Skidsteer loaders turns weird; Any fix?!?

[Everhard Dawnwood]

Skidsteer loader turns like a Telescopic loader with 4 wheel steering enabled!!

First off, theres a delay when turning, like some invisible wheels are being turned and again when you go from a turn to straight forward, the machine keeps tuning until those invisible wheels has gone back to their straight forward position.

Because a skidsteer loader turns as a result of the operator sending more power to the track/wheels on one side, it turns instantly and therefore makes it very agile so it can be maneuvered and positioned fast and easy in small spaces.

The way they work in FS17 totally contradicts every aspect of that, because it has steering delay, so you if you do a turn and need to continue in a stright line, you have to let go of the controls and wait 2-3 seconds before itll go in a straight line.


Is there any way to do some workaround until the devs get around to fix this?

Cheers :-)

[andematt]

I agree, was really surprised by how off-putting this felt. Was looking for a mod or something to fix but haven't found anything.

[Birckablock]

It's the way it was in FS15 Gold Edition. After a while you will get used to it and figure how best to maneuver with it.

[Everhard Dawnwood]

Originally posted by Birckablock:

It's the way it was in FS15 Gold Edition. After a while you will get used to it and figure how best to maneuver with it.

No, its broken and in its current state, will never perform anywhere near the level of a proper working model.

[95Bravo95]

It acts like it has all wheel steering because that's basically how it works. If you look in the XML, even the tracked version has 4 "wheels", each with "crawler" tire compound.

You don't see the tires changing angle to steer, but that's effectively what they are doing.

It's a workaround for tracked vehicles that dates back to the first FS. This is how modders added Cat bulldozers and such into the game. The game wasn't built with true tracked vehicles in mind.

Not a problem obviously, if you're not relying on variable speed between sides to turn, like some of the tractors, but it definitely causes problems with vehicle like the skid steers, that do rely on this for turning.

In the past, some mods got around it by increasing the speed at which the invisible wheels changed angles, but that only helps so much.

You're not going to get a full fix until support for true tracked/variable speed steering is added to the game. I seem to remember Giants saying that would require game engine changes, some years back.

[Everhard Dawnwood]

Originally posted by 95Bravo95:

It acts like it has all wheel steering because that's basically how it works. If you look in the XML, even the tracked version has 4 "wheels", each with "crawler" tire compound.

You don't see the tires changing angle to steer, but that's effectively what they are doing.

It's a workaround for tracked vehicles that dates back to the first FS. This is how modders added Cat bulldozers and such into the game. The game wasn't built with true tracked vehicles in mind.

Not a problem obviously, if you're not relying on variable speed between sides to turn, like some of the tractors, but it definitely causes problems with vehicle like the skid steers, that do rely on this for turning.

In the past, some mods got around it by increasing the speed at which the invisible wheels changed angles, but that only helps so much.

You're not going to get a full fix until support for true tracked/variable speed steering is added to the game. I seem to remember Giants saying that would require game engine changes, some years back.

Precisely what I thought, because it feels like it has traditional steering, especially because it has a lot of steering lag and thats the main problem.

Its kinda odd though, that it can be so difficult to make it work correctly, other games like "Dig It!" handle this feature just fine and so does other games with excavators etc.

If anything, a workaround could be if it was possible to adjust the steering speed so it would turn its four invisible wheels instantly instead. :-)

[95Bravo95]

I get really annoyed by the steering myself sometimes. I didn't even use the Giants versions in FS15, because a few people released mods that worked better, and had added features in some cases. (Even had one with a two speed gearbox. One gear for speed, and one for working.) It is definitely possible to tweak them for more realism steering wise.

Hopefully an improved version will show up soon. I do find them very useful when they aren't arguing about which direction to go, lol.

[[FCClan]The_Stranger]

What would really be needed is to be able to operate the skidsteer with 2 joysticks. Also would be the case with any tracked equipment. Something else that would make it more realistic would be to have 3 pedals, one is a throttle, the other two are left and right side brakes. Also a selector for forward and reverse. Most real tractors have left and right side braking. Also many combines have it to. It allows for REALLY tight turns. Turn the wheel all the way to the right and hit the right side brake and the right back wheel locks up and that wheel actually become the center (or very close to it) of a circle. As an example, in Construction Simulator, you push a button and your XBox controller switches between excavator mode and drive mode. When in drive mode, you move each stick forwards and backwards to make the corresponding track move.

[Everhard Dawnwood]

Well before adding any of that, theyll have to fix the steering machanics. :-D

[[FCClan]The_Stranger]

Yeah, it is WAY fast.

From the JCB brochure on skidsteers travel speeds:
135: S7.5
155/175/190/205: S7.5 D5.6/11.5
150T/190T/205T: S7.2 D5.6/7.8
225/260/280/300: S6.8 D6.8/12.4
330: S7.3 D7.3/13.5
225T/260T/300T/320T: S5.7 D4.8/7.8

S=Single Speed
D=Two speed
All speeds are in Miles Per Hour
Max speeds are both forward and reverse.

Working speed would be the lower setting on a two speed loader.

[Everhard Dawnwood]

Originally posted by Texas Transports LLC:

You know I have to agree that the skidsteer is horrible at turning. I mean at the sametime they made it like real life. Because in real life they do turn on a dime so they try to make it do the same on here which is ok to some but mostly it is annoying as hell. You trying to do something and before you know it the damn thing does a 360 degree turn LOL

It does and thats just fine when you use the rl machine where you control the right and left side wheels independantly, but in the game here, it has steering lag, which the rl machine doesnt.

The steering itself doesnt bother me, im used to driving excavators and other machines irl, its the steering lag that bothers me, that when you use the skidsteer loader in FS and do a full left turn, then as soon as u stop turning, the machine keeps turning until the steering has come back to its default straight position.

So when u operate this thing and want to do a left turn, you have to stop, turn, wait a couple of seconds and then drive to make the turn.
Same goes when youre done with your turn, you have to halt the machine, stop turning, wait a couple of secs and then you can go in a straight line.

It renders the machine comepletely useless as you can do its job much faster using any other machine in the game.

The skidsteer loaders advantage lies within its agility and fast maneuvering, which in FS has been completely ruined because the steering is actually a 4-wheel steering and not independant right/left side forward/reverse control.

As it is now, it steers like a telescopic loader. :-/

[bzacon ベゼコンさん]

None of us are surprised that they still haven't fixed this in 2019. I'm sure the next version in 2022 or whatever will still have the same problem. I need to stop giving Giants my money, but they keep adding fun features to each version without fixing the underlying ♥♥♥♥ game engine.