FS22 News

Choo-choo – do you hear that? Oh boy, it’s the good-news-train, entering the railway station to unload some exciting announcements: Farming Simulator 22 is at the finishing line of development before it releases next month. But, that’s not the motherload of today’s news.

As you provided us with feedback over the last couple of weeks and months in response to our announcements and footage, our attentive community department steadily talked to our busy developers to implement various adjustments and improvements to the game.

Here are some changes we made in the last couple of weeks. Good thing, a month consists of at least 28 days, right? RIGHT? Yeah…

Changes to the seasonal length

When we first introduced seasonal cycles coming to Farming Simulator 22, a virtual year was supposed to consist of twelve days. Meaning, each day in-game would be the equivalent of a month. Our goal was, and still is, to find a balance of challenging and relaxing gameplay-mechanics that work for as many players as possible, regardless of their experience.

For a lot of you… seasoned farmers, the duration of a year wasn’t as appealing as we hoped, even though players will be able to decrease the speed of time in-game even further than before. The challenge we were now facing was to implement the option to customize the length of the seasons. Why is that a challenge?

In game development, there is a massive amount of dependencies with even the tiniest change. It’s literally the risk of a butterfly effect that sticks to everything. That’s especially true for seasonal length connected to various affected gameplay-mechanics that might break and need to be compatible – as we can’t release a game with potential errors produced by our mechanics that, in the worst case, corrupts save games.

Long story short: Longer seasons. You can increase the length of a month up to 28 days. Yes, each MONTH can consist of 28 days. Changes take effect after the current season is completed.

Changes to the graphics

While gameplay programmers focus on gameplay mechanics and work on the gameplay side during the whole course of development, our tech guys do the same on their end. Meaning, the graphics still evolve between showing the first screenshot or trailer and the release of the game. Of course, we also take your feedback under consideration until the last pixel is considered final.

Between the months-old game build we’ve shown at gamescom, for example, and the version we’re going to release in a few weeks, a lot of graphical aspects, and therefore the visual appearance, have changed. We got a lot of feedback on the aesthetics of Farming Simulator 22, and incorporated some changes while working on already planned improvements.

We improved the level of detail of foliage to guarantee more beautiful transitions between colors. We fine-tuned Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) to create more natural shadows – resulting in more natural-looking surroundings. And, we modified the color grading to achieve an overall, more realistic and atmospheric feel.

Long story short: Improved various graphical aspects, looks nice.

Better sorghum

Sorghum, or milo, is an important crop, becoming even more important in recent years, in warm climates. That’s why it’s considered a welcome addition by our American players and a predestined crop to sow on our US-Midwestern map, Elmcreek. Of course, our more Mediterranean-inspired map Haut-Beyleron also benefits from having sorghum available to grow. As our sorghum farmers all around the world noticed, the process of harvesting sorghum wasn’t quite accurate in the early version of Farming Simulator 22.

Long straw cut short: Only the top of the fruit gets cut off when harvesting, now.

We hope you like our recent changes to Farming Simulator 22. Thank you for your feedback! We also hope you are as excited about the launch in a couple of weeks as we are. Also, there’s more news coming up. Stay tuned!

farming simulator 22

You can already start thinking about where to build your chicken coop – especially, if you want to bake some cakes by delivering eggs to the local bakery.

Animals are back in Farming Simulator 22, and they’re more important than ever. Also, a lot cuter. Honestly, look at those fluffy sheep!

Animals will keep you busy all-season

Animal husbandry is the perfect chance to expand your farming experience! With specialized machines and tools, a lot of different tasks, and even more possibilities thanks to the new production chains.

First, you need to build them some housing, including a variety of animal pens. You can then transport them in animal trailers to their new home. Once there, you need to take care of them by providing straw, fodder, and fresh water.

Production chains are not the only new feature to expand the usefulness of animals. With seasonal cycles enabled (allowing up to 28 days per month), they also give you more to do during winter besides focusing on greenhouses and keeping your roads clear of snow.

farming simulator 22

Prepare for some all-season gardening! Growing crops on your soil is fun and challenging. If you’re playing with seasonal growth and snow enabled, your farm will not produce crops during winter, though. What to do… what to do…?

Let’s build some greenhouses! Regardless of the season and weather conditions, you generate additional income, even during snowy months. Grab your coat, and grow some vegetables! So, let’s not beet around the bush here, and lettuce take a look.

