Cataclysm-DDA List of bugs related to monster evolution and spawning

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I was gathering a list in notebook for a few months. I will list all bugs I found, gather feedback from other people, and start creating PR's in next week. Most of the bugs are related to situation when monster uses copy-from, and lacks upgrades: FALSE. This can lead to situation when monster that is final upgrade of evolution line can evolve into something lame, like pupating zed. Or some advanced monsters can repetedly evolve into themselves. Or all boomers and gasbags can transform into each others endlessly. Same for pupating zeds.

There are also some quirks with evolutiongroups, standard zed can skip some steps, and evolve directly into screecher zombie, skipping shrieker zombie. Or to zombie brute skipping zombie bruiser. In addition, standard zed can evolve into tough zombie, which is baisicaly just more fit human that got zombified.

Also, there are still some evolved zombies in mundane, day 1 zombie groups, like static zombies, and zombie boomers.

Feral humans often lack "upgrades", and they inherit upgrade options from base zombie, so after few days they evolve into something random, not matching the monster they would ressurect into if they died. Most of the time they should use the same monster as in their "zombify_into" codeline.

Another weirdness is fact that some zombies who show tendency to evolve into more specified variant do it 100% of the time (runner zombie -> 100% chance for zombie hunter), while for example tough zombie has regular zombie evolution possibilities. Ideally, these zombies should evolve into their ovn group, something like this: "GROUP_ZOMBIE_TOUGH_UPGRADE" "monsters": [ { "monster": "mon_zombie_bruiser", "weight": 300 }, { "group": "GROUP_ZOMBIE_UPGRADE", "weight": 700 } ]

Solution you would like.

LOOOONG list:

zed-winged

winged brute - give it upgrades FALSE

zed_tentacle

mon_zombie_strider - give it upgrades FALSE

zed_ferrous

mon_zombie_shell - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_plated - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_urchin - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_hammer_hands - give it upgrades FALSE

zed_lab

mon_zombie_phase_shrike - give it upgrades FALSE

zed_misc

mon_frog_husk - CHANGE upgrades to FALSE

zed_skeletal

mon_skeleton_electric - give it upgrades FALSE

zed_soldiers

mon_zombie_soldier_acid_2 - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_military_pilot - give it upgrades into group {create new tough zombie evolution group}
mon_zombie_milbase_personnel - REMOVE upgrades into
mon_zombie_marine_upgrade - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_armored - give it upgrades FALSE, it could get some evolution later
mon_zombie_bio_op - probably give it upgrades into group GROUP_SOLDIER_UPGRADE

zed_survivor

mon_zombie_paramilitary - give it upgrades into group GROUP_SOLDIER_UPGRADE
mon_zombie_survivor_elite - give it upgrades into group GROUP_SOLDIER_UPGRADE

zed_classic

mon_zombie_cop - give it upgrades into group {create new tough zombie evolution group}
mon_zombie_swat - change upgrades into group GROUP_SOLDIER_UPGRADE
mon_zombie_fireman - give it upgrades into group {create new tough zombie evolution group}
mon_zombie_hazmat - remove upgrades false
mon_zombie_tough - give it upgrades into group {create new tough zombie evolution group}

nether

mon_XEDRA_officer - give it upgrades FALSE, but there is already PR doing it
mon_XEDRA_soldier - give it upgrades FALSE

civilians

tweak "GROUP_CIVILIANS_UPGRADE"
mon_civilian_police - give it { "half_life": 1, "age_grow": 1, "into_group": "new group with zombie cop and feral cop to choose" }

