Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

User avatar
StoneTheCrows
Posts: 246
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2021 2:01 pm
Location: North Yorkshire UK

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by StoneTheCrows »

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.
paul_c
Posts: 414
Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2021 4:13 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by paul_c »

You're right, it feels unnatural to lease something you'd use long term. But, the figures suggest its better. It means, for example, if you took a strategy of rushing round in the summer with harvesting and prep work (inc ploughing and all the fert quite early on) you could pretty much ensure weed-free 100% fert growth and not have any equipment in the winter. Personally I sell my grain in the winter when the prices are better and do contract work on the side, but if you moved the grain to a storage unit like Goldcrest Valley and always took the contract offered equipment...
crash
Posts: 1053
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2015 5:27 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by crash »

Anyone done any test on combine wear and "header loss" i did a strip up and down field 70 on elm creek, there was 650l difference @30% wear.. but the sample I did was pretty small so I'm not quite sure what to think.
Xbox series s and pc :gamer:
In Norway
weidermark
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2018 4:42 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by weidermark »

I dont know honestly , i dont have any problems with equipment wearing too fast, my main tractor i have serviced once in 1 and a half year and also i noticed everything you have attached to the tractor counts on the service bar, maybe using too heavy equipment of what the machine can handle or running through stones are the culprit for some?, and i bought a claas dominator used and was waiting for the bomb when driving it to shop for repairs like 15000 -20 k or something going after what many describes having issues with it, but it was just like 3 k luckily, either people are exaggerate a ton or something is off the charts with the game mechanics?
User avatar
PrincessJessi84
Posts: 2930
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2016 3:03 am
Contact:

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by PrincessJessi84 »

I have my maintenance costs firmly under control now. First, the equipment size vs tool matters.. make sure you have enough "extra" hp so your machine doesn't struggle as it really does seem to make a difference.. also make sure you arent going too big.. small tractors and tools are way cheaper to repair so... dont use your 8s to haul the small water tanker.. no need to use 250 extra horsepower to run a 120hp baler.. and for the love of all that is good in the world destone your fields!!! Dont leave your stuff run as I am almost 100% positive your stuff continues to wear.. I haven't noticed so much with idling engines but I left a mulcher running cause I had to take care of my sick mom and when I made it back my tractor had used a half tank of fuel and everything was all worn out.
https://fs19communitytrader.freeforums.net/
PC
PC - Ryzen 7-2700 8core, 32gb ram, 2x2tb SSD, RTX 2080 SUPER 8gb, GX-850 Gold PSU
Displays - ASUS ROG Strix XG43VQ 43” Super Ultra-Wide Curved HDR Gaming Monitor 120Hz (3840 x 1200)
Samsung CFG70 27" Curved gaming Monitor 144HZ (1920 x 1080)
2x 24" Dell Monitors
Controllers - T150 Pro, Side Panel, TrackIR7, TM Stick
User avatar
Smokee
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2019 12:08 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by Smokee »

Tekjunkie28 wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 6:09 pm You got to think that no one is this game is going to put in the THOUSANDS of hours that normal tractors get. You also got to think that the game is a little abstract so that you get the feel of the need(or lack thereof) maintenance. IDK why anyone would be repainting their stuff anyways. Just because there is a button doesn't mean you need to press it. Even going to 0% on the repair needs doesn't do anything.. I would like the tractor to stop functioning all together.. Even catch on fire and you need to pay insurance to fix it. I dont mind the price to fix stuff, I thought it was always too low, to the point of being useless to even have that mechanic in the game. Its still fairly useless as the equipment still functions.
I dont expect much realism in the wearing, but come on, you plow two fields and you ruined tractor but you used like 1 liter of fuel😅
I dont feeel that the game is balanced properly.
User avatar
PrincessJessi84
Posts: 2930
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2016 3:03 am
Contact:

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by PrincessJessi84 »

I am thinking we might be doing things differently.. I have plowed my 3 biggest fields for several years now as well as running my seeder and roller on all my fields and my tractor still has over 50% on the good side of things and has not been in the shop yet.. But I also know plowing is more demanding and put a BIG tractor on a BIG plow.
https://fs19communitytrader.freeforums.net/
PC
PC - Ryzen 7-2700 8core, 32gb ram, 2x2tb SSD, RTX 2080 SUPER 8gb, GX-850 Gold PSU
Displays - ASUS ROG Strix XG43VQ 43” Super Ultra-Wide Curved HDR Gaming Monitor 120Hz (3840 x 1200)
Samsung CFG70 27" Curved gaming Monitor 144HZ (1920 x 1080)
2x 24" Dell Monitors
Controllers - T150 Pro, Side Panel, TrackIR7, TM Stick
bogeyfam
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2021 1:53 am

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by bogeyfam »

another point is many contracts are money losers, I submitted a bug for this via the tracker but no response yet. I think maintenance costs are at least 12x too high considering a turn is a month. The cost of maintenance per hour is probably 30x too high. I know revenue is too high as well but there's a difficulty setting for that and it's a game. The main complaint is it affects Loan vs Buy and makes contracts with your equipment money losers.
paul_c
Posts: 414
Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2021 4:13 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by paul_c »

I think its just a "thing" which has been introduced, so its a factor in the gameplay to deal with worn out machinery. In reality, there's more than one day a month, so they needed to squish around time things wear out.

