Background FS22 Story
Please read Test From Zero PMC Undefined Farms 20km Homepage for details.
2022-12-27 Beginning
2022-12-27T12:21:00Z New farm manager savegame created using PMC Undefined Farms 20km v0.2.2, autodrive and guidancesteering XML config files copied over the savegame1 dir, used dev console "gsMoneyAdd -1500000" to remove farm manager money, now we have zero everything. Setup 3 day seasons. This savegames goal is to test how good PMC Undefined Farms 20km v0.2.2 works to get actual Start From Zero savegame going. I am still not sure how farmland image is working and are there any other issues that come from the new 1888 field definitions etc. See PMC Undefined Farms 20km Development forum topic for more details on editing.
This is not a real Start From Zero savegame, my plan is to stop playing as soon as good or bad result have been achieved, at the latest when I own my own land with seeder, harvester and trailer which allows me to start growing farm by harvesting.
Better Contracts v1.2.6.2 is used, only config option I did was unlimited number of contracts, everything else is default, even the lazy AI.
In contracts menu filtered out fertilizing, seeding and spraying because those are contracts that require money which I have zero. Available contracts without refreshing X were 8 harvest contracts with 22 hidden contracts. Checked out first canola harvest on F364 which was close by but its delivery point was PMC Sell 08 in the other side of the terrain, no thanks.
Then I continued scanning harvest contract fields against delivery selling points that which are both close to the dealership and each other, if a field is close to dealership but selling point is other side of the terrain, or even both, its not good, I would be spending all my time just driving.
I quickly discovered how frustrating waste of time this scanning is, contract by contract checking back and forth on the mapview and selling point page to see what is where. Its all but impossible to find specific field number from the 1888 fields in mapview, in time you might memorize the pattern how numbers are distributed, but for now I had no clue for example where field number ranges 730-740 are.
Was thinking maybe it would be just quicker to accept contract and check the flashing numbers on the mapview and if they are too far apart, then cancel the contract and pick the next one until you find one you like or ran out of contracts.
I am really considering creating better contracts mod github issue ticket for feature which would sort the contracts by distance to dealership and between selling points. But perhaps this is too complex to script... and how many people are even having these problems, surely not those 2km little girlie men terrain wussies 
Then I hammered refresh contracts to get as many as I could, F21 had wheat harvest to deliver products to PMC Sell 01 which is by the dealership, this is one of the old fields right from the beginning of this terrain so its not exactly anything new... but then again I don't need to use the new fields this is just overall test if Start From Zero savegames work, how players make them work is up to them but there has to be a technical means to do it.
2022-12-27T12:48:00Z Accepted contract harvesting wheat F21.
2022-12-27T12:53:00Z Started contract harvesting wheat F21, manually driving.
2022-12-27T13:01:00Z Combine grain tank full 10k liters.
2022-12-27T13:05:00Z Valtra tractor with grain trailer driven to the field, combine unloading.
2022-12-27T13:12:00Z Combine full.
2022-12-27T13:20:00Z Unloaded combine even though it was not full, but now we got grain trailer full so going to haul that to the selling point.
2022-12-27T13:24:00Z Dumped 22.5k liters of wheat to PMC Sell 01. Contract says 68% transported and contract itself as whole is 89% complete now.
2022-12-27T13:28:00Z Unloaded remaining of the combine and now back to harvesting.
2022-12-27T13:31:00Z Field is now harvested.
Unloaded to the grain trailer and its now got 9017 liters while better contracts menu shows "to go" 9800 liters. Contract now shows 94% complete. If "to go" number is accurate, I cannot complete this contract 
2022-12-27T13:35:00Z Dumped 9017 liters to PMC Sell 01, contract finished! 
Oh wow that was a close one, contract finished and it did not give me any money for leftovers, dunno how that works if it said it needs 9.8k liters but still completes contract with only 9k liters... hmm hmm.
2022-12-27T13:37:00Z Finished contract harvesting wheat F21, collected reward 4.6k.
Oh wow 4.6k heh, massive amount of cash 
2022-12-27T13:40:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F26.
Purchased two big bags of solid fertilizer for 3.6k. Hopefully 2k liters of fertilizer is enough for this field, better contracts shows usage 758 liters.
Uh oh this field is growing ... hmm canola maybe, so I cannot see the field dirt where have I spread already, oh well just need to use the field ends as guideline and hope my aim is accurate
2022-12-27T13:45:00Z Started contract fertilizing F26, manually driving.
