Medusa Purple (Hair Meddle) sometimes fails to steal tiles [Devs aware]

Tombstone

Hey Guys, I talked with the test team and it appears that they're having problems reproducing the issue described. Can you please provide me with some more information so I can give this to the test team again for reinvestigation?

Please describe the problem as detailed as possible, and make sure to include your Medusa (Inhuman Queen)'s level and her Hair Meddle power level. Also, please include your teammates, the enemy team, and what type of tiles she failed to steal. Lastely, if possible, please provide a screenshot of the issue after it occurred and point out which of the tiles it had failed to steal after the switch.

Afterwards, I'll relay this information to the test team to try and reproduce it again.

Blindman13

@Tombstone / @Brigby
I may have figured this one out.
I have a level 287 Medusa with 4 covers on Hair Meddle.  I've been taking screen shots before and after using the ability for a while trying to catch her moving a tile, but not stealing it. Of course, the one time I get in a hurry and don't take the pic is when I see it happen, but I did notice something potentially significant.

I was playing against a goon, who just had a Threaten countdown go off, so there were two enemy strike tiles on the board.  I activated Hair Meddle and both were swapped to a new place, but only one was stolen.
The significant part is that the tiles that were moved ended up causing some matches and tiles fell. The one strike that was not stolen ended up in a place different than where the Hair Meddle swap put it. The one that was stolen did not move after it was swapped.

So, my guess is that the ability is noting where it put the special tiles it swaps, but not converting them until after any matches and cascades are resolved. Once the board settles, it is looking in the same spot for the swapped tile to convert it, and if it is no longer there it does nothing with it.

Maybe changing the order of operations will resolve this? It seems to me that the stolen tiles should be converted as soon as they are moved before any new matches are resolved. I have noticed on more than one occasion when I fire Hair Meddle, before the enemy specials that were moved are converted to friendly tiles, multiple other passive abilities are activated in the ensuing cascade (including both Resolute Queen and Entanglement, as well as Sam Wilson's Aerial Avenger). It seems the 'steal' part of the ability is the very last thing that happens.

Tombstone

Those are... oddly specific conditions regarding this issue, but the report does contain the information we needed to test, and our test team was able to confirm the report. Thank you for providing the in depths detail about your encounter, it was very helpful for our team to pinpoint the problem. I'll add it to the list now.

Dayv

@Blindman13 -- kudos on figuring that one out!  Seriously, that's some impressive bug sleuthing.

MoosePrime

Does this also affect tiles that are not swapped, but fall down into a spot that was swapped (after the cascades), then get stolen?

Jaedenkaal

Tombstone said:

Those are... oddly specific conditions regarding this issue, but the report does contain the information we needed to test, and our test team was able to confirm the report. Thank you for providing the in depths detail about your encounter, it was very helpful for our team to pinpoint the problem. I'll add it to the list now.

It's not actually that uncommon on boards with lots of special tiles. Hair Meddle is pretty likely to cause at least one match, and when the board is full of special tiles, some of them are bound to fall.

Dayv

We have always been at war with order of operations.  

This presents a far more unlikely second case: if a special tile that did not get moved by the power falls into the position of one that did, that tile would probably get stolen instead.  What would happen if an already-friendly special tile landed there?  Nothing?  Would it get a strength increase?  Would it get a strength increase and have its ownership flipped to the enemy team?

TPF Alexis

MoosePrime said:

Does this also affect tiles that are not swapped, but fall down into a spot that was swapped (after the cascades), then get stolen?

Not sure, but I did have an incident today where the shuffle made a green match, and enemy Daken created a Strike on one of the tiles that had been swapped, and it was then stolen, even tho it wasn't on that tile at the time it was swapped.