Gate 2: pack behavior good except "sometimes the monster is in the
character / too close vs retail". The ACDREAM_PROBE_STICKY capture
nailed it frame-by-frame: 1661 deep-overlap AdjustOffset ticks, ALL
steering inward (dist -0.65 -> -0.78 -> ... -> -1.9 at +0.13/tick),
monsters converging to centerDist~0 — while the suppressed-snap lines
show ACE's authoritative positions stayed properly OUTSIDE (drift up to
7.7 m). The radii were correct (tgtR=0.68, ownR=0.59-0.98).
Root cause: ACE's literal decode of StickyManager::adjust_offset
(`if (delta >= |dist|) delta = dist;`) leaves delta POSITIVE when the
overlap exceeds one tick's step — steering TOWARD the target center, a
runaway whose equilibrium is centers-coincident. ACE servers virtually
never reach that branch (quantum >=1/30 -> threshold ~1 m); at
render-rate quanta the threshold is ~0.13 m and pack jostle trips it
constantly. The BN mush (0x00555554-0x00555597) is unreadable on
exactly this compare; the retail oracle (side-by-side on the same ACE:
monsters separate) refutes the ACE-literal reading.
Pin: sign-correct clamp — `else if (dist < 0) delta = -delta` (back off
rate-limited). Identical to ACE-literal in every shallow/outside case.
Register row AP-82 (same commit) with the cdb verification note.
Conformance: StickyManagerTests.AdjustOffset_DeepOverlap_BacksOff_
RateLimited. Full suite 4039 green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
699669502c