Crossfire Forum

I am aware of a bug that sometimes occurs when you charm a monster, gain the exp for the charm and turn it into a 1exp monster as you would expect when you have suceeded in charming, that causes it to then attack you and remain hostile. I am not talking about a spell effect caused by the monster while it attacks something else I am talking about some sort of partial charm that seems bugged.

When this bug occurs killpets will not kill the monster so the game does not consider it charmed in some way, however when the monster attacks you the spell messages you get (if it is a spellcaster) say (your character name's) (spell name) (spell effect) instead of (monster name) (spell name) (spell effect) indicating you have charmed the monster. In addition to this the monster is immune to further charm spells even if low level as the game considers you have already charmed it. When this bug occurs the monster keeps it's hostile flag and so it can be killed with hand to hand combat with normal attacks if such would normally kill it (redundant if you charmed it because they would not). If this bug occurs at the same time you charmed a lot of other monsters the other monsters will proceed to attack the bugged monster too.

While it seems this bug can rarely occur on almost any monster certain ones seem to get it more often. In order to try to avoid making this a spoiler in some way I will indicate which ones they are to anyone who knows the game well (the bug fixers this is aimed at).

a) In AP in a cave a group of 4 below the first master (2 of last 5 times charmed 1 bugged)
b) Carrying a still beating heart (3 of 4 last times charmed)
c) In AP the last room before many traps near 10 altars (unsure of frequency but 1 monster is often bugged)
d) Carrying mithril chainmail and a firebrand (about 1 of all of them on all levels each time the ENTIRE main area for them is done)

Hopefully this is specific enough to allow you to find the bug but if you need more information post if here and if I have it I will respond.

Hrmm Imma state one thing, as Im not a programmer, but those charmed/uncharmed monsters that bear your name CAN be recharmed, it can just take a few tries. Im sure this is the case because Cyclops frequently do it, as well as Titans. And pm me which area that 10 altar thing is. Im not sure if I've done it.. yet Ive completed all of AP to my knowledge. I.E.(Evil masters, that house that houses shockwave,) for area name please, would appreciate it.

The bug is indeed out there, I've experienced it multiple times but was not quite sure without looking at the code as to what is casing it.

However some monsters indeed do not get charmed properly and attack you, this happens when you are trying to charm a monster which is physically near you(in the next square or one square away) and is charging at you intending to hit. Running further away from such a monster and recharming usually works, even if the monster appears to have been charmed in the first place(bears your name)

I suspect this might be happening due to the timing/order of you charming the monster and the monster hitting you.

Some maps have floors that will change the mood of the charmed pet/summoned monster from friendly to hostile.

I think in the code somewhere there is a "charm chance". Like you have so much chance that the monster will be charmed to you. Perhaps their is a portion that in you partly charm the monster, So it bears your name, but is not convinced your a friend.

Leaf wrote:Some maps have floors that will change the mood of the charmed pet/summoned monster from friendly to hostile.

Good point, but do random maps generate such floors? And if so this would be an intresting explanation.

bort wrote:I think in the code somewhere there is a "charm chance". Like you have so much chance that the monster will be charmed to you. Perhaps their is a portion that in you partly charm the monster, So it bears your name, but is not convinced your a friend.

Charming is not 100% guaranteed to work indeed, it's more likely to be between 20% - 70% iirc, but I think the bug in question was out there even before the charm got tweaked down to lower success rates. It usually used to happen when arriving on a new random map filled with lots of smaller(or even bigger) monsters and using charm as soon as your character materialises on top of the staircase. It will be much harder to trace it down now that there is a probability of charm not affecting the monster, however if the monster's title does change, then he should have fully become under your control and your rightfull pet

I've been experiencing this constantly, and I'd be happy to show a DM/programmer so that it can be fixed. I've had a DM look at the tiles in the room I've experienced this in and they have said that they are non-violent tiles and there is no reason that the charmed creature should be attacking me. This occurs 30%-50% of the time I cast charm monster, ie., my charmed creature attacking me - "scofield's hill giant grazes you" or "your hill giant grazes scofield". As far as I know there is no such thing as a partially charmed monster. While the chance to charm may be what is stated above, a monster is either charmed or not - and when charmed, unless they are on a violent tile or whatever, should not attack it's charmer. I've experienced this with summon cult monsters as well, although not nearly as frequently or consistently.

Is it possible for a charm monster spell to expire?

If a monster resists the charm - do they turn violent against the original caster?

If a monster breaks the charm - do they turn violent against the original caster?

Are there certain actions wich will break the charm spell?
Kind of like how a summoned avatar/elemental/golem will disappear if you cast another spell, or you lose control of them if you switch to a different skill.

Great points Leaf. I guess we need to hear from a programmer exactly how it's set up.