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Combat: where Coney differs from the original

Verified against: SLUS_212.15 (NTSC-U, SHA1 e9cb2cc49aa046b9e494313dce2f5038ed17b2f4) through Combat and Combat moves; Coney's side read from repo:src/combat/, repo:src/human/ and repo:src/ai/ as of 2026-10-07 (main at f4562750), as behaviours only.

Purpose

A worklist for the combat implementers: each place Coney's fight plays differently from the original, what the original does (with a link to the research) and where Coney's side lives. Coney's documented choices and stand-ins (on Combat) are listed too when they change what the player sees. Remove an entry when it is fixed, in the same commit. The original's evidence levels are on the linked pages; the Coney side is confirmed by reading the source.

Original structure

The original functions behind each entry are on the page it links, in that page's own Original structure and code index (Combat, Combat moves). The few an entry here names with an address (the mid-target test, the snap's search and filter, Player_Special) are graded where they are cited.

Data

This page holds no data of its own: the commands, flags, tables and constants are on Combat and Combat moves.

Behaviour

The differences, by subject. Each entry says what the original does, linking the page that grades it, and what Coney does instead; an address cited here carries its level beside it.

Commands and input

  • Commands the dispatcher ignores: 3 (the AI's counter, Player_TryCounterGrab), 0x36 (push 21), 0x37 / 0x38 (ground strikes 193 / 194), 0x39 (throw the melee weapon), 0x32, 0x33 and 0x27 reach no handler (AI and script commands). The AI's block goal presses R1 (command 3), so an AI never counters a grab or tackle. Coney: repo:src/combat/player_combat.cpp.
  • The chain commands 0x11 / 0x12 of the AI are read as square's by Coney's choice; the original writes them for the AI's chains only (Attack kinds).

Timing and targets

The original's rules are in one place: Timing, Input and Targets. Coney (main at f4562750): repo:src/combat/attacks.cpp, repo:src/human/fighter.cpp.

  • The hit update. Coney lands every attack on one update per id: the measured contacts for 11, 13-17 and 19 and the grab strikes, and update 2 for every other id, the special 653 included, whatever the distance. The original lands a hit only when a strike shape touches the target, inside the clip's shape window: 653's hands are live at 2-8 and touched at 6-7 at runtime, so in Coney cross + square hits about 4 updates early and hits a target the hands never reach. The snaps, strafes, low and mid strikes, 193 / 194, 212, 661, 120 and 22 have the same problem. A moving attack's shapes (charge, dive, 23, 24) are used only against objects; on a human it too hits 2 updates in (repo:src/platform/play_level_objects.cpp).
  • The attack's target. Coney searches afresh for every attack along the stick with the attack's own far range × 1.1 (Fighter::steer). The original keeps the current target for square in the stance (searching only without one or beyond 3 m), searches for cross with a fixed 2.0 m, keeps the target on a square chain step, and uses the far range only through Player_FindAttackTarget (cross chain steps, the specials).
  • Taking a target by nearness. Coney takes a target only from L1 or an attack; the original's stance logic takes the nearest enemy within 2 m every update (and locks it with the street's CfgAutoLockAndCombat), swaps it once the target is beyond 3 m and tracks enemies to 6 m.
  • Blend into an attack. The original enters each new attack over 0.2 s and swaps a chain step's clip in place; Coney fades every attack in over 0.1 s (kCombatFade).

