join.bat + join_lan.bat + the btoperator.py generator template now prefer
build-glass\Release\btl4.exe when present and set BT_PLATFORM=glass with it
-- so MP sessions on a dev checkout get PadRIO (mouse-clickable cockpit
buttons: trigger config, MFD banks, radar rails) and the bindings.txt keymap,
identical to solo play. Player zips (which ship only build\) fall back to
the pod build exactly as before.
Verified: 2-node loopback MP smoke on the GLASS build (the documented
procedure: A -egg MP.EGG -net 1501 + B -net 1601 + tools/btconsole.py) --
both nodes cross-connected (GameMachineHost 1502/1602), ~150 sim ticks
each, no errors. btoperator.py syntax-checked; regenerated bats carry the
same guard.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Field report: LAN auto-discovery (BT_RELAY=auto) didn't work -- a joiner had to
hand-set BT_RELAY=10.0.0.46:1500 to reach the console every time.
- players/join_lan.bat: BT_RELAY=auto -> BT_RELAY=10.0.0.46:1500 (the operator PC's
LAN IP), with a comment on updating it if the IP changes.
- tools/btoperator.py: the export now DETECTS the operator PC's LAN IP (UDP
default-route probe, no packet sent) and stamps BT_RELAY=<lan-ip>:port into the
generated join_lan.bat instead of "auto" -- so regeneration keeps it correct and
doesn't revert to the broken auto-discovery. Verified: detects 10.0.0.46 here.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Solo practice already started in-cockpit (BT_START_INSIDE) but didn't
open the MFD gauges window -- inconsistent with the join bats. Add
BT_DEV_GAUGES=1 so single-player practice mirrors the pod experience.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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: after a mission timed out normally, relaunching a mission
did nothing. The relay was single-mission -- once it fired a launch
(launches_sent==2) it never re-armed.
Fix (operator-side only; the BINARY needs nothing -- a rejoined pod is a
brand-new process at WaitingForLaunch):
- btconsole _check_launch_gate: when a previous mission finished
(launches_sent==2) and ALL seats have RE-ACKED (every pod exited,
re-ran join.bat, reconnected), reset the launch state and re-print
'WAITING FOR OPERATOR LAUNCH'. Only reachable on a pod ACK (never
mid-mission). Launch is CONSUMED after RunMission #2 (launch_at=None,
launch_requested=False) so the next press is a deliberate new round.
- btoperator SessionMonitor: reset on each new
'WAITING FOR OPERATOR' so the LAUNCH button RE-ENABLES for mission 2
(it stayed disabled forever before -- the other half of the bug).
Verified e2e: two full missions on ONE relay session -- mission 1 runs +
times out on the clock, pods rejoin, relay re-arms + re-announces ready,
operator LAUNCH -> mission 2's RunMission #1/#2 fire (total fires 2) ->
pods running. BACK-TO-BACK PASS. Friends' zip unchanged.
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>
Every field bug this session needed the relay's OWN view to diagnose,
but the app only shows it in the (post-mortem-unreadable) GUI log pane.
Now _console_output also appends to content/operator_relay.log (fresh
per session; stderr is merged so relay tracebacks are captured too).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
FIELD BUG (2026-07-18): operator's local instance crashed + the mission
never launched. Root cause (confirmed by code inspection + stub test,
NOT the earlier mis-read of stale logs): the relay assigns a no-BT_SELF
joiner 'the lowest free seat'. The operator's local instance uses an
EXPLICIT seat (BT_SELF) but takes ~15s to boot; a remote join.bat
requests a seat immediately and gets assigned the operator's seat 1
first. The operator's later HELLO for seat 1 -> 'already registered'
-> dropped ('closed by relay') -> its seat sits empty -> the
All-connections-completed gate never fires -> game never starts.
Fix: the operator's LOCAL seats are RESERVED. btoperator passes the
Local roster tags as ; the
relay excludes those host_ids from seat ASSIGNMENT (an explicit HELLO
still claims them). Verified by stub test: a racing joiner is assigned
host 3 (seat 1 skipped), the operator's HELLO for the reserved seat 1
registers fine.
Also fixed the UX bug that produced the EARLIER 4-window mess: Local
now defaults checked only on the operator's own seat (row 0), not every
relay roster row.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
User: 'isn't the game supposed to time out tho?' Yes -- and it was
HALF-implemented: the egg's [mission] length drives the pods' countdown
and the final-30s ranking window, and the full StopMission -> fade ->
end chain exists, but nothing ever fired it: in 1995 the CONSOLE sent
StopMission at expiry. Our console never did, so missions ran forever.
