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Sword of the Stars (2006) reverse-engineering worklog. Infra docs live in trikilli services/re-lab.md.
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alex 2ac52350f0 AP: P's three draws are two species branches - 0x00840a3c fires, 0x0088dc43 fires, the deploy NextFloat measured 
From as-turn15-spydeployed.sav, 11 End Turns under probes=8. Detection at Frame
22, P at Frame 25: 0x00840a3c 1 call / 1 word, the first firing of any of P's
sites. 0x00840929 and 0x008409c7 are the MORRIGI branch and cannot be reached in
a Human game - correcting every inventory that lists them as three sites behind
one gate. The counter-mission roll 0x0088dc43 fires from Frame 19 (corpus was 0
of 22) and the deploy NextFloat 0x0078c97f is measured with cbh reproducing lane
AS's value bit for bit. Species table decoded, which also names AS's 0.75f as
Zuul and 0.5f as Morrigi. Two corrections to lane AG 3.2 (CnTrd is the target's;
ncp is a scalar counter). PB4 was wrong and is named: the trade-raid roll entered
the tail at Frame 20, re-confirming lane AD's per-fleet model. Control pair
disagrees (three outcomes in six processes) - not a calibration pair - and
probes=8 is byte-identical to a control over 44,438 leaves. Exposure fields
recorded per turn: saturated on this map.
2026-09-09 01:33:23 -04:00
campaign board: scope the C-exact proof to the early-game turn it was demonstrated on 2026-09-09 00:56:53 -04:00
findings AP: P's three draws are two species branches - 0x00840a3c fires, 0x0088dc43 fires, the deploy NextFloat measured 2026-09-09 01:33:23 -04:00
ghidra AP: P's three draws are two species branches - 0x00840a3c fires, 0x0088dc43 fires, the deploy NextFloat measured 2026-09-09 01:33:23 -04:00
guides resolver: seed exposure is a predicate on the pre-turn save; rule 26 gains corollary (c) 2026-09-09 00:56:38 -04:00
notes init commit 2026-09-07 12:31:56 -04:00
objects regenerate both headers (669 addresses); track objects/generated so the shared clone stops sitting dirty 2026-09-08 07:36:16 -04:00
scripts lane V2: vtable inversion — resolve indirect call edges image-wide 2026-09-08 12:05:05 -04:00
tools dashboard: value-domain line as the counterweight to the 99.99%-typed figure 2026-09-08 21:59:34 -04:00
verify AP: P's three draws are two species branches - 0x00840a3c fires, 0x0088dc43 fires, the deploy NextFloat measured 2026-09-09 01:33:23 -04:00
.gitignore lane D: automated struct recovery from the IStreamable serializers 2026-09-08 05:51:37 -04:00
README.md guides: RE how-to for 2000s MSVC/DX9 games (98 sources); queue replay-checksum, class recovery, apitrace/TTD 2026-09-07 18:05:58 -04:00

README.md

sots-re

Reverse-engineering worklog for Sword of the Stars (2006, SOTS1) — the 32-bit DX9 original + expansions. The nitty-gritty: static/dynamic analysis notes, Ghidra & ReVa scripts, function/struct maps, D3D9 call traces, decomp progress, findings.

Where this runs

Analysis lab on spicy (PVE, 192.168.3.201):

  • CT111 sots-re — Linux workspace: Ghidra + headless ReVa server, radare2/rizin/cutter, binwalk. Hosts the Samba share and this repo's working tree at /srv/re-lab/notes.
  • VM140 sots-re-win10 — Win10 runtime + dynamic analysis (x64dbg, Cheat Engine, RenderDoc/apitrace, DXVK→CPU-Vulkan for GPU-less rendering).

Infra (guests, storage, network, share, ReVa endpoint) is documented from the system-maintainer POV in trikilli → services/re-lab.md. This repo is everything else.

Layout

  • findings/ — the running findings log (append-only), one file per subsystem.
  • ghidra/ — exported scripts, data-type archives, struct definitions.
  • traces/ — D3D9 / Win32 API call captures + analysis.
  • scripts/ — helper tooling (loaders, extractors, parsers).
  • notes/ — session notes, scratch, hypotheses.

Ownership / legality

Game binaries come from the owner's own GOG/Steam copy. RE is for personal interoperability, bug-fixing, and preservation. Binaries themselves are not committed here (see .gitignore) — they live on the lab's Samba share /srv/re-lab/samples.

Campaign (how this repo is run)

A 4-agent crew (defined in ~/.claude/agents/re-*.md) runs the exploration: re-quartermaster (backlog + board) → re-analyst (maps via ReVa) → re-verifier (proves vs real data; old-vs-new differential once reimpl starts) → re-scribe (files the note, links it, commits).

  • campaign/board.md — live status board (start here).
  • Live tracking = Forgejo issues on alex/sots-re (labels status/* are the kanban columns; type/*, conf/*). campaign/board.md is the editable mirror — publish with scripts/forgejo_campaign.py bootstrap (needs FORGEJO_TOKEN).
  • campaign/backlog.md — prioritized target queue.
  • campaign/open-questions.md — unresolved threads.
  • findings/_template.md — the record format every finding follows.
  • findings/{objects,control-flow,subsystems}/ — the growing engine map.
  • verify/{parsers,traces,harness,results}/ — validation: struct parsers now, golden-trace replay + shim compare-mode for reimplementation.
  • ghidra/ — exported scripts + datatype archives.

Approach & north star: findings/00-strategy.md. Binary facts: findings/01-fingerprint.md.

Sibling repo

alex/sots-engine — the from-scratch engine source (clean-room, public-capable). This repo keeps the evidence + planning for both; binary facts cross over only via ghidra/addresses.json → tools/gen_addresses.py.

  • guides/re-windows-2000s-howto.md — annotated bibliography + how-to for RE of mid-2000s MSVC/DX9 Windows games, with our-experience call-outs.