Combat: Stamina & Flatlining

As many of you may know, going up on the surface is surely a learning experience. But, after a few encounters and seeing how it works; I do feel that further tweaking might benefit the game. This isn't a call to make it /less/ punishing, but a bit more approachable from both an OOC and IC standpoint. After bashing heads over things me and another player noticed in combat.

1. The most glaring issue, Stamina Softlock.
   From what I've learned, Stamina is based off of the Conditioning skill. This.. is an issue, since I doubt anyone without a pre-made combat class, would of not known to invest into this skill. Another issue is, that there doesn't seem to be any viable stamina regeneration. If you run out of Stamina, that's it. You're left panting, wheezing and defenseless until you die, or the other party runs out of stamina. Stamina does not seem to interact with Flee anyhow, so what might happen is that you're stuck repeatedly spamming 'flee' command in hopes of leaving combat and getting a chance to regain some of the Stamina. Originally, one (myself) would assume that Stamina stacks alongside Body, but that is something that I learned after speaking with someone more mechanically knowledgable than myself.
2. Death
   Yes. Death. It'll happen a lot, especially on the Surface. But, it happens way too quick. You flatline, and you're immediately on a few-minute countdown. From what I heard, surface recovery /is/ a service provided (in-lore), but given how quick it happens? Unless you're a few rooms away and fully aware, there is probably little to no chance of recovery. Combine this with slow travel-time, even via the city (Panopticon wait times, if cross-level), or surface travel time which is innately slower? Chances are, you'll never get out of the flatline message alive, unless there's a medic right beside you.
3. Combat
   It's buggy. I can't really make a @bug on this, since everything happens way too fast to follow - and the fact that I cannot see my own inputs, means that I can't really say what is going wrong in retrospect. Thing from the top of my mind, though - is that grapple attempts will parse over actions even when abandoned. I.e. failed grapple will still lock you from attacking/doing other actions cause you're 'adjusting your grip', a couple of rounds /after/ the attempt failed.
   
   So, off-topic - akin to other clients, could our inputs be parsed back into the terminal?
4. Armour
   Armor survey doesn't seem to work, and there doesn't seem to be any noticeable effect (as of right now), to attacks landing on armoured bits. You hear a sound, 'THUD', 'CRANK' or something similar - but it doesn't give you any feedback as to how well the armour is holding up, if it absorbed the hit at all, or if it even is accounted for in combat.

1. This is false. Stamina is not based off of conditioning. There is a stamina regen system that involves a base rate, your environment, your character's status but of course you won't be regaining stamina during combat. In fact, some weapons and builds are specifically built around stamina economy and burning out your opponent's stamina before yours.
2. The death state is dynamic and depends entirely on your medical injuries. If you were severely injured, you'll die faster. If you weren't and are more or less stable, you'll have much of a longer time. Travel times on the surface may seem long, but that's only because during alpha there's currently only foot travel. The service does not go out on foot, be it within or outside the city.
3. Please send logs of this to me on Discord because I just tested it in combat and I was only able to get it to consume one turn (which is intended, if you mess up your grapple you skip your next turn, it's meant to be risky), not 3-4 turns.
4. Armor is always working in the background and absorbs damage. You are only notified if it completely absorbs the damage. Otherwise armor is already passively reducing the amount of damage you're taking if you are hit in a location that is armored. So yes, it is accounted for in combat and armor already reduces the damage you take. We'll work on the armor survey bit.

Frankly, that is some great insight. There is this, however - that might be giving folk the wrong impression regarding the Stamina thing.

"Conditioning: Stamina, physical endurance, and trauma recovery." Found in 'help skills', under combat.

:shy: