Village combat

Village combat

A player of the Village walk carries a sword, and can fight. A companion fights beside them. Four bandits and their captain keep a camp on the meadow. A pack of three wolves keeps a den east of the pond. Two straw dummies stand near the start for practice.

The rules are of the action games' kind. The player spends stamina on each move, picks a stance, and makes specials from a special gauge. Perfect dodges, parries, long combos and a limit gauge reward good play. The foes guard, sidestep, rage and wind up red piercing attacks.

examples/village_combat.mojo draws this picture. A gamepad of the web backend plays a fixed script against the bandits, and the companion fights beside the player. To fight with your own gamepad or keyboard, run examples/village_walk.mojo --play: see Village walk.

The controls

Control	Gamepad	Keyboard
Light attack	The right shoulder	F
Heavy attack	The north button	G
Plunge, in the air	Jump, and press the north button	Jump, and press G
Rising edge, a special	Hold the left trigger, and press the right shoulder	Z
Whirlwind, a special	Hold the left trigger, and press the north button	X
Ground wave, a special	Hold the left trigger, and press the west button	B
Ultimate, in a surge	Hold the left trigger, and press the right shoulder and the north button together	M
Dodge	The east button	C
Guard	Hold the left shoulder	Hold V
Stamina recovery	Press the left shoulder just after a swing	Press V just after a swing
Lock on, or let go	Press the right stick	T
Move the lock to the next target	While locked, flick the right stick left or right	While locked, press the left or the right arrow
Eat herbs to heal	The back button	H
The companion's assist attack	Hold the left trigger, and press the left shoulder	Q
High stance	Hold the left shoulder, and press the north button	6
Middle stance	Hold the left shoulder, and press the west button	7
Low stance	Hold the left shoulder, and press the south button	8

A move starts on a new press. Hold a button and the move starts once. While the left shoulder guards, the north, the west and the south buttons choose a stance. They do not attack, use or jump then. While the left trigger is held, the west button makes the ground wave, and does not use. The east button also runs, so a dodge needs the sword drawn.

The rules

The module is extensions/village/combat.mojo. A Fighter holds a body's health, its stamina and its special gauge, its stance, and the move it makes. It does not know where it stands. The battle finds the fighters that a swing reaches, and gives each one a blow.

Stamina

Each light attack, heavy attack and dodge spends stamina. Stamina comes back 0.6 seconds after the player last spent it, at 32 points a second. During a guard it comes back at half that pace.

A fighter that spends its last stamina is winded. It staggers when its move ends. A blow that lands also takes stamina. A fighter whose stamina runs out staggers for 1.6 seconds. A blow on a staggered fighter is critical, and does 1.5 times its damage.

A heavy attack on a staggered fighter with 35 percent of its health or less is a finisher. It fells the fighter at once, and its word is FINISHER.

A stamina recovery gets back the stamina that a swing spent. Press the guard button just after the swing's active part. Within 0.15 seconds, the pulse gets back all of it. Until 0.45 seconds, it gets back half. A pulse that gets stamina back also ends a winded state.

Stances

CombatStance is HIGH_STANCE, MID_STANCE or LOW_STANCE. A stance changes the light and the heavy attacks, and the dodge. A stance changes only while the fighter makes no move.

Stance	Damage and stamina damage	Time of an attack	Stamina of an attack or a dodge	Stamina lost to a guarded blow	Length of a dodge
High	1.3 times	1.2 times	1.3 times	1.2 times	0.9 times
Middle	1 time	1 time	1 time	0.75 times	1 time
Low	0.75 times	0.8 times	0.7 times	1 time	1.15 times

Specials

A special is a strong move that spends points of the special gauge, not stamina. The gauge holds 5 points. It fills by half a point a second, and by 0.2 points for each blow that lands. The rising edge costs 2 points, and throws the foe into the air. The whirlwind costs 3 points. It spins the player round, and strikes all round four times.

The ground wave costs 1 point. Its cut along the ground sends a wave of force that runs 12 meters at 14 meters a second. The wave strikes each target it passes over once, for 45 damage. It shows as an arch of light across the way it runs.

