EscapistsReintroduced/docs/current-status.md

Current development status

Evidence checkpoint: 19 September 2026, through archived run 080058. Later running tests are not included. The primary deliverable is an independently authored replacement for the abandoned Escapists base mission, with the existing companion behavior integrated through its interfaces. The first release targets vanilla Everon and up to twelve players. It must complete prison → scavenging/intel → radio defence → helicopter extraction without the original mod or dependent extensions loaded.

The successor has its own five addon projects, scenario/resource identities, authored Everon sites and vanilla asset references. The base loop and several failure paths have passed scripted local Workbench checkpoints. This is a development implementation, not a released or fully accepted replacement. Acceptance remains pending for manual gameplay, real multiplayer, performance and release qualification.

Established development checkpoints

Area	What the recorded evidence establishes	Important limit
Independent base loop	Core-only and companion-loaded scripted escape, interrupted radio defence, extraction, defeat and restart have completed. Native task details and personal result widgets have focused lifecycle checks.	Historical runs exercise their recorded sources; they do not qualify later changes or manual play. See validation.
Prison, equipment and medicine	Prisoner fixture places one controlled player and eleven physical characters inside the prison, verifies explicit starter inventory and real clue transfers. Medical fixture demonstrates blood-loss treatment, consumed supplies and native consciousness recovery.	These are not twelve connected clients or ordinary treatment input/animation tests. Five initial pistols are a balance choice to evaluate in play; the count alone is not a demonstrated defect.
Scavenging and discovery	Finite stock/lost containers remain depleted; two independent clue caches support progression. Document-loss fixture verifies close physical radio discovery after partial knowledge and loss of all documents.	Manual route visibility, travel, inventory interaction and threat balance remain unqualified.
Player lifecycle and extraction	Native admission/finalization, local observer cleanup, physical helicopter seat capacity and identity-based results have focused checks. Recovery fixture preserves incapacitated survivors and verifies explicit authorized abandonment.	Casualty-loading fixture now loads the real local incapacitated player from the ground into a reserved bench and releases the reservation. Its helper identity is synthetic; remote reconnect and two-client rescue remain unproved.
Existing physical forces	Patrol fixture demonstrates real cyclic movement. Companion fixture verifies HQ Search preemption and physical patrol resumption without creating response forces. Cancellation fixture verifies stopped incomplete groups do not dispatch late members.	The delivered-order patrol test bypasses radio transit. Broader reports, combat, support and losses need integrated qualification.
Environment and native errors	Environment/restart fixture passes two real rounds with zero native errors after restricting vehicle catalogs to required assets.	Earlier vehicle-schema errors are historical, not evidence every current run fails. Intermittent medical-kit teardown attribution remains unresolved; a later full-loop checkpoint also passes two rounds without native errors. Subsequent initial-placement changes still need their own qualification.

Immediate blockers and next work

1. Resolve the remaining ordinary-game errors and establish player admission. The scenario-header launch compiles production Game without WORKBENCH/ENF_WB, verifies the Core header and vanilla MissionSystems, and reaches phase 0 -> 1 without the earlier guard-spawn crash being captured. It remains a failed run: vanilla splash SCR_WidgetExportRuleRoot errors persist and the local player's identity cannot be bound, so spawning is withheld. Preserve identity validation while diagnosing the offline launch/admission path. This is partial startup evidence, not clean startup or a playable session. Runner details.

2. Qualify casualty loading beyond the local success. 075514 passes the complete local service fixture with no native errors: naturally settled helicopter, actual incapacitation, completion-time authorization, external reservations, blocked sight, one owner-handshake load into the selected bench, identity retention and cleanup. Earlier parked-contact and fixture-damage failures remain archived. Stock removal fixture also verifies the inherited door action clears the bench and leaves a living incapacitated body beside its authored exit. Real action input, remote ownership/RPC timing, competing rescuers, disconnect/death during a pending load and entity-deletion cleanup still need their own tests. Casualty service, support investigation.

3. Rerun the current integrated base and companions. Guard cancellation and replicated radio feedback have clean evidence from two complete Core rounds; the later placement/casualty changes now have a focused local pass. A full current-source escape/restart regression must still exercise those changes together with discovery/task presentation, ordinary victory, early aircraft loss, death and abandonment. Keep failed iterations and source/log provenance; do not substitute earlier clean snapshots.

4. Play the complete route with ordinary input. Validate prison gate/equipment access, scavenging and medical interactions, finding the radio without fixture knowledge, defend/recover behavior, ground-vehicle route, manual helicopter boarding/takeoff/navigation and partial escape. Tune the authored layout and finite supplies from actual play. The implemented all-incapacitated policy is preserved vanilla recovery plus explicit administrator abandonment; no automatic recovery is promised.

5. Finish and qualify physical HQ support. Infantry observation/report/order paths and patrol integration exist. Operational mortar firing, aircraft support, transport/rearming and depot/logistics behavior remain incomplete. Preserve a single HQ coordinator, radio-delivered reports, finite physical forces/ammunition and loss retention; cover interrupted reports, stale contacts and duplicate-order prevention. The responsibility inventory remains a scope map, not behavioral proof.

First-release qualification still required

Establish a dedicated-server test environment and real clients, then cover concurrent/late joins in each phase, preload cancellation, reconnect and connection-ID reuse, reserved bodies, spent lives, death/unconsciousness/treatment, spectators and streaming cleanup. Verify remote task/map/radio/result updates, settings authorization, seat contention, partial escape, empty-server behavior, defeat and repeated restart with up to twelve connected players. Local fixtures narrow these risks but do not close them.

Collect real matched original/successor workloads with repeated client-frame and server-tick recordings. No FPS improvement has been demonstrated; the comparison tool currently has synthetic regression evidence only.

Finally complete provenance/dependency review, build and test the package under the successor's own identities, and satisfy the release checker with current source-bound evidence. No release package has been published. RHS, additional terrains, complete original parity, alternate starts and distant-unit simulation remain later scope.

Older audits such as base gameplay gaps preserve findings made before subsequent implementations. Read their update notes and linked native evidence before treating an old missing-feature statement as a current defect. This status page consolidates priorities; the evidence ledger remains authoritative for individual recorded checks.