What's up with the age-old Chryssalid time unit bug?

[The Reaver of Darkness]

edit: This bug has been confirmed to not happen in openxcom, but perhaps it happened in the original game. Further info: if a chryssalid runs out of time units while attacking a soldier and hasn't killed them yet, the soldier is turned into a zombie anyway. This happens even if the chryssalid has failed to inflict any damage.

Chryssalids appear to not spend any time units to attack. Now most of the time they attack a soldier, they get em in 1-2 hits, but it's not uncommon to see them need 5+ hits to succeed, which they will happily do even if they had to cross a large portion of the map to get to you. This has happened since the beginning and is present in all versions of the game, including OpenXcom. I am fairly certain it isn't intended, especially as I see in the ruleset for the Chryssalid weapon that it has a time unit cost of 15--whether this is an amount or percentage matters little as the Chryssalid has 110 time units.

Is there a reason this isn't fixed?


example: A Chryssalid spent a minimum of 68 time units to approach one of my soldiers (given its erratic movement pattern probably more like 80) and then attacked 8 times before succeeding. If it was counting time unit expenditure, it should have stopped attacking early, like after the second hit.

[Arthanor]

I have the opposite "problem". Often chryssalids walk up to my soldiers and stop a few tiles away (or even next to them!) and scanning them with a mind probe shows 60 remaining TUs. Why didn't they strike?!?!

[Boltgun]

I have the opposite "problem". Often chryssalids walk up to my soldiers and stop a few tiles away (or even next to them!) and scanning them with a mind probe shows 60 remaining TUs. Why didn't they strike?!?!

Chrissalids are famous for running out of energy, but sometimes the AI just derps and walk your enemy to your troops then turn them away to make sure you kill em.

Spoiler:

Or, according to a post mortem video with M Gollop, the enemy randomly attack, run away or push onward and overwatch. Sometimes they 'push onwards' even if they are staring at your troops already.

I don't remember Chrissies ever using TU to attack. It does not matter anyway because one strike is enough to zombify a soldier no matter the damage, armor and watnot. They do all their attacks and you get a zombie. Or at least that's how I remember the dos version, someone who spent time in debug mode might tell you more.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I don't remember Chrissies ever using TU to attack. It does not matter anyway because one strike is enough to zombify a soldier no matter the damage, armor and watnot. They do all their attacks and you get a zombie. Or at least that's how I remember the dos version, someone who spent time in debug mode might tell you more.

Often a soldier in top armor goes down in one attack, other times a soldier in personal armor survives the first seven attacks. But no matter how many attacks it takes to succeed they virtually never give up the assault, even if they should have run out of time units long ago. Tentaculats in TFTD have the same bug.



Chryssalids didn't usually run out of energy under normal circumstances. The rate of energy regained per turn was low enough that they could run out after running around for several turns, but usually when they ran out it was because of an energy bug with mind-controlled aliens in which they used up 4 energy per square instead of 2. Since most aliens have low time units, you didn't really notice their energy draining rapidly unless you tried to mind control the same alien multiple times.

[Warboy1982]

they use time units like everyone else. /thread

[7Saturn]

I'm also rather sure, that I've seen chryssies fail a lot of times, especially on beginners level.

[DeltaEpsilon]

I don't remember Chrissies ever using TU to attack. It does not matter anyway because one strike is enough to zombify a soldier no matter the damage, armor and watnot. They do all their attacks and you get a zombie. Or at least that's how I remember the dos version, someone who spent time in debug mode might tell you more.

According to https://ufopaedia.org you don't become a zombie after an attack, but you get infected. If your soldier survives an attack of a chryssalis, he won't become a zombie until he dies.

Even if they don't stop attacking you, you still can survive that. I have had that at least two times when my soldiers become unconscious and therefore survive a slash or two. It's rather funny to look at albeit rare.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

they use time units like everyone else. /thread

They clearly are not using time units for their attacks, this is easily demonstrated in simple tests.

[Warboy1982]

They clearly are not using time units for their attacks, this is easily demonstrated in simple tests.

and i say unto you, they demonstrably DO use time units:

https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom/blob/master/src/Battlescape/MeleeAttackBState.cpp#L148-L162

i could make a detailed log every time the chryssalid attacks showing how many time units he has at each stage, but there's no real point.
they ARE using time units, they wouldn't even make the attack in the first place if they didn't have enough TUs to close distance AND take at least one swing.
if they weren't using time units they'd make an unlimited number of attacks here until the target died.

also, the chryssalid only has 110 time units ON BEGINNER. that stat is subject to growth according to difficulty level.

[Boltgun]

This, and MeleeAttackBState::resolveHit() confirms that the target is set to not die and turn into a zombie. That solves it.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

i could make a detailed log every time the chryssalid attacks showing how many time units he has at each stage, but there's no real point.

Please do make a log. You can't know that there is no bug if you don't even check.

I watched a Chryssalid move approx. 70 time units worth (by my estimations) and make 7 attacks on my soldier. I know the count of 7 attacks is exactly correct for I counted each attack as it happened. If each attack costs 15 time units, the Chryssalid would have needed to spend 105 of its 110 to make all 7 attacks, how then did it run downstairs, out the door, and across over a dozen squares diagonally and then dish out all seven attacks?

[Cristao]

^Chryssie has some serious beef with that soldier. Did he/she break its heart?

[The Reaver of Darkness]

^Chryssie has some serious beef with that soldier. Did she break its heart?

Possibly. She was guilty of shooting up its babies.