Manual shifting is a huge letdown

[Unster]

I finally got to try this game (on Xbox game pass - I have FS19 on Steam) and the manual shifting is a joke.

First of all, there's no actual reverse gear. You can only assign gears 1-8 and forward / backward directions. This might work in theory except it doesn't in practice. If I assign the reverse gear on my shifter to the backward direction, I can go in reverse but then I can't use the forward gears, unless I first press another button to switch back to the forward direction. This is the case even if I assign one of the forward gears to also be the forward direction, which fails to register.

The 2nd issue is with the inconsistent engine stalling. Often a manually shifted tractor will stop on its own in gear and not stall the engine. But if you come to a stop by braking, it will stall. And once it stalls, the tractor sometimes starts creeping again, and stops when I press the clutch. Huh? That's nonsense. A stopped engine in gear would be like putting it in Park, i.e. no movement.

Has no one at Giants driven a manually shifted vehicle? Apparently not. If so, they shouldn't even have bothered with this manual gears feature.

[Seansniper27]

if you have ever driven a manual you would know you have to push in the clutch to stop or you will stall

[Finney]

[Unster]

Originally posted by seansniper27:

if you have ever driven a manual you would know you have to push in the clutch to stop or you will stall

You didn't read & understand my post, did you?

[Samtana]

The game is mostly a cash cow for them it seems. I have FS13-FS19, but unless there's an impressive sale I won't be purchasing the newest version. There's no point.

[Unster]

Originally posted by Samtana:

The game is mostly a cash cow for them it seems. I have FS13-FS19, but unless there's an impressive sale I won't be purchasing the newest version. There's no point.

It's mostly the same game, now with more grind or things to take care of on the field to maximize yield, depending on how you look at it. The soil textures look better. The map is different. The UI color is blue, but you already know that. It's mostly the same game, even with some of the same bugs, like one controller/wheel button being hardcoded to bring up the menu (you have to manually edit the bindings file to get rid of it if you want to use the button for something else).

Before I played the game myself, judging by YT videos, I thought I wouldn't like the more saturated palette, but it's fine. What surprised me is the sloppy implementation of the manual gears.

I know it's not the same game, but I much prefer the SCS business model with their truck sims where they update the same game for over 10 years and only sell you DLC. And their manual gears work properly.

[Red Leaf]

Originally posted by Unster:

Originally posted by seansniper27:

if you have ever driven a manual you would know you have to push in the clutch to stop or you will stall

You didn't read & understand my post, did you?

Have you ever driven a tractor irl? You engage the clutch if you want to stop. If your in gear it'll go on its own. But this gearbox isn't truly simulated as it just sets the speed you can go. Gearbox mod for fs19 was closer to the real thing.

[Unster]

Originally posted by Topher:

Originally posted by Unster:

You didn't read & understand my post, did you?

Have you ever driven a tractor irl? You engage the clutch if you want to stop. If your in gear it'll go on its own. But this gearbox isn't truly simulated as it just sets the speed you can go. Gearbox mod for fs19 was closer to the real thing.

I've driven several manual transmission cars for many years in my life, so you don't have to explain to me how it works. But yes, that's the key behavior that Giants failed to emulate. I wasn't complaining that the tractor was stalling. I was complaining that it doesn't stall when it should, among other things.

[Unster]

The problem with the driving direction with manual gears looks to be a bug. If I un-assign a gear on my shifter, I can use it to change direction. But the same gear (basically a controller button) can't be used for both a gear selection and changing directions. It's an input conflict. All this would go away if Giants bothered to add a reverse gear when they added this manual gear functionality. I'm not sure what they were thinking.

[ErnurWolf]

Originally posted by Samtana:

The game is mostly a cash cow for them it seems. I have FS13-FS19, but unless there's an impressive sale I won't be purchasing the newest version. There's no point.

same here this was and is a cash grab , shame on them . I will not be bothering with the next .

[Ropsu]

Originally posted by Unster:

The problem with the driving direction with manual gears looks to be a bug. If I un-assign a gear on my shifter, I can use it to change direction. But the same gear (basically a controller button) can't be used for both a gear selection and changing directions. It's an input conflict. All this would go away if Giants bothered to add a reverse gear when they added this manual gear functionality. I'm not sure what they were thinking.

There is no reverse gear because tractors have had direction change on another stick atleast from 90's onwards. That way you change gears on a stick 1, direction on stick 2 and low/high/crawl on stick 3. Newer ones just have direction change near the steering wheel usually and are equipped with cvt transmissions.

[Unster]

Originally posted by Ropsu:

There is no reverse gear because tractors have had direction change on another stick atleast from 90's onwards. That way you change gears on a stick 1, direction on stick 2 and low/high/crawl on stick 3. Newer ones just have direction change near the steering wheel usually and are equipped with cvt transmissions.

Interesting. I didn't know that about tractors. But in that case, shouldn't you be able to go through all the gears in reverse? In the game there's only 1 gear in reverse.

There's still that engine stalling inconsistency, but I suppose it's not a big deal if you don't let it bother you.

[Unster]

I did a little research and it seems that only the power-shift tractors (clutchless shifting) have direction reversing. The old school tractors have a traditional manual like what I'm familiar with, i.e. a single reverse gear. So the game has it wrong. There should be a reverse gear, since the game does have a tractor like that.
https://youtu.be/qLZ96MDNiqc