Oh oi’d kill for a brand new combine harvester
Playing settlement-building survival gameFarthest Frontierhas me planning a lot.
I’m planning outposts to mine distant resources.
I’m planning road and neighbourhood layouts to optimise movement and happiness.
I’m planning defences to fend off bandits.
But most of my thought is going on farming, planning my crop rotations to optimise fertility and yields.
Finally, I have a use for everything school taught me about the three-field system and the nitrogen cycle.
It is quite a splendid virtual ant farm.
Every item in Farthest Frontier exists as an object in the world.
At first, you’ll see your little people scurrying around doing all the work themselves.
Even just building a hunter’s lodge is a complicated process.
The bigger your settlement, the more hands you’ll have helping, and the more you could semi-automate.
Farming is my favourite aspect of Farthest Frontier to focus intently on.
Certain crops are vulnerable to frost or heat damage, so pick your seasons them carefully.
Monoculture will leave you vulnerable to blight, too.
But you’re not just planning for one year, it’s set up for three-year cycles.
Farthest Frontier’s farming is all about the rotation.
Farm intensively and you’ll soon have barren soil producing meagre harvests.
Remember your schooling: soil needs time and care to recover.
The biggest help comes from planting clover, which you could’t eat but does boost fertility a lot.
The nitrogen-fixing crops of beans and peas help fertility a little while still providing food too.
While one field recovers, have others growing, staggering their recuperative years.
It is unreasonably pleasing to get a system of fields set up nicely.
I trust the town will be fine but what about my flax?
I know I’ve slightly botched my latest settlement’s field layouts, and have suffered some crippling blights.
In Farthest Frontier, I do lose interest past a certain point.
I enjoy struggling to survive at the start, desperately trying to stockpile resources while carefully managing growth.
It all starts to drag.
I think my next settlement will be magnificent.
My fields will be perfect.
Farthest Frontier is still in early access.
They have said expanding the late game is one of their main early access goals.
I look forward to seeing the game it grows into.