Square and cross

  • Order of tests: the original tests the moving attacks first (with only a low-target check inside them), then, in the stance, strafes, snaps, the target re-pick, the low, mid and front-grab strikes, the tandem, the counters and S1 (Square). Coney tests the target's state first, outside the stance too, so a run at a mounted or grabbed human plays 212 or 120 instead of 24. Coney: repo:src/combat/attacks.cpp.
  • Cross at a low or held target: the original plays 194 at a low target, 661 at a mid one and 120 at a front grab (Cross); Coney's cross has no target branch (always X1 standing).
  • Mid target: the original's 212 is chosen by a height and state test (Human_IsMidOrBusy, 0x002250a0, confirmed (code): the attacker 0.7-1.3 m above the target, or, unless he is more than 0.7 m below it, the target in a state or attack phase its flags name), not "mounted"; Grounded and mid strikes.
  • Strafe attacks 31-33 are not built (Strafe attacks).
  • Counters from square and cross (76 / 9 against a grab or tackle intro) are not built; only R1 at the catch is (Counters).
  • Tandems are built for any fighter's square, cross and circle, with Coney's choices for the alignment, the grabber's let-go and the target search, and no scoring; the AI's side (its target view's 0xc12200 test and kind 22's choice at a rear-held target) is issue #84's (Coney's tandem).
  • The moving attacks' windows open late: on the disc Coney's run attack 24 switches its shapes on at update 4 and off at 9, the walk attack 23 at 6 and 12, against 1 and 7, 4 and 10 at runtime (How a moving attack strikes). Coney fires the clips' events by the clip time from 0 on the clip's first update (Animation); why the original's open about two updates earlier is open (below).
  • The armed run attack 501 does not test the fight stance in Coney; the original's armed branch does (Square).
  • The snap's target: the original's snap search has no line test: what an earlier reading here called the clear line (0x00222a90) is Human_IsFriendly, which the snap's filter TargetFilter_Enemy (0x00279410) calls (confirmed (code) in Player_FindSnapTarget, 0x0027aa38), so a snap takes no human friendly to the player. Coney's search (Fighter::snapTarget) leaves friendliness to the targets it is given, and does not keep the snap's target as the current target (Combat).
  • Object targets: only glass panes; doors and loose objects are not targets, and the approach from far × 1.5 is missing (Breakables).

Stance

  • The fight stance is a stand-in (locked onto a target), not the original's enter and leave rules (The fight stance). Every gate that tests the stance (moving attacks, strafes, the snaps' path) inherits it.

Grabs, tackles and the mount

  • The tackle always connects with 5 / 6 (the front hit), without the original's connect gates; 7, the hit from the rear, never plays (Grab and tackle).
  • Wall throws (155-161) are picked by the original's ray and a head-on one turns the pair square to the face at once, not over 0.01 s, and the slam's 0x41 sweep (the dust puff, the impact sound and a world object struck) is not built (Throws). Coney's choice: the thrown body does not strike its own thrower.
  • Where a plain throw goes: the pair is turned onto the stick over 1/6 s from the front hold and the rear hold spins to the front first, as in the original, but the throw clips' own root turn is about a third larger than at runtime (149 turns the thrower −120° for −90°) and the front victim lands 19.2° right of the stick (2.1° at runtime): an open question on the root turn and the task's rate (Where a throw goes).
  • The mounted victim cannot struggle (250), get the mounter off or reverse (242 / 243) (The mounted victim).
  • The mount's power strike stops at its first part: the extensions (227 / 228, 233 / 234; 229 is a filler that never plays) a press in the window plays are missing (The mount).
  • The mount's power strike does not end the mount: in the original the strike breaks the pin (the mounter stands in the fight stance, the victim stays grounded and is no longer mounted); Coney goes back to the mount (210 / 207) (The mount).
  • Circle with no target does not search at far × 1.25 for a grab or tackle target in every case (Grab and tackle, step 2).
  • Escapes: human flag 0x20000 (got off at once) is not modelled; the release clips by side are partly stand-ins (Grabbed).
  • Mugging: the victim's qualification (class, money, brain state) is not tested (Mugging).

