Farming Simulator 22 (PC) Review

Introduction

Farming Simulator 22 (FS22) was a video game released in November 2021. The player assumes the role of a farmer, responsible for planting and harvesting crops using machinery that resembles those found in the real world. The farmer can grow crops and set up animal farms to take care of livestock while the crops are growing. The production chain from sheep (wool) to spinnery (fabric) to tailor shop (clothes) is easy to understand for the average gamer. I am fascinated by the machinery and how they work on a field to execute the operations, such as plow, weeding, baling, storage, and transport.

Background

Since Windows 3.1, I’ve been addicted to PC gaming, especially Wolfenstein 3D. These days, I discovered that I couldn’t lay my life down on games such as Elder Scroll Online, Guild Wars 2, and Albion Online anymore. My game time with FS19 came and went, but not FS22. It stayed on for weeks, and I’m still on it. Euro/America truck simulator was fun, but FS22 opened a new angle by letting me tingle with equipment like how I use them for different farming works. There is also a tool section that attaches to your tractor to complete different tasks. I enjoy making in-game plans, such as what crops or animals to care for, and financial management, such as when to lease farming tools or when it is time to buy another piece of field. In general, I find the casualness and mediocre realism to be appropriate for my daily gaming desires.

Field Crops

You can expect to plant and harvest at least a dozen different crops during certain months of the year (seasonal growth setting: yes). I attempted FS19 twice, but I called it quits before completing the entire planting and harvesting cycle, thinking this could be a boring, repetitive cycle. Wow, I was very wrong! You get to choose what types of crops to plant, try different machinery through field work, and use their production chains to make the end product.

• More work / More profit = Feeling of accomplishment:
  (start) Mow grass → Widow → Bale → Wrap → Silage bales → Biogas Plant (end)
• Less work / Easy to complete = Feeling of completion:
  (start) Harvest wheat, barley, oat or sorghum → Grain Mill (end)

I proceeded to research the profit per hectare calculated by ardent players on spreadsheets for each crop. I started to think about building a processing factory that would process at least two of my crop types. On the Elmcreek map, I start merging adjacent fields to squeeze every penny I paid for my land. Recently, I’ve set out to adhere to the optimal planting procedure to obtain a 100% yield. These encompass the process of plow/cultivate, rolling, lime spreading, seeding, weeding (if needed), and fertilization twice.

Field Work

• 

• 

I spent 65% of my time on fieldwork, 15% on transport, 10% on animals, and 10% on other stuff. Most of my field work is focused on fulfilling contracts while your own crops are growing. I would usually accept up to three active contracts, then reserve a small field size with my preferred fieldwork for myself, and let AI handle the other two contracts. Field work is often interesting because you want to get through it and don’t notice how quickly time goes by. The following are some of the fieldwork tasks that you will undertake in FS22:

• Plowing, Cultivating, Seeding
• Rolling, Weeding, Fertilizing, Lime Spreading
• Mowing, Tedding, Windrowing, Baling, Wrapping Bales
• Harvesting (varies for certain crops, e.g., forage and grape vines)
• Transporting (varies for crops, e.g., trailer and front loader tools)

Livestock Animal Farms

What animals were you interested in when you were a child? My wife really likes sheep, so I want to work on sheep farms in FS22. Once I have saved enough money, I will decide if I should invest in a chicken farm for the eggs or buy another plot of field. Animals are a welcome change from regular field work (try harvesting manually with the ridiculous two rows Ropa Keiler 2 potato harvester). Initially, you can purchase their feed from the vehicle store, and later on, you feed them with your own grass (like planting your own vegetable at home for own consumption) and transport their wool to spinnery.

Animals have a purpose, for example, cows can breed to sell or make milk for money. The placement of beehives near specific crops can result in a slight increase in yield due to pollination. For lazy folks, there are chickens whose sole purpose is egg production. After a day of field work from 7am to 6pm, one could spend the last daylight hour on foot to check on animals feed and transporting their raw product to production factories. It is like wrapping up a day at a farm before heading back to your cozy farm house and sleeping until the next morning.

