PMC Grande Gardens 16km, Start From Zero
Please read the background idea for our Farming Simulator 19 Stories so you understand what is this all about.
2024-02-03 Now Begins The Dangerous Part
2024-02-03T17:58:44Z New farming day has started, been up a long time today, took over three hour nap, woke up and now I feel like Farming Simulator 19 soybeans harvesting, so Start From Zero PMC Grande Gardens 16km it is 
This savegame now has 1140hrs 5min on it.
At this date and time I have split this Start From Zero story page into individual sub pages, just released page 120 few minutes ago. Now I'm writing more stuff
21/late-spring in-game 0308hrs, weather +13C/+12C and raining, oh yeah last time I saved game and exited right after finishing seeding that big F60.
2024-02-03T18:06:40Z Folded bourgault 3420-100 paralink hoe drills and drove big bud 747s to the dirt road N side of F60, parked them there for the night and hmm probably for several months, unless I find some reason to move them elsewhere, I mean this is a good parking spot as any, this savegame (again?) have no vehicle shed parking style, I got no time for that.
Next up is time acceleration until soybeans harvest season begins, this will be extremely long task and it will get boring, there are 24 days in a season and the Seasons mod game sync lasts couple of minutes, yeah its not fun, but you got to have a big boy 24 day seasons config running when you deal with these very large fields.
I am worried about field stages getting out of sync with this much time accelerating because I just simply cant sit and wait 5-10min after each game sync dialog has disappeared, its just not doable.
Oh gosh, I got THREE (3) seasons to time accelerate, this is 3 * 24 days, one day about two minutes seasons game sync dialog. Oh man, someone please help me to get out of this torment 
Well as said, it is what it is, you cant have large terrain in FS19 without this Seasons mod game sync dialog long duration annoyance, if you want fast paced action go to little girlie men ravenport then, its game sync dialog is up few seconds at most.
Anyways, no amount of bitching will make the waiting time any shorter, just better get to it, the sooner you start, the sooner it gets done.
As a side note, pretty much all fields are fertilized 0%, double fallow and some need ploughing on the edges of cultivator_density (beyond field definition area), so overall I would say this soybeans harvest will not yield too good, which is great for my grain cart driving time use.
22/late-spring in-game 0943hrs, weather +12C/+12C, okay time acceleration has commenced... While doing this, I'm going to keep track on the weather page, to see if I can spot any more drying potential icons or whatever those 0, +, - and -- markers are, I want to make a full list of them.
23/late-spring in-game 0942hrs, weather +14C/+12C, its raining. Now all fields have been germinated. I took a savegame at this point so have a fall back just in case I would run into some time acceleration issues. I don't expect there to be any weather issues, 24 day seasons config is plenty of time to rainy weather to pass especially since I don't have that much fields to harvest, relatively speaking, so it should be all good but I need that backup fail safe for base-savegame for end of this planting season, it will be so long time acceleration that anything can happen.
Now I wont be doing play-by-play on these season days, no reason to write them down.
24/late-spring to 01/early-summer transition game sync felt like it took several minutes, definitely more than 2min, no doubt about it. Hopefully this is just that season transition from one to another (late spring to early summer).
I'm now watching xr_renegades saturday twitch stream for entertainment while time accelerating, its mostly on the background though, I don't want to get lost watching that while game sync dialog has disappeared already.
01/early-summer in-game 0932hrs, weather +18C/+14C, soybeans is germinated, hmm I was kind of expecting them to switch into "growing" field stage. But maybe this is the game sync after lag I'm getting on 16.3km size terrain, but as said I am not going to sit and wait here, its at best 30sec wait before skipping another day.
02/early-summer in-game 0945hrs, weather +18C/+15C, soybeans are now growing field stage, green plants have sprout out. Time acceleration continues.
2024-02-03T19:02:07Z Sorry I'm talking out of my ass, 24 day seasons config obviously is 24 days for the whole season, but for early, mid and late parts its just 8 days each 
08/early-summer in-game 0936hrs, weather +19C/+17C, was trying to record soybeans field stage, unfortunately FS19 only lists "growing" and next one will be "ready to harvest", there is not much to report, the colors in ESC mapview do change but those are insane to keep track of.
