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SimFarm FAQ/Strategy Guide, Windows 3.1
Version 1.0
Created By: Michael Dorman
Email: papermariodude@bigpond.com
Date Created: 16/02/04
Date Last-Updated: 16/02/04
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
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1. Version History
2. Introduction
3. Starting Out
4. Gameplay
- The Main Screen
- The Map Screen
- The Evaluation Screen
- The Weather Forecast
- The Buying Screen
- The Selling Screen
- The Balance Sheet
- The Bank
- Market Value
5. Farming Equipment and Stock
- Machinery
- Storage
- Chemicals
- Livestock
- Crops
6. Strategies
7. FAQ
8. Keyboard Shortcuts
9. Contact
10. Legal Stuff
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Version History
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NOTE: ALL DATES IN DD/MM/YY Format
Version 1.0 16/02/04
First Version of this guide. Basically everything has been completed including
lists of all Equipment, a FAQ, and how to play.
Everyone who has a PC has heard of the Sims series before, wether that be The
Sims or Sim City. Like the manual says, this game is Sim City’s counterpart,
instead of trying to build a huge city you’ll be trying to create a
successful farming business. Sounds Boring? Well it isn’t Sim Farm is a
challenging game that is a load of fun, just like Sim City and The Sims.
Through this game you will try to be a master farmer by planting, and
maintaining crops. As well as crops you'll also look after livestock, which
you need to look after, then when they are worth a lot, sell them. This game
is a load of fun for any fan of the sims.
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Starting Out
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After loading SimFarm you start a new game two different ways. The pre-made
regions which are on your map are basically just scenarios. Or, and
alternative is to click Design your own and you will get to choose out of
these options:
Rainfall – How much rainfall occurs in the area, a large decider in which
crops are suitable to plant.
Temperature – Another leading decider in which crops are suitable to plant.
Wind Speed – The speed of the wind, helps decide how long your crops
nutrients will last.
River – This will place a river through the map.
Lake – This will place a Lake in the map.
Generate World - Generate a world using the options set.
The Main game Screen consists of a Toolbar, a Menubar and a floating Toolbar
and the edit window. The Toolbar comprises of the following buttons:
Red Moneybag – Bring up the Buy screen.
Green Moneybag – Bring up the sell screen.
Thumbs up, Thumbs down – Bring up the evaluation screen.
Map of World – Bring up the map screen.
Wind Direction meter – Bring up the weather screen
Plus, Minus Signs – Bring up the balance sheet
Car or Lock? – Bring up the bank screen.
Crane – Bring up the edit window.
Graph – Bring up the Market Values screen.
Above the Toolbar is the Menubar, you can change many options using this.
File>
New Game – What do you expect? A new game.
Load Game – Load a game with the .SFM extension.
Save Game – Save a game under the current filename
Save As – Save game under a different filename
Load Crop – Change the Crops avaliable, only 16 can be in use at one time.
Options>
Music – Scroll Music on/off
Sound – Scroll Sound on/off
Auto Lease – Scrolls wether you lease equipment for use when not enough are
onhand.
Auto Buy- Scrolls wether you want to the game to automatically buy seeds and
chemicals when you try to perform one of these actions and the
seeds/chemicals aren’t avaliable.
Auto Messages – Scrolls wether all messages or only messages of any
significance are shown.
Auto Doze – Controls wether existing stuff are automatically demolished when
you build over them.
Minimise Pause – When you minimise SimFarm to the taskbar this will decide
wether Sim Farm Will Automatically Pause.
Speed>
Ultra – Makes the game whip through time like anything, useful for getting
through seasons/years.
Fast – Above Normal speed, useful for hurrying a harvest.
Normal – Just normal speed, not too fast, not too slow.
Slow – Quite Slow, Great for beginners.
Pause – Pauses the game. While the game is paused you can still construct,
great for when you need to get a ton done.
Windows>
Buy – Brings up the buy screen.
Sell – brings up the sell screen.
Evaluation – Brings up the Evaluation screen.
Map – Brings up the Map.
Weather – Brings up the weather report.
Balance Sheet – Brings up the Balance Sheet.
Bank – Bring up the Bank.
Edit – Bring up the Edit Window.
Market Value – Bring up the Market Value.
Disasters>
Flood - A flood occurs.
Frost – A deep chill comes your farms way.
Drought – A drought occurs.
Tornado – A tornado whips up.
Locusts – Locusts invade your crops.
Windstorms – The wind starts blowing like there’s no tomorrow.
