#87/#96: 'mechs die with lightly damaged armor' AUDITED -- no port bug; it's ammo cook-off

Byte-level audit of the entire damage chain vs the binary, all links exact:
zone stream reads (@0041df5c == engine DAMAGE.cpp), ctor normalization
(@0049ce50; constants 1.0/1e-4/0.5; shipped cells uniform 1/armorPts),
TakeDamage @0041e4e0, the BT override @0049c690 (vital/leg 1.0/0.5/0.0),
CriticalHit @0049ccc4 (0.5 fraction, 1.0 cap, authored-percentage cap),
cook-off chain (@004bc3fc per-salvo stamp / @004bd300 rounds x amount /
@004ac274 divide across the bin's plugged zones).

Measured kill route: 6 of 7 bench deaths were bay-fire detonations --
LRM15 bin 10 rounds x 50 = 500 into its ONE authored carrier zone
(content: madcat bins single-zone; 15 of 22 zones vital) -> one
application 0->1.0 -> instant death, armor bright everywhere else.
Field logs confirm dominance (Rajel 12 bay-fire events, ConnMan 10).
The mech that died conventionally ended 0.97/0.93/0.92/0.85 charred --
darkening accumulates fine when mechs live long enough.

Levers: the #96 heat economy (arms the bay fires) and purge training
(EJECT hold extinguishes -- wired, logged, manual-trained in the pod).

Also corrected a wrong KB address: FUN_0041e4e0 was labeled '.DZM res
compiler' in decomp-reference.md/rendering.md -- it is DamageZone::
TakeDamage (byte-matches DAMAGE.cpp:379); swept both files.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Joe DiPrima
2026-08-02 14:42:04 -05:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent 152249cb76
commit d3de5f94ee
3 changed files with 34 additions and 2 deletions
+28
View File
@@ -324,6 +324,34 @@ per ER-M laser; [[decomp-reference]] §5). Flying projectiles (LRM/autocannon) a
reconstruction (`BTPushProjectile` — the 2007 Entity is too small for the binary's raw integrator
offsets). [T2]
## "Mechs die with lightly damaged armor" — AUDITED, no port bug: it's AMMO COOK-OFF (2026-08-02) [T1 chain, T2 measured]
Field complaint (night 9): mechs die while their panels read nearly pristine, so "the scaling
must be off". A byte-level audit of the ENTIRE damage chain found **every link faithful**:
zone stream reads (arcade base ctor `@0041df5c` == engine DAMAGE.cpp, incl. the JointedMover
skip-5 branch); the BT ctor normalization loop (`@0049ce50` constants 1.0/1e-4/0.5 — and in
SHIPPED CONTENT the raw cells are EXACTLY `1/armorPts` uniform across all 5 types, so the
normalize is a no-op); `TakeDamage @0041e4e0` formula+clamps; the override `@0049c690`
(redirect gate, vital/leg thresholds 1.0/0.5/0.0 `@0049c99c..a4`); `CriticalHit @0049ccc4`
(fraction 0.5 `@0049ce48`, cap 1.0 `@0049ce4c`, the per-subsystem `applied<damagePercentage`
cap); the cook-off chain (`stamp @004bc3fc` per-SALVO before the missile divide, `CookOff
@004bd300` = ammoCount×amount, `DistributeCriticalHit @004ac274` = ÷(zones plugging the bin)
then one DESIGNATED-zone TakeDamageMessage each).
**The measured kill route** (death-kinetics bench, 7 deaths): 6 of 7 were **bay-fire
detonations** — e.g. `AmmoBinLRM15 10 rounds × 50 = 500 (burst 1)` into the bin's ONE authored
carrier zone (madcat bins are single-zone: LRM15_1=roster[26]→dz_ltorso, LRM15_2=[28]→dz_rtorso,
AFC100=[21]→{larm,lgun}), which is VITAL (madcat authors **15 of 22 zones vital** — all torsos,
legs, feet) → one application 0→1.0 → instant death, every other panel bright. The ÷1 is the
CONTENT's authoring, not a port shortcut — the arithmetic is the binary's own. The one mech that
died conventionally (300 applications) ended VISIBLY charred: 0.97/0.93/0.92/0.85/0.79 across 13
zones — mid-fight darkening DOES accumulate when mechs live long enough.
**Field logs confirm dominance**: Rajel's night-9 log alone has 12 bay-fire events (LRM10
455-490 pts); ConnMan 10; the "salvo barely dented my armor" reporter was dying to their OWN
cook-offs. **The real lever is HEAT** (bay fire arms at the bin heat-watcher's FAILURE level;
the [[heat-and-coolant]]/#96 too-hot economy arms it constantly) plus player training: EJECT
**hold** purges the burning bay (`DumpAmmo` → "bay fire EXTINGUISHED"); pod players were
manual-trained to purge ([[pod-hardware]] §Manual), testers are not. Novice sim gates also
suppress the whole path ([[experience-levels]]).
## The RAM economy — CLOSED (2026-07-12) [T1 evidence, T3 normalization]
Three-layer story, measured live + decomp-verified:
1. **The armor economy is POINTS**: every zone streams `damageScale[5]` — 5 cells indexed by