Matter Build Testing

[Ferret]

WARNING! READ THE BELOW FIRST!

The versions of Demon linked below are test builds. They may have ridiculously horrifying bugs of any and all kinds, including crashes, save file loss, unplayable or unwinnable content, and many other lesser issues.

If you find any issues in these test builds please post them in this thread, not the Bug Reports forum.

Though I will endeavor to fix critical/blocking bugs as quickly as possible, my work schedule remains an issue. I am typically only available limited times on weekdays, and a little more often on weekends, so even nasty bugs may go without new builds for several hours, or even a few days.

Finally, please remember it is extremely likely scores and ghosts will be wiped not only after testing is complete, but even between individual test builds if need be.

Thank you for helping test the Matter build. It's been a long time coming, and I hope it proves worth the wait! Good luck in the Tower!

WARNING! READ THE ABOVE FIRST!

Latest Test Build: 4/30/2018 8:10pm

Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-sx_4eW-B5hfl9JS1d2a1JJbVN3bjRwZXlsbTZ2X1l1MEEweGF2VVkyR0pXOHZRaVh6R28?usp=sharing

Procedures

I will make new builds whenever I have critical bug fixes to deliver, or a large number of non-critical bug fixes. Known and in-progress bugs collected from this thread will be listed below. If there are no bugs from this thread to work on, I will work on the many bugs I agreed to fix "in the Matter build" over the past several months: when that happens, you will see bug fixes appear on the list that aren't from this thread.

Fixed Bugs (will be in next build):
(none at the moment)

Open Critical Bugs (highest priority, new build any time this list is cleared out):
(none at the moment)

Open Non-Critical Bugs (will be fixed, but do not rate immediate builds):
(none at the moment)

Previously Fixed Bugs:
* (critical) oneyeedjoe's summoner crash
* (critical) wizaaargh/Remora?'s softlocking
* Umibozu has a Tier 2 modifier
* Miasma Burst may be ignoring Dark resistance
* Mandrake has a Tier 2 modifier.
* Weakness summary does not include Matter.
* Yank and Snatch might need adjusting.
* Check AI on Stone/Harden removal
* AI/auto-target UI for Melt and/or Melt-boosted/Vapors abilities seems wonky
* Held++ should not disable so many passives
* Gorgons need help; tend to spam Devotion
* Upgrading Poison should never lower duration
* Kaw-Kaws need help: tend to spam Weigh Sin
* Ooze, Arachne seem a bit wimpy
* Fetter, Bind, and Entangle's tooltips show their Power as 15 less than it actually is.
* Verify disable-able settings on all reactives and passives.
* Avalanche and cousins' Ice/Chill don't hit the most extremely distant corner of the burst.
* Verify Druj Nasu and similar capture instructions warn about not hitting the target.
* Maybe tweak Paracelsus again since Burning Vapor got nerfed.
* AI should regard Harden as a "lockout" condition, at low remaining duration.
* Relief still not high enough priority on non-summoners
* Anzu sometimes barges into Medusa's Sanctum
* Fixed Stone Touch's unusually high Stone chance.
* Added Unmake to the Destroyer (Tier 2 Matter) modifier.
* Added Relieving Cut to Violent (Tier 1 Slash) modifier.
* Devotion still a bit frequently spammed by Gorgons (and a little less, Banshees)
* Vapors now properly considered by the AI.
* Sleep/Panic inflicted on corpse encounter demons now has a variable duration.
* Sleep inflicted on relic explosion demons now has a variable duration.
* Mute no longer blocks the magical parts of hybrid abilities such as Burning Claw, Guarding Cut, etc.
* "Support cut" support effects now have a range of 8, instead of 4.
* Ninkasi and Reprobus' modifiers now correctly include Focusing Cry.
* All stat decrease effects now properly use the Debuff type, allowing Afflicter to apply them.
* Clarified that Artemis, Kamapua'a, etc. allow you to help them.
* Punish / Goad should now properly track indirectly targeted abilities such as Emit Sparks.
* Punish / Goad now also track Poison, Ignite, Melt, etc. usage, treating these as damaging.
* Hypnotize Host now properly checks Mind resistance level.
* Increased Yellow Sign and Mind Twist's SP costs to line up with the Sleep and Charm versions of these.
* Infection now blocks SP recovery from passives such as Tormentor, Galvanize, etc. (no it does not NA them, sorry) The only way to recover SP through Infection now is to use an actual SP drain.
* Buff Harden (shorten or give a secondary effect)
* Held needs a nerf
* Make sure removing Charm > removing Harden/Stone
* Improved Chill's movement reduction.
* Fixed a bug preventing kill commands from waking up sleeping targets
* Fixed a bug causing characters ordered to kill to sometimes pass turns unnecessarily.
* Investigate MaxHP/cooldowns not recovering when initating Python's and similar links (thanks to Joe for the savefile)
* Wild Frenzy is apparently hitting more than 3 times sometimes
* Chain Reaction description typo
* See if wiz's repro case can finally squish the elusive Wild Frenzy bug (and Joe's too, with a save file even)
* Polar Rush does not accurately predict breaking links/hitting allies (probably because it is an ability that can hit things outside its target area, a fundamentally weird concept)
* Added Matter to Magic's manual and tooltip descriptions.
* Contagion and Wild Frenzy no longer spam their effect on the target.
* Fixed a typo in Abbey Lubber (buddy personality) negotiation text for unsummoning requests.
* Updated Linux readme with the Arch Linux failed startup fix (thanks akijatollah!)
* Prevent Inspire from being looped.
* Fixed an auto explore bug that sometimes caused failed auto explore attempts (which slow the algorithm.)
* Corpse encounter enemies sometimes get 2 actions before you get 1 (fix: Interact is now a free action.)
* Galvanize no longer ignores Infection (fixed previously.)
* Dreamstalker doesn't break Sleep at non-max HP when using certain abilities.
* Auto-explore is no mistakenly longer influenced by character collision (esp. enemies)
* Bolt Chain no longer gives Galvanize credit even if the Shock fails.
* Higher poison levels are now properly evaluated by the AI in terms of removing them.
* Confirm AE healing abilities do not get neglected for a single target in critical situations
* Charmed summoners should not uncharm themselves.
* Review Kaw-Kaw in the Anomaly's negotiation difficulty.
* Fix a bug where a ghost that dies with more demons than it can hold will crash games that spawn it.
* Fixed text for giving uniques orders.
* Fixed text for battle cries.
* Fixed Avalanche (and other AE dual-element attacks) triggering Torment too much
* Charm erases kill commands, prevents giving new commands.
* Charm now prevents forced move commands.
* Charm now no longer causes enemies summoned as part of a "protect" link to just run around in circles.
* Charm now prevents the 'wander' behavior.
* Charm now prevents the 'flee' behavior.
* Dragon Soul now works with Full Power.
* Consider raising the evaluation of removing Stone, Charm, Panic, and Sleep.
* Enemy Lure should require confirmation.
* Fixed how percentage based healing is adjusted on minions and heroes.
* Reactions no longer trigger block, miss, parry, or dodge based reactive abilities. (They already did not trigger damage based ones.)
* Increased the value of SP refreshment for targets not able to use all their abilities due to SP issues.
* Make the AI consider SP costs at least slightly (Wrath vs. Emit Lumin case)
* Vapors no longer affect Matter-immune targets.
* Improved (I think) the appearance of "warning" screen glows.
* Put the AI's evaluations of 'low accuracy' moves roughly halfway between where it was (higher) and where I previously changed it (lower).
* Enemy Lure and Trouble Chime summoning summoners doesn't give them their starting summons.
* Strange pathfinding bug reported by joe w/ savefile
* Guilt and Pariah AI still not quite right.