The plunge

A heavy attack in the air is a plunge. The player dives at 14 meters a second, and cuts down to the ground. The cut strikes everything within 2.6 meters, all round, for 70 damage. A ring of light spreads over the ground as it strikes. The plunge has armor until it strikes, and it counters a piercing attack as a heavy attack does. Throw a foe up with the rising edge, jump after it, cut, and plunge to end the combo.

The lock and the heal

The lock button locks the camera on the standing target nearest the middle of the view, within 16 meters. A radian off the middle counts as 6 meters further. While locked, the player faces the target, and the camera turns toward it. A flick of the look stick moves the lock to the target nearest in angle on that side. The lock lets go when its target falls, or goes further than 22 meters.

The heal button eats one of the herbs that the player gathered: see Village gathering. A herb heals 30 percent of the player's health. A player at full health eats nothing.

The surge

A limit gauge fills as the player fights well. Each blow that lands fills 4 points of 100. A blow that breaks a stamina, a guard or a piercing attack fills 10 more. A parry fills 15, and a perfect dodge 20.

When the gauge is full, the player surges for 10 seconds. The special gauge fills, and specials cost nothing. No blow makes the player reel, and their blows do 25 percent more damage. The gauge does not fill while a surge lasts. Bandits and dummies never surge.

The ultimate

While a surge lasts, the player can spend what is left of it on a ultimate. Press the rising edge's and the whirlwind's buttons together. The player raises the sword to the sky, and ULTIMATE shows large in the middle of the frame. Then the player spins round twice. The spins strike everything within 4.5 meters six times, for 70 damage a hit. Last, the player cuts down.

No blow can hit the player through the ultimate. The foes move at 30 percent of the time while it lasts. The surge ends when it starts. Without a surge, the same buttons make the rising edge.

Dodges

No blow can hit a dodge from 0.02 to 0.3 seconds into it. A dodge goes the way the move stick leans, or back when the stick rests. A dodge in an attack's recovery starts at once.

A blow that reaches a dodge in its first 0.15 seconds is a perfect dodge. The player gets back the dodge's stamina and one point of the special gauge. Time slows the bandits to 30 percent for 0.7 seconds. The next attack within 1.2 seconds is a counter, and does twice its damage.

Guards and parries

A guard stops a blow from within 140 degrees before the fighter. The guard loses stamina in place of health. A guard whose stamina runs out breaks, and the fighter staggers.

A guard raised less than 0.15 seconds before the blow parries it. The guard loses no stamina. The attacker loses the blow's stamina, and reels. As after a perfect dodge, the next attack within 1.2 seconds is a counter. Bandits block, and do not parry.

The heavy attack and the whirlwind have armor until their active part ends. A blow on them does its damage, and does not make the fighter reel.

Piercing attacks

A bandit's piercing attack glows red as a warning. The bandit coils for 0.7 seconds with its sword drawn back at the hip. Then it lunges, and thrusts 2.8 meters ahead. A guard does not stop the thrust, and nor does a parry. A dodge does, and a perfect dodge of a piercing attack is as good as any other.

The piercing attack has armor until it strikes, so a light attack does not stop it. A heavy attack or a special that lands in the red wind-up is a pierce break. The bandit loses all its stamina, and staggers. The fight stops for 0.2 seconds, as for a finisher. A ground wave breaks a piercing attack too, from far off.

Combos

The three light attacks chain. A press during a move waits for the chain point: the end of the active part, and 30 percent of the recovery after it. Each blow that lands adds one to the combo. Each blow does 2 percent more damage for each blow of the combo before it, up to 25 blows. The combo ends 2.5 seconds after its last blow, or when the fighter is hit.

The moves

CombatMove is a type with is_valid, and so are CombatStance and StrikeOutcome. A bare integer does not compile. The times are for the middle stance.

