Yeah, this might seem a strange one. After all, surely doing something like this would be simple? Axe most of the roads and urban development and stick some fields in there. But what do you choose to get rid of to make a city into a farming-based location? Everyone would do so differently, so sharing my ideas for such is a way to generate discussion. What ideas would others have?

For this, I wanted to choose three locations that would offer something different. Unique ideas from around England that provide varied terrain, some distinct areas, and most importantly, be fun to traverse. Now, there’s plenty of places in England that could apply to. But the three I’ve chosen are, let’s be honest, also because of preference and recognition. And nowhere is that more evident than Birmingham.

The nearest city to where I live. A city I’ve had a lot of fun walking around on many an occasion. For Birmingham, I felt there was enough interesting about it that I kept things to scale. Farming Simulator maps are 2km x 2km, so I marked out that area and set to work. The first thing I wanted to keep were the canals, so I made sure I was able to do so while also having enough main roads to allow for easy navigation.

That was possible, as you can see from the map. It’s a rough map, as are all of them, but it does get the point across. Focusing on the right side first, there were three main things I wanted to keep. The Bull Ring, New Street Station, and New Street – which would lead to Victoria Square. So I included all the roads that linked them, having the north side of the station as the passenger entrance. The south side would be for deliveries.

The central main road is the A38. There didn’t seem to be a need for underpasses when I was constructing the map so instead it exists on the same level as nearly everything else. One interesting part of the central area I wanted to keep was Sunset Park. On the south, with a road surrounding it like a peanut, it looks a nice parkland, so I wanted to keep it for this map. Along with Moonlit Park, which it directly connects to.

On the left side, the biggest omission is Broad Street. I felt there was no need for it, especially once I started to include all the fields. This area is already full of the waterways. Didn’t need to be making it more busy. However, I did include the A4540 on the south just to make sure there was some sort of a main road in that area. One thing this side of Birmingham features is event halls. So I made sure to include those along the canal.

After all, there needs to be some form of entertainment other than shopping. Along with that, it allows for a few selling points for certain goods. With my choices of where the urban areas exist, there’s a nice line from east to west. Since otherwise I’d be left with a lot of empty space between New Street and Colmore Row, I increased the size of Cathedral Square. Also, with the omission of Smallbrook Queensway, there seemed little reason to connect the Bull Ring and New Street Station.

The second location to turn into a Farming Simulator map is Bristol. Home of the Yogscast. But also home of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. But that is a bit outside the 2km range when focusing on the city centre. So, there’s no point aiming for accuracy in this recreation. As long as enough of the roads give the sense of this being Bristol, then it is a success.

Now, for the city of Bristol, the main urban area is formed of Millennium Square and Queen Square brought together. That does reduce the length of the canal, but that is worthwhile for fitting the merge to the river with enough space on the other side for some useable land. To the west of this urban area is Brandon Hill, which also features Cabot Tower. To the north-east of the urban area is Castle Park.

The A38 and concourse that runs alongside it are both featured, along with a bit of the urban area that surrounds Brandon Hill. The roads of the Shopping Quarter are near accurate, though the entire area is devoid of buildings. With there already being an urban area close by, keeping the Shopping Quarter as one would make it too urban a map. However, the middle of the split of the A38 made for a perfect place to keep some, along with on the outside of it.

It’s very difficult to represent just how steep of a drop it is from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in map form, but it is a large drop. To at least show that there’s steep terrain along that area, there are some tight curving roads used to connect to the one running along the river. Many of the roads along the river have been simplified, such as the connections around where the canal and river merge. And the west end of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Spike Island I have expanded, allowing more useable land for fields. The train line that runs on the west side of the river I have brought onto Spike Island to allow for a decent station where goods can be delivered in a sort of centralised location. The least accurate part of the entire map is the north-west, which combines both Redland Road and Upper Belgrave Road to form the singular main road of that area. The dirt roads of that area can be attributed to real roads of the area, but that’s pretty much coincidence.

And the third and final location is Hull. Now, admittedly I’m less familiar with this one than the others featured. The main recognition with it comes from the Only Fools and Horses episode To Hull and Back. One of my favourites of the series. Plus, being a port city presents some issues when it comes to space. Especially since Hull is located on the curve of the Humber, so some of that eats into the available space.

Since Hull is a port city, it made sense to start with the ports and everything between them. That being the marina and Victoria Park. Fitting all that within the 2km area presents the problem of… what gets cut? Since I wanted a dock on both ends of the map, the Albert Dock and ferry and freight terminals I kept. As close to accurate as possible. Much like with the marina. Even if the positioning of it changed.

Yes, I wanted to put the marina in as central a position as I could manage. But that meant Victoria Park was now to the west of it rather than east. And that presented a problem, as a river was now cutting through it. What of Victoria Park would I keep? Since I was using the road layout of the area as a way to reach Albert Dock, I kept the actual park, then put what was meant to be south of it on the other side of the river. The marina has kept most of what surrounds it, with some of it merging into Victoria Park.

With my scouting of the rest of Hull, there were a few other parts of the city I wanted to keep. Princes Quay shopping centre is on the other side of the A63 from the marina. Surrounded by water, and with a rather interesting design, it felt an obvious keep. Though I did rotate it to place the longer stretch of water against the main road. And since I was messing around with where things were, Queen’s Gardens has also been put along the A63, with its right side merging slightly into the roundabout of the dock.

Then there was East Park and its funny looking boating lake. To make sure it was in roughly the same place, I put the A165 into the map. Then decided the best place for a park to go was near where the train line, river, and road formed a triangle. Since that triangle was looking empty, once I’d completed the park, I added a single cul-de-sac road. The entire map was starting to look a bit too urban for a farming community at this point, but there was one other thing I wanted to add.

Along the River Hull there is plenty of business and industry. I’d already got some of that with the docks, but wanted a bit more so that there were things to the north, as well. So, I chose specific points in which to place this industry so that land still remained for the farms. I also kept all that industry to the west side of the river so that the east could be free of roads for more farmland.

And so, that is how I would turn three cities into agricultural locations. Yes, those maps are rough, and not even fully to scale, but they give a bit more life to the ideas I present. I feel I have done everything I could to make them both suitable for farming while also presenting signs of life with what urban areas remain. But would they be good maps to use? You tell me, along with how you would turn a city into a Farming Simulator map.