The binary's effect watcher (FUN_0042aa2c) raises
ForceUpdate(DamageZoneUpdateModelFlag) when a zone's damageLevel CROSSES a
band-descriptor threshold (FUN_0042a5f4, master-gated on entity+0x28 & 0xc)
-- that send is how every other pod's replicant learns zone levels
mid-fight. The port's band hub kept only the graphic-state branch, so an
observer's copy sat at 0.0 until destruction: no enemy hull darkening, no
doll movement, ever (the night-10 "no armour discoloration" report).
Restored the level branch with the already-reconstructed DescriptorCrossed
(@0042a5f4) + the master gate on both branches (mesh swap still runs on
every instance). 2-node verified: A-side armour watcher pushed 114 level
changes; every replicant peak matched the master's finals to 4 decimals
(dtorso 0.9321 == 0.9321).
Render path cleared separately (gotcha #23 discharged): BT_ARMOR_FORCE 0/1
A/B captures prove the tint renders (hull -> charcoal at 1.0). Solo
perception is the authentic economy: 2-25 pt lasers vs 68-185 pt pools.
Bench: zonewalk.sh node A now carries BT_ARMOR_LOG + BT_SHOT_EVERY (the
standing zone-replication receipt) + digest_walk.py; armorpx.sh is the
force-pair pixel rig.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The precision rig the operator specified: two nodes, target visible,
every zone aimed at deliberately through the REAL reticle/pick path.
* BT_SPIN_SELF=<deg/s> (target node): rotates the node's own viewpoint
mech in place (the BT_SPAWN_AT write pattern per frame) so every
aspect passes the shooter's boresight; the operator watches this
node's paper doll take the hits.
* BT_ZONE_WALK=<secs/zone> (shooter node): walks the target's damage
zones in order, resolves each zone's carrier segment's live world
position (BTResolveSegmentWorld + the new BTMechZoneSegAndName
bridge), SERVOS the torso twist + aim elevation until the centered
reticle ray (BTGetAimRay) points at the segment, fires 3 laser
pulses, advances. [walk] ZONE/FIRE/HOLD on A pairs with [dmghit]
zone/level lines on B.
* scratchpad/night10/zonewalk.sh: launch both + relay, map sed'd to
grass/day, NO kill timer -- the session stays up for observation.
Hard-won servo constraints (documented in test-harness.md so they are
never relearned): the ENGAGE GATE (ray live + range<150 + bearing<1.1;
outside it RELAX the twist -- servoing at the twist limit while the
goto marches is a limit-clamp fight that visibly shakes the mech, and
a 0.55 gate deadlocks against the goto's ~0.55 resting bearing); YAW
POLARITY -1 (the twist cell's angular sense is opposite atan2(x,-z)
world yaw -- operator-observed live, the SECOND witness for the #124
SelectSlice twist-sign flip) with a divergence watchdog that
self-flips; damped correction (gain .40, cap .025/frame -- the aim ray
lags the twist write a frame); and a one-shot approach PORT to 100u
off the target instead of a cross-map march.
First live run: walker cycles zones, settles, fires; the target's
luleg climbed 0.458->0.523 under its own aimed pulses -- aimed shot,
correct panel, damage consumed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two consumers of one impact, only one was ever verified: the victim gets
TakeDamage{amount=per-missile, burstCount=cluster roll} and applies it
burstCount times (armor was always right); the score post on the next line
sent the bare per-missile amount. An LRM10 salvo dealing 7-35 armor banked
3.5 points -- Rajel's "~3 points to score", to the digit.
Ground truth: the binary's score is the victim handler's tally (amount once
per applied burst @0x4a04da + crit bonuses) reported to the INFLICTING
player (the id-0x16 tail, deferred #45). The shooter-side stand-in now
posts amount x burstCount -- the identical figure handed to the victim, at
the identical one-post-per-TakeDamage granularity. Same pass:
* splash never credited score at all -- the binary tallies every
TakeDamage; now posted per splash victim (amount x falloff bursts);
* the bridge credited the LOCAL player for ANY registered hit -- AI-master
fire on the player, a dying mech's death-blast splash; now refused
unless the shooter IS the local vehicle (MP unaffected: only local fire
carries live damage on a node);
* direct-fire unchanged -- beams author burstCount=1 (emitter.cpp:355).
