2023-01-10T19:55:00Z New farming day has started, todays goal is to crush some fertilizing contracts to make big money, honestly that is a kind of a weak goal I should be moving on to PMC Korkscrew 40km editing and testing already, but I'm using the excuse of "I'm game-play testing there!" heh. This savegame now has 22hrs and 22mins on it, heh yeah 22 times two
Today I don't have to do a savegame join re-cap because I can read from previous page that we have budget of 520.8k, that would be enough for a rubicon 9000 but obviously its still so little money, there is no buffer for fertilizer product so I have to do at least one more 74ha fertilizing contract before even thinking about new purchases. I'm actually thinking of picking one of the larger contracts which would obviously take longer but then in the end it would pay huge sum of money.
We have one such contract accepted, its monster F0039 711.5ha which pays crazy 1.337m reward, obviously this will eat huge amounts of fertilizer too, but at least it would tie up our tractors for a while on a work without unnecessary driving from one contract to another. There was also F0040 similar size contract available, I did not take it yet, one step at the time.
First recorded autodrive network waypoints route from F0059S to the err connecting main asphalt road in the south so we can get back to the dealership. Once done I sent the whole kitten caboodle of bredals into the dealership. ETA from F0059 S was 8min heh.
Recorded autodrive network waypoints route to F0039 W where the last part was side route. Then sent rest of the bredal tractors to that target while I was recording courseplay field definition outline for F0039 with the lead vehicle.
This courseplay field work course was again without headland such in the beginning that second pass overlaps the first, so I only sent lead and second vehicle on their way now, vehicles number three and four are just waiting for them to see if they continue from third row or what.
Decided to take another fairly large fertilizing contract just short distance from the dealership F0058, borrowed amazone spreader, I don't care if it takes a long time for him to finish it, at least there is something to do while this F0039 is still running.
While being bored just watching tractors drive back and forth on the field I studied autodrive a bit for refilling fertilizer / seeder on the field. Turns out it actually works pretty easily; select loading mode, target point for the field, loading point for the fert / seed station, toggle courseplay icon on (highlighted, NOT grayed out), then just start courseplay course and autodrive kicks in automatically. At least I think it does, while writing this I have only witnessed it from the dealership side.
In theory... if this works I could setup massive borrowed vehicles fertilizing contracts scenario and just go to sleep while AI is working the fields heh. Well obviously there would be some traffic accidents or courseplay just throwing a hissy fit or something to ruin the whole experience, but yeah as said, in theory... Edit: forgot to mention that while I *COULD* do that, I would never actually do it, its pretty much cheating to leave courseplay running a huge field work course when you go to SLEEP. Quick RSS news checks from other computer or shower break etc are fine where you don't even shut off Gaming computer monitor, but anything beyond that and you enter the shady world of cheaters...
2023-01-11T01:07:00Z Two lead bredals were empty, autodrive sent them to the dealership, yeah not with the just mentioned refill because this field is now 98% done, the two trailer bredals can finish this field just fine.
Autodrive sent bredal 3 and 4 to the dealership fertilizer refill while I'm contemplating which contract to do next. Refilled bredals 1 and 2, then autodrive sent them into "load" mode to F0981 E from fertilizer refill point, there is now courseplay course yet of course but hopefully the tractors end up at the target at least. Then did the same for bredal 3 and 4 while they were just returning from F0039 towards the dealership, interesting to see if autodrive detects my mode etc changes and switches routes "live".
Hmm lead bredal finished its work even though contract was still only 95% complete. But maybe this is so small field that because it spread out to 4 * 30m, those trailing 3 * 30m widths are enough to keep the progress lagging behind, err am I explaining that weird heh.
Then with t6.175 number four recorded autodrive network waypoints route south side around F1070, once done hooked up with bredal k165 and joined courseplay field work course. Not sure if that was a good idea overall to take one courseplay tractor to do "a quick" autodrive loop, but anyways we don't have any other vehicle for it so.