Move	Start-up	Active	Recovery	Reach	Arc	Damage	Stamina damage	Stamina	Special points
LIGHT_ONE	0.14 s	0.10 s	0.26 s	2.0 m	120 degrees	30	8	9
LIGHT_TWO	0.12 s	0.10 s	0.28 s	2.0 m	120 degrees	33	9	9
LIGHT_THREE	0.20 s	0.12 s	0.45 s	2.3 m	90 degrees	54	16	12
HEAVY	0.40 s	0.14 s	0.55 s	2.5 m	80 degrees	90	30	22
RISING_EDGE	0.16 s	0.20 s	0.45 s	2.1 m	100 degrees	66	18		2
WHIRLWIND	0.18 s	0.48 s	0.40 s	2.6 m	360 degrees	27, four times	7		3
GROUND_WAVE	0.20 s	0.10 s	0.35 s	A wave		45	10		1
ULTIMATE	0.50 s	1.00 s	0.60 s	4.5 m	360 degrees	70, six times	20		A surge
PLUNGE	0.15 s	0.15 s	0.45 s	2.6 m	360 degrees	70	25	18
BITE	0.35 s	0.20 s	0.45 s	1.4 m	70 degrees	40	12
PIERCE	0.70 s	0.14 s	0.60 s	2.8 m	70 degrees	120	45	20
CAST	0.35 s	0.10 s	0.35 s	A bolt		28	10
THROW	0.45 s	0.10 s	0.45 s	A knife		40	14
DODGE		0.32 s	0.16 s					14

An attack carries its fighter forward through its start-up and its active part. A blow pushes the fighter that it hits away. The player has 500 health and 100 stamina.

The weight of a blow

A strong blow stops the whole fight for 0.06 seconds, as action games freeze a frame on a heavy hit. It also shakes the camera by 6 centimeters, and the shake dies away. A finisher or a pierce break stops the fight for 0.2 seconds, and shakes the camera twice as far. A strong blow breaks a guard, or lands and is critical, breaks a stamina or fells its fighter. A blow that lands and pushes at least 4 meters a second, or throws its fighter up, is strong too.

The bandits

The module is extensions/village/foes.mojo. Three hooded bandits keep a camp about 25 meters north-west of the start. A bandit is a person with a sword, as the player is. It has 300 health and 70 stamina, and its blows do 55 percent of a move's damage. Their captain, taller and in red, stands behind them. The captain has 650 health and 120 stamina, and its blows do 80 percent of a move's damage.

A fourth bandit, in gray and weld yellow, throws knives. A thrower keeps 8 meters from the player, and never takes the attack token. About every 3.5 seconds, it draws its free arm back and throws a knife at the player's chest. The knife flies straight at 18 meters a second. A dodge evades it, and a guard blocks it or parries it, as it does a cut.

Below half its health, the captain rages. RAGE shows over it as it begins, and under its bars while it lasts. A raging fighter's attacks take 80 percent of their time. A raging bandit's dice roll high. It makes no plan of two light attacks, and twice as many piercing attacks.

A Brain decides what a bandit does, frame by frame. FoeState is a type with is_valid.

State	What the bandit does	It moves on when
POSTED	Stands at its post	The player comes within 14 meters: ALERTED
ALERTED	Faces the player for 0.7 seconds	The time is over: CLOSING
CLOSING	Runs or walks at the player	It is within 3.6 meters: CIRCLING
CIRCLING	Steps round the player, facing them	Its wait is over and it holds the attack token: ATTACKING
ATTACKING	Comes within 1.9 meters and makes its plan of attacks	The plan is done: RETREATING
RETREATING	Backs away for 0.8 seconds	The time is over: CIRCLING
GUARDING	Guards for 0.9 seconds	The time is over: CIRCLING
RETURNING	Walks back to its post	It is there: POSTED

Only the bandit that holds the attack token attacks. The others wait their turn round the player. A plan is two or three light attacks, a heavy attack, or a light and a heavy attack. One plan in ten is a piercing attack. A blow that lands on an attacking bandit breaks off its plan.

A waiting bandit answers about one attack of the player's in three. Two answers in five are a sidestep, and the rest are a guard. A bandit's perfect dodge does not slow the fight.

A bandit returns to its post when the player falls. It also returns when the player leads it more than 28 meters from its post. The dice that choose come from each bandit's seed, so a fight plays the same way each time.

A fallen bandit gives 8 coins, which go into the satchel. One time in two, it also drops a herb. It lies for 10 seconds, and comes back to its post after a minute.

Fighting trains the player's swordplay. Each level over 1 makes the player's blows 5 percent stronger: see Village skills.

The wolves

Three wolves keep a den about 30 meters east of the pond. A wolf is an animal of the village, meshed as a flipbook of its walk, as the herds are. It has 160 health and 60 stamina, and no guard. Its one attack is the BITE: a crouch of 0.35 seconds, and a leap of 2.4 meters that bites. A bite does 60 percent of 40 damage.

