BT411/docs/OPERATOR_GUIDE.md

# BattleTech 4.11 — Operator Console Guide

How to run a games night: set up a mission, get pods seated, launch rounds, and recover when
something sticks. Written for the sysop at the console, not for players.

*Engineering detail (ports, protocol, state machine) lives in `context/operator-console.md`.
Player-facing instructions ship in the zip as `README.txt`.*

---

## 1. Starting the console

```
cd C:\git\bt411
python tools\btoperator.py
```

A window titled **BT411 Operator Console** opens. That is the console.

> **One thing worth knowing:** there are two programs. `btoperator.py` is the window you use.
> `btconsole.py` is the headless relay it starts for you in the background — all the actual
> networking. You never launch that one directly; its output is what scrolls in the log pane at the
> bottom of the window. When this guide says "the relay said…", that is where to look.

---

## 2. Set up the mission, then start the session

Work top to bottom:

1. **Pick the mission settings** — map, mission length, weather, experience level, and the seat
   (pod) count. Every dropdown is populated live from `BTL4.RES`, so anything offered is valid.
2. **Set the seat count to roughly who you expect.** It does not have to be exact — you can launch
   with fewer (see §4) — but a wildly oversized roster makes the staging messages confusing.
3. **Choose the mode**: **Relay (internet)** is normal — players dial out to you, so *they* need no
   port forwarding. **Mesh (LAN)** is the original cabinet direction for a local network.
4. **Press Start Session.** The relay comes up and begins accepting pods.

**For internet play, you must be reachable.** Forward/allow these TCP ports to this machine
(default console port 1500):

| Port | Why |
|---|---|
| 1500/tcp | the console channel (hands out the mission egg, sends the launch) |
| 1501/tcp | game traffic between pods |
| 1501/udp | the fast update channel (position/motion) |

Port 1507/tcp is the operator control channel — only needed if someone drives this relay remotely.
Players give their client `BT_RELAY=<your address>:1500`; `players/join.bat` handles that.

---

## 3. Watch the pods arrive

Each pilot row lights up as they progress. In order:

**waiting** → **seated** (claimed a seat, callsign and mech shown) → **egg sent** →
**registered** → **ready** (mission loaded) → **LAUNCHED**.

You will see this in the log and it is **normal, not an error**:

```
console conn 1.2.3.4:5678: egg HELD (3/8 pods present)
```

The mission file is deliberately held until every seat is present, so that every pod's copy
contains everyone's callsign and mech choice. If you are not waiting for the rest, just launch —
see next.

---

## 4. Launch a round

Press **🚀 LAUNCH MISSION**.

- If everyone has loaded, the round starts within a few seconds.
- **If some seats are empty, launching is still correct** — the relay shrinks the session to the
  players who are actually here and starts. You do not need to edit the roster down first.
- The relay holds the start until every pod reports **ready**, so nobody loads into a mission
  already in progress. If one pod is slow you will see who, every 10 seconds; after 3 minutes it
  starts anyway rather than letting one wedged client hold up the night.

The mission then runs on its own clock (the mission length from the egg). **⏹ END MISSION** stops
it early.

---

## 5. Running back-to-back rounds

When a round ends, players' clients relaunch themselves and reconnect. Once they are back, press
**LAUNCH** again. You can change mission settings between rounds and press **Apply** first.

### If LAUNCH looks dead — press ↻ Re-arm

This is the fix for the most annoying failure this console had. If a round has ended and the LAUNCH
button is greyed out, or pressing it does nothing:

> **Press ↻ Re-arm, then LAUNCH.**

Re-arm clears the finished round's state and re-opens the launcher **while keeping everyone who is
already connected**. You do **not** need Stop Session / Start Session, which disconnects everybody.

Re-arm is **for between rounds only**, and the console enforces that: while a mission is running it
is greyed out (and the relay refuses it with *"press End Mission first"*), and while a launch is in
the middle of firing it is refused with *"launch sequence in flight"*. So you cannot break a live
round with it. Expect each already-waiting player's client to bounce once (a few seconds) right
after a Re-arm — that is the seat re-sync, not a crash.

