20v20 Captain mode

Here’s a clean, ready-to-copy summary of the entire 20v20 Captain Mode project, all steps and context — no code, just a structured overview you can drop directly into your new chat:

🧭 Project Overview — 20v20 Captain Mode (YSBCaptain)

Goal:
Enable a true 20v20 Captain Mode for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, using a server-side only mod that merges all players’ troops into a single shared formation per side, while maintaining individual player control through sub-formations and command routing.

🧩 Core Concept

Each team (Attacker / Defender) has one real formation that contains all troops.

Each human player has a sub-formation within that shared formation, controlling only their assigned bots.

Players issue orders normally (F1–F3, etc.), but commands are filtered to only affect their bots.

The system must scale up to 20 players per team, each with controlled agents, without exceeding formation or network limits.



MergedCaptainConfig

Central configuration class controlling:

Enabled toggle

MergedSide (Attacker or Defender)

RealFormationIndex (usually 0 for Infantry)

TeamCap (max players per side, default 10)

TestMaxBotsForMergedSide (total bots split evenly among players)

DebugBroadcast (toggle for chat debugging via YSBLogger)

YSBCaptainSpawningBehavior

Replaces native spawning with a custom merged spawn flow.

Handles:

Deterministic player admission by join order.

Controlled agent spawning.

Bot ownership distribution using MergedAssignHelper.

Failsafe logging and error protection during spawn.

Broadcasts in-game and console messages via YSBLogger (for real-time testing).

MergedCaptainBootstrapBehavior

Replaces the default SpawnComponent behavior with YSBCaptainSpawningBehavior via reflection at mission start.

Subformation System

SubformationRegistry: Tracks which bots belong to which player.

SubformationOrderRouter: Intercepts and reroutes player orders so each player only commands their assigned sub-formation.

MergedAssignHelper

After all bots are spawned, evenly distributes bot ownership across all players on the merged side.

Ensures every player gets control over their own subset of the team’s formation.



Key Harmony Patches

OrderController Patches

Intercepts order commands and forwards them to the SubformationOrderRouter.

Ensures formation-wide commands only affect the correct player-owned sub-formation.

Formation.SetMovementOrder Patch

Prevents the entire shared formation from moving when one player issues a movement command.

TeamAIComponent Patch

Disables native team AI when merged mode is active (so AI doesn’t override player orders).



Logging System (YSBLogger)

Unified logger for both console output and in-game chat messages.

Used to trace:

Spawn activity

Formation assignment

Sergeant setup

Bot ownership redistribution

Error handling and null-reference warnings

All logs are prefixed with [YSB][Spawn], [YSB][Formation], [YSB][Error], or [YSB][Merge].

🧪 Testing Procedure

Solo test:

1 attacker player (merged side) vs 1 AI defender formation.

Validate spawn, sergeant assignment, and order UI (F1–F3 should be active).

2-player test:

2 players on the same merged side.

Confirm both get separate bots and control only their own troops.

Orders from one player shouldn’t affect the other’s bots.

Over-cap test:

Join 11th player → should automatically move to spectators with a YSBLogger message.

Crash-tracing:

Added try/catch fences around all risky operations (spawn visuals, formation fetch, bot spawn, redistribution).

Errors are logged visibly to in-game chat and console.



Fixing crash during spawn phase at round start (occurs right after warmup ends).

Current logs confirm agent creation and visuals spawn, but the crash likely happens post-spawn, possibly during formation assignment or bot redistribution.




🧾 Summary of Progress

✅ Stable 20-player server configuration.
✅ Merged formations implemented server-side.
✅ Sub-formation routing functional.
✅ In-game logging via YSBLogger integrated.
✅ Build compiles cleanly.
❌ Crash persists during first spawn wave (under investigation).

🧩 Next Tasks

Analyze crash logs post-spawn using new YSBLogger output.

Verify if crash occurs in DistributeBotsRoundRobin or post-spawn cleanup.

Add conditionals for formation existence and agent validity.

Implement optional delayed wave spawning (if performance requires).

Project name: YSBCaptain
Mode: 20v20 Captain Mode (Server-side only)
Status: Compiles ✅, In-Game Crash 🔧 (Spawn Phase)
Next step: Crash trace + stabilization.