Treat combat as explicit state machines with visible, testable timing rather than animation-driven guesses.
Specify every combat verb
For each player or enemy action, define: startup, active window, recovery, cancellation rules, resource cost, contact shape, damage/posture outcome, cooldown, and feedback. Make telegraph, danger, contact, and recovery readable at normal camera distance.
Use authoritative outcomes
- Drive hits, blocks, parries, and interrupts from authoritative collision/contact events.
- Require direction, range, phase, and state validity before resolving an outcome.
- Apply each contact once using stable action and target identifiers.
- Keep visuals downstream of resolved simulation events.
Tune for decisions
Give each defense a distinct purpose: spacing, dodge, timed guard, interruption, or resource trade. Avoid unpunishable attacks, recovery loops, unavoidable damage, and dominant spam. Boss phases must alter decision pressure without invalidating learned timing.
Test combat deterministically
Cover early/late timing, wrong direction, out-of-range contact, multiple targets, interrupted actions, phase changes, cooldown boundaries, pause/frame step, equip swaps, and repeated inputs. Use seeded or queryable review scenarios instead of requiring long campaign playthroughs.
Verify in play
Test at realistic frame rate and camera distance. Confirm that player intent, contact feedback, health/posture changes, sound/VFX, and target state agree. Check reduced motion and input alternatives before release.