kieranmillar
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In the published hold Washed Ashore, you have a weapon called the Mimic Blade. This weapon, after you have fought an enemy, will set the weapon's attack power equal to the defense of the enemy you just killed, so your attack goes up after defeat a strong monster, and goes down again if you then kill a weak monster.

The problem: The weapon is now changing its attack at the start of the fight instead of the end, meaning that you always end up dealing the same damage regardless of what you fought last. This totally breaks the hold. It might even render it impossible?

Here's the script for the mimic blade. Notice another issue on line 7, whereby some variable it is checking against seems to have vanished? I can't tell if it was always like that, but I would be surprised if it was. Has any internal variable been removed? I can't figure out what it is supposed to be checking against.

  Set var "_MyATK" = MBladeCache
  Set var "_MySword" = 7
Label Monitor
  If ... 
        Wait for event Monster engaged
     If ... 
           Wait until var "?" > 0
        Set var "MBladeCache" = _EnemyDEF
        Set var "EnemyATKCache" = _EnemyATK
     If End 
     Set var "TotalDEF" = _DEF
     Set var "TotalDEF" + _ArmorDEF
     Set var "TotalATK" = _MyATK
     Set var "TotalATK" + _ATK
     If ... 
           Wait until var "TotalDEF" < EnemyATKCache
        Set var "_MyATK" = MBladeCache
        Set var "KillCount" + 1
     Else 
        If ... 
              Wait until var "TotalATK" > MBladeCache
           Set var "_MyATK" = MBladeCache
           Set var "KillCount" + 1
        If End 
     If End 
  If End 
  Wait 0
  Go to Monitor

Using version 1.2.3.116

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 01-26-2016 03:42 AM]

mrimer
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That missing var appears to have the value "-52", which is "Enemy DEF". I found I did introduce a regression a couple months ago, which is impacting any builds I've made since November 18. However, this issue should only be affecting which predefined game variables can be selected by scripts in the script editor dialog. It shouldn't have any impact on in-game play.

Fixed the regression in rev 122.

Let's keep investigating why the Mimic Blade is behaving this way.

Edit: maybe use Ctrl-F7 (the variable monitor) to help figure this out. Speaking of which, there are some fixes to that in DROD 5 that weren't ported to DROD RPG. Fixed the var monitor issues in rev 133.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 01-18-2016 12:11 AM]

mrimer
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I'll need some help, possibly from Dischorran, to explain this script.

Specifically, the issue appears to be centered around the

Wait for event Monster engaged

command.

Looking at the code, I can confirm that this event fires when combat *begins*, but it seems as if this script is expecting it to fire when combat ends.

Hmm...maybe there was a previous bug where scripts were (not) running on the turn combat began. Let's see...

Yes, in the change logs, this one seems a likely culprit:

+ NPC: new script Imperatives Run on Combat Engagement (default) and Pause on Combat Engagement. When the "Pause" imperative is set, the NPC won't execute its script on the turn any combat is initiated.
Persistent behaviors, global scripts and triggered attack/defend scripts will run as before.
(This behavior can be matched with an "If <Wait for enemy engaged> Else ..." block, but this new command will be cleaner.)

Hmm...maybe there's either a regression here, or this imperative needs to be added to the Mimic Blade? I'm hoping to get some guidance so I can fix any issue here the proper way.

Edit: why is "Wait for event Monster stabbed" not being used instead? I would have expected this event to be used to catch something at the end of combat (in order to apply the values then). Although, maybe there's a better solution, like a "Wait 0" after the event check.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 01-18-2016 12:52 AM]

Someone Else
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"Wait 0" would be a potentially exploitable choice - you could then attack two enemies in sequence with the same high value. "Wait for event Monster stabbed" seems a better choice to me.

mrimer
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I've PMed Dischorran asking for help understanding when this script broke in order to isolate root cause.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

Dischorran
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Rank Points: 3408
Registered: 09-10-2005
IP: Logged

I haven't thought about this hold in ages. I do remember TFMurphy had identified something that would break in a future patch that seems to finally have hit, but I guess it might have been in chat? I'll see if I can track down my notes.

I think *every single patch* has broken this script. I'll see what I can do to fix it, but if someone beats me to fixing it, that's fine too. The intended behavior is for the sword to use the DEF of the previously killed enemy as the ATK throughout an engagement, and then update ATK with the DEF of the just-killed enemy. I think I remember it requiring some weird kludges to make it work that way, but I don't greatly care about the particular implementation so long as it works.

