The Infinite Looting bug (MM6 & MM7)

[rotalihinna]

Both MM6 and MM7 (GrayFace versions, not sure if the regular game has them) have this bug where sometimes when you loot a monster's corpse, it won't disappear, allowing you to loot it again. (When you loot it again, it generally disappears, but just like the original corpse, might not)

I'd estimate this happening about 1 out of 20-30 times. I haven't been able to isolate it, and it seems totally random! I'm sure it's not entirely random. Anybody have any idea what it is?

[raekuul]

I believe this is vanilla behavior as well? It only happens if the monster dropped an item treasure. It's only "infinite" if you save-scum the results, the corpse will eventually run out of item treasure.

[rotalihinna]

Right, you're correct. Any idea what might be causing it?

[Tomsod]

The chance is exactly 10%, but only if you looted an item. And it seems to NOT be a bug, the code looks very deliberate, the game rolls a d100 and everything. I've erased that code anyway in my MM7 mod, I can tell you the addresses if you're interested.

[rotalihinna]

That is VERY strange! So the game has a programmed 10% chance of not removing the corpse if the corpse dropped an item?

What do you all think might be the purpose behind this?

Also how are you able to see that the game rolls a d100 for this?

Thank you!

[Eksekk]

And I can tell you the address for MM8, as well as code to remove it. I can also confirm that this seems to be deliberate behavior. As for purpose, I haven't got a clue, I am not surprised this is universally considered a bug.

Also how are you able to see that the game rolls a d100 for this?

He found the code in the executable (MM7.exe) that governs looting, and reverse-engineered it (probably using disassembler and/or debugger).

[Tomsod]

The code (at the end of the corpse loot function) basically looks like this:

Code: Select all

if (item_dropped && random() % 100 >= 90)
    goto skip;
remove_corpse();
skip:
return;

So, very deliberate. I'm guessing it could initially be an MM6 bug, but the playtesters liked it so much it was canonized. Or maybe NWC wanted monsters to rarely drop several items, and they implemented it in this 'exploding dice' way. The d100 roll can be plainly seen as above, but the true motives behind it will remain a mystery, I'm afraid.