docs+tools: the per-entity OB flag is refuted, and the counter decrements when the player kills

With the pilot finally shooting, the experiment completed both halves. Sample A
at counter 12 over 120 entities gave 2 offsets where exactly 12 entities share a
value; the counter then went 12 -> 11 and NEITHER survived. So within +-0x400 of
an entity's position triple there is no 4-byte word whose shared-value population
tracks REMAINING OB.

The limits are recorded as part of the result, because they bound it: the test
asks which entities share an EXACT 32-bit value, so a single bit ORed into a word
that also carries health or a timer would never show up - a bit-level version of
the same differential is the follow-on. Anything outside the window, or on
entities that entities2 cannot see (it types by position CHANGING, so stationary
objectives are invisible), is untested too, and the populations differed a lot
between samples - 120 against 194.

Separately: REMAINING OB went 12 -> 11, the first decrement of this whole
investigation, while pilot.py logged 411 fire=1 samples and the HUD reached YOU
KILLED WARPLANES 0003. Stated carefully - it does NOT show the counter counts
kills, since an earlier run had the hostile population fall by a third with no
movement; it shows some kills close something the counter tracks.

Two robustness fixes: ob_flag retries an empty entity sample (one void run was
caused by exactly that), and Pad releases everything on interpreter exit - a
file-backed pad PERSISTS after its writer dies, so a tool killed mid-press would
leave a button held and the game would walk through menus on its own.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PMRJjbxLqZtsb5Vb7KunPE

docs/re/captures/ob-flag-refuted-stage02.json

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+{
+ "nA": 12,
+ "nB": 11,
+ "hud_a": 12,
+ "hud_b": null,
+ "entities_a": 120,
+ "entities_b": 194,
+ "class_matches": [],
+ "candidates_a": 2,
+ "survivors": []
+}

docs/re/mission-freeze-and-ob-flag.md

@@ -145,3 +145,66 @@ drawn from runs that assumed the pilot was shooting.
 This run did **not** freeze in ~25 minutes. Of the seven Stage 02 runs that have
 reached flight, **three froze** — so it is common but not the majority, and a run
 that survives the first minute or two seems to keep going.
+
+---
+
+## 🔴 2026-08-23 (final) — the per-entity flag hypothesis is REFUTED, on a transition it was not selected by
+
+With the pilot actually shooting (`pilot-never-fires.md`), the experiment this
+file was written for finally completed both halves:
+
+```
+HUD=12 RAM=12
+[A] counter=12 entities=120        96 turrets, 16 attackers, 7 wingmen, 1 player
+[A] classes whose head-count equals the counter: NONE
+[A] offsets where exactly 12 entities agree: 2
+      pos+0x0238 = 00000006  {12 × e007_ADAN_Turret}
+      pos+0x0250 = 239d6732  {12 × e010_ADAN_Attacker_S}
+counter 12 -> 11
+[B] counter=11 entities=194
+[B] of 2 candidates, 0 still hold exactly 11
+```
+([`captures/ob-flag-refuted-stage02.json`](captures/ob-flag-refuted-stage02.json))
+
+**Both candidates die on the verification.** So: within ±0x400 of an entity's
+position triple there is **no 4-byte word whose shared-value population tracks
+`REMAINING OB`**. The simplest reading of "objectives are marked in the entity
+object" is dead.
+
+### What that does and does not rule out — the limits are the result too
+
+* 🔴 **Ruled out:** a per-entity word, in that window, holding a common value on
+  exactly the objective entities.
+* ❔ **Not ruled out — a flag packed into a word that also varies.** The test asks
+  which entities share an *exact* 32-bit value. A single bit ORed into a word
+  that also carries health, a timer or a state machine would never produce a
+  shared value, and this method cannot see it. A bit-level version of the same
+  differential is the obvious follow-on.
+* ❔ **Not ruled out — anything outside the window**, or on entities the
+  enumeration cannot see: `entities2.typed` types entities by their position
+  *changing*, so a stationary objective is invisible to it.
+* ⚠️ **The populations differ a lot between samples** — 120 entities at A, 194 at
+  B — so a flag on entities that spawned between the two would not have been
+  tested either.
+
+## ✅ And the counter DECREMENTS when the player kills
+
+`REMAINING OB` went **12 → 11** during this run — the first decrement seen in
+this whole investigation — while `pilot.py` logged **411** `fire=1` samples and
+the HUD's own tally reached **`YOU KILLED WARPLANES 0003`**
+([`captures/stage02-you-killed-warplanes-0003.png`](captures/stage02-you-killed-warplanes-0003.png)).
+
+That is worth stating carefully. It does **not** show that the counter counts
+kills — the earlier fifteen-minute run had the hostile population fall by a third
+with no movement at all. What it shows is that *some* kills close *something*
+the counter tracks, which is exactly the behaviour an objective counter should
+have, and it is the first time the player's own guns have been part of the
+experiment rather than a bystander.
+
+## One more robustness fix, from a void run
+
+`ob_flag.py` now **retries an empty sample**. `entities2.moving()` types entities
+by position changing, so a sample that lands on a load or loses the race with
+another scanner returns nothing — and a zero-entity sample silently yields zero
+candidates and a run that proves nothing. Seen exactly that way once, with the
+following sample finding 81 entities moments later.

tools/re-capture/flight_probe.py

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ then per frame a timestamp, the input vector, and every instance's raw window.
 
 Usage: flight_probe.py <out.bin> [seconds]
 """
+import atexit
 import os
 import struct
 import sys
@@ -59,6 +60,11 @@ class Pad:
                       "LT": 0.0, "RT": 0.0}
         self.buttons = set()
         self._write()
+        # A file-backed pad has a failure mode the FIFO did not: the state
+        # PERSISTS after the writer dies. A tool killed mid-press leaves the
+        # button held forever, and the game then walks through menus on its own
+        # with nobody touching it. Release everything on exit.
+        atexit.register(self.reset)
 
     def _write(self):
         parts = []

tools/re-capture/ob_flag.py

@@ -110,7 +110,20 @@ def main():
               "ob_hunt.py before trusting anything below", flush=True)
         return 2
 
+    # RETRY an empty sample. entities2.moving() types entities by their position
+    # CHANGING between two reads, so a sample that lands on a load, a stall, or
+    # simply loses the race with another scanner comes back with nothing — and a
+    # zero-entity sample silently produces zero candidates and a void run. Seen
+    # once, with sample B finding 81 entities moments later.
+    for _ in range(6):
         nA, entsA, gA = sample(w, defs, out, "A")
+        if len(entsA) >= 10:
+            break
+        print("[A] too few entities — retrying", flush=True)
+        time.sleep(5)
+    if len(entsA) < 10:
+        print("[A] never got a usable entity sample", flush=True)
+        return 4
     hist = Counter(nm for _, nm in entsA)
     print(f"[A] class histogram vs counter {nA}:", flush=True)
     for nm, k in hist.most_common(12):