Players reported scoring and K/D going screwy on 4.11.817. Cause: build 787
(#45/#134) retired the port's per-hit inflicted crediting as an "invention",
on the strength of a KB claim that the type-0 score handler was dead code.
That claim was wrong.
BTPlayer overrides Dispatch -- vtable @00513300 slot 3 = FUN_004bffa0 -- and
splits type 0 off BEFORE base dispatch:
if (msg->id == 0x16 && msg->type == 0) FUN_004c0200(...); // ScoreInflicted
else base dispatch;
@004c0200 names itself in its own Verify string
("BTPlayer::ScoreInflictedMessageHandler") and computes
CalcInflicted(basis) -> negate if target==self -> x (targetTonnage/ownTonnage)
-> accumulate into +0x278. ScoreMessageHandler's type-0 arm Verify-rejects
precisely BECAUSE this interceptor guarantees type 0 never reaches it.
The port had the handler, faithfully reconstructed, and no interceptor -- so
Block B's inflicted reports all landed in the rejecting arm and banked 0.
Per-hit damage credit was silently deleted.
Independently corroborated by the ORIGINAL MANUAL'S SCORING CHART (filed as
reference/manual/scoring_chart.webp, from Lynx): "+1 each damage point scored
on opponent's armor" and "-1 each self-inflicted point of armor damage" -- the
negate-if-target-is-self arm exactly. Without that chart the dead-code note
would probably have stood.
Verified (scratchpad/night13/scoreverify.sh, cross-node kill, 2 nodes):
type-0 Verify rejections 0 (was firing on every non-lethal hit)
inflicted score rows 83 awards 0.98..25.00, all positive, tracking damage
kill path un-regressed type=2 award=4.88 kills=1, victim respawn x1
KB: combat-damage.md report B and the score-model paragraph rewritten, with
the full chart and THREE unreconciled rows flagged [T4] -- flat +500 kill vs
the benched 4.88, +1000 at game start, and -1000 eject / -500 ammo (which
would live in ScenarioRole::specialCaseDeathPenalty @role+0x20, read by the
port but authored nowhere in shipped content).
KNOWN, NOT FIXED HERE: in MP the running total does not persist -- currentScore
is flushed to the operator console and ZEROED (btplayer.cpp ~1219) because the
binary treats it as a console DELTA. Restoring the credit makes that very
visible (bench: totals climb to ~35 then reset). Needs its own decision; the
chart's "+1000 starting the game" implies a persistent total lives somewhere.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01NCJQkvq6G2JNrpVbA75tVZ
Lynx supplied a photo of the period credits page (preserved at
reference/manual/credits_page.webp). It confirms, corrects and completes
the oral-history identifications:
- ECH = Eric Huffman (Audio Director / 3D audio framework) -- corrects the
uncertain "Eric Nichols" guess
- JMA = Joanna Mason (Simulation Code and Cameras) -- inferred mapping
confirmed
- CPB = Chris Brewer: "Secondary/Auxiliary Screens and Low Level I/O" --
the exact MFD gauge/mode layer this project reconstructs
- GDU = Gabe Underwood: "Simulation Code and 'Mech Internal Systems" --
the heat/coolant/generator/seek economy
- Full roster: Jordan Weisman (producer/designer), David McCoy (art
director), J.M. Albertson (technical director), Bill Redmann (corporate
director of technology), plus Corson, Edsall, Ciolek, Olsen, the artists
(Burlington, Molitor, McCoy, Story; Allen Workshop: Bonilla, Peters) and
sound (Bing McCoy, Effinger, Huffman).
- 10 software engineers + 6 artists == Lynx's "maybe 8 dev, 6 art" memory.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
reference/manual/Tesla40_BT_manual.pdf -- the genuine Tesla 4.0 BT
player manual, 34pp. Primary-source alignment audit (pod-hardware.md
SManual): the reconstruction matches on EVERY checked control behavior:
- control modes are named BAS/MID/ADV in print (mechanics identical to
our Basic/Standard/Veteran incl. the ADV no-auto-slow turn clamp)
- stick right = torso right in MID/ADV (today's sign fix); Blackhawk
and Owens named as THE fixed-torso exceptions; twist arc ~120
(per-mech: Loki/Thor tables say 110 deg limit, 60 deg/s)
- continuous throttle lever; reverse = HOLD the red throttle button
(our 0x3F hold-state model)
- Hot Box MFD = callsign buttons + CLOSEST (our hotbox button 8 ->
ChooseNearestPilot); radar travel-oriented w/ 60-deg wedge sweeping
on twist; map zoom +/- beside the secondary screen
- experience gates the hunting aids (standard sim only); expert adds
movement heat
- per-mech stat sheets + coolant-loop tables = a systematic
cross-check source for our streamed subsystem resources
NEW LEADS the manual surfaces: CROUCH (button by the secondary screen;
duckState attr + SQUAT clips exist, no input drives them), EJECT
(button beside the joystick; EjectButton01 sounds exist), the hot-box
viewscreen framing (deferred PNAME marker chain).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
