Measuring

The MT 9 is a measurement handtool and is available in the shop under the ‘Misc’ category for 3500 euros. It is a very magical device, that can measure a wide varierty of objects and metrics.

Soil moisture model

Usage

Usage is simple: activate the handtool by pointing at something nearby and holding the activation button (left mouse button or X button). The measurement will start, and the indicator will start to pulsate, showing it is measuring. When the measurement is done and has succeeded, a dialog will show with all the information it has. If it has failed it will show a red circle. This can be either because it can’t find anything near that can be measured, or it just behaves oddly (sometimes the Wopstr has issues finding its target. Not a surprise with such an advanced device).

Measurements

The MT 9 can measure a number of things that were not available to the farmer before.

Trees

Both planted and ‘static’ trees (placeable trees are trees placed by the map maker) can be measured by the measurement tool. It might have difficulty with those ‘static’ trees though, as not much information is available.

For static trees, the device gives just the type of tree. For planted trees it also gives the nearest distance to the next tree and the growth percentage. When the growth of the tree is blocked by a tree nearby, the distance will be shown in red. This can be useful when thinning your forest.

An icon depicting a half-filled can
Contents

The type of tree. Not all treetypes are known.

An icon depicting a tree with an upwards arroe
Tree height / maturity

The height of the tree as percentage of its possible height. If it can't be determined it will assume the tree has grown fully.

An icon depicting depicting two trees with a horizontal line between
Tree distance

Distance between the scanned tree and its nearest tree. If no tree is near, it shows the maximum measurable distance of 9.6m. The distance determines how high a tree can grow.

Bales

Measuring bales can be very useful, especially when they are wrapped. When measuring a bale, you get the contents (grass, hay, silage, straw), volume, and if it is fermenting you also get the percentage of the fermentation process and how many hours are left for full fermentation.

An icon depicting a half-filled can
Contents

Contents of the bale, especially useful with wrapped bales. Also shows current (compacted) volume.

An icon depicting a silage bale
Fermentation progress

The progress of the fermentation including the number of hours left for full fermentation. Note that not all bales ferment and the progress will stuck at 0% and will show no time.

Soil

When you point the MT 9 slightly down, you can scan the soil. This gives useful information like crop, crop growth, crop moisture and ground wetness. There are also other things you get to know, like the location in the world (in the map), and your elevation.

An icon depicting a compass
Location

Just for orientation and screenshots

An icon depicting a mountainside
Elevation

The reference point is the water level (the level when your tractor breaks down because you go too deep into the water). It is useful for seeing the relative height. At this moment, the height has no gameplay effect.

An icon depicting a seed
Fruit / Crop type

Type of crop in the soil, if any.

An icon depicting a crop with an upwards arrow
Crop height / growth progress

Might stay under 100% if crop can't reach maturity.

An icon depicting a crop with waterdrops next to it
Crop moisture

Used for determining if you can harvest the crop. In the future, you will always be able to harvest but higher moisture gives lower quality. Capped to 25%, which is fully moist.

An icon depicting a leaf
Fertilization level

Fertilization level, also visible in the overview menu.

An icon depicting a water droplet
Ground wetness

The wetness of the ground determines traction. In the future, this will also affect soil compaction.

Pallets

The MT 9 also supports scanning pallets and liftable crates (potatoes, sugarbeets). It will show you the contents and the volume of those contents.

An icon depicting a half-filled can
Contents

The contents of the pallet, with its volume or amount (liters of potatoes or number of saplings)

Final remarks

If the MT 9 does not measure something you expect, then try it again in a different direction.

In real life, trees can grow on, and on, depending on how much light and food they can get. This not the case in the game. 100% tree height means the tree can’t grow anymore in the game. If it is stuck at 50%, it can’t grow with the current tree distances.

TODO

  • New icons