Autodrive sent bredal tractor back to the dealership, they were not completely empty of product but getting close, so back to home plate, refill them up and then decide what to do next. Budget now 1.899m whoah maybe its time to purchase rubicon or two
Also I want to upgrade new holland t6.175 to something in medium tractor class, t6 is way too small to pull bredal k165 with extensions, when product tank is full 18k liter this t6 will drive so badly, it bounces around in fields steering left and right like a drunk. I want more powerful and heavy tractor which drives smoothly. Maybe fendt 939 or dunno if there is something in the 250hp area, hmm.
Been thinking about semi-truck with conveyall CST 1550 seed tender trailer, its 43.8k liter capacity, or I could go the cheaty way and get demco 2200 dual auger grain cart for the massive 77.5k capacity but it just feels so fishy to auger wagon haul your fertilizer
For more grand scheme of thing was thinking about Start From Zero savegame progression, first you do initial baling, harvest, cultivating contracts to get money, then you buy land + vehicle(s) so you can start to use automation tools. Then you usually just do a lot of contracts to make money. Once you have money then you buy more land and better equipment and start to seed / harvest your own fields.
Difference between doing contracts for money and buying more land to start harvest your own fields is a bit fussy. Right now I have 1.8m which is a lot of money, but for large scale farming and especially depending on farmland prices its actually not that much. Even if you buy a big seeder and combine you can blow that money away.
Anyways back to what I was saying, talking about specifically this savegame progression, I am kind of feeling that because this was a test if Start From Zero works, it has now been established that yes it does work with the vehicles and amount of budget I have. So why am I still continuing playing this, what is the end goal today? tomorrow? later?
2023-01-11T04:44:00Z I was undecisive, did not know what to do next, still had over 7hrs of today left, have to cook and eat food too, so plenty of farming time left today... but I just cant decide what to do. If I buy two rubicons and sami-truck liquid tanker trailer, that would improve our contract making capability a great deal, but then what... how many millions is enough? Where does it end in general and tonight? Hmm?
I was not bored, I haven't lost the motivational drive, well not really, but ... I just simply don't know what do I wanna do next. Okay if I had to choose to start harvesting operations or rubicon fertilizing I think it would still lean towards fertilizing contracts as there are SO juicy ones in the board.
Maybe if I buy that two rubicon setup and ... well hmm yeah I cannot combine both bredals and rubicons because the width incompatibility, hmm. There is the crazy F0040 which is like 700ha something, pays over million for fertilizing contract, that would be sweet to get done but with simply using bredals it takes forever.
Went to explore a bit, checked out one farmland area group near a farm yard, did not have drive through grain bin silo. Also checked several other farmland prices if I might start harvesting own fields... but dunno didn't see anything sexy, don't get me wrong there are several cheap small ones but their location did not appeal to me right now. I was thinking of buying the farmland behind the dealership maybe with the actual dealership yard so I could use the big 2 million liter grain bin silo, but that farmland costs 2 million
When you begin practically thinking about small nuances of fertilizing, seeding, herbicide spraying, fertilizing second stage, time acceleration and harvest... it really feels quite overwhelming, especially if we consider these mega field sizes.
I frigging cannot explain it, at this point of the savegame when you break 2 million in budget the next step is extremely hard to decide as the workload increases exponentionally if you start harvesting your own fields...
If you want to do everything with fertilizer, there is one vehicle under Crop Protection named Rubicon 9000 that have a width of 48.5m when unfolded and you don't even need to worry about attaching anything, only filling it with the fertilizer. Two passes is enough for most fields.
I feel like the game is trolling me... Completed 11 fertilizing contracts like this and fertilizing contracts just stopped showing up totally. Have the game running at 120x for hours now and never seen anymore fertilizing contract show up.
I can't say what the issue you encountered is, but I just played the game the last few days and got the platinum. I never went more than a day at 120x without a fertilizing contract popping up, and usually it was much more often. I did 100 fertilizing contracts. I played on PS4, so can't comment on PS5. I checked your trophy list, and while the other person who had problems finished the game, I noticed you didn't, so I figured I'd share a couple things.
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