Forestry managed crop farm plant area bug?

[Battle Goose]

I've been messing around with Forestry for the first time in FTB Continuum v1.0.2.
When experimenting with the managed farm block, I came across this really weird setup.

It's farming Natura's Barley crop successfully, yet isn't planting them within the inner 9x9 area.
The farm has a steady supply of water from the fluid pump, has suitable fertilizer, and has a power line feeding into it.
Any ideas?

 

[SevenMass]

Not a bug, that's by design.

These are a recreation of the old, old, old farms from forestry in mincraft v1.4.7 and earlier. They used to build farms like that. The space in the middle was needed for additional machines and piping anyway, back then... (read more below)

Here look at this image: link

Then came the multiblock farms. And now in 1.12, unexpectedly, the old farms are somewhat back again. (but not exactly the same)

The linked screenshot was taken years ago. In that version of forestry, you needed a separate block for harvesting and feed the farm with stuff that was produced by other farms.
To make all the farms work endlessly without manual input, you needed to make a complicated setup where all the different materials are produced in balanced amounts. This required the use of multiple pipes, engines, sorting mechanism, buffers.

The newer multiblock farms where way easier to deal with, and the current incarnation of the "old style" farms are also easier to deal with.

In modern mods, the sorting filters are usually a part of the duct/conduit itself, rather than having their own block, and buffers aren't needed because most transport systems will send exactly what is requested and stop sending when the target inventory is full. Back then most people used buildcraft pipes. Redpower tubes worked more like modern TD ducts do, but they still required filter blocks. And the more advanced versions of those filters required power. A different power than forestry farms, so that means even more wiring.

So the creator of forestry designed the farms as a ring around the machinery, leaving space to build all that stuff.

The new "old style" farms mimic the style of the old farms, but it is not the same.

 

[Pyure]

Then came the multiblock farms. And now in 1.12, unexpectedly, the old farms are somewhat back again. (but not exactly the same)

Wow, good to know. I had no idea this was a thing. Just to be clear: is this empty ring at all important for a multifarm setup in 1.12?

 

[SevenMass]

Wow, good to know. I had no idea this was a thing. Just to be clear: is this empty ring at all important for a multifarm setup in 1.12?

It is really not the same situation anymore nowadays. As far as I can tell, these farms just mimic the old style, but not exactly. Even if you could still use some space in the middle, the amount of space given is way more than needed.

But on the other side... it could also just be seen as a pure stylistic choice. Because the multiblock farms generate a diamond shaped farm by default, which is also not as space efficient as it could be.

Also, the mod "minefactory" existed back then (nowadays "Industrial Forgoing") and that mod didn't create ring shaped farms either. Admittedly minefactory has always had a "magic block" approach to automation.

 

[Pyure]

It is really not the same situation anymore nowadays. As far as I can tell, these farms just mimic the old style, but not exactly. Even if you could still use some space in the middle, the amount of space given is way more than needed.

But on the other side... it could also just be seen as a pure stylistic choice. Because the multiblock farms generate a diamond shaped farm by default, which is also not as space efficient as it could be.

Also, the mod "minefactory" existed back then (nowadays "Industrial Forgoing") and that mod didn't create ring shaped farms either. Admittedly minefactory has always had a "magic block" approach to automation.

MFR also split the farming between multiple machines (I forget if early forestry did that. Multifarms certainly didnt)

 

[Battle Goose]

Not a bug, that's by design.

These are a recreation of the old, old, old farms from forestry in mincraft v1.4.7 and earlier. They used to build farms like that. The space in the middle was needed for additional machines and piping anyway, back then... (read more below)

Here look at this image: link

Then came the multiblock farms. And now in 1.12, unexpectedly, the old farms are somewhat back again. (but not exactly the same)

The linked screenshot was taken years ago. In that version of forestry, you needed a separate block for harvesting and feed the farm with stuff that was produced by other farms.
To make all the farms work endlessly without manual input, you needed to make a complicated setup where all the different materials are produced in balanced amounts. This required the use of multiple pipes, engines, sorting mechanism, buffers.

The newer multiblock farms where way easier to deal with, and the current incarnation of the "old style" farms are also easier to deal with.

In modern mods, the sorting filters are usually a part of the duct/conduit itself, rather than having their own block, and buffers aren't needed because most transport systems will send exactly what is requested and stop sending when the target inventory is full. Back then most people used buildcraft pipes. Redpower tubes worked more like modern TD ducts do, but they still required filter blocks. And the more advanced versions of those filters required power. A different power than forestry farms, so that means even more wiring.

So the creator of forestry designed the farms as a ring around the machinery, leaving space to build all that stuff.

The new "old style" farms mimic the style of the old farms, but it is not the same.

Thanks for letting me know! I first thought that it was due to blocks being nearby and therefore in its way, but design wasn't something I'd have thought of!
As you can see, I built mine underground to keep it out of the way, and I was hoping to better maximize the space.
Thanks for the help!