- btconsole relay: arms the clock when RunMission #2 fires; sends
Application::StopMissionMessage (clientID 4, msgID 6 per APP.h:383,
exitCode NullExitCodeID) at length + 2s grace; stdin 'stop' command
ends the mission early (works in auto and manual modes).
- btoperator: END MISSION button (enabled once launched; resets per
session).
Verified live: 40s test mission -- relay logged the armed clock, sent
StopMission on time, the pod ran the authentic end chain and exited
cleanly ('[boot] RunMissions returned'). Standard eggs carry
length=600, so real sessions are now authentic 10-minute pod missions
with the score display in the last 30 seconds.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A zip recipient can dork around offline -- no -net argument means the
game self-launches a solo mission (all maps ship in content/). Solo
gets its own exit message (btl4.log pointer, no server language).
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>
'Launch local instances' did nothing visible when no roster row had
Local checked (log pane quietly said 'launched 0') or when the session
was not started yet (instances would dial a dead relay and fail after
the bounded retry). Both now pop a clear dialog saying what to do.
Found live: user pressed the button with both Local boxes unchecked
and no session running -- 'nothing happened'.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The 1995 console let the operator type player callsigns; the pods render
them from 1bpp BITMAPS streamed in the egg ([largebitmap]/[smallbitmap]
lists + hex raster pages, bitmapindex per pilot; large 128x32 on the
score/ranking display via DPLRenderer name textures, small 64x16 on the
kill-feed and radar/target labels). The textual name= pilot key is dead
in the shipped binary -- its pilot parse reads bitmapindex only (decomp
part_014). Historical bug surfaced by this work: every egg in the repo
listed only ONE name bitmap (Aeolus) while pilot 2 pointed at index 2,
so player 2+'s callsign has never rendered (null-checked, silently
blank).
eggmodel.py: EggDoc.set_callsigns rewrites the lists + one raster page
per callsign per size + per-pilot name=/bitmapindex= (duplicate names
get disambiguated page tags); get_callsign_rows decodes pages back
(exact inverse of the engine's nibble-stream parse, GRAPH2D.cpp:340,
MSB-first bit order :558); rasterize_callsign/make_callsigns render
text via Qt (auto-shrink to fit, NoAntialias, 1bpp threshold) -- the
only PySide6-dependent corner of the module. validate() now catches
dangling bitmapindexes and missing raster pages.
btoperator.py: Callsign column in the roster (free text, PLAYERn
default); every save rasterizes the column into the egg exactly like
the original console did.
MP_BHMC.EGG template repaired: authentic Aeolus raster preserved
bit-exact, Boreas page generated and listed.
Verified: eggmodel self-test 20/20 (bit-exact raster round-trip, dup
disambiguation, dangling-index catch); ASCII-art decode of the
app-generated VIPER/MONGOOSE rasters reads correctly; live 2-node
relay session on the generated egg -- full ladder, launch, zero
name-bitmap load warnings; operator GUI e2e PASS after the column
shift.
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>
Found live during the port-forward verification: external port-checker nodes
(and by extension any internet scanner) that connect to the exposed console
port were streamed the egg AND counted as pods ('1/2 pods have it' from a
node in Turkey) -- a lingering scanner could hold a phantom roster slot or
nudge the ready/launch state.
Real pods send AcknowledgeEggFileMessage (clientID=0, msgID=4) after parsing
the egg (L4NET StartConnecting); scanners never speak the protocol. The
launch gate (auto timer AND manual-launch READY) now counts only console
connections that ACKED:
- RelayConsoleConn.acked; _console_read detects the ACK, logs
'pod ACK from <addr> (n/m ready)', drives _check_launch_gate.
- _eggs_out (egg_sent count) replaced by _pods_ready (acked count);
gate logic extracted to _check_launch_gate (called on each ACK).
- btoperator monitor regex updated to the ACK line.
Verified: scanner-simulation (3 lingering non-protocol connections + 1 real
ACK on a 3-pilot roster -> gate NOT tripped, ACK counted 1/3); full operator
e2e PASS (registered -> READY held -> operator launch -> both pods LAUNCHED).
(The two intermediate e2e failures during this work were a stale port-check
relay squatting on 1500 -- a test-rig cleanup bug (Get-Process CommandLine
filter matches nothing; use Get-CimInstance Win32_Process), not the
hardening.)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The operator now holds the lobby: with 'Manual launch' checked (default),
the relay stops at 'all pods have the egg; WAITING FOR OPERATOR LAUNCH'
instead of auto-firing on a 20s timer -- the app shows 'ALL PODS READY --
press LAUNCH MISSION' with the roster lights, and the big green button
fires the mission when the operator is ready (everyone seated, voice chat
confirmed). A 'Restart session' button cycles the same mission/roster for
the next round (players just re-run their join script).
