tws-zombies-scripts/README.md

tws-zombies-scripts

Combined working repo for the TWS Plutonium Zombies scripts and native plugins across two games.

Layout

• t5/scripts/ — T5 GSC modules, README, and notes.
• t5/plugins/ — tws-t5-gsc-utils, based on alicealys/t5-gsc-utils, with TWS HTTP changes.
• t6/scripts/ — T6 GSC modules, README, notes, and compiler checks.
• t6/plugins/ — tws-t6-gsc-utils, based on alicealys/t6-gsc-utils, with the same HTTP changes.

The scripts still deploy to the game's existing storage/t5/scripts/sp/ or storage/t6/scripts/zm/ directories; the new source layout does not change GSC namespaces.

Building plugins

Plugin source is vendored as regular tracked files so local modifications travel with this repository. Each plugin's upstream.json records its upstream revision and exact Git dependency revisions. Dependencies and build outputs are ignored. The dependency loader replaces upstream's submodule setup; nested upstream .github files are retained for reference and do not run as this repo's CI.

Use Windows with Visual Studio 2022 C++ build tools, a Windows SDK, Git, and Python 3.9+. From a Developer PowerShell with msbuild on PATH, at the repository root:

.\tools\build_plugins.ps1 -Game all -Configuration Release

This restores pinned dependencies, generates both projects, and builds x86 DLLs. Upstream's Premake setup also downloads its MySQL client dependency on first use. Outputs are t5/plugins/tws-t5-gsc-utils/build/bin/Release/tws-t5-gsc-utils.dll and t6/plugins/tws-t6-gsc-utils/build/bin/Release/tws-t6-gsc-utils.dll. Remove the old t5-gsc-utils.dll or t6-gsc-utils.dll before installing the corresponding tws- DLL in Plutonium/plugins/; load only one version per game. Restart the server process; restarting only the map cannot load an updated plugin.

Use python tools/fetch_plugin_deps.py all --check to verify dependency revisions without fetching. Use python3 tools/test_plugin_http.py on macOS/Linux with a C++20 compiler and libcurl development files to compile the real HTTP utilities and test local stalled connections, response deadlines, status reporting and recovery. These portable tests do not build the Windows DLLs or exercise Plutonium's VM. Run python3 tools/test_plugin_component.py to compile the completion/option handling against host engine shims with address and undefined-behavior sanitizers.

Both plugins now default to a 5-second connection timeout and 15-second total transfer timeout. Request options can override these with positive millisecond values. Telemetry explicitly sets those limits and logs native HTTP status and timings. See the T5 and T6 plugin notes. Telemetry retries and durable replay require the updated plugins; see the delivery and rollout notes.

Telemetry delivery and rollout (T5 and T6)

Deploy Electric Cherry #144 before these reporters. Replay requires the receiver to associate reports with match and deduplicate seq; the legacy receiver can apply an old end to a newer match. Build and install both updated TWS plugins, restart the server processes, then deploy the corresponding scripts. The new telemetryNewMatch, telemetryLoad, telemetryStore, telemetryRemove and telemetryResponse functions are required even if telemetry is disabled by dvar.

Stat reports now include both score (spendable balance) and score_total (stock cumulative match score) for each player. Deploy Electric Cherry's score_total receiver support before these scripts; older receivers discard the extra field. No additional plugin update is needed for this field. The first stock end_game signal is captured without yielding, before intermission replaces the balance with the total. game_start remains an identity-only roster.

Every captured report includes a match key (random native process token plus an increasing match counter, at most 64 characters) and a positive seq. game_start is sequence 1. Retries and replay send the exact original JSON; sequence numbers are never reassigned. Player snapshots still reflect capture time; no client timestamp has been added and API receipt times retain their existing meaning.

A single sender keeps game_start and game_end at the queue head on transport failure, native timeout, HTTP 429 or 5xx. Delays are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, then 30 seconds between attempts, capped at 30 seconds without a retry-count limit. Other 4xx (and redirects) are logged and dropped. A 2xx with a JSON boolean "ok": true acknowledges delivery; empty, malformed or negative 2xx replies and missing HTTP diagnostics are unacknowledged and retried for boundaries. Accepted reports log Electric Cherry's telemetry.timing.matchId as ec_match_id when supplied. Heartbeats and round changes remain best effort. Waiting heartbeats are coalesced to the newest snapshot, preserving round reports and any in-flight request. Intentional coalescing can produce gaps in seq.

