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Campaign / Mission / Pilot

The single-player meta-game: the theater mission map screen, the scripted ZONE threats, pilot save/logbook, and the .CAM campaign state machine that strings missions together with scoring. Re-carved from a grab-bag nominal range into its true clusters (the mission-map editor 0x421C70–0x42B800 plus pilot/campaign/mission cores in 0x467110–0x490000).

Provenance: Ghidra static analysis of the game executable with FA.SMS symbols applied; recorded in the symbol database and applied to the Ghidra project. Progress: reconstruction matrix. Markers follow spec-authoring.md: confirmed · inferred · unknown.

The pieces

  • Mission map (MAP*, 0x421C70–0x42B800): the theater-map screen — world↔screen coordinate transforms (MAPScreenToWorld), background/grid/icon/path drawing, waypoint editing (MAPWPListBounds), and the object placement the mission builder uses.
  • ZONE threats: scripted threat zones that fire projectiles/explosions on a time schedule — ZONEActive (active-window test), ZONEServiceRange, ZONEPickTarget.
  • Pilot (PLT*, 0x467180–0x468FD0): the pilot save (PILOT.BKP), sorted rosters, and the logbook / "paper" record builder.
  • Campaign (.CAM state machine, 0x480750–0x4869A0): _CallCampaignProc drives the _campaignState (active → dead/fail → planning); mission load runs through _CallMissionProc + _MISSIONInit2, and scoring accumulates via _MISSIONAddScore.

The pilot record, engine-side (#492)

The .P spec maps the file from the byte side; the #492 read recovered how the engine populates it. _campaignPilot — the live in-memory record — sits at 0x4F8BB8, which resolves every "campaign state" global into a pilot-record field: confirmed

offset field writer
+0x00 format version byte 0x0F PilotFormatRank (new pilot); PilotScreen validates it + the 0x25E0 size
+0x01 / +0x41 name / callsign EditPilot (MISSIONEnsureLegalNamed)
+0x61 personal insignia CallsignChoose: ^<CALLSIGN>.5K when that .5K exists
+0x95 photo PIC name the photo picker (MakePicList("LEFT"…) pairs LEFT/RIGHT facings)
+0xA2 rank string from _pilotRanks
+0xC2 campaigns-won list appended (", "-joined) by CallCampaignProc cmd 5 on victory
+0x572 medal-flag band 11 decoration-slot bytes latched by the per-theater *Medals passes (P.md § Medal-flag band)
+0x5AF service-record lines the dossier's free-text block (≤10 lines); AwardMedal appends each medal title here (1,000-byte cap)
+0xD7F active campaign file InitCampaignPilot
+0xDAC status word 0 available · 1 on campaign ("%s, mission %d") · 2 MIA · 3 KIA · 4 retired
+0xDB0 plane roster 0xBC-byte per-plane slots: damage array copy at +0x30, repair % at +0x2E (dam×100/max + type+0x1B4, clamp 100); a bail zeroes the slot
+0x1C60 campaign stores pool 50 × 16-byte {type, count@+0xE}; LoadCampaignStores returns/deducts vs the plane hardpoints, −1 = unlimited
+0x1F80 stats counters missions flown, failures, wingman missions/losses, bails (CallCampaignProc cmd 3) — the block fx plt dump reads

Saves go to PLT%03d.P (PilotFindFreeSlot probes from a random slot; that is why the filename numbers look random). PILOT.BKP is the retry snapshot: written before each campaign mission (cmd 1), restored on "try this mission again" after a death/failure. ConvertPilotFiles migrates 0x15B4-byte legacy (pre-FA) records field-by-field into the 0x25E0 layout — and renames any other wrong-size .P file to .POO. confirmed

Pilot screens. PilotScreen (0x468020) serves three modes off one body — SHWPILOT (select), CONTPLT (continue campaign), VIEWPLT (view roster) — with name-sorted available/unavailable rosters, photo + nose-art + tail-art PIC lists, and the dossier "paper" (PilotBuildPaper: SHWPILOT.TXT template lines interleaved with record fields, then the AddStats block, rendered by the shell's format engine). confirmed

The campaign driver (#492)

