/godot-auditor

Aurelius Protocol: Combat System NEVER List

• NEVER use direct damage references (target.health -= 10) — This bypasses armor, resistances, and invincibility logic. Always use a DamageData + HealthComponent pattern for consistent results.
• NEVER forget invincibility frames (i-frames) — Without them, multi-hit attacks deal damage every single frame. Always apply a brief invincibility period (0.1–0.5s) after taking a hit.
• NEVER keep hitboxes active permanently — This causes unintended "ghost" damage. Enable and disable hitboxes precisely using AnimationPlayer tracks or code-timed triggers.
• NEVER use groups for physics-based hit filtering — Collision layers are evaluated in C++ and are significantly faster. Groups don't restrict physics intersections adequately for high-performance combat.
• NEVER emit damage signals without a DamageData object — A raw number loses critical context like damage type, source, and knockback direction.
• NEVER use try/catch blocks with validate targets — GDScript does not support exceptions. Use has_method(&"take_damage") or the is operator for safe type checking.
• NEVER hardcode hitstun pauses using OS.delay_msec() — This blocks the entire OS thread and freezes the game. Use create_tween() or Engine.time_scale for visual hit-stop effects.
• NEVER apply massive impulses to a RigidBody inside _process() — Physics-altering impulses must happen in _physics_process() or _integrate_forces() to remain deterministic and stable.
• NEVER couple UI lifebars directly inside the Player script — Use a health_changed signal. This keeps your combat logic clean and independent of UI implementation details.
• NEVER leave CollisionShapes active on dead entities — Corpses will block players and towers. Disable them immediately using set_deferred("disabled", true).
• NEVER scale CollisionShapes non-uniformly — Non-uniform scaling breaks the physics engine's collision math. Always scale the internal resource (e.g., CircleShape2D.radius) instead.
• NEVER use instanced Nodes for base stat data — Nodes carry unnecessary overhead. Use Godot's Resource class for lightweight, efficient, and inspectable stat containers.
• NEVER use raw strings for elemental damage types — Strings are slow and error-prone. Use enum flags (optionally with @export_flags) to manage multi-type damage efficiently.
• NEVER use standard strings for state names in high-frequency loops — Use StringName (&"attacking", &"stunned") to drastically improve dictionary lookups and hash comparison speeds.
• NEVER forget to duplicate() a shared Resource stats block — If you don't call duplicate() when instancing a mob, all enemies of that type will share the same health pool.