FAQ (Community-Sourced)

As players new to Farthest Frontier (or the town-building genre in general) join our community, it's common for a very similar set of questions to come up.

Here is our collection of those most frequently asked questions and answers.

Non-Gameplay

Q: Is the game fun/playable today?
A: That's a subjective question, so here's a subjective answer -- Farthest Frontier at Early Access launch is already a respectably robust town-builder game that will be a great source of entertainment for those already familiar with the genre.

While there are some bugs and missing quality-of-life niceties, the game is quite playable and Crate Entertainment has been quick to patch the game since launch while also adding dashes of new content along the way.

Those unfamiliar with town-builders or unwilling to create new maps regularly might find themselves at a disadvantage or disappointment during the early part of early-access, but we have a Beginner's Guide that should help demystify things in the absence of an in-game tutorial.

Q: How do I know if my computer can run Farthest Frontier?
A: More information about System Requirements can be found on this page

Q: Where do I find my save files?
A: Save files can be located at %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\Farthest Frontier

Q: The game is laggy. How can I improve my framerate?
A: We have tested several settings to determine biggest impacts to performance.
Regardless of individual hardware combinations, these seem to be the largest impacts so far:

Creating a map on the Largest map size - High, even wildlife off-screen have movement calculations
Screen resolution - High (1920x1080 seems to be most-optimized, FPS drops above this value)
Supersampling - High (numbers above 100% increase your effective screen resolution for calculations)
Anti-aliasing - Medium (gains are roughly ~4 FPS per decrease)
VSync (disabled): Medium
Foliage: Medium/Low (gains are more significant at higher population density)
Depth of Field - Medium/Low
Soft Shadows: Low
Shadows (slider): Low
Occlusion Highlight (under general): Undetectable
1x/2x/3x Game Speed: Variable depending on population size/town complexity, reducing game speed is increasingly impactful in larger settlements.

Do note, after a certain point of map complexity the critical bottleneck on any system becomes the CPU instead of graphics, for which there is no solution.

It has also been noted that use of mods can also damage framerate, especially those that interfere with villager AI. If you are making heavy use of mods, disabling some/all mods may improve framerate.

Q: I found a bug in the game, how do I report it?
A: First check the Known Issues page to ensure this isn't already on the developer's list, then post your findings to the bug report section of the forum.

Q: I have an idea on how to make the game better, how can I tell the devs?
A: The fastest way to get your idea seen is to submit it to the [Feedback/Suggestions section of the Crate Entertainment forums.] The developers have already included several great ideas from the community into their hotfixes!

Q: Next Update When?
A: Crate will update the game when the next release is ready.
For the most up-to-date source on patch notes, check one of the following links:

Gameplay

High-Level

Q: How big are the maps? Which Biome should I choose?
A: Maps are sized (roughly) as follows:

Small: 200x200 squares (1 km² or 0.62mi²)
Medium: 333x333 squares (2.77 km² or 1.72mi²)
Large: 460x460 squares (5.34 km² or 3.32mi²)

As for which biome to choose, that depends on the level of difficulty you're comfortable with.
More info can be found on our World Generation page, but either the Lowland Lakes or Idyllic Valley (introduced in patch 0.7.5) make great starting maps.

Q: How long is an in-game year?
A: A single in-game day at normal speed is 5 seconds, each month is a static 30 days long, each year has 12 months. This allows us to calculate the following lengths:

1x: 30 min/year
2x: 15 min/year
3x: 10 min/year

Q: How do I know where to put stuff?
A: When initially setting up your settlement, the player can use the F, I and G keys to get an idea of Fertility, Water, and Desirability levels to aid in figuring out Town Center placement. After setup, the interface when placing a building will turn red with various tooltips if you are trying to place the building in an area where it can't be built.

For more details on initial site selection and why to place certain buildings in specific locations, check out our Beginner's Guide.