Disable – No disasters will occur, this does not put a stop to the current
disasters.
View>
Control Bar – Scrolls Control Bar on/off.
Status Bar – Scrolls Status Bar on/off.
Message Bar – Scrolls Message bar on/off.
Help>
About SimFarm for Windows – Displays credit screen.
Farm Expert – Get information on various SimFarm topics.
Help Index – Open SimLife HTML help.
The other aspect of the SimFarm Main Window is the Floating Toolbar, this
contains all the tools you will need for editing your farm, the tools on this
bar are:
Hand – Also called the pinchers, you can use the hand to move machinery
between places. You can also use the hand to move troughs and animal food.
Magnifying Glass - Also called the query tool, you can use the query tool to
check data on all different tings ranging from crops to machinery.
Paved Road – The paved road, although more expensive then the dirt road
doesn’t damage the machinery as much, you lay road similar to Simcity by just
holding down on the LMB and dragging. A piece of paved road costs $30.
Dirt Road – The dirt road is a much cheaper version of the paved road. The
Dirt road is a worse choice compared to the Paved Road as it puts much more
wear on the machinery. Dirt Roads are placed exactly the same as Paved Roads.
A piece of Dirt Road costs $20
Fence – Fencing is required to keep livestock within your boundaries,
although hungry/thirsty/annoyed animals will break it down. Fences are layed
exactly like roads. Fences cost $50 a piece.
Gate – Gates are placed by clicking on an existing fence. You can use gates
to let machinery through or to transfer animals between places. To open/close
a gate just click on it. Gates cost $70 to place.
Irrigation Ditch – Irrigation Ditches have two uses, the first being the
ability to water crops the second being the ability to drain crops. To water
crops at one end you need to have a water pump/windmill and an irrigation
ditch connecting to the one around your crop. To drain crops just have an
irrigation ditch surrounding your crop and have no water coming through.
Using an irrigation switch you can combine both of these uses into one ditch.
A Piece of irrigation ditch costs $35 and is layed he same way as roads.
Irrigation Switch – Place these on top of an irrigation ditch so that you can
control the water flow. Controlling the water flow allows you to change
wether water gets through to a specific part of the ditches.
Animal Food – Place these in a pen with animals so that the animals can eat,
place them somewhere that is easy to reach as well. Remember to replace the
food regularly. Animal Food costs $100 a stack.
Water Trough – The same as Animal Food except you don’t need to replace them
every little while. Instead, with the Water Trough you need a Full Water
tower next to it to keep it full. Water Troughs cost $25 to place.
Trees - Trees act as a shield against wind, as you may know depletes the
nutrients in the soil. All you have to do is place some trees near a crop and
the damage done to the crops will greatly be reduced. Trees cost $10 each.
Bulldozer – Quite self-explanatory, but anyway, the bull dozer bulldozes land
so that it becomes bare land ready for use again. If you have the Auto Doze
option on you won’t need to use this option. Bulldozing costs $25 a square.
Plant – After selecting this option you will be prompted to select the type
of crop you would like to plant then you select the positioning of the crop
with you mouse then press the LMB. After you do this the crop will
automatically be plowed and seeded. This action costs $120 plus seeds.
Spray – After selecting this option you will be prompted to choose a spray,
Fertiliser, herbicide, pesticide or fungicide. After doing that click on the
crop that you would like to spray and a sprayer will come spray it. $200 plus
Chemicals.
Map Screen
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The map window is like it says a map. But in conjunction with the map there is
are also a couple of buttons here are the there functions:
Mountain, sea, Land Button – This is the property map it allows you to view what
land is owned, you can also buy and sell land by clicking the appropriate
buttons underneath.
Skull and Bones Button – This is the soil toxicity map. You can view how toxic
soil is around the area with this map.
Fertiliser Button – This is the Soil quality map. Using this map you can see
what areas have the best soil quality.
Disease Button – This is the Crop disease map. By utilising this map you can
obtain where disease is mostly plauging.
Weed Button – This is the Crop Weeds map. Using this map you can view where
crops are infecting.
Rain Drop – This is the water chart. This map shows the areas where there is
more/less dampness in the ground.
Bank Icon – This is the Profit Map. Using this map you can see what areas have
gained the most profit in your farm, ver handy for knowing when to kill a crop.
Pest Icon – This is the Pest Map. Another handy map, you can use this map to see
where pests are destroying your crops.
The Evaluation Screen
----------------------
The Evaluation screen is a tool for measuring your progress. The Evaluation
screen comprises of 4 graphs and 2 boxes, listed below are what they stand for.
