BT411/context/experience-levels.md

id, title, status, source_sections, related_topics, key_terms, open_questions

id	title	status	source_sections	related_topics	key_terms	open_questions
experience-levels	Experience levels / simulation modes — novice, standard, veteran, expert	established	decomp part_013.c:10816-10871 (@4c0bc8), part_014.c:7830-7900 (@4d2f3e), FUN_004ad7d4/FUN_004ac9c8/FUN_004bbfcc; BTMSSN.HPP (survived); Tesla40_BT_manual.pdf pp.7,11-14,21,22,24	subsystems combat-damage gauges-hud pod-hardware multiplayer decomp-reference open-questions	master replicant	player+0x26c (std+vet only) and +0x270 (all but novice) consumers not located — 0x26c hypothesis: myomer supercharge clamp (manual p22) [T4] does a remote pilot's experience matter cross-pod? flags are computed only on the master branch of the BTPlayer ctor [T4] movement-heat magnitude veteran vs expert (4.0 manual says expert-only; 4.10 gate is vet+expert) [T4]

Experience levels / simulation modes

The egg's per-pilot experience field is the pod's simulation-fidelity tier — the thing the 1995 site operator set per player at sign-up. It is NOT the BAS/MID/ADV control mode (a free in-cockpit choice, locomotion/pod-hardware) and NOT the scenario role (scoring modifiers). Researched end-to-end 2026-07-18; this file supersedes the older "role display toggles" / "ROOKIE-role lockout" readings (see Corrections below).

The data path [T1]

1. Egg: pilot page key experience ∈ {novice,standard,veteran,expert}; required unless vehicle=camera; unknown value = hard abort. Parse @4d2f3e (part_014.c:7830-7900, strings @51e6f1); tools/eggmodel.py knows the value set.
2. BTMission (BTMSSN.HPP survived, T0): stored at mission+0xe4 (experienceLevel, accessor ExperienceLevel()); the neighboring egg key advancedDamage → mission+0xf0 (advancedDamageOn) — the separate site-technician splash/collision switch (manual p13).
3. BTPlayer ctor @4c0bc8 (part_013.c:10816-10871): on the MASTER branch ((simulationFlags & 0xc) != 4; the replicant branch instead swaps in the console-update Performance) it reads btMission(+0x1f8)->experienceLevel(+0xe4) and fans it out:

egg value	+0x25c	+0x260	+0x26c	+0x270	+0x274 (raw)
novice	0	0	0	0	0
standard	1	0	1	1	1
veteran	1	1	1	1	2
expert	1	1	0	1	3

then unconditionally +0x264 = +0x268 = mission->advancedDamageOn(+0xf0) (both copies). [T1]

What each flag gates (binary consumers, all reached via mech+0x190 → BTPlayer) [T1]

• +0x25c — "sim live", off only for novice. Consumers: the CROUCH posture selector (master-perf @0x4a9f70: novice → mapPosture 0 → squat/rise refused — 2026-08-06, locomotion §CROUCH); ballistic jam roll CheckForJam @4bbfcc early-returns NO-JAM when 0 (projweap.cpp calls this LiveFireEnabled); ThermalSight ToggleLamp @4b860c (thermalsight.hpp ControlsAllowLights) — ⚠ CORRECTED 2026-07-25 (#61): this was listed as Searchlight's gate. It is not. Raw disassembly of Searchlight's real handler @004b838c (a Ghidra export gap) shows it gates on the PRESS ALONE and never reads +0x25C, so a NOVICE pilot CAN work the searchlight; only the thermal sight is locked [T1, scratchpad/dis838c.py]; PoweredSubsystem message handler @4b0efc (powersub.cpp's "message-manager short-event flag" — same flag, misattributed); the mech combat-ineffective evaluation (part_012.c:9364: mech state ∈ {3,4} && novice is an extra OR-term setting mech+0x414). The #if 0 block in surviving PPC.CPP:63-95 (novice PPCs deal no damage) shows the original intent of the tier.
• +0x260 — the HEAT-MODEL master switch, ON for veteran+expert. This is FUN_004ad7d4 (*(*(sub+0xD0)+0x190)+0x260), the single most-called gate in the subsystem family: Myomers work→heat (movement heat, MyomersSimulation @4b8d18), Emitter/energy-weapon firing heat, missile launch heat, the heat.cpp simulation, projectile-weapon heat, and the heat-scaled part of the jam chance. Standard mode has NO heat consequences; that is authentic, not a port gap.
• +0x274 — the raw level. FUN_004ac9c8 = (level == 0), the NOVICE lockout used as the condenser-valve guard (gauges-hud task #13) and by the PoweredSubsystem handler @4b21d0 (not-novice gate). The port's BTPlayerRoleLocksAdvanced bridge implements this predicate (correct behavior, wrong seeding — see Port state).
• +0x264/+0x268 — advancedDamage copies. Read in the heat-family sim (part_013.c:8757). Independent of experience.
• +0x26c / +0x270 — consumers NOT located via the mech→player hop. 0x26c (standard+veteran only) best fits the manual-p22 myomer supercharge clamp (standard locked, expert unlocked) [T4].

