DOHARMSPECIES is either a misnomer or is bugged

[Jekyll Grim Payne]

A bit of a headscratcher in terms of where to put it; I tested this on 4.7.1 and on 4.4.0, and the issue occurs in both versions, so this might be an oversight, rather than a bug?

Anyway, the issue: recently I was checking this for somebody and looking to update the wiki descriptions and it turns out DOHARMSPECIES is actually does the opposite of what it's implied to do. It allows monsters to be hurt by different monster classes belonging to the same speccies, but not to actually hurt them, unless they have that flag as well.

In other words, this should be something like VULNERABLETOSPECIES, not the other way around.

Code to reproduce (also attached):

Code: Select all

version "4.4.0"

class ZombiemanTest : Zombieman
{
	Default
	{
		species "Zombie";
		+DOHARMSPECIES
	}
	
	states
	{
	Missile:
		POSS E 10 A_FaceTarget;
		POSS F 8 A_SpawnProjectile("Plasmaball");
		POSS E 8;
		Goto See;
	}
}
	
class ShotgunGuyTest : ShotgunGuy
{
	Default
	{
		species "Zombie";
	}
	
	states
	{
	Missile:
		SPOS E 10 A_FaceTarget;
		SPOS F 8 A_SpawnProjectile("Plasmaball");
		SPOS E 8;
		Goto See;
	}
}

ZombiemanTest can be hurt by ShotgunguyTest but can't hurt ShotgunguyTest.

[rayburn]

Can confirm said behavior.

[Logan MTM]

Interesting. I use that in my bastards dudes and it works fine. The only difference, i use old/gold Decorate.

[Jekyll Grim Payne]

Interesting. I use that in my bastards dudes and it works fine. The only difference, i use old/gold Decorate.

I've tested it in DECORATE first and it works exactly the same way. Since I don't know what code you're talking about, I'm not sure. But probably in your case both actors have DOHARMSPECIES, not just the shooter, which is what I'm talking about.

[Jekyll Grim Payne]

Update: I did some more extensive testing and finally updated the flags' descriptions on the wiki: https://zdoom.org/wiki/Actor_flags#Defenses

Short version goes like this:

Some prerequisites:
1. By default monsters of either the same class OR the same species can't deal impact projectile damage to each other.
2. By default all monsters will deah explosive projectile damage to each other and themselves, regardless of class or species.

The 3 flags in question change the above behavior in the following ways:

• DOHARMSPECIES: allows the monster to RECEIVE impact damage from projectiles fired by monsters belonging to the same species, regardless of the flags on those monsters. (Explosive damage is applied to everyone as usual.)
• DONTHARMCLASS: prevents the monster from DEALING explosive damage by projectiles to monsters of the same class (impact damage is also not dealt, as usual).
• DONTHARMSPECIES: prevents the monster from DEALING explosive damage by projectiles to monsters of the same species (impact damage is also not dealt, as usual). Implies DONTHARMCLASS.