Vehicle Flooding or Total Loss of Engine Control Bug

[membrain]

I have experienced on multiple occasions a condition where I lose control of starting or stopping my engine. I believe it is caused by a combination of simultaneous joystick steering and attempting to downshift (to Neutral) and cutting off the engine... all at the same time. The symptoms are further defined as: 1. Engine remains at slightly less than idle condition, almost as in a flooded stage, but not... this is not heard by anyone nearby. 2. Engine exhaust(s) are creating large amounts of smoke. 3. Transmission shifting is still operable, but gear engagement or vehicle movement takes place. 4. Engine/Gear status in upper left flashes continually, no matter what gear is reflected. 5. Engine starter has no effect. 6. This has happened on the following vehicles: Panny, Vicky, M10, Laffy.

[bronco69]

yay... welcome to axis problem #1 for StuGs !!

known for years already for axis ... mainly in StuGs happening... called the engine bug. a pain in the *ss when you cant turn your StuG anymore.. happens from time to time. you are lucky when you can do a RTB and you are in range of FB or AB...

[membrain]

Thanks for replying... I haven't always had this issue, it just seems to have gotten worse lately.

[membrain]

Corrected a typo. Also wanted to add that attempting to redetect controllers does nothing to help this. I tried unplugging-replugging controllers, tried remapping engine controls... all to no avail. As stated in an earlier reply, the only way to clear this is to respawn. If you aren't close enough for an rtb then you are stuck with the RES or MIA... all because you can no longer move the vehicle.

I have experienced on multiple occasions a condition where I lose control of starting or stopping my engine. I believe it is caused by a combination of simultaneous joystick steering and attempting to downshift (to Neutral) and cutting off the engine... all at the same time. The symptoms are further defined as: 1. Engine remains at slightly less than idle condition, almost as in a flooded stage, but not... this is not heard by anyone nearby. 2. Engine exhaust(s) are creating large amounts of smoke. 3. Transmission shifting is still operable, but no gear engagement or real vehicle movement takes place. 4. Engine/Gear status in upper left flashes continually, no matter what gear is reflected. 5. Engine starter has no effect. 6. This has happened on the following vehicles: Panny, Vicky, M10, Laffy.

Edited January 29, 2011 by membrain

[membrain]

Hmmm, after hearing that it happens on the Stug (Stug only? to you only? or have others reported similar issues?) this rules out clutch and brake mappings as I can get with it both wheeled and tracked vehicles.

I am only seeing this issue on the "faster" moving vehicles, when under a condition where I need to place frontal... armor... facing... the enemy... (hmmm..) and skid/turn to a stop, while changing gears and killing the engine. I am thinking that I could reproduce the problem on all the other heavier vehicles, but since they move considerably slower, I would have had no need to quickly reposition them, and therefore don't see this issue with them.

I regularly switch back and forth between my #1 Driver, #2 Gunner and #3 Commander while I am actively patrolling or moving towards the battle.

Since, on the right side of my layout, my joystick controls my steering and throttle when in the #1 position, switching to the #3 position to scan while moving, again, while using the right side controller, I am imparting continual X/Y axis requests to the system. If I should spot a target, my left side controller allows me to immediately swap to my #1 where the former #3 inputs are now used to control the vehicle as I would simultaneously cut the engine, downshift to Neutral, and steer+brake as necessary to bring the target off the nose. Even as the vehicle is finally coasting to a stop, I am already in the #2 position (having had active X/Y requests coming from the #1 position) now driving the turret X/Y in preparation to engage the target. Sometimes I switch back to #1 to start the engine, set the brake and gear to reverse for a quick pullback into cover.

What I think I am trying to describe is a condition of continual inputs being provided by the joystick controller as one rapidly changes through the vehicle positions. We are looking at the X/Y rapidly cycling through controlling #1 throttle, steering and braking with #3 lateral and vertical scanning and #2 traversing and elevation controls. Somewhere in the middle of all this, the throttle is apparently being noted as being in a "full/wide open throttle condition" from which there is no recovery.

Right after spawning in, have you ever had the throttle full open when trying to start some vehicles? Did you notice that it took forever for the vehicle to start, as the engine is being flooded? Try neutralizing the throttle, the vehicle will start much quicker. I think my originally described issue may be somehow related to this.

Edited January 29, 2011 by membrain

[fearny]

This has been known as an engine idling bug that's effected the StuG and DAC for a long long time.

Maybe, as daft as it may sound, if it affects more vehicles it may be easier to trace the reason as to why and then fix.

[AHWULF]

It's soooo hard to catch this one, I had it happen to me once since I started looking and of course I was running a non-debug version. If you can find a reliable reproduction then I can find it. It's likely a hole in the combination of states that vehicle engines handle and is probably universal, but like you say, only certain things trigger it so generally certain vehicles are more prone to it (like the StugG).

[membrain]

heheheh, I have it happen at least once per day if/when I am logged in... but then again, I tend to use only the faster moving allied vehicles, Panny, Vicky, M10, Laffy. (see my earlier reply in this thread formore details).

In those listed, I have had it happen more than once... more than twice... you get the idea.

I am only now trying to pay attention to my control inputs in each vehicle I am using in order to more accurately capture the conditions under which they occur. Maybe I need to start frapping my missions... dunno...

Edited January 29, 2011 by membrain

[lure]

I've had this in panny.

I would describe it as the engine get stuck in very very very low RPM and cant get back up to normal RPM.

The only special think I remeber from when I got it was that I did a very hard stop after going full speed. I quickly throtteled down and hit the breaks. Maybe it's tied to reducing throtle too quickly combined with high gears or something.

Edited January 29, 2011 by lure

[membrain]

Yes, that sounds like it.

[AHWULF]

Note that the engine sound is actually two (for many vehicles) - there is a low idle sound and a pitched main noise. Somehow the engine is off yet the idle sound continues - why this happens is the mystery. When you hear only the idle sound then its in the stuck state and nothing seems to work. The code isn't very clear as to how this is possible to get into, they should both go on and off more or less together.