Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Gormett
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:21 am

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by Gormett »

They either flipped the values for fuel consumption and wear, or the vehicle wears down based on in-game hours and the fuel based on real-time hours
AgroDude
Posts: 180
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2021 3:23 am

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by AgroDude »

Even aircraft aren't that silly. For every flight hour a typical military aircraft requires 4 hours of maintenance at a cost of mere thousands, but they are aircraft that cost hundreds of millions apiece.

There definitely appears to be some scalar whereby if a tractor works at or beyond its capacity, it requires more maintenance. My 150 HP auxiliary tractor needs more maint than my 450 HP main tractor.
FarmingBucket
Posts: 71
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:35 pm
Location: Vancouver BC

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by FarmingBucket »

On the other end of the scale, I've driven my tractor for 5 in-game years and haven't had to refuel yet
User avatar
wbthacker
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:28 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by wbthacker »

PrincessJessi84 wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 5:44 pm I could be wrong but it also *seems* like the harder the machine has to work, the faster it wears. When I pulled a 200 hp tool with a tractor with only about 20 or so extra hp (I don't remember the exact numbers), my tractor was shot after 1 season. The next year I hooked it up to a larger tractor and the wear was a LOT more reasonable. So unless I am wrong, it will pay to make sure your machines are properly sized to the tools and not just "winging it".
That's aa reasonable way for Giants to have implemented it. But my "inscrutable" claim still stands. To paraphrase "Doctor Strangelove", "What good is a beautiful game mechanic IF YOU DON'T TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT?" If Giants tells me a tool requires 200 HP, it's kind of evil for them to expect me not to believe them, and then to guess how many extra HP i need to use that implement without pulling the guts out of my tractor.

Just say the implement requires 200-230 HP; 200 as a minimum and 230 to prevent overloading the tractor.
User avatar
wbthacker
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:28 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by wbthacker »

burnsdg wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 6:33 pm I put 11 hours of use on a tractor.
Game wanted $30k (yes THOUSAND) to repair it.

THAT'S INSANE.
My personal favorite is that every time I cultivate a field, my FRONT END WEIGHT needs $8 of maintenance. And mind you, that's not repainting; I'm literally damaging that big block of steel every time I drive the tractor.
daycare2222
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2022 9:38 am

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by daycare2222 »

StoneTheCrows wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:36 pm
paul_c wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:26 pm Having looked briefly at it, it is what it is: For example, I have a JD7000 series (the one you get given) with about 60 hours now, I'm in August 04 and last month's bill was about £10k; and its "gone" again and needs another £10 of repairs. I am guessing with the 1 day/month time squash, its like dog years and a 60 hour tractor is more like 900 hours.

So, it costs about £8000/month to lease a slightly better, more powerful tractor. And so long as I don't have anything valuable left in it, I can return it at the end of the day/month, then turn up at 00:01 and ask for another lease, of another brand new, fully working, full-of-fuel tractor.

I've bought a few big bits of kit but I think unless you use it little and often, or have some kind of emotional attachment to it, my fleet will be leased from now on!
Interesting. Two weeks ago we were saying "Don't lease - its insanely expensive".

TBH I'm cool with the costs and with the overall economy balance. 70hrs of play in my second save and I'm still having to watch the budget. It's made for tight and engaging game play. I don't really care whether it's realistic or not, even a simulator has got to be playable and enjoyable as a game. If it was too easy to make money I personally would not be so immersed in it.
Thanks 👌
User avatar
HabibiBlokksberg
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2018 10:06 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by HabibiBlokksberg »

My two cents on this, maintenance routines are definitely higher the faster your timescale is especially when you´re running on three or less days per month the higher hours get and the less you clean your equipment the faster the wear and the higher the cost. I bought an 8RX with 30 hours and I now need to repair it basically every time I´m done with a 20 ha field. Tilling, sowing, doesn´t matter.
Fuel usage is kinda screwed aswell, because it somehow relates to the wear on the machine and is exponential (depending on your settings of course) but it still wears faster than it uses fuel so I think wear and fuel usage are swapped.
I work part time at a local coop/custom ag service and 900 to 1200l of Diesel a day is nothing unusual doing tilling and drilling. But I don´t have to fix a thing after I´m done with 200 ha. I might have to grease stuff or do an oil change, but that´s not 10 grand in repairs even with prices today. That is just insane.
Just for comparison: My nine to five job is CNC Machinist on five axis lathes, they have a 10000hr scheduled maintenance where a technician comes in basically takes the whole machine apart cleans it, checks for wear, replaces parts and checks if everything is running true, that´s not even half the price I have to pay for the maintenance needed after one field of 2ha that takes up like 5 or 10 hours in the game.
The numbers don´t make any sense to me.
Mrakomor
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2021 5:52 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by Mrakomor »

I am heavily overloading my poor Zetor when cutting grass. Not enough money on the current difficulty to buy anything bigger. But given that I like it breaks fast, because this is something I would expect to happen in reality. I consider the maintenance of the vehicles to be the abstraction of a tandard maintenance and wages of personnel, that do the actual work (assembling, disassembling etc.). I really do not understand the paint expenses though. They are huge and I do not see any evidence of it having any impact. It would have been nice if it affected the "health" of your vehicle during the rain (if the vehicle was exposed to a rain), but right now I see no justification of this expense. Also the worn paint looks cool.
JWE75
Posts: 262
Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2017 10:58 am

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by JWE75 »

Settings - fuel comsumption - Large = I refuel often.
raran
Posts: 455
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2020 8:52 am

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by raran »

I think it's not that bad actually. Yes 30.000 seems ridiculous but i myself play 1 day months at 0.5 speed and use almost all 24 hrs in some months. Relating that to "real time" it's years worth of repairing.
JD92
Posts: 124
Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2018 6:08 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by JD92 »

The fuel consuption is going right with the game, a tractor under strees for a day make me refill one time a day speed 2x 4 day season.

The wear is going very very wrong.
A tractor with 20 hour plus under strees need repairing every 1.5 day.. this is unsane for my balance. :biggrin2:
Mcgee3
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2022 7:12 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by Mcgee3 »

As the equipment ages doe it wear faster as in real life?
FarmerJimbob
Posts: 730
Joined: Tue Oct 10, 2017 12:05 pm
Location: England

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by FarmerJimbob »

I don't have a problem with the maintenance, its probably Giants' best implementation of it so far but repainting costs and how quickly it needs doing is a nuisance. I've repainted one implement for the achievement but have no inclination to use the feature again.

Look on the bright side - there aren't breakdowns in game so at least you don't lose hours/days repairing vehicles and equipment or waiting for parts when you want to be out in the fields working. That could be much more expensive than the in-game maintenance costs.
User avatar
wheelmansteve
Posts: 381
Joined: Wed May 20, 2020 6:03 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by wheelmansteve »

So, I had cut some new fields on the northern side of Griffin (follow the road straight north out of town through the woods- the three rectangular sections on the west side and the two square sections to the east...) After plowing, liming, manure, and planting, I did $4k of repairs on my MF 8S 305- (325HP) To be fair, the plow I used was right at the limit with a 320 HP ask. However, after rolling the same two fields with the 12M Dalbo (160HP requirement?) I paid an additional $1300 in repairs on the same tractor. Huh? I'm less than three months into the save, and the tractor now has 19-odd hours on it. IMO, repair costs are too high.
Old fat guy with a day job...
garyst
Posts: 1435
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:56 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by garyst »

Really wish there were a toolbox or shop trigger mod on console that would allow you to repaint equipment. Hate having to go to the dealer every time I want to repaint equipment.
Post Reply