The KB asserted as [T1] that "burstCount is cosmetic for zone damage". Half of
that is byte-verified (DamageZone::TakeDamage @0041e4e0 really does ignore it);
the other half was an inference that inherited the [T1] tag and then justified
task #62's salvo-lead design -- which silently divided every missile salvo by its
missile count (gitea #95).
Corrected in both places it appeared (combat-damage.md:334 and :884): the CALLER,
Mech::TakeDamageMessageHandler @0x4a0423-0x4a04d8, applies TakeDamage burstCount
times and re-rolls the struck zone per burst. burstCount = number of
applications; load-bearing for missile cluster count, splash falloff and the gyro
bounce. Also records that the arcade Missile dispatches DIRECTLY at the victim
rather than through the message manager (whose consolidation drops burstCount).
New gotcha 24: a verified fact, over-generalised, becomes a wrong design premise.
Detection smell -- a "cosmetic/unused" claim about a field other code still
computes carefully. Nobody spends instructions randomising a decorative value.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
