feat: track separate pokémon with the exact same "identifying values" due to RNG manipulation

[RichardPaulAstley]

Describe the bug
So this is quite a special issue here. First of all, I'll explain what I call a Fake clone and a Real clone to avoid any confusion further in the issue. A Real clone is a Pokemon you've cloned in a intentional way, so the data is the same and I guess if you put multiple of them, the OpenHome file will be the same. However, things gets a little trickier with what I call fake clones. You have some cases where you end up with the same PID, the same infos while still being different obtained mons. The most obvious example would be Gen 2 where as soon you catch two Pokemon with the same DVs, well they end up being EXACT same Pokemon even if you got them with different ways. I've seen that with OpenHome the case could go even further, and I'll use my specific case to describe the bug.

I've RNG'd 6IVs Masuda Dittos in a Gen 5 save. To avoid going too much in the technicality, I use every time the same encounter to get each Ditto, but I use the Sync advantage to change its nature. So I ended up with 25 Ditto, with EVERY nature. They share everything, except the nature obviously. And it seems OpenHome doesn't like it.

All my Ditto are stored in a bank, no issue... Until you restart the game. Every Ditto is now the last one i've stored, deleting and ignoring EVERY other Ditto i've created.

I guess the ID generation ignores some parts and hence only see one Ditto. When reloading the game, all these fake clones become one real and quite breaks everything.

I'll not lie, when I've started on a solution for handling my collection / data, this issue was alone a reason for me to give up such a project. It's a pain to handle, and I'm not sure if there's any real solution here.

Screenshots

All the Ditto i'll store to show the issue

The Ditto stored, the first, the last one.

OpenHome saves only ONE of these Dittos.

When you reload, all the Ditto are the same one. The last.

Platform (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows
• Version 1.5.0 Alpha multiple boxes

[Myldym]

Yeah, there is a lot of cloning bugs in the new version (1.5.0-alpha)

[andrewbenington]

The OpenHome Identifier calculation takes the following into account:

• Personality value
• Base species (lowest in evolution family)
• Trainer ID
• Secret ID
• Game caught in

There is also a "Gen 3/4/5 Lookup ID" that is stored when a Pokémon is transferred into those games, which takes into account all of the above except the game caught in.

The point is to use unchangeable parts of a Pokémon so as not to lose track of it if something was changed. It sounds like the way you got these dittos means all those fields are identical? Which makes it hard to distinguish between them when they've been moved into a game.

The app should definitely warn you if this is the case. I used to prevent importing mons with the same calculated OpenHome identifier but a user complained it prevented them from moving mons that are different, so I disabled it.

[andrewbenington]

@Myldym could you describe the cloning bugs you've run into?

[Myldym]

@Myldym could you describe the cloning bugs you've run into?

Sure! Here’s what I ran into:

I was moving Pokémon between banks just to test if everything worked correctly. The process I followed (like in the screenshot I shared) was:

Move a Pokémon from Bank 1 into my Scarlet save.

Switch over to Bank 2.

Move the Pokémon from Scarlet into Bank 2 and save.

After going back to Bank 1, the Pokémon I had already transferred was still there, effectively duplicated.

The bug didn’t always happen – it was occasional, and I haven’t been able to reproduce it now.

Sometimes after switching back I also sorted the boxes, but I don’t think that matters since the duplication also happened without sorting.

So basically, sometimes the Pokémon I moved ended up being present in both banks at once.

[andrewbenington]

@Myldym I'm having trouble recreating this, it must happen when the timing is just wrong enough. Is the duplicate mon still there after you close and reopen the app?

[Myldym]

@Myldym I'm having trouble recreating this, it must happen when the timing is just wrong enough. Is the duplicate mon still there after you close and reopen the app?

Yes duplicates are still here.

I had only one Ogerpon

These legendaries are also duplicated (i tried to move them to other bank) and hoopa is also in other bank

[Myldym]

btw. everytime i switch banks or reopen OpenHome, banks are not sorted (yes i'm saving)

[Myldym]

i done this bug again

moved one of each to bank 2

and they are in both

i did it without saving this time

[andrewbenington]

I think I possibly fixed this. The new version is building now. I also added a way to remove duplicates:

The new version (1.5.0-alpha-multiple-banks.3.maybe-fix-dupes) should be available for windows here in about 15 minutes:
https://github.com/andrewbenington/OpenHome/releases/tag/v1.5.0-alpha-multiple-banks.3.maybe-fix-dupes

[Myldym]

Cool, thanks.
I will give it a shot

[Myldym]

I just installed the update look at this (i don't have the strength to describe this)
https://youtu.be/3XE9Rti98l4

[andrewbenington]

good lord 🤦‍♂️ I'm so sorry.

could you do me a favor and attach a zip file of your data directory? you can get there by presing ctrl+D in OpenHome

[andrewbenington]

nevermind I'm able to recreate it myself. let me work on this and get back to you

[andrewbenington]

I found a bug that was causing at least part of this. New download will be up soon (same place, but 1.5.0-alpha-multiple-banks.4.bank-sync-fix)