Farming Quick Guide

Farthest Frontier General Discussion
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Looking for feedback from players new and old!

What did I get wrong? Anything you would add? (Within the context of getting the basics under you :pray: without overloading with information)

Thanks :+1:

Edit : Updated and improved version

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It’s a good tutorial. Maybe a bit strange that you skipped everything on rocks and weeds as that’s relatively quick to explain, also that the first year should probably be 3x maintenance so that you get down to an acceptable level of weeds and rocks? But otherwise very good :+1:

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I appreciate the feedback :pray: thank you :relaxed: will be taking it onboard for a revised guide :+1:

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Thanks for the feedback!

Here’s the updated/revised Crop Farming Guide!

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This is a big improvement. The suggested rotations and quick reference for which plants will grow well in the same type of soil are a nice touch.

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Thanks! It doesn’t cover everything but hopefully enough to get players farming successfully and something to build from :crossed_fingers:

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What might be worth mentioning - for maximum efficency - you should make a little bit bigger fields - up to 50 cells still require only 2 farmers.

Edit:
Ok after watching it all, I would say you got it a bit wrong. You don’t do things like 2x or 3x buckwheat. If diseases kick in, you are in a very bad spot. On 1 field you should rotate only crops that don’t share diseases when planting one after next.

Like this:
Year 1: Clover + Rye
Year 2: Clover + Buckwheat
Year 3: Turnip + Clover + Peas - just to have anything on year 3.

Note this way you don’t need maintenance as Rye and Buckwheat do all the job. Also worth to note while buckwheat and peas do share diseases, there is a turnip in between which denies disease passing from one year to the next one. And you don’t lose on fertility as the balance is 0. Now with 3 same fields but different rotation order (like delayed by a year each) you simply make your fields “immune” to diseases, maximising utilisation of grain and reducing micromanagement almost to 0 - you can fertilise it to increase crops - which in case of rye and buckwheat doesn’t matter as much as in case of wheat. Until your fields are like 90% fertile with no rocks etc, rye gives better outcome than wheat.

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Yeah it doesn’t cover everything (by a long shot) or necessarily the most efficient/best setup but hopefully helps some newer players navigate the basics.

When I have a better handle on diseases and farming from T3 and beyond, I will likely make a longer, more comprehensive guide…although putting this one together took it out of me a bit :joy:

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People keep thinking having the biggest field for the lowest maximum number of farmers is somehow more efficient. It is not. You can choose how few farmers you want and can get by with.

Max. size fields (288-2 tiles when not considering exploits) are the most efficient, simply because compost is per field, independent of size.

If you want to be efficient (not that that’s necessary atm), don’t go for clover. Peas/beans are more efficient in terms of fertility-to-yield, no matter what crop you use the fertility gained by clover use for. With max. size fields and composting, you can go for higher yield crops and fewer peas/beans for maximum yield efficiency.

Your suggested rotation for example nets you 47 food units per tile, with a slight increase in fertility over the years.

Rye is the second least efficient crop per day and fertility loss - only wheat is worse. Apart from peas/beans, the most efficient ones are carrots, buckwheat, then turnips. If you need grain for bread, go buckwheat. If you need to feed your cattle, carrots are even better.
Of course, you need to be able to fit those crops into your rotation (ideally without a chunk freezing off in late summer :wink: ), so your options are a bit more limited.

Compare your rotation to this:
Year 1: Leek + Peas
Year 2: Leek + Carrots
Year 3: Leek + Buckwheat

That nets you 107 food units per tile. 1 load of compost every 2 years and you’re golden (unless you play at low fertility maps, of course).

Of course your rotation is probably meant for those years until you reach max. fertility, but with 50-tile fields, you get 6 times less fertility out of the biggest fert. booster in the game, compost. That’s 48 tiles actually farmed compared to 286.

With such vastly more efficient crop rotations, the loss from diseases becomes barely relevant. You could plant only leek+peas and you’d get 99 food/tile, not even needing a single heap of compost every three years - and you’d need diseases destroying 50% of the harvest of both crops every year to become comparable. Which is impossible, of course. Losing 10% here and there won’t make much of a dent.

Throwing in the necessary maintenance first to get rid of the rocks, that I agree on. I do like the old clover+maintenance+peas rotation for that (and getting fertility up), though that might not be the most efficient way, tbh. Although, crunching the numbers, if you go for triple maintenance at first, then beans+peas, you may get 38 units of food out of your first three years, but only +4% fertility. The aforementioned combo gets you the same 3x maintenance over those 3 years and only 24 units of peas, but +12% fertility. Add some compost to that and you should be up to 100% fertility in no time. :slight_smile:

Edit: I forgot to mention that all my numbers are the average yield, before being modified by fertility, rockiness and weed level.

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I would hope the increase in fertility by a compost treatment is determined by the number of squares of a field. Haven’t actually checked it out though. Would seem counterintuitive for the game to be equal regardless of size of field.

