tws-zombies-scripts/t6/scripts/NOTES.md

T6 port notes

T6 is ported from T5. Both source trees contain common, HUD, AFK, join, lock, telemetry, leaderboard and bank modules; neither includes direct-database modules.

Differences retained for T6 and requested fixes

Area	Difference from T5	Reason
Paths	maps/mp/_utility, scripts/zm/tws_t6_common	T6 namespaces and requested filenames
Loading	No T5 zombiemode dvar gate; each module has main() and init()	Zombies-only folder loading; avoid r5346 missing-main warnings
HUD positioning	Fullscreen X/Y anchors, direct normalized 640 × 480 coordinates, unboxed core and service area	Bypass safe-area insets; validate Plutonium tag clearance and font fit at each aspect ratio
HUD rendering	Precached white shader, local max-health fallback, floating-point ratio, getPlayers()	T6 rendering/state handling without changing player max health
Enemy count	Stock _zm_utility::get_current_zombie_count() plus queued zombies	Uses the map's zombie team and enemy filters
Timers	Seed elapsed time for late joiners; stop round watcher/reset on game over	T6 timer behavior; keep frozen timers frozen
AFK	Maintain control freeze, disable guns/grenades, guard player state and stale grace threads	Requested movement/shooting fix; retain .afk / .back and two-second grace
Telemetry	Global httpPost(url, options); T5-parity queue + heartbeat + game_start/end + watchdog + log-level dvar; per-player guid comes from the persistent player.guid field (T5 uses player getGuid() directly); per-match kills/headshots/downs/revives read from player.pers[], with missing or negative values reported as 0	Stock T6 connection initialization populates .guid before notifying connected; stock initpersstat / incpersstat maintain match counters in player.pers[], whereas T5 uses player.stats[]. Payload keys match T5 for downstream shape parity
Join	Port of T5 tws_t5_join.gsc; uses level.spawnplayer / level.custom_spawnplayer (lowercase) and maps\mp\zombies\_zm::spectator_respawn; readiness gated on self.sessionstate == "spectator" instead of T5's self.initialized	T6 stock spectator respawn hook lives in _zm.gsc; self.initialized is a T5 SP zombiemode marker that T6 stock does not populate the same way

Common provides matching T5/T6 HUD layout constants, helpers and first-spawn dispatcher. HUD again owns the hud_game_over notification fan-out. Lock again waits on HUD notifications, applies T5's random password, and clears it on startup/game over. The added password-preservation dvars and independent lock watcher are gone.

Common also listens for .help through the native say notification, independent of first-spawn initialization so newcomers can view commands while spectating. Each loaded command module registers its command and description with register_help_command() during init(). Lazy registry initialization preserves registrations regardless of module initialization order. Common owns one unboxed upper-right service area. Help shows all nine installed commands in explicit command/description rows; extra registered commands use pages of nine rows. Pages last 12 seconds, with automatic dismissal after the final page and a counter only for multi-page lists. .help / .commands restart at page one. Help pauses record page time, and a .leaders request during help replaces the pending replay from page one. Service state prevents old requests from closing newer displays. Disconnect and game-end cleanup are independent of page timing. Command handlers retain their existing listeners, and help/records work without the HUD module.

Both engines use explicit help rows; T5 no longer relies on newline rendering, and T6 has the same row geometry. Common allocates only the active service view: 19 nonarchived elements for nine-command help (20 with a multi-page counter), or four for records (five with a multi-page counter). Closing the service or switching kinds destroys the view; idle holds no elements. Pages reuse the active elements, separately from controller and pending-request state. Core + AFK use 10 + 1 archived elements. Hidden elements still occupy slots. The T6 player HUD structure has 31 slots in each bucket; it does not establish current Plutonium stock HUD usage. Keep the live overlap/element-budget checks alongside the portable checks.

The core is created on connection for waiting spectators with placeholders, while timer updates retain the existing spawn/round lifecycle. Connection-time creation must not seed the match clock. The unboxed layout has timers at the upper left, branding at top center and zombies/health at bottom center. HP numbers appear to the right of the bar only while injured; AFK sits above the zombie count. Services never reposition the core. Records are right aligned, with Map record | Round N followed by up to three bounded holder lines, no footer and no single-page counter. Their 12-second page timing is unchanged.