Yeah I'm blind, cant see crap on the crop and because this whole terrain is diagonally aligned, using minimap (9) compass is useless and on top of it all, ESC mapview is useless on such level of accuracy because this is a huge terrain, I cant even check the mapview of where I spread yet, it was pure gut feeling driving
But whee contract completed about 50m before end of the field, nice. Now I decided to simply accept contract reward while I still had 1408 liters of solid fertilizer in the borrowed bredal spreader, game refunds me that product, its just that I've never checked if it refunds correct amount and overall it feels a bit lazy to give huge loads of product to the contract boss so to speak.
2022-12-27T13:51:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F26, collected reward 7.3k. Reimbursement was 2139. Budget now 8.4k
Decided to accept next contract again fertilizing on these old small fields under the 35 number range which means they are close to the dealership for short travel time. Also they are very small fields, I don't want to risk being too greedy by taking too large contract where I might run out of product, need to do one or two more small contracts to build my finances up a bit.
2022-12-27T13:54:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F20. Just in case bought two big bags of solid fertilizer again for 3.6k.
2022-12-27T13:59:00Z Started contract fertilizing F20, manually driving.
On F20 I can actually see where I spread previously. Its got first stage plants growing. Still it was a careful job to keep in line.
Finished fertilizing with 1516 liters in the bredal spreader.
2022-12-27T14:03:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F20, collected reward 6.6k. Reimbursement 2.3k. Budget now 11.8k, broke magical 10k limit wohoo
Seems like better contracts "usage" for product is pretty accurate, maybe I can now take a bit more optimized / risky contracts for my current budget.
2022-12-27T14:06:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F04.
Purchased 6 big bags of solid fertilizer for 10.9k. F04 is growing sunflower crop, ugh, but maybe I can just barely see where I spread previously.
2022-12-27T14:09:00Z Started contract fertilizing F04, manually driving. Uh in this sunflower growing crop it was nearly impossible to see where you already spread
On the second pass I by mistake left about 5m empty spot. I must say its rather painful to drive blind
But that is one of the Start From Zero points, you start with poor equipment and then slowly after hard work upgrade into good equipment
I truly cant wait to get into own land + vehicle so can use GPS
When you think about it, its actually quite large leap from manual driving to GPS not to mention courseplay. On regular 0/180 aligned field terrains its easier to use that minimap (9) compass cheat, its not really a cheat, game just tells you which direction you should go while you still have to steer it manually, game does not do it for you like with GPS and courseplay.
When this contract finished I had 3.3k liters of solid fertilizer left.
2022-12-27T14:20:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F04, collected reward 24.3k. Reimbursement 5k. Budget now 25.8k. Slowly increasing our budget, growing our farming empire
2022-12-27T14:24:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F09.
This is a larger field 24.9ha, usage is 11.4k liters of fertilizer. Purchased 8 big bags of solid fertilizer for 14.5k. Then 4 bags for 7.2k. Loaded them all up and had 12k liters of solid fertilizer to use, hopefully its enough.
Uh oh this field also was growing crop and I cant see crap, oh well you gotta suffer through these early stages for Start From Zero heh.
2022-12-27T14:30:00Z Started contract fertilizing F09, manually driving.
Not to take pessimistic attitude but it would be a minor miracle if I don't have to go buy more product because sloppy spreading, I simply cannot see where the hell am I spreading here, I can only quess...
On this fields diagonal orientation I tried to keep compass to 300 degrees when going west. Fertilizing contracts are the king, but when you cannot see where you spray or spread, it is ... extremely difficult to do field work accurately.
Well that went belly up fast, on second pass I was ONE ROW OFF, argh! 
Mapview was so inaccurate on 20km terrain that it didn't even detect the almost one row off distance, so its hopeless to check map if you're on the right track. Man this crap ain't easy! 
Worst thing is, if I finish the field but contract is still not done, meaning I missed too many spots... then how the hell am I going to find those missed spots as I cant see them. Wonder if I could see on foot walking and looking directly at the ground, or maybe the additional field info would tell me fertilization level...
Problem with long field like F09 is that by the end of the row you are so far off its literally one row off. Maybe I should field work this "sideways" meaning the short edge, there would be less chance of veering off course, hmm.
I have to admit, this kind of fertilizing no matter how much money it pays... is really not fun, its very stressful to try to keep straight line and not miss spots.
2022-12-27T15:03:00Z Finished the last row, contract is now 93% done. So going to take a restroom break and then trying to find those missed spots by checking the field ends, oddly enough I still have 7k liters of fertilizer left which suggest the usage is fair bit off with this contract.
2022-12-27T15:12:00Z Uuuh after all the suffering got the contract finished, left with 6.3k liters of fertilizer which is oddly large amount.