Small, medium or large?

By magnifying the light of the sun and protecting the plants from freezing temperatures, your greenhouses can be an essential asset to your bank account – and your soul: Just image the sight of invigorating green lettuce after shoveling snow between dead trees and withered crops, just to uncover asphalt. Never been so happy to see some lettuce in front of you, have you?

Found in the production tab of the building screen, there are multiple greenhouses if different sizes to choose from: small, medium, and large. You can place them on a free area on land that is in your possession. If you ever dreamed about a gigantic strawberry farm, this is your chance!

Plant lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries!

Not much of a lettuce person? Then, just… toss it. You can grow tomatoes and strawberries, too. By visiting a greenhouse or directly opening the production chain screen in the menu, you can see all of your greenhouses listed, and manage their productions.

Don’t forget: You need to provide the greenhouses with water. Otherwise, they won’t produce anything.

Store, sell, or distribute your produce!

For each product growing inside your greenhouses, you can manually set the output mode. By default, the greenhouse will “store” the goods by generating pallets full of lettuce, tomatoes, or strawberries. Then, you have to take care of them manually, after.

You can also choose to automatically sell them, or distribute them to a production plant like the bakery for further processing. Let’s make some delicious strawberry cake! Over there, you can again choose what should happen with the goods produced with your ingredients from the greenhouse.

Farming simulator 22

This bee-witching feature might create a big buzz, but please bee-have yourself, and let’s talk about bees in Farming Simulator 22!

Wanna-bee a beekeeper, honey?

You may have spotted the bee-autiful beekeeper outfit when we presented the new character creation a few weeks ago. After choosing a fashionable buzz-cut hairstyle for your farmer, you can also wear a fitting protective suit if you want to live a productive life of acquiring the sweet, golden and viscous substance made by busy bees. As you know, beekeepers need to bee careful – the wardrobe allows you to change into any outfit, anytime.

Bee-hold: Various new beehives for your farm

Small hives, big hives – even medium hives in between. There are numerous bee hives to choose from, allowing you to provide your farm with an individual flair. Thanks to our brand-new build mode, you expand and decorate your farm with a lot of new objects – perfect if you want to throw a cross-multiplayer house-swarming party and impress your friends.

You need to place a pallet location on your farm, so the honey will be generated in form of pallets. After boxes full of honey are placed before your feet, there’s now a sticky situation you have to attend to. So, bee prepared, and…

Let’s get into bees-ness!

And what’s sweeter than the honey they produce? The money they generate. You can either sell them directly or process the honey together with grains and raisins at the cereal factory. That’ll bee even more profitable.

Also, if you place beehives in proximity to canola, potatoes, and sunflowers, the yield of your crops will rise thanks to some pollinating going on. Un-bee-lievable, right?

To hum it up…

Bees are becoming a bigger part of your farm, generating more money by producing honey and increasing the yield of certain crops. If that’s none of your bees-wax, and you’d like to tend to other animals, that’s fine. And, if you think that the amount of lazy bee puns really stings, you might complain at [email protected] – or let it bee.

Farming simulator 2022

A rocky canyon, a hidden cave, railway underpasses, a baseball stadium and more – all divided by rivers and streams in an atmospheric Midwestern landscape. That’s what to expect when farming in Elmcreek. Watch the brand-new trailer for the first of our three maps in Farming Simulator 22 below!

That’s Elmcreek

Check out the highlights of our North American map, below. Want to know more? We already introduced Elmcreek back in July with lots of information about the map. Mind the fact that we improved various game aspects to make the game look even more atmospheric when it releases in a few weeks.

Inspired by the US Midwest with an out-of-town feeling
Various increases and decreases in landscape elevation
Vast areas of farmlands with enough room to grow your farm
81 predefined fields (merge, or create more!)
Various field shapes and sizes from small to big
Various things to discover
We got more screenshots, too!

farming simulator 22

As more and more farmers look for additional ways to generate income, Farming Simulator 22 will offer you various opportunities to grow your farming operations. Don’t stop at selling your fresh harvest: If you want more of the capitalism-flavored cake (made with regional ingredients only), and earn even more from your produce, start a production chain!

Become a local farming mogul!

