Field Management

[Fortigan]

Why do workers fertilize areas where they will not plant crops? If it's not the right season or you simply don't have enough seeds, they will fertilize that area anyway. This just wastes fertilizer for no reason.

Will this ever be addressed or will we ever get a "seasonal" field management? It's current state does not feel like a system one would expect from a full release title. Surely this is not working as intended.

[Kwalyz]

They are working as intended, but just not how many players wish it to be.

They will fertilise where crops are assigned to be planted.

They will not fertilise field squares that have no crop assigned to them. They will harvest a crop that is in the correct season to be harvested even if you have cleared the crop assignment in the field management menu. They will destroy crops not ready for harvest if you clear or change the crop assignment in the management menu.

Yes they will fertilise and plough in that fertiliser in fields assigned to crops that will be planted in future seasons as well as the current season.
No the fertiliser is not wasted as the field square will stay fertilised and/or ploughed until it is replanted and harvested. For example: fields assigned to Flax, harvested in summer, fertilised and ploughed in summer will remain ploughed and ready to be seeded in autumn and winter and in spring they will be seeded with flax.

You can stop them from fertilising and ploughing for future seasons by clearing the crop assignments of the crops ready to be harvested.
We can not stop the farmers from “grubbing” a newly created field even if there are no crops assigned to it. We can not stop the farmers from harvesting crops that are ready to be harvested.

The AI farners are exactly like all the other AI production - use until they run out. They are not able to dynamically change their use - that’s what the player has to do. The only exception to this “use till you run out” programming is the builder AI which removes its required repair material from resource storage as soon as you assign the building to be repaired.

[Fortigan]

Originally posted by Kwalyz:

They are working as intended, but just not how many players wish it to be.

They will fertilise where crops are assigned to be planted.

They will not fertilise field squares that have no crop assigned to them. They will harvest a crop that is in the correct season to be harvested even if you have cleared the crop assignment in the field management menu. They will destroy crops not ready for harvest if you clear or change the crop assignment in the management menu.

Yes they will fertilise and plough in that fertiliser in fields assigned to crops that will be planted in future seasons as well as the current season.
No the fertiliser is not wasted as the field square will stay fertilised and/or ploughed until it is replanted and harvested. For example: fields assigned to Flax, harvested in summer, fertilised and ploughed in summer will remain ploughed and ready to be seeded in autumn and winter and in spring they will be seeded with flax.

You can stop them from fertilising and ploughing for future seasons by clearing the crop assignments of the crops ready to be harvested.
We can not stop the farmers from “grubbing” a newly created field even if there are no crops assigned to it. We can not stop the farmers from harvesting crops that are ready to be harvested.

The AI farners are exactly like all the other AI production - use until they run out. They are not able to dynamically change their use - that’s what the player has to do. The only exception to this “use till you run out” programming is the builder AI which removes its required repair material from resource storage as soon as you assign the building to be repaired.

I was not aware that the fertilizer carried over to the next season. This was not the case in the past. If that is the way it's working then no big deal, just using fertilizer early.

However, a seasonal management would be much more ideal, as we could automate crop rotation instead of micromanaging it.

[Dutchgamer1982]

Originally posted by Fortigan:

Originally posted by Kwalyz:

They are working as intended, but just not how many players wish it to be.

They will fertilise where crops are assigned to be planted.

They will not fertilise field squares that have no crop assigned to them. They will harvest a crop that is in the correct season to be harvested even if you have cleared the crop assignment in the field management menu. They will destroy crops not ready for harvest if you clear or change the crop assignment in the management menu.

Yes they will fertilise and plough in that fertiliser in fields assigned to crops that will be planted in future seasons as well as the current season.
No the fertiliser is not wasted as the field square will stay fertilised and/or ploughed until it is replanted and harvested. For example: fields assigned to Flax, harvested in summer, fertilised and ploughed in summer will remain ploughed and ready to be seeded in autumn and winter and in spring they will be seeded with flax.

You can stop them from fertilising and ploughing for future seasons by clearing the crop assignments of the crops ready to be harvested.
We can not stop the farmers from “grubbing” a newly created field even if there are no crops assigned to it. We can not stop the farmers from harvesting crops that are ready to be harvested.

