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acdream/docs/plans/2026-08-09-chat-parity-campaign.md
Erik 34d8a3c0e7 fix(chat): CH1 review fixes — sbb-idiom channel catch-all, command-output typing 
Applies the Opus review findings on CH1 (172c6f9a), the exact retail chat
color table. Two blockers plus should-fixes/nits, one commit:

BLOCKER 1 — LegacyChannelChatType.Resolve's channel-bit table was wrong.
Binary Ninja renders retail's `neg esi; sbb esi, esi` idiom (a branchless
select between Channel 0x08 and Channel_Send 0x09) as the trivial pseudo-C
`esi - esi` (always 0), hiding the real values. Corrected by decoding the
raw bytes at the PDB-paired binary: HEAR sbb site VA 0x00570F0A (mask -6 ->
0x08), SEND sbb site VA 0x00570D4F (mask -5 -> 0x09). The generic
admin/audit/sentinel catch-all is Channel/Channel_Send, NOT Abuse (0x0E) —
Abuse is retail's ONLY 0x0E producer (bit 0x0001). The unnamed
FellowBroadcast bit (0x4000000) is hear=Channel(0x08)/send=Fellowship(0x13),
not a flat 0x13. ACE's PDB-sourced Channel enum corroborates. Introduces
`RetailLogTextType`, the 34-value named enum for the wire LogTextType space
(values only, no color — Core stays presentation-free).

BLOCKER 2 — three ChatLog.OnSystemMessage sinks (ChatVM.ShowSystemMessage,
LiveSessionRuntimeFactory's ShowSystemMessage delegate,
HeadlessGameplayOperations.DisplayMessage) were typing ALL
ClientCommandController output 0x1A (bright red), including informational
command output (@version, /loc, friends list, usage lines). Retail types
the great majority of that output 0x00 Default (green) and reserves 0x1A
for genuine refusals/errors. Reverted to 0x00 with a comment noting the
refusal-vs-info split lands with CH2's SpewBox producer rewiring. The five
App composition sites that pass 0x1A for actual refusal text
(InteractionRetainedUiComposition, SessionPlayerComposition) were already
correct and are untouched (aside from converting the literal to the new
enum).

Also: AP-176 divergence-register row for OnWeenieError/OnCombatLine's
single-type approximation of retail's per-code/per-message dispatch; a
carry-forward test for the out-of-range LogTextType color fallback in
ChatWindowController; decomp-confirmed anchors replacing ACE-inferred
citations in CombatChatTranslator and ChatLog.OnPlayerKilled; required
(non-optional) logTextType parameters on OnLocalSpeech/OnTellReceived/
OnCombatLine/OnSelfSent since no production caller relied on a default;
LegacyChannelChatType.Resolve's parameter renamed channelBit -> channelId
with a doc note on multi-bit ids; corrections to the color-table research
doc's §3.3 wire tables; and issue #359 for the pre-existing (not
CH1-introduced) 0x019E PlayerKilled participant-suppression gap retail has
and acdream lacks.

dotnet build clean; full Release suite 11,835 passed / 4 skipped / 0 failed
(11,839 total), up from the CH1 baseline of 11,833/4/0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-09 16:03:13 +02:00

5.4 KiB
Raw Blame History

Campaign CH — chat & interface-text retail parity

Status: ACTIVE 2026-08-09 — R1–R4 research complete (four docs under docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-*.md); CH1 landed, in Opus review.

Why now: first track of the alpha-release program (chat is the most visible daily surface for the friend-alpha). User-directed 2026-08-09.

