acdream/docs/research/2026-08-11-campaign-op-test-script.md

Campaign OP connected-gate test script

Status: OP3 and OP7 sections. Later slices (OP4-6, OP8) append their own sections here as they land; the campaign's OP9 closeout gate is this document complete plus every slice code-complete.

This document is the script the user runs against the live connected client (ACDREAM_LIVE=1 against the local ACE server) to accept each slice. Each item states what to do and what retail-faithful behavior to expect. Anything marked INERT is authored and clickable but deliberately does nothing yet — that is the correct, contracted behavior for this slice, not a bug.

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OP3 — panel shell, open paths, Gameplay tab

Opening and closing the panel

1. Press F11. The Options panel opens — a floating, resizable window titled by its own chrome (no title-bar text is authored; the window itself is the visual identity). The Gameplay Options tab is selected by default (leftmost tab, matching the user's own retail screenshot).
2. Press F11 again. The panel closes.
3. Click the toolbar's Options button (the icon at the right end of the shortcut row, next to Inventory). The panel opens. If a DIFFERENT gmPanelUI-family panel was already open (Character Info, Skills, Vitae, Inventory, etc.), opening Options closes it first — this is retail's real "one active panel" behavior (gmPanelUI's shared geometry/exclusive-child model), not new to this panel. Note the button's STATE change, not just its behavior: before this slice this button was greyed out/disabled (panel id 10 was not in the catalog) and clicking it did nothing. It should now be fully enabled, AND it should highlight (same visual as the Inventory/Character/Magic buttons) while the Options panel is open, un-highlighting when it closes.
4. Click the panel's own close (X) button, top-right of the window chrome. The panel closes — same action as F11.
5. Drag the window by its border/chrome; resize it from the BOTTOM edge only. Options shares its geometry policy with every other gmPanelUI sibling (Character/Inventory/Spellbook/the indicator-detail panels): draggable, resizable from the bottom edge only (NOT the top, left, or right edges, and NOT a corner — the panel does not resize horizontally at all), and it remembers its HEIGHT across a close/reopen within the same session, same as every sibling. This is a correction from OP3-as-landed, which briefly gave Options all-four-edge/horizontal resize that no sibling has and that silently reverted to 300px wide the next time a sibling panel was shown.

Tab switching

6. Click each of the four tabs (Gameplay Options, Character, Chat, Config). Each switches the visible page; exactly one page is visible at a time. Character/Chat/Config show their AUTHORED content (row templates, Apply/Reset/Defaults buttons, scrollbars) but nothing on those three tabs is wired to live data yet — that is OP4/OP5/OP6's scope, not a bug in this slice. Only the currently-selected tab's button highlights as "open"; the others read "closed".
7. Switch away from Gameplay and back. No crash, no stuck state.