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Yeah, it isn’t, though. I’m sure there will be a lot of rebalancing from the devs until final release, and maybe they can change that as well. But for the time being, it’s go as big as possible if you want efficiency.

Then again, for the time being, you don’t need efficiency. :smiley:
Producing multiple years of surplus food just to watch it rot away is probably not very satisfying for most players…

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I couldn’t figure out if any of that was in reply to the video or just for @LordyLord ?

I haven’t noticed any issues (using the technique from the video) in providing for a population pre-T4, and obviously the video is more a “deciphering some of the basics” for newer players…so I’m hoping, although not an exhaustive/super efficient guide, it does help explain a fairly solid way to start farming :crossed_fingers:

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It was specifically in response to @LordyLord. It’s fine not to go for the most efficient setup, or complicated calculations for a beginner’s guide, I think. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to teach something you think is efficient and relevant (like max. farmers per tile), when it really isn’t.

@Calthaza has a nice little tool to help calculate the outcomes of rotations, if that’s of interest to you. I modified it for personal use, to include the average expected yield (pre-modifiers), but I don’t want to share that without asking them for permission first.

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The farmer “efficiency” Is that in reference to the original video rather than the updated one?

My reasoning in the newer vid for 5x5 starting size is more about being able to afford the man power early, and (I’m hoping :grimacing::joy:) it takes less time to build and improve the smallest dimension field…

I’m definitely not claiming to have done exhaustive research on ratios/yields/manpower/time…was attempting to do away with overloading a newer player with tons of min/max information…

Hopefully it hits that mark :crossed_fingers:

I appreciate any/all feedback :pray:

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I actually have only watched your updated one. :sweat_smile:

5x5 starting size is perfect for the reason you mentioned. It doesn’t stop you from going 12x24 via expansions.

I consider efficiency as how much food I can produce per farmer per year. Leek has the highest yield and would naturally be the best, if it weren’t for that pesky fertility. :wink:

But I absolutely agree that none of that is essential for a beginner’s guide. I only made my comment in response to LordyLord’s suggestions. It’s better to not suggest the most efficient setups than it is to claim pretty inefficient setups as the most efficient ones.

Mentioning that bigger fields are more efficient in general thanks to compost (currently), would probably be a nice addition. Not enough for a reupload though, I’m sure. :smiley:

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Yes that’s true but you can’t really do that early stage - not enough labor - they need to pick swords and shields :slight_smile: Then the idea was to get as much grain as possible (not veggies) as in the vid with setting it up once and then forgetting about it completely. In my example you could also do maintenance instead of turnip at year 3 for positive fertility balance and faster rocks clearing.

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Do you find yourself burning through your grain too fast when you put the Windmill so close to your Granaries?

I find I need at least 15 squares between them for single miller ops, and a few more if I’m scaling up larger production with two people working the Windmill.

That way my cows don’t starve in the winter when all the grain is turned to flour, but the Bakeries still get plenty of supplies.

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By the end of the video they had 6 10x10 fields, requiring more labour than 2 12x24 fields. Of course starting out you will make a smaller field, but then I don’t understand your suggestion of 50 fields I was replying to. That’s not maximum efficiency. 2 farmers will obviously take twice as long to set up a 50 tile field to a 25 tile one. There’s no guarantee that 2 farmers can farm a 50 tile field, either - it depends on how far they have to walk to the field, how much time they spend stocking their homes etc.

And you went on to suggest 3 fields in alternating rotations of this, 150 tiles combined. So not exactly an early stage suggestion, right? :stuck_out_tongue:

If you’re limited by labour and time, set up a 5x5 field like suggested in the video, then keep expanding it until you reach 288 tiles. And place hunters huts around the field instead of fences you keep having to tear down again every time to expand. :slight_smile:

If you need grain produced every year despite its long storage capacity (why?), going for buckwheat every year isn’t as bad as you claimed, because the diseases aren’t that bad. Using less efficient rye is just as bad. But it might be a good idea to talk about diseases, how bad they are and how to avoid them.

But weren’t you replying to the updated video? At what point did it suggest producing as much grain as possible specifically? Sorry if I missed that.
If that was the case, I would suggest not producing as much grain as possible. :smiley:

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Why add a second miller, then move the windmill to make it less efficient? :smiley:

If you don’t have enough grain for the mill and bakeries, why feed it to your cattle? Root veggies are more efficient as cattle fodder. I’d produce more of those and put the granaries next to the mill instead of the barns (and put cellars there instead). Sadly you can’t choose which fodder is allowed in the barn (unless I’m mistaken).

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Can’t say I’ve noticed it…but I haven’t delved much into cattle farms (I have done some, pre/post updates) but thought they were fed root vegetables :man_shrugging::carrot:…like I said I haven’t done much “testing” with cattle farms though!

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