Multiplying NPCs Glitch

[Vhati]

I might have found a bug in FTL 1.5.4, but I need to confirm...

Summary: When there's a ship nearby, saving/reloading adds new NPCs to that ship.


On arriving at the second beacon of sector 1, I encountered a FED_SCOUT ship requesting an escort to a beacon a few jumps away (spawning QUEST_ESCORT_ARRIVE at the destination).

I agreed, but didn't leave yet, which meant there was a friendly ship parked nearby.
Then I saved and made a backup of "continue.sav".

Then I started FTL again. And immediately saved and made another backup.

Then I started FTL again. And immediately saved and made another backup.

Each time I saved, the nearby ship - which started with two crew - added another two crew, with identical stats to the originals. After 3 saves, there were 6 crew. Pairs of humans named "Ryan Maniscalco" and "Xin Xin".

I can see the increasing crew in a hex editor and with my WIP saved game editor (read-only right now), but I haven't tried to recreate the problem yet, with other nearby ships, or while using upgraded sensors to peek in-game.


Wild Guess: The ship's current crew are being saved. Then on loading, the ship is reconstructed, including its starting crew. Then the previous crew are re-spawned.

[Matthew]

I'll look into it. Thanks for the report.

[Vhati]

More details...
This occurs in 1.5.10, too.
The extra crew are put onboard first and aren't so identical after all.

They have 0 health and -1 roomId; they're dead in other words.

Sometimes they change sex. A few of Marcus were female. A few of Maria were male.
The lists in names.xml shouldn't be allowing that.

The sample I'm looking at right now is a mid-combat rock pirate ship with a medbay.
Its only augment was Rock Armor.
The following is all in a single save.

Starting Crew: Markus (Engi), Maria (Human), Stick (Human).
Current Crew:

• Markus (F, Dead), Maria (M, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (F, Dead), Maria (M, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (M, Dead), Maria (F, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (M, Dead), Maria (F, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (M, Dead), Maria (F, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (M, Dead), Maria (F, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (F, Dead), Maria (M, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (F, Dead), Maria (M, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (F, Dead), Maria (M, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (F, Dead), Maria (M, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (F, Dead), Maria (M, Dead), Stick (M, Dead),
• Markus (M, 44 HP), Maria (F, 13 HP), Stick (M, 37 HP)

That was probably the twelfth save into the fight.
I guess I should be glad it didn't have a clonebay!

[Vhati]

Still present in 1.5.13.