Scope

Four deliverables, one campaign:

  1. Exact chat colors. The 2026-06-16 cdb session pinned the retail RGBAColor constants (0x81c4a8+), but only 4 of ~13 kinds were mapped with confidence; the type→color lookup table (ChatInterface::BuildChatColorLookupTable @ 0x4f31c0) was never decompiled. This campaign pins the COMPLETE table and conforms ChatWindowController.RetailChatColor to it.
  2. Working side channels vs local ACE. Turbine rooms (General / Trade / LFG / Roleplay / Society) and the legacy family (/f /a /m /p /v /cv), inbound and outbound. The 26-day-old "ACE doesn't run a TurbineChat server" claim is under verification — the research lane reads current ACE source rather than trusting it.
  3. Retail's on-screen interface text. The transient yellow top-of-viewport messages (jump-while-airborne being the canonical example) that retail does NOT put in the chat window. Routing table (on-screen vs chat vs both), presentation (color/duration/fade as far as acclient-side data allows — the draw itself lives in keystone.dll), and the client-raised local errors.
  4. Complete / and @ command registry. Every command the retail client parses, audited against RetailClientCommandCatalog (the 2026-07-13 family port is the baseline, not a restart). Missing commands implemented; non-retail verbs remain ACE server-passthrough per the command ownership rule (2026-07-13).

Out of scope: retail's secondary/floating chat windows and per-window filter masks (post-alpha polish unless a slice lands it for free); chat color user-configurability (we ship retail defaults); TurbineChat server emulation (ACE-side).

Method

Per CLAUDE.md: grep docs/research/named-retail/ first; cdb only where static decomp is insufficient; cross-check ACE + holtburger; conformance tests pin every table (colors, routing, command catalog); divergence register rows land in the same commits; build + full Release suite green per commit.

Model split (user-directed 2026-08-09): research on Opus; planning by the main loop (Fable); implementation slices on Sonnet; every slice gets a dual-lens Opus review — retail faithfulness AND architecture — before its gate.

Research lanes (all Opus, parallel, read-only)

Lane Output doc Question
R1 command registry docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-command-registry.md Complete retail verb/alias/handler table + acdream audit
R2 interface text docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-interface-text.md What draws the yellow text, the routing table, client-raised errors
R3 color table docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-color-table.md Full BuildChatColorLookupTable decompile + wire→type→color trace
R4 side channels docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-side-channels-vs-ace.md Per-family defect diagnosis vs current ACE source

Slices (provisional — finalized when research lands)

Ordering rationale: colors first (small, immediately visible, zero wire risk), then interface text (new presentation subsystem), then side channels (wire work, needs the connected gate), then command breadth, then closeout. Slices touching shared chat files run serially — one implementer per slice against a pinned contract (per feedback_dont_parallelize_coupled_plan_slices).

  • CH1 — exact color table. Conformance test pins every enum entry to its retail RGBA; RetailChatColor corrected; register rows for any kind we cannot yet receive on the wire.
  • CH2 — on-screen interface text. New presentation owner (App layer, retained-UI or TextRenderer HUD path per research recommendation); routing per retail's table; client-raised local errors ported at their retail raise sites; keystone-owned presentation unknowns get register rows.
  • CH3 — side channels. Fix list from R4; connected two-way gate against local ACE (send + receive per family); self-echo semantics per ChatChannelInfo.IsSelfEchoChannel.
  • CH4 — command registry completion. Catalog conformance test pins acdream's table against the retail registry enumeration; missing commands implemented family-by-family.
  • CH5 — closeout. Register sweep, ledger flip, ISSUES updates, in-client test script for the user gate.

Gates

  • Per slice: dotnet build green, full Release suite green, conformance tests, register rows same-commit, Opus dual review resolved.
  • Campaign: user in-client gate — colors side-by-side vs the retail client, each side channel spoken + heard, on-screen text provoked live (jump in air), command spot-checks. Test script delivered at CH5.

Ledger

Slice Commit Suite Review User gate
R1–R4 research see docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-* — — —
CH1 colors 172c6f9a 11,835 passed / 4 skipped / 0 failed APPROVE-WITH-FIXES; fixed 5f85ec9c pending
CH2 interface text — — — —
CH3 side channels — — — —
CH4 commands — — — —
CH5 closeout — — — —