Community Tips

Animal herds replenish the more trees their area has, and don't replenish if you remove the trees - which means once you have enough gold to plant trees you can create basically inexhaustible deer herds that can be farmed by tons of nearby hunters. Likewise you do not want to cut trees in areas of herds or they will deplete

Beehive maintenance/farming is done primarily by farmers, but they do not create job slots. This means you want to be careful with how many beehives you create - as you end up taking precious time from farmers by making them walk around collecting honey when they should be tending to your fields

Wagons (created by building wagon shops) seem to go collect resources from your mines/workcamps and dump them at the closest stockpile - so to get those raw materials as close to your processing facilities make sure that is the closest stockpile they can get to from the mine/workcamp.

By default smokehouses have a 1:1 fish/meat production ratio, so even if the smokehouse is only near meat and you have some fish far away somewhere the smoker will travel and attempt to make both equally. Switching the ratio to 1:0 for the smokehouses near the fish/meat respectively for drastically improved efficiency and to stop them traveling all over the place . It’s only useful to keep the default if your fish and meat production is right next to each other

Farmers will prioritize the construction of a new field over working existing fields, meaning that you might miss a few harvests while the new field gets setup. You can get around this by pausing construction of the new field during planting/harvest times (clover season is great too as there’s no harvest) and unpausing during growth phases.

You can use the workcamps to explore new land easily by setting the work area to somewhere in the fog of war. Your workcamp labourers will also follow the area as you are moving it around if you need to explore quickly and have the time

Food does not spoil when stocked in a Trading Post.

Pressing Fertility hotkey (default: F) removes foliage making it easier to placing objects like roads and buildings.

You can use your Hunters to attack specific targets by selecting the Hunter and right-clicking on any animal. They will then immediately move to attack and butcher that animal. To quickly select your Hunters, simply click the Hunter Cabin and then select the worker assigned to it.

You can rotate your camera by holding down the middle-mouse button and moving the mouse. This can help with placement of buildings if other buildings, mountains or trees are in the way of the grid. This also allows you to get a better look at mountains that may be at the map's edges in order to harvest trees or stones there.

Shelters and other homes don't need roads connecting to them. In most cases, the green arrow that displays the "front" of the building being placed is simply there for aesthetic purposes. The only exception to this is for major industries and stockpiles, because Wagons require roads in order to pick up or stock resources.

Loading Screen Tips

The following is a collection of tips shown on the loading screen when generating a new map or launching an existing one. New players may find the contents helpful, though additional context may be needed to make full use of the suggestion.

Build extra housing, stockpile a good supply of food, and keep your Villagers happy to encourage immigration and births
Providing higher tier Houses with Luxury Goods will help increase your Tax Income
Waste Build-up in Houses leads to increased Rat populations and Disease.
Profit can be made by purchasing raw materials at the Trading Post and turning them into more expensive products
Berries are a good way to supplement your food supply early on, but they spoil quickly and collection is labor intensive.
You can select villagers to directly control them, which can be useful when responding to animal attacks early on
Hunters won't attack wild boar by themselves, but you can directly control multiple hunters and/or villagers to take down a boar
Villagers, especially hunters, outfitted with hide coats stand a better chance of surviving animal attacks unscathed
When hunting can no longer support your needs for meat, hides, and tallow, it may be time to start raising livestock
Crude weapons sold by Merchants are better than nothing when you're starting out
Heavy Weapons will help Soldiers more quickly dispatch armored opponents.
Villagers who are very unhappy will drink more at Pubs and can become violent when intoxicated
Soldiers can be deployed from the Barracks to destroy wolf dens
Towers can be an effective defense against smaller early raids but soldiers are needed to take out more armored enemies
Guard Towers can help protect work sites outside of town from Animal attacks
Fruit Trees planted by Arborists are a good way to utilize less fertile land but Fruit spoils quickly unless preserved
Crops will produce higher yields if planted in their preferred soil type.
Cabbage and Leeks produce more food than Beans and Peas but do not keep as long in storage
Grain and Flour can be preserved in a Granary for years but Flour spoils faster than Grain. Bread spoils quickly.
Ensuring all Grain and Flour is stored in granaries will help limit Rodent populations
Fresh Fish and Meat will spoil quickly but can keep for long periods once cured in a Smokehouse
Milk spoils quickly but Cheese can be stored for a very long time without spoiling
Build a Temporary Shelter near remote mining and work camps to reduce travel time for workers.
Transport Wagons can help you efficiently harvest and haul resources from distant work camps and mines