Strange code when creating ships

[Hammie]

When executing MSG_SHIP_CREATE the following bit of code is getting run:

storm-engine/src/libs/ship/src/ship.cpp

Lines 1937 to 1942 in ee274cc

	if (pAP && pAP->GetAttributeAsDword("index", -1) >= 0)
	{
	auto pVDat = static_cast<VDATA *>(core.GetScriptVariable("Characters"));
	if (pVDat)
	pVDat->Set(GetId(), pAP->GetAttributeAsDword("index", 0));
	}

Which appears to be replacing the entry for the character data with the character index?!?

Anyone has any idea why or how this is ever needed?

[espkk]

It looks like a hack to update "expired" Characters array, possibly to clean up old phantoms
Do you have any issues with that code? If we remove this, I'm afraid SLIB and later phantoms mechanics can be broken.

[Hammie]

There is a bug in New Horizons that happens when ships are recreated when in a coastal locations (ships are spawned in the background), that causes the player character entry to be deleted (as the player ship is also recreated).

For now I think I'm going to disable this code in a New Horizons-specific branch and see how it goes.

[espkk]

Does SD2/NH use phantoms? if not, that probably should be safe. Honestly, I would move such code into the scripts even if it's needed

By the way, you can also "fix" that from NH scripts by removing index property from generated characters

[Hammie]

If by phantoms you mean generated characters that are temporary with recycled ids, then yes.

The biggest problem is that the main character also has an index property. And changing that will probably require some wide refactoring.

[espkk]

If by phantoms you mean generated characters that are temporary with recycled ids, then yes.

The biggest problem is that the main character also has an index property. And changing that will probably require some wide refactoring.

Main character should always have 0 index, while some generated characters seem to also have 0 index which is not okay
But to be honest I still don't understand how this leads to erasing an entity. Does rewriting an Object automatically calls DeleteClass on it?

[espkk]

Also, recently I discovered an old bug that leads to similar issues e.g. when spawning sailors. Let me know if disabling that code won't help. I'll try to find it, I think I fixed it locally