# Copy-from is not reliable

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/copy-from-is-not-reliable/15176>\
**Category:** The Toolbox\
**Created:** [March 25, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/copy-from-is-not-reliable/15176 "2018-03-25T01:44:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![techincal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@techincal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/techincal)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/copy-from-is-not-reliable/15176/1 "2018-03-25T01:44:49Z")

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After having to double check every single attribute which gets auto-copied for mutation IDs, I started to get paranoid and sure enough… not everything gets copied over when using copy-from for items, eg. _thrown\_damage_.

It’s pretty common sense you’ll end up with ten million micro level bugs when you have disfunction on such a fundamental level.

Is there a list of things that actually do get copied or not? I really… really am not looking forward to double checking every single attribute to make sure it actually gets copied.

Case in point:

- copy-from _javelin_
- set all skills to 10
- spawn a normal zed
- turn on debug mode
- throw javelin
- stab damage is missing

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**Author:** ![BorkBorkGoesTheCode](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/borkborkgoesthecode/32/2343_2.png) [@BorkBorkGoesTheCode](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/BorkBorkGoesTheCode)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 4:29am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/copy-from-is-not-reliable/15176/2 "2018-03-25T04:29:18Z")

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If it works like items declaring a copied field as fals/0/etc will disable it.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![techincal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@techincal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/techincal)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 7:28am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/copy-from-is-not-reliable/15176/3 "2018-03-25T07:28:14Z")

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Can you give an example?

> {  
> “type” : “mutation”,  
> “id” : “FLEET”,  
> “name” : “Fleet-Footed”,  
> “points” : 2,  
> “description” : “You can move more quickly than most, resulting in a 15% speed bonus on sure footing.”,  
> “starting\_trait” : true,  
> “changes\_to” : [“FLEET2”],  
> “category” : [“MUTCAT\_SPIDER”],  
> “cancels” : [“SLOWRUNNER”, “PONDEROUS1”, “PONDEROUS2”, “PONDEROUS3”]  
> }

And I’m obviously not referring to booleans but strings inside _category_ and so on.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![techincal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@techincal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/techincal)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 1:11am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/copy-from-is-not-reliable/15176/4 "2018-03-26T01:11:46Z")

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Well it seems copy-from is having issues in general