More !!testing information!!
This time my subject was syndromes in an attempt to fill in the holes in our knowledge of how some of their aspects function.
Syndrome !!SCIENCE!!
Method: Repeated controlled fights between a helmet snake and a dwarf in the arena. The helmet snake would strike the dwarf once and then wait until it died. The syndrome was then edited before each battle. There was also a small side-test where I used a modified cave floater and a dwarf to test inhaled syndromes.
Findings:
1)The LOCALIZED tag in a syndrome causes the game to ignore any BP:BY_XX tokens in the syndrome. This means that any intended targets of a syndrome (such as causing a victim's heart to rot away) are ignored.
2)The LOCALIZED tag then forces the game to attempt to apply the syndrome to whatever body part is infected by the syndrome (bitten, brought into contact with, etc.). This means that in the example of the heart rotting syndrome above the game would now make wherever was bitten (right hand for example) rot away instead of their heart.
4)The IMPAIR_FUNCTION syndrome only applies to organs so if the LOCALIZED tag attempts to apply it to another body part (such as a right hand) it has no effect. However, if the "infected" body part is another organ (eye, lung, etc.) then the syndrome is applied to that organ.
5)Body parts with the [FLIER] tag are not organs and are not effected by the IMPAIR_FUNCTION syndrome
3)Inhaled syndromes have no "infected" part attached to them. As such if an inhaled syndrome is given the LOCALIZED tag, it will not do anything at all.
4)Non-targetable syndromes (Fever, Cough blood, Vomit blood, Unconsciousness, Drowsiness, and Dizziness) ignore all BP:BY_XX and LOCALIZED tokens and continue to function normally though the error log remains empty.
5)Multiple body parts can be targeted in the same syndrome by placing additional BP:BY_XX tokens. (Example: a syndrome with BP:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:SKIN:BP:BY_CATEGORY:LUNG:ALL would affect the skin on all body parts and affect every tissue in the lungs)
6)Negative values in syndromes, though accepted by the raw parser, are treated as zero values. As such a syndrome with a negative severity will have zero effect. This furthers the idea that negative values are treated as zeroes except in a few special cases.
7)If the PEAK:X value of a syndrome is set lower then the START:X value, then when the START:X time is reached the syndrome is instantly applied at its peak value.
8)One tick in the object arena mode is equal to 72 seconds, the same value as one tick in fortress mode.
9)Syndrome time values are given in ticks, not seconds. So though an adventurer experiences a syndrome in the same number of ticks, they actually experience the effects of the syndrome 72x faster in seconds then a dwarf in fortress mode.