The native outbox saves start/end snapshots synchronously before sending, and removes them only after acknowledgment or a terminal HTTP rejection. Files live under fs_homepath/tws-telemetry/t5/ or t6/, scoped to the exact server name and endpoint. Keep this directory on persistent writable storage across process or container restarts; it contains player snapshots but no authorization token. Use a single process per server/endpoint and storage directory. Endpoint/server changes use a separate outbox, so restore the original configuration to replay its backlog. Keep tws_server_id stable between maps. On map/process startup, recovered boundaries precede any new game_start. An accepted report whose acknowledgment/removal was lost is safely replayed with the same identity.

Writes replace the committed file only after a complete temporary write. A storage error blocks the affected boundary before sending and logs an error; unsaved in-memory reports cannot survive a restart. Unreadable/corrupt saved data disables telemetry until storage is repaired and the map restarted, preserving the file for recovery. Each outbox is limited to 4,096 reports / 16 MiB, with individual report bodies below 20 KiB; reaching a limit fails visibly without discarding the saved backlog. Disk removal failures retry cleanup without sending an already resolved report again during the same map. The plugin cannot recover a game_end that was never captured (for example, a process crash during play).

Run node tools/check_telemetry.mjs for both reporters' queue/retry fixtures and python3 tools/test_plugin_telemetry.py for native storage, acknowledgment and process-restart checks with sanitizers. The native test uses each restored JSON dependency; alternatively pass --json-header '/path/{game}-json.hpp' with the single headers from each plugin's pinned revision. These tests use engine shims. Validate Windows DLL linking and both games in Plutonium before rollout: force a timeout/429/503 at start and end, confirm permanent 400/401 failures do not retry, restart a map and then a process with pending boundaries, and confirm their original match IDs complete before the next start. Also verify a 2xx without ok: true stays pending, an outage retains only the latest waiting heartbeat, and a disk failure is visible without advancing past an unsaved boundary.

Parity

T5 and T6 are separate source trees, not a shared library — GSC namespaces, includes, and stock APIs differ enough between the two engines that a shared file is not practical. Feature parity is enforced pairwise: a change landed in t5/ should be considered for a companion change in t6/, adapted to T6 conventions.

Modules currently in each tree:

Module	T5	T6
common	t5/scripts/tws_t5_common.gsc	t6/scripts/tws_t6_common.gsc
hud	t5/scripts/tws_t5_hud.gsc	t6/scripts/tws_t6_hud.gsc
afk	t5/scripts/tws_t5_afk.gsc	t6/scripts/tws_t6_afk.gsc
lock	t5/scripts/tws_t5_lock.gsc	t6/scripts/tws_t6_lock.gsc
telemetry	t5/scripts/tws_t5_telemetry.gsc	t6/scripts/tws_t6_telemetry.gsc — queued game_start / heartbeat / round_change / game_end matching T5
join	t5/scripts/tws_t5_join.gsc	t6/scripts/tws_t6_join.gsc
leaderboard	t5/scripts/tws_t5_leaderboard.gsc	t6/scripts/tws_t6_leaderboard.gsc

Map record announcements

Install tws_t5_leaderboard.gsc for T5 or tws_t6_leaderboard.gsc for T6, along with the updated common module for that game. The new module privately announces the current map's fleet-wide highest recorded round and every tied holder once per connection, including spectator newcomers. Type .leaders to replay the record privately from the latest usable cache. Repeating the command restarts the announcement from its first page. It appears in .help when the leaderboard module is enabled. If no usable record is available, the command asks you to try again shortly. It reads Electric Cherry's public /api/leaderboard endpoint without a token; only completed matches contribute. Ties may come from the same run or separate runs. Names are the API's latest player names, with players identified by GUID.

Both versions default to https://ec.thewrightserver.net/api/leaderboard. T5 discovers the map by engine identifier. T6 selects the exact variant using the active mode/location, so Town Survival, TranZit and Town Grief stay separate. See the game READMEs for plugin requirements and installation paths.

