Nearly ran out of fuel due to game crash - is this a known bug?

[herzbube]

Just now I almost ran out of fuel near Sagittarius-Carina mission camp 16. The reason: Two game crashes, both in the middle of a jump, and both used up fuel but did not place me into the destination system. Question: Is this a known bug? If not I will report this to FD, but maybe more experienced explorers are already aware that this can happen?

In my case I was lucky to a) be in a region of space where star density was sufficiently high to let me eco-jump to safety, and b) have enough fuel left to perform these eco-jumps. If circumstances had not been this fortuitous, though, it would have been time for the Fuel Rats...

Event log (partially taken from the ED Discovery journal):

• I have a full tank of 32t after fuel scooping in Ploxuia DN-Q d6-7.
• Jump to Ploxuia AB-W e2-2. The jump requires 5.5t and leaves me with fuel level 26.510925.
• Attempt 1 to jump to Ploxuia IX-X a 55-0. This jump is not registered in ED Discovery.
• The game crashes.
• Logging in again. I am still at Ploxuia AB-W e2-2.
• Attempt 2 to jump to Ploxuia IX-X a 55-0. The jump requires 7.2t and leaves me with fuel level 11.783796. As can be seen, I have lost approximately 7.5t of fuel in the first failed jump attempt.
• The game crashes - again.
• Logging in again. I am still at Ploxuia AB-W e2-2.
• Attempt 3 to jump to Ploxuia IX-X a 55-0. This time the jump requires 7.0t (because I carry less fuel than in attempt 2) and leaves me with fuel level 4.750721.
• The jump succeeds. I now notice the critically low fuel level and eco-jump to safety to a nearby scoopable star.

Full Disclosure: Two days ago I re-installed ED onto a secondary SSD drive and updated my Windows installation and graphics drivers. Since that time I have had numerous game crashes, which is why after the second of the above crashes I was fed up and re-installed ED back onto my primary SSD drive. I mention this here so people get the full picture, but I don't think re-installing the game or updating Windows/graphics drivers should have any effect on the server-side game state, or how ED reacts to a crash. The crash, by the way, took the form of a Direct3D error message box that popped up in the middle of playing the game and which, after clicking the only available button "Abort", forcefully terminates the ED process. So maybe not a regular crash, because I didn't get the chance to submit a crash report to FDev?

 

[Iron Body]

This has happened to me as well recently. I got away with it by the skin of my teeth.
The problem is that the fuel is used up as soon as you enter witch space, any crash during the jump and you lose that fuel.

I think my crash was due to lost internet connection, but it could have been anything.

The restored state should put you back to just before the fuel was consumed.

 

[Cherokeedog]

The problem is that the fuel is used up as soon as you enter witch space, any crash during the jump and you lose that fuel.

THIS is exactly why it happens. I don't get many crashes, but I started to lose connection to the server quite often. If it happens during a jump, the fuel is lost, yet the destination is not reached.

So it's not a bug. They should change the mechanic so that the fuel gets consumed upon arrival.

 

[Major Klutz]

Happened to me also.
As I recall, when it happened under 2.1, the game client crashed in the middle of a jump, I ended up at my destination when I logged back in.

When it happened to me a couple days ago, the game didn't crash, I got the message "unable to connect to matchmaking service" and dropped back to the main menu.
When I logged back in, I was surprised to find myself at my original location instead of the other end. I didn't notice the fuel had been used, but it makes sense since the fuel is gone the instant you enter hyperspace.

Update: It's possible it could depend on the cause of the disconnect which would determine if the servers got the data or not.
For example, when it happened to me before 2.2, it was due to a game client crash and not a loss of connection. In that case the servers were aware that I entered hyperspace.
This last time, it's possible that I lost the connection to the servers just before entering hyperspace and it took a few seconds to time out.
The fuel is used as soon as the countdown starts, just before entering hyperspace, so if the disconnect happens at just the right time during the countdown, the server would be aware of the fuel use but not the entry to hyperspace.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

this happens also if you get a buzz crash while making a jump,

Result - You dont jump but you use the fuel...

i have had one instance where i used 1/2 a tank without going anywhere due to crashes (this was @ 2.0 launch) thankfully since i haven't had anything near that and usually just the one crash and not several in a row before being able to re-fuel,

since this i have never flown below 1/4 of a tank... just in case because it does still happen

im sure in the worse case a support ticket would fix it for you, after-all its not YOUR fault

 

[herzbube]

Alright, so when I was writing the OP I was thinking that this unexpected fuel consumption is related to crashes in general, or to some new kind of crash. Because I clearly remember that in the past when I would lose my connection to the server during a jump, then upon re-connect the game would place my ship into the destination star system.

Now you guys made me nervous, so I performed some tests. What I did was: Initiate a jump to a new star system, then pull the network cable at various points during the jump sequence. The summary of my tests is this:
* In all cases, when I logged in again I remained in the original star system
* If the connection was cut during the FSD countdown, I didn't lose fuel
* If the connection was cut during the witch space sequence, I did lose fuel

Now in my opinion not only is this a departure from the - sane and sensible - behaviour of older game clients, it is clearly a bug, and I have reported it as such. You'll also find more details about my test results in that report, in case you are interested.

 

[dynamicbob]

All i can say is make sure if u can to stay above the 50% fuel marker, refuel more often if bugs are an issue as there might be bugs going on, or stick to places where theres more scoopables.

Should be safer that way, keeping it simple is best and if have a bug report those systems on the bug forum

 

[dunnst]

This way of loosing fuel happend to me numerous times, but never got me stranded. It is becoming more of an issue now, when we have neutron-highways, where I tend to use as much fuel as possible, before having to jump to a scoopable. Not mentioning the ugly death in the cold of space, should I get disconnected when jumping from the Neutron star.