Dwarf Fortress Bug Tracker - Dwarf Fortress
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IDProjectCategoryView StatusDate SubmittedLast Update
0000883Dwarf FortressCreaturespublic2010-04-09 09:122015-05-27 05:54
ReporterSirPenguin 
Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeveritymajorReproducibilityalways
StatusnewResolutionopen 
PlatformOSOS Version
Product Version0.31.01 
Target VersionFixed in Version 
Summary0000883: Creatures made from flame exhibit strange/unexpected properties
DescriptionI figure bits and pieces of this bug/behavior are probably scattered throughout the tracker in various ways, but I wanted to consolidate some here because these creatures are especially weird.

Here is a list of current problems.

-They are not immune to their own fire, and as such frequently are "caught in a cloud" of their own flames
-They cannot damage creatures in a traditional way. Every attack "passes right through". The only damage they can do seem to be from their fire breath if they have it
-Their bodies, the "Flame" material, is very strange. A single punch from an unskilled dwarf can "break away half the tissue". As such they die very easily. Compounded with the above problem makes this type of forgotten beast very, very easy to kill
-Similarly, upon death flame creatures leave behind remains called "(Name of creature)'s flame". A grammar/word problem.


Some of those might not be bugs and are intended features that aren't working correctly - for instance, it makes sense that a being of flame cannot physically harm you in the way a hammer might, but to say the attack "passes through" is misleading at best. Further testing will need to be done to see if dwarves are being caught/damaged by fire when a physical attack passes through them; combat logs seem to reveal no damage is being done.
Steps To ReproduceAll creatures made entirely of flame
Additional Information
TagsNo tags attached.
Relationships
related to 0000587resolved Toady One Temperatures effects are not working properly. 
related to 0004411resolved Toady One Game crashes the moment a weak-material creature (such as fire man or some HFS creatures) should take damage from falling 
Attached Files
Issue History
Date ModifiedUsernameFieldChange
2010-04-09 09:12SirPenguinNew Issue
2010-04-09 18:25Khym ChanurIssue Monitored: Khym Chanur
2010-04-09 18:29Khym ChanurNote Added: 0002485
2010-04-10 08:25SirPenguinNote Added: 0002574
2010-04-10 08:30AlloyNote Added: 0002575
2010-04-10 09:10SirPenguinNote Added: 0002585
2010-04-13 07:49SirPenguinNote Added: 0003252
2010-04-24 11:16BlahNote Added: 0004898
2010-04-24 11:17BlahNote Edited: 0004898bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0004898#r1707
2010-04-24 11:18BlahNote Edited: 0004898bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0004898#r1708
2010-06-22 13:04RusAnonNote Added: 0008969
2010-07-04 05:51SirPenguinNote Added: 0009612
2010-07-11 10:10ProfligateIssue Monitored: Profligate
2010-07-15 11:43SirPenguinNote Added: 0010363
2010-07-18 01:22NetkevNote Added: 0010541
2010-11-27 21:58ethanbNote Added: 0014271
2010-11-27 22:01ethanbIssue Monitored: ethanb
2010-11-28 07:27ethanbNote Edited: 0014271bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0014271#r5435
2010-11-28 08:01ethanbNote Edited: 0014271bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0014271#r5436
2010-11-30 23:46ethanbNote Added: 0014334
2011-03-31 16:34DwarfuRelationship addedrelated to 0004411
2012-01-25 12:54FootkerchiefRelationship addedrelated to 0000587
2015-05-26 15:12WittyNote Added: 0032740
2015-05-27 05:54LociNote Added: 0032743

Notes
(0002485)
Khym Chanur   
2010-04-09 18:29   
In arena mode I had two fire men fight each other. According to the combat reports, each punch would break off a bit of flame from the punchee, but examining the detailed wounds list (the "z:St" screen) shows nothing wrong. This might be intended, since disturbing the air around a flame might cause a small wisp of fire to peel off without really damaging the flame.
(0002574)
SirPenguin   
2010-04-10 08:25   
I'm not sure if it's intended. I think it's more than both fire creatures have that strange "attack passes right through" bug, which seemingly makes them incapable of damaging anything with normal attacks.

After breaching into some special caverns I'd say this problem extends to steam creatures as well, though I believe they could still attack.
(0002575)
Alloy   
2010-04-10 08:30   
A similar event happened to me tonight where a forgotten beast composed of steam rampaged into my fortress and then promptly exploded after a few hits from my critically inexperienced military.

Same 'caught in a cloud of (self-material)' messages, same fragility. When it died it exploded quite forcefully - which was pretty awesome to see even if the beast made no sense in the first place - and knocked everyone back, but it left a couple of 'Utesh's steam' and a water which is not muddying the floor tile.
(0002585)
SirPenguin   
2010-04-10 09:10   
I was actually JUST coming in here to say that steam monsters exhibit the same properties. In my case it was a few steam HFS guys, which made that whole HFS "event" a lot less scary/difficult
(0003252)
SirPenguin   
2010-04-13 07:49   
Also happens with "slush" demons. I'm wondering if it'd be possible to edit the title to reflect that creatures made out of non-solid materials are not performing properly
(0004898)
Blah   
2010-04-24 11:16   
(edited on: 2010-04-24 11:18)
"A great blob composed of flame. It has a long tail and it undulates rythmically."

