Before the blow.
Puslings draw back before a swipe. Brutes gather their weight before a strike. Damage waits for contact, and the Brute gains a fixed area slam that enemies can escape.
This third step in Shaun’s chosen order gives the creatures a visible preparation, a real moment of contact and a recovery. Movement and damage now matter during that preparation: a missed or interrupted attack cannot leave an invisible hit waiting to happen.
The hit has a moment
The Pusling prepares for eight frames at 30 fps; the Brute’s basic strike takes four-tenths of a second. Active ferals prepare for three-tenths. Their existing seven, twenty and nine damage values remain. The original interval is measured from the start of one attack to the start of the next, so preparation does not silently add another delay to every cycle.
An attack can miss. Leaving range, getting behind solid cover, changing allegiance or dying is checked before contact. Recall, movement, courier and ritual orders cancel a prepared strike, and an incoming hit can interrupt it. Cancellation keeps the cooldown already spent.
A circle to escape
When its eight-second ability cooldown is ready, the Brute can commit to a two-fist area slam under the existing attack order. A fixed circle marks the 2.8-metre radius for seven-tenths of a second. At contact, each valid enemy inside takes twenty damage. Allies, elevated targets, distant bodies and targets behind solid cover are filtered individually.
Both factions have the same ability. The circle stays where preparation began, so moving out can avoid the hit. The warning freezes on pause, disappears on cancellation, and gives way to a short dust response at contact. There is no extra slow, knockback, terrain deformation or resource cost.
The previous contact
The protected 0.5.13 export ran the same camera, paid summons, stationary targets and attack orders. It shows the earlier instant-contact behaviour and no area ability. The comparison uses real game pixels from the two saved builds.
A warning from the wild
The active ferals use the same preparation and interruption principles. Their actual contact now triggers a positioned swipe cue. This build still leaves them in their original stationary roles, including the two passive husks; roaming and proximity aggression are the final increment next.
The original rigs, another action
Separate Blender revisions retain our original Pusling, Brute and feral skins, sixteen-bone rigs, baked textures and previous clips. The new actions add preparation and a separate two-fist recovery. The original source files stay protected.
The first export exposed a useful timing error: starting an action at frame one added an extra frame in glTF. The focused checks caught the mismatched duration and pose. New actions now begin at frame zero, and the exported anticipation joins the existing contact pose. Direct native Blender and release-app computer-use inspection remains pending while the Mac is locked; Blender renders and native game captures were inspected.
Checked, with camps next
The full Mac regression passed 1,129 assertions and checked twenty-three audio files. The exact exported pack passed its asset/exclusion checks and 98 focused combat checks. Those include timing, interrupted orders, deaths, allegiance, range, cover, both factions, dodging the fixed circle, cooldowns, pause, restart and conserved souls.
The new Mac build and an independent checkpoint are saved, with the complete previous delivery retained. The next increment makes the existing six neutral creatures roam, notice nearby enemies, pursue within a leash and return home. They remain finite soul sources. Human combat feel and art/audio judgement, physical Intel, Windows and notarization remain unverified.