Mutants and Deja Vu

[travisjhall]

Deja Vu is the only creature that naturally has the Deja Vu skill. When the Deja Vu skill is used by a Deja Vu (the creature), the result is two Deja Vus with identical stats (including any modifications which have occurred up until the time the skill was used) but no skill.

Mutants can also have the Deja Vu skill. It naturally occurs, sometimes, as a result of the use of the Mutation or Improved Mutation skill (naturally possessed by Fallen Elves and Fallen Druids respectively), or the spells Mutation or Improved Mutation. When mutants use the Deja Vu skill, however, the result is that the original mutant loses the Deja Vu skill but is otherwise unchanged, and another mutant with the same name but potentially different stats and possessing a random skill (possibly Deja Vu, or possibly something else).

Given the difference between how the Deja Vu skill works when possess by a Deja Vu (the creature) or by a mutant, I have to question whether this is intended behaviour. If it is not, this is a bug.

[Kamietsu]

I believe it is intended. When you gain a mutant creature with Deja Vu ability and use it, you are not completely Deja Vuing that creature as you are a mutant. So you get a second mutant. And the second mutant could be anything. It's like a two for one deal on mutants.

[travisjhall]

Come to think of it, I do believe the new mutant produced by the Deja Vu skill will often have stats higher than those of the original, but never lower.

Which means that what happens (internally) when Deja Vu is applied to a mutant is that a new creature with the same name, art and stats as the original is produced, but no skill, and then a new mutation is applied. As far as stats are concerned, the creature is not a "mutant X", but a "mutant mutant X".

Again, I question whether this is intended behaviour.

[Celidion]

I believe it is intended, same thing happens when you TU a mutant the same turn it was made.

[Bloodshadow]

Every time a Mutant is created, a random bonus in stats is added to the original creature, and the creature's ability is replaced by a random new ability. I guess the same process happens when the Mutant is copied.

[Delreich]

Deja Vu (and PU/TU) creates an exact copy of the original. If that original was a mutant, the new one will be as well, and thus gets another stat boost and a random ability.
The 'mutant' stat also remains when you use 'mutation' on a mutant and get an Abomination. Pretty much makes 'mutation' an entropy-biased 'improve' when targetting mutants.

[travisjhall]

Every time a Mutant is created, a random bonus in stats is added to the original creature, and the creature's ability is replaced by a random new ability. I guess the same process happens when the Mutant is copied.

Yep, precisely. Then it's up to the designer whether this is desired behaviour, or whether it was a design oversight.

Just to be clear, I'm a developer by profession. This is the sort of thing I'd expect a tester attached to my dev team to bring to the attention of the team. It's not that it is necessarily a bug, but that it could be a bug. It would be up to the dev team to determine whether it is desired behaviour (possibly by kicking the issue up the food chain to the analyst responsible for gathering specs, if that isn't the duty of the team).

In this case, zanzarino is the dev team. If he says it's deliberate (or accidental but desired anyway), that's fine. But it's still better to point it out so that he can make the call, just in case he hasn't noticed it. I don't even expect him to make a response about it.

[Avenger]

This is a nicely dressed bug, aka feature.

[Cisco]

Not a bug. Zanz has said alls good with this a while ago A mutant is supposed to keep mutating.