Architect Archive
Thread: Harvester Malfunction?
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LadyGrey
Wed Feb 18, 2004 5:48 am
#1
I am quite careful, when putting out a cluster of harvesters, to double-check them all before leaving the area. After putting them down and paying up maintenance and power, I always go to all of them again, and check that they are on, and have maintenance and power. I always do this.
So I was very surprised this morning, when I went to check harvesters, to find (in two different locations), harvesters that had this message when I opened the "operate machinery" window. It said something like "Machinery Malfunction. Repair Required." The harvesters had negative maintenance money, and had stopped pulling up resources. I have to pay up the negative amount, and then put my regular maintenance amount on (I always have 5 days of maintenance paid up). All of the other harvesters, in both groups, had about three days of maintenance left.
So I am wondering, is this "new content" for the people that put out harvesters? That the harvester can eat whatever maintenance is on it, and proceed to go negative? Or did I mess up twice when placing harvesters two days ago? If anyone else is seeing this, could you please post. I would be interested in finding out if this is some added content for our game enjoyment.
Astronaut_jones
Wed Feb 18, 2004 7:22 am
#2
I never go more than 2 days without checking my harvesters for just this reason. You never know when it is going to either eat all your power or all you maintenance or even a combination of both. Very screwy.
LadyGrey
Wed Feb 18, 2004 8:25 am
#3
Went in after server reset, and wrote down the message it gave me. Same message on both harvesters.
Major system failure detected. Shutting down. (Choose "pay maintenance" to repair.)
Major system failure detected. Shutting down. (Choose "pay maintenance" to repair.)
Bandola
Thu Feb 19, 2004 4:56 am
#5
LadyGrey wrote:
Went in after server reset, and wrote down the message it gave me. Same message on both harvesters.
Major system failure detected. Shutting down. (Choose "pay maintenance" to repair.)
I have seen this message before, but it was quite a while back, I was offline a few days, started getting emails about one of my harvesters running down. It was simply that it had got below a certain condition level, I think below 50% I was actually down below 30%. The message you get is telling you that the harvester has dropped below the level at which it can even be turned on. You can (or at least you used to be able to at the time it happened to me) still operate your harvester below 100% condition, i.e. when your maintenance goes below 0, but below a certain point it will stop and cannot be turned on until you feed it credits. This is what has happened to you I believe.
However it happened, whether your mistake or a bug, your harvester has run out of money. The only thing you can do is pay maintenance back up again, then turn it on. I have not had any long term problems, the harvester of mine this happened to is still in use andis still pulling at the same rate it used to, there is no permanent damage (although I wish there was, that would be decay, through neglect, that would make me at least a little bit happy).
(edit) Check your email to see if you also got messages telling you that your harvester condition was deteriorating, depending how far down they had got you should have a string of them. If you have then this should support my theory.
Message Edited by Bandola on 02-19-2004 04:00 AM
Tweaky
Thu Feb 19, 2004 5:18 am
#6
Shortly after live, it seemed as though harvs would occassionally eat maint funds for no known reason. But I havent seen this since at least Sept. Most likely, you pulled a me, and skipped those two harvs when planting them. I do that ALOT 
. Lost a heavy chem a couple weeks ago because of it.
. Lost a heavy chem a couple weeks ago because of it.
grrutuck
Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:03 am
#7
A couple of my harvies went awry today. One i returned to hadnt even started collecting, even though I switched it on & had the maintenance well paid up (yes, & there were resources there & selected)
This morning I got the message "Your Wind Power generator has been damaged and is at 23%. You must repair it to continue.....etc."
Panicking i flew 2km out it, to find it was undamaged, still paid up for 2 days and harvesting normally.
Very irritating.
This morning I got the message "Your Wind Power generator has been damaged and is at 23%. You must repair it to continue.....etc."
Panicking i flew 2km out it, to find it was undamaged, still paid up for 2 days and harvesting normally.
Very irritating.
d0qtrX
Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:30 am
#8
This is my routine, however I only have 14 harvesters total:
I put two day's worth of power (2400), and an even 3000 for maintenance (2 days 2 hours).
I try and check it every day. First thing I do is Operate Machinery, then turn the harv off, take my resources out, and click it back on. This re-sets the power and allows me to see the true amount. It also has the effect of re-animating the harvester allowing me to see visually which ones I have been to if I get distracted, attacked, etc.
I then bring the power back up to 2400, maintenance back up to 3000.
I have almost always gotten back out there in time, last night I had just made it to harvesters with <10 power 
I also keep a spreadsheet to track resources gathered, power / maint. consumed and it seems about right.
Message Edited by d0qtrX on 02-19-2004 09:33 AM
LadyGrey
Thu Feb 19, 2004 11:25 am
#9
I have a similar routine. I Operate Machinery, then I activate my macro, which turns the harvester off, turns it on, and opens the status screen. That way I can watch the harvester turn off and back on, and the status screen then shows the correct amount of power. I do this with every harvester, every time. I also double-check to see that the animation is working, on those that have animation.
This morning I had one harvester that wasn't even turned on. Had maintenance and power. I had done my usual routine on it yesterday, and the three other harvesters around it were working correctly. I think I need to check my harvesters twice a day for a while.
This morning I had one harvester that wasn't even turned on. Had maintenance and power. I had done my usual routine on it yesterday, and the three other harvesters around it were working correctly. I think I need to check my harvesters twice a day for a while.
VADERII
Thu Feb 19, 2004 4:56 pm
#10
i have issues like thisas well.
i have 2 harvesters set up next to each other. both are same BER ( except maybe the decimal point), both set on the same % spot. put the same amount of maintenance and power in each (enuff for 4 days worth on both). log off.
check them the next morning ( less than 12 hours later).one is running fine, the other says it needs repair AND is out of power.
been having this issue since i set down my first harvester...
Huntress
Fri Feb 20, 2004 7:06 pm
#11
Well, I am also having probs with the Harvesters stopping--even though I KNOW I have paid & powered. Also, I'm having probs with VERY low production. I mean stupidily Low production! What is going on with them? I have hadto replace various ones because the maintanence thatit said was due was so in the whole! But when the WindGen doesn't produce, boy that totally messes up everything else. I'm having to do deliveries to pay maintanence and buy new machines because of whatever is going on with them. I have no resources to sell to make money.
Aaeryn Chrighton, Scylla, N.Brawler, N. Ent
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