a tree from time to time. After all, Courseplay only knows the interior dimensions of the fields. It does not know the proximity of fences and gates to the field. Likewise, Courseplay is not something one can simply setup, start and leave unattended with 100% results each and every time. At least not with all functions/tasks. But before I proceed further, allow me to provide some information on how I’m using the Courseplay mod, what works really well and what challenges I face.

What I use Courseplay for?

For the most part, I’m only using a small percentage of the overall Courseplay functionality. While I realize CP can (and will) do much, much more…I simply just haven’t incorporated everything into my farming practices at this time as it has never been my intention to fully automate my farm.

While the role I play “Down on Jerry’s Farm” is the owner and boss of the farming enterprise, I’m still very much willing and enjoy rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty. So at the present time I’m using Courseplay to handle the process of moving the silage down at the BGA and also moving silage in a small bunker near my dairy cows. Courseplay also handles the transport of grains and fruits from my main storage silos to market. Courseplay also handles field work tasks like cultivating, sowing and harvesting.

What Courseplay does well?

The movement of silage down at the BGA is without a doubt the best work Courseplay does “Down on Jerry’s Farm”. Considering the ROI (Return on Investment) benefit of selling silage down at the BGA, CP (and the fine workers) do this task very, very well. Even paying the hourly wage (which I do), it is money very well spent and provides nice profit. Review this blog article I wrote a few weeks ago about “Getting Rich Quick”. If you want to generate some cold, hard cash and do it quickly then remember this equation of Corn –> Chaff –> Silage = $$$$ down at the BGA.

In addition to the movement of silage, CP handles the movement of all my grains and fruits from storage silos to market without any issue (most of the time). Oh, a few times I left a tractor parked in the middle of the main farm yard which blocked the path of my truck/trailer rig…but that is a self inflicted problem and not the fault of Courseplay.

Finally, I would give CP solid marks on how it handles the cultivating and sowing tasks I assign it. While I did mention that Courseplay was not really designed to be setup, activated and forgotten about. The tasks which I’ve just described, CP will perform them until YOU stop it or until the work is completed. Unless of course you forget you’ve parked a tractor in the path.

Courseplay Struggles

Again, I’m fully aware that Courseplay is not designed to be setup, activated and forgotten about to operate a process without any guidance or supervision. This is where our role of farm owner/boss comes into play. Like I described earlier, I am the owner of my farm. The Courseplay function is really just driving the employees I’ve hired to assist with the tasks on the farm. As owner and boss, it is my responsibility to make sure these workers are doing what they should be doing. However…

Courseplay will simply struggle with regards to the occasional collision between tractor/tipper and a tree, fence or gate. As I’ve already stated, Courseplay only knows the interior dimensions of each field. CP does not know how close a tree, fence or gate is to the field so therefore the occasional collision will happen. The best solution to assist in avoiding these collisions is to setup the combine to harvest at least two headland cuts. Depending on the header size, this should provide ample room for your tractor/tipper setup to maneuver without coming into contact with an obstacle. Another suggestion is to slow down the tractor/tipper setup. With the overall drive physics being what they are in FS2015, slowing the tractor/tipper down to a field speed of 15-18 mph will help tremendously.

But wait….there are more struggles and unfortunately I can’t really understand why they occur.

Collisions between combine and tractor

I simply just can’t understand why this occurs. From my limited understanding of how CP handles the harvest function, I believe CP fully knows where the combine is (and with precision) on the field. Likewise, I believe CP knows where the tractor/tipper is (how else do they interact with each other) so why the occasional collision? As I somewhat described the combine and tractor/tipper relationship in my earlier blog posting by referring to the combine as the master or boss, there really should never be any collision between the two of them. The combine knows where it is within the course of the field and the two should be able to steer clear of any collision between them.

Spinning round and round and round (tractor and tipper)

I often notice the tractor/tipper just doing donuts in the middle of my fields. Round and round they go, without any purpose or plan until I stop them. In each and every example this occurs (and this occurs fairly regularly) the combine is less than 50 feet away and is stopped. The very best I can figure out is the tractor/tipper continues to circle in an attempt to lock onto the GPS coordinate which would allow it to pull alongside the combine. While I understand this, why doesn’t CP intervene at some point and send the tractor/tipper on a slightly different course then redirect it back in again? Of course, keeping in mind the location of the stationary combine to avoid any collision.

