🐛 Effect subType > 0 breaks/disables lua script

[UmeboshiXI]

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I'm not sure if this is intended or a bug. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If you set an effect's subType lua side to anything other than 0, luautils OnEffectGain, OnEffectTick, OnEffectLose no longer function in the effect's script.

This greatly limits where it can be used lua side(Can't be used in effect scripts) and only functions if implemented in core functions.

base

Steps to reproduce

Example:

1. !exec target:addStatusEffect(xi.effect.POISON, 10, 3, 60, 0)

• 10/tick poison, 60 seconds, subType 0

2. !reset to clear effect.
3. !exec target:addStatusEffect(xi.effect.POISON, 10, 3, 60, 1)

• 10/tick poison, 60 seconds, subType 1

4. See effect no longer ticks. If you add a print in any catagory in POISON's effect script, it will not trigger.

Note: If you retreive the effect's power/tick/subtype etc from another script elsewhere such as a mob skill or weaponskill with

local exampleEffect = target:getStatusEffect(xi.effect.POISON, 1) -- subType 1

  if exampleEffect then
      print('EFFECT: subType  = ', exampleEffect :getSubType())
      print('EFFECT: power    = ', exampleEffect :getPower())
      print('EFFECT: subPower = ', exampleEffect :getSubPower())
  end

it will properly print the effect's parameters correctly with whatever power/subpower/subtype it had when applied.

Expected behavior

Should be able to use lua binding effect:getSubType() in effect lua conditionals instead of only being used in core.

[Xaver-DaRed]

My first question would be "What is an effect subType?" followed by

• "How is it meant to be used?"
• "Where is it used?" (To have examples or to know where it might be broken)

We regularly just limit ourselves to using subpower and tier, at most.

[UmeboshiXI]

getSubType() in the context of effects retrieves the effect's subID in status_effect.cpp

CStatusEffect::CStatusEffect(EFFECT id, uint16 icon, uint16 power, timer::duration tick, timer::duration duration, uint32 subid, uint16 subPower, uint16 tier, uint32 flags)

Here is a draft example where effect subType is used to determine what type of damage Stoneskin absorbs. In this case, it would work because getSubType() is being referenced outside of the effect script/core.

https://github.com/LandSandBoat/server/pull/5734/files

For an example for my use cases: We have xi.effect.DEFENSE_BOOST

Current implementation:

• Power: Defines the DEFP mod amount.
• subPower: Used for the directional damage immunity mechanic(See Wivre mobskill "Granite_Skin")

Through captures, some other mobs have skills that grant DEFENSE_BOOST that decay over time. I was attempting to use subType to toggle between different use cases.

Examples of use cases for above example:

• Current iteration of directional immunity mechanic only covers frontal immunity. However there are cases where it is not always true(Some WOTG Quadavs have a unimplemented move that makes them immune from the rear). Here, I would use subType to determine what direction the immunity functions with.

  • subType would define which "mode" to use (Normal, Decaying, Directional Immunity etc)
  • subPower could then be free to define cone angle width for directional immunity or decay rate for decaying cases.

• Basically the problem is that I'm running out space to store effect data for different use cases without resorting to janky use of timers/mob localVars/New effects.

Another case: Counterstance effect off top of my head

• Current Implementation hardcodes this core side(CBattleEntity::DEF()) as DEF/2 if the subType is 0.
• Many mobs that gain Counterstance from skills do not have a DEF penalty. If you change the subType for the effect, it will disable the skip the DEF/2 conditional but then your effect script won't work for anything else do to issue mentioned in OP.
• This could probably just be reworked to use subPower instead for the DEF penalty unless there is some unimplemented case like DEFENSE_BOOST decaying that could need subPower to store data.

TL:DR:

• There are probably other methods to go about getting results but they are not clean/straight forward especially when there are many things going on in an effect (Running out of space to store/manipulate data in an effect without overlap with coinciding functionalities)

• If we already manipulate this with some effects in core/other scripts, is there a reason we can't/shouldn't be able to specifically effect scripts?

• If this use case is wrong, I can pivot to attempt to do it another way.

[UmeboshiXI]

Think I tracked it down to CStatusEffectContainer::SetEffectParams. I put logging in onEffectGain in luautils and saw that the effect was looking in scripts/items/ when the subPower was set to 1 or higher.

Lua function onEffectGain not found in script: ./scripts/items/pile_of_chocobo_bedding.lua

I see there is an enum for GetSourceType() for mobs. I'll poke around once I get back home and try to get something working in a way that won't interfere with existing logic.