Orb of Annihilation removes items from the inventory

[mrtwommr]

I have a really bizarre bug which I barely even understood the root cause of. Apparently, when one of the characters in my map procs Orb of Annihilation, there is a chance that an items gets removed from their inventory. And it happens only when there is more than one player in the game. This spell has absolutely no triggers attached to it (it's just a renamed and rescaled standart OaA) and there was no other case like that in the entire time this map was played. I have attached the replay and the map that our last match was played on (WC3 version 1.27; the map's also not protected). The character I'm talking about has Blood Mage model. Is this some kind property of OaA which I don't know of? Or maybe a well-known bug? 'Cause I searched and found nothing. Would be grateful to any info.

 

[Uncle]

I would assume it's related to a Damage Engine trigger if you use that.

 

[Retera]

Corrupted Elder has item on his Combat - Attack 1 - Area of Effect Targets list. I don't think item should be on there. I recall 15 years ago I played a map where AoE hero attacks that included Items on the targets list could somehow make items disappear. My vague understanding of the problem was that the AoE damage was somehow finding the "hidden item 3d model" in the world, even though the item was inside somebody's inventory, and then was destroying the item back out of the inventory.

I didn't watch your replay to confirm this was the case, but I looked in the map's unit data, and I saw the weird "item on the area of effect targets" thing, which is NOT in the original War3 on any unit or hero. In the original game as it was constructed, area of effect combat damage is not meant to strike items. You can see this on dragons, artillery, etc. So I think when you get "creative" and violate that original design constraint, this problem happens.

But last month I was thinking back about this memory of this happening to me 15 years ago and I was not able to cause the same issue again! So maybe I'm totally wrong. It's sort of just a guess... Something for you to test for, and investigate.

 

[mrtwommr]

I would assume it's related to a Damage Engine trigger if you use that.

As of currently, I do not. But thanks for a guess anyway!

Corrupted Elder has item on his Combat - Attack 1 - Area of Effect Targets list. I don't think item should be on there. I recall 15 years ago I played a map where AoE hero attacks that included Items on the targets list could somehow make items disappear. My vague understanding of the problem was that the AoE damage was somehow finding the "hidden item 3d model" in the world, even though the item was inside somebody's inventory, and then was destroying the item back out of the inventory.

I didn't watch your replay to confirm this was the case, but I looked in the map's unit data, and I saw the weird "item on the area of effect targets" thing, which is NOT in the original War3 on any unit or hero. In the original game as it was constructed, area of effect combat damage is not meant to strike items. You can see this on dragons, artillery, etc. So I think when you get "creative" and violate that original design constraint, this problem happens.

But last month I was thinking back about this memory of this happening to me 15 years ago and I was not able to cause the same issue again! So maybe I'm totally wrong. It's sort of just a guess... Something for you to test for, and investigate.

I was actually guessing the same thing before I went to sleep It sounds unlikely and illogical even, but that's the only explanation I could think of. And now that you've mentioned you had similar problem and explained how it would be possible - it makes a lot more sense.
I also for some reason cannot replicate it when testing by myself, but when I have a chance to test it - I'll write you back. One way or another, thank you for sharing!

 

[mrtwommr]

Corrupted Elder has item on his Combat - Attack 1 - Area of Effect Targets list. I don't think item should be on there. I recall 15 years ago I played a map where AoE hero attacks that included Items on the targets list could somehow make items disappear. My vague understanding of the problem was that the AoE damage was somehow finding the "hidden item 3d model" in the world, even though the item was inside somebody's inventory, and then was destroying the item back out of the inventory.

I didn't watch your replay to confirm this was the case, but I looked in the map's unit data, and I saw the weird "item on the area of effect targets" thing, which is NOT in the original War3 on any unit or hero. In the original game as it was constructed, area of effect combat damage is not meant to strike items. You can see this on dragons, artillery, etc. So I think when you get "creative" and violate that original design constraint, this problem happens.

But last month I was thinking back about this memory of this happening to me 15 years ago and I was not able to cause the same issue again! So maybe I'm totally wrong. It's sort of just a guess... Something for you to test for, and investigate.

Yes. Yes, this was the reason for the weird behaviour of OaA. Basically, when you purchase or pick up an item in Warcraft III, it doesn't disappear from the map as an object, and still exists in the same place where you acquired it, just without a model. And if something destroys this invisible item - it gets removed from the holder's inventory and from the game. Giant thank you for the lead to the solution!