This forgotten beast was somehow hurt while chasing a civilian for a while, while being unkillable by my militia (which are trained and armed with steel axes). Ttemperature is enabled in my init.txt. The blood spatters of a goblin caught in the fight boiled and injured my militia though.
(0008969)
RusAnon   
2010-06-22 13:04   
31.08,
Magma men keep spamming me with '<creature> is caught in a cloud of steam' while they walk in volcano.
(0009612)
SirPenguin   
2010-07-04 05:51   
I'm hopeful this'll be fixed in .09, along with the other material creature changes
(0010363)
SirPenguin   
2010-07-15 11:43   
Unfortunately, the problem still exists.
(0010541)
Netkev   
2010-07-18 01:22   
I know it is not entirely related, but i found a forgotten beast made of Coke a while back, and it seemed that every attack, regardless of who did it, would break parts of the beasts body (making it easily killable), and upon death leave behind "X's Coke".
(0014271)
ethanb   
2010-11-27 21:58   
(edited on: 2010-11-28 08:01)
Yeah, a friend and I have been trying to port spirits of fire forward from 0.28.181.40d - they're not working so well.

The "breaking off" is kind of cool and makes perfect sense. I put HEALING_RATE:1 on the FLAME tissue template to counter that, and I imagine it works sort of like an actual flame - if you swing your hand fast over a match, it'll gutter if it doesn't go completely out.

I think the main problem is that "passes right through" with the attacks doesn't seem to transfer any heat at all, no matter what the relative temp is (these guys are set to FIXED_TEMP:25000 with a material temperature of 25000 as well.) The weird thing is it was apparently working before 0.31.01 came out - I remember Toady mentioned boiling somebody's brain by holding their head in his magma-man hands in the dev log. Although actually it's possible that it only works for wrestling, when you can hold it for a lengthy duration.

Getting caught in a cloud of their own flame doesn't seem to be damaging them, by the way - it's just giving you the message.

The good news is stepping into a running stream causes it to dry up as expected, so temp transfer works correctly in at least some, if not most ways. Oh, I haven't checked if standing in one spot for a long time will make a "molten gabbro floor" the way it did in .40d - that might have been scripted behavior especially for the SoF, but I hope not.
(0014334)
ethanb   
2010-11-30 23:46   
Update to the above; figured out the two problems with the Spirit of Fire (and all other creatures that rely on heat to deal damage)

1) Melee attacks don't transfer heat; they must be calculated as taking place instantaneously, so no matter how hot the fire there's only a negligible change in temp at the target. You have to make the fiery creatures solid so that they can wrestle. (Giving them NATURAL_SKILL in wrestling helps a lot) This may also be the same reason that FIREBREATH doesn't seem to do any damage; the fireball may dissipate on contact with no heat transfer taking place.

2) The default tissue templates are completely weird with regards to HEATDAM_POINT, IGNITE_POINT, and MELTING_POINT - increasing the melting points for regular living tissues (especially fat) while dramatically reducing the heatdam and ignite points (HEATDAM in particular shouldn't be more than 30 or 40 above body temperature) gives rise to exciting messages like "You are blistering! You are burning! You are being incinerated!" Messing with the SPEC_HEAT may also be necessary to be totally accurate, but it's quite easy to make it better than it is now.
(0032740)
Witty   
2015-05-26 15:12   
I've run into this pretty hard in .40.24.
Save here;
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=10888 [^]

So here's the deal. You'll find him on the 89th Z-level (should be assigned to F7).A giant Forgotten beast composed of flame. From what I can gather - melee troops will simply refuse to engage it in actual combat with it. The creature is literally a few tiles away - but no luck. When I put a station order near the creature, they'll take an extremely long and prolonged route through the caverns rather than pathing a few tiles ahead of them and risk actually getting near the FB. I'm thinking that the heat from the FB is throwing the pathing AI off big time. When I hit the mining designation around where the FB lit the whole cavern on fire, it'll show the walls as extremely hot - usually reserved for when magma is near stone, or so I thought. In the few scenarios I've seen play out, the dwarves don't seem to be able to path near areas where the FB's fire had recently hit. I've seen my entire military starve to death - they simply refused to move once they were actually in the cavern with the FB. On one occasion has the creature actually been killed - a ranger in the caverns managed to land a lucky strike. But as before - he simply starved to death, standing in place while the rest of the dwarves refused to enter the area at all.
(0032743)
Loci   
2015-05-27 05:54   
@Witty:

Sounds like you have temperature calculations disabled. The thing is, temperatures still get "set" (say, from fire-breath attacks) but they won't ever cool down without temperature calculations. Re-enable temperature calculations and your dwarves should be able to path through the tiles once they cool off. You'll still have trouble getting troops to actually attack it, though; that's 0008018.