Vehicles and Equipment

If crops and animals are food, then machinery and tools are pots, pans, bowls and tools. There are base game machinery with similar results, but with different horsepower, max speed and working tool widths. Mods and DLCs can be downloaded to extend the list of vehicles and tools. Figure out how a trailer can attach tools to the front and back to do field work at the same time. Some machinery is actually two-in-one, such as a baler that consecutively bales and wraps, as opposed to having both a baler and a wrapper. Do consider leasing better tools to work faster until you can afford at least a mid-range model in the discount section.

The various equipment (spreaders, weeders, sprayers, balers and belt systems etc.) that you can acquire through leasing or upright purchase is one of the reasons I prefer FS22 over Euro Truck Simulator because you are not dealing with trucks, in-truck customization, or paint jobs only. This can affect your field work competence eventually.

New to Game?

I find that FS22 is easy to learn and there are many tips and videos online. This simulator game has three difficulties levels.

• New Farmer (Easy): pre-owned lands and equipment plus an excellent economy means selling your harvested products for more profit than on Medium and Hard.
• Farm-Manager (Medium): allows you to select and purchase your own land, lease equipment, or buy them on a discount with normal profit economy.
• Start from Scratch (Hard): if you want to play FS22 in a casual, relaxed manner, skip this. It will be a challenge to jump start your farming career.

Best Place to Start on Elm Creek Map

Elmcreek is a good map for new farming simulator 22 players. It is mostly flat and has one of the most fields per map. Flat land means faster driving, and more fields mean more flexibility in crop management. Some fields have space at the sides so you don’t have to waste 1 plot of your land to build animal farms and production factories.

In-game Settings

Below are some in-game settings that I changed to make my FS22 more enjoyable and relax.

• Crop Destruction: Off – You must modify the tractor wheels to narrow to avoid destroying your own crops when you drive over them for fieldwork. I find these to be too realistic, so I turned it off. This allowed me to utilize shortcuts by traversing my fields to collect contract vehicles or expedite the sale of products to the factories around the map.
• Timescale: 2x – I started the game with 5x, but found myself working into the night trying to complete daily contracts. I reduced to 2x, and now have ample time to finish 3 to 5 contracts daily before the sky turns dark at 7pm. Even with headlights on, it’s still a hassle to work in the dark, especially if you need to pick up bales or finish up leftover tasks that the AI missed.
• Days per month: 2 Days – I used to play 4 days in a month, but recently reduced it to 2 days. I noticed that I am spending 70% of my fieldwork time working on contracts rather than my own fields. After three weeks of playing FS22, I have yet to complete one growth cycle (equivalent to one year) of my crops.
• Snow: Off – My goal is to excel in my role as a farmer, focusing on fields and animals, rather than dealing with snow in the game.
• Trailer Fill Limit: Off – Hit the maximum trailer full limit (though < 100%) by weight, means more trips to the market to unload, but it adds realism. I had two simultaneous potato harvesting contracts, and the trailers hit their maximum easily. I had to travel back and forth to the Farmer’s Market every 5 minutes, which ruined the game for me.
• AI Worker (all settings): Off – Cash is tight in Medium difficulty, you really want to save up every bit by having total control of expenses. This includes growing your own animal food, such as wheat, barley, or grass, etc.

DLCs and Community Mods

Community mods are one of the reasons why the Farming Simulator series is still a popular game. ModHub has hundreds of different mods to choose from. The 9 mods and DLC I am actively using are:

• 

• 

1. LIZARD Subsoiler 6MT/9MT: favorite mod, best plow tool ever!
2. Liftable Pallets: my sheep farms and spinneries are back-to-back, so I just lift wool pallets and throw
3. Real Dirt Color: adds a bit of realism to vehicles if you drive in top-down view
4. Universal Autoload: Ctrl-R to load most pallets and bales or Ctrl-I to unload to loaders
5. AGI Pack: loves the silos which can store multiple crops types
6. GOWEIL Pack: adds balers and wrappers to the base game fleet
7. HORSCH AgroVation: adds cultivators, seeders, weeders and mulchers to the base game fleet
8. Kubota Pack: adds tractors and cars to the base game fleet
9. Platinum Expansion: add forestry experience by logging and planting trees in the new forestry Silverrun Forest map and more machinery

I don’t intend to bloat the base game with DLCs and mods that I don’t intend to play for now. I don’t think it’s necessary to have more than 20 plow tools or 20 grain harvesters in the shop. Interestingly, I read on Reddit that a person who does actual farm work with John Deere tractors, and therefore he installed every available John Deere mod. Other popular mods include Courseplay for enhanced AI worker and Guidance Steering (GPS) that setup field tracks accurately. Others can only recommend, but they cannot decide what DLCs or mods are best for you.

