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[Eric Blank]

That's right, everything just went AWOL. I am now in possession of a negative-value artifact, of a material not involved in it's creation, let alone meant to show up anywhere in dwarf mode.

Previously explained here:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=15096.msg1694230#msg1694230

It gets worse; After saving, backing up the original, reloading and unpausing, the value decreased even more, and it's listed with a [#3] in it's description.

Before

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Obviously this is because 'magic missile' is a material with a boiling point lower than it's forced temperature.


This is thoroughly awesome but... what the hell do I do?
I have certainly learned my lesson: don't use exploits to increase the value of your artifact. It didn't even use the diamond or emeralds, they're still in the workshop.

[thijser]

Well you could start by reporting this as a bug.
After that you have a choise:
1 Keep it and nothing will chance the lower fort value will reduce attacks.
2 Destroy the artifact by dropping a bridge on it. This will make it's creator very sad and probably insane.
3 Experiment with it and see if you can find a good use for it.

[darkflagrance]

Well you could start by reporting this as a bug.
After that you have a choise:
1 Keep it and nothing will chance the lower fort value will reduce attacks.
2 Destroy the artifact by dropping a bridge on it. This will make it's creator very sad and probably insane.
3 Experiment with it and see if you can find a good use for it.

Technically, atom-smashing the artifact would make it even more valuable. Shouldn't that then make the creator happy? 

[KaguroDraven]

Gift it to the elves. Make them poor.

[Kanil]

Keep it. You just made a fuckin' Magic Missile Barrel.

Seriously. A barrel made of magic missile.

Is that not the most awesomely awesome thing ever?

[RandomNumberGenerator]

That's not a barrel, it's a black hole!

Out of curiosity, what is magic missile supposed to be used for?

[Eric Blank]

I was about to report it as a bug, yes. I think I figured it out; When I went back in the stocks screen to unforbid all the other gems, I accidentally forbid/unforbid the ones being used, causing the game to freak out and choose a new base material and forget about the two modifiers. Problem solved I suppose, doesn't necessarily explain the value of the artifact though.
Still worthy of a bug report?

I've already 'tried' 3 because I let the game run. It is now being used to store mushrooms. Somehow appropriate treatment for something so worthless.

Gift it to the elves. Make them poor.

If it's possible, I should. It does contain wood though so it would probably cause them to get angry and leave.

That's not a barrel, it's a black hole!

Out of curiosity, what is magic missile supposed to be used for?

It's used in an adventure mode reaction; you conjure it and throw it at someone, then it bursts into steam and disappears. Not my idea or code originally.

[Eugenitor]

I'd be surprised it this was accepted as a legitimate bug, seeing as how you're modding like crazy and all. (But things being different between saves really is a problem.)

[Eric Blank]

I'd be surprised it this was accepted as a legitimate bug, seeing as how you're modding like crazy and all. (But things being different between saves really is a problem.)

If what I said is correct, it only involves the mods because one was an ingredient and the other comes first in the load order and was picked when it dumped the base material, right?

[Eugenitor]

Actually, my best guess would be duplicate raws and/or uninitialized material values on modded stuff.

[Eric Blank]

You're right about that; the magic missile material has no value defined. That would explain why it's value got even worse when I unpaused too; the material is designed to boil away on it's own, but being an artifact or something prevented this and it instead became a [material]-[#3]-[object] with reduced value?

I guess this is all unnecessary fanfare for a series of mistakes? 

I should use it for science though; to find out if having a negative-value artifact in a noble's room (in a stockpile) will cause 'their head to explode'. It's 2 AM however, so that will wait until tomorrow.

[fivex]

You're right about that; the magic missile material has no value defined. That would explain why it's value got even worse when I unpaused too; the material is designed to boil away on it's own, but being an artifact or something prevented this and it instead became a [material]-[#3]-[object] with reduced value?

I guess this is all unnecessary fanfare for a series of mistakes? 

I should use it for science though; to find out if having a negative-value artifact in a noble's room (in a stockpile) will cause 'their head to explode'. It's 2 AM however, so that will wait until tomorrow.

The number means it is in a stockpile.
Items in stockpiles have no effect in room value; build a dyer's workshop(I think that requires a barrel) in  A noble's room

[JonBrant]

This appears to be an incarnation of the way that signed integers wrap around. Basically, because of the way signed integers are laid out in memory, there comes a point where adding one to a number causes it to wrap around and become an enormous negative number. By default, the highest value of materials in game probably has no chance of reaching it; but with modified items bringing modified values, it's more than likely

[TurkeyXIII]

I'm guessing it's an uninitialised variable causing the issue.  The material has a value, but without being told what it is in the raws it just uses whatever happens to be in the memory at the time.  I'm guessing if you save, exit and reload it'll change again - with nearly 50/50 chance of being positive.

Which mod is that from?

[Pukako]

Wow.  Minus 1.3 billion.  That puts your fortress about the same as the US economy at the moment.  Just think - what would Obama do?