From c3741d96df42abe324adedb1b41aa3f80fff6d4e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joe DiPrima Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:25:53 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] weapons field guide SECOND EDITION (build 4.11.957): the round-trip demonstrated -- Oracle's fourteen answers are quoted inline as [ANSWERED] verdicts (out-of-range cliff, charge persistence retired-as-verified, gauss/Mischief cross-confirmed, recoil-by-caliber, tap-unjam, splash, rack personality acknowledged as the authored vectors, SRM pip SETTLED at 800); section 2 carries the real gear ladder 56/77/100/153 with charge-time multipliers + the alpha-strike doctrine; 2B updated to shipped-tense with the 4.0-vs-4.10 veteran-heat note; PPC section now carries Oracle's vertical-line collapse spec + the #178 generator-flip watch; AC section ships the trigger-time cannon + the NEW tracer-visibility era question (second witness wanted); missiles section folds #175 cover + bystander + true speeds as shipped; section 10 rewritten as the found-fixed-shipped story with the ears-only verification ask; appendix gains the gear-ladder table + terminal speeds. Section numbering unchanged so first-edition returns still line up; scoreboard note: pilots 9-and-1 against our code-reading. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016bw71WVsccjwW7uKRg4aWD --- docs/WEAPONS_FIELD_GUIDE.txt | 696 ++++++++++++++++------------------- 1 file changed, 320 insertions(+), 376 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/WEAPONS_FIELD_GUIDE.txt b/docs/WEAPONS_FIELD_GUIDE.txt index 13069d5..22672ee 100644 --- a/docs/WEAPONS_FIELD_GUIDE.txt +++ b/docs/WEAPONS_FIELD_GUIDE.txt @@ -1,34 +1,30 @@ ============================================================================= BT411 -- WEAPONS FIELD GUIDE: EVERY WEAPON, AS THE ORIGINAL BUILT IT - Updated 2026-08-13 -- reconstruction review edition, for the whole group. + SECOND EDITION -- updated 2026-08-14 for build 4.11.957. ============================================================================= - WHAT THIS IS: we have now read the original machine's firing code for - every weapon family and compared it, behavior by behavior, against what - our port does. This document is the result. For each family you get: - what the shipped machine really did, what our port does today, what - changes in the next build, and -- where the code alone cannot settle - it -- what we need from your memory. + WHAT THIS IS: we read the original machine's firing code for every + weapon family and compared it, behavior by behavior, against our port. + This is ROUND TWO of that document. Round one worked exactly as hoped: + Oracle returned an annotated copy, and his fourteen notes settled five + tracker tickets, fixed two documents, identified a missing alarm sound, + and handed us a reference photo. Where a question below is marked + [ANSWERED], his verdict is quoted -- corroboration from a second pilot + is still valuable, contradiction doubly so. - HOW TO REVIEW: you flew the real pods; we only read their code. Read - each section and mark anything that CONTRADICTS your memory of the - machine -- and anything that confirms it. Silence is not confirmation: - if a section simply matches what you remember, a one-word "matches" is - genuinely useful data. + HOW TO REVIEW: you flew the real pods; we only read their code. Mark + anything that CONTRADICTS your memory -- and anything that confirms it. + Silence is not confirmation: a one-word "matches" is genuinely useful. - HOW TO REPLY: EDIT THIS FILE. Every section that needs your input - ends with a YOUR NOTES block -- write directly in it (callsign first, - then MATCHES / CONTRADICTS / CAN'T RECALL, then your detail) and post - the edited file back when you're done. Which floor, which revision, - which mech you flew -- machine-room details turn weak memories into - strong evidence. + HOW TO REPLY: EDIT THIS FILE. Every section ends with a YOUR NOTES + block -- write directly in it (callsign first, then MATCHES / + CONTRADICTS / CAN'T RECALL, then your detail) and post the edited file + back. If you already annotated the first edition, that copy is still + gold -- send it as-is; section numbers are unchanged. - ONE RETRACTION UP FRONT: the last issues handout (#27) told you - ballistic rounds could now "genuinely MISS a moving target". The - deeper dig behind this document proved that framing wrong: the - original decides a cannon hit AT THE TRIGGER, and the round you watch - fly is a tracer drawn for show. We were wrong; details in the - AUTOCANNONS section. Your review of that section is part of the - group's sign-off on the correction. + SCOREBOARD SO FAR: where this project's code reading and a pilot's + specific memory have disagreed, the pilot is 9-and-1 (the one loss was + a memory of the earlier 4.0 machine -- see the heat note in section + 2B). Your memories are evidence. Use the blocks. ============================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- @@ -46,42 +42,31 @@ THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR itself, plus a 0.2-second afterglow that tracks the target. - Damage scales with the SQUARE of the stored charge. You cannot fire early -- the trigger does nothing until the charge completes. - The only partial-power shot is a different CHARGE GEAR (section 2, - veteran/expert only), and the REAL ladder -- read from the machine's - own gear table after Oracle's notes called out our old example -- - is: seek 1 = 56% damage (fastest), seek 2 = 77%, seek 3 = 100% - (THE published number -- the calibration gear), seek 4 = 153% - (an OVERCHARGE: more damage