MEASURED our compiled BTPlayer layout (new one-shot [layout] ctor diagnostic):
sizeof=652 (0x28c) killCount@0x270 pad_0x280@0x274
objectiveMech@0x278 deathPending@0x284
The three target-designation sites wrote RAW at pilotArray[0]+0x284 intending the
BINARY's objectiveMech. On our object 0x284 is deathPending -- the death-cycle
latch. So EVERY target designation (the Comm bank 0x30-0x37, or the typed
t/y/u/i/o keys) stored a Mech pointer into deathPending, and a non-zero
deathPending makes VehicleDeadMessageHandler take its dedup early-return, which
skips the warp, ++deathCount, the PLAYER_DEAD record AND the drop-zone hunt.
=> designating a target silently disabled your respawn for the rest of the
process. That is #57's missing first cause: it explains David's very first
death being swallowed with no prior death, and the 3-of-3 swallowed deaths in
the final round. It also explains the operator's persistent observation that
the trouble began when the comms panel went live -- before the pilot list
populated, there was nothing to designate.
And the designation never worked either: the value never reached
objectiveMech (input-audit finding #1).
FIX: all three sites now use named-member bridges in the complete-BTPlayer TU --
BTPilotSetObjectiveMech / BTPilotObjectiveMech / BTPilotVehicle / BTPilotPosition
/ BTVehicleDestroyed. Also retires the raw +0x1fc (playerVehicle) reads and the
raw +0x100 position reads in ChooseNearestPilot, and routes its destroyed-check
through the real Mech predicate instead of the Is_Destroyed stub.
LAYOUT LOCKS: static_asserts on objectiveMech@0x278, deathPending@0x284,
killCount@0x270 and sizeof==0x28c, in the friend fn BTPlayerLayoutSelfCheck, so
a member shift fails the BUILD instead of silently clobbering the latch again.
Rigs: scratchpad/commstest.py (drives designation + captures panels),
valvetest.py, lampgallery.py (428-bitmap gallery for #48 visual search).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_0166KTsC7ADm7VXEi1HF1jNg
