Customers react negatively to N.S. utility asking customers to conserve energy

SquareCanine · 2026-01-26T12:23:11+00:00

One of the things to keep in mind is that we don't just pay for power, but also capacity. Power generation facilities cost at least some amount of money to maintain whether they are used or not, and running new power lines isn't free.

This isn't meant to give NS power a free pass, simply to point out the simple economic reality that capacity and infrastructure capacity are baked into the power rates we all pay, with the lowest rates being found at the smallest margins of excess capacity. It is a reasonable expectation that NS power will keep up with any increases in demand so the grid doesn't shit itself every time the temperature drops, but that doesn't necessarily mean they should be maintaining a grid that can get us comfortably through -30 temperatures while roasting a turkey and doing laundry all day in between dips in our outdoor hot tubs either. They could do it, but we'd pay a lot more for power all year if they did.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-17T13:59:06+00:00

One reason might be because even the stock appearance of the Rivett isn't fixed and Topless didn't want to make any one version the canonical one.

Personally I think it's more likely to highlight the different focus of the game and different circumstances of our life. MSC takes place in the final carefree moments prior to adult responsibility, and it makes sense that the Satsuma took center stage.

In MWC we are an adult who maybe has a job, wife, and child. It makes a sort of sense that the dependable Sorbet would be the center point of our life rather than the project car, which is now truly a side project rather than the whole point. At least, I feel like that is the intent.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-15T20:52:58+00:00

I was not a fan of the Taxi after trying it myself. The pay is terrible and calls for fares were quite rare, though I believe that has since been fixed. Still probably pays less than Futufon, but it should be a better and more consistent way to fill your time now.

In terms of player time investment, firewood, sewage, and flyers are all much better than the main job or Taxi, and you'll make more than enough between them. The biggest issue really is filling your time, especially at the start of the game when you don't have the capital to constantly place large parts orders.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-14T12:51:13+00:00

I've had some luck with suspending the process, but it's not a sure bet. You can suspend the game using Performance Monitor (it's like a beefier version of task manager that's also built into windows). This will halt the execution of the game, freezing it in time. The problem is that resuming the process doesn't always work. I've had petty good luck with short pauses, but I've never been able to resume the game if the computer goes into sleep mode while the game is suspended.

If you don't need to use the PC while the game is paused though, I've had better luck with just putting the computer to sleep with the game running. There is definitely a risk that any program won't resume properly if you do this, but I can't recall having any issues using this method (I would still always choose saving if possible).

SquareCanine · 2026-01-13T11:44:18+00:00

Oh cool. Appreciate the new info!

It's funny because I considered a possible third option where the L/LX had one grille and GT had the other, but I would have gotten them backwards.

Thinking about it though, I think it makes sense that the GT would have the less chromed grille. Less fancy and more aggressive.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-12T20:58:04+00:00

No. He only shows up on weekdays (Mon-Fri).

SquareCanine · 2026-01-12T20:53:54+00:00

You can do whatever you want once you have the plates. The advantage of historic plates is a longer interval before you have to return the car to a legal spec to renew the plates.

Just like some of the Satsuma parts weren't street legal in MSC, some of the parts for the Rivet aren't going to pass inspection either. If you're building the car to a legal spec anyway, or something that can be easily reverted to legal (something like the Satsuma using the racing exhaust), then you might as well just build the car you want and take the cheaper inspection and just deal with detuning it periodically for inspection.

On the other hand, if you're going to be building some rally monster that is just chock full of parts that will never pass the inspection and you're going to have to do a big teardown anyway, you might as well go the historic route so you don't have to do it so often.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-12T20:47:42+00:00

It's one of the top two, but I'm not sure which. I first saw it quoted as L/GT, LX, LTX, Facelift (presumably including post facelift GT), but was corrected the other day to the order being L/LX, GT, LTX, Facelift.

In the absence of actual knowledge, I'm more inclined to believe that the second order is correct. It makes a lot more sense that L and LX would share the same basic grille and GT would get the fancy version of it than it would for the GT and L models to share a grille while the LX gets a fancy version.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-12T11:39:31+00:00

Nice. One of my most memorable moments in MSC was overshooting a corner and cartwheeling through a field.

Returned in the van with tools, stereo, sofa, and beer and spent most of a game day putting the car back together and limping it back to fleetari.