On this days weather I saw THUNDER icon, had almost forgotten such icon and weather status exists heh, its the darn 3 day seasons config that does not work properly, will not show all the goodies seasons mod has available.
09/mid-spring in-game 0945hrs, weather +17C/+18C. Seasons parts change, slowly but surely.
10/mid-summer in-game 0946hrs, weather +20C/+18C. Soybeans plants are now green with white flowers on them.
16/mid-summer in-game 0931hrs, weather +17C/+20C. All good, last day of mid-summer.
17/late-summer in-game 0946hrs, weather +18C/+20C. Last part of summer has begun.
18/late-summer in-game 0927hrs, weather +19C/+20C. Soybeans plants are now all green, white flowers disappeared. Field stage color in ESC mapview changed to which looks like the most darkest green now.
24/late-summer in-game 0938hrs, weather +19C/+21C. Last day before corn and soybeans harvest season begins. I am now going to start diesel refueling and preparing my harvest fleet. I want to be fully ready when soybeans crop is ready to harvest.
2024-02-03T20:04:51Z Drove first semi-truck grain trailer tipper/6 road train into autodrive target point F151 E, its now ready to go for grain hauling to selling point 3 (SP3) loop.
Took my second semi-truck with its seed hauling configuration and unloaded remaining seeds into railroad silo 10 (RS10), then went to find the tipper/6 trailer so I can hook up the road train again, no idea where that grain trailer was. Finally found it by F151 NE next to combine harvesters.
2024-02-03T20:11:39Z Parked second semi-truck into autodrive target point F151 E, its now good to go too. Okay semi-trucks for grain transporting are ready for F151 harvest. Next up, combine harvesters.
I was looking at logistics, claas lexion 8900s with midwest durus 18.2m headers are parked at F151 NE corner, corn headers and header trailers are located at F70 SE corner, it is so close relatively speaking that I will first harvest F151, possibly F69 maybe even F68 before I go pick those corn headers up so they are not left behind. In fact I made a "todo" task for myself between F68 and F67 harvest copy-paste texts, just so I don't forget when soybeans harvest is on full swing, there is no time to waste when juices are flowing
Then took semi-truck with liquid tanker trailer which got diesel on them, drove it to the combine harvesters and diesel refueled all four lexion 8900s. Dunno why I didn't send this semi-truck there using autodrive, just felt like getting some steering wheel time myself 
2024-02-03T20:24:01Z Fendt 1050 vario grain cart tractors did not need refueling, but semi-truck grain haulers needed so got them diesel refueled. Now harvest fleet is ready to go for soybeans harvest season. Next up, more time accelerating until soybeans are ready to harvest.
This will be tricky, now begins the dangerous part, if weather is bad then I might get rained out of the fields or at winter get crops frozen, however with 24 day seasons I just simply do not see how that could happen with only handful of medium size fields plus that one big beast. However I am going to take a savegame here, so if something happens, then there is another fail safe point to revert back to, plan is to time accelerate for tomorrow when soybeans harvest season begins in the seasons calendar and then until the crop is actually physically ready to harvest, this could take several days, it might even go as far as mid season.
2024-02-03T20:28:32Z Savegame taken, time acceleration continues. A quick reminder, its now 24/late-summer.
01/early-autumn in-game 0932hrs, weather +16C/+20C, soybeans harvest season has begun, my soybeans are still dark green plants with growing field stage.
2024-02-03T20:37:36Z Its now 02/early-autumn in-game 0939hrs, weather +16C/+20C and soybeans crop is ready to harvest, whoah! 
I did not see that coming, maybe the 3 day seasons config is truly bugged as in my previous harvest season using it, crop was not ready to go up until in the mid-autumn part of this season. So yeah I am definitely loving this 24 day season config even though it takes a long long... a VERY long time to get from harvest season to planting season and then to harvest season again. In the end, on a huge terrain, it truly is worth it.
Hey who knows maybe there would be some sort of middle ground here, 12 day season maybe, I'm not sure, it would already be much better than the lousy 3 day one.
Anyways the day I've been waiting for several real life days is finally here in-game, soybeans are good to go. Its go time! 
Saved game and generated courseplay field work course for 4 combines on F151 which has ugly ugly shape. Used starting direction "longest edge" and to my surprise it worked even with 4 vehicle convoy. Okay cool, hopefully this course works in 3D as well it looks on 2D mapview.
