Shelved PR 538 comms relay side objective

Shelved: PR #538 — Comms-relay side objective (Chernarus recon mast)

State: Ray-shelved 2026-07-03 (Build 89 / cmdcon44 pick round). PR #538 was closed without merging; nothing from it is in Build 89. The feature was default-off and never live, so nothing needs to be reverted.

WHAT

Adds a Chernarus-only comms-relay side objective: a pre-placed Land_Antenna radio mast near map centre ([7500,7900]). The side that controls the mast (a player standing within 50 m) can activate a timed recon sweep that reveals enemy positions on the owning side's map for ~45 s, on a per-side cooldown. It is the recon-flavoured member of the "capturable neutral side-objective" family — a soft, information-only reward rather than a combat asset.

WHERE

• PR: #538 — "[Lane 206] feat: comms-relay side objective — Land_Antenna mast + IcbmTelRecon sweep".
• Branch / head commit: fable/lane206-comms-relay (head at shelve time; recover the branch tip).
• Flag (if any): WFBE_C_COMMS_RELAY = 0 (default OFF, dark). Tunable: WFBE_C_COMMS_RELAY_COOLDOWN = 600 (seconds between recon activations per side).
• Files touched: new Server/Server_CommsRelay.sqf (CH primary; TK/ZG mirrors self-exit at worldName != "Chernarus"); Common/Init/Init_CommonConstants.sqf (+6 flag lines, append-only); Server/Init/Init_Server.sqf (+7 lines, flag-gated execVM hook); Server/Functions/Server_HandleSpecial.sqf (+9 lines, activate case); Client/PVFunctions/HandleSpecial.sqf (case reordered, relay case). Mirrored across all three maps.

WHY SHELVED

Ray's call this round: no. The comms-relay is one of several "capturable neutral side-objective" pitches (alongside the T-34 relic #539 / #388, the Arty Cache #370, the TK SCUD site #309), and Ray has been declining that whole space patch-over-patch. This one is the cheapest revive of the objective family if the space is ever reopened: it is Chernarus-scoped, fully server-side, gated dark behind a single master flag, and reuses the existing IcbmTelRecon reveal path and the SCUD-pad addAction idiom — so no new client plumbing is introduced. Its reviewed defects (the CRITICAL flat-layout arg-indexing bug in the activate handler, the loop/handler cooldown desync, the orphaned-comment ordering) are already fixed on the branch, so a revive starts from a clean, reviewed base.

HOW TO REVIVE

• Recover from branch fable/lane206-comms-relay (tip at shelve time). Everything is gated behind WFBE_C_COMMS_RELAY, so it reintroduces default-off with low risk.
• Decide the design question first: Ray has declined the "neutral capturable side-objective" niche repeatedly. A revive needs a fresh design pitch establishing why the objective family is wanted, not just a re-open. If reviving alongside any sibling objective (T-34 relic, Arty Cache, TK SCUD site), pick ONE — they occupy the same niche and should not all ship.
• In-engine validation owed before any live use: confirm the mast spawns at [7500,7900] (RPT INITIALIZATION Server_CommsRelay.sqf), the "Relay Recon Sweep" addAction appears within 50 m, the reveal dots render for the owning side only, the per-side cooldown rejects a second immediate activation, and TK/ZG self-skip at the worldName guard.