Describe the Bug

When building a steam engine with multiple engines on common shafts, some engines slow down faster than others (observed from the differently-coloured speed cues) when the capacity of the boiler drops. The difference in rotation speed then causes some of those shafts to break.

Reproduction Steps

1. Set up a steam engine to run at a high level, with individual cylinders connected to each other.
2. Allow the steam engine to run down. I manage this by letting the heat beneath die while maintaining a sufficient water supply with a rotational speed controller.

Expected Result

I would expect the individual cylinders to slow down evenly as the capacity of the boiler dropped, so that the shafts don't break during an ordinary shutdown condition.

Screenshots and Videos

No response

Crash Report or Log

No response

Operating System

Windows 7

Mod Version

0.5.0c

Minecraft Version

1.18.2

Forge Version

40.1.73

Other Mods

No response

Additional Context

No response

I've experienced this issue as well. It's easily reproducible with Create: New Age trying to heat a boiler with many steam engines using solar heat

When there's a lot of engines coupled together, and the boiler gets over-stressed, sometimes some of the steam engines flip their rotation direction. This causes shafts to break. It's more easier to trigger with new age because the boiler heating is really uneven, as the heat propagates every tick and sometimes creates a state where, over the course of a few ticks, the boiler flickers between having enough power and becoming overstressed. After this happens, if at least one of the engines flips rotation direction, it causes breaks.

It doesn't matter what rotation direction you set your steam engines to, and it seems to be more likely to happen either if you have a lot of engines (usually upwards of 9) on one boiler, or multiple boilers connected together combining their strength.

I'm also having this exact issue with steam engine shafts. One max level steam engine heated by Create: New Age solar plates and boiler heaters has nearly half the shafts break almost every single day.

The heat starts off low, so the system overstresses before it gets to max capacity, and sometimes it just decides to break half the shafts and usually also the belt combining them all. I've tried introducing a daylight timed clutch but now that I have two steam boilers it usually still breaks while the clutch is engaged.

Create version: 0.5.1.f
Minecraft version: 1.19.2
Forge version: 43.3.5

I wish there was an advanced shaft, that could handle changing speeds, maybe transfer the average speed between two points, it would come in so handy.

I wish there was an advanced shaft, that could handle changing speeds, maybe transfer the average speed between two points, it would come in so handy.

Chain drives as well as belts are able to handle different rotation speeds without breaking I think. The stress capacity gets merged.

Here’s a video of what I believe is the bug.
https://youtu.be/NVUlsfTSTU4

The thing is, I’ve seen so many setups just like mine. I’m not sure what causes this bug.

Also having this issue. Easily observable with Create: New Age as Jazzy noted, or any setting where you can experiment with a absolute ton of steam engines.

Setup:

117 Fluid Tanks as one massive tank.
30 steam engines all along one side, linked together vertically in 3 rows.
On the top, I connect them all with a chain drive.
Said chain drive goes off to the side and connects to a rotation speed controller.
Speed controller outputs to a SU>FU converter from New Age.
The two setups I have here do not share SUs in any way and are not connected in any way besides sharing a heat and water source.
I have not modified the direction the steam engines go at all. Checking it anyway, I can confirm all of the steam engines go in the same direction (Or, at least they are set up that way).
All of this is in a single chunk, so there's no weird chunk desync or load/unloading issues happening.
This is all being powered by a inconsistent heat source, and goes in and out at bursts that take about 3 minutes to heat up, lasts about 6 minutes, then takes 5 minutes to cool down, eventually stopping the engines. If and when steam engines break, I've only seen it happen during the cooldown phase.

I did some looking around, and people have reported many things to help with steam engines breaking, including..
Making sure all rotation is set up the same direction.
Set up some kind of light consistent SU source like a water wheel and connect it to share the shaft train with the steam engines, to 'encourage' the steam engines to always go along a specific direction when they do kick on. Not sure how valid this is, but I tried it anyway.
Surround it with chain drives, since apparently chain drives don't break (They do).
Disconnect the steam engines from other SU sources (My setup used to share SUs between the water tanks/steam engines. They don't now).
Of course, none of these actually helped, else I wouldn't be here.

Versions:
Create: 0.5.1.f
Minecraft: 1.20.1
Forge: 47.2.0