2024-02-03T20:45:10Z Started harvesting soybeans F151, courseplay, ETA 2h 4min, 4x tools.
Aayeah I am harvesting soybeans, yeah buddy!
Grain cart full, heading back to E side for unloading into grain trailer.
2024-02-03T21:06:41Z Combines #3 and #4 are full, I have failed as grain cart driver
Well can you blame me, this is awfully long edge field and the grain trailers are on the E side, combines are now on the W side, so yeah... you do better job if you think you can. Hmm maybe I need to cut this field in half on the middle, then record a new autodrive target point for the S side, hmm, maybe. But guess its a bit late for that now.
Look at that view, those tiny pixel harvesters in the horizon.
Hey watch out for the train!
2024-02-03T21:26:48Z I'm panic'ing a little, grain carts get full, no time to do anything but drive
Busy busy busy.
2024-02-03T21:58:49Z Now everything went to crap, courseplay had vehicle collisions at the number 4 and number 1 combines on the last headland on 4 and first inner row on 1. This is the age old problem with multiple tool vehicle convoys, they don't work with irregular shape and sized fields, they never have
What happened is that I now have to manually drive number 4 combine because it will not engage correct "nearest waypoint" and current waypoint is not working either, sigh, such a frigging mess it ruins your mood
Got this situation resolved by engaging courseplay on these trailer combines on the inner row W end.
Waiting for combine harvesters to hit next patch of crop...
Was watching and waiting for what combine harvesters are doing and all I can say is that this field shape is just absolutely horrible for courseplay with multiple tools, it truly is, courseplay is not capable of generating working course for field shape like this. I will never design another field of this shape, never again and if I find existing ones I try to do my best to fix them without drastically changing field ID numbers or design in grand scheme of things. These irregular shape fields look cool but are completely useless crap when it comes to actual game-play, and I'm here to PLAY farming simulator not just marvel some pixel porno
2024-02-03T22:29:20Z Lead harvester took off to a random direction, sigh
This horror never ends
2024-02-03T22:30:36Z I made the decision not to harvest any more irregular shape fields (not to plant soybeans in the first place) before they have been fixed, F130 is still crap shaped field but I think it can be done with 2 harvesters, its overall quite small field relatively speaking. But after that, if there was some diagonal shape crap fields, I'll skip those and design doc fix them and then come back to them before end boss F40 is coming up.
Had to manually drive 1 and 2 combine harvesters to the W end of this field and start them there with nearest waypoint on the first inner row on that side. Got it done, but I was so disappointed, frustrated and angry, bulk of my good jolly farming feeling was gone at this point, I really hope it comes back, next fields are very square shaped so should be no problems getting courseplay field work courses generated to them.
2024-02-03T22:38:30Z Harvesters 3 and 4 collided at the end of E side inner rows, sigh
If I just can get through this crap field work course then things will be better, there is hope ...
2024-02-03T22:46:41Z Semi-truck grain trailer tipper/6 road train was not emptying the second trailer, it just stood there are selling point trigger without doing anything, it was stuck. So I now increased the trigger detection distance from 25m to 100m, hopefully that would resolve the issue.
2024-02-03T22:51:51Z Combine harvester 2 got stuck in a tree on diagonal part
2024-02-03T23:11:58Z Finished harvesting soybeans F151.
Aah yeah and not a moment too soon, maybe my mood starts to improve now because the last few moments of this harvest and tree collisions I've had to fight against rage quit feeling.
Saved game and then it was restroom break before getting into the next field.
2024-02-03T23:18:15Z Actually decided to take my lunch break here, its perfect time when field switching is next...
2024-02-03T23:47:06Z Feeding time is over, back to harvesting soybeans.
2024-02-04T00:06:18Z Recorded autodrive network waypoint routes and target points for F69 and F68. Now those fields should be good to go for grain hauling.
Unloading grain cart.
Decided to split F68 in the middle, dunno if its large enough field to require this, but wanted to do it anyways, it doesn't hurt as long as you have the time to do it. I split it N-S direction where grain trailer autodrive loading point was, should help with grain cart tractor driving. I did this on my FS22 Start From Zero PMC Cereal Region 32km savegame, it helped great deal on those huge 216ha fields.