The AI farners are exactly like all the other AI production - use until they run out. They are not able to dynamically change their use - that’s what the player has to do. The only exception to this “use till you run out” programming is the builder AI which removes its required repair material from resource storage as soon as you assign the building to be repaired.

I was not aware that the fertilizer carried over to the next season. This was not the case in the past. If that is the way it's working then no big deal, just using fertilizer early.

However, a seasonal management would be much more ideal, as we could automate crop rotation instead of micromanaging it.

the fertiliser carries over.. whats more an issue is work allocation / priority list.

say it's autumn.. you have many fields that need harvesting.. and one that need seeding.
-but the workers waste so much time on refertilising the harrvested fields, they don't complete or start the one field that need seeding.

while they have PLENTY time in winter to do that plowing/fertilising as those other fields will not be reseeded before spring.

[MadDjinn]

That's where, when it's the season to harvest, but not replant, you go and clear the fields in the tab. it stops the process after harvesting. At which point, in a later season, you can tell them to seed something new.

I usually do this with my flax/cabbage for waste field in the summer so that they don't waste fertilizer or time until the winter. Also do it to prevent winter carrots.

But the core issue is still a need for seasonal management. Let us have click through views of each field for each season, so we can make changes as we need, and not every season.

<Most important action for the herbalist>.

[Capuzzi09]

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

the fertiliser carries over.. whats more an issue is work allocation / priority list.

say it's autumn.. you have many fields that need harvesting.. and one that need seeding.
-but the workers waste so much time on refertilising the harrvested fields, they don't complete or start the one field that need seeding.

while they have PLENTY time in winter to do that plowing/fertilising as those other fields will not be reseeded before spring.

Originally posted by MadDjinn:

That's where, when it's the season to harvest, but not replant, you go and clear the fields in the tab. it stops the process after harvesting. At which point, in a later season, you can tell them to seed something new.

I usually do this with my flax/cabbage for waste field in the summer so that they don't waste fertilizer or time until the winter. Also do it to prevent winter carrots.

But the core issue is still a need for seasonal management. Let us have click through views of each field for each season, so we can make changes as we need, and not every season.

<Most important action for the herbalist>.

I just don't do such an insane overproduction on fields as many others do - for whatever reasons.
I set up the fields that that are necessary to get all the needs of my villagers satisfied. I also make sure to have enough field workers so they get their work done in time for each and every season (usually summer is the season with the highest work load for field workers). I assign each kind of crop that I want to grow to its own field. Once I've set up everything (including enough field workers) I just let them do their thing and don't ever waste another thought on the matter. Works perfectly fine, all field works get done in time, no micro management of fields, no re-assigning fruits, it's simply working without any issues.
There - simple as that.

[MadDjinn]

Originally posted by Capuzzi09:

I just don't do such an insane overproduction on fields as many others do - for whatever reasons.
I set up the fields that that are necessary to get all the needs of my villagers satisfied. I also make sure to have enough field workers so they get their work done in time for each and every season (usually summer is the season with the highest work load for field workers). I assign each kind of crop that I want to grow to its own field. Once I've set up everything (including enough field workers) I just let them do their thing and don't ever waste another thought on the matter. Works perfectly fine, all field works get done in time, no micro management of fields, no re-assigning fruits, it's simply working without any issues.
There - simple as that.

Fields can be used for more than a single crop, and if done properly, cut down on work needed.

Ie, animal feed. Oats and Rye are a pure cycle. Spring to Autumn for the Oats, Autumn to Spring for the Rye. That's a single field needed, not two, and therefore not having to tell the workers to swap it every other season would be great.

Cabbage/Onions/Carrots/Beets/Wheat are Spring plantings. But also Summer (Cabbage), Autumn (Wheat) and Winter (Carrots).

So the set and forget method will start getting winter carrots and winter wheat, changing the schedule. Even if you want winter wheat (Autumn to Summer), you might as well toss some cabbage in there (Summer-Autumn) to cover the season of not using it.

So that's not even 'insane overproduction', it's just basic usage of the fields.

[hubbemattsson]

It would also kill the soil very quickly, so I hope them implement that aswell then.

