When attempting to rank up on my old player.dat file (to test the rank deletion report), I happened upon an Arena level. I killed a bunch of monsters, and then while (I thought) having a shootout with an offscreen Baron of Hell I suddenly died for no apparent reason. Upon looking at my mortem I noticed that there were two "Xs" designating my character (Mine being the one on the right):
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.........................................................>#
;...............=..........|..............................#
..........................................................#
.............^.=..........................................#
...................}..}..........................%........#
....................%..|..................%%..............#
.............................................%............#
.^........................................................#
................B.X.......................%%...X..........#
..........................................................#
..........................................................#
=.................=.===...................................#
=..................====....+..............................#
....................==.......................=..%.........#
.................=====........}.......==....===...........#
..................==.==..........\...==.==.===............#
..................=.====.............===..===...........}.#
..................======............===...=..............>#
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Since I had already read the "you hit you" topic, I didn't think too much of it and went on my way. It was only after the second occurance of this glitch that I went back and looked at the "messages" section, which contained something rather strange: The Baron of Hell that was listed as killing me hadn't touched me.
the hell knight. The missile hits the hell knight. The hell knight
dies. The missile hits the demon. The missile hits the demon.
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits the demon. The missile hits the
demon. The missile hits the demon. The missile hits the demon. The
missile hits the demon.
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits the demon. The demon is bleeding!
The demon dies.
Unknown command. Press "?" for help.
You reload the chaingun with 10mm ammo.
Your chaingun is already loaded.
Your red armor is damaged!
Fire -- Choose target... Find a more constructive way to commit suicide.
Fire -- Choose target...
Fire -- Choose target...
Fire -- Choose target... You die!...
Meanwhile, while I was once again attempting a level up I ran into another arena. This time, I actually noticed my health decreasing for practically no reason. This put me on high alert, and after finishing the demons hounding me I ran towards the stairs...and didn't quite make it. This time, the mortem said that I had been killed by a former sergent, but there were no former sergents (or any monsters) close enough to hurt me! There was however, once again a second player on the graveyard...and a former sergent within shooting range of it. (Once again, I'm the X on the right)
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........===.=......=======.==.............................#
.......======......=====.=====.........=..................#
...........===.....==========.==.......===..=...........%.#
............=.......===.=====..=........======............#
.............=.....===.=.===.=..=.......======............#
.............=..#...#...=...=....}..===.^=====..}}........#
..............==.........=..====.=|=...=====...%%.|.......#
..............h=..X......=======.====....==...............#
.............^.=}........=.===...====.\...............%...#
..............h=#...#......=...............=.........".}..#
.................==.....;......................=........|.#
..................==...........................}..........#
..................=..=..........................|=........#
..................====.....^............................X.#
...................=......................................#
..........................................................#
.........................................................>#
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Thus, not only can the dummy second player take damage from monsters, but I lost two rather promising characters because of it.
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I was originally going to conclude this topic by talking about how this is a game-wrecking glitch much more prominent and damaging then most other glitches in the game, and suggesting that Kornel fix it and release a patch with the fix as soon as possible.
However, while I was writing all that out I realized a possible cause of the glitch. I originally intended to start over fresh for 0.9.8.7, but after all the hooplah about the possible rank-up glitch with the old player.dat I replaced the new player.dat with my one from 0.9.8.5 and set out to test it out. Before putting in the old file, I played the arena level 3 times and never met this error. After merging in the old player.dat I encountered the glitch both times that I got an arena level. This makes me think that the glitch may be caused by 0.9.8.7 using 0.9.8.5's player.dat file. The idea of player.dat compatibility problems is supported by the fact that I got two game crashes within 7 games of each other- initially I chalked it up to the new version being unstable, but now that I think about it they happened after merging over the old player.dat file. This seems kind of fishy considering I only had one game crash the entire time I used 0.9.8.5. If this isn't just a coincidence (which it may be) it would mean that for all intents and purposes the old player.dat isn't really compatible with the new version after all.