guts/web/js/combat/balance.js
type-two b2d9b46c30 [lane B+C] Giardia: the latch, and boost becomes a dodge
The first foe with an ATTACH state machine, and the first that gives boost a defensive job.
Giardia chases like a seeker, CLAMPS its ventral suction disc onto your hull, and drains coat
while it rides — until a boost's i-frames throw it (or it lets go after attachMax, then can't
re-grab for reattachCd). The counterplay is timing a boost, not out-running it.

- enemies.js: `latcher` archetype — a two-state (chase / attached) branch. Attached, it rides
  player.pos + a spin offset and drains `drain`/tick; ps.iframeT > 0 (boost) detaches and flings
  it clear. Amber tetrahedron (the trophozoite), so a clinging one reads on the hull.
- levels/enemies.js: ARCHETYPES += latcher; catalogue `giardia_latch` (biome small_intestine).
- L2: one Giardia previewed on the open thoracic run (s1940) — it belongs to L4's villi maze,
  but the grab works in a flow tube, so it teaches the boost-dodge verb now.

Verified: it chased + clamped, drained coat 100->84 while attached, and a simulated boost
(iframeT) shook it off.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-19 20:45:21 +10:00

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// combat/balance.js (Lane B) — every combat number. Sibling of flight/tuning.js: that file
// decides how ENDO-1 handles, this one decides what the fight is worth.
//
// Sized against the stub esophagus (flow 14 u/s, playable disc radius ~7..10 u) and against
// the player's own numbers: disc top speed 13 u/s, coat 100 with 8/s regen after 2.5 s.
export const BALANCE = {
// Lysozyme cannon: infinite ammo, heat-limited (GDD). Heat is the whole design — the gun
// is free, so the cost has to be time. Sustained fire nets +25 heat/s (11 shots/s × 5.5,
// less 30/s cooling) => ~4 s of held fire before lockout, then ~2 s to recover to resumeAt.
// Burst and you never see the meter; hold and you're disarmed exactly when it's busiest.
cannon: {
rof: 11, // shots/s
speed: 95, // u/s in world space (closing speed ~75 with player flow)
life: 1.15, // s => ~109 u range, comfortably past the fog
damage: 12,
radius: 0.35,
heatPerShot: 5.5,
coolRate: 30, // /s
overheatAt: 100,
resumeAt: 40, // hysteresis — no stutter-firing on the edge of lockout
spread: 0.004, // rad, seeded — a hair of life, not a handicap
pool: 96, // rof × life = ~13 in flight; 96 covers spikes with room
},
// Antacid torpedo: the dual-use secondary (GDD). Also neutralizes an acid zone for ~10 s
// via the level:neutralize bus event — A/C consume it. Ammo-limited, pickup-fed (round 2).
torpedo: {
rof: 0.8, speed: 42, life: 3.2, damage: 45, splash: 9, radius: 0.7,
ammo: 6, ammoMax: 6,
neutralizeRadius: 14, neutralizeDuration: 10,
pool: 8,
},
enemies: {
// amylase droplet — slow floater with a corrosive contact aura. A soft obstacle: it
// doesn't chase, it taxes the lane it sits in. Aura ticks discretely (see enemies.js).
floater: { hp: 24, radius: 2.2, score: 100, drift: 1.6, bob: 0.5,
auraRadius: 4.2, auraDps: 18, auraTick: 0.2, pool: 24 },
// pepsin — small fast seeker, dissolves on contact. Chases in spline space (s,x,y), so
// a pursuit costs three floats. speed 19 > player flow 14: it WILL catch you from
// behind, and the answer is to shoot it or boost, not to outrun it at throttle 1.4.
seeker: { hp: 14, radius: 1.0, score: 150, speed: 19, turn: 2.4, contact: 16,
aggroS: 60, pool: 32 },
// antibody turret (Peyer's patch) — wall-mounted, fires homing darts. Dart turn radius
// is speed/turn = 24/1.8 = 13.3 u, wider than the tube itself: it can never corner you,
// only punish a straight line. Dodgeable by design (charter).
turret: { hp: 40, radius: 1.6, score: 250, fireEvery: 1.9, rangeS: 55,
dartSpeed: 24, dartTurn: 1.8, dartLife: 4.5, dartDamage: 14, pool: 12 },
// flora — the first FRIEND. A commensal (Lactobacillus &c) that drifts like a floater but
// HELPS: brush its aura and it sheds `coat` mucus per tick instead of taking it. score 0 and
// no combo (enemies.js kill()): it sits in the enemy pool so it is shootable, but shooting
// it is the reputation trap, never a reward. `coat` kept small + no parking in a flow tube =
// a trickle, not a fountain. hp low: a stray pellet shouldn't wipe a colony you meant to spare.
// No `gain` => flora:tended defaults to the small +5 standing in combat/index.js.
flora: { hp: 18, radius: 2.0, score: 0, drift: 1.2, bob: 0.4,
auraRadius: 3.6, coat: 6, auraTick: 0.3, pool: 24 },
// mucus_grazer (Akkermansia) — a commensal that eats your mucin. Brushing it COSTS `coatCost`
// per tick but signals gut health hardest (`gain` 12 vs flora's 5): the "spend coat for
// faster allies" trade. Shares flora's drift+aura branch, sign-flipped by data. score 0,
// shootable (harming it is still flora:harmed). The clever risk/reward of the reputation loop.
mucus_grazer: { hp: 20, radius: 2.2, score: 0, drift: 1.0, bob: 0.35,
auraRadius: 4.0, coatCost: 4, gain: 12, auraTick: 0.3, pool: 16 },
// spore_pod — a foe budding-yeast/Candida cluster. Mechanically the floater (drift + corrosive
