Fights were ~3-5s; the user wanted 20-30s. Tuned the table (and added one
mechanic) so they land there, re-validated against the sim throughout.
- Engine: a `global_cooldown` (the genre swing timer, §10 "attack delay") — an
actor can't start a new action until it elapses, so no button-masher can
out-DPS the intended tempo. Config-driven (`global_cooldown` ticks; 0 = off).
Actor gains `next_action_at`; engine gates decisions on it.
- Controller: ScriptedPlayer now pressures with its heavy proactively when
healthy (not only on the exact overrun frame), so the sim measures what a real
player experiences instead of an unrealistically patient bound.
- Config rebalance: damage cut + flattened, fatigue/regen/recovery co-tuned, and
the kit made roughly **DPS-neutral** with auto-attack (each ability's cooldown
matched to auto's damage-per-second). Under the global cooldown that's the key
insight: abilities win through stagger leverage + timing, not raw throughput —
otherwise strong abilities trivialize the pace and flat ones aren't worth their
fill (the guardrail kept inverting until this landed). Auto-attacks (difficulty
0) also no longer fizzle.
- Front-end: cache-bust the config fetch so edits are always picked up; widened
the sim's archetype sweep to all six monsters.
Result (sim, skilled play ≈ real play): monster fights 16-38s (centered ~24s);
guardrail steep and green (even-con auto 0% → skill20 2% → skill50 12% →
skill80 44% → skill100 78%); all six monsters winnable. Verified live in-browser:
realistic play lands ~15-30s and a clean mid-fight reads perfectly on the dual bar.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Build the full combat-system experiment from its spec, no slices deferred.
combat-core — pure, headless, deterministic engine (the single source of truth):
- One combined Vigor pool (HP+mana+stamina merged) with the two-axis
(fill, ceiling) cost model; offense spends survival.
- Stagger cascade (absorbed/dazed/unconscious/dead), capacity = current fill,
ceiling collapse via fatigue as the real loss condition; revive-on-recovery.
- Unified ability model (skills == spells) with the delivery+effects+potency+
targets cost composer and a full effect library (fill/ceiling damage, DoT/HoT,
regen-sabotage, fatigue-amp, mitigation buff/debuff, recovery).
- Ordered mitigation pipeline, config-driven con curve, competency/fizzle/resist,
loadout/memorization, active-defense windows.
- Symmetric actors; pluggable controllers (SwingOnCooldown, ScriptedPlayer{skill},
HoldAndPunish). Fixed-tick loop with the canonical within-tick resolution order;
decisions are simultaneous within a tick so mirror matches are fair.
- Determinism is load-bearing: vendored order-independent RNG fork (+ integer
chance_bp so no f64 touches the hot path) and integer fixed-point magnitudes
with banker's rounding. 48 tests incl. bit-reproducible event-log integration.
combat-sim — batch harness: loads the config "table", runs con-tier x skill and
archetype sweeps (tens of thousands of fights), exports per-fight CSV, an
aggregated summary, and one fight's full event log.
analysis — pandas/matplotlib layer: difficulty curve, duration tent, anti-turtle
guardrail, stagger frequency, and one fight's fill/ceiling time series.
The sim did its job: the first default numbers produced a one-tick cliff and 82%
mutual-KO draws and surfaced the spec's deepest risk live (a poke skill strictly
worse than free auto-attack, so auto-only out-won the full kit). Tuning the table
moved it to the intended shape — duration tent peaking ~22s at even con, a
monotone skill->win-rate gradient (auto ~3% -> skill100 44% at even con), and a
green anti-turtle guardrail. That sim->measure->tune loop is the deliverable.
Own Cargo workspace, fully decoupled from the root reikhelm workspace.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