_CallCampaignProc(cmd) (0x481440) is the state machine the roadmap doc used to name without describing. The campaign logic itself is a loaded resource proc (LoadCampaignProc → _campaignProc, invoked via CampaignProcInvoke with the campaign's state byte in the high bits); the driver wraps it: confirmed

cmd phase what the driver does around the proc
0 init invoke(0), clear the backup flag
1 mission start write PILOT.BKP, invoke, SeqEnd (disk-error path → CampaignDiskError)
3 post-mission bail test (AlmostHome / AtFriendlyAP) — a bail zeroes the plane's roster slot; a home landing banks damage → repair % and returns stores to the pool; bumps the missions/failures/bails/wingman counters
4 debrief dead → "You have died / MIA — try again?" (restore PILOT.BKP, state 4) else failed → same offer; declining saves + CampaignOff, state 0x11
5 campaign end victory appends the campaign to the pilot's campaigns-won field, save + off
6/8 query invoke and return the proc's result
7 bail notify invoke only

CampaignMenu exposes 1 = replay (restore PILOT.BKP) and 2 = AbortCampaign from the menu bar. The quit-mission guard (ConfirmQuitMission, shared body of the per-theater KurileQuit/VietnamQuit thunks) evaluates mission success via CallMissionProc and warns "If you quit before reaching home…" / "You have not yet fulfilled the mission…". confirmed

Briefing flow. The shell sequences screens through small trampolines with skip flags (_doScreens, _doBriefPaper, _doBriefMap, _doSelectPlane — a windowed test harness left in the shipping binary): _StartCampaign = CampaignSelect (the .CAM chooser, descriptions from <name>.TXT sections) + PilotScreen; _BriefPaper shows BriefScreen on the mission's .MT text (one of four random BRIEFSCR/DEBSCR backgrounds; multiplayer ready-status sync; Jane's Online stats hooks); _BriefMap is MAPScreen; _SelectPlane/_RepairPlane run SelectRepairPlane; _CreateProMission opens the map editor; _AircraftReference and _ViewPilots jump to the reference and roster screens. Cancelling a campaign brief runs AbortCampaign. confirmed

Campaign flow: the .CAM state machine drives mission selection; each mission loads, plays, and scores back into the pilot record.

The theater map screen & waypoint editor

The mission-planning map and its waypoint list, both fully named by FA.SMS. The map screen projects the world onto the theater bitmap (MAPWorldToScreen, inverse of MAPScreenToWorld), draws the grid/background/special markers, and edits object placement and side (MAPObjAlts/MAPSetSide/MAPMaybeSetControl, MAPOnSpecial hit-testing a WORD_POINT). The waypoint manager (WP*) owns the current route: set/optimize the list, advance through it, and query the active waypoint's position/object/target. ZONEInit/ZONEUpdate bracket the scripted-threat zones (see ZONEActive above).

VA Symbol Role
0x422380 MAPWorldToScreen project a F24_POINT3 to a map WORD_POINT
0x4223BE MAPDrawGrid draw the map lat/long grid
0x4224EE MAPDrawBG draw the theater background
0x422851 MAPDrawSpecials draw special markers (bases, threats)
0x422A0D MAPOnSpecial hit-test a click against the specials
0x4221D0 MAPObjAlts raise placed objects to terrain altitude
0x422300 MAPSetSide set the selected object's side
0x422320 MAPMaybeSetControl toggle player control of the selection
0x42267F MAPUpdateWPPtrs refresh the waypoint back-pointers
0x4226F0 MAPSetNewWP drop a new waypoint
0x4227AD MAPMaybeClearSelWP clear the selected waypoint
0x499380 WPSetWaypoints install a waypoint list
0x4993C0 WPSetupCurrent initialise the current-waypoint cursor
0x499680 WPMaybeAdvance advance to the next waypoint when reached
0x499840 WPChange change the active waypoint
0x4999B0 WPPos current waypoint position
0x499A50 WPObj current waypoint object
0x499AA0 WPTarget current waypoint target
0x499AD0 WPDoingWaypoints are waypoints active
0x499AF0 WPDirString heading-to-waypoint text
0x499C50 WPOptimizeWaypoints drop redundant waypoints
0x499640 WPGoalObjEvent goal-object event on a waypoint
0x421C70 ZONEInit init the scripted-threat zones
0x421DD0 ZONEUpdate per-frame zone service

Functions

Full record: db/symbols/campaign.csv.

