Troubleshoot Outbound Autodialer for VICIdial

We are running VICIdial version 2.14-70 and currently have a problem with the outbound autodialer for our AU_SOLAR campaign. The agent can successfully log in and become READY, and the VICIdial heartbeat/keepalive mechanism is now working correctly, so the agent is no longer becoming LAGGED because of a frozen `last_update_time`. The remaining problem is that the agent does not receive outbound leads/calls even though the campaign is active and configured for RATIO autodialing with `auto_dial_level=1`. We have traced the process far enough to establish that the browser/agent side is reaching VICIdial correctly and the heartbeat is updating, but the actual autodial chain stops before an outbound call is originated. The observed sequence is: agent 101 becomes READY → `outbound_autodial=Y` → VICIdial should select an eligible lead → an auto-call should be created/sent → `AST_VDauto_dial.pl` should determine that a call needs to be placed → Asterisk should originate the call. Instead, the debug output from `AST_VDauto_dial.pl` shows `READY=1 agents=0 dial_level=0 calls to place=0`, meaning the script is seeing the agent as READY but ultimately determines that there are zero agents/calls available for dialing and therefore does not originate a call. No corresponding outbound Asterisk channel is created. We have also inspected the VICIdial database and found that the AU_SOLAR campaign is active, the campaign has leads available in its list, and the campaign has previously shown a `vicidial_auto_calls` entry, so we suspect the failure is somewhere in the transition between the READY agent/campaign state, lead selection/hopper/auto-call state, and `AST_VDauto_dial.pl`'s decision to place the call. We have already investigated and repaired the separate PHP/AJAX heartbeat problem involving the agent refresh/keepalive path, so please do NOT modify that functionality or make unrelated changes. We need an experienced VICIdial developer to trace the complete outbound autodial path using the actual database state, VICIdial Perl processes, campaign configuration, hopper/auto-call tables, agent state, and Asterisk state, identify the exact condition causing `agents=0`, `dial_level=0`, and `calls to place=0`, and then apply the smallest possible fix to restore automatic outbound dialing. Please specifically investigate why a genuinely READY agent is not being counted as an available autodial agent and why the configured campaign `auto_dial_level` is effectively becoming zero in the autodial decision. Check for stale or inconsistent `vicidial_auto_calls`/hopper records, campaign/agent compatibility, dial-method configuration, server-process arguments, database state, and the communication between `AST_VDauto_dial.pl`, `AST_VDadapt.pl`, `AST_VDhopper`, VICIdial's live-agent records, and Asterisk. Do not simply restart services, change campaign settings, reinstall VICIdial, modify PHP files, or make broad configuration changes without first proving that the relevant component is responsible. The priority is to find and document the actual root cause from the existing logs/database/process state and make a targeted permanent correction so the agent can reliably receive and originate outbound calls through the AU_SOLAR campaign.