Status: AUTHORING LAW / STATIC DOC / RUNTIME PROOF NOT IMPLIED Evidence class: STATIC_DOC Scope: combat contact, damage routing, hitboxes, armor/penetration tables, creature attacks, tool-as-weapon boundaries, module damage, status effects, and combat proof gates.
Combat in HECTON-8 is contact with hostile pressure, machinery, biology, and panic. It is not arena gunplay.
Every damaging event must have source, medium, impact surface, resistance, consequence, and readable feedback. If damage is just HP subtraction with a red flash, reject it. Combat should change route, oxygen, noise, tools, hull integrity, suit function, creature behavior, or extraction risk.
User combat lock: creatures may be killable, but HECTON-8 is not generic hunting survival. Small creatures can be fought or killed when the player has suitable tools, readable contact, and cost. Large creatures are not solved by simple DPS; escape, distraction, bait, terrain, light/noise discipline, vehicle risk, oxygen planning, and route choice should often be the correct answer.
Damage truth is owned by damage/survival/physics/AI/vehicle/module systems, not VFX or UI.
Combat owns hit intent, attack/contact rules, weapon/tool boundaries, hitbox contract, damage event shape, and reaction expectations. It consumes physics contacts, tool state, AI attack state, and survival/module resistance snapshots. VFX/UI/audio/haptics present damage but do not invent it.
Every damage packet must include:
- source id/type;
- target id/type;
- contact point or local hit volume;
- damage channel;
- impulse or pressure component;
- material/resistance row;
- status flags;
- timestamp/tick;
- authority owner;
- black-box fields for last 300 frames where critical.
Damage channels include pressure, cut, burn, pierce, crush, shock, toxin, radiation, hypoxia, decompression, and biological contamination. Channels must map to survival, module, armor, creature, or world consequences.
Active hit/contact/damage routing is a hot path. It must use cached ids, fixed-capacity buffers or owner packets, blittable payloads where runtime lanes require them, baked resistance tables/LUTs, and deterministic owner order.
Forbidden in active combat/contact loops: managed allocation, LINQ, string-keyed lookup, scene search, GameObject.name, visual mesh triangle truth, UI/VFX damage mutation, haptic/audio damage invention, runtime table growth, per-hit delegates, direct physics force outside the owning apply route, and hidden catch-and-continue exception paths.
Combat read accessors are pure. Get*, TryGet*, Resolve*, and Read* routes may not publish damage, allocate, complete jobs, mutate black-box state, or search scene objects.
Rules:
- hitboxes use local AABB/capsule/sphere/convex primitives, not visual mesh triangles;
- armor/penetration uses baked LUTs or scalar tables;
- angle/material/resistance must matter where the mechanic is visible;
- hitbox names are stable ids, not scene object names;
- critical hits require readable anatomy or module affordance;
- large fauna contact uses body zones and attack phases, not arbitrary trigger spam.
Industrial tools can harm, but they remain tools:
- cutter: heat/cut channel, limited reach, power/noise cost;
- drill: vibration, puncture, debris, tool lock risk;
- scanner/sonar: sensory disruption, not free damage;
- welder: repair/heat, accidental burn, limited combat value.
If a tool becomes a normal weapon with no maintenance, risk, power, or noise consequence, reject it.
GlobalQualityWeight may scale impact decals, hit reaction richness, blood/cloud density, haptics, camera response, audio layers, and secondary VFX. It must not change damage truth, hitbox layout, penetration tables, save identity, or authority route.
Compact keeps clear hit feedback, stable damage packets, simple reactions, and readable failure. High tiers add richer decals, animation layers, shader wounds, and contact presentation without changing damage results.
Low/Middle/High/Ultra are continuous planning labels on the same GlobalQualityWeight curve, not binary switches:
- Low: stable packets, clear hit feedback, simple reactions, readable failure state.
- Middle: richer telegraphs, haptic priority, local decals, and better contact readability.
- High: animation layers, shader wounds, material-specific response, stronger audio/camera presentation.
- Ultra: dense secondary VFX and sensory layering without changing damage result, hitbox layout, or authority route.
The first-20 route must prove at least one readable hostile contact or damage threat path if combat is present: source, telegraph, contact, consequence, recovery, and black-box fields. A red flash, random scare, or VFX-only bite does not count.
Any combat, hitbox, penetration, damage contact, or threat-interaction change must declare:
- damage packet schema and owner route;
- hitbox/proxy map;
- resistance, penetration, armor, and vulnerability table;
- tool-as-weapon boundary if tools can harm;
- reaction presentation through animation/VFX/audio/haptics/UI;
- black-box fields for last contact and damage route;
- Compact and High readability proof;
- profiler/GC proof when runtime contact code changes.
Combat without visible contact geometry, legible damage cause, or owner-routed consequences is rejected.
Combat/damage work must provide:
- damage packet schema;
- hitbox/proxy map;
- resistance/penetration table;
- owner route for each damage channel;
- black-box fields for critical systems;
- compact feedback screenshot/capture if visual;
- profiler proof if runtime contact processing changed;
- save/load proof if damage persists.
Reject:
- HP-only damage with no physical channel;
- visual meshes used as hit truth;
- VFX/UI inventing damage;
- creature attacks with no telegraph/contact phase;
- tools turned into generic weapons;
- penetration/armor claims without table/proof;
- combat work without black-box route for faults.
Combat is accepted only when damage is routed through explicit channels, hit truth uses cheap proxies, consequences affect survival/world decisions, presentation stays honest, and runtime proof exists for any implemented contact path.