Adding spellbook-contained auras kills units that have big techs

[pick-a-chew]

I have come across a bug in the latest version of my map, and it has to be one of the weirdest interactions i have ever seen in the World Editor. The story goes like this:

1. My map uses a lot of disabled Spellbooks for containing abilities (e.g. +armour) and auras (for a buff indicator) for several spells and passive abilities.
   
2. My map also uses a lot of Techs. Most of these are one-time techs used to upgrade heroes as part of "Talents" (e.g. a talent that gives your Hero +1000 max HP).
3. However, in the latest version i based HP and DMG tomes off of Techs with 25 levels so that illusions could inherit their benefit (since illusions do not remember the caster's history of HP and Combat tomes).
   
4. If a hero actively uses at least 2 of these HP tomes (which means they get upgraded to HP tome tech level 2/25) and then gain a hidden spellbook (from an ability), they will instantly die.

And yes i have double checked the circumstances. Adding a spellbook that contains an aura to a unit that is affected by a 1/1 research tech is unaffected but adding it to a unit that is affected by a 2+/25 research tech kills it.

On top of this, several versions ago i fixed an exploit that was done by casting a restore-mana-over-time spell on enemy bosses. This exploit killed them. At the time i had no idea why, but now it is clear to me because this mana restore spell added a spellbook-contained aura to a boss unit which uses tech to scale its difficulty.

Does anyone know why interaction occurs? And if it can be prevented?

 

[HappyTauren]

Does anyone know why interaction occurs? And if it can be prevented?

By not using outworldly hacky ways to solve problems. If you use so many abilities something's just bound to go wrong, and mass spellbooks cause all sorts of problems. Have you considered using some sort of a BonusMod? It does use abilities, but it has been tested for a very long time and known not to cause problems. Also, you should never use a spellbook to add hidden spells to units anymore, just set the X/Y buttons to 0, -11 and the icon will be invisible.

There are way too many interactions for anyone to help you with what you've described, so the best thing you can do is make things less complex so you can track problems more easily and find solutions that aren't worse than the problems the previous ones caused.

 

[pick-a-chew]

There are way too many interactions for anyone to help you with what you've described, so the best thing you can do is make things less complex so you can track problems more easily and find solutions that aren't worse than the problems the previous ones caused.

The interaction is actually incredibly simple as i have recreated it by having 2 abilities and 2 upgrades on a test map, and you are right, it is caused by the spellbook itself. I am actually surprised with how simple this bug is that i haven't come across it sooner in my map. It's actually such a bad flaw that i will try and avoid using spellbooks ever again

Adding the aura by itself does not kill the unit, so the 0, -11 option would work, but hasn't this been broken before by patches? As flawed as it may be... spellbooks have worked for me for years (until now)

But i guess its Wc3 and both options aren't really ideal...

In case other people find this helpful, i recreated the bug like this:
- Make 2 techs for a unit. "Big Tech" has at least 4 levels, "Small Tech" at least 1 level
- Research "Small Tech" and "Big Tech" 4 times
- Add an aura-containing spellbook to your unit
- Unit dies

It's just so weird though... i wonder what in Wc3's structure causes a spellbook to kill a unit that has a small tech and a big tech researched?

 

[HappyTauren]

Adding the aura by itself does not kill the unit, so the 0, -11 option would work, but hasn't this been broken before by patches? As flawed as it may be... spellbooks have worked for me for years (until now)

Not that I know of, I have been using it since I discovered it. Actually just read the thread there is a ton of info there that I might have missed.

 

[DracoL1ch]

whenever unit receives an ability all other abils are getting shadowly removed
spellbook contains another abiilty which is also being added
so it calls abilities remover yet again
if unit has upgrades which grants life, and 2x amount of bonus is equal or bigger than his default HP, he will die, because after removing ability twice he would have 0 or less hp
thats simple. don't use upgrades, use tomes of life

 

[pick-a-chew]

Oh you're right!

I tested with a 500 HP unit (that has 250 HP from an upgrade) and adding a spellbook with 1 ability inside it killed it (presumably because its max HP becomes 0 for a moment).

You said some pretty interesting stuff i didn't know!

 

[Tal'Rarity]

Wonder if one could use this trick to obtain the ability to level upgrades downwards, you could use phoenix egg to cancel unit death though spell books are quite buggy if one doesn't know how to use them.