the flares use a smoke entity that cannot last for longer than 255 seconds. the active time of the smoke is adjusted by the accumulater multiplier setting, in a calculation of 60 * 60 * [setting value]. this means the game can no longer start up with a setting beyond 4.25 accumulator multiplier.
can be fixed by removing the accumulator multiplier value from the flare smoke duration calculation, or capping off the final value to 60 * 255, the maximum.