VA Symbol Role
0x4224B3 MAPScreenToWorld inverse map projection (screen → world)
0x42256A MAPLoadBG load the theater-map background
0x421D40 ZONEActive scripted-threat active-window test
0x422120 ZONEPickTarget pick a target plane for a zone
0x422190 MAPWPListBounds walk a waypoint list
0x481440 CallCampaignProc the campaign driver (cmd table above)
0x468020 PilotScreen the pilot roster screen (3 modes)
0x4674F0 PilotBuildPaper compose + print the pilot dossier
0x480EA0 LoadCampaignStores sync the campaign stores pool with the plane
0x4A1DD0 BriefScreen briefing/debrief screen over .MT
0x4A2A30 AddStats compose the marked-up debrief stats text
0x485AE0 ConvertPilotFiles legacy pilot-file migration (0x15B4 → 0x25E0)
0x480750 MISSIONInit1Impl mission bring-up (RNG, score reset, subsystem init order)
0x480A30 MISSIONInit2Impl post-load: sides, humans, aliases, .MC proc
0x480230 ComputeCRC anti-cheat CRC-32 over an OBJ_TYPE record
0x4A10E0 SingleMission single-mission browser + launcher
0x486160 MISSIONEndScenario multiplayer end-condition test
0x485820 KillStats tally a kill into its category bucket
0x467110 AwardMedal append a medal title to the pilot service-record block (+0x5AF)
0x483E00 UkraineMedals Ukraine medal pass — latch the +0x572 flag band (Navy decorations)
0x484050 KurileMedals Kurile medal pass (Navy decorations + Yellow Fever)
0x484410 VietnamMedals stub — the Vietnam campaign awards no medals
0x484430 ATFEgyptMedals ATF Egypt medal pass (Air Force decorations)
0x484690 ATFVladMedals ATF Vladivostok medal pass (Air Force decorations)
0x484B70 ATFBalticMedals ATF Baltic medal pass (Air Force decorations)
0x481B80 AlmostHome near the home airport and low (RTB gating)
0x481BD0 ConvertOldPreferredTargetId widen an old 16-bit save target id
0x4A5970 CanReplay replay available: mission loaded and single-player

Mission runtime — the .M interpreter (#485)

_MISSIONTextProc@16 (0x481C10, 8.3 KB — the largest single function this subsystem owns) is the consumer of the .M / .MT format specs: the interpreter that executes a mission file to populate the live mission. Until it was traced, those specs described a file nobody had watched run.

Tokenizer. The file is plain whitespace-delimited text walked by a global cursor (0x55281C current, 0x5528C0 end). TextNextToken (0x483C90) skips delimiters (TextIsDelim) then copies one token; TextNextNumber (0x483D30) reads a token and runs it through _StringToNumber; TextTokenToValue (0x483D50) applies a theater-specific object-type remap keyed on the first character of _mapName (T/U/K…). _MISSIONTextProc calls TextNextNumber 106 times — the format is overwhelmingly numeric (coordinates, type ids, counts).

Dispatch → live objects. A jump-table switch on each section keyword drives construction. Header directives set the globals _layerName, _missionDLLName (the .MC DLL), _mapName (theater; $/~ prefixes are special-cased), and _missionHours (fed to _TIMEInit). Each object placement calls _T_AddObj, then — by flags — _WNGAdd (attach to a wing), _GRPAdd (a group), _HARDUnload/_HARDLoad (apply a loadout), and MAPAddSpecial (a map marker). Named objects are resolved with _OBJAlias and given waypoint lists via _WPSetWaypoints. This is the mechanical proof of the .M grammar: "object placement and waypoints" is T_AddObj + WPSetWaypoints, exactly.

Mission-logic handoff. _CallMissionProc@8 (0x481940) dispatches into the mission's compiled .MC DLL proc — the per-mission condition/event logic — which _MISSIONCheckSuccess@0 (0x486860) polls each tick.

Construction variants. __SingleMission@0 (one-off missions), __CreateQuickMission@4, and __CreateFortMission@4/2 set up the non-campaign game modes; _FortMission@4 (0x41FB60) / _FortMission2@4 build the base-assault ("Fort") scenarios, whose HARD*Fort* helpers save/restore/rearm the defending loadouts.

Mission lifecycle — init, anti-cheat, shutdown (#485)

Every mission — campaign, single, quick, or fort — is bracketed by the same bring-up and tear-down. MISSIONInit1 (0x480750) seeds the RNG (Rand16 ^ system-time ^ waitCounter), zeros the eight-slot-per-player score arrays (_playerKills/Deaths/ Damage/Revives/KillRatio/Scores, plus the human-vs-AI splits), resets the scenario end-conditions, randomises the wind, and then initialises every sim subsystem in a fixed order — T_Init, OBJInit(300000), COLInit, CTInit, MSGInit, SAYInit, WNGInit, GRPInit, APInit, PLANEInit, ROInit, PROJInit, ZONEInit, GRAPHICInit. That call list is the authoritative dependency order for the reconstruction's mission boot. confirmed

