Combat Action Resolution And Mob AI Semantics
Combat action resolution is the shared semantic layer beneath mob encounters and durable combat rewards. It decides which action is valid, how damage or healing is calculated, how AI advances, and which presentation cues are emitted before durable reward persistence begins.
Purpose
Use this page when an authored combat action behaves differently in preview and server runtime, when mob AI appears stuck, or when damage and loot math need a shared explanation.
Action Catalog And Targeting
Combat actions define target families, offsets, cooldown expectations, presentation cues, and resolution rules. Targeting should be deterministic enough for server authority and preview tools to agree about what an action can hit.
Damage And Healing Math
Damage, healing, defense, resistance, and defeat outcomes belong in shared combat resolution. Avoid putting one-off math in presentation code or encounter scripts. Presentation cues should describe what happened; they should not own the result.
Action Lifecycle Phases
Actions move through readiness, execution, cooldown, resolution, and presentation feedback. Server code should persist combat outcomes only after the authoritative resolution has been produced.
Mob AI Graph Semantics
Mob AI uses deterministic state transitions for aggro, chase, leash, investigate, return-home, and idle behavior. Randomness must be seeded or derived in a way that can be tested.
Loot Boundaries
Loot math decides candidate drops and audit records. Durable item, gold, XP, and reward application belongs to combat reward persistence and player economy authority.
Debugging
If preview and runtime disagree, compare action catalog id, target actor, deterministic AI inputs, server combat state, and generated presentation cues. If rewards are wrong but combat resolution was correct, debug reward persistence instead.