The seven Gameplay-tab buttons

8. Exit Game. Click it. The client logs off and closes gracefully — same behavior as pressing Escape then confirming, or closing the window. No confirmation dialog (retail has none on this path).
9. Exit to Character Selection. Click it. A confirmation dialog appears ("Are you sure you want to end this character session?" or the DAT-resolved retail equivalent). Click Yes while standing on solid ground: the client logs off and closes — today this behaves identically to Exit Game, NOT a return to a character-select screen (acdream has no pre-world character-select flow yet — register row AD-74). Click No: nothing happens, panel stays open.
10. Exit to Character Selection while airborne (jump and click the button mid-air, or confirm while still in the air). Expect the chat line "Cannot log off while in mid-air." in the SpewBox/chat scroll instead of logging off — this is retail's own byte-verified refusal, faithfully ported.
11. Configure Keyboard. Click it. INERT — nothing happens. This is the contracted behavior for OP3; OP8 wires the real Configure Keyboard screen, and OP8's own gate re-tests this exact button. Do not report this as a bug for OP3.
12. In-Game Help Files. Click it. INERT — nothing happens. Retail's own help viewer is a third-party plugin (plugins\ACHelpPlugin.dll) acdream does not have; retail itself fails silently with the plugin absent, and this button mirrors that (register row AD-76).
13. Urgent Assistance. Click it. Expect a chat line explaining the web browser could not be launched and pointing at http://support.turbine.com/ics/support/ticketnewwizard.asp?style=classic — retail's own byte-verified failure text, always shown (the URL is dead in 2026, so acdream never attempts to open a browser — register row AD-75). No native browser window opens, no OS dialog box. Legibility check (blast review SHOULD-FIX 4): this is a THREE-LINE, ~110-character-URL body landing in the SpewBox overlay, which auto-expires after 5 seconds. Read the whole body BEFORE it disappears — if you cannot finish reading it (especially the URL) in that window, report it as a legibility problem; the honest fix would be routing it to the scrolling chat transcript (which stays and scrolls back) instead of shortening the timeout.
14. Report Abuse. Click it. Same shape as Urgent Assistance (including the same legibility check), with its own retail text ("...to submit an abuse report...").
15. Use Mouse Turning Settings. Click it. Expect one retail chat line per changed value among: Camera Stiffness, Camera Adjustment, Mouse Sensitivity, Align To Slope, Invert Mouselook Axes, Turn to Face Camera — a FRESH character (never touched these settings) sees all six lines; clicking the button a second time in the same session sees zero lines (everything already at the macro's target). These six lines are byte-verified RetailLogTextType.Magic (0x07), NOT the client-local refusal type — expect LIGHT BLUE text in the SCROLLING CHAT TRANSCRIPT (not the transient SpewBox overlay). Do NOT expect a timestamp prefix: acdream renders no chat timestamps yet (the Display Timestamps consumer is OP4 scope, and there is no chat-log file — TS-69), so a bare light-blue line is CORRECT here (OP3 re-review R1). If you see bright red text in a transient 5-second overlay instead (the ClientLocal/SpewBox look used by the mid-air refusal and UA/RA above), that is the pre-fix-round bug — report it. Known, registered gap (TS-74): acdream has no persistent "turn to face camera" mouse-turning MODE yet, so this button changes stored preferences and sends the wire bit, but you will not see the camera actually start turning with mouse movement — that consumer does not exist yet. Verify the CHAT LINES and that the button is clickable/does not crash; do not expect a camera-behavior change.

Cross-session persistence (mechanism review S6)

16. Relog the SAME character (log off through Exit Game, or disconnect/reconnect, then log back in) after step 15 has already shown all six lines once. Open the Options panel and click "Use Mouse Turning Settings" again. Expect zero chat lines this time — UseMouseTurning is an auto-save id (SetSingleCharacterOption 0x0005), so the bit reached ACE on the first click and the fresh post-relog PlayerDescription echoes it back as already-on. Seeing the "Turn to Face Camera was changed..." line AGAIN after a clean relog means the bit did not actually persist server-side — report it.
17. Fully relaunch the client (close the window, start a new process) after step 15. Reopen the Options panel — no button click needed. The five CLIENT-LOCAL preferences (Camera Stiffness, Adjustment Speed, Mouse Sensitivity, Align To Slope, Invert Mouselook Axes) persisted to settings.json's cameraTurning section should still read at the macro's target values from the PREVIOUS session — click "Use Mouse Turning Settings" once more and confirm you again see zero lines (proving the five client-local prefs, not just the one server bit, survived the relaunch).

What to report

• Any of the above NOT matching (wrong text, wrong tab default, window not draggable/resizable, close button not working, F11/toolbar not opening the panel, opening Options not closing a sibling panel, toolbar button not highlighting while the panel is open).
• Any exception/crash on any of the 17 steps.
• Whether the confirmation dialog's exact wording looks retail-correct (it resolves from the DAT string table at runtime; a fallback English string only appears if that resolution fails, which would itself be worth reporting).