2022-12-27T15:13:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F09, collected reward 51.4k. Reimbursement 9.6k. Budget now 56.4k.
Now... I really do not want to do another field blind, I have to see where have I spread before, its just dumb to drive field back and forth completely blind.
Checked out few local fertilizing contract fields for crop types, finally found F06 with decent size contract which had cotton in 6/8 growth stage where there was plenty of dark dirt around the plants visible, should be no problem to spread fertilizer on this one.
2022-12-27T15:18:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F06. Purchased 5k liters of solid fertilizer for 9.1k.
2022-12-27T15:21:00Z Started contract fertilizing F06, manually driving.
2022-12-27T15:33:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F06, collected reward 30k. Reimbursement 2.6k. Budget now 77.1k.
If I'm completely honest... now this is getting slightly, only very very slightly boring, but luckily its my lunch time so I can take a quick breather before continuing contracts. And perhaps even starting to figure out how much money do I need before puchasing my own land + spreader or sprayer, because after that I am allowed to use GPS and courseplay on the old school Start From Zero rules
2022-12-27T15:35:00Z Lunch break...
2022-12-27T16:04:00Z Feeding time is over, back to contracting.
Decided to juggle a bit, going to accept borrowed vehicles contract for a small field which has nice amazone spreader, then accept all the dealership nearby fertilizing contracts WITHOUT vehicles
2022-12-27T16:10:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F27.
This was the borrowed vehicles spreader contract.
2022-12-27T16:10:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F02, F12 and F29.
Purchased 2 * 8 big bags of solid fertilizer for 14.5k.
2022-12-27T16:15:00Z Started contract fertilizing F02, manually driving. Oh my this field is corn 4/6 growth stage, luckily I can just barely see the fertilized area from 2D top-down view, but yeah I would not call that view a very enjoyable farming simulator experience.
2022-12-27T16:26:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F02, collected reward 22k.
2022-12-27T16:28:00Z Started contract fertilizing F29, manually driving. This field was so bad plants that I could not see where I'm spreading. Pain.
2022-12-27T16:37:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F29, collected reward 19.6k.
2022-12-27T16:46:00Z Started contract fertilizing F12, manually driving. This field was also completely blanketed with plants, no way to see where I'm spreading
2022-12-27T16:54:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F12, collected reward 18.5k.
2022-12-27T16:56:00Z Started contract fertilizing F27, manually driving.
2022-12-27T17:00:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F27, collected reward 8.5k. Budget now 117.5k.
Did my first scouting of farmland prices, cheapest land near the dealership was farlmand 166 which cost 197.5k, its not overly expensive... but I would not call it super cheap either. If I wanted to exploit PMC Undefined Farms 20km terrain, there is farmland 138 which is only 4ha in size and cost mere 38.4k but this is clearly a farmland image bug, so I wont go the cheating route.
So back to doing fertilizing contracts because I need to more than double my money to even plan on doing any purchases. Now I'm regretting returning that amazone spreader I had on F27 contract, but oh well there are plenty of others to choose from. There was one spraying contract with rubicon 9000, but seeing how bad these fields are where you cant see where you fertilized... dunno what difference the best sprayer would make, I have still the same visibility issue.
I think my best option now is endurance and that is bredal k165, even if it comes without extensions.
2022-12-27T17:15:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F323. This was with borrowed bredal k165 spreader.
2022-12-27T17:19:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F319, F40, F41.
Refilled six remaining bags of solid fertilizer. Purchased 2 * 8 big bags of fertilizer for 14.5k.
2022-12-27T17:31:00Z Started contract fertilizing F319, manually driving.
2022-12-27T17:47:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F319, collected reward 18.8k.
2022-12-27T17:48:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F317, F321.
2022-12-27T17:50:00Z Started contract fertilizing F321, manually driving.
2022-12-27T18:06:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F321, collected reward 18.9k.
2022-12-27T18:09:00Z Started contract fertilizing F317, manually driving. Going to try driving this in 270/90 degree heading regardless which "orientation" the field itself is. Dunno how it would play out.
Driving irregular shape field in 0/180 degree heading sounded good on paper... but ending result in-game just sucks. You need to drive along the longest field edge, field shape for it to feel natural.
2022-12-27T18:25:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F317, collected reward 17.5k.
2022-12-27T18:26:00Z Started contract fertilizing F323, manually driving.
2022-12-27T18:38:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F323, but will not collect it yet, this is the leased vehicles contract.
Next fields were really far away in NW corner, uuh that is a long drive. If I'll go there at least I need to go refill fertilizer.
