Bug in racing mode gives unlimited fuel

[astroslug]

I came across this issue last night in version 0.7.4 while shooting for a high score for the basic race track in autonomous mode.  My drone has 6 detachable fuel arrays, which it discards when all cells are depleted.  However, by the time the second-to-last is decoupled, the drone is going so fast that it can completely shake off the last remaining line of fuel cells.  When this happens, I get unlimited fuel and have no weight penalty from carrying those cells.

Prior to this, I had achieved 8th place with my drone having not encountered any bugs.  I made adjustments to the fuel configuration, as I was running out just short of the finish line after adding more afterburners.  Then this issue happened, and I jumped to 6th place.  Curious, I removed ALL fuel lines except the last one and raced.  It shook itself free immediately, and I burned around the entire track with no fuel attached.  I thought I'd definitely get the top score with this exploit, but only gained 3rd place.

It strikes me that there's a possibility other top-placings could potentially exploit this bug as I did.  If I was to keep that lighter drone configuration, I could reduce the parts required for the initial boost and invest in more afterburners.  It seems crazy to think these times are achievable through legitimate means.  Do you have any way to review these scores and the drones that obtained them?  It seems like that would involve a lot of data collection due to the slightly chaotic and less-repeatable runs.

I hate to admit, cos I was also quite pleased with the achievement, but I then took my original design and turned it into manual.  And after much painful muscle memory training, I was able to blitz the race track with no fuel to crush the first place score in manual mode.

I can send the drone and give more information about how the issue arose if you need.  Tried logging into Steam on my main computer just now, but found that my racing drones are not shared like the other drones.  So I'll have to go looking for it on the other machine when I get a chance.  Unless it's forever lost, which would be sad.

 

[astroslug]

Here is a screenshot of finishing the Pisces Speedway with no fuel.  All fuel in fact fell off the drone at the starting line.

Also attached is the drone file (the contents are encrypted using my email address).

Here's a full race...

 

racing_drone_with_bugged_fuel_exploit_astroslug.zip

[Micha]

Thanks for reporting, I'll have a look and analyze how this happens!