Combat System Architecture

Combat in Eve Frontier is driven by Smart Assemblies. Ships, weapons, and defensive systems all interact through on-chain systems. In this advanced tutorial, we'll build a combat system with damage calculation, resistance, and cooldowns.

Design Overview

A combat system needs:

Weapon Systems — define damage output per weapon type

Defense Systems — calculate damage reduction from resistances

Cooldown Management — prevent weapon spam

Hit Resolution — determine if an attack lands

solidity
// Core combat tables
export default mudConfig({
  tables: {
    WeaponConfig: {
      keySchema: { weaponId: "uint256" },
      valueSchema: {
        damageType: "uint8",      // 0=kinetic, 1=thermal, 2=em, 3=explosive
        baseDamage: "uint32",
        cooldownSeconds: "uint32",
        optimalRange: "uint32",
        falloffRange: "uint32",
      },
    },
    ShipDefenses: {
      keySchema: { shipId: "uint256" },
      valueSchema: {
        kineticResist: "uint16",   // 0-10000 (basis points, 100% = 10000)
        thermalResist: "uint16",
        emResist: "uint16",
        explosiveResist: "uint16",
        shieldHp: "uint32",
        armorHp: "uint32",
        hullHp: "uint32",
      },
    },
    WeaponCooldown: {
      keySchema: {
        shipId: "uint256",
        weaponSlot: "uint8",
      },
      valueSchema: {
        lastFiredAt: "uint256",
      },
    },
  },
});

Damage Types and Resistances

Eve Frontier uses four damage types, mirroring the classic EVE Online system:

Type

Strong Against

Weak Against

Kinetic	Armor	Shields
Thermal	Shields	Armor
EM	Shields	Hull
Explosive	Armor	Shields

Resistances are stored in basis points (0-10000) where 10000 = 100% resistance:

solidity
function calculateDamageReduction(
  uint32 baseDamage,
  uint16 resistance
) internal pure returns (uint32) {
  // resistance is in basis points (100% = 10000)
  uint32 reduction = (baseDamage * resistance) / 10000;
  return baseDamage - reduction;
}

Architecture Pattern: Strategy

We use the Strategy pattern for damage calculation. Each damage type can have its own formula:

solidity
interface IDamageCalculator {
  function calculate(
    uint32 baseDamage,
    uint32 range,
    uint32 optimalRange,
    uint32 falloffRange,
    uint16 resistance
  ) external pure returns (uint32 finalDamage);
}

This allows us to swap damage formulas without modifying the core combat system.

In the next chapter, we'll implement the full damage resolution pipeline.

The Scriptorium

Combat System Architecture

Design Overview

Damage Types and Resistances

Architecture Pattern: Strategy