Player-facing behavior (Tesla 4.0 manual) [T1 primary source]

Manual pp. 7, 11-14, 21, 22, 24 (the dedicated Simulation Modes page, manual p2, is MISSING from the Tesla40_BT_manual.pdf scan along with p3):

• Standard: armor-only damage — no criticals, no generator outages, no jams, no heat concerns; MechTech limited to the leg-damage audio warning; viewscreen hunting aids (red hot box + guide arrow, 60° FOV) on; myomer supercharge locked.
• Veteran: critical hits (any hit can go internal; likelihood rises as armor thins; a crit can kill the mech), generators take damage/go offline (reroute power), ballistic jams (manual clearing), full MechTech audio + smart buttons; viewscreen hunting aids OFF (radar hot box stays).
• Expert: veteran + heat as a core mechanic: movement generates heat (accel/decel worst), heat slows recharge/top speed, incoming fire causes coolant leaks, ammo-bay fires/cook-off; myomer supercharge allowed.
• Scoring identical in all modes (p4). Splash/collision damage = a separate technician setting.

4.0 → 4.10 drift [T1]

• The viewscreen hunting-aid gate is GONE in 4.10: part_014 (HUD/btl4vid TU) reads none of the player flags — the target hotbox/edge arrows (@4cdf6f) are gated on lock state only, every mode. Fits the 4.10 arcade-cities positioning.
• Movement heat is veteran+expert in 4.10 (the +0x260 gate), not expert-only as the 4.0 manual states. Whether a coefficient still differentiates them is open.

Port state (as of 2026-07-20) — WIRED (issue #2) [T2]

The wiring landed (uncommitted during the coordination pause; issue #2):

• Seed: the BTPlayer master ctor (btplayer.cpp ~1305) now reads ((BTMission *)playerMission)->ExperienceLevel() + ->AdvancedDamageOn(). The binary's +0x1f8 mission pointer IS the inherited Player::playerMission (master: set by the base ctor; replicant: back-filled from Application::GetCurrentMission() = app+0xc8) — the old separate btMission member was a phantom duplicate, never set on the master branch; removed. The two switch slot errors are fixed (binary rows verified against part_013.c:10843-10870). A [exp] sentinel logs the seeded flags per master player.
• Renames (btplayer.hpp): showDamageReceived→simLive (0x25c), showKills→heatModelOn (0x260), showDamageInflicted→advancedDamageOn (0x264), roleReturnDelay→advancedDamageOn2 (0x268, was mistyped Scalar), roleReturnDelay2→levelFlag26c (0x26c), showScore→levelFlag270 (0x270), roleClassIndex→experienceLevel (0x274).
• Bridges (btplayer.cpp, complete-type TU): BTPlayerExperienceSimLive (+0x25c) and BTPlayerExperienceHeatModelOn (+0x260) join BTPlayerRoleLocksAdvanced (+0x274==0). All consumers route mech→GetPlayerLink()→named member; NULL player reads permissive [T3].
• Gates unified: HeatSink::HeatModelActive() (heat.hpp; also serves mislanch/projweap/ heatfamily call sites) + Myomers::OwnerAdvancedDamage() (myomers.hpp) → the +0x260 bridge; ProjectileWeapon::LiveFireEnabled() (projweap.cpp) + ThermalSight::ControlsAllowLights() (thermalsight.hpp) → the +0x25c bridge (not Searchlight::ControlsAllowLights(), which #61 showed is unused — its handler has no novice gate; the accessor is retained but dead); PoweredSubsystem::HandleMessage @4b0efc (powersub.cpp) → not-novice + the +0x25c bridge (the old "message-manager short-event flag" misattribution and its dead BT_GetMessageManager guard are gone).
• FUN_004ac9c8 family corrected: MechSubsystem::IsDamaged (mechsub.cpp — was a live raw-offset databinding trap *(*(*(owner+0xd0)+0x190)+0x274)), BT_IsBusLive (btstubs.cpp — was return True), and powersub's IsDamaged() call sites @4b11bc/@4b21d0/@4b179c now all route through BTPlayerRoleLocksAdvanced. HeatSink::IsDamaged (heat.hpp) deliberately keeps the simulationState shadow for the gauge tint (btl4gaug.cpp:172).
• SHIPPED EGGS ARE ALL expert (every pilot page in all 19 content/*.EGG, camera pages included) — so the default felt behavior is unchanged by the wiring (expert and the old hardwired veteran agree on every LOCATED consumer: sim live, heat on, controls unlocked; they differ only in the unlocated +0x26c flag). The glass front-end writes veteran when a pilot's experience is empty (btl4fe.cpp:307).
• Myomers movement heat remains arithmetically inert (the Owner* motion accessors still return neutral 0s — the gate is wired, the couplings are the reconciled follow-up).

Corrections (swept 2026-07-18)

• btplayer.hpp "per-role display toggles from returnFromDeath" for 0x25c-0x274 was WRONG — the source is btMission+0xe4/+0xf0, not the role; the showKills/roleClassIndex names date from the scoring work and don't match the gate semantics (kept in code for now, comments corrected).
• gauges-hud.md "ROOKIE-role lockout" for FUN_004ac9c8 → novice-EXPERIENCE lockout.
• open-questions.md "true semantic of player+0x260/0x274 not yet pinned" → pinned here.

Key Relationships

• Feeds: subsystems (the heat model + jam/valve gates) · combat-damage (criticals tier intent) · gauges-hud (valve guard)
• Sourced from: the egg (multiplayer egg format) · BTMission (BTMSSN.HPP, T0)
• Offsets: decomp-reference §3 (mech+0x190 row + BTPlayer flag block)
• Manual audit: pod-hardware §Manual