Explicitly NOT in scope for this gate

• Character/Chat/Config tab content (rows, checkboxes, sliders, live data) — OP4/OP5/OP6.
• Configure Keyboard's actual screen — OP8.
• Any observable camera change from "Use Mouse Turning Settings" — no acdream consumer exists yet (TS-74).

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OP7 — headless characterOptions

Unlike OP3-OP6, this is not a graphical-client gate: no window is launched. The coordinator runs acdream-headless run against local ACE with a config declaring a small characterOptions block, and inspects the ACE-side persisted CharacterOptions1/CharacterOptions2 (and, for the ListenTo*Chat ids, the actual Turbine room membership) before and after. Automated coverage (schema rejection, the diff-and-send engine, the wiring from a real PlayerDescription game event through to a captured wire action, and dedicated-update-thread affinity) already runs in tests/AcDream.Headless.Tests/HeadlessConfigurationLoaderTests.cs, HeadlessCharacterOptionsSeederTests.cs, and HeadlessCharacterOptionsSeederWiringTests.cs — this script is for the ONE thing those tests cannot prove: that a REAL ACE server actually accepts and persists the sends.

Recipe

1. Confirm the character's starting state. Before running the bot, note (or reset) the target character's IgnoreAllegianceRequests (0x01, auto-save, SetSingleCharacterOption 0x0005) and ListenToTradeChat (0x24, auto-save, also 0x0005 — additionally joins/leaves the Turbine trade room) options — e.g. via an existing graphical login, or by inspecting ACE's stored CharacterOptions1/ CharacterOptions2 for the character row directly. Pick a THIRD, batched (non-auto-save) id for the blob path — SalvageMultiple (0x22, tier 2) is a safe choice: it has no observable server-side effect beyond the stored bit, so a mismatch is purely a persistence question, not a behavior one.
2. Author a headless config with all three declared at values that DIFFER from the character's current stored state, e.g.:

   {
     "version": 1,
     "sessions": [{
       "id": "op7-bot",
       "endpoint": { "host": "127.0.0.1", "port": 9000 },
       "account": "testaccount",
       "character": { "name": "+Acdream" },
       "policy": { "id": "idle" },
       "credential": { "provider": "environment", "reference": "OP7_BOT_PASSWORD" },
       "characterOptions": {
         "IgnoreAllegianceRequests": true,
         "ListenToTradeChat": true,
         "SalvageMultiple": true
       }
     }]
   }
   

   (Flip each true to false instead if the character already has that bit set — the point is a genuine diff in both directions, not specifically "everything ON".)
3. Run it: acdream-headless run --config op7-bot.json with OP7_BOT_PASSWORD set in the environment. Let it sit in-world a few seconds, then stop it (Ctrl+C — the process scheduler's graceful- shutdown path already sends a real logoff).

Expected wire sends on first connect

• One SetSingleCharacterOption (0x0005) for IgnoreAllegianceRequests (id 0x01) — immediately, no batching.
• One SetSingleCharacterOption (0x0005) for ListenToTradeChat (id 0x24) — immediately, and ACE's handler additionally joins the Turbine trade-chat room server-side for this session (observable via ACE's own Turbine-chat membership logging if available).
• No SetSingleCharacterOption (0x0005) for SalvageMultiple (id 0x22) — it is batched, not auto-save, so TrySetOption only marks the module dirty and never sends 0x0005 for it. The single SetCharacterOptions (0x01A1) blob flush is the ONLY wire evidence of this id changing (OP7's diff-and-send calls the explicit SaveOptions verb once, after every declared id has been diffed, never interleaved — so this same 0x01A1 also carries whatever the loop already wrote locally for IgnoreAllegianceRequests/ListenToTradeChat, even though those two ALSO got their own immediate 0x0005).
• No other option bits change. ACE's stored CharacterOptions1/ CharacterOptions2 for every UNDECLARED id stay exactly what they were before the run.
• No 0x01A1 blob before the client's own GameActionLoginComplete. If ACE logs a refusal ("SetCharacterOptions received before FirstEnterWorldDone" or equivalent), that is a real OP7 defect — the diff-and-send is contracted to run only after both LoginComplete has been sent AND a real PlayerDescription has seeded local state (HeadlessCharacterOptionsSeeder's own two-precondition latch).