Distance and Line of Sight Issue

I’ve perhaps saved the best for last. The very best I can understand the possible issue is a distance and/or line of sight issue between combine and tractor/tipper. I mostly see this issue on the larger fields. The tractor/tipper and combine have been working together just fine. At some point the combine instructs the tractor/tipper to wait (it’s not full yet) and the combine continues to do its thing. Then as the combine and tractor/tipper are almost at opposite ends of the field, the combine issues the “drive now” command to the tractor, but the tractor just sits and sits and sits and sits. Eventually the combine is full and it stops. But without intervention from me, the two will never come together again.

Again, the best I can understand is perhaps there is a issue with the distance or line of sight and the two (combine and tractor) lose their connection to each other. I really wouldn’t think either distance or line of sight would be a limitation for Courseplay.

Could it all be user inflicted (User Error)?

ABSOLUTELY!!!! However, before I take all the blame on these problems let me just say that I’ve seen many YouTube videos created by many virtual farmers who know a lot more about Courseplay than I do and they all seem to have one or more of these problems from time to time. Also, again I’m not looking for Courseplay to do all my farming work while I sleep or do other things away from the PC. I’m merely wish, hope, desire for Courseplay to be able to function in the areas I just mentioned without glitching.

Am I alone? Are my expectations set just too high? Is Courseplay useless as is?

Again, no I don’t think I’m alone. I follow a few virtual farmers on YouTube who frequently create content from their farming adventures and in many of these videos I’ve seen their activities (when using Courseplay) wig out just as I’ve described.

Regarding expectations? I don’t think I (or anyone else) would think our expectations are set too high for these things to work correctly. I’ve stated several times in this article that I don’t blame CP when my tractor crashes into a fence on the edge of my field. I fully understand that this is outside of the control of Courseplay. However, the other situations (combine and tractor collisions in middle of field, spinning round and round and the distance/line of sight scenarios) I believe are in the control of Courseplay and I sincerely hope these issues can be fixed.

Finally, is Courseplay useless as it currently stands? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! I repeat….Courseplay is a wonderful mod and I really couldn’t or wouldn’t enjoy Farming Simulator 2015 as much as I do without it.

In closing, this blog article is not my way of “having a go” at the authors/developers of Courseplay. Likewise, it is not my attempt to discredit their hard work and dedication to the hobby. I’m simply pointing out some of the issues I’ve experienced mainly in the hope of helping anyone else who may encounter the same problems understand that they are not alone. I understand the authors/developers of Courseplay are taking a short break. Hobbies must always come after real world commitments and I certainly don’t fault them for needing to slow things down. I certainly hope they continue to develop and enhance Courseplay. I for one would really love to see the issues I’ve discussed today get resolved. I also would love to see something like “Follow Me” added to Courseplay. While I know a separate mod exists, I would like to see that functionality built into Courseplay. If for no other reason then in aiding in moving a combine and a tractor/tipper (or two) from one location to another.

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Until next time…

Happy Farming!!!

Courseplay

May 11, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

Things have been busy down on the farm. In an earlier post, I mentioned having some small challenges I was dealing. These challenges were with regards to the overall stability of the Farming Simulator 2015 application. I couldn’t understand why the crashes were occuring. The PC I run FS 2015 on is fully capable and it was just rebuilt a few weeks ago. To be very honest, I’m not really sure what the root cause was. I just know that I did manage to resolve it and the sim has been 100% stable for some 20+ hours of game play. In short, I reinstalled Farming Simulator 2015 and removed all installed Mods. I also began game play on a brand new map (or new map to me). I’m currently farming on Ringwoods 1.7.1 and am very happy with both the layout of the map and the stability and performance of the game play. Ringwoods is essentially the default Westbridge Hills map, but much improved and redesigned. There is so much to do on this map that from time to time I feel overwhelmed. As the name implies, there is a lot of logging opportunities on this map. Perhaps one day I’ll give logging an honest try, but for now I’m just not that impressed with how it all works. Perhaps this is a subject for another blog post. Now on to the topic of the day…

I learned about the Courseplay mod some time ago. I had watched a few YouTube videos and read much commentary about the mod in various forums setup to support the community. While I didn’t immediately dismiss the mod, I wasn’t really sure I would use it. After all, I enjoy performing many of the tasks required in Farming Simulator 2015 myself, but I also realize that running a large farm (or certainly hoping it becomes large) can’t be done with just one person. So I installed the Courseplay (CP) mod and began experimenting.

