sots-re/findings
alex ae47971316 AI4: what an AI turn emits, and what each command costs in ModCount
Joins the emission side (lanes AI1-AI3) to the counting side (A2, W2). Three
results.

The cost of applying a command is a property of its list, and the boundary is
sharp: lists 1-16 each advance ModCount once per element, lists 17-27 never do.
Four of the six prologue gates bump, one is free, and the sixth has no applier
anywhere in the application path -- its cost is unknown, not zero. The batch
applies the twenty-seven lists in a fixed order that is neither list nor offset
order, with the six gates split across three separate per-player loops at three
different points, and four of the sixteen bumps inlined into the batch rather
than living in a handler, which is why a call-graph sweep under-counts them.

Lane W2's four unnamed handler EIPs are named, and so are its two inlined ones,
and the ten measured command bumps then decompose with zero residual. Four of the
ten are the research-rate gate, one per submitted block, and one of those four is
the human's. Two are list 14, on a turn that moved exactly one fleet -- which
confirms lane AI2's P1 (an AI fleet order deposits two fleet-task elements where
the interface deposits one) from the counter side, at no VM cost.

The reference game is not what the record says. ref-turn2.sav IS turn2-state.sav;
there are THREE AI players, not one, and the two dormant ones do run -- all three
set a research rate and picked a research target on turn 1; and the four
monster-faction players submit no command block at all, which is the first direct
evidence that they have no client rather than an empty task list.

Prediction committed for turn1-state: the same 12, out of a different set of
commands -- 4 rate gates, 3 research targets, and three orders from the one AI
with an empire, which are predicted to be a new design, a build order and a
system-rates command, with NO fleet order on turn 1. The trap multiset it
predicts contains two EIPs W2 has never seen and omits three it did, so it is
cheap to falsify: one save swap on W2's unchanged watchpoint module.

Also: phase 2 of the AI's turn is Hiver-only (a fifth cross-check on the species
reading, and the reason one prologue gate has never been observed set), phases
29-33 are dead because the submit latches the client before it builds the send
buffer, and cl_SetResearchTarget is AI-only surface with exactly one caller.

14 addresses in ghidra/addresses.d/lane-ai4.json; validated to a scratch path,
1,138 -> 1,152, no duplicate names.
2026-09-08 16:27:58 -04:00
..
control-flow lane W2: the three queue items not reached, with the reason and the cheapest next step for each 2026-09-08 15:25:53 -04:00
objects lane D2: the ship-design catalogue -- how designs persist, hull size, and the 0x400 flag 2026-09-08 12:45:36 -04:00
subsystems AI4: what an AI turn emits, and what each command costs in ModCount 2026-09-08 16:27:58 -04:00
.keep.md init commit 2026-09-07 12:31:56 -04:00
00-strategy.md strategy: phase 2 decisions (two repos, c++ shim, accrual order) 2026-09-07 17:10:21 -04:00
01-fingerprint.md map: RTTI class inventory (1924 types, engine=Mars); reseed board with real targets 2026-09-07 14:48:43 -04:00
_template.md scaffold RE campaign: board, backlog, findings template, verify tree 2026-09-07 14:40:44 -04:00