Glowing Behemoth Crystal - first change in 1 move?

[Skunkupine]

According to the Wiki, it's supposed to take 6 in game hours for the first change from the GBC to occur - nominally enough time to get to the ship and put it in storage, right?
However, whenever my Steele picks one up, the first transformation is IMMEDIATE - as in, move one square, get mutated. Since I'm happy with what my Steele is right now, I don't want that.
Is this a bug, or is thie Behavior As Designed?

 

[Theron]

Couldn't reproduce. Upload your save?

Just to be certain, you are on 0.9.139-PUBLIC#6354?

 

[Skunkupine]

OK, here's a save right after picking up the crystal. On the next move, I get a transformation.
Yes, I am on 0.9.139-PUBLIC#6354.
(ideally the version # of the game that created a save ought to be stored in the save. Pity it isn't.)

 

[Skunkupine]

Looking at the save data just before and just after the step, I see the following differences:
Before:

{
"classInstance" : "StorageClass",
"combatOnly" : false,
"hidden" : true,
"iconName" : "",
"iconShade" : "var(--textColor)",
"minutesLeft" : 0,
"neverSerialize" : false,
"storageName" : "Behemoth_Crystal_Tracker",
"tooltip" : "",
"value1" : 0,
"value2" : 0,
"value3" : 0,
"value4" : 8261196,
"version" : 1
},
after:

{
"classInstance" : "StorageClass",
"combatOnly" : false,
"hidden" : true,
"iconName" : "",
"iconShade" : "var(--textColor)",
"minutesLeft" : 0,
"neverSerialize" : false,
"storageName" : "Behemoth_Crystal_Tracker",
"tooltip" : "",
"value1" : 0,
"value2" : 1,
"value3" : 8481051,
"value4" : 8261196,
"version" : 1
},

My suspicion is that when the status effect is first enacted (when the crystal is picked up and placed into inventory) the time to next event was supposed to be in value3, but was incorrectly placed in value4. On the next step, the update code checked value3 and decided it was time.

 

[Theron]

In my test, the Status doesn't appear until after the first step.

{
"classInstance":"StorageClass",
"neverSerialize":false,
"version":1,
"storageName":"Behemoth_Crystal_Tracker",
"value1":0,
"value2":0,
"value3":0,
"value4":109622,
"hidden":true,
"iconName":"",
"tooltip":"",
"combatOnly":false,
"minutesLeft":0,
"iconShade":"var(--textColor)"
}

Do you have a save from before picking up a Glowing Behemoth Crystal?

Edit: Doing some more experimenting, v4 is the timestamp of when it was first created. v3 is time of last change, v2 is number of changes.
You have a difference of 152 days (16 hours, 15 minutes) between v4 and v3.

Have you picked up Glowing Behemoth Crystals before on this character? If I had to guess, I'd say the status got stuck at some point.

Edit2: Discarding Glowing Behemoth Crystals doesn't seem to remove the status properly, so the initial timestamp gets 'stuck'. Picking up a new one can therefore proc an immediate change, since it thinks you've already had it for >= 6 hours.

 

[Skunkupine]

A little grepping of my saves shows I had that status for some time (game time) - since a save I made on 27th June of this year. I don't recall picking up the crystal, but maybe I did, so maybe the status did get stuck. Easy-peasey to remove the status and go from there. I was going to see what a custom weapon with that would do, but since it just looks like it does fire damage and I already have weapons that do that, the only reason I have to pick the crystals up is loot.

I just saw your Edit2 - so is it a bug, just not of the nature I had guessed.

 

[Theron]

I was going to see what a custom weapon with that would do, but since it just looks like it does fire damage and I already have weapons that do that, the only reason I have to pick the crystals up is loot.

Each gem has 3 potential effects, depending on how you use them. Qailla's page has the whole list.

Possible Adjustment: Dull Behemoth Crystal cannot be obtained without depleting a Glowing Behemoth Crystal, to my knowledge. IIRC, Fenoxo said he might make them appear as random encounters, but that doesn't seem to have happened. (Yet?)
This is a potential problem, because by Phaedra, I expect a lot of people have more-or-less finalized how they want their Steele to look. Each TF also causes Taint.

 

[Jacques00]

Hopefully fixed for the next release.

I've added an expiration time to the status effect for holding a crystal for too long. After 12-hours of holding a crystal, if the fourth change does not happen, the crystal should become dull. This was written up in the comments, but didn't seem to be implemented, so I went ahead and coded it in. This means, for your save file in particular, after walking, the crystal should fizzle out and not grant another transformation.

Additionally, if all glowing crystals are dropped from inventory, the tracking status effect will now be purged. Note: This can allow obtaining one crystal and using it indefinitely if swapping between inventory and storage before the crystal expires via the 4th transformation or the 12-hour time limit.

Also, I've added a quest log block if the tracking status effect or item is obtained (found by going to: Codex, Log, Logs, Probe Location, Log: Phaedra, and under Side Missions). This should give some clarity on what is happening with the various timings and transformation count.