AND more heat per shot, at roughly - triple the charge time). Downshift for rate of fire, seek 4 for - the single big hit. Distance never matters: full damage anywhere - inside effective range, zero damage past it. + The only partial-power shot is a different CHARGE GEAR (section 2). + Distance never matters: full damage anywhere inside effective + range, zero damage past it. - Out of range: the trigger works and the beam draws, but the damage - is silently thrown away. No hit, no denied tone we can find. + is silently thrown away. No hit, no denied tone. + [ANSWERED -- Oracle: "Yes, firing at targets beyond the lasers + maximum range discharged the laser but no damage was dealt. I + assigned triggers on all mechs based on range groups so that I + would not heat up the mech with useless firing." Confirmed.] - Effective range shrinks in proportion to damage on the body zone - carrying the weapon: a half-wrecked arm fires at half reach. An - undamaged weapon reaches exactly its listed range -- confirmed - down to the byte this week. - - Overheat is a hard stop: a heat-failed laser quits outright. There - is no gradual weakening on the way down. + carrying the weapon: a half-wrecked arm fires at half reach. + [Oracle: unknown to him, never came up in era discussion -- still + open for anyone who remembers.] + - Generator switching mid-charge does NOT cost the charge: the + weapon resumes charging where it left off when reconnected. + [ANSWERED -- Oracle: pre-round generator/seek shuffling was + routine with no charge loss; a generator killed by damage left + weapons mid-charge, resuming on reassignment. We then verified + our port does exactly this. Question retired.] + - Overheat is a hard stop: a heat-failed laser quits outright. - Each hit lands on ONE panel of the target. OUR PORT TODAY - Same machine, verified live end to end. The beam is drawn from the - real laser-tube art. Charge timing is smoothed for modern frame - rates -- a robustness measure, not a behavior change. (The #164 - stuck-beam guards are already in.) - -CHANGING IN THE NEXT BUILD - Nothing mechanical. - -WE NEED YOUR MEMORY - - Firing past range: do you remember shots that visibly fired at a - distant target and just did nothing? That is what the machine did. - - Generator switching mid-charge: did switching or re-routing - generators while a laser was charging COST you the in-flight - charge (with an electrical alarm)? A yes pins down a control path - we have not been able to identify from the code alone. - + Same machine, verified live end to end, zero known deviations in the + energy lane. YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): > @@ -89,32 +74,40 @@ WE NEED YOUR MEMORY > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -2. THE CHARGE GEAR (ALL ENERGY WEAPONS) -- SETTLED BY YOUR MEMORY +2. THE CHARGE GEAR (ALL ENERGY WEAPONS) -- NOW WITH THE REAL NUMBERS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR - Veteran/expert pilots could cycle an energy weapon's charge gear - (four settings). Cycling past the top wraps to the bottom and the - weapon keeps working: a stored charge above the new gear's level - simply counts as FULL and fires (a wrap-fired top-gear charge deals - its normal top-gear damage -- no secret super-shot, no dead weapon). + Veteran/expert pilots can cycle an energy weapon's charge gear (four + settings). Cycling past the top wraps to the bottom and the weapon + keeps working: a stored charge above the new gear's level counts as + FULL and fires normally. (An earlier edition claimed the machine + bricked lasers on the wrap; several of you said flatly that never + happened, and you were right -- our misread, corrected.) - FOR THE RECORD: an earlier version of this document claimed the - machine shipped a flaw here -- that wrapping the gear left the - weapon permanently dark. Several of you said flatly that never - happened. You were right. The re-audit you triggered found our - reading of one number in the original's code was wrong by a single - byte-width, and the "brick" existed only in our port, never on the - machine. This section is your correction, adopted. + THE REAL DAMAGE LADDER -- read from the machine's own gear table + after Oracle's notes called out our old example as wrong: + seek 1 = 56% damage, fastest charge (~0.6x the listed cycle) + seek 2 = 77% damage (~0.75x) + seek 3 = 100% -- THE PUBLISHED NUMBER (the calibration gear) + seek 4 = 153% -- an OVERCHARGE: more damage AND more heat per + shot, at roughly TRIPLE the charge time. + The doctrine that falls out: downshift for rate of fire, seek 4 for + the single big hit. + [Oracle's two notes both check out against this ladder: "Seek 3 + damage output agrees with published data" -- exactly, it is the + calibration point -- and his routine downshifting "to increase rate + of fire without negative impact" lives in the 77-100% band where + the loss hides inside the rate gain. What he correctly contradicted + was our old "half charge = quarter damage" example: no shipped gear + sits anywhere near half the calibration voltage.] OUR PORT TODAY - Fixed to match: cycling behaves exactly as you remember. (Before - the fix our gauges could briefly read EMPTY on an over-charge where - the machine read FULL -- if you saw that, it dies in the next - build.) + Byte-matched: the ladder above IS the port's arithmetic, confirmed + both from the original's calibration code and from live fire logs. -CHANGING IN THE NEXT BUILD - The correction above ships. The old "deviation" entry is withdrawn - -- the energy lane now has ZERO deviations from the original. +WE NEED YOUR MEMORY + - Did era pilots use seek 4 deliberately