Worker stole tractor and ran off -- how can I get it back?

Question

In Farm Manager 2018, I had a field manager assigned to a field of buckwheat. We finished the first harvest in midsummer and she then proceeded to replow and recultivate the field for the second planting. As she went to get the precision seeder and tractor, I went and bought a second plot of land. This appears to have confused the NPC AI, because the field manager fetched the tractor, and then decided to take a joy ride off of the farm and straight off the edge of the map!

Since she's busy, I can't fire her (the 'release' button on the detail dialog is disabled.) Since the tractor is in use, I can't sell it and buy another one. I removed her as field manager and replaced her with another worker, and all this resulted in was her doing a wide loop, re-entering the playable map from the west, then exiting North again.

I also tried reloading a previous save immediately after the previous harvest. After the worker plowed the field and cultivated it, I intentionally didn't buy more land ... and the same thing happened!

How can I get my tractor back? (Worker too if possible.) Getting a way to fire the worker/sell the tractor would also be an OK solution. I don't use mods, but if there's a "console" way of forcing an asset reset I'd be open to that as long as it doesn't disable Steam achievements.

Answer 1

It's been 3 years and the developer has pretty much abandoned this game in terms of bug fixes. So here's what I've figured out as the workaround.

1. Find the field that the AWOL worker is supposed to be servicing.
2. Select the field and select 'interrupt'. This will appear to have no affect except to disable all options in the field menu.
3. Save your game.
4. Shut down the entire game and start it up again. From the main menu, select 'continue' to reload the latest save.
5. Select the field again. You should see an 'interrupt' option, but no workers/machines listed under it. Select 'interrupt'.

At this point, the next time that the worker circles back into the buildable area, they will park the machinery and return to their housing. It may take some time depending on where the worker is, and where the garage(s) are relative to where they re-enter the workable area.

Once the worker has parked both the tractor and whatever attachment they were using, the field will be once again workable.