Land the client-side empty-My-Packs resolver evidence and the session-stability
invariant established by the F3/R1 experiments.
- PART III (F3, CONFOUNDED CRASH): a mid-process sentinel -> no-sentinel flip
left a stale POSITIVE My-Packs ordinal that still took the resolve branch and
crashed at 0x180014882. Preserved verbatim (not a guard failure).
- PART IV (R1, SUCCESS): backend set no-sentinel first, then a FRESH FIFA
process; genuine purchasegroup response ids [1,5,6,7] is byte-identical to the
F3 capture, so client process lifetime is the only changed variable. Store
opens on Browse Packs, no crash, no dialog. Guard PROVEN on the tested build.
- New INVARIANT: empty-My-Packs capability MUST be session-stable -- the server
must not switch a running client between sentinel-present and sentinel-absent
for the My Packs group within one FIFA process, because the client caches the
group ordinal and a stale positive ordinal still crashes the resolver.
- Both no-sentinel captures kept: client_guard (F3) and freshretest (R1).
Backend P2 active-sentinel (65534) remains production default; no capability
handshake is implemented yet.
Investigation + design only (no client/backend/binary changes, no live
Store experiment). Reconfirmed CardsDLL_Win64_retail.dll (4706a881..,
unpacked) against a freshly rebuilt Ghidra project on .105; FIFA17.exe
(29c31cef..) is Denuvo-packed so the Scaleform decision is unreadable.
PART II added to docs/plans/FIFA17_EMPTY_MYPACKS_CLIENT_FIX.md:
- Native category path traced: FUN_18007dab0 (store render, RVA 0x7dab0)
reads screen+0x290; My Packs funnels through FUN_1800147f0 (0x147f0) ->
FUN_180014420 (0x14420, NULL on ordinal miss) -> crash MOV [RDX+0x8] at
0x14882 ([NULL+0x48]), matching the Exp-B minidump. Tab->ordinal map
FUN_180014580 (0=mypacks..5=special); category 0 = list-all (Browse).
- Unopened-pack count is a data-manager singleton (vtbl[0x4d8] get /
[0x4e0] set), reachable from the store resolver.
- Vehicle: existing openfut-hook -> version.dll proxy (already deployed);
reuse ssl_patch signature-scan + connect_hook inline detour. No new loader.
- Preferred strategy A: entry-hook FUN_18007dab0; when the requested
category is My Packs and unopened count==0, force screen+0x290=0 (Browse).
Removes crash + fake 65534 tile + dialog + nav gate; count>0 untouched.
- Ranked B (resolver NULL fallback, higher risk) and C (null-guard, crash-only).
- Build guard: module gate + SHA/PE + signature scan; unknown build -> no
patch, backend sentinel remains fallback.
- First experiment design (needs a later, separately-authorized backend
empty-no-sentinel test mode) + client rollback (config flag / dll swap).
- Keep backend 65534 sentinel deployed until strategy A is verified.
Describes the FIFA 17 client/data model only; not OpenFUT Core assumptions.
Full investigation record for bug 6c: baseline + Experiments A/B/C', Candidate F (contradicted), the explicit active-placeholder selection test, the minidump-confirmed CardsDLL crash, and the P2 decision. Marks ROOT CAUSE ESTABLISHED and documents the known UX limitations and the client-side follow-up.
Files: docs/evidence/STORE_TILE_6C.md, docs/evidence/FIFA17_EMPTY_MYPACKS_CLIENT_CONTRACT.md, the four genuine /store/purchasegroup captures (baseline, mypacks70, empty_no_sentinel, active_placeholder), and docs/plans/FIFA17_EMPTY_MYPACKS_CLIENT_FIX.md (client-side design/research).