HUD 1.4.2 requires matching common 1.4.0+ and Plutonium r5334+ for SetTextUnlimited. The N ZOMBIES counter is one element centered at the health track's midpoint with uniform scale 1.25, starting as -- ZOMBIES. Only changed counts update its text; numeric HP retains SetValue. On r5334+, update the HUD script and restart the map. Older Plutonium clients and servers need updates and full restarts first. AFK 1.2.0 and leaderboard 1.1.0 remain compatible; AFK still requires common 1.4.0+. Overlay helpers use direct normalized 640 × 480 coordinates. Dynamic health fills use make_overlay_width() like their tracks. Apply int() after max() in that helper: native max() returns a float, but SetShader requires an integer width. Legacy panel helpers retain their 0.75 horizontal conversion for existing consumers. Font scale is at least 1.0. There is no new native-plugin/backend dependency or full server-process restart requirement when already using Plutonium r5334+.

HUD owns the exact, case-insensitive .hud chat command and registers it in help only while installed. Common's core wrappers preserve each element's intended alpha behind a per-player visibility mask; health and AFK changes use set_core_alpha(). Data/timers keep updating while hidden and freeze at game over. Help, records, stock HUD and AFK protection are unaffected. Visibility defaults on, survives death/respawn during the connection/map, and resets on reconnect or map restart. All nine installed commands use one help page, ordered .help, .hud, .afk, .back, .join, .leaders, .b, .d, .w. Bank commands display the full <amount|all> syntax.

AFK again listens to the native say notification, so it no longer needs plugin chat registration. The additional T6 controls are only held while AFK; .back releases them before the protection grace period. Restoration is deferred during death/laststand/intermission until active play. Other mods controlling the same invulnerability or weapon flags can still conflict and need live testing.

The existing optional T5 dvars remain. Leaderboard adds the three settings documented in the shared README. common_config() and ensure_config() are original T5 in-memory HUD helpers, not an external configuration system.

Leaderboard join announcements

The module is tws_t6_leaderboard.gsc in T6 and tws_t5_leaderboard.gsc in T5. Common's existing connection listener now also dispatches optional connection handlers after a one-frame yield. Leaderboard waits for player readiness and uses a level-owned HTTP cache, independent of the first-spawn handlers. T6 spectators keep hasSpawned false, so T6 readiness uses session state and the intro-screen flag; T5 sets hasSpawned for both playable and spectator spawns.

T6's active scr_zm_ui_gametype / scr_zm_map_start_location fields come from stock _zm.gsc. Mode/location combinations follow the T6 server configurations and Electric Cherry's map catalogue. Unknown selections require an explicit API key instead of falling back to another variant sharing the engine map.

Historical validation for the initial leaderboard change: 135 fixture/static checks passed using the actual data-handling functions from both scripts with JavaScript engine-value shims. All seven then-current T6 scripts compiled and assembled using a local Intel macOS driver built from gsc-tool 1.5.1 sources. PowerShell was unavailable, so check.ps1 itself was not executed here. T5 compilation and live plugin/gameplay checks were not run; gsc-tool has no T5 backend. The production API could not be reached from this environment. See the shared README for the live validation cases.

Verified primary sources

• Plutonium loading guide: T6 source scripts load from storage/t6/scripts/zm.
• Entry-point lifecycle: main() runs early; init() runs after gametype startup. Empty main() must not call init() and duplicate initialization.
• Plutonium changelog, r2234: documents T6 level waittill("say", message, player).
• Stock T6 Zombies: round state, end_game, invulnerability, and stock control resets.
• Stock zombie utility: map-aware enemy counting.
• Released plugin HTTP implementation: global httpPost(url, options) takes an options array with body and headers. Its positional README example does not match this implementation. Completion is done(response, success, error); success reports transport only.
• Plugin JSON implementation: jsonSerialize handles the event payload.

Do not create a dummy http.gsc. An unresolved httpPost/jsonSerialize means the installed server/plugin must be checked. Installing a DLL requires a full server-process restart, not just a map restart.

