Combat, AI, and Core Systems

This week was focused on tightening melee combat, refining AI behaviour, and strengthening the core systems that support moment-to-moment gameplay. Much of the work was foundational rather than flashy, but it directly impacts how responsive, predictable, and stable the game feels.

Combat Improvements

We spent time stabilising melee combat flow and ability execution. This included improvements to attack timing, telegraph windows, and combo sequencing to ensure actions resolve consistently against animation and network state.

Guard and block behaviour was validated across start, loop, and end phases, with particular attention paid to server authority and montage synchronisation. Dodge behaviour was also corrected to ensure camera-relative movement behaves consistently across local and networked play.

AI Behaviour Refinement

Our melee AI systems were refined to improve reliability and readability. Ability activation and cancellation responsibilities were made more explicit, reducing hidden coupling between AI states and abilities.

We introduced clearer combat-mode gating so AI only attempts attacks when in valid combat states, and strengthened target claiming logic to prevent enemies from stacking or competing incorrectly. Logging and diagnostics were also expanded to improve visibility into AI decision-making and task flow during tuning.

Core Systems and Networking

Several underlying systems were hardened this week. Scripted motion handling was finalised with robust server-side validation and early-out conditions to ensure safety under replication.

We continued validating animation set resolution and montage command replication, ensuring abilities remain the source of truth while animation playback stays deterministic across clients. A number of build issues and logging errors were resolved as part of ongoing codebase cleanup.

Camera Feel

We investigated unwanted camera stickiness during combat. Pitch constraints are functioning as intended, but yaw influence is being loosened to give players more control and reduce lock-on behaviour. Camera shake and impact feedback will be revisited once these constraints feel correct.

This work moves Stormbane closer to a more consistent and reliable combat experience, and sets up a stronger foundation for future gameplay iteration.