Being hit

  • Damage modifiers: the held weapon's bonus (CfgObj +0x58 × the power class factor), the ×2 flag and the ×3 against a cuffed human are missing (Damage).
  • Stun and ground times are not scaled as the original scales them (Reactions).
  • Reactions while held: a hit on a human in a grab or mount does not play the held reactions.
  • Knocked out and the mission failing: the defeat path is in progress on the mission branches (Knocked out).
  • The power meter is fixed at 400 with a refill of 60 per second; the original takes both from the human's power class and the Warrior upgrades (Power meter).

Specials, rage and stealth

  • Rage starts only through the block branch (L1 + R1 while blocking), not by the original's other routes (Rage).
  • Stealth (hiding in shadow, 630 / 633, the stealth kill 637-641) is not built (Stealth).
  • Flash revive (command 0x27): built for player 1, every Warrior revivable from his creation (Combat: revive); an AI Warrior reviving (SaveHuman), a co-op partner's flash and a knocked-out human waking on his own are not.

Weapons

  • Sets 4-6 (barrels, bottles, the ghetto blaster): square and cross play the unarmed moves; the original throws (505-507, 467-472, 551-553) or smashes (473 / 475) (Weapons).
  • Knife and bottle kills (484-496) and throwing a melee weapon (491 / 502, next entry) are not built.
  • Throwing a melee weapon with cross + square (0x22, 502 / 491): the original throws a knife, baton or bat unless a target is within 2.0 m (then it does nothing, and the cross's release swings 36). Coney refuses the command for a player holding any object, as Player_Special (0x00287730, confirmed (code)) does, and never throws: with nobody near the cross's release swings where the original throws. The special 653 and circle + cross's strong grapple no longer start with an object in hand (fixed with issue #228; Cross with a bat in hand). Coney: repo:src/combat/player_combat.cpp.
  • Clip lengths: Coney ends a clip when its time reaches its duration, ceil(F / rate) updates; the original ends it on the update its frame would reach F, one update sooner on 50 of the 174 clips in the move tables (19, 20, 34 and the dive among them) and on 389, which they do not list (When a clip ends). Coney ends clip 34 alone a step early (a stand-in) so that cross works from k37 as in the original; the rule can now replace it. Coney: repo:src/animation/anim_task.cpp, repo:src/human/human_animator.cpp.
  • Wear: weapons never break; the original wears them on the use event.
  • Armed chain: Coney's armed square plays the slot's swing each time; the original alternates 39 / 40 (baton) and 45 / 46 (knife) for a square pressed in the swing. With a bat the two agree: 34 has no chain window, so the original never plays 35 from the pad either (Cross with a bat in hand).
  • Blocks against weapons: the original's rules by set (no block of an armed hit unarmed, the bat's 629, the armed block clips 621-624) are missing (Weapons).
  • Armed AI: no AI human holds or uses a weapon.

The AI in a fight

  • Attack kinds: the AI plays its strikes and chains; its grabs, tackles, throws, specials and the kinds that need commands Coney ignores do nothing (Attack kinds).
  • A human held in another human's grab (the player in an AI's, or an AI in the player's) struggles, strikes back and escapes by its command as Player_UpdateGrabbed decides, the grabber playing its side an update later; the reversal (R1) is not offered this way (Grabbed).

Coney's implementation

The Coney side of each entry is named in it. The files the entries cite: repo:src/combat/player_combat.cpp (the dispatcher and the commands it takes), repo:src/combat/attacks.cpp (which attack a press starts), repo:src/human/fighter.cpp (targets and the steer), repo:src/platform/play_level_objects.cpp (moving attacks on objects), repo:src/animation/anim_task.cpp and repo:src/human/human_animator.cpp (clip timing). Coney's choices and stand-ins as a whole are listed on Combat.

Open questions

  • The moving attacks' windows: why the original's run and walk attacks switch their shapes on about two updates before Coney's clip events do (How a moving attack strikes). Found by tracing the clip's first update in the original's animation task against Coney's.
  • A throw's root turn: why the throw clips' root turn is about a third larger in Coney than at runtime, and where the task's rate differs (Where a throw goes).