____________________________

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
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Mike, a thought about a feature that could be implemented that might make scripting something like the mimic sword significantly easier and more future-proof. At the moment, you can give your characters the scripting commands "Each Use" or "Each Attack" or "Each Defend" that point to a label in the script. If that character is used as custom equipment, every time you try to use it (accessory or special command), attack with it (sword) or defend with it (shield), it will run the script from the label specified by the command. In the case of the attack and defend commands, this allows a block of code to be ran potentially multiple times in a single turn, something that commands like Wait For Event can't do.

I would like to propose a command called Each Kill that triggers on any of the 4 pieces of equipment each time you engage a monster and it ends up dying, to be executed immediately after the kill. This would guarantee the code running straight after a monster dies, and only if it is actually killed by you or a mimic (as opposed to a fight that got aborted due to e.g. neither person being able to hurt each other, or dying from a bomb or hot tile). It would also automatically handle situations with mimics where multiple monsters could be attacked in the same turn.

I'm assuming, of course, that coding this up would be somewhat similar to the existing commands and therefore not super difficult to do, but I should know better than to assume that when it comes to programming. I'm assuming that it would be a lot like Each Attack, except it only triggers on the final attack, instead of all of them.

---

[Last edited by kieranmillar at 01-18-2016 09:39 PM]

Dischorran
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IIRC, or at least IIreadmyscriptC, I use Each Attack as Each Kill by seeing if the attack will kill the monster and interpreting accordingly. Generally a big fan of doing what can be done without requesting changes to the engine without requesting changes to the engine.

____________________________

mrimer
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Thanks, Dischorran, for posting how the Mimic Blade should work and your recollections on history and implementation. Shame on me for taking so long to find time to fix these issues.

Here are some of my thoughts:

1. It might be nice to isolate which version caused this regression in order to clearly understand the root cause of the breakage. That being said, it's probably somewhere within the slush of the 1.2 upgrade, and for various reasons we don't have a code revision history from before this point. So, I might not be able to find the change. In addition, it might not matter anyway, because I wouldn't expect the script to work as-is anyway. From the history, it sounds like the script might have been hacked to make it work with the previous buggy game logic anyway.

2. "Each kill" could be a nice idea to make things cleaner. I'm not planning any feature enhancements for this release -- only bug fixes. We could start working on feature enhancements after 1.2.3 is officially released.

3. So, I recommend we come up with a new script that works with 1.2.3 logic and upgrade the hold. Sounds like this isn't the first time such measures have been necessary. We can add mention to the scroll at the start that you need version 1.2.3+.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 01-18-2016 11:34 PM]

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Dischorran wrote:
IIRC, or at least IIreadmyscriptC, I use Each Attack as Each Kill by seeing if the attack will kill the monster and interpreting accordingly. Generally a big fan of doing what can be done without requesting changes to the engine without requesting changes to the engine.

That approach makes sense. I'm not seeing how "Each attack" is being used in the above script, though (unless kieranmillar posted only a snippet, but I think that's the entire script).

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2670
Registered: 07-11-2014
IP: Logged

Dischorran wrote:
IIRC, or at least IIreadmyscriptC, I use Each Attack as Each Kill by seeing if the attack will kill the monster and interpreting accordingly. Generally a big fan of doing what can be done without requesting changes to the engine without requesting changes to the engine.

You've made me realise that implementing something very similar to Each Kill by using Each Attack is already possible and actually quite easy by just wrapping the code it executes inside a check for if _EnemyHP is <= 0. Or depending on if it triggers before the attack, if _EnemyHP + __EnemyDef <= total player attack.

For some reason I couldn't get over the multiple excecution of Each Attack making it not appropriate but actually it's quite simple. Clearly I need more practice with this stuff

Its late now and my PC is off, but if you don't beat me too it I think I have a simple replacement for this script that I can cook up quite quickly tomorrow that should work.

kieranmillar
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Sadness, this was not as easy as I'd hoped. On the final trigger of Each Attack, the enemy dies and all of the enemy stat variables get set to zero before the script has a chance to execute. However, the sword also acts like a global character, so you can store the defence value at the start of the fight and then apply it later.