**Why this happens:** the console used to only consider itself ready for a new round if *every*
player from the last round came back, or if *all* of them left. In between — the normal case when
one person closes their window or their client crashes — it got stuck, and said nothing. That is
fixed (an explicit LAUNCH now re-arms by itself), and Re-arm is the belt-and-braces button. If you
ever see the old behaviour, it is a bug worth reporting.

---

## 6. Known limitations — buttons that are not what they appear

Read this once; each of these is a control that looks live but does nothing in that mode.

**Mesh (LAN legacy) mode: the mission buttons do not work.** LAUNCH, END MISSION and Re-arm all log
">> operator … sent" and are then **silently discarded** — the mesh console has no command channel.
`Apply mission settings` is also inert (mesh reads the mission file once at startup). Mesh launches
its rounds by itself once the pods have the mission. **If you want to control launches, use Relay
mode.**

**Remote relay mode** (driving another machine's relay) is now a full console — LAUNCH, END MISSION,
Re-arm, Apply and Launch-local all work, and the pilot lights populate from the relay's own roster
when you connect. Two things still differ: **Stop Session only disconnects you** (the remote relay
keeps running, which is usually what you want), and **Restart Session** likewise just reconnects the
control link rather than restarting that relay.

### Running the relay PARKED (console from anywhere)

The recommended setup for a travelling operator: the relay lives permanently on the home machine,
so **no player ever edits `join.bat`**, and you drive it from a laptop — cell internet is fine,
since the console only makes an outbound connection.

**On the home machine, before you leave** — double-click **`tools\park_relay.cmd`** (or run
`python tools\btrelay_park.py --egg OPERATOR.EGG --port 1500`).

That window is the supervisor: it keeps the relay alive, **relaunching it if it ever dies** and
rotating the old log to `content\parked_relay.log.1` so you can still see what happened. Closing
the window (or Ctrl-C) stops the relay for good. To have it come back after a reboot, put a
*shortcut* to `park_relay.cmd` in your Startup folder (Win+R → `shell:startup`) — no admin needed.

Leave it running.

> **If you log in from a second account** (a dedicated remote-admin login over SSH/RDP), always
> park the relay with `park_relay.cmd` rather than typing `python ...` yourself. `python` only
> works for the main account here — it resolves through pyenv shims driven by `PYENV*` variables
> that are scoped to that user, and the one machine-wide Python entry points at a folder that no
> longer exists. The `.cmd` finds a real interpreter explicitly and prints which one it used;
> a bare `python` command from the other account just says "not recognized".

Note the port it prints for operator control (**1507** = console port + 7) and copy
`content\operator_secret.txt` — that string is what any console needs to connect, and it grants
full mission control, so hand it out deliberately.

**From the road:** run `python tools/btoperator.py`, put the home address in Host, Console port
1500, paste the secret, and connect. You get launch, end, re-arm, mission changes (map / time /
weather / scenario / temperature / length, applied to the egg on the home machine, effective next
round) and live pilot lights.

**Restart Session now really restarts the parked relay.** In remote mode the button asks the relay
to bounce itself; the supervisor brings it straight back with the egg re-read, and your console
reconnects a few seconds later. It is refused while a mission is running (it would drop everyone
mid-round) — press End Mission first. Use it to clear a wedge, or after someone has edited the egg
on the home machine.

**What still needs someone at the home machine:** starting the supervisor in the first place, and
editing the roster itself — seat count, callsigns, mechs, colours. Only the six mission settings
travel over the control link, so a *roster* change means editing the egg there and then pressing
Restart Session from wherever you are.

**Two traps worth knowing:**
- **The secret depends on the relay's working directory.** It is read as a bare `operator_secret.txt`
  relative to wherever the relay was started, and if it is missing the relay *silently generates a
  new one*. Always start the parked relay from the same folder (`content\`), or a console using
  yesterday's secret will just be dropped on the auth timeout with no clear error.
- **Don't forward the control port to the open internet.** It is plaintext with a shared secret.
  Keep the player ports (1500/1501) forwarded exactly as they already are and carry the operator
  link over a private tunnel (Tailscale or similar) instead.