feral_humans

mon_feral_sapien_spear - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_survivor" }
mon_chud - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_shady" }
mon_feral_scientist_scalpel - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_scientist" }
mon_feral_labsecurity_9mm - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_labsecurity" }
mon_feral_prepper_mace - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_survivor" }
mon_feral_survivalist - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_survivor" }
mon_feral_militia - change "zombify_into": "mon_zombie_milbase_personnel" to "zombify_into": "mon_zombie_paramilitary", give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_paramilitary" }
mon_feral_soldier - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_soldier" }
mon_feral_swimmer_kickboard - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_swimmer_base" }
mon_feral_sailor_wrench - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_sailor" }
mon_feral_marine_bayonet - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_marine" }
mon_feral_officer - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_officer" }
mon_feral_cop - give it "upgrades": { "half_life": 90, "into": "mon_zombie_cop" }
mon_feral_cop_fungal_infected - for some reason it lacks further fungal evolution that other fungal ferals have. Probably make one for it.

fish

mon_crayfish_mega - give it upgrades FALSE

fungus

mon_fungaloid_shambler - it has 12L and 160 kg, give it 120L

insect_spider

mon_pregnant_giant_cockroach - give it "upgrades": { "age_grow": 15, "into": "mon_giant_cockroach" }. The idea here is that it cycles between being pregnant and not being pregnant. You cant be perpetually pregnant, right?
mon_bee_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_centipede_mom - PROBABLY give it upgrades FALSE
mon_fly_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_mosquito_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_spider_cellar_mom - PROBABLY change { "str": "mommy long-legs", "str_pl": "mommies long-legs" }, and give it upgrades FALSE
mon_spider_jumping_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_spider_trapdoor_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_spider_widow_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_spider_web_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_spider_wolf_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_ant_acid_soldier_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_ant_soldier_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_locust_mega - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_mantis_mega - give it upgrades FALSE

mutant

mon_mutant_alpha - PROBABLY give it "burn_into" "mon_zombie_scorched"
mon_mutant_alpha_boss - PROBABLY give it "burn_into" "mon_zombie_child_scorched"

rodentkin

remove mundane, non-mutated rats from "GROUP_RATKIN_EVOLVED"
mon_tunnel_rat - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_pack_rat - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_teke_mouse - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_mausketeer - give it upgrades FALSE

starers

mon_starer_pipe - PROBABLY give it upgrades FALSE

zanimal_upgrades

mon_dog_howling - CHANGE upgrades to upgrades FALSE
mon_dog_scorched - PROBABLY give it upgrades FALSE, in line with change for other scorched ZEDs
mon_dog_skeleton_brute - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zpig_brute - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_pig_gas - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zougar_hunter - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombear_skeleton - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zougar_shady - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombear_acidic - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_horse_white - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_horse_red - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_horse_black - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_horse_pale - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zoose_brute - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zoose_thorny - give it upgrades FALSE

zed-pupating

Change them a bit. They all should all start as pupa_decoy versions, and then they use age_grow to become real ones.
"mon_zombie_crawler_pupa" - PROBABLY give it UPGRADES FALSE
"mon_zombie_crawler_pupa_decoy" - give it "age_grow": 4, "into": "mon_zombie_crawler_pupa"
"mon_zombie_pupa" - PROBABLY give it UPGRADES FALSE
"mon_zombie_pupa_decoy" - give it "age_grow": 4, "into": "mon_zombie_pupa"
"mon_hulk_pupa_decoy" - give it "age_grow": 4, "into": "mon_hulk_pupa"
"mon_zombie_pupa_decoy_shady" - give it "age_grow": 4, "into": "mon_zombie_pupa_shady"
"mon_zombie_pupa_shady" - CHANGE copy from to "mon_zombie_pupa_decoy_shady", NOT "mon_zombie_pupa_decoy"

zed_explosive Split boomers and gasbags. Change "GROUP_ZOMBIE_FAT" so it includes "mon_boomer", "mon_zombie_gasbag", "mon_zombie_relax_gasbag", "mon_zombie_tear_gasbag", "mon_zombie_pupa_decoy"