2022-12-27T18:40:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F13. This is monster 111ha size field. It will take a long while to get this done heh.
2022-12-27T18:41:00Z Started contract fertilizing F13, manually driving.
I could just BARELY see the edge of fertilized field part, uuh.
2022-12-27T19:23:00Z Time to go refill bredal k165 and me to take a restroom break.
Purchased 2 * 8 big bags of fertilizer for 14.5k. Refilled bredal k165 and then headed back to fertilizing.
2022-12-27T20:26:00Z Had to take a restroom break because mind started to go numb by the endless 2D top-down driving so I can see fertilized ground. Uuuh... booring
Hmm I think this contract of F13 was way too large for a single bredal k165 without spreading extensions. A 100ha field should be done with two Rubicon 9000s. Oh well, no more huge fields in this test from zero, besides I'm getting a big payday out of this, so I can buy that farmland already, no vehicles yet but we're getting there.
2022-12-27T20:56:00Z Was surprised when alarm went off for a lunch break, already? Huh? Its been THAT mind numbing experience to fertilize this field uuh. OK finishing this pass and then its lunch break time
2022-12-27T21:23:00Z Feeding time is over, back to mind numbing boring F13 bredal k165 work...
Purchased 8 big bags of fertilizer for 14.5k. Refilled bredal k165 and then headed back to fertilizing.
2022-12-27T21:49:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F13, collected reward 209k.
Uaah frigging finally. My brain melted with that surreal 2D top-down view watching where green plants waterfall style flowed from top to bottom of the screen, just terrible way to spend few hours
But guess the 209k reward was worth it, budget now 309k.
For now I'm done fertilizing contracts, I need a breather. Cancelled contracts F40 and F41, not going to drive in NW corner of the terrain just for these.
2022-12-27T21:54:00Z That borrowed vehicles contract fertilizing F323, collected reward 12.9k. Budget now 321.6k.
2022-12-27T22:04:00Z Purchased farmland ID 166 for 197.5k, this land contains fields 20-23, so these are now off the contracts board. Budget now 124.1k.
So now we own land, next is to buy a tractor and bredal spreader, then we get to use all the goodies; GPS, courseplay and autodrive.
Checked out few cheapest tractor + spreader combos, but we don't have enough money yet. Need to do few more contracts. But for that, I'll time accelerate to the next day as its in-game 1752hrs and starting to get dusk.
Sep 1st in-game 0621hrs.
2022-12-27T22:12:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F11 with borrowed vehicles.
Accepted contract fertilizing F17 and F28.
2022-12-27T22:16:00Z Started contract fertilizing F28, manually driving.
2022-12-27T22:24:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F28, collected reward 16.5k.
2022-12-27T22:26:00Z Started contract fertilizing F17, manually driving.
Alright let this contract be the last one with manual driving because I CANNOT SEE CRAP in fields
2022-12-27T22:53:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F17, collected reward 55.3k.
All done, YEAH!
Now I'm SO going back to the dealership, empty this amazone spreader and then purchase my own vehicle + spreader.
Purchased Kubota DSX-W Geospread with xl capacity for 29k. Kubota M6-141 with frontweight 450kg and guidancesteering for 144.4k.
Now I can start to use GPS, courseplay and autodrive because I own my own land and vehicle(s)
Then refilled kubota dsx-w with solid fertilizer. Purchased 8 big bags of fertilizer for 14.5k.
2022-12-27T23:03:00Z Started contract fertilizing F11, manually GPS. YEAH BUDDY!
You have NO IDEA how GOOD it felt to drive with your own new tractor using guidanceSteering! It is so awesome!
2022-12-27T23:12:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F11, collected reward 18.2k. This returned the leased vehicles (which I didn't use for F11).
2022-12-27T23:18:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F545.
This is fairly large field, better contracts say product usage 12k liters which is more than my spreader boxes capacity, so interesting to see if I need to come for a small refill. Drove to the dealership to top up Kubota DSX-W Geospread first.
While driving to F545 I continued recording autodrive network, it was simply done by adding target waypoint for F545.
2022-12-27T23:29:00Z Started contract fertilizing F545, manually GPS.