A wolf's brain is a bandit's with a beast's temper. It notices the player from 18 meters, waits its turn 4.5 meters away, and leaps to bite from 3.2 meters. It runs at 7 meters a second. Where a bandit would guard an attack, a wolf leaps back from it. The wolves take turns with the bandits, by the same attack token.

A fallen wolf lies on its side. It gives no coins, but it trains swordplay as a bandit does. It comes back to its den after a minute.

The companion

The module is extensions/village/companion.mojo. A swordswoman in woad blue starts beside the player, and fights with them. The foes do not attack her: she keeps out of their way.

Out of a fight, she follows the player. She walks to them from more than 3 meters, and runs from more than 7. In a fight, she faces the player's foe, and stands 6 meters from it, 70 degrees off the line from the foe to the player. So she keeps out of the way of the camera.

She never strays more than 10 meters from the player. She casts at the locked target. With no lock, she casts at the nearest foe that fights within 15 meters of the player.

Every 2.6 seconds, she points her sword and casts a bolt of light at a foe within 14 meters. The bolt flies at 16 meters a second, and follows its foe. It does 28 damage and 10 stamina damage. When the player's health falls below 40 percent, she heals 15 percent of it. Then she waits 15 seconds before she heals again.

Her assist gauge fills by 4 points a second while the fight lasts, and by 10 for each bolt that lands. It holds 100. When it is full, the assist button calls for her assist attack: a gold bolt that does 70 damage and 50 stamina damage. No guard stops it, and it counters a piercing attack, as a heavy attack does.

The dummies

Two straw dummies stand east of the start. A dummy is a post with a crossbar, a body of straw and a sack for a head. It has a fighter, so blows on it break its stamina and become critical. It never falls, and it rocks on its post as it is hit.

What the fight shows

The module is extensions/village/battle_hud.mojo. draw_battle writes these over the frame:

• The companion's assist gauge, in the bottom left. It says ASSIST READY when it is full.
• The gauges, in the bottom right: the stance, the health, the stamina, the limit gauge, and the special gauge as a row of points. The health turns red below a quarter. In a surge, the limit gauge turns gold, says SURGE, and empties as the time runs out. Through an ultimate's start-up, its name stands large in the middle of the frame, and a gold star grows at the sword hand.
• The combo, such as 12 HITS, on the right. It fades as the combo ends.
• Each bandit's health and stamina, over its head, while it fights or is hurt. A staggered bandit shows BREAK, or FINISH when a heavy attack would finish it. A bandit that winds up a heavy attack shows a red !. A bandit that winds up a piercing attack glows red at the chest, and the glow grows until it strikes. A raging bandit shows RAGE under its bars.
• A dummy's stamina, over its head, while its stamina is not full.
• The lock's mark: four gold dots round the locked target's chest.
• The damage of each blow, and its word, such as PERFECT DODGE, PARRY, CRITICAL or PIERCE BREAK. They rise and fade.
• The edges of the frame, tinted. They turn blue while the player's perfect dodge slows the foes. They turn gold through an ultimate, and red below a quarter of the player's health. A stamina recovery rings the player's feet with blue light.

The note over the prompt names each special as it starts, and each new stance. It says SURGE! when a surge begins, and ASSIST ATTACK! when the companion makes one. The companion's bolts are blue stars, and her assist attack's is gold. A thrown knife is a small orange star. A blow that lands bursts in sparks.

A swing leaves a trail of light: white for the player, gold in a surge, and orange for a bandit. A piercing attack's thrust leaves a red trail. The ultimate's spins leave a wide gold ring. A plunge rings the ground with light where it lands.

Through the active part, the trail grows from where the swing starts to where the blade is. It is brightest at the blade, and fades behind it. After the active part, it fades away in 0.15 seconds.

The game's renderer draws every surface opaque, so draw_battle adds the trails to the finished frame. See extensions/village/slashes.mojo.

The sword hangs at the hip until the fight starts. It is in the hand while a bandit within 10 meters fights, or the player fights. It goes back to the hip 6 seconds later.

