[11.35] Checklist Desynchs - Theories

[Sarlock]

Just to recap and collect in a separate thread:

We removed most of the transformers in the server game and the rate of checklist desynchs significantly dropped (almost to zero) shortly thereafter.

A-Train added a bunch back to the game last night to test and there are a lot of checklist desynchs again, so it seems strongly correlated.

Likely the first place to look is in the Experimental-specific code for electrical supply.

[prissi]

My prime suspect would be city supply, because this was added to experimental only. Or any list with random order, du to hashtable dependence. Or callings a wrong random.

[jamespetts]

Ahh, interesting: Kevin/A-Train had initially reported that having added back the substations, there were no more desyncs, but it is useful to note that this seems not to be the case.

Prissi is probably right about city supply, as that is specific to Experimental. Sadly, I am not at present in a position to investigate this as my normal computer is temporarily out of commission after moving out of my flat and before moving into my new house, but I shall know where to look when it comes to investigating this properly. Thank you all for your work in narrowing things down: it is much appreciated.

Edit: Kevin has done some useful research and found two specific bugs relating to power supply in 11.35; with his permission, I reproduce the e-mail that he send me in this connexion:
"Ok, so I may have narrowed down the bug in the power numbers.  (Note: it may or may not be the cause of the desyncs.)

It has two parts:
1. Industries can draw power far beyond their max limit
2. ... and consume/pay for power that doesn't exist.

Check out: (596,1225)
At month 2 (when the huge profit was made I think), there was around a 1,500+ % increase in power provided to that industry (along with a similar huge increase in production).

If I recall, the nearby powerplants that were providing power did not actually output huge amounts of power, however, I'm guessing the industry somehow consumed huge amounts and gave the player a huge profit paying for the power usage."

[jamespetts]

Now that I have a little while in which I can look into these issues, can anyone identify steps to reproduce these issues with the electricity consumption, or a (relatively simple) saved game in which they occur?

[DrSuperGood]

Now that I have a little while in which I can look into these issues, can anyone identify steps to reproduce these issues with the electricity consumption, or a (relatively simple) saved game in which they occur?

Seeing how you run the only server game I guess not...

Basically, if any power network is made it will desync periodically. The more or larger the network the more it will desync. That is all I could identify. The fact it does not occur near instantly means it is some behaviour that only occurs every so often so possibly related to overflow, uninitialized values etc. Power currently is broken as well with crazy demand patterns occurring (such as a network with 999999999 demand). This only applies for the server version.

[jamespetts]

Interesting - the anomalous demand spikes occur only on games running in network mode? Has anyone experienced the anomalous demand spikes in other circumstances?