  In the asymptotic safety programme for quantum gravity, it is important to go
beyond polynomial truncations. Three such approximations have been derived
where the restriction is only to a general function f(R) of the curvature R>0.
We confront these with the requirement that a fixed point solution be smooth
and exist for all non-negative R. Singularities induced by cutoff choices force
the earlier versions to have no such solutions. However, we show that the most
recent version has a number of lines of fixed points, each supporting a
continuous spectrum of eigen-perturbations. We uncover and analyse the first
five such lines. Sensible fixed point behaviour may be achieved if one
consistently incorporates geometry/topology change. As an exploratory example,
we analyse the equations analytically continued to R<0, however we now find
only partial solutions.We show how these results are always consistent with,
and to some extent can be predicted from, a straightforward analysis of the
constraints inherent in the equations.
