[V1.0 - Geoscape] Fuel Bug

[ken557]

If an interceptor has orders to fly to a certain area and they run low on fuel, they will continue to fly to their location (and can also be redirected to attack a UFO, even with 0% fuel).

[Chris]

Hmm, I can't reproduce this myself. If I set a squadron flying to a particular location and it runs out of fuel, it automatically is set to return home and all the buttons are disabled (like in your screenshot) so I can't redirect it anywhere. Can you always get this to happen, or did it just happen to you once?

[ken557]

I've managed to force it again, but only once, and I'm unsure of what the conditions were, because what I tested after I ran into it again (trying to get interceptors to run low on fuel as research completed) never caused it to occur again. I'm not even sure how I managed to get the interceptor to engage the UFO in my original post, because I distinctively remember the buttons being disabled after it ran out of operational fuel. I'll keep trying to see if I have better luck.

[Chris]

Yeah, there is definitely something a bit weird going on with the fuel levels in certain situations, but I'm also not able to work out what those specific circumstances are.

It might have something to do with chasing a UFO flying away from your base maybe ... I once had a fighter from a base in North Africa chase a speeding Scout all the way to the coast of Australia before it ran out of fuel (well beyond its normal range), but again I couldn't subsequently replicate it in future games. Makes it rather difficult to fix unfortunately!

[wulf 21]

Build V2.1

After randomly getting this myself, I had an idea and I am able to reproduce it now.

Steps:

• load the savegame: quick_save.json - it contains an interceptor craft on its way to a waypoint (Screenshot 1)
• fast forward time a bit - the game determines that the fuel reserve is now just enough to return to base, so it reroutes the interceptor back to base. However since the interceptor is close enough to its destination it triggers the "destination reached" instead of the "aircraft fuel exhausted" message (Screenshot 2) - I think it may be the same if the destination is a UFO and the interceptor runs out of fuel near the UFO
• choose "select new target" and select a new target - the "aircraft fuel exhausted" message comes up now (Screenshot 3)
• choose OK - the an interceptor will however not return but continue to fly to the new waypoint it is now impossible to get it to fly somewhere else before reaching the new waypoint because the game thinks it is already returning to base out of fuel. (Screenshot 4)
• On reaching new waypoint it is always possible to reroute it to a new target, it can even shoot down a UFO with the 0 fuel. The only limitation is that you can never select a new target before reaching the current target (Screenshot 5)

Screenshot 1:

Screenshot 2:

Screenshot 3:

Screenshot 4:

Screenshot 5:

[Chris]

Thanks, good job on reproducing this!

I *think* this is actually fixed already in V3, I assume as a result of some other changes we made that have somehow addressed the issue. I've tested your save in V2.1 and then tried to reproduce it in V3 and it doesn't seem possible.

The biggest problem I can cause is to generate two "out of fuel" notifications, and the second one properly forces the plane back to base now. We'll have a look and try to figure out why two notifications are being generated  in this situation but the worst parts of this bug already seem to be fixed.,