Overall I want to think through the harvest before setting combines off, I want to avoid frustrations and vehicle collisions, etc grain carts becoming full etc all kinds of issues as much as possible, I don't want to get frustrated, angry and then rage quite tonight before I've exhausted myself harvesting as much as possible. I just ate a lunch so I should have plenty of time for gaming tonight. Alarm timer on the phone is for 7hrs 30min (after lunch) so yeah I'm looking forward to playing as long as I can stay awake.
Once field was cut in half then it was savegame and restroom break before generating courseplay course for harvesters.
2024-02-04T00:30:03Z Courseplay 3 (yes, three) headland course got generated pretty OK looking. Should be no tree collisions now.
Took a long time to drive all four claas lexion 8900s from F151 NW through F68 split into the E edge where field work course starting location was, it might have been quicker to just generate the starting location into W side where harvesters were, but oh well, next time.
Saved game one more time and then it was ready to begin.
2024-02-04T00:41:36Z Started harvesting soybeans F68, courseplay, ETA 1h 24min, 4x tools.
Hopefully this is enjoyable harvest.
Busy harvesting soybeans.
Double grain carts doing their thing.
2024-02-04T01:49:53Z Started to test autodrive grain cart unloading combines and dumping into semi-truck grain trailer...
First four unloads went well, I adjusted autodrive grain cart vehicle settings "pipe offset" from 0.75m to 1.25m, works a bit better on claas lexion 8900 with midest durus 18.2m header.
Autodrive driven fendt 1050 varios pulling elmers haulmaster 2000 grain carts is not as fast as me driving grain carts myself, the overall skill and speed is just not the same, but of course two grain carts driving at the same time under autodrive compared to me obviously being able to drive only one at the time, dunno it might not be that much slower on grand scheme of things, like whole large field harvest from start to finish. I as human being with two hands and only be able to control one vehicle at the time, I cannot drive one full grain cart to the semi-truck grain trailer while emptying a combine with another grain cart, autodrive can.
Will be interesting to learn how this works, it all could come crashing down if these fendt 1050 varios start to collide with combines a lot, this is just a few minutes into testing them so better not even guess how good will they run in a long run.
Of course if autodrive would work unloading combines, then wow dude... it would free me up to do some other things on the side while autodrive and courseplay would harvest a field for me. Sure its somewhat iffy thing to let automation tools completely do everything for you, but well I mean courseplay already does all the field work for me, only thing in FS19 and FS22 I've been doing is driving grain cart and "managing the farm" so to speak, a supervisor of sorts.
Great shot, one fendt 1050 vario with elmers haulmaster is emptying combine on the background while other is dumping into semi-truck grain trailer.
One thing autodrive sure is wasting time on, is predicting stuff, it actually doesn't. Grain cart is just sitting and waiting like a blind fool until one of the harvesters opens up a pipe, at this time grain cart awakens from hibernation and starts to look around that where is this combine. Situation like this would never ever happen with human driving grain cart tractor because I am always monitoring the 1-4 combines in my inspector list (or whatever that vehicle info mods name is) and I am already driving towards the combine that is the fullest, I'm not just sleeping and waiting for it to come full when it might already stop.
That sleeping and waiting might be reduced a bit if you turn harvester vehicle settings for putting pipe out from 60% to lower amount. But dunno, 60% is quite nice overall level.
2024-02-04T02:19:25Z Lead claas lexion 8900 finished its field work course.
Oh and even though autodrive avoid fruit is turned on, it will drive grain cart tractors into fruit without mercy. I assume it tries to overall avoid it, but yeah it will drive into fruit. As its courseplay / autodrive automation tool AI driver, it will not destroy crop though, so guess its a compromise that you can live with.
2024-02-04T02:24:22Z Had to take a restroom break even though F68 soybeans harvest was minutes away of being finished...
2024-02-04T02:35:00Z Finished harvesting soybeans F68.
Its such a great feeling to have another field checked off from my list of fields to harvest. One step closer to finishing this savegame... in maybe few months of hard work 
Decided to record autodrive network waypoint route to selling point 5 (SP5) which is pretty much now already the closest selling point and once I proceed further into W then it definitely is.