Expected silence on reconnect

4. Run the SAME config a second time (a fresh process, or the process's own reconnect path if it fires) without changing anything on the ACE side in between. Expect zero 0x0005/0x01A1 sends for the three declared ids — the fresh PlayerDescription now echoes back exactly what the first run persisted, so the declared-vs-actual diff finds nothing (idempotent by construction: a bot that already has what it wants sends nothing, matching retail's own "re-set to the current value produces nothing" rule — set-character-options-wire.md §3.1/§3.5).
5. Flip one declared value in the config (e.g. SalvageMultiple back to false) and run again. SalvageMultiple is batched, so expect exactly ONE 0x01A1 blob flush and no 0x0005 for it — the other two declared ids, still matching, produce nothing at all (not even the blob).

What to report

• Any declared id that does NOT persist across a fresh reconnect (ACE either rejected it silently, or the diff-and-send never actually ran).
• Any UNDECLARED id whose stored value changed — a sign the blob echoed something it shouldn't have (wire research §5.3's "echo real values, never zero them" rule, or a stale/incorrect snapshot read).
• Any 0x0005/0x01A1 send observed BEFORE the client's own LoginComplete action on the wire (a WireMCP capture on loopback 127.0.0.1:9000 settles this precisely if ACE's own log line is ambiguous).
• Whether ListenToTradeChat actually joined the Turbine trade room server-side (not just the stored bit) — the one declared id in the sample config with a real behavioral consumer.

Explicitly NOT in scope for this gate

• Every other tier-1/tier-2 option name — the three above exercise both wire paths (auto-save 0x0005-only and batched 0x0005+0x01A1); the remaining 23 names share the same two code paths and are already covered by the id-ascending completeness assertions in CharacterOptionTableTests (OP1) and the schema tests here (OP7).
• Any presentation-only (tier-3) option — HeadlessConfigurationLoader refuses to load a config that declares one; there is nothing to run.
• The graphical Options panel's own Character tab — OP4.

OP7 gate result — PASSED (coordinator, 2026-08-11)

Three live runs against local ACE (127.0.0.1:9000, +Acdream, lifecycle-smoke policy, temporary seeder diagnostics since reverted):

• Run 1 (declared: IgnoreAllegianceRequests=true, ListenToTradeChat=true, SalvageMultiple=true): the seeder sent exactly two SetSingleOption diffs (IgnoreAllegianceRequests false→true auto-save; SalvageMultiple false→true batched) plus ONE SaveOptions (0x01A1) flush; ListenToTradeChat was already true and sent nothing. After the policy's own portal AND a genuine mid-run reconnect (fresh ACE PlayerDescription), all three reported already ..., no send — proving ACE accepted and persisted both wire paths within the session.
• Run 3 (fresh process, SalvageMultiple flipped to false): the fresh seed echoed SalvageMultiple=true from run 1 — a value ONLY the run-1 0x01A1 blob could have carried (batched id, never 0x0005), which is the cross-process ACE-persistence proof. The flip sent one SetSingleOption + one SaveOptions and nothing for the other two ids; post-portal and post-reconnect re-diffs were silent.
• Both runs: no pre-LoginComplete sends observed, no ACE refusals, graceful zero-code exits, disposed with converged runtime and zero leases. Pre-existing noise unrelated to OP7, noted for the record: an unmapped [weenie-error] code=0x051D, and the K4 resource envelope's handle-count violation (the k4-linux-30-session Linux profile evaluated on Windows).