Long wall of text, but it explains something really important. Please bear with me :)
I have been mulling over ideas on how to make situations in CDITDZ more believable (instead of dying when both legs/your sword arm/one pixel of your head is cut off, for instance) and still avoid "stalled moments" in the action of the game at the same time. One of my most prominent ideas so far is the idea of Integrity - or how well your robot is holding up. It's kind of like a overall health bar, but with an abstract twist - it's not a set amount of health for your whole drone, it's actually an indicator of how likely you are going to die in the next grazing hit.
The way this "Integrity" feature works is thus: there is no visible value for the player to keep track of, but if the game's internal value for a robot's integrity reaches a certain point, the Integrity condition level (henceforth known as just "condition") changes, from Green (full Integrity) all the way to Critical (which essentially means the next hit is more than likely to kill you, and in my mind is indicