How does this compare to Farming Simulator?

[wilmer007]

one thing i loved about FS is the graphics and how the game runs smoothly. but some things i really hate about FS is how it felt very boring, repetitive, lack of help, no business feel to it and felt like a grind. like for instance you had this huge field that could only be done with one helper or i would have to do it myself and it would take hours IRL (2 hours to harvest one huge field), like why couldn't i just grab a ton of workers and just finish that field in minutes instead of hours. the business and farm side of it was pretty awful as there it was basically stock pile and wait for a great demand and that was it, and you couldn't upgrade your farm by upgrading your silos from small to large or upgrade the farm for more real estate to hold more animals or own more land.

i prefer something that will keep me in a more hands on approach and micromanaging the farm rather than being on my own and afk for hours.

[BossmanSlim]

Farm Simulator is closer to a driving simulator, like Flight Simulator
Farm Manager is closer to a city builder, like Simcity

[Florin]

Yes, this is exactly what I've been thinking when looking into Farm Manager: I want Farming Simulator turned into a management game. And it's pretty much what it is.

Lots of things are much more in-depth. There are actual seasons here, so you have to time your seeding and hiring seasonal workers. More crops to grow and things to do with them: harvest your apples, then decide how much should be turned into juice, how much sold right away and how much you feed to your cows. Machines deteriorate with use and require renovation. Workers have different (upgradable) skills and salaries.

Machinery choice is not as wide, but that's not a big deal since you're not the one to drive them anyway.

You can use manual labor for almost any task. For machines, you still can only assign one vehicle to tasks like plowing, but it's ok here since it takes just a couple of minutes in this game anyway.

You can build the entire farm the way you like and you can buy additional land. The layout you make is actually important, since workers' productivity depends on the distance they have to travel.

On the negative side:
- Micromanaging can get somewhat tedious at a later stage.
- There are plenty of bugs, performance issues and balance issues. However, devs do keep working on that and do pay attention to feedback.

[nebron1962]

FS18 is a driving simulator with farm equipment.
FM18 is a farm version of Sim City.

[nebron1962]

Originally posted by Florin:

Machinery choice is not as wide, but that's not a big deal since you're not the one to drive them anyway.

You can buy used equipment. Experiment whether or not it's cheaper to buy poor equipment or good equipment. You may spend more time and money on good equipment than on poor equipment.