mon_boomer - CHANGE "GROUP_ZOMBIE_BOOMER_UPGRADE" so it no longer includes regular BOOMER and 3 gasbag variants
mon_boomer_huge - give it upgrades FALSE, make it actually larger than regular boomer
mon_gas_zombie - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_gasbag - PROBABLY give it upgrades FALSE. It could evolve into relax or tear gasbags, but then regular toxic gas zombies would eventually become extinct
mon_zombie_relax_gasbag - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_tear_gasbag - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_boomer_glutton - give it upgrades FALSE
mon_boomer_claymore - give it upgrades FALSE

zed-burned I am not 100% sure on these, but it seems weird that they can unburn themselves. Also, there is some copy-from wierdness when metal wariants can evolve into non-metal variants.

mon_zombie_child_scorched - PROBABLY give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_scorched_brute - PROBABLY give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_scorched - PROBABLY give it upgrades FALSE
mon_zombie_scorched_lasher - PROBABLY give it upgrades FALSE

Describe alternatives you have considered.

mutant

mon_mutant_alpha - "zombify_into": "mon_zombie_tough" or maybe "mon_zombie_master"

Additional context

My head hurts

Sep 03 '24 22:09 SirPendrak

A bunch of those are my oversights from my copy-from chaining of zombies, but there are some I really don't follow.

mon_spider_jumping_mega - give it upgrades FALSE

Okay so what does that change, actually. If it did upgrade, it'd upgrade into itself, causing no effect. You've listed a lot of cases like this one. Does this actually cause some bug that you confirmed?

mon_centipede_mom - PROBABLY give it upgrades FALSE

This one is actually intended, I talked with Venera about this specific use case since the upgrades for it confused me. The idea is once it stops laying eggs it goes back to being a normal giant centipede. A little clunky but the logic tracks.

Sep 04 '24 06:09 Karol1223

A bunch of those are my oversights from my copy-from chaining of zombies, but there are some I really don't follow.

mon_spider_jumping_mega - give it upgrades FALSE

Okay so what does that change, actually. If it did upgrade, it'd upgrade into itself, causing no effect. You've listed a lot of cases like this one. Does this actually cause some bug that you confirmed?

This is a bug more by definition, but there is a case where it has impact on player. Imagine situation where you meet zombie master, a bunch of boneplate wolves, and a regular zombie. Boneplate wolves can evolve only into boneplate wolves. Zombie master is very likely to waste his special attack on doggos doing nothing. If the regular zed was accompanied by some other zed that is final line upgrade and has no "upgrades", zombie master would only upgrade mentioned regular zed.

Sep 04 '24 07:09 SirPendrak

This is a bug more by definition, but there is a case where it has impact on player. Imagine situation where you meet zombie master, a bunch of boneplate wolves, and a regular zombie. Boneplate wolves can evolve only into boneplate wolves. Zombie master is very likely to waste his special attack on doggos doing nothing. If the regular zed was accompanied by some other zed that is final line upgrade and has no "upgrades", zombie master would only upgrade mentioned regular zed.

Right, but only one of the monsters you mentioned that this happens to is in the zombie faction from what I can see. Zombie master's usecase is hardcoded and until it is more widely in use, a hypothetical scenario like this just doesn't matter. Just about all the insects you listed are nonissues in this case.

Sep 04 '24 07:09 Karol1223

Yes, this currently has next to zero impact on the player. I dont know about performance of game engine, probably zero as well. Its just my opinion that mess hidden under carpet is still a mess, and these are trivial to fix

What if one day we will have messages about monsters evolving when player can see it?

Sep 04 '24 07:09 SirPendrak

What if one day we will have messages about monsters evolving when player can see it?

Please don't worry about hypothetical problems that don't exist, nor do we have any indication there's any reason to assume they will. If something becomes a bug, then it'll be a bug, until then it isn't.

Sep 05 '24 08:09 Karol1223

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions. Please do not bump or comment on this issue unless you are actively working on it. Stale issues, and stale issues that are closed are still considered.

Jan 15 '25 22:01 github-actions[bot]