Create: Steam Engine Shaft Fix

Do the shafts on your steam engine snap when the boiler’s heat goes up and down? Or does the whole thing start turning the wrong way after the fire goes out and comes back? This addon fixes both.

Fixes Create issue #3701. Not affiliated with the Create team. Please report bugs here.

What it fixes

It mostly hits big engines with several cylinders on one network, and boilers with a heat source that changes a lot, like solar or nuclear heaters from Create: New Age, or blaze burners that run out of fuel now and then.

Shafts breaking. Each time the boiler’s power goes up or down a step, the engine shaft that drives the network lets go of it for a moment and takes it back. Every shaft and cog on the network counts that as stopping and starting again. If the heat changes often, the network soon decides its speed "changed too often" and breaks shafts, the same check that stops redstone clocks from flipping a gearshift every tick. With this addon, a change in boiler power that never really stops the network doesn’t count. Real stops, starts and direction changes still count, so the check still protects against flicker machines.

Engines turning backwards. An engine with no power still tries to match its direction to a shaft that other engines keep turning, but at zero power it gets its own direction wrong, so about half the engines flip. When the heat comes back while everything is standing still, the network starts up backwards. With this addon, an engine with no power keeps its direction.

Config

config/steam_shaft_fix.properties:

• keepDirection: engines without power keep their direction.
• noFlickerForPowerChanges: boiler power changes don’t count towards the flicker check.

If a Create update changes the code this addon hooks into, the fix switches itself off and logs a warning. It never stops your game from loading.

FAQ

Client or server? The server needs it (or your game, in singleplayer). Players don’t need it to join.

Does it need anything else? Create 6.0 for Minecraft 1.21.1, on NeoForge.

How is it tested? A game test builds a boiler with an engine on two of its sides, both driving one network through shafts and a row of cogwheels. A test-only hook sets the boiler’s power each tick. It jumps between 0 and 100% every few ticks for 20 seconds: with the fix, every shaft survives and the network never turns backwards. The same run with the fix turned off has to break shafts or turn backwards, so we know the test can actually catch the bug. Two more tests check that turning the heat on and off, and a slow shutdown and restart, still run the engines at the right speeds.

Can I use it in my modpack? Yes, go ahead, no need to ask.

MIT. Developed with AI assistance. Source: https://github.com/traelmyx/steam-engine-shaft-fix