I actually like this game, but I am on the verge of uninstalling it because of the Fire mechanics.

It seems to make no difference whatsoever that I manage the engine temperature- I keep it at 200F all the time, limp along at speed "1" or faster at speed "2" the thermostat does not rise... the thermostat does not rise unless i hit Top Speed button. Then it behaves as i would expect- the thermostat rises to the top and then gradually subsides as speed drops off.

I have never had a fire from engaging top speed.

BUT...

I have had many, many fires seemingly randomly while carefully managing engine temperature. Annoyingly, they happen 2 or 3 times in a 2 minute period and every time the thermostat is at 200F. I don't understand why the thermostat even exists if fire can occur at whatever random time that has nothing to do with engine temperature. I have lost so many ships and captains because of this it makes getting a better ship pretty much impossible. Every time i build up nearly 2000 Echoes i get rekt by this fire crap.

That's my rant. Is it a bug? Or is this how it's meant to be?

That's definitely not the way it's ever been in any of my games. I'm pretty sure the "fire" event is triggered by the "strange noises" (or suspicious noises or whatever) quality, which occurs whenever you activate flank speed. This quality may hang around a bit after you turn off flank speed (which occurs automatically whenever the current lot of coal runs out and a new load is shovelled in).

So technically, it's not related to engine temperature - it's related to the "suspicious noise" which is related to you using flank speed (or full speed or whatever you want to call it), and it should be removed shortly after flank speed is deactivated. You should see this quality in your journal (check it while using flank speed, it should appear).

Note that it doesn't matter whether your current speed is 1 or 2 - flank speed has (I believe) the same chances of causing catastrophe either way, even though you travel much slower at speed 1. This aspect is kind of bizarre (also annoying and unrealistic, game's bizarre Universe notwithstanding), since flank speed should be its own separate speed setting - but it's actually a (temporary) turbo-boost for whatever speed you currently have selected.

BTW once you get to 2000 echoes, it might be an idea to invest in a certain piece of equipment that completely eliminates the danger from this speed setting (ie you can go nuts with it) - however it requires a ship with an aft slot if I'm not mistaken...

Thanks Squid

That makes sense, that it is the Suspicious Noises quality that triggers the fires. It is definitely present. Maybe the problem is that, for me, this quality does not go away.

I notice you wrote "deactivated"- do you mean i need to manually turn flank speed off? i was under the impression that it turned itself off- i hit "F" to activate flank speed, the velocity of the ship increases along with engine temp, then both subside to normal in a few seconds.

The Suspicious Noises quality definitely does not go away after this with the using of next fuel unit, it seems to stay until the ship is inevitably consumed by the chain of fire events that follow.

By "deactivated" I meant either one: either you switch it off manually, or it does so itself once the current unit of coal is used up.

In either case this should result in the strange noise quality disappearing. I haven't played this in some time, so from the sounds of things either your game is somehow bugged, or one of the latest patches/updates bugged this. It might first be worthwhile to update the game from within the game (if possible) - if not possible and/or it still happens then it might be worth raising this on the Failbetter forums as a bug (this post here has instructions for filing bug reports: http://community.failbettergames.com/topic8802-faq-and-bug-reports.aspx).

Has this been fixed with the latest update? I noticed they updated to 2.2.5.3148 quite recently - if you haven't updated it, I'd try that. Then, also do the "update" from within the game.

If it still happens, hassle the devs - I still haven't gotten around to trying the new version beyond installing it.

EDIT: There's a new patch out today - 3150 - which could well have fixed this...

Having sunk many hours into this game (haha), I can confirm that there is a bug that does not remove the peculiar noises condition, but it currently only affects the Mac version. I installed the game today on Windows via boot camp and it works perfectly. I hope that Failbetter can update their patch for the Mac version sometime soon.

Must be the Mac version. My windows install works perfectly