Automatic fireman?

[StoneC0ld]

Hi all,

So, I'm trying to run the N&W J611 on MONON2. For the first while, everything has been fine, the automatic fireman was keeping everything where it needed to be.

Then, suddenly, without ever pressing any button involving firing rate, firebox doors, injector rates, etc. that could possibly disable the automatic fireman, everything started going haywire with boiler pressures, steam usage rates and boiler water glass levels...
Since I have no idea what I'm doing as far as maintaining the fire, steam pressures, water injectors, all I could really do was start randomly messing with the firing rate, firebox doors and small injector controls, while repeatedly turning the automatic fireman on and off and on and off and resetting it, to no effect. Boiler pressure would max out at 307psi with the relief valve popping, and after a bunch of random key pressing, boiler pressure dropped out of the red on the high end, and got down to the yellow on the low end. A bunch more random key pressing, and the safety valve is having to pop again... As of the moment I saved and rage-quit, I had just gotten out of the upper red on boiler pressure, and it was dropping like a rock.
All the while, the water injector is apparently unable to keep up with water usage for periods of time..... And, of course, turning the AI fireman on or off or resetting it seems to do nothing but put the appropriate messages on the screen.

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Or, is the AI fireman broken in OR version 1.3.1.4328?

[R. Steele]

1st -- Inevitably, ( and justifiably so ) someone will ask that you post the OR log...let me be the first.
2nd-- There have been many changes and bug fixes since the stable version you running --- have you duplicated the problem in the latest unstable release or Monogame.

[baldwin]

Water usage on a steam engine is directly related to reverser settings, and how you use the throttle. High reverser percentages with high throttle settings will use water faster than the injectors can replace it if you are running at much over walking pace. You have to pull the reverser back as speed increases, 15% to 20% should be sufficient on level track with whatever throttle you want to use.

The auto fireman will be able to keep the fire and water levels within required parameters so long as you do not thrash the engine.

[StoneC0ld]

Ok, so I updated to the latest unstable (at the time), currently on U2020.08.31-1221. Since it would not load the "rage quit" save from before, I started a brand new scenario for the same run in the same N&W 611 and same consist.

As before, left Louisville, did the French Lick excursion and back to the main, and continued on towards Chicago, with a more conservative strategy on throttle-reverser settings on the grades (even though that means inconsistent speeds). I do realize that higher speeds + higher reverser settings + higher throttles = more steam usage than steam generated, I've used MSTS from its beginning... Although, in the previous run I mentioned, I may have been a bit more aggressive on the reverser/throttle to maintain speeds on uphill grades.

But, I still don't think that's the only issue.....

I made it all the way to Monon, with no problems. Maintained good levels on boiler pressure and water glass.
Unfortunately, upon reaching Monon, I accidentally pressed F instead of D, manually adjusting the firebox doors. So, I hit alt-H to turn the AI fireman back on. Boiler pressure went red and steam usage went through the roof. Eased up a bit more on the controls, boiler pressure quickly dropped to about 260ish, and then back up to pegging at 307 as soon as I put the throttle back up. I'm paused right now, showing a speed of 45.3mph, boiler pressure at 307psi (red) with the safety valve popped, steam usage at 67,644lb/h, with the reverser at 15 forward and regulator at 50%. Prior to this, steam usage was consistently at very reasonable levels when not having to push it up a significant uphill grade.

So, I'm a bit more convinced that the AI fireman only works properly if you don't touch any of the manual controls. If I touch any of the manual controls--even accidentally, the AI fireman quits and goes home and never comes back, regardless of resetting it or trying to turn it back on....

I saved a copy of the log to a separate folder so it doesn't get wiped out again next time I launch the game, but I can't post it here because the file size is way too big to be attached here (105KB, forum limit of 19.5kb). Instead, I pasted it on pastebin:

https://pastebin.com/P9fQwtck

[crstagg]

....

I saved a copy of the log to a separate folder so it doesn't get wiped out again next time I launch the game, but I can't post it here because the file size is way too big to be attached here (105KB, forum limit of 19.5kb). Instead, I pasted it on pastebin:

Just ZIP the file and post the Zip. Zipping will drastically reduce the size of a txt fille.