// aura) with its OWN pool so its blobby mesh reads distinct from tumbling food debris. The
// first entity authored to be skinned by a Trellis mesh (assets/models/spore_pod.glb).
spore_pod: { hp: 30, radius: 2.4, score: 120, drift: 1.4, bob: 0.5,
auraRadius: 4.4, auraDps: 20, auraTick: 0.2, pool: 16 },
// phage — the ALLY (bacteriophage). A friendly seeker that hunts the nearest FOE and rams
// it (`punch`), bursting after `bursts` hits (a phage lyses its host and dies). FAST (26 >
// every foe) so it actually catches things; FRAGILE (hp 8) so a stray pellet or a foe pops
// it. score 0 — an ally never scores. Budded by high BIOME STANDING (combat/index.js), the
// payoff for tending flora. escort* = where it loiters when no foe is in `huntS` range.
phage: { hp: 8, radius: 1.1, score: 0, speed: 26, turn: 3.2, punch: 20, bursts: 2,
huntS: 70, escortLead: 10, escortR: 5, pool: 8 },
// cdiff (C. difficile) — a foe floater (drift + corrosive aura) whose corpse ISN'T clean:
// on death it leaves a spore_cloud (enemies.js kill()). Killing it costs you the ground it
// died on. A colon (L5) enemy; registered now, placed when L5 gets its encounter pass.
cdiff: { hp: 26, radius: 2.3, score: 140, drift: 1.2, bob: 0.45,
auraRadius: 4.0, auraDps: 14, auraTick: 0.2, pool: 12 },
// spore_cloud — C. diff's parting gift. A STATIC corrosive zone (acid-green, readability law)
// that damages on contact and expires after `life`s. Not scored (foe:false), but shootable:
// low hp so you CAN clear it with the cannon — spend heat to disperse it, or fly around.
spore_cloud: { hp: 14, radius: 3.2, score: 0, auraRadius: 4.5, auraDps: 22, auraTick: 0.25,
life: 5, pool: 12 },
// latcher (Giardia) — a foe that CHASES like a seeker, then CLAMPS onto your hull (its
// ventral suction disc) and drains `drain` coat/tick while it rides. The new verb is
// "shake it off": a boost's i-frames throw it, else it lets go after `attachMax`s, then
// can't re-grab for `reattachCd`s. speed 20 > flow so it catches you; the counterplay is
// timing a boost, not out-running it.
latcher: { hp: 16, radius: 1.4, score: 160, speed: 20, turn: 2.6, aggroS: 55,
drain: 8, drainTick: 0.3, attachMax: 3.5, reattachCd: 1.5, pool: 12 },
},
darts: { pool: 48, radius: 0.45 },
// --- hazards (round 2) -------------------------------------------------------------
// C authors WHERE and HOW MUCH in the level JSON (speed/period/amplitude/span/warn); these
// are the mechanical constants those params drive. C's params always win where they overlap.
hazards: {
// reflux_surge — the rear chaser. C's finale: speed 21 vs flow 20, spawning 40 u behind
// and chasing 600 u. Lethal on contact by C's authoring (`lethal: true`); the s=1700
// teaching burp is `lethal: false` and only grazes. Antacid stalls it (`neutralizable`).
surge: {
graze: 26, // coat damage/tick for the NON-lethal teaching version
grazeTick: 0.35, // s between graze ticks while inside it
stallFactor: 0.0, // speed multiplier while neutralised — 0 = fully parked.
// C's design leans on this: "fired backward it stalls the surge
// ~10 s" (their finale maths assumes a real stop, not a slow).
proximityRange: 220, // u within which we emit hazard:proximity (E's rear indicator)
catchRadius: 3.0, // u of s-overlap that counts as being caught
},
// aortic_squeeze — DIRECTIONAL by design (C): the arch presses from `theta` only and the
// opposite arc is the answer. Non-lethal, and C's teach-then-test ledger depends on that
// staying true (LANE_C_NOTES: "if B makes squeeze contact lethal, this breaks — tell me").
squeeze: {
graze: 14, // coat damage per contact tick
grazeTick: 0.3,
shove: 9, // u/s pushed off the bulging wall — the hazard MOVES you
arc: 1.9, // rad of the cross-section the bulge occupies (~110°, one side)
},
// ring_gate — a POINT, therefore timeable: the player modulates throttle to arrive on an
// open beat. Closed contact is expensive but never lethal (C: it is a skill check, and
// a flow-locked player cannot stop to wait).
gate: {
hit: 30, // coat damage for arriving on a closed beat
shove: 6, // u/s shove toward the centreline (the iris squeezes you through)
irisMin: 0.12, // fraction of the lumen still open when fully "sealed" — never a
// true wall: a flow-locked player physically cannot stop, so a
// real seal would be an unavoidable toll rather than a skill check
},
},
// --- pickups (round 2) -------------------------------------------------------------
// C owns placement + counts (level JSON); B owns what each one is WORTH. C's round-2 task
// is to hand over an economy — until it lands these are B's proposal, documented in NOTES.
pickups: {
radius: 1.5, // generous collect radius: pickups are a reward, not a dexterity test
spin: 1.4, // rad/s idle rotation
nutrient_orb: { score: 50, boost: 0.6, note: 'score + boost recharge (shaves cooldown)' },
mucin_glob: { coat: 35 },
b12_cell: { hull: 30 },
antacid_ammo: { ammo: 1 },
biopsy_sample: { score: 500, sample: 1 },
},
// Chained kills feed the combo meter (GDD: score × style multiplier; E's music layer
// listens). Window is generous enough to cross a fold, tight enough to mean something.
combo: { window: 2.5 },
};