1.0.3: Any Item Dupe with Auto-Spawner

BlackY092

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Version:
1.0.3

What is the bug:
You can give any item to a zombie, catch him in a safari-net and then putting him in an Auto-Spawner that is set to "Exact-Copy".

The Zombies will spawn with the items that you did throw at them (Nether Stars, Diamonds, machines etc)

Mod & Version:
1.0.3

Paste.feed-the-beast.com log:


Can it be repeated:
Yes it can.

Known Fix:
 

Dannyaaaa

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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That is actually a vanilla mechanic. When a zombie picks up and item, it will also drop it. To fix this either a new mod would have to be made, or the Spawn Exact Copy would have to be disabled.
 

Tallinu

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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I would think the auto-spawner could strip picked-up inventory from the "exact copies" it spawns, though. The fact that the original in the safari net happened to have those items shouldn't be allowed to affect the copies of the mob, otherwise you're spawning copies of items too, making this a dupe bug.
 

Trisscar

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Ah, but things like zombie pigmen, skeletons, and wither skeletons hold things as a matter of course, it's part of their spawn. How would you change this dupe issue without making it harder for MFR spawners to create vanilla and non-vanilla mobs that hold things, without having to make a list of what's okay and what's not?
 

Tallinu

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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When mobs spawn with items equipped, there's a low chance some of those items will drop on death. (Thus the piles of badly damaged, randomly enchanted gear a mob trap often generatres.) But most mobs can't pick up items from the ground and equip them.

The fact that some *can* pick things up isn't exactly the problem either. It's the fact that when spawning exact copies, the MFR auto-spawner duplicates even the picked up items (items which the mob didn't have when originally spawned). The copies do not need to be *that* exact -- indeed, they should not be, precisely because this can be abused to dupe arbitrary rare/expensive items.

Copying the mob itself exactly, including its ability to pick up items (if it has that), is totally fine. Copying any items that mob had picked up before capture, in such a way that the duplicated mobs drop these duplicated items on death, is entirely different.

I can imagine a couple possible ways to resolve the issue. Most simply, checking if an item was picked up and not duplicating those items along with the mob. Spawning the mob with copies of those items, but flagging them in such a way that they will not drop when the mob dies (just like most gear that mobs spawn with) would be even better, as it could be used for interesting things like generating a horde of powerfully equipped critters for a battle arena or defending a base from intruders. But in the end, while we can make suggestions, we aren't the ones who get to determine what's changed to resolve the issue.

If Minefactory Reloaded's developer ends up saying it's impossible to solve, fine, but it should still be brought to his attention if it hasn't already. And in my experience, "impossible" is a word that has trouble sticking, where Minecraft mods are concerned. :)
 

BrickVoid

Well-Known Member
Dec 2, 2012
593
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When mobs spawn with items equipped, there's a low chance some of those items will drop on death. (Thus the piles of badly damaged, randomly enchanted gear a mob trap often generatres.) But most mobs can't pick up items from the ground and equip them.

The fact that some *can* pick things up isn't exactly the problem either. It's the fact that when spawning exact copies, the MFR auto-spawner duplicates even the picked up items (items which the mob didn't have when originally spawned). The copies do not need to be *that* exact -- indeed, they should not be, precisely because this can be abused to dupe arbitrary rare/expensive items.

Copying the mob itself exactly, including its ability to pick up items (if it has that), is totally fine. Copying any items that mob had picked up before capture, in such a way that the duplicated mobs drop these duplicated items on death, is entirely different.

I can imagine a couple possible ways to resolve the issue. Most simply, checking if an item was picked up and not duplicating those items along with the mob. Spawning the mob with copies of those items, but flagging them in such a way that they will not drop when the mob dies (just like most gear that mobs spawn with) would be even better, as it could be used for interesting things like generating a horde of powerfully equipped critters for a battle arena or defending a base from intruders. But in the end, while we can make suggestions, we aren't the ones who get to determine what's changed to resolve the issue.

If Minefactory Reloaded's developer ends up saying it's impossible to solve, fine, but it should still be brought to his attention if it hasn't already. And in my experience, "impossible" is a word that has trouble sticking, where Minecraft mods are concerned. :)

Wouldn't it be a lot simpler to make the MFR auto-spawner use a LOT more energy and mob essence, and make the cooldown timer between spawn attempts a lot bigger, if it was duplicating a high-end item like a diamond, irrespective of what's holding onto it? Programmatically speaking, it might be difficult to tell if a zombie or other mob spawned holding an item or if it picked it up, but it's far easier to just up the usage cost for expensive items like diamonds.

Cheers ...

BrickVoid
 

Tallinu

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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That gets right back into overcomplicated territory - there's no way for one mod to know how valuable or hard to get every other mod's items are (not to mention potentially bypassing the intended method of acquisition and any consequences it might have or bugs it might introduce), and trying to come up with some system to rate items and allow "legitimate" duplication like that, just for one rare and likely unintended case... well, if I was the author, I wouldn't want to open that can of worms even with a hundred foot pole.

What I remember of how mobs that pick up items work suggests that they are handled differently, though. For example, if a mob has picked up an item, it won't despawn naturally when no players are in sufficiently close proximity (to avoid a mob killing you, stealing all your best gear, and then vanishing without giving you a chance to kill him and recover it). This implies that the entity tracks what items were picked up, differentiating them from any items it might have spawned with.
 
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worryingmeerkat

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Just as a devils advocate here. Do you not think that being able to spawn mobs is a dupe in itself? The whole idea of modded minecraft is to bring new things to the table and to make things easier with automation and ways of creating things. If you don't like the fact that you can dupe a block or item then surely you wouldn't use that machine.
Not having a go but just expressing an opinion.
 

Trisscar

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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@Worrying Fair enough, but I suspect this could cause issues on things like servers, where sure you can refuse to use this dupe mechanic, but others might not.
 

worryingmeerkat

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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I would say if you have to dupe things then where is the enjoyment in the game. I personally don't like the idea of it.
 

Tallinu

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
12
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In my opinion it's the difference between intended behavior with limited consequences for balance, based on a preexisting game concept, and unintended behavior with a potentially extreme imbalancing effect. I agree about duping items, which definitely falls into the latter category. But taking advantage of mob spawners is a common and expected part of even vanilla Minecraft gameplay.

Mob spawners, even non-vanilla spawners, are a source of a known, limited set of items -- those which are normally dropped by the mobs in question. The auto-spawner and its features are mostly just a matter of convenience (locating it where you want and spawning what you want, including mob types that aren't naturally available in spawners), and you pay for that convenience by having to supply power and mob essence.

Because of the way certain mobs like wither skeletons were coded, the exact copy feature is needed to allow spawning them. Most of the additional opportunities that feature's presence enables -- "duping" specific colored sheep or, say, copying a villager with a certain set of trades you like -- are relatively tame. (You could just breed sheep and dye them, and you could also breed or spawn random villagers and sort through them for good trades. Neither is particularly difficult, just time consuming, so balance is relatively unaffected.)
 
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