Dvar	Default	Purpose
tws_leaderboard_enabled	enabled	0 disables announcements and requests
tws_leaderboard_url	endpoint above	Full HTTPS API endpoint, without query parameters
tws_leaderboard_map_key	automatic	Exact, decoded API map key when automatic selection is unavailable

For example, set tws_leaderboard_map_key "t6:zm_transit:town" explicitly selects Town Survival. Normally this setting is unnecessary. An override must exist in the API's map list and match the current game and engine map. Clear it when changing variants; restart the map after changing these settings.

The announcement starts five seconds after player readiness and waits for the initial record fetch if necessary. It appears in the same HUD area as .help, below the health bar, with a heading such as Record: Round 23 and holder names underneath. Each page shows up to three holder lines for 12 seconds. Opening .help hides the record and pauses its display time until help closes. All holders are included; colour/control codes are removed, and unusually long names are shortened to keep messages readable. HUD elements are removed when the announcement finishes, the player disconnects, or the game ends.

One level worker fetches the map list and pages of three players, stopping when the highest-round tie ends. Successful snapshots refresh every five minutes. Failures retry after 30 seconds and retain the last complete snapshot for up to 15 minutes. An empty selection says “No recorded high round yet”; unavailable, malformed or ambiguous results are logged and skipped when no usable cache exists. Partial page results never replace the cache. The API has no pagination snapshot token: changed totals/record rounds reject the refresh, but concurrent renames can still move entries between pages. Refreshes deduplicate GUIDs.

Requests have a 15-second GSC wait limit. The TWS plugins also enforce native 5-second connection and 15-second transfer limits. The leaderboard waits for native completion before starting another request; player threads never wait directly on HTTP. Responses at the plugins' 20 KiB truncation boundary are rejected. The complete JSON grammar, UTF-8, string escapes and response shape are checked before consuming data. These guards also reject HTML/error bodies. Leaderboard still uses body validation; the new native HTTP status diagnostics are consumed by telemetry.

Run the portable data/structure checks with node tools/check_leaderboard.mjs. They execute the scripts' data helpers with engine-value shims, not a game VM. Live checks: join while playing and spectating; die/respawn (no repeat); reconnect (one new announcement); compare Town/TranZit/Grief; check one holder, ties across pages, no records, and a slow/unavailable/malformed API. Disconnect or end the game mid-announcement and confirm messages stop. Verify existing HUD, .help, .join and telemetry still work. Open .help during a record page and check that the record resumes afterwards without overlapping it. Runtime linking and client readiness require Plutonium. Try .leaders and .LEADERS after the announcement ends and during a later page: each should start one private announcement from the first page. Repeat while help is open, then disconnect or end the game during a replay to check cleanup. Disable the leaderboard module and verify .leaders is absent from help.

Telemetry authentication (T5 and T6)

Both reporters default to https://ec.thewrightserver.net/api/telemetry and send Authorization: Bearer <token> plus Content-Type: application/json on every POST. Authentication is also used for retried/replayed reports. An explicit tws_telemetry_url override must also use HTTPS; remove any old HTTP override.

Before upgrading the API or loading these reporters:

1. Set the Electric Cherry service's environment variable EC_TELEMETRY_TOKEN to a separate shared secret of at least 32 characters. A missing service token disables ingestion.
2. Both telemetry scripts embed the matching reporter secret in level.telemetry_token. No game-server token dvar or private config is needed.
3. Keep tws_server_id set to the exact registered server name, then restart the map. Both reporters refuse to start with a short embedded token or a non-HTTPS URL. Rotating the service token requires editing the token in both scripts, deploying them to every game server, and restarting the maps.

The API also accepts X-EC-Telemetry-Token; these reporters use Bearer auth. Cookies, query parameters, and JSON fields cannot authenticate telemetry. Missing or incorrect request tokens are rejected before payload parsing or recording. Reporters that cannot set headers need a trusted relay with an HTTPS reporter-facing endpoint. The plugins used here accept a headers array.

After deployment, verify all four event types reach Electric Cherry. On a test server, also verify that a short embedded token and an HTTP URL prevent startup, that a wrong token is rejected without recording an event, and that deploying the correct token restores ingestion. Plugin transport completion alone does not prove API acceptance; inspect the API response or ingestion records.

Validating T6

powershell -File t6/scripts/tools/check.ps1 -CompilerPath C:\path\to\gsc-tool.exe

Requires PowerShell and gsc-tool (T6 PC).