- btconsole.py --relay --manual-launch: launch armed by the line 'launch'
on stdin (a daemon reader thread; the app's Launch button writes it via
QProcess). The settle window is still honoured relative to egg delivery
(max(now, eggs_done + 20s)) -- firing RunMission before the pods reach
WaitingForLaunch Fail()s them, the same hazard the auto timer guards.
Auto mode (no flag) unchanged -- CLI/test recipes unaffected.
- btoperator.py: Manual-launch checkbox (Network box, default on), LAUNCH
MISSION button (enabled by the relay's READY line, disabled after fire),
Restart session button, status headline shows the ready state.
- operator_e2e.py: now exercises the gate -- waits for READY, asserts the
button enabled, presses it, verifies the operator-gated LAUNCH.
Verified: scripted e2e PASS -- registered -> READY (held) -> operator
launch -> settle honoured -> both pods LAUNCHED (operator-gated=True).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
LAN players now find the game with zero configuration -- the 90s arcade
model (cabinets locate the operator station) restored:
- Client (L4NET RelayDiscover): BT_RELAY=auto broadcasts 'BTR1DISC' on
udp/15999 (255.255.255.255 AND 127.0.0.1 -- broadcast doesn't reliably
loop back on Windows; covers same-box sessions), 5 x 1s attempts; the
answering relay's SOURCE IP + its advertised console port become the
relay address. Explicit <host>:<port> path unchanged; mesh untouched.
- Relay (btconsole.py): best-effort discovery responder on udp/15999
answers 'BTR1HERE' + <u16 consolePort>; degrades gracefully (logged) if
the port is taken.
- Operator app: Export player scripts now writes a join_as_playerN_lan.bat
pair (BT_RELAY=auto) next to each internet script -- LAN guests
double-click and are found; internet guests use the public-host script.
Verified 2-node: both pods BT_RELAY=auto -> probe answered through a real
interface (not just loopback) -> discovered 172.19.x.x:1500 -> full session
to RunningMission. KB: multiplayer.md D1 section updated (+ the operator
console entry).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The operator station the archive never preserved: build missions with
authoritative dropdowns, run the console/relay, watch pods arrive, launch --
LAN mesh or internet relay -- plus one-click local instances for testing.
tools/eggmodel.py (headless, importable, self-tested 14/14):
- Order-preserving egg parse/emit: the editor manages [mission]/[pilots]/
per-pilot pages; bitmap rasters, ordinals and role pages survive untouched.
- EVERY value set read LIVE from content/BTL4.RES (the resscan parser,
importable): maps = MakeMessageStream(14) INTERSECT ExistanceBoxStream(26)
(the game aborts unless both exist); colors/badges/patches from the
VehicleTable resource (type 25, NUL-line NotationFile text with ;-comments);
vehicles = ModelList names, known-good mechs (bhk1, madcat) surfaced first.
- validate(): the full required-key ruleset from MISSION.cpp/btl4mssn.cpp
(missing map/time/weather/scenario, per-pilot hostType/vehicle/dropzone/
color/patch/badge/experience/role, role page model=, illegal values,
duplicate addresses) -- kills the hand-edited-egg crash class, incl. the
color=Red-vs-Crimson gotcha that bit the dev eggs.
tools/btoperator.py (PySide6, dark Fusion theme):
- Mission form + pilot roster table (all dropdowns from eggmodel), relay-tag
auto-numbering, add/remove pilots, egg New/Open/Save/Validate.
- Mode switch: Relay (internet; runs btconsole --relay) / Mesh (LAN legacy;
dial-out console at address-port minus 1 per the +1 rule).
- Session panel: QProcess drives btconsole.py; stdout parsed live into
per-pilot state lights (waiting/egg/registered/LAUNCHED) + relay stats.
- Local launcher: spawns btl4.exe per roster row with BT_RELAY/BT_SELF (or
mesh -net port), BT_DEV_GAUGES/BT_START_INSIDE toggles.
- Export player scripts: per-pilot join_as_playerN.bat with the public
relay hostname (a remote player's whole setup = run one .bat).
- Wire/protocol code stays in btconsole.py/eggmodel.py -- the GUI is only
UI + process management; CLI + test harnesses share the same tested core.
Verified: eggmodel self-test 14/14; scripted end-to-end
(scratchpad/operator_e2e.py) drives the real window through its own methods --
start relay session -> launch 2 local instances -> monitor observes the
mission LAUNCH (user-confirmed live on screen: both pods in-mission).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