as an alpha-strike gear + (bigger, hotter, much slower shots)? Any lore about it? YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): > @@ -124,50 +117,45 @@ CHANGING IN THE NEXT BUILD ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2B. SEEK-4 ON THE HEAVY WALKERS (VULTURE / MADCAT / THOR / LOKI) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR (audited to the byte this week) - - Drive heat scales with weight times speed squared, and no amount - of running ever cools you -- there is no airflow cooling anywhere - in this machine. The fast-heavy Clan walkers pay the most. +THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR (audited to the byte) + - Drive heat scales with weight times speed squared; no amount of + running ever cools you -- there is no airflow cooling anywhere in + this machine. The fast-heavy Clan walkers pay the most. - Gears 1 through 3 make IDENTICAL heat: seek-3 is free speed. - Seek-4 roughly doubles drive heat AND raises your top speed -- - a sprint gear. Cruising it on a heavy walker without the boost - crosses myomer degradation in under twenty seconds and the - governor bites. A same-weight humanoid at the same speed cooks the same: - it is physics, not a chicken-walker curse. + Seek-4 roughly doubles drive heat AND raises top speed -- a + sprint gear. A same-weight humanoid at the same speed cooks the + same: physics, not a chicken-walker curse. - The machine gave you the tool: BOOST COOLANT LOOP 5 (Generator D / - Myomers). One press visibly buys your speed back; a full boost - sustains seek-4 on a Vulture indefinitely. + Myomers). A full boost sustains seek-4 on a Vulture indefinitely. - THE TRAP: one press past maximum WRAPS THE VALVE CLOSED. If you - ever boosted a loop and it cooked anyway -- you probably hit the - wrap. Two presses, never three. + ever boosted a loop and cooked anyway -- you probably hit the + wrap. TWO presses, NEVER three. - Standing still sheds heat fast (~10 degrees a second). + - HEAT EXISTS AT VETERAN in this 4.10 machine -- read straight from + its code. The 4.0 manual (and some memories of the earlier + machine) say expert-only; 4.10 changed it. If you played the + earlier floor revision, both your memory and our code are right + -- about different machines. -OUR PORT TODAY -- AND A CONFESSION YOUR REPORTS FORCED - You were right that something was off. Our build measured your - mech's acceleration at modern frame rates, and at those rates the - measurement picks up walking-gait jitter as phantom acceleration -- - nearly TWO-THIRDS of your drive heat on a flat cruise was noise - that the original's electronics (sampling at their own slower - clock) never saw. The port was punishing heavy walkers roughly - TWICE as hard as the machine did. - -CHANGING IN THE NEXT BUILD (the fix, measured) - Heat sensing now samples on the original's clock. Result on the - bench: a Vulture at seek-4 WITH the loop-5 boost holds FULL - supercharge speed indefinitely, running hot but stable -- the - valve trick works exactly as the machine intended, and the - manual's printed Super Charged speed is real. WITHOUT the boost, - seek-4 still cooks you (that part is the machine's own balance, - and it stays). The wrap trap also stays: two presses, never three. +OUR PORT -- THE CONFESSION AND THE FIX, NOW SHIPPED + You were right that something was off: our build sampled your + mech's motion at modern frame rates and read walking-gait jitter as + phantom acceleration -- nearly TWO-THIRDS of drive heat on a flat + cruise was noise the original's slower electronics never saw. Heavy + walkers were punished about twice as hard as the machine intended. + FIXED IN THIS BUILD (4.11.957): heat sensing samples on the + original's clock. Bench-measured: a Vulture at seek-4 WITH the + loop-5 boost holds full supercharge indefinitely, hot but stable -- + the manual's printed Super Charged speed is real. WITHOUT the + boost, seek-4 still cooks you; that is the machine's own balance. WE NEED YOUR MEMORY - - Next build: boost loop 5, hold seek-4 on a big walker. Does the - sustained supercharge match how the machine felt? Your yes - closes the oldest heat complaint on the books. + - TONIGHT: boost loop 5 (two presses!), hold seek-4 on a big + walker. Does the sustained supercharge match how the machine + felt? Your yes closes the oldest heat complaint on the books. - Did the loop-5 valve boost trick live in era pilot lore, or are we rediscovering it? - YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): > > @@ -177,37 +165,36 @@ WE NEED YOUR MEMORY 3. PPC AND ER PPC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR - - The firing machine is literally the laser's -- the same code, the - same rules (lock, look, range gate, square-law charge). Everything + - The firing machine is literally the laser's -- the same rules + (lock, look, range gate, the charge-gear ladder). Everything distinctive is the numbers: hardest energy hit (12; ER 16), - longest energy reach (900 / 950), a slow 5-second recharge, and - the only BLUE pip. + longest energy reach (900 / 950), a slow 5-second recharge, the + only BLUE pip. - What makes a PPC special is what it does to the VICTIM. Energy hits -- and only energy hits -- carry two riders: - (a) DISPLAY SCRAMBLE: every energy hit pokes the victim's cockpit - display system once -- some kind of gauge/MFD disturbance per - hit. What it looked like and how long it lasted is NOT - recoverable from the code. + (a) DISPLAY SCRAMBLE, and thanks to Oracle we now know what it + looked like: [ANSWERED -- Oracle: "all MFDs including the + Secondary would rapidly and briefly collapse into a vertical + line in the center of