GPS is so nice, man all those hours I suffered without automation tools and could not even see where in the fields I spread fertilizer, such an torture heh, so glad that part is now over and now we can just enjoy GPS, courseplay and autodrive
Immediately after starting to use GPS I switched into cab view, its so cool to just chill there driving around the field without needing to worry if you are veering off course or anything else
Kubota M6 series and DSX-W Geospread box is pretty nice, nimble little spreading package for 10k liter capacity which is not so bad considering. This reminds me of the good old times in FS17 Cornbelt when I used this kind of back spreader box, was it KUHN EMC something cant remember anymore. Good times
Hmm dunno maybe I'll buy another Kubota M6 and DSX-W setup, it would greatly increase spreading speed and endurance. Bredal K165 with all the extensions is the king of spreaders of course, but still these DSX-W boxes have 42m width which is very nice. And the whole setup is less than 200k, I don't think you can get bredal + powerful enough tractor to pull it for that price.
2022-12-28T00:00:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F545, collected reward 74.4k.
Sent Kubota M6-141 to the dealership with autodrive. I'm sort of eyeballing F18 fertilizing contract which is quite huge, its estimated time is over two hours, yikes.
2022-12-28T00:07:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F594, F595, F598, F600.
These fields are on the west edge of "new large fields" or what should I call them dunno. Purchased 8 big bags of fertilizer for 14.5k. At the dealership refilled Kubota DSX-W box.
2022-12-28T00:14:00Z Started contract fertilizing F598, manually GPS.
Was just thinking that I'm still field working on the beginning year aka year 0 fields here, only managed to time accelerate one night. I think in average you time accelerate year or two when doing Start From Zero contracts, hmm. It has been very, VERY lucrative fertilizing contracts situation on this savegame start and there is still plenty of contracts to do, I most likely wont even manage to do them all before I have "too much" money.
Next goal is to get enough money to start field working our own fields (we have four), that requires bare minimum an seeder, tractor to pull the seeder, combine, header for the combine and some sort of grain trailer. That is the technical bare minimum. What really dictates the budget requirements is what kind of seeder and combine, with these kind of fertilizing contracts I highly doubt I would begin with some starter few meter seeder for example, combine could be perhaps john deere T560 or something of that size maybe.
It all comes down to how many more fertilizing contracts do I want to go through before switching to farm our own land. Hmm I haven't even checked how large our own fields are, which kind of equipment we absolutely need to work on those fields.
BTW now with Kubota M6-141 + DSX-W Geospread I already feel like printing money mode with fertilizing contracts. Its usually the rubicon 9000 phase when you just blast through those contracts and collect them moneyz
2022-12-28T00:28:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F598, collected reward 33.9k.
2022-12-28T00:33:00Z Started contract fertilizing F595, manually GPS.
2022-12-28T00:44:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F595, collected reward 24.1k.
2022-12-28T00:49:00Z Started contract fertilizing F600, manually GPS.
This field was just planted, so finally got a fertilizing contract with a pure dirt field surface
2022-12-28T01:03:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F600, collected reward 33.7k. Then had to drive kubota for dsx-w refill, only 736 liters left.
Purchased 8 big bags of fertilizer for 14.5k. Then refilled Kubota DSX-W Geospread.
2022-12-28T01:17:00Z Started contract fertilizing F594, manually GPS. This is a huge field, no idea how long it will take to fertilize this. Better contracts menu shows scary numbers haha.
Something went wrong with GPS line, its... well off, it started fine on the corner but it was half a width off in midway through the field long edge, odd. Possibly saving the AB line loaded the existing line, dunno. Well I'm going to field work this contract using this bad AB line, lets see how far we get with it.
2022-12-28T01:54:00Z Ran out of fertilizer, okay off to the dealership for a refill.
Purchased 8 big bags of fertilizer for 14.5k. Refilled Kubota DSX-W Geospread.
2022-12-28T02:07:00Z Back in the F594, fertilizing.
2022-12-28T02:43:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F594, collected reward 177.1k.
Better contracts had something bugging with F594, it listed insane amount of fertilizer requirement and time used was almost six hours, both of these were WAY off. Yes sure this took quite a while and was it two refills, but nothing like better contracts estimated. Hmm.
Budget now 355.5k oh my
Drove Kubota M6 to the dealership, purchased 8 big bags of fertilizer for 14.5k. Refilled Kubota DSX-W Geospread.
2022-12-28T03:08:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F18.
Purchased 2 * 8 big bags of fertilizer for 14.5k. Refilled borrowed amazone. Recorded more autodrive network, to F18, loop around the water tower.
2022-12-28T03:25:00Z Started contract fertilizing F18, courseplay, 2x tools, ETA 40min.
2022-12-28T04:00:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F18, collected reward 115.5k. Actually first drove borrowed vehicle to the dealership and unloaded solid fertilizer, dunno why, but yeah just did.
Budget now 424.6k whoah
2022-12-28T04:08:00Z Saved game and shutdown fs22, I'm dead tired in full zombi mode, time to call it a night.
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