A New Way to Play FS22

I ditched my 3-week-old Elmcreek save game to try a new way of playing FS22 on the new map Haut-Beyleron. I will only carry out contracts for field work with supplied leased vehicles and care for two animal types. Also, I plan to own up to 2 fields max and cultivate them as animals feed. This implies that I will not be required to regularly monitor the growth of the plants and occasionally perform weeding and fertilization tasks. Furthermore, there is little need to load harvested raw materials into silos and unload them to sell in profitable months.

Starting in Haut-Beyleron

Owning Fields

One of the largest fields in Elm Creek is Field 68. It has the lowest cost per square meter. We did some calculations on cotton, one of the more profitable crops in FS22. The payout for the land typically takes approximately 2.4 years, resulting in a profit only being realized after the third year of harvest. Similarly, we select wheat as one of the most prevalent crops, and it takes a period of 5.1 years for the land to be compensated before a profit can be realized in the sixth year.

Field Details (source)	Crop Selection	Yield (Liters) Calculator (cut-and-paste from source)	Best price /1000 Liters (source)	Estimated Profit
Field 68 Price: $614,280.00 Price per sqft: $2/m² Price per m²: $8/sqft Acre size: 19.82	Cotton	BASIC: 39,858.02 Liters per 19.82 acres. With all bonuses: 79716.04 Liters per 19.82 acres. Fertilizing (twice) +45% Weeding +20% Liming +15% Plowing +15% Mulching +2,5% Soil Rolling +2,5%	$3,156 (Feb, Mar)	Total sales revenue: 79,716 / 1,000 * 3,156 = $251,584 No. of years to recoup field price: 614,280 / 251,584 = 2.4 years
Field 68 Price: $614,280.00 Price per sqft: $2/m² Price per m²: $8/sqft Acre size: 19.82	Wheat	BASIC: 71,391.64 Liters per 19.82 acres. With all bonuses: 142783.28 Liters per 19.82 acres. Fertilizing (twice) +45% Weeding +20% Liming +15% Plowing +15% Mulching +2,5% Soil Rolling +2,5%	$850 (Dec, Jan)	Total sales revenue: 142,783 / 1,000 * 850 = $121,366 No. of years to recoup field price: 614,280 / 121,366 = 5.1 years

As you can see, if you can complete 10 contracts a month or 120 contracts in a year, you will be paid about $480,000. Why pay a lot of money to own land, buy vehicles and machinery to fertilize, weed, and lime when contracts supply you all the tools you need for a small lease fee? You still incur extra cost even if you don’t use the tools you lease. There is also a base cost involved, so you cannot return, lease, or return it as and when required. The fields that feed your animal farms are not fields for long-term profits, but technically, you still own them. If you want to remain vested in FS22, this particular save game for the next 30 or 50 years, or accelerate through the years with 1-day/month and 10x speed, then this play style will not be suitable.

Conclusion

Few games have caught my attention and led me to play for days and weeks, and Farming Simulator 22 is definitely one of them. However, I recently reduced my daily time spent on FS22 because it felt repetitive, as I only entered the game to finish a day worth of contracts, feed animals, and transport their produce before logging off. Now that I have accelerated to 2 days per month, I aspire to complete my own crops 1-year cycle, wherein I can mow grass, feed my sheep, and sell the remaining grass as silage bales during profitable months. I am still learning new equipment through contracts leasing and have not experienced certain crops and animals. There are other construction buildings, such as greenhouses, and production chains, which can be extended by paid DLCs and free mods. FS22 is an excellent game to unwind after a disconcerting defeat in World of Tanks or League of Legends, or a tiring experience in FPS or strategy games.