Verified per the harness doctrine: single-node field composition (madcat,
real fire, real enemy) 22/22 impact credits paired at damage x burst, zero
bare 3.33 posts; two-node replicant-victim run BOTH directions 31/31
paired across three missile authorings (3.33/2.0/5.0 per-missile) + 25-pt
ballistics, leftovers all burst-1 beam amounts. test-harness.md gains the
map=grass note (MP.EGG authors cavern/night; GOTO mechs shoot rock).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Oracle isolated it: "standard mode still having heat and leaks only occurred in
steam not in solo. Sauron and Lynx did not have the issue but Conn Man, Rajel
and myself did." The night-9 logs close the case:
affected (Oracle/ConnMan/Rajel): [exp] experience=2 heatModelOn=1
clean (Sauron's std sessions): [exp] experience=1 heatModelOn=0
CAUSE: the glass front end's JOIN layout trimmed the menu to "the mech list +
the JOIN button; everything else is the operator's call" -- and the experience
selector's hidden default is 2 (veteran). So HOSTS got whatever they picked
(Sauron hosted the lobbies all night -> his standard landed), while every
JOINER launched as veteran regardless of anything they did -- which is why
Oracle's cycling-the-settings experiment changed nothing, and why solo (full
menu) never showed the problem. heat >= veteran, hence "standard but heating".
DESIGN CONFIRMED BY THE USER before fixing: experience is PER-PLAYER by the
original design -- the sysop set each user's tier and mixed-experience matches
were legal. Architecture already supports it end to end: each node's master
player reads its OWN egg's experience (btMission+0xE4 -> BTPlayer @004c0bc8),
so per-node choice IS per-player choice.
FIX: the join layout gains the GroupExperience selector (the selection->egg
write path is the pre-existing host path, field-proven). Also: the front end
now prints "[fe] pilot experience=<x> (join|host/solo)" at launch, so every
future field log answers this class of report without asking anyone.
VERIFICATION BOUNDARY, stated plainly: builds both configs; the write path is
shared with the host flow which the field already exercises; the visible
selector + the [fe] line need one join-mode launch to eyeball, and the field
re-test is Oracle running a standard steam match as a JOINER and seeing no
heat.
Tooling note recorded in test-harness.md: bash-heredoc python collapses one
backslash level even single-quoted -- a "\n" arrives as a real newline and
replaces silently no-op. Build backslashes from bytes([92]); verify replaces
by length delta, not by the script saying "fixed". (This burned four edit
rounds tonight and several earlier C2001 hunts.)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
User mandate (2026-08-02): "do tests like this from now on" -- after the #110
grind bench, where the field composition (peer fire destroying an arm over the
wire) replaced the constructed proxy that had let #86 be called fixed while
players kept hitting it.
The topic carries two halves on purpose:
DOCTRINE -- what counts as VERIFIED:
1. reproduce the REPORTED scenario, not a convenient adjacent one
2. scalpel hooks (BT_SELF_DAMAGE_ZONE / BT_KILL_SUBSYS / BT_FORCE_*) locate
defects; they support a "fixed" claim only with proven path-identity to
the field composition -- and the field composition still gets run
3. MP symptom -> two-node proof (master-side correctness says nothing about
what a peer sees)
4. visual symptom -> pixel proof (gotcha 23)
5. coverage claims need the axis enumerated and measured (all gates, all
chassis), because per-chassis behaviour lives in authored data
6. an unexplained extra effect in a passing run means the run has not passed
MACHINERY -- the bench_common.sh contract (summarized, file = source of truth),
single-node and two-node skeletons (relay, ports, affinity, fire cadence,
GOTO_STOP standoff), process hygiene (stale-node taskkill first, never
double-background, teardown kill order, stale-exe tells), and log-reading rules
(capped diagnostics are not evidence of absence; alarm lines are not trends;
name the actor at every refusal; field logs have no gates set -- spawn-time
summaries ungated, per-frame traces gated).
Routed: Quick Lookup row, CLAUDE.md reasoning step 4, build-and-run parity
section, reconstruction-method Key Relationships. checkctx CLEAN.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