The screen also displays the current season. If a value is in red then it is
negative.
Farm Growth - How much the Farm has grown in the past year. Affected by
purchases.
Town Growth - How much the Town has grown in the past year. Affected by new
building being erected.
Productivity - How productive your farm has been. Affected by crop quality,
livestock quality.
Soil Quality - The quality of your soil. Affected by the nutrient values in your
farm.
Environment quality - The quality of the environment. Affected by poison values.
(Damned greenpeace!)
Problems - Problems that are affecting your farm, these include such things as
dryness, weeds or loss of nutrients.
The Weather Forecast
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Although the weather screen may look a little complex, it isn’t. The top of the
screen shows the current season and week. Next to that it shows how long there
is until the next season along with an icon of that season. On the left hand
side of the screen there is a thermometer showing the current temperature along
with an evaporation gauge showing how fast water evaporates. In the middle a
picture view of the current weather is displayed, below that is a five day
forecast, allowing you to get your crops ready. And on the right there is a
textbox showing how much rain has occurred in the year and how much is average.
Below the rainfall stuff is a wind gauge which will show how fast the wind is
currently blowing, that’s all for the weather window.
The Buying Screen
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The buying screen is pretty straightforward. You choose a category on the left
of the window then use the arrows on the right to select an item from that
category. The price and amount owned are shown on the bottom of the screen. To
buy an item just hit buy.
The selling screen
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Similar to the buying screen select a category on the left. After doing this use
the scroll bar to select an item to sell then click sell. The selling price is
shown along side the quality of an item under the name.
Expenditure Sheet
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If you’ve ever had to plan finances you’ll know what on of these looks like.
Basically one area shows your assets another your revenue and the largest area,
the expenditures. Make sure to keep an eye on your where you are throwing your
money. Also in the lower area of your screen you can see your estimated tax and
your quarterly loan repayments.
Bank Screen
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On the bank screen there are three text boxes, one tells you your current cash,
another your debts and the last one your credit limit. Also in another box below
them is the current interest rate and your quarterly loan repayment. To take
out a loan type in how much you would like to loan and press enter. To repay a
loan just hit repay and the loan will be repaid in full. Your assets and your
current loans decide your credit limit.
Market Value
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The Market Value window is very simple using it you can click on a crop type and
see it’s current market price. Also by using the graph to the left you can check
a crop type price history over 30 weeks.
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Farming equipment and stock
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Machinery
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Name: Tractor
Price: $400
Use: Pulling other equipment.
Space occupied: 1 square
Name: Plow
Price: $200
Use: Plowing a field for seeding.
Equipment Neeed: Tractor
Space Occupied: 1 Square
Name: Sprayer
Price: $200
Use: Spraying Fields with chemicals
Equipment Needed: Tractor, chemicals
Space Occupied: 1 Square
Name: Harvester
Price: $400
Use: To harvest crops
Equipment Needed: Trailer, Truck (To carry crops)
Space Occupied: 2 Squares
Name: Trailer
Price: $200
Use: To store crops while being harvested.
Equipment Needed: Harvester, Truck (To transport crops)
Space Occupied: 2 Squares
Name: Truck
Price: $500
Use: To transport crops
Equipment Needed: None
Space Occupied: 2 Squares
Name: Crop Duster
Price: $6000
Use: To quickly spray all fields with a chemical.
Equipment Needed: Airport
Space Occupied: None/1 Airport
*BIG TIP* I’ve heard many people ask how do you land the crop duster, well heres
how. To land the crop duster once you get very low on gas/petrol star flying
around the airport in circles, when your gas runs out you’ll land instead of
crashing. *END BIG TIP*
Storage
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Name: Small Silo
Price: $800
Items Stored: 1 Harvested Crop
Name: Large Silo
Price: $2400
Items Stored: 4 Harvested crops
Name: Small Shed
Price: $1200
Items Stored: 6 Machines/Seeds/Chemicals
Name: Large Shed
Price: $1440
Items Stored: 9 Machines/Seeds/Chemicals
Name: Small Barn
Price: $2250
Items Stored: 9 Livestock/Machines/Seeds/Chemicals
Name: Large Barn
Price: $2520
Items Stored: 12 Livestock/Machines/Seeds/Chemicals
Name: Water Pump
Price: $1000
Use: Pumps water through irrigation ditches to your farm, only when placed next
to water though.
