the level turrets are scenery: TurretClassID is a red herring, 0xBDE is ThermalSight

Playtest question: "many levels have turrets/cannons that don't fire, aren't
those supposed to shoot at players?" Chased it properly because the enum really
does look like a smoking gun.

engine/MUNGA/VDATA.h:209 declares TurretClassID as the LAST entry of the BT
block -- right after MechTechClassID, immediately before the ND section -- which
is exactly where a real BattleTech class would live. And the mech factory has a
live `case 0xbde:` for it (part_012.c:10186). Both of those point the wrong way.

That enum slot computes to 3038 = 0xBDE, and 0xBDE in the shipped runtime is
ThermalSight: ctor @4b8718, already reconstructed and done in thermalsight.cpp.
Same enum-vs-runtime label drift CLASSMAP already records for HUD and MechTech
at 0xBD6/0xBDC, which is why the rule is to resolve the ctor address and never
trust the factory case label. The case is also in the mech SUBSYSTEM factory
(roster param_1[0x4a]), not an entity factory, so it could not spawn a world
object even if the label were right.

Everything else agrees. There is no `class Turret` anywhere in the engine or the
port. BTL4OPT.EXE contains zero occurrences of turret, sentry, emplac, brain,
patrol, aggro, hostile or npc (the apparent "ai"/"bot" hits are substrings of
failureheat and verticallimitbottom). jointturret, which looked promising, is a
skeleton joint on OWN/PGN/STI with own_tur.bgf -- a mech turret-torso, not a
world gun. And the destructible world classes in CULTURAL.h -- Landmark,
CulturalIcon, UnscalableTerrain -- have no weapon, fire or target members at
all; they take damage and break, and that is the whole of it.

So the turret and cannon models in the maps (TT1/TT2/TWR/TK1/APC, each with a D
damaged variant) are scenery. They did not fire in 1995. Making them fire would
be inventing a feature rather than reconstructing one, and it would need an
entity class, a targeting model and a threat model that the binary has no trace
of -- which is consistent with the standing T1 finding that BT shipped no AI at
all and is PvP-only by design.

Written up in combat-damage.md next to the No-AI section, since the enum is
convincing enough that someone will find it again.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

context/combat-damage.md

@@ -14,6 +14,22 @@ open_questions:
 The drive→target→fire→damage→destroy loop. Full detail: `docs/PROGRESS_LOG.md §10c`; the death/
 teardown forensics: `docs/HARD_PROBLEMS.md` (P5).
 
+## ⚠ `TurretClassID` is a RED HERRING — there is no turret code (2026-07-28) [T1]
+`engine/MUNGA/VDATA.h:209` really does declare `TurretClassID`, as the **last entry of the BT block**
+(right after `MechTechClassID`, before the ND section), which makes it look like a BattleTech class.
+It is not one. That enum position computes to **3038 = 0xBDE**, and 0xBDE in the shipped runtime is
+**ThermalSight** (ctor `@4b8718`, `thermalsight.cpp`, already DONE) — the same enum-vs-runtime label
+drift `CLASSMAP.md` records for HUD/MechTech at 0xBD6/0xBDC. The `case 0xbde:` in the mech factory
+(`part_012.c:10186`) is a **mech SUBSYSTEM** slot (roster `param_1[0x4a]`), not a world entity.
+Corroborating: there is **no `class Turret`** anywhere in the engine or the port, and `BTL4OPT.EXE`
+contains **zero** occurrences of `turret`/`sentry`/`emplac`/`brain`/`patrol`/`aggro`/`hostile`/`npc`.
+`jointturret` (in `OWN`/`PGN`/`STI` skeletons + `own_tur.bgf`) is a **mech** turret-torso joint, not a
+world gun. The destructible world objects (`Landmark`, `CulturalIcon`, `UnscalableTerrain` —
+`CULTURAL.h`) have no weapon/fire/target members of any kind: they take damage and break, nothing more.
+⇒ **Turret/cannon models in the maps (`TT1`/`TT2`/`TWR`/`TK1`/`APC` + their `D` damaged variants) are
+SCENERY.** They never fired in 1995. Making them fire would be inventing a feature, not reconstructing
+one — and it would need an entity class, targeting, and a threat model that the binary has no trace of.
+
 ## No AI — BT is PvP-only (verified, not a recovery gap)
 The mission system is NETWORKED and BT never had NPCs/AI. Every mech is driven by a `BTPlayer` (or a
 `BTCameraDirector` spectator). The BT registry knows only Mech/Projectile/Missile/BTPlayer/BTTeam; no