**Other sharp edges:**
- **Start Session overwrites your egg file** on disk, without asking. Keep a copy of any mission you
  care about under a different name.
- **`Apply` only pushes the six mission settings** (map, time, weather, scenario, temperature,
  length). Callsign / mech / colour / badge / patch / experience edits need **Save**. Changing the
  **seat count** mid-session is refused outright — that needs a session restart.
- **The Colour dropdown offers colours the game cannot paint.** Only Black, Brown, Crimson, Green,
  Grey, Tan and White work; anything else silently comes out grey. The relay warns in the log.
- **If the relay dies on its own**, `Launch local instances` stays clickable and will start clients
  against nothing. Press Start Session first.
- **`Public host`** is used only when exporting player scripts; it does not affect what the relay
  binds or advertises.

## 7. When a player leaves

Their pilot light goes grey (**waiting**) and the seat's callsign reverts to whatever you had
configured for that row — so a free seat no longer looks occupied by a departed player.

**Their seat is held for them for 90 seconds.** That is deliberate: someone who crashes or gets
dropped comes straight back into the same seat with the same mech. During that window a *brand-new*
player is given the next free seat instead, or told the roster is full if there wasn't one. After 90
seconds the vacated seat is fair game for anybody.

So if a new arrival can't get in right after somebody left, wait a minute and have them retry — or
raise the seat count if you're simply out of seats.

## 8. Troubleshooting

| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| `egg HELD (n/N pods present)` | normal staging — waiting for the rest of the seats | wait, or press LAUNCH to start with who is here |
| LAUNCH greyed out after a round | the launcher is still holding the last round | press **↻ Re-arm** |
| `LAUNCH pressed but NO players are seated yet` | nobody has claimed a seat | check the players are pointed at the right address/port |
| `LAUNCH pressed but NOT all seats have ACKed` | some pods are still taking the mission file | wait a few seconds; if one is never coming, press **Re-arm** (between rounds only — it is refused mid-launch/mid-mission) |
| `launch HELD -- still loading: PLAYER n` | that pod has not finished loading | wait; it force-starts after 3 minutes |
| `*** WARNING: ... EMPTY seat(s) ... the mission will STALL` | **can be a false alarm** after the roster is trimmed | if the round starts and plays fine, ignore it |
| `seat RECLAIMED by identity` | a player who dropped got their seat back | nothing — this is working as intended |
| `game[...] dropped: closed` | a pod disconnected | normal at round end; mid-round it means they crashed or lost connection |
| A player gets **ROSTER FULL** | no free seat in the current round | Re-arm between rounds so the roster re-opens, then let them join |
| Console window stops responding | the relay stalled on a dead connection | Stop Session, Start Session; please keep the log (below) |
| A player says they cannot connect at all | ports, or wrong address | confirm 1500/1501 TCP + 1501 UDP reach this machine |

### The one thing to do before restarting a session

**Copy `content\operator_relay.log` somewhere first.** Start Session **overwrites** it — so
restarting to clear a problem also destroys the evidence of that problem. If something misbehaved,
save that file and hand it over; it is timestamped line-by-line and it is what makes these bugs
diagnosable.

---

## 9. Match reports

At the end of each clean round, every player's client **uploads its own match report to you
automatically** (relay mode only). They land in `matchlogs\` named by the sender's address. You do
not need to ask players to send anything.

Exceptions worth knowing: a client that **crashes mid-round** loses its report, and players on
**solo** or **Steam** have no relay to upload through. In those cases ask them for
`content\matchlog_*.txt` directly. Their crash log — `content\join_YYYYMMDD.log`, one file per day
holding every session (plus the tiny `content\lastrun_<mode>.txt`) — is **never** uploaded — ask
for it explicitly when something went wrong on their end. Ask for the **newest** `<stem>_*.log`
rather than "today's": the log day runs **06:00 → 06:00**, so a session after midnight is still
filed under the evening it started. Always ask for `lastrun_<mode>.txt` too, **even when they say
there is no log** — that combination is how a launch blocked before `WinMain` is identified.

---

## 10. Local test instances

**Launch local instances** starts game clients on this machine against your own session — useful
for testing alone or filling a seat. **Stop games** closes them. In relay mode the session must
already be started, or a local instance has nothing to dial.

---

## 11. Which build everyone needs

**All pods must run the same build as each other.** Build **4.11.554** changed what pods tell each
other about scores, so a mixed session shows disagreeing KILLS/DEATHS columns (nothing crashes —
the remote numbers just do not move). When you hand out a new zip, make sure everyone takes it
before the session.