MISSIONTextProc then builds the objects, and MISSIONInit2 (0x480A30) runs the post-load pass: assign sides (MAPSetSide), find the human stations, resolve name aliases (OBJAliasAll/OBJAliasForMulti), set the mission clock, load the .MC event proc on the host, and take the first MISSIONCheckSuccess. MISSIONInit3 seeds the radio home/succeeded flags, and MISSIONInitMedalInfo records whether the player has wingmen (medal eligibility). MISSIONShutdown (0x4819F0, guarded so it runs once) unwinds the same subsystems and frees the mission's RM/MM allocation id. confirmed

Anti-cheat. In multiplayer the mission verifies that no station has edited its aircraft or weapon data. ComputeCRC (0x480230) runs a CRC-32 (_crc_table) over a class-specific prefix of each OBJ_TYPE record — 0xA6 bytes for a plane, 0xBA for a ground vehicle, 0x1BC for ordnance, 0x13B for a projectile — after zeroing the record's variable tail so only the performance-tuning bytes count. Each station shares its per-file CRCs (UpdateAntiCheat → PostAntiCheat → MPSendAntiCheat) into a shared FILE_CRC table, so a souped-up .PT/.OT is detectable; PostCheatsOn broadcasts whether a player has the cheat menu enabled. Fort missions exempt the ordnance class (defenders carry fixed loadouts). confirmed

Scoring, stats & end-of-mission (#485)

_MISSIONAddScore@12 (0x486580) accumulates the running score. The stats accumulators bin each event: WpnStats (shots / hits / kills / misses per weapon, into the StatsBucketFor bucket), KillStats (one kill into the right one of 13 categories — friendly-fire, plane, fort-gun, helicopter, ship, ground vehicle, SAM, AAA, structure, …, split player vs wingman, keyed on the victim's class and type-flag bits), and LandingStats (landing count + a quality bonus). Each mirrors to peers via its MP* twin, and Jane's Online games count only human-target events. _EndOfMissionStats@0 (0x484D90) and _EndOfFortMissionStats@0 roll these into the pilot record at mission end. confirmed

Medal awards. Each theater's .CAM script imports its own medal pass as a per-theatre hook (CAM.md § imports): UkraineMedals / KurileMedals (Navy decorations), ATFEgyptMedals / ATFVladMedals / ATFBalticMedals (Air Force decorations), VietnamMedals (a return 0 stub — that campaign awards none). Each pass tests award criteria against the mission scratch stats, the pilot counters, and the rank word (+0xDAE), latches the pilot record's medal-flag band (+0x572–+0x57C — one byte per decoration slot; Purple Heart is a 0–3 count), and hands the title to AwardMedal (0x467110), which appends it to the service-record block at +0x5AF (skipped once the block would exceed 1,000 bytes). Mapped statically from the post-#482 corpus (P.md § Medal-flag band). confirmed

The scoreboard ranks players by MISSIONScore (0x4864D0) under the _scoreBy metric (kills / kill-ratio / damage); MISSIONSortPlayers qsorts them and MISSIONScoreSides sums the friendly-vs-enemy team totals (capped at 0x3E700). MISSIONEndScenario (0x486160) is the multiplayer end-condition test: a time limit, four kill-goal modes (team total / either side reaches N / any single player / the enemy team), the Fort win via MISSIONFortWin (0x80 friendly, 0x800000 enemy), and the Jane's Online all-dead / out-of-revives condition — arming SetScenarioEndTime when any fires. The Fort scenarios track objectives through _MISSIONFortDestroyed@4, _MISSIONFortDestroyedByFort@4, _MISSIONFortStatus@4, and the multiplayer Fort-setup dialog (FortMissionSetup 0x420830, the FortMultiButton* radio groups, and the fort-type name list). (The Score* functions in the sound range are the music score, not this.) confirmed

Open Questions

1. TIME/FPS utility block — resolved

0x4869A0–0x486E60 is a self-contained game-clock + FPS + timer-interrupt cluster, not campaign code. Its functions are almost all FA.SMS-named: TIMESystemTime (0x4869A0), TIMEInit/TIMERestart/TIMEUpdate, TIMESetCompression (0x486C60), FPSInit/FPSUpdate/ FPSPrint/FPSPrint2/FPSReturn, and InstallTimerInt (0x486E20), plus two helpers — FUN_00486BF0 (a QueryPerformanceCounter-based high-resolution frame-time via __alldiv) and FUN_00486DC0 (a strlen used by the FPS string formatting). It drives the very globals in game-loop.md § Frame Timing (_timerTicks, _currentTime, _timeCompression). Disposition: it is its own small timing subsystem — recommend a standalone timing row in db/subsystems.csv (≈13 functions, 2 still FUN_) rather than annexing it to campaign; tracked alongside the game-loop discovery #257.

Status: resolved — re-static (identified as the TIME/FPS timing cluster; homing tracked in #257).