[Capuzzi09]

Originally posted by MadDjinn:

Originally posted by Capuzzi09:

I just don't do such an insane overproduction on fields as many others do - for whatever reasons.
I set up the fields that that are necessary to get all the needs of my villagers satisfied. I also make sure to have enough field workers so they get their work done in time for each and every season (usually summer is the season with the highest work load for field workers). I assign each kind of crop that I want to grow to its own field. Once I've set up everything (including enough field workers) I just let them do their thing and don't ever waste another thought on the matter. Works perfectly fine, all field works get done in time, no micro management of fields, no re-assigning fruits, it's simply working without any issues.
There - simple as that.

Fields can be used for more than a single crop, and if done properly, cut down on work needed.

I know, but I just don't care.
you do not cut down any workload from your farmers btw. just because you use the same field more than once in a year. For each and every crop it's the same: fertilize, plow, seed, wait, harvest. Repeat. So you don't cut down any workload from your NPCs you only reduce the numbers of fields which results in slightly lower taxes - but on the other hand leaves you with a lot of management and re-assigning fruits for your field each and every reason. The benefit is so small that I'm not willing to do the work or re-assigning. So as I already said: workload for your NPCs is the same, taxes will be a tiny little bit less - not enough of an advantage for me to take the extra work. I just create a field in particular for each and every single fruit I want to grow, I do the assignments and then I never think about it again. Very comfortable way of handling the fields imo since I don't have to re-assign each and every season.

Originally posted by MadDjinn:

So that's not even 'insane overproduction', it's just basic usage of the fields.

I wasn't talking about you ;)

[zantariz]

I ended up creating separate fields for Oat and Rye just so I don't have to deal with changing them up twice a year, but it would be ideal to designate the same field for different plantings by season.

I do, however, rotate carrots and cabbage on the same fields. I plant carrots in the winter and cabbage in the summer, which is great because there are so many other crops to deal with in the spring, anything I can shift to another season is ideal.

I make sure to leave the Oat, Rye, Wheat, Poppy harvesting to the NPCs... i'm not 100% sure if they are actually more efficient in the use of a sickle than I am, but I suspect that to be the case. I don't mind harvesting my own veggies.

What really shocks me is how my farmers can leave a field half fertilized / tilled / planted. How can you walk away from a field half done... It can't be done... not by me :)

[Philtre]

Originally posted by MadDjinn:

Fields can be used for more than a single crop, and if done properly, cut down on work needed.

The only work you are saving is the initial grubbing of the field, which is pretty trivial. There is a savings of space, which may be valuable depending on where you have built your village, but you are not saving any labor.

[MadDjinn]

I've noticed that the distance to field efficiency reduction kicks in quickly. I had one field down a hill and around a bend from the field hut (closest space on that side due to rockwall/river) and got hit by the efficiency loss. So that counts as potentially lost work, especially if the field is large. Or more workers needed, or another building and a swap of farmer locations, etc.

But two crops on one space made that efficiency loss go away since I could use a single larger field to do both.

[Fortigan]

Originally posted by MadDjinn:

I've noticed that the distance to field efficiency reduction kicks in quickly. I had one field down a hill and around a bend from the field hut (closest space on that side due to rockwall/river) and got hit by the efficiency loss. So that counts as potentially lost work, especially if the field is large. Or more workers needed, or another building and a swap of farmer locations, etc.

But two crops on one space made that efficiency loss go away since I could use a single larger field to do both.

I ended up setting up 2 max size fields side by side and put up 4 houses next to them. I assigned my farmers to those specific houses to minimize the walk to the fields. In the end, I have permanently assigned field spaces and never have to rotate crops, while also not wasting worker time on a lot of walking.

As Capuzzi09 stated, it's easier to just use 2 fields instead of 1 so I don't have to waste MY IRL time reassigning farm plots every season. Unlike Capuzzi09, I do grow a ton of crops, but that is mainly to make tons of coin and max out crafter skills. As the farmers level up I don't need as many for the fields and shift them over to caring for animals. Seems like a natural progression once I get the ability to have pigs/sheep/etc.

All that being said, if we had season tabs for field management then it would make a lot more locations on the map viable for setting up a village, as you wouldn't need as much field space. It is nice to know that fertilizing fields does carry over to the next season now. It's the first play-though for me in a long time and that was not the way it worked last time I played.