As far as I can tell, the following script, to replace the default script of the Mimic Blade character, works fine for the hold:

  Set var "_MyATK" = 0
  Set var "_MySword" = 7
  Each attack Activate
Label Monitor
  If ... 
        Wait for event Monster engaged
     Set var "MBladeCache" = _EnemyDEF
  If End 
  Wait 0
  Go to Monitor
Label Activate
  If ... 
        Wait until var "_EnemyHP" < 1
     Set var "_MyATK" = MBladeCache
     Set var "KillCount" + 1
  If End 
  Go to Monitor

A couple of points to note:
1) The sword correctly handles enemies that you can get into a fight with but not hurt, like roach eggs, whereby its attack value does not change.
2) The sword cannot correctly handle multiple enemies being fought at the same time, as the defense valued gets stored is only for the first enemy, however there are no mimics in Washed Ashore so this doesn't matter.
3) The sword will reset to an attack of zero if you drop it and pick it up again later, however there are no other weapons in Washed Ashore so this will never happen.
4) Wait for Event Monster Stabbed is of no use because it only triggers on the turn AFTER you fight the enemy, so changing the attack of the blade is delayed, and by the time it fires _EnemyDEF has been reset to zero anyway.

EDIT: Well OK, there is one tiny difference here. If you attack a roach egg you cannot kill, when you press the special command so that Tendry tells you the defense value of the last enemy killed, he will report the roach egg's defense value. This has no meaningful gameplay effect though. In the above code I didn't want to only update MBladeCache if your total attack is higher than the enemy defense because then it doesn't work if you've used an invisibility potion and killed an enemy with higher defense than your total attack.

---

[Last edited by kieranmillar at 01-19-2016 09:08 PM]

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2670
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Mike, I decided to re-install the oldest available version of DROD RPG, 1.2.0.57, to see if I could reapply all of the patches one-by-one and see when this error started occuring.

The mimic blade is not working correctly in 1.2.0.57.

Good grief, just how long has this hold been broken?!

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Thank you so much, Kieran, for an updated working script and for plumbing the depth of our fixes to find out when this issue was introduced. Wow...it has been a long time this has been broken. You, sir, have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help out on this one. I really appreciate it.

What game versions will your new script work with? I'm hoping the new version will work in 1.2.0.57+, so this fix isn't only applicable to 1.2.3+.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2670
Registered: 07-11-2014
IP: Logged

Good news, I can confirm that my weapon script works correctly in 1.2.0.57!

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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That's excellent news! This means we can fix it now and it should work on any patch version.

Dischorran, would you be interested on updating your hold with this new script version?

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3408
Registered: 09-10-2005
IP: Logged

Sure, I'll plug it in once I reinstall RPG.

____________________________

Dischorran
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File: Washed Ashore v2.drh (11 KB)
Downloaded 41 times.
License: Public Domain

Good think I picked up a USB mount for my old laptop drives a while back. Found my player files and updated the hold, attached. The revised script seems to work; hopefully it's not now attached to some weird older version of the hold.

____________________________

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Thanks, Dischorran!

Matt, is the next step for you to update the hold on CaravelNet now?

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 01-23-2016 01:05 AM]

Schik
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Sure... this has been verified well enough that we're okay with updating?

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Dischorran
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I dug out my old walkthrough and did a partial run of the hold, and things seem to be working as they should as far as the sword script goes. I doubt I'm going to find the motivation to check the multiple runs and multiple achievements to make sure I didn't accidentally break something else, though; can the spider do that?

____________________________

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
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As part of investigating this bug report I've been playing through this hold and so have a route down so playing through Dischorran's new version didn't take very long.

I have tested all but the scorepoint for not picking up any shields so far and everything appears to be working as intended. If you really want me to verify the no shield scorepoint then it might be a small while, it's tricky.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Thank you, guys. I think this is sufficient testing to confirm the new Mimic Blade script is functioning properly. Dischorran, I'll let you make the final call, but I say let's push the button!

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 01-25-2016 04:37 PM]

Schik
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Dischorran wrote:
can the spider do that?

We don't have a test spider for RPG in the way we have one for DROD - we'd basically have to upload the new hold and then see if anything broke, unfortunately.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

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Push the button, Frank Schik.

____________________________

The spitemaster
Level: Smiter
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I can't do that Dave.

____________________________
Last night upon a stair
I met a man that wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would stay away

mrimer
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-1? I dunno...I thought it was funny.

I guess it *is* off topic.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Did this fixed hold version get uploaded?

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2670
Registered: 07-11-2014
IP: Logged

*coughs loudly*

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2670
Registered: 07-11-2014
IP: Logged

kieranmillar wrote:
*coughs loudly*