Name: Windmill
Price: $2000
Use: When the winds are at or over 10MPH the windmills will water from
underground through your irrigation system to your farm.
Name: Water Tower
Price: $200
Use: Is used to keep troughs full. To fill the water tank have it placed next to
an irrigation ditch.
Chemicals
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Name: Fertiliser
Price: $200
Use: Raises the nutrient levels of the soil.
Poisonous: No
Name: Pesticide
Price: $200
Use: Lowers pest levels.
Poisonous: Yes
OK, Now I’m not gonna go in a lot of detail with this strategy, all I am going
to do is tell you how to get on you feet and start creating your dream farm.
Step 1) First of all start of a game that has all of the values in the middle
and has river and lake selected as a water source.
Step 2) In my opinion it’s best to start by farming some livestock before going
into crops. So to start off our livestock farming calculate a 6x6 square and
enclose it with an irrigation ditch (This is better as animals can’t get out).
Step 3) Inside of this irrigation ditch build three water towers touching the
irrigation ditch, then in front of the towers, but still touching them place
three water troughs. Now run a line of irrigation ditch down to some water and
put a water pump there.
Step 4) Using the Animal Food tool, place 5 bales of animal food that is easy to
reach.
Step 5) Place a barn in this area, this will make the livestock lay off the food
and water.
Step 6) Buy between 5-8 Horses and place them into the paddock.
Step 7) While making sure food/water doesn’t run out turn the speed up to ultra
and wait 5-10 months, after this time sell three horses and epeat the process a
couple of times. During this time you will be asked to choose a building to be
built in town, choose the recreational building.
Step 8) By know you should be starting to make a profit, anyway after this you
should look for a crop that is easy to maintain and has a lot of market value.
Once you have done that, buy a shed, the seeds for that plant and some
machinery. Once done, Plant the crop for that one that has a lot of market
value.
Step 9) Maintain this crop and you should start making very hefty profits within
soon, form both livestock and Crops. Now should be the time you start expanding.
Keep expanding slowly, but surely and you’ll be fine.
Fell free to submit your questions to me at papermariodude@bigpond.com, the best
questions will be answered here.
Q: What do all of those icons on my fields mean?
A: The first one is the type of crop planted the other mean the following:
Fertiliser Bag – Lack of soil nutrients
Tidal Wave – Too Much water
Dead Skull – Not enough water
Skull with bones – Highly Toxic soil
Weed – High Weed Level
Insect – High pest level
Weird shaped one – High Disease level
Q: How do I land a Crop Duster (Airplane)?
A: Like I have said earlier in my FAQ, to land a plane once you start getting
very low on petrol/gas start going around in circles above the airport, once you
run out of petrol/gas you will land.
Q: How do I help prevent my equipment form wearing out quick?
A: Make sure to have roads around your farm, and in particular Paved Roads,
Paved roads cause a relatively small amount of damage to your equipment compared
to dirt roads. If you have no roads at all it’s even worse, as your equipment
will have to spend the time looking for a way to get there.
Q: What are the disasters and what are their effects?
A: The Disasters and there effects are below:
Flood – A ton of rain occurs causing rivers and lakes to flood into the
surrounding area.
Frost – The Area freezes over, only crops that like cold weather will survive
others will yield very poor turnovers.
Drought – A season of little to no rain occurs, shrivelling up your crops,
unless you make good use of irrigation and pumps your crops are doomed.
Tornado – A Tornado occurs, destroying anything, and everything in it path. It
can take a fair amount of rebuilding if the tornado comes into your area.
Locusts – A swarm of locusts attack, they eat your crops, meaning a very low
profit for this season.
Windstorm – The wind blows at howling speeds and unless you have trees guarding
your area then your crop will be depleted of nutrients.
New Game CTRL+N
Load Game CTRL+L
Save Game CTRL+S
Save As.. CTRL+A
Load Crop CTRL+C
Music CTRL+M
Sound CTRL+O
Ultra Speed CTRL+4
Fast Speed CTRL+3
Normal Speed CTRL+2
Slow Spped CTRL+1
Pause Speed CTRL+0
If you are going to e-mail in regards to hate mail or such things, save
yourself the effort because I will just return the favour by mass-spaming you.
And to the people emailing please put "SimFarm" in the title this will
enable the e-mail to be read much faster. Also any information submitted will
have full credit given to the submitter.
This file is copyright Michael Dorman 2003-2004. All rights reserved anyone that
steals this work and reproduces it in any shape or form without my permission
will punished to the fullest extent of the law. This guide can be used on the
following sites:
