Field report: a remote player had smooth gameplay but in 3RD-PERSON with
NO gauges. Cause: view mode + gauges are CLIENT launch flags, not
something the relay/console can enforce -- and join.bat set neither, so
remote players booted in the game's desktop default (external camera, no
MFDs). The operator's own local launch sets both (the app's 'Start in
cockpit' + 'Dev gauges' checkboxes, on by default), which is why the
operator saw the correct view but remote players didn't.
The pod is a first-person cockpit with MFD gauges and no '3rd person' at
all, so cockpit is the right default for players. join.bat/join_lan.bat
now set BT_START_INSIDE=1 + BT_DEV_GAUGES=1. (Players can still press V
to toggle the external camera.)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Field report: a remote player ran join.bat from the wrong place (inside
the zip, or the .bat separated from content\/build\) and got 'The system
cannot find the path specified' + dumps -- the relative 'cd %~dp0content'
failed cryptically.
Now each bat: cd to its own dir, verify build\Release\btl4.exe +
content\<egg> exist, else jump to :badpath and print a clear message
('this file must sit in the extracted folder next to content and build;
right-click the zip - Extract All and run it from there'). Verified: run
from a dir with no content/build -> the guidance prints, no dump.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two additions after the live-session troubleshooting:
1. LAUNCH-SHORT is now VISIBLE (btconsole). Pressing LAUNCH with an
empty roster seat previously did NOTHING (eggs_done_at only sets when
ALL seats ACK, so the manual-launch arming silently no-op'd -- the
'I pressed launch and nothing happened' confusion). Now the relay
logs 'LAUNCH pressed but NOT all seats are filled' + a per-seat
readiness line + a WARNING naming the empty seat(s) and the fix
(reduce the roster). When all seats DO fill it auto-arms (launch
request persists). Verified: 2/3 filled -> clear warning naming
seat3.
2. Friend logs are now retrievable (btoperator exporter). join.bat /
join_lan.bat set BT_LOG=join.log and their exit message tells the
player to send content\join.log to the operator if the game closed
unexpectedly -- closes the friend-side-crash blind spot (their log
was the generic btl4.log, un-named, easy to miss).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Field report (first internet-join attempt): both join bats 'hard
crash' on the remote machine. Root cause was procedural -- the host
session was not running -- but the failure PRESENTATION was the bug:
Release Fail() is a bare abort(), so a dead relay = silent process
death + instantly-closing console window.
- L4NET: the two player-facing dead-ends (LAN discovery no-answer,
seat request unreachable/full) now show a MessageBox saying what
happened and what to do before exiting (verified live against a
dead relay: 'BattleTech -- can't join the game' appears).
- join bats: echo + pause after exit so the window stays readable;
join_lan.bat header now says it is LAN-only (the remote user ran
both -- join_lan can never work over the internet).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A pod launched with no BT_SELF asks the relay for a seat before joining:
new control frames SEAT_REQUEST (-6) -> relay reserves the lowest roster
seat not claimed or reserved (60s reservation so simultaneous joiners
can't race onto one seat) -> SEAT_ASSIGN (-7, int32 hostID + NUL tag)
becomes relaySelf; everything downstream (egg self-match, HELLO) runs
exactly as if BT_SELF had been set. Roster full -> SEAT_FULL (-8) ->
clean Fail(). A real HELLO pops the reservation; a pod drop frees the
seat. Explicit BT_SELF still claims a specific seat (the operator's
local launches use it).
Client: L4NetworkManager::RelayRequestSeat (throwaway TCP dial to the
relay game port, 10s reply window). Relay: SEAT_REQUEST branch in
_handle_game_frame. Operator exporter collapsed from per-seat
join_as_playerN.bat to ONE universal join.bat (+ join_lan.bat with
BT_RELAY=auto) -- every player gets the same file, first come first
served, the arcade walk-up-to-a-pod model. players/ regenerated.
Verified: 8/8 seat stub tests (distinct seats in roster order, FULL on
exhaustion, claimed+reserved stays FULL, HELLO claim accepted, duplicate
HELLO refused); 2-node localhost e2e with NO BT_SELF on either pod ->
both seated, full ladder, RunMission pair, UDP flowing post-launch;
regression smoke: explicit-BT_SELF relay session clean with zero seat
requests, classic mesh (no BT_RELAY) un-regressed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
