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>
Parley Hatch
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