the display and then rapidly expand + back" -- the classic CRT deflection collapse, phosphor + blooming bright on the line. He supplied a reference photo; + it is archived and it IS the build spec.] + SECOND WITNESS WANTED: anyone else remember the screens + collapsing to a bright vertical line under particle fire? (b) GENERATOR SHORT: if the struck zone holds critical equipment, - one random critical component takes a forced short -- - generator brownout, charge stall, cockpit electronics dip. + one random critical component takes a forced short. + [ANSWERED, with a new lead -- Oracle: PPC hits sometimes + flipped AUTO-mode generator assignments on individual + subsystems; he never saw a generator read offline, "but the + switching suggests a generator had momentarily tripped." + That is now the field signature we are verifying the + mechanism against (#178). TONIGHT: if your generator letters + shuffle after taking particle fire, that is data -- say so.] OUR PORT TODAY The firing machine and the generator short are in and verified. The - display scramble is NOT implemented -- right now your screens shrug - off a PPC hit, and that is a known gap on the polish list. - -CHANGING IN THE NEXT BUILD - Not yet. We will not invent the visual: the scramble gets built - AFTER your testimony, not before. - -WE NEED YOUR MEMORY (this one really matters) - - Taking a PPC hit, from inside the pod: what happened on your - screens? Static or interference? A flash? Gauges and MFDs going - briefly to garbage? How long did it last? - - Separately: after taking PPC hits, do you remember the generator - browning out or your weapons losing charge (the short rider)? - + display scramble is IN PROGRESS against Oracle's spec -- your + screens still shrug off a PPC hit in this build. YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): > @@ -215,57 +202,47 @@ WE NEED YOUR MEMORY (this one really matters) > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -4. AUTOCANNONS -- AFC25 / AFC50 / AFC100 +4. AUTOCANNONS -- AFC25 / AFC50 / AFC100 ** SHIPPED THIS BUILD ** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR - The cannons are point-and-hit, not fly-and-hit. At the trigger, - with a lock, the machine checks the range; in range, the damage - lands THEN -- one solid ballistic hit on ONE panel of the locked - target. The shell you watch fly is a TRACER, drawn for show after - the decision is already made. - - No leading. The lock does the aiming, and a dodging target does - not shake a round already fired. - - Out of range: the round is consumed, the tracer flies anyway, and - the damage is silently discarded. No hit, no warning. - - Recoil: every shot with real punch (damage over 3) kicks your own - pod up and back through the gyro, in proportion to the shot -- - the AFC100 kicks about 3.5 times as hard as the AFC25. - - Jams roll after each shot only while the weapon itself is running - a heat alarm -- in practice veteran/expert only, since the lower - sim levels never heat-alarm a weapon. Chance grows with weapon - temperature. - - One panel per pull. The old "shotgun across zones" spread in our - port (#112) was our bug, never the machine's. + with a lock, in range: the damage lands THEN -- one solid + ballistic hit on ONE panel of the locked target. The shell you + watch fly is a TRACER, drawn for show after the decision is made. + - No leading. The lock does the aiming; a dodging target does not + shake a round already fired. + - Out of range: the round is consumed, the tracer flies anyway, the + damage is silently discarded. + - Recoil: every shot with real punch kicks your own pod up and back + through the gyro, in proportion to the shot. + [Oracle: "There was a kickback when AFCs fired and it was + relative to the caliber." Confirmed.] + - Jams roll only while the weapon runs a heat alarm; chance grows + with weapon temperature. + - One panel per pull. (The old "shotgun across zones" was our bug, + never the machine's -- #112 is closed on this build's receipts.) -OUR PORT TODAY - Until now our cannons flew a real shell that could miss -- - reasonable, and wrong. The trigger-time machine is now implemented - against the original's code line by line and bench-verified: full - batches land as one hit, out-of-range rounds are consumed and - discarded. What it needs now is a real night of fire. +OUR PORT -- LIVE IN 4.11.957 + The trigger-time cannon ships TONIGHT. Please hammer it: no + leading, instant hits, one panel, range-gated. Every shot is named + in your log. -CHANGING IN THE NEXT BUILD - - The trigger-time cannon goes live in the build you test next. - This is the big #171 correction -- please hammer the cannons. - - The tracer's flight speed: the original derives it from the gun's - range and muzzle height (roughly one second to cross full range). - Our stand-in speed was close by accident; the recovered authentic - numbers go in. - -WE NEED YOUR MEMORY - - When YOU fired cannons, did the pod's view visibly kick up and - back (distinct from being hit)? Was the AFC100's kick noticeably - harder than the AFC25's? - - The AFC25 specifically: did it occasionally eat a trigger pull - silently -- a click, no shot, on an apparently ready gun? (Its - ammo feed timer exactly equals its firing cycle -- the only gun - where the two can race.) - - Firing beyond range: did the visible round fly on forever, or - vanish? (The code consumes the round and discards the damage; the - tracer's visual fate is the one part we cannot recover.) - - Round pace: roughly how fast did cannon rounds visibly fly? - About a second to cross full range, or very different? +A NEW ERA QUESTION FROM ORACLE'S NOTES ** SECOND WITNESS WANTED ** + Oracle: "I never recall seeing a projectile animation at all for an + AFC. There was a muzzle flash and an impact flash. There was no + tracer in my memory... completely invisible both from the firing + mech's and the target mech's perspectives." + The machine's code DOES contain the tracer mechanism -- but whether + the pods actually DREW it visibly is exactly the kind of thing code + cannot prove and eyes can. Draco, SAURON, Ronin: do you remember + SEEING cannon rounds fly? Our build draws them; if the pods did + not, we want to know. +WE NEED YOUR MEMORY (still open) + - The AFC25: did it occasionally eat a trigger pull silently -- a + click, no shot, on an apparently ready gun? (Its ammo feed timer + exactly equals its firing cycle -- the only gun where the two can + race.) [Oracle: can't recall -- rarely flew AFC25 carriers.] YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): > @@ -273,125 +250,96 @@ WE NEED YOUR MEMORY > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -5. GAUSS ** THE HEADLINE QUESTION ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR (as best we can prove it) - - The Gauss the pods actually fielded is built ON THE CANNON - MACHINE. The shipped content authors it as an autocannon-class - weapon: about 20 points of solid shot out to 900 (tied with the - AFC25 for longest ballistic reach), a slow 8-second cycle, only - 16 rounds, runs nearly cold, and the only YELLOW ballistic pip. - It hit, and it hurt. - - The code ALSO contains a second, "true" Gauss-rifle mechanism - that charges up and does NOTHING when fired -- no damage, no - heat, nothing. No shipped content anywhere uses it. Dead code. - - Full honesty: for a while our audit believed the pods fielded the - do-nothing Gauss and that our port's Gauss damage was an - invention. Reading the raw content bytes settled it the other - way -- the fielded Gauss is the cannon-class one. - -OUR PORT TODAY - Same content, same machine: our Gauss already deals cannon-class - damage. Port and original agree. Nothing changes. - -WE NEED YOUR MEMORY (the headline) - - Confirm the Gauss KILLED: heavy single hits at extreme range, a - slow cycle, a small magazine, a gun that never warmed up, and a - yellow pip on the display. We expect YES. - - Which mech do you remember carrying it? (We believe the Loki; - your memory checks our content map.) - - If instead you remember a Gauss that charged up and did NOTHING - when fired -- say so loudly. That would be evidence that some - floor revision shipped content for the dead mechanism, content - we do not have. - - - YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): - > - > - > - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -6. MISSILES -- HOW EVERY RACK REALLY FIRES +5. GAUSS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR - - Missiles are the one family that genuinely FLIES. Everything else - in the game decides its hit at the trigger; a missile earns its - hit in the air. - - Lock required, same as every weapon. There is no dumb-fire path - anywhere in the machine -- the trigger will not take without a - lock. (No special Streak lock code exists either; all racks fire - through the same gate.) - - ONE flying round was drawn per salvo, plus one explosion -- the - pod drew a single missile even for a 15-tube volley. The damage - bookkeeping rides that one round. - - The seeker LEADS: it flies a constant-bearing intercept toward - the exact spot on the target picked at the moment of fire, and - detonates on a close-proximity fuze with a swept contact check. - - If the target dies mid-flight, the lock drops and the round goes - stupid. - - A rack's listed "range" is fire-control display only. Real reach - is physics: motor burn, then up to 10 seconds of coasting. Rounds - that hit the floor die; rounds that time out fizzle. - - On impact, the cluster roll: out of an n-missile salvo, between - roughly a quarter and all of them count as hits, scattered across - the victim's zones with a fresh scatter every burst. + - The fielded Gauss is built ON THE CANNON MACHINE: ~20 points of + solid shot out to 900, slow 8-second cycle, 16 rounds, runs + nearly cold, the only YELLOW ballistic pip. + [ANSWERED -- Oracle: MATCHES, "The Mischief was equipped with a + Gauss rifle." And that checks our content map perfectly: Mischief + is the Loki variant in the shipped roster, and the Loki family's + cockpit authors the Gauss gauges. Confirmed on both sides.] + - The code also contains a second, "true" Gauss-rifle mechanism + that charges up and does NOTHING when fired. No shipped content + uses it. If YOU remember a Gauss that charged and did nothing -- + say so loudly; it would mean some floor revision shipped content + we do not have. OUR PORT TODAY - The whole chain is live-verified: a 382-impact night corpus matches - the original's cluster roll exactly, and the fuze and lock-drop are - benched. (Flight SPEED is the one thing that corpus measured against - the old dragless model -- see CHANGING below: speeds drop to the - original's governed values next build.) - Presentation deliberately differs: we draw the full ripple of N - rounds (the lead round carries the damage, the rest are tracers) - with a small tube spread. The damage economy is identical. + Same content, same machine. Port and original agree. Nothing + changed, nothing changing. -CHANGING IN THE NEXT BUILD -- AND WHAT TO WATCH - MISSILES SLOW DOWN, AND THIS IS THE ORIGINAL'S SPEED. The audit - found the original governs every missile with air drag that caps - its top speed -- an LRM tops out near 550, an SRM near 775. Our - rounds had no drag: an LRM was leaving