2024-02-04T02:42:05Z Oh crap, drove semi-truck over there and then realized that SP5 is buggy, its right in front of a large vehicle sheds door in a farm yard, yes this selling point must be moved. Okay this is a no go. I'm going to haul grain to closest railroad silo and then on the next planting season while bourgaults are on the fields for hours, I'll run semi-truck grain trailer tipper/6 road train to sell soybeans, perfect time use and fun to see money coming in while seeding.
Oh and wrote bug report about SP5.
2024-02-04T02:56:04Z Started to cut F69 in half from the S center towards N where semi-truck grain loading autodrive target point is. F69 is much larger than F68 so this cut or split will definitely come in handy, will be driving grain carts through it several times. Well I mean err, unless I just have autodrive drive them
Lexion 8900 grain tank became full 2 meters before field was cut open
Got courseplay field work course generated OK, used 2 headlands this time and W edge starting point, looks OK, should be no diagonal problems in the SE end, remains to be seen. Now the next problem is that I cannot setup autodrive grain cart unloading before headland is opened up, or dunno where to record the waypoints otherwise, hmm.
Opened field up on the starting point, lined up lexion 8900s, then saved game just in case and then it was go time
2024-02-04T03:10:23Z Started harvesting soybeans F69, courseplay, ETA 2h 32min, 4x tools.
This is a bit beefier field work course duration, nice, get to do some harvest big time
Rolling in...
Unloading...
2024-02-04T03:26:25Z Got autodrive grain cart unloading network waypoint route setup, right away fendt 1050 vario shot off to the crop, yikes! But yeah its AI driving so no crop destruction, its a compromise.
2024-02-04T03:30:10Z And then it happened, fendt 1050 vario under autodrive contrcol had a collision head on with a lexion 8900
However by sheer luck they managed to untangle themselves, I doubt next time they are so lucky...
2024-02-04T03:33:38Z Then fendt 1050 varios collided with each other, okay this field work course seems to be doomed, already two collisions and headland is not even half way done yet
Maybe I got excited too soon about FS19 autodrive driving overloader aka grain cart mode
2024-02-04T03:41:41Z Another fendt head on lexion collision
Was observing autodrive controlling grain carts and it was quite... sad to see, they stopped in middle of the field in the crop when two three combines were over 80% full already, it just doesn't look very good, maybe the F68 half harvest was a fluke of lucky shots, because this F69 harvest in the beginning part is a crap show, I would not trust autodrive to control grain carts, not even a little bit
But hmm maybe joint operation would work, I drive one grain cart all the time to unload combines, then once its full I'll just start autodrive route and it will go empty the grain cart into grain trailer, giving me time to drive other grain cart and unload more harvesters. Hmm, maybe.
2024-02-04T03:50:56Z FS19 froze, I was ALT-TABbed to write the above paragraph(s) and once I got back into FS19, it was frozen with hour glass windows mouse pointer
Hmm I did save game before starting this harvester field work course like I always do, so not too much progress have been lost, but hmm now I'm wondering what caused this, FS19 alone is not known to just freeze so I have to assume its the autodrive as that is the new element I brought in just now. Hmm.
I even gave FS19 time to recover by visiting restroom but no dice, it was definitely frozen for several minutes. Okay nothing else to do than restart FS19 and load savegame. This time, I'll be doing the grain cart driving.
2024-02-04T03:54:52Z FS19 and savegame back up, but courseplay field work course had disappeared from the harvesters, go figure.
2024-02-04T03:56:25Z Started, again, to harvest soybeans from F69, yadi yada
Now just have to wait and unload harvesters half a headland just to get even with the situation before FS19 froze. Oh well, gotta get it done.
My path.
2024-02-04T05:15:40Z Semi-truck grain trailer tipper/6 the road train part (second?) got stuck in railroad silo 10 (RS10), had to leave it there and quit as it didn't frigging budge. My frustration level went up a nudge
Getting tired too, I have no idea when my yawns turn legit as I took that long nap today, but looking at how much this field has soybeans left to cut, I highly doubt I have the energy to finish this tonight.
2024-02-04T05:43:32Z Snoozing off, pretty much in full zombi mode, time to call it a night. Saved game and exited FS19, good night.
Continue reading next page, Start From Zero PMC Grande Gardens 16km Home, go back to previous page.