One frame of the fight

VillageGame.tick calls Battle.tick in place of the player's own step. The module is extensions/village/battle.mojo. Battle.tick does these steps:

1. The presses. A new press asks the player's fighter for a move. The guard button guards while held, and a new press of it makes a stamina recovery.
2. The player moves. A free player walks, runs and jumps, at 40 percent of the stick while guarding. A locked player faces the target.
3. An attack turns. Through its start-up, an attack turns the player toward the locked target. With no lock, it turns toward the nearest target within 4 meters before them.
4. The bandits and the companion think and move. Each bandit's brain decides, and its character steps or is carried by its move. The companion's mind decides where she goes, and when she casts and heals.
5. The blows. In steps of at most 1/60 second, each fighter's clock runs, and each swing gives its blow to the fighters that it reaches. A strong blow stops the next frames of the fight for 0.06 seconds.
6. The fallen. A fallen player comes to at the start after 4 seconds. A fallen bandit lies, then comes back to its post.

Character.drive carries a character at a set speed over the ground. An attack's lunge, a dodge and a blow's push use it. The walls, the water and the obstacles still stop the character.

The sword clips

The module is extensions/humanoid/rig/sword_clips.mojo. Each clip is worked out from key poses, as the clips of Game humanoid are. A clip of a move lasts as long as the move does in the middle stance. Arms adds the clips to a Body, and plays the clip of the fighter's move.

Clip	Seconds	What it shows
ready_clip	2.0, loops	Knees bent, the sword side forward, the sword before the body
light_one_clip	0.5	A cut from the sword's side across to the other side
light_two_clip	0.5	A backhand cut back across
light_three_clip	0.77	A step and a cut down from over the head
heavy_clip	1.09	A long wind-up high, and a lunge that cuts down across
rising_edge_clip	0.81	A crouch with the sword low, and a cut up that rises onto the toes
ground_wave_clip	0.65	A crouch with the sword low behind, and a cut along the ground and up
ultimate_clip	2.1	The sword raised to the sky, two whole turns of the body with the sword arm out, and a cut down
cast_clip	0.8	The sword raised, and pointed at the foe with the free hand beside it
plunge_clip	0.75	The sword raised over the head, and a cut down to the ground in a deep crouch
throw_clip	1.0	The free arm drawn back over the shoulder, and flung forward to throw a knife
pierce_clip	1.44	A long coil with the sword drawn back at the hip, and a lunge that thrusts it straight ahead
whirlwind_clip	1.06	The sword arm out, and a whole turn of the body
dodge_clip	0.48	A low, quick crouch
guard_clip	1.0, loops	The blade held across before the face
flinch_clip	0.4	The head and the chest thrown back
stagger_clip	1.6	Bent over, the sword low, swaying for breath
fall_clip	2.0	The knees give, and the body falls on its back

The rig faces plus z, and calls the side on plus x its right. A camera behind the rig sees plus x on its own left. So the poses are written for a sword arm on plus x, and mirrored turns them over. The sword is in LEFT_HAND, the hand a player sees as the right.

The parts

Module	Holds
combat.mojo	CombatMove, CombatStance, StrikeOutcome, MoveData, FighterParameters, Fighter, reaches and faces.
battle.mojo	BattleParameters, Foe, Ally, Bolt, Person, Pelt, Battle, pressed, push_of, throw_up and strong_blow.
foes.mojo	FoeState, Brain, Sight, Intent, Bandit, Den, Post and Dummy.
companion.mojo	Companion, AllySight, AllyIntent, ally_fighter, assist_blow and default_allies.
arms.mojo	Arms: a body's swords and sword clips.
blade.mojo	SwordLooks, add_sword and add_scabbard.
slashes.mojo	Trail, Sparks, draw_wave, glow_triangle, glow_ribbon, glow_star and slash_material.
battle_hud.mojo	draw_battle.
pad_input.mojo	fight_input, and the fight's keys.

Limits

• The fight is not saved. A new game starts with full health, and every bandit at its post.
• A blow lands where its arc meets a fighter's circle. The blade's own path does not decide it.
• The foes do not attack the companion, and she is never hurt.
• Only the player has specials. A bandit makes light attacks, heavy attacks and piercing attacks only.
• A trail is a flat ribbon, not the blade's exact path. It is added over the frame, so a wall does not hide it.
• A fighter in the air hangs there while its attack strikes. The plunge is the one attack made for the air.