its burn at over 3000, - five times the machine's speed, and flying nearly twice as far - downrange. Next build restores the governor. Missiles will feel - heavier, arcs will read slower, and long shots will take - noticeably longer to arrive -- that is the pod's real feel, not a - nerf. If missile flight FINALLY looks like you remember, say so; - that confirmation is worth as much as a bug report. + YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): + > + > + > - The bystander gap. The original's rounds swept everything in the - flight path every tick -- a third mech between shooter and target - could eat someone else's missile. Our rounds currently contact only - the locked target and the terrain: a mech in between gets flown - through, and only splash can touch it. This is the largest - remaining missile-physics gap; the fix is designed but not landed. - WATCH FRIDAY: if you take missile hits aimed at someone else -- - beyond splash distance -- report it with the shooter's name. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +6. MISSILES -- HOW EVERY RACK REALLY FIRES ** SHIPPED THIS BUILD ** +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR + - Missiles are the one family that genuinely FLIES; everything else + decides its hit at the trigger. + - Lock required; no dumb-fire path exists anywhere in the machine. + - ONE flying round was drawn per salvo, plus one explosion; the + damage bookkeeping rides that round. (We draw the full ripple -- + lead round carries the damage -- a stated presentation choice.) + - The seeker LEADS and lofts; detonation is a close-proximity fuze + with a swept contact check. Target dies mid-flight: the lock + drops and the round goes stupid. + - Air drag governs every round: an LRM tops out near 550, an SRM + near 775. Listed "range" is display only; real reach is burn + + up to 10 seconds of coast. + - The round detonates on the FIRST thing in its path: the target, + a third mech that wanders into the flight line, a building, or + the hill you are hiding behind. + +WHAT SHIPPED IN 4.11.957 -- PLEASE FLY AGAINST ALL OF IT + - TRUE SPEEDS: the drag governor is in. Missiles are ~5x slower + than the last builds -- heavier arcs, long shots take visibly + longer. That is the pod's real feel, not a nerf. + [Oracle, pre-endorsing from the audit description: "MATCHES the + description and coming changes are in the direction I expect."] + - COVER WORKS (#175): rounds burst on hills and buildings instead + of passing through -- and the blast can still splash you if you + hug the cover (authentic near-miss splash). Trucks and props die + to missiles. + - BYSTANDERS (#171): a third mech crossing the flight path eats + the round, exactly as the original swept it. + - RACK PERSONALITY, acknowledged: [Oracle: "The racks on different + mechs did appear to have a personality... Thor and Madcat tended + to loft the missiles up, the Avatar a flatter trajectory; very + long range shots lofting higher."] That personality is the + authored per-rack launch vectors plus the range-scaled loft -- + both already data-driven in the port. Enjoy; it is real. + + YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): + > + > + > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. MISSILE SPLASH ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR Splash was LIVE on the pods -- every stock mission enables it. An - impact splashes a radius of about 30 around the hit point; strength - scales from the FULL rack size and falls off steeply with distance; - the mech that took the direct hit is excluded from its own splash. - One thing the code cannot prove either way: whether the SHOOTER was - protected from splashing themselves at point-blank. + impact splashes a radius of about 30; strength scales from the FULL + rack size, falls off steeply with distance; the direct victim is + excluded from its own splash. + [Oracle: MATCHES on nearby splash. Still open below: self-splash.] OUR PORT TODAY - Same math, verified -- including the full-rack-size splash strength, - pinned to the original's code this week. We exclude both the direct - victim and the shooter. The on/off wiring differs slightly from the - original in a way that only matters for custom missions -- a site - option question for later, not a Friday one. - -WE NEED YOUR MEMORY - - Do you remember splash hurting mechs standing NEAR an impact? - - Critically: could you hurt YOURSELF firing missiles point-blank - into a wall or an adjacent mech? Our port says no; the original's - code will not tell us. Your memory is the tiebreaker. + Same math, verified. We exclude both the direct victim and the + shooter -- and the original's code cannot prove the shooter half + either way. +WE NEED YOUR MEMORY (the tiebreaker still stands) + - Could you hurt YOURSELF firing missiles point-blank into a wall + or an adjacent mech? Our port says no; only your memory can + settle it. (New in this build: firing into the hill in front of + you WILL splash you -- that part is authentic cover physics, not + self-splash.) YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): > @@ -403,51 +351,35 @@ WE NEED YOUR MEMORY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR - Three flight profiles exist in the shipped content: - LRM round: sluggish 60 deg/sec turn, 10-second burn, and the - LOFT -- at long range the seeker aims high and - the round flies the signature climb-then-plunge - arc. - Streak round: 360 deg/sec turn -- six times the LRM -- short - 3-second burn, no loft. The round that out-turns - evasion. - Narc round: the surprise -- Streak-grade 360 deg/sec tracking - PLUS the loft PLUS the long 10-second burn. A - light