guts/web/js/combat/balance.js
type-two 7709484ea7 [lane B] The Pyloric Guardian: the first boss, built to C's spec
GUTS has had three bosses designed and none implemented. This is the first, and the framework
the other two should reuse. Built to LANE_C_NOTES §Boss specs, phase table and all.

WHY IT IS SMALL. A boss here is not a parallel entity system, it is a SCHEDULE over the enemy
pool. The nodes and vents are ordinary enemies, so weapons hit them, the InstancedMesh draws
them and enemy:die reports them for free; the fight's identity lives entirely in WHEN they can
be hurt, which is two flags (`invuln`, `armor`) honoured by enemies.hurt(). boss.js is a state
machine and nothing else.

Faithful to C's table:
  P1  4 rim nodes, iris opens 2.5s every 8s
  P2  4 nodes, opens 1.8s every 5s, TWO armoured — and only the antacid torpedo strips them
  P3  the core alone, 60hp = C's "x5 hits", plus the 25s doom timer that kills you if you stall
Telegraphs are C's too: a "deep gulp" 2s before each window (boss:telegraph + audio), and nodes
go amber -> white-hot exactly when they become shootable — one uniform driven off `invuln`, so
the thing that glows IS the thing you can hurt, always.

Vents are turrets at fixed arcs: a turret already fires a telegraphed homing projectile on a
cooldown, which is what an acid vent is.

hp is B's call (C: "numbers need B's framework to tune against"). 150 per rim node means a ring
outlives its first window, so you must come back for it — which is what lets the stomach's
coat-drain be the real clock. C's pillar, verified: parked in the lair for 20s without fighting
back, coat goes 100 -> 0. "A race against your coat, not its hp."

Verified end-to-end: a paced pilot (11 shots/s, ~70% uptime) wins in 38.8s across 9 windows at
0.38 open-duty (spec: 31-36%); phases report 4/0 armoured, 4/2 armoured, 1 core; damage is
refused while the iris is shut; the two armoured nodes consumed exactly 2 torpedo strips.

Not included: C's arena churn (a force on the player, the one part of the spec that is a feel
change rather than a schedule) — noted for the round that tunes it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-25 22:50:56 +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 },
// virion (norovirus) — the ARITHMETIC swarm: tiny, fast, individually trivial (hp 6, one
// pellet), lethal only in numbers. Shares the seeker behaviour (chase + dissolve on contact)
// but its own tiny-radius pool of 40, so a norovirus cloud reads as a swarm, not a squad.
virion: { hp: 6, radius: 0.7, score: 60, speed: 22, turn: 2.8, contact: 8, aggroS: 55, pool: 40 },
// driller (H. pylori) — the one microbe that thrives in the stomach. A TANKY corkscrewer:
// chases like a seeker but spirals (spin/corkscrew) so it's hard to pin, and it does NOT
// dissolve on contact — it grinds you and keeps coming. hp 50 = you must commit real fire.
driller: { hp: 50, radius: 1.6, score: 220, speed: 16, turn: 2.0, contact: 18, aggroS: 60,
spin: 4, corkscrew: 6, pool: 8 },
// mucosal_node — the Pyloric Guardian's rim nodes (LANE_C_NOTES §Boss specs). Fixed: no
// movement branch in enemies.update, which is exactly right for a node bolted to an iris.
// It is combat/boss.js that makes them a boss — the phase cycle flips `invuln` so they are
// only shootable while the sphincter relaxes. This `hp` is only the default — boss.js sets
// it per phase (150 for the rim rings, 60 for P3's core, which is C's "x5 hits").
// pool 12, not 9: a fight spawns 4 + 4 + 1 rings, and the retired ones only leave the pool
// when enemies.reap() next runs. Sizing to the exact total would make phase 3 depend on
// reap timing, and a boss that silently spawns no core is the worst bug in the file.
mucosal_node: { hp: 150, radius: 2.6, score: 400, pool: 12 },
// beacon (Faecalibacterium) — the reward-state commensal. The most anti-inflammatory bug in
// you; a screen of these IS a healthy gut. Shares the commensal branch: heals AND gives the
// biggest standing (gain 25) with no coat cost. Rare (pool 10) — the pure payoff node.
beacon: { hp: 22, radius: 2.0, score: 0, drift: 0.9, bob: 0.5,
auraRadius: 4.2, coat: 8, gain: 25, auraTick: 0.3, pool: 10 },
},
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 },
};