In Farming Simulator 22, there is a total number of 13 different production plants you can not only supply with your goods, but buy, own and place on your land, too. Take a look at the graphic to learn more about the dependencies.

So, whatever is produced in the end, it’s made locally: Whether it’s cheese at the dairy, flour at the grain mill, or even clothes at the tailor shop after wool has been processed at the spinnery.

One of our favorites is the bakery, offering local residents fine bread and delicious strawberry cake. It’s as lucrative as it is tasty, and requires a whole set of ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and strawberries from your greenhouses – we’ll tell you more about those and more, soon. You can bee excited!

farming simulator 22

In Farming Simulator 22, you’ll have the chance to farm with more people than ever, thanks to cross-platform multiplayer. Find out more in our crossplay announcement! Of course, you’ll want to customize your character in the game. You can – with our new character editor. Let’s take a look at the possibilities to create your own farmer in Farming Simulator 22!

We added a lot of new character features and items. Choose your hairstyle, including a beard or mustache, between various clothing items from top to bottom, and even authentic full-body outfits from your favorite brands. Here’s the complete list of options:

Character
Hairstyles
Beards
Mustaches
Outfits
Tops
Bottoms
Footwear
Headgear
Gloves
Glasses

farming simulator 22

We did some groundwork in Farming Simulator 22: Not only does the soil, like other surfaces, appear more natural and vivid thanks to Parallax Occlusion Mapping, there are also new ground working systems and a lot of new ground textures you can look forward to.

New feature: Mulching

Mulching. The revelation of domestic gardening through questionable overuse of bark chips. But, backyards and home improvement are not what we’re talking about here. Although, the science is basically the same: Mulching improves the soil (and therefore the yield).

In Farming Simulator 22, we use a mulcher attached to our tractor, to cut and apply fresh grass to the surface of the soil when cultivating a grape or olive orchard, for example. After harvesting your crops, you can also mulch the stubble left on the field to improve the yield.

And, because it’s still important to many, you also mulch to guarantee the visual appeal of your grape and olive orchards, as mulching makes everything on your vineyard look nice and clean, too. How wonderful!

Also, there are bigger types of mulchers in the forestry section. They even mulch bushes and tree stumps. (Almost) Nothing will get in the way of mulching, if you apply the correct machinery.

New feature: Stone picking

Leaving the wonderful world of mulching, there’s a hard reality lying dormant in the ground: Stones! When cultivating, or plowing, stones can turn up on your field. Depending on what kind of cultivator you are using, the size of the stones varies. Using a subsoiler, you will dig up some larger rocks compared to your shallower groundwork. Your soil lies in chaos now. Oh, no! But, what now?

When collecting stones with your stone picker, you can even make some additional money by selling them to the debris crusher. Get your revenge on those soil invaders (and even get paid for it)! Before you begin to sow your crops now, you should take care of the stones one way, or another. You can also turn stones off, if you like.

Leaving them on the field will damage your machines. Not only that, your problem will get worse – more and bigger stones will turn up. If you don’t like to collect them, there’s another method to get rid of them – at least the smaller ones. Here comes another ground working mechanic into play, that ties into stones. Yes, stones are the gift that keeps on giving…

New feature: Soil rolling

If you picked large rocks out of the ground, you need to collect them. With smaller stones, turning up after cultivating or plowing, you can also use this spectacular looking agricultural tool called a roller, and simply press them into the ground again. Yes, just roll over them – they had it coming, threatening the well-being of your expensive machines.

Rollers are not just a tool to conceal the rocky consequences of cultivating or plowing, though. After sowing your crops, you gain an additional yield bonus when rolling over, flattening and compressing the seedbed. Considering the type of crop and field size, we’re talking about a considerable amount of money.

There’s also incentive to get your roll on, when you’re a grassland enthusiast. As rolling around on your meadows grants you a fertilizing stage. Mind, that rolling over grass sets it back to the first growth stage – so you should roll over the grass when it’s freshly cut and mowed.

Look at the new ground textures!

We revised basically all ground textures for Farming Simulator 22. You’ll notice more visual diversity. And, when playing with some friends invited to your farm (even via Crossplay), you’ll definitely notice, if those slackers haven’t rolled the seedbed, as the texture looks different from the one where it’s not. Don’t let them get away with lowering your yield!

Above, you see just some examples of the new ground textures in the game. Click on the image to enlarge.

farming simulator 22