Telemetry reboot investigation

The T5 and T6 implementations are not runtime-verified equivalents. In particular, T6 plugin v3.0.4 expects httpPost(url, body, headers) and notifies only the response body; v3.1.1 expects httpPost(url, options) and also provides success/error values. The current script targets the TWS build based on v3.1.1, which appends diagnostics and enforces native HTTP deadlines. Switching the function name does not establish compatibility with an unknown installed DLL.

Console markers identify main, init, round serialization, HTTP invocation, handle return and completion. They do not log the URL or response body. If startup fails before main, inspect the first linker/plugin error, not the last supervisor restart message. If no occupied positive round was observed, this script has not called JSON serialization or HTTP yet.

Earlier live validation: the operator confirmed successful server startup and Fleet delivery with the original direct reporter. The earlier reboot cause was not established; logging alone should not be treated as a proven fix.

To recover the server while investigating, move tws_t6_telemetry.gsc outside the autoload directory. The enable dvar cannot bypass unresolved native functions at link time. The other four TWS modules can run without telemetry.

Checks

Newcomer eligibility

The stock _zm_gametype::onspawnplayer can schedule spawnspectator after 0.05 seconds while _globallogic_spawn::spawnplayer emits spawned_player at frame end. That event alone does not prove gameplay. Join 1.0.1 waits 0.1 seconds before checking session state and keeps listening after setup spectator spawns. killed_player also consumes eligibility so a death during that interval cannot restore newcomer access. The common dispatcher still starts each registered module once per connection.

Run node tools/check_join.mjs for portable lifecycle and request fixtures. These execute the join script with engine shims, not a GSC VM. Live validation: join Farm Survival during round 3 and remain spectating, use .join once, then try repeated requests, death, and subsequent rounds. On a fresh connection, wait for a normal round-start spawn, die, and verify .join is rejected. Also check a round-1 participant, reconnecting, disconnect during setup, and game over. Repeat on another T6 map; compile with the checker below first.

Local: tools/check.ps1 compiles all eight files for T6 PC and checks shared references and entry points. It requires PowerShell and gsc-tool. Run the shared HUD checks for core/service behavior and command regressions. Compiler success does not certify runtime linking.

Live checks after deploying:

1. Join, late-join, die/respawn, and reconnect: one unboxed core per player, upper-left timers, top-center branding, bottom-center zombies/health and spectator placeholders without an early clock start. Check damage-only HP, health/Juggernog changes, AFK placement and timers frozen at game over. Test safe-area settings and different resolutions against stock HUD elements. Check 0, 6, 9, 10, 99 and 100 ZOMBIES remain centered above the health track, including after .hud toggles and game over freezes the count.
2. .afk blocks movement, shooting and grenades; .back restores them. Try rapid toggles, a round transition, death/respawn and game over.
3. Lock fires at the threshold and clears on game over/restart. HUD must be installed. T5 semantics intentionally clear an existing password at startup.
4. Telemetry sends the initial occupied round and each new round to the existing endpoint. Check server ID/player count, same-round joins and an unreachable API.
5. Repeat on the actual server maps, especially afterlife and special-enemy rounds.
6. Type .help, .HELP and .commands before first spawn, during play and while AFK: one page of nine commands with all modules installed, full bank syntax and no page counter, only on the requesting player's screen. Verify dismissal after 12 seconds and repeat-to-restart behavior. Add custom registered commands to exercise the nine-row page limit and page counter. Remove optional modules and restart the map to confirm their commands are absent. Restore them and confirm command behavior is unchanged.
7. Interrupt a record with help and check that its remaining page time resumes. Repeat .leaders during help; only the latest replay should start from page one after help closes. Check long names across pages, no records and unavailable records. Reopen after expiry, disconnect/reconnect and end the game during a service; verify no duplicates or leftovers. Repeat without HUD.
8. Toggle .hud before spawning, while playing/AFK and after game over. Verify the core and AFK indicator hide privately while help/records remain visible. Show it after taking damage or changing AFK state while hidden: current values and intended alpha should return. Confirm updates continue hidden, death/respawn keeps the choice, and reconnect/map restart restores visibility.

The stock T6 HUD initialization sets a nominal font height of 12; the corresponding font helper uses int(level.fontheight * fontscale) for its height. The portable HUD checks use that nominal box to prevent holder-row, help-row and AFK overlaps. Exact glyph extents still need live validation, especially on T5.