[oneeyedjoe]

No starting matter abilities for the hand of the dead? Crown of Glory with matter abilities gets light resistance and dark weakness, but usually it's the opposite with starting debuffs (except light debuffs obviously).

[Ferret]

Correct, and correct: both of those are by design.

[oneeyedjoe]

Are you supposed to be able to get healed while melting? It says prevents HP regeneration but I just got healed by Nero while being under melting effect. AI doesn't seem to be very keen on using melting+absorbing abilities together that well. When I saw the preview of Copro-seco and new blobs I was expecting to get melted and consumed in a few turns, but Copros like to spam Set alight and blobs use consuming touch without trying to melt anything first.

[Ferret]

Melting only prevents HP regeneration, not direct healing.

I'll investigate the AI on melting+absorbing and see if I can get it to behave a bit better. The AI is frankly the area where I expect the most issues: there's a lot of new concepts and mechanics running about, doubtless my first swing at evaluation code for them isn't going to be quite on target.

Thanks for the reports so far, keep 'em coming

[oneeyedjoe]

Well I think I found one game breaking bug. Game softlocks when you kill hostile summoner.

[Ferret]

Oof. Yeah, I may have just gotten e-mailed another version of that..

Question 1: Can you send me the save file? (ferretdev.org@gmail.com)

Question 2: What happens when you restart after closing on the softlock?

[oneeyedjoe]

Zipping save files right now/restarting doesn't help.

[Ferret]

Thanks! Unfortunately, too late tonight for me to look into it, but I *might* have a little time tomorrow. I won't be home until 10pm or so though, so even that is dicey. For now, might be best to save off the zips and start another game if you want to keep playing.

[wizzzargh]

Other softlock here, my Ludoc isn't dead yet so that might not be it.

QUICK THOUGHTS

Blobs are much more dangerous with their big-hit lifedrain. Blob vs Blob can be very silly but thematically appropriate with huge amounts of HP sloshing back and forth between sides, like they're really just flowing and mixing like the gooballs they are.

Ensnare or whatever the single target held-inflicter is pretty good for chase links if you can get to Held++ before initiating- the chased demon will have to just sit there hogtied and it's easy to keep it at Held++ by refreshing.

Arachne might be contender for 'most useless demon' with their inability to do anything besides tie you up and only being dark-vulnerable. Am I forgetting a high speed modifier though?

Materia Siphon seems pretty good compared to Life Siphon SP and of course situational power-wise.

Also Actaeon survived one dog encounter only to fall victim to another, myeh-heh-heh