Its okay, I'll just lease big/expensive stuff from now on. It has potential advantages too - I'm not tying up thousands in depreciating machinery, and I can lease the "right size" stuff as and when I need it. If something is used little and often, and it comes up secondhand, and its on my "need not want" list, I could buy it too.

It also means I can try out a lot of different stuff later on, for example weeding via ploughing/spading/spray/weeder/subsoiler. Or loader vs telehandler.

One factor is it may push me towards just winter cereals rather than spring sown stuff or corn/sunflowers - so all the harvesting and cultivation are in one or two months. I know crop rotations aren't a factor but I like them, it would feel wrong not to do that.
gilroy222
Posts: 623
Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 7:36 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by gilroy222 »

All good points, but one thing as far as realism is that I don't think maintenance should need to be done so many times before you even have to put fuel in. In real life fuel is what we go through many many times before we even get to doing maintenance or changing filters or anything for that matter.

They seriously need to tweak these numbers. Reduce maintenance slightly and increase fuel consumption to pass that of maintenance.
FarmerDan72
Posts: 156
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:18 am
Location: NW Georgia

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by FarmerDan72 »

If they could just add a maintenance option like the fuel option - only actually have a low, medium, and high option for both.
PS4
User avatar
PrincessJessi84
Posts: 2930
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2016 3:03 am
Contact:

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by PrincessJessi84 »

So I just got around to repairing my Man truck for the first time since I got it and what a difference.. I had managed to get it down a bit below 50% and it was struggling to hit 45mph with an empty trailer.. now its right as rain.. So imo, performance degradation is pretty evident and but not too over the top.. I have a theory on some of the maintenance costs and how to reduce them but further testing is required (I cant bring myself to intentionally beat up my machines just to test so I am waiting for certain things to hit certain percentages)
https://fs19communitytrader.freeforums.net/
PC
PC - Ryzen 7-2700 8core, 32gb ram, 2x2tb SSD, RTX 2080 SUPER 8gb, GX-850 Gold PSU
Displays - ASUS ROG Strix XG43VQ 43” Super Ultra-Wide Curved HDR Gaming Monitor 120Hz (3840 x 1200)
Samsung CFG70 27" Curved gaming Monitor 144HZ (1920 x 1080)
2x 24" Dell Monitors
Controllers - T150 Pro, Side Panel, TrackIR7, TM Stick
Femina
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2021 11:18 am

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by Femina »

If you actually allow your equipment to get down to 0% it affects it quite badly. They seem to work right down to single figures, but if you reach 0 they suddenly throw a hissy fit and either stop working or develop intermittent thought patterns of their own on how they will now operate, if at all.
But I must agree the maintainance cost on new vehicles is set ridiculously high, and I would love to know why paint not only gets dirty, thats to be accepted, but is anything from twice as much as mechanics to repair up to my latest which was 15 times more to repaint than the mechanical bill. Was something like 3000 repair costs and 39000 repaint.
paul_c
Posts: 414
Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2021 4:13 pm

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by paul_c »

Now I'm into year 5 and I've made loads of money..........I bought another tractor, one which can actually run properly my more demanding equipment. The JD 7810 is now in semi-retirement. When I picked up the shiny new JCB Fastrac and arrived back on the farmyard, the JD threw a hissy fit...and broke down again. However after a lot of talking to and some positive reinforcement, it will now plod along on the farm doing the lighter jobs and deliveries/towing (I sold the pick up a while ago....) The shiny expensive JCB will be pampered and saved for the jobs its needed on, only.

The repair bill for the JD is >£11k now, more than it costs to lease a better tractor for the month (and it kept wanting that spent per month), so I'll hold off repairs and make do with a semi-working, beaten up, 76hours, 125bhp JD.
User avatar
SkyeRangerDelta
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2021 5:10 am

Re: Equipment Maintenance: Ridiculous and Inscrutable

Post by SkyeRangerDelta »

I've just entered the spring of my 2nd year with an MF8S.305 (320HP engine config) and I'm on the verge of needing to repair it for the 3rd time and it's only clocked 28.9hrs. I've been using it, for the most part, to complete what contracts I've done which have been plowing (using the Ecomat). The maintenance indicator seems to decrease more as the vehicle becomes more damaged. But I've noticed it declining more when I'm using the stone picker to remove the stones from my fields.

Now, I won't say I'm an expert - but I'd like to know if anyone knows what the order of field management should be. It's possible that since I'm new to this I'm screwing it up somewhere. Based on what I've seen from @PrincessJessi's posts - the MF8S has the necessary HP to pull the plow around (which I've also had to repair once - but I suspect that one repair a year seems somewhat reasonable to me) but it still seems to degrade quite rapidly.

Now...while I don't disagree with what @Paul has been saying - it just seems to me that even with how the figures stack up - leasing everything is just a surefire way to go into debt - at least realistically. I also just have a personal preference to buy everything that I know I'll be using more than once. So far the only thing I've actually leased is a snowplow. Perhaps it's time for a maintenance mod, lol.
"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." - Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: TNG
Post Reply