Farming Simulator 19 at FarmCon 2018: Build Your Own Farm

Every year GIANTS Software holds FarmCon, a conference about the latest work on its Farming Simulator series. The 2018 edition ran on July 14 and 15 at the Horsch facilities in Schwandorf, Germany, with talks on sound design, community management and mod creation. The session everyone was waiting for, on site and at home, was a 45-minute demo of Farming Simulator 19.

Build your own farm

Before the event, community manager Lars Malcharek (known as “Lisertan” on the GIANTS forums and Discord) promised that the demo would reveal at least one new feature, which he called his favourite. On July 14 it was shown: players can build their own farm, starting by buying land to build on.

In multiplayer, up to four farms can share a map, each run by a player or team with its own vehicles and bank account. Buildings such as stables can be upgraded for more space. GIANTS added that it was testing support for up to eight farms.

Players had long complained about how money worked in multiplayer, where one player controlled the shared account, and about having no real control over farm buildings. The new system answers both. It also opens the door to competition on a single map: separate farms racing to grow faster or earn more.

More features confirmed after the demo

As attendees shared what they saw and further workshops took place, more details emerged, which Malcharek then confirmed. Community lists compiled at the time were mostly, though not entirely, accurate; the points below are the confirmed ones.

Starting options. One start gives no buildings or machines, only money. Another gives a farm, fields and equipment with less cash. That supports both a contractor-style game working for others and the classic takeover of an existing farm. Exact starting conditions were not yet final.

Missions. Farming Simulator 17’s jobs for neighbouring farmers return, with changes: players choose their own machines or the client’s, time limits are removed, and missions work in both single-player and multiplayer.

Land. Land is no longer bought field by field. Players buy whole sections of the map, including the forest and meadows inside them.

Animal housing. Each building has an animal limit. GIANTS was considering three sizes of housing, the largest with no limit. Ground under placed buildings now levels automatically, so a new shed no longer floats over gaps on uneven terrain.

Crops and machines

• Weeds can be removed with a harrow, but only at an early growth stage.
• Lime can be spread on fields.
• Tractors are grouped by horsepower class in the shop.
• Wear and tear: machines show their age, and working speed and power drop over time, forcing a choice between keeping old equipment and replacing it.
• Cab lighting and illuminated dashboards, long requested by the community.
• Hoses for hydraulics and tanks connect automatically between tools and tractors.
• Sleeping through the night was in testing and might not work in multiplayer, or might be cut.

Release date: November 20, 2018

The release date was not announced at FarmCon. Asked whether the game would arrive at the usual end of October, Malcharek said a date would come “soon(ish)”. A few days later Amazon UK leaked it, and Malcharek confirmed on Discord: November 20, 2018. In his words: “We liked end of October more. Truth be told, that was the initial plan again, but we want things to be as good as possible, so we decided to go for an extra month to polish the game.”

He also mentioned work on gearboxes and transmissions that would change how tractors sound and feel to drive. At the time it was unclear whether the transmissions would be automatic only or also offer manual shifting.

How it looked at launch

Building a farm from nothing shipped with the game on November 20, 2018. It arrived alongside two maps, the American Ravenport and the European Felsbrunn, and the first John Deere licence in the series’ history, a brand players had asked about for years.

Questions readers ask

When was Farming Simulator 19 released?

November 20, 2018. The date leaked through Amazon UK and was then confirmed by GIANTS, which chose an extra month of polish over the usual late-October release.

How many farms can play on one Farming Simulator 19 multiplayer map?

GIANTS announced up to four separate farms at FarmCon 2018, each with its own vehicles and bank account, and said it was testing support for up to eight.