One of the first tasks I setup was having Courseplay handle the movement of Silage down at the BGA. A very helpful YouTube video got me started in setting up the default wheel loader to handle almost two full silos of silage I just created. Being able to use Courseplay to automate this task will allow me to do other things on the farm, while the hired help assists in earning a lot of money in the sell of the silage at the BGA. The task of setting up Courseplay to empty the silo is a little more advanced than some of the other CP tasks, once you get it setup not much will go wrong. Meaning there isn’t as many challenges to over come with traffic and collisions you may experience with other tasks. Just with this first CP setup, my competent worker generated almost two million dollars by moving/selling silage. Cha-ching…brand new equipment. I like…I like!

The next task I setup for Courseplay was hauling grain from my farms silo to the various sale points on the map. Setting up CP to handle this task was super simple and it works really well. All you need to do is drive from your storage silo to the sell point allowing CP to record the course. Then you save it and activate it to allow your hired worker to help generate even more revenue for your small farm.

To be honest, I figured this would be the extent of my CP setup (at least for now). But I then watch a few YT videos on using CP to automate the emptying of the combine and transporting that material back to the farms silo. Again, to be honest…this was not an easy process. It’s not difficult to do, just a bit of a pain (you know where) with dealing with traffic, collisions with trees and all the bloody fences on the Ringwoods map. Now what I’ve found through a lot of trial and error (mostly error) is CP appears to work a little better (especially with all the fences in Ringwoods) when you setup the combine course starting in the Northeast corner, heading South with two headlands in a counter clock wise rotation. Again, for me this seems to limit the number of collisions my hired help seem to make when running into fence posts, trees and most importantly…each other.

While it’s not perfect, I also know that Courseplay itself is also not perfect. Of course, I’m not a developer and it’s easy for us to play “armchair quarterback” in these situations. But what I find a bit mindboggling is CP does a pretty darn good job controlling the combine. But CP tends to struggle in controlling the other vehicles working in conjunction with the combine on any given field. Now I’ll also admit that I’m not sure how Courseplay works. But I would assume in combine mode, the combine would be (or should be) the master vehicle and it would (or should) control all the other vehicles. It calls for the other tractor/trailer vehicles to approach for offload AND as it is master, it knows where it is in relation to the map and also knows where the other vehicles are. When an approaching tractor/trailer comes too close to the combine, then CP should make sure the tractor/trailer navigates clear of the combine. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Many times the tractor hauling the tipper gets too close to the combine and both get stuck in traffic. Again, the combine obviously knows where it is on the map and the combine knows where it is going to go next. All other CP controlled vehicles should yield to the combine.

With regards to the fences and trees…..well I don’t think I can fault Courseplay. CP knows the field dimensions and setting up the combine to perform two headland cuts does provide plenty of buffer zone for both the combine (especially with the 41’ header) to perform its maneuvers and for the most part allows the supporting vehicles (tractor pulling tipper) to maneuver. I’ve found when I create the route the tractor/tipper follows from the field to silo, that if I make the start/stop points as close to the field as possible, it leaves plenty of room for the tractor/tipper to maneuver without a collision to a fence or tree. At least in theory….

In closing, perhaps some of the issues Courseplay has with tractor/tipper collisions with the combine is due to the poor drive physics in FS2015. Fortunately within CP you can adjust speeds. Based on info I’ve seen in various YT videos I’ve set my field speed to be 20 mph and may even bump it down to 18 or even 15 to see if that helps. I’ll let you know.

If you are looking to automate more of the tasks on your farm, then the Courseplay mod will certainly help. The current stable version of Courseplay is 4.01 and is available from theCourseplay website. If Courseplay helps you (and it will), then please consider making a donation/contribution to the developers of this wonderful mod. You can donate via their website.

That is all for today. I need to tend to the cows, sheep and chickens now. Plus the wheat on field 17 won’t harvest itself. At least not without me getting the process started with Courseplay.