# In-flight control mapping — measured, not assumed

**Status:** ✅ for the weapon bindings (ammo counters move), 🟡 for the rest (HUD
observation only). Probes: `tools/re-capture/fire_probe.sh` (hold each input, photograph
the ammo counters) and `lock_probe.sh` (tap each, watch the reticle). Stage 02, in flight.
Evidence: [`captures/fire-probe-ammo-counters.png`](captures/fire-probe-ammo-counters.png).

| input | effect | confidence |
|---|---|---|
| **`RB`** | **Nose gun.** `NOSE BM` 06000 → 05956 in a 4 s hold ≈ **11 rounds/s**; `HEAT` bar rises | ✅ |
| **`Y`** | **Main mount** (missiles). `MAIN MPM` 00300 → 00299 per tap | ✅ |
| **`RT` / `LT`** | Throttle up / brake, a *persistent* setting (488 → 1510 → 174 u/s) | ✅ (earlier session) |
| **d-pad** | **Tactical map** overlay (grid with contact blips) — not target cycling | 🟡 |
| `LB`, `X`, `B`, `A`, `LS`, `RS` | No change to either ammo counter | ✅ (as "not a weapon") |

## Targeting appears to be automatic, and that is the lethality problem

No input was found that cycles a target. The green `TARGET` marker is already present in
idle frames with nothing pressed, so the game selects for us — most likely whatever sits
nearest the reticle — and a guided missile's lock is then a **time-on-target** mechanic
rather than a button.

That fits the measurements end to end:

- the guns fire fine (11 rounds/s) but the kill counters read `0000` after five gun-only
  runs → **we shoot and miss**;
- guided missiles (`Missile_P`, Power 200, `GuidanceType` 5) got the first kills,
  `WARPLANES 0002`, but only **2 per 98 launches**;
- the pilot's own log shows aim error wandering between ~10° and ~40° for most of a
  pass.

So the remaining bottleneck is **not** the target choice (escort weighting), **not** the
ballistics (now taken from the confirmed `Shell` records), and **not** the input mapping
(measured above). It is that the steering loop never holds the nose on one contact long
enough to complete a lock. The next thing worth doing is making aim *dwell* — and the
cheapest oracle for whether a lock ever completes is the reticle itself, or finding the
lock timer in the player object with the same anchoring trick used for hull.

## Notes for the reimplementation

- Two independent weapons with separate ammo pools and separate HUD counters:
  `NOSE BM` (gun, 6000) and `MAIN MPM` (missiles, 300).
- The gun has a **HEAT** bar that fills while firing — a sustained-fire limit the
  reimplementation needs; its cap and cool-down rate are not measured yet.
- The tactical map is a full-screen overlay bound to the d-pad and does not pause flight
  (the craft kept taking fire with it open).