BT4/RP4 speak Munga (TCP 1501); BattleTech FireStorm is a MechWarrior 4
conversion and speaks CTCL instead - pod launcher on TCP 1000, game on
1001. Researched from the FireStorm sources at C:\VWE\firestorm and
written up in FIRESTORM-CTCL.md: roles, framing, message/order tables,
the mission handshake (including how the server pod is designated - the
console picks it positionally, there is no election), and the session
rendezvous by game-name GUID over LAN enumeration.
The console already launches FireStorm via Apps.xml; what it cannot do
is build or run a mission. Three blockers: the bit-packed NMP blob is
the MW4 engine's own MWNetMissionParameters serialization, the mech and
map identifiers (including a 64-bit map CRC) come from installed game
content, and CTCL carries no in-mission telemetry at all.
Decision recorded: a pure C# CTCL client is rejected (the NMP layout is
engine-internal and would need reworking on every FireStorm change);
pod-level control is unnecessary since Site Management already covers
it; teaching MW4 to accept a plain mission spec and build the NMP
pod-side is the option if this is ever picked up. Parked for now.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