rack that flies like a hawk. - - There is NO beacon mechanism anywhere in the machine. The Narc - never tagged anyone for anything; it is a light, hard-tracking - rack and nothing more. - - Several racks LABELED "LRM" actually feed Narc-profile rounds, - and at least one "SRM6" feeds Streak rounds. Two visually - identical racks homing very differently -- one sluggish, one - snapping onto target -- is authentic, not a bug. - - Rack names lie in other ways too, all authentic authored data: - an "SRM6" that fires 4 tubes, an "SRM4" that fires 2, LRM10s that - hit nearly twice as hard on one chassis as another. + LRM round: sluggish 60 deg/sec turn, 10-second burn, the + signature climb-then-plunge LOFT at range. + Streak round: 360 deg/sec turn, short 3-second burn, no loft. + Narc round: Streak-grade tracking PLUS the loft PLUS the long + burn. A light rack that flies like a hawk. + - There is NO beacon mechanism anywhere. The Narc never tagged + anyone; it is a light, hard-tracking rack and nothing more. + - Several racks LABELED "LRM" feed Narc-profile rounds; at least + one "SRM6" feeds Streak rounds. Identical-looking racks homing + very differently is authentic authored data. + - THE SWARM: [Oracle: "The maneuverability of the NARCs and STREAKS + often caused an angry swarm of bees effect when the missiles came + near a maneuvering target at a high aspect angle."] We are + running down whether the original authors a per-round turn rate + our port does not read yet -- if your memory holds more detail + about WHICH racks swarmed, write it down. + - THE SRM RANGE PIP -- SETTLED AT 800: the printed manual shows + 450, our content authors 800, and Oracle's note ("agrees with the + 800m range published on the VWE site for v4.10") dates the change + between revisions. Our 4.10 content is correct at 800. Retired. OUR PORT TODAY - Same data-driven resolution -- the racks read the same content, so - all of the above carries over for free. One detail we are NOT - stating yet: which profile the 2-tube SRM racks fly -- our two - content reads disagree and the pass that settles it has not run. - -CHANGING IN THE NEXT BUILD - Nothing mechanical. - -WE NEED YOUR MEMORY - - Do you remember visually identical LRM racks homing very - differently on different mechs? And can you confirm the Narc did - nothing special -- no tag, no beacon, just a fast light rack? - - Do you remember SRM racks that fired FEWER missiles than their - name -- a 4-tube "SRM6", a 2-tube "SRM4"? Or LRM10s/LRM15s that - hit noticeably harder on one chassis than another? - - THE SRM RANGE PIP: the original PRINTED MANUAL shows the SRM - range mark at 450 in three separate display mockups; the game - content we have authors it at 800. That smells like the range - changed between software revisions. Which number do you remember - on the ladder when you selected an SRM rack -- 450 or 800? - (Range on a missile is display-only either way -- the rounds fly - on physics -- but your answer dates our content revision.) + Same data-driven resolution. One detail still unstated: which + profile the 2-tube SRM racks fly -- our two content reads disagree. +WE NEED YOUR MEMORY (still open) + - Can anyone else confirm the Narc did nothing special -- no tag, + no beacon? And racks firing FEWER tubes than their name (a 4-tube + "SRM6", a 2-tube "SRM4")? YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): > @@ -459,38 +391,32 @@ WE NEED YOUR MEMORY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR - The reload countdown runs only while the weapon's generator route - is powered, and a HOT generator reloads slower. Below minimum - voltage the countdown freezes entirely. - - The EJECT control (novice pilots are locked out of it): - TAP = eject one round, and the weapon resets to loading if - rounds remain. This is the in-mission UNJAM. - HOLD (3 seconds) = dump the entire bay. The weapon is out of - ammo for good until re-arm or respawn. - - Jams roll after each shot while the weapon itself runs a heat - alarm; the chance grows with weapon temperature. Standard and - novice sims never heat-alarm a weapon -- so in practice only - veteran/expert pilots ever jammed. + is powered; a HOT generator reloads slower; below minimum voltage + the countdown freezes. + - The EJECT control (novices locked out): + TAP = eject one round; the weapon resets to loading if rounds + remain. This is the in-mission UNJAM. + HOLD (3 seconds) = dump the entire bay. + [ANSWERED -- Oracle: "A jammed round was ejected with a single + tap of the eject button. No holding down was required." + Confirmed -- the tap IS the unjam; the hold is a different + function (full bay dump), which matches.] + - Jams roll after each shot while the weapon runs a heat alarm. + (Heat exists at veteran AND expert in this 4.10 -- see 2B.) + - [Oracle: "I have never seen a non-damaged non-jammed weapon stop + recycling and firing." Which is exactly why our old X'd-weapons + bug -- dead guns firing, live guns latching -- read so wrong. + Both roots are fixed in this build.] OUR PORT TODAY - Same machine, tap-unjam included -- it is the mechanism behind - #166's "tap EJECT" advice. One divergence: our jam roll currently - waits for a higher weapon temperature than the original -- a - leftover safety from before the heat economy went live. + Same machine, tap-unjam included. The leftover conservative jam + gate came out: warm cannons and racks on veteran/expert jam at the + authentic rate now. -CHANGING IN THE NEXT BUILD - The leftover jam gate comes out. Warm cannons and racks on - veteran/expert may jam a touch more often. That is the authentic - rate. - -WE NEED YOUR MEMORY - - Did