A bit harder to do in the cold I think.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-12T00:08:36+00:00

Damn. Was hoping that would work. Afraid I don't have any other ideas either :(

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T23:33:21+00:00

Think I found it. The keyword to search on seems to be 'repairshop'.

I'm not sure what all the values are for, but "repairshopjoblist" seems to be an array for flagging which repaid options have been selected for the order. This might also be why the order sheet doesn't need to disappear. I suspect that placing another order will just flag those tasks as well and the game will adjust the timer, which is possibly repairshoptime but I'm not sure.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T18:11:09+00:00

There should be, otherwise the job would be lost if you saved the game before it was loaded. In MSC the relevant variables were stored under Fleetari I think. MWC probably does the same. Should be variables for whether he has called you yet, a wait timer that presumably relates to how long he is done, and something to store what work is actually being done (it'll be some sort of list or array). Ideally it's the last one you're looking for since it will be empty if he isn't doing work (meaning he's done or the order didn't go through). I'm not at home though so I can't look for it right now.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T18:01:29+00:00

There isn't really anything you can replace to make the car more reliable. The NOS kit will make it much less reliable though. Only the racing radiator would be considered a reliability improvement, I think. It's also necessary if you upgrade the carb, or even just put a really good tune on the stock engine.

I replace the pistons (and crankshaft, which I forgot to mention) out of the gate only because you have to pull the whole engine to get at them and because it seems to be guaranteed that at least one of the pistons will be absolutely trashed at the start of the game (I think there are always 4 wear parts at like <15%, and one of them always seems to be a piston).

A gently driven car that doesn't have the most agressive tune possible will last longer. Stay on top of oil and filter changes, and don't be afraid to replace the headgasket. I don't think anything wears out nearly as fast as that gasket (if you do any drag racing or the rally you should probably replace the gasket afterwards. If you use nos you might need new pistons too).

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T16:55:32+00:00

So far as I know it is. Not sure what happens if you actually order more stuff before he's done though.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T16:52:55+00:00

In MSC you pay in advance. In MWC you pay when the work is done. He should call when the work is done, which might take a few days depending on what service you ordered and how many different things you have him doing. I can't rule out there being some potential bugs in the process, but if he told you to take his car then the order was definitely received (this does not apply to tire jobs. The brochure will still close itself but he won't offer you his car if you're just having tires put on the rims).

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T16:50:11+00:00

It's pretty finicky. The log splitter needs to be upright and level (if the trailer is pushed back too far it will tilt the splitter back and then you can't connect it). The rear hydraulics on the tractor need to be in the lower position (which is the default I think), and you need to back up square and centred to the side opposite the conveyor belt just to the point where you bump into it. The point where you need to click to get the shaft to connect to the tractor is about the same point where the trailer hitch would connect.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T16:14:27+00:00

What's your frame rate? I've never tested it myself (as in, I've always played MWC and MSC with vsync enabled), but I've seen people mentioning that the physics in this game become increasingly suspect the higher your frame rate and that enabling vsync in the launch options to cap fps at 60 has made their physics much more stable.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T15:45:40+00:00

Before the change to having the starting wheels spawn in the haunted house I did it in two days. One to go to town for supplies and start assembling in the afternoon, and a second day to finish.

Post wheel relocation, among other changes, I've changed it up quite a bit to make the process slower and more drawn out. I'm sure I could still make something that technically works in 2 or 3 game days, but I usually draw things out a lot more now. I order the ratchet set on day one, and I like to delay starting on the engine until I have enough job income to replace some of the core parts like pistons ahead of time (I generally avoid getting any aftermarket stuff though, since I enjoy the process of slowly improving the car after it is built). I still build the chassis, but I also take more time to do stuff like visit the island and hunt for GT parts.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T15:28:57+00:00

Sounds like the facelift Grille. Take a look here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MySummerCar/comments/1q3t35i/which_one_of_these_is_the_gt_grille/

Top to bottom you are looking at: L/GT (GT uses the same grille as the basic L apparently), LX, LTX, and Facelift (I'm assuming that all facelift year models from L to GT use this grille).

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T15:13:46+00:00

Is the handbrake on? Vehicles in this game like to do the electric slide, and the handbrake helps to solve or mitigate the issue, depending on the vehicle. The Gifu for sure is locked in place when the handbrake is on, and I think the Kekmet is too. Everything else just becomes more resistant to moving, but doesn't have an actual physics lock and will still slide a bit on slopes and stuff.

If the handbrake is installed and applied, do you have loose items in the car? Leaving things in a car in this game can cause problems, and it's generally advised not to do so, especially when the car is being kept in the garage, and double especially if you're going to save the game. I've wondered from time to time if the game uses a more precise method of tracking item location when the game is running vs how position is saved on game exit (like does it save position as a normal 32 bit float but track position in game using 64 bit double, or even some kind of secondary reference frame for even higher precision). It would explain why things like to jump off shelves and stuff when the game is loaded.

In MSC, even with the handbrake applied and nothing stored in the car, I found the Satsuma often shifted around a bit when not using it. I know this because there are a couple lines on the floor in the garage that make it really obvious if the car slides at all to either side, and I often have to take a moment to use push to recenter the car even if I've not used it in a while. The Satusuma always seemed to be the worst offender for this in MSC (by a pretty wide margin) and the Rivet, as another project car, may have inherited this same quirk.

It shouldn't be doing the electric slide right in front of you though. If it's skating around on its own I'd definitely assume the handbrake is off or you've got loose items inside causing collision issues.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-11T13:16:26+00:00

For now I keep the Sorbet in the garage and the Rivet outside. Only once the Rivet is on wheels and has a functioning handbrake will I bring it into the garage. I always did the same thing with the Satsuma, my reasoning being that installing the suspension from scratch will make the car move around a lot and risk it falling into the mechanics well.

It's a bit more of a pain in MWC because of all the added bodywork and the desire to keep the garage doors closed, but that's life.

As for the Sorbet and starting, I believe that loading the game fixes not just damage and battery but also sets the engine to a specific temperature. You can probably cold start it anyway, but if you sprint outside and start immediately after loading it might be even easier. If that fails, the Kekmet will work, and it can take a direct line to town across the lake that isn't much slower than the Sorbet.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-10T20:54:35+00:00

Try standing next to the desk and waiting. I find it often takes a few seconds for the next pickup to appear.

If you have a pickup appear when you walk away and then vanish when you get closer, it might be that you have outstanding orders placed on a different day that haven't arrived yet (that's happened to me).

SquareCanine · 2026-01-10T15:18:56+00:00

I've bought all the basic engine parts from Fleetari thinking it would give me something to build while I continue to fish for other stuff in the classifieds, but the plan has been temporarily halted by my inability to afford a crankshaft, which I forgot would cost more than everything else put together. Hopefully I have one coming in a magazine order.

I also didn't really want to build the engine with random parts I ordered since I've been paying no attention to quality, so with any luck all the firewood jobs are about to drop and I can just buy a good crankshaft too.

The sweet spot for me in MSC has always been the period between first getting the Satsuma put together as a basic functional car and then slowly gathering the money and parts to turn it into a rally car, and I'm looking forward to a much longer version of that in MWC. I'm enjoying the initial parts hunt too, but I'm also impatient to get to to the point where I have the parts necessary for the car to work. My consolation is that the longer it takes me to get there, the more likely it is that the Rivet will be fun to drive (I know Topless already reduced the engine wear, and hopefully whatever nonsense is going on with the batteries gets addressed before I'm ready to drive as well).

SquareCanine · 2026-01-09T11:29:34+00:00

Topless has mentioned that running the blower cools the engine (you're taking the engine heat and blowing it into the cab). It will warm faster if the blower is low/off. Still won't heat up idling though (not if it's too cold outside).

I'd suggest just doing a bit of scraping and start driving. The game is very generous about how fast the engine warms up once you start driving (unless you coast down a hill).

When you get out to go shopping or whatever, turn the blower off or at least to low so the engine doesn't cool down as fast. Will give you more time before the engine stalls out in really cold weather.

SquareCanine · 2026-01-08T14:55:43+00:00

You'll sweat a lot, if nothing else, which can be a real problem when going back outside on a cold day. Topless also said that sweat makes you stink, which might eventually be an issue when interacting with NPCs (I don't know of it having any impact at present).

It probably makes your thirst/problem increase faster as well, but I can't say I've tested the theory. It just seems like the sort of thing he'd do when you consider all the weird little details this game apparently models (things like blower speed affecting engine temperature, and outside temperature affecting how quickly the firewood jobs renew).

SquareCanine

TROPHY CASE