weapons only ever jam for veteran/expert pilots? And could - you CLEAR a jam mid-sortie by tapping EJECT to cycle one round - out? +WE NEED YOUR MEMORY (still open) - Did a rack or cannon ever go permanently dark WITH ammo remaining - after sustained fire? At what firing intensity? (Field case from - our own nights: an SRM6 latched out with 19 rounds left. Whether - that could happen at authentic intensity is an open question.) - + after sustained fire? At what intensity? (Field case from our own + nights: an SRM6 latched out with 19 rounds left.) YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): > @@ -498,23 +424,31 @@ WE NEED YOUR MEMORY > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -10. INCOMING-MISSILE WARNING +10. INCOMING-MISSILE WARNING ** FOUND, FIXED, SHIPPED TONIGHT ** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -THE ORIGINAL'S BEHAVIOR - Every missile launched at a mech announces itself to its target -- - the machinery for a warning is there. What CONSUMED that - announcement (a warning tone? a beeper tempo change? a threat lamp?) - we have not located in the original's code. +This section is the round-trip working exactly as designed, so here is +the whole story. Round one asked "did the pod audibly warn you of +inbound missiles?" Oracle answered with the sound itself: + [ANSWERED -- Oracle: "There was only a missile warning horn sound, + no other warning. This is the missile warning alarm from the sound + board '[1:74] IncomingAlarm01 n58'." -- found on the distributable + soundboard, plus two videos of the original machine with the alarm + audible.] +So: the beeper IS the whole annunciation -- no lamp, no voice -- and +its tempo accelerates as the missile closes (authored straight into +the machine's audio data: distance drives beep rate). -OUR PORT TODAY - The beeper plumbing exists but nothing feeds it -- the warning is - structurally dead (#83 on the known-gaps list). - -WE NEED YOUR MEMORY - - Did the pod audibly warn you of inbound missiles? A tone, a tempo - change, a lamp -- anything. If it did not, #83 closes for free. - If it did, describe it and we build exactly that. +Then the fix: our alarm code turned out to be wired to a dead path -- +it had never run once in any fielded build. IN 4.11.957 IT LIVES: +missiles inbound on you start the beeper, slow at long range, frantic +as it closes. LRM volleys give seconds of warning; a point-blank SRM +barely a blip (authentic -- the machine cannot warn you faster than +the missile flies). +WE NEED YOUR EARS TONIGHT + - Does the beeper's tempo ramp match your memory of the pods (and + Oracle's reference videos)? This is the one verification only + ears can do. YOUR NOTES (callsign first, one entry per line): > @@ -526,7 +460,7 @@ APPENDIX A -- THE AUTHORED NUMBERS (straight from the shipped content) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Range is in the same units your fire-control shows. Cycle in seconds. -ENERGY (damage = full-charge shot; scales with the square of charge) +ENERGY (damage = the seek-3 shot; the gear ladder scales it) WEAPON DMG RANGE CYCLE HEAT/SHOT SLaser 1.5 150 1 0.75 ERSLaser 2 225 1 1.5 @@ -539,6 +473,14 @@ ENERGY (damage = full-charge shot; scales with the square of charge) Reach shrinks with damage to the carrying zone: listed x (1 - zone damage). An undamaged weapon reaches exactly the listed range. +THE CHARGE-GEAR LADDER (all energy weapons; damage AND heat scale +together; charge time from the machine's exponential charge curve) + GEAR DAMAGE CHARGE TIME (approx, x listed cycle) + seek 1 56% ~0.6x (fastest -- the rate-of-fire gear) + seek 2 77% ~0.75x + seek 3 100% 1x (the published calibration numbers) + seek 4 153% ~2.9x (the overcharge -- alpha-strike gear) + BALLISTIC (one panel, decided at the trigger; recoil kick = dmg/16) WEAPON DMG RANGE CYCLE NOTES AFC25 7 900 2 feed timer = cycle (see sec. 4) @@ -564,21 +506,23 @@ MISSILE RACKS (DMG = whole-salvo total; per-round in parentheses) LRM15 15 35 (2.3) 6 LRM20 20 65 (3.25) 9 Same rack name, different numbers = different chassis fits, all - authentic. We are re-verifying the per-chassis map before naming - which mech carries which variant. SRM racks display range 800; + authentic. SRM racks display range 800 (settled -- see section 8); LRM/NRK racks display 6000 -- display only; real reach is flight time. Cluster roll on impact: of n launched, between about n/4 and n count as hits. FLIGHT PROFILES (authored on the round, not the rack) - LRM round: turn 60 deg/s burn 10 s loft YES - Streak round: turn 360 deg/s burn 3 s loft no + LRM round: turn 60 deg/s burn 10 s loft YES top ~550 + Streak round: turn 360 deg/s burn 3 s loft no top ~775 Narc round: turn 360 deg/s burn 10 s loft YES All rounds splash radius 30 on impact. After burnout a round coasts - up to 10 seconds before fizzling. + up to 10 seconds before fizzling. Rounds detonate on the first + thing in the path: target, bystander, building, or hill. ============================================================================= - WHEN YOU'RE DONE: post your edited copy of this file back to the - weapons thread. "MATCHES" alone in a notes block is real data. The - GAUSS and PPC-HIT questions are the two we cannot answer without you. + WHEN YOU'RE DONE: post your edited copy back to the weapons thread. + "MATCHES" alone in a notes block is real data. The two questions we + most need second witnesses on: DID CANNON ROUNDS VISIBLY FLY (section + 4), and the PPC vertical-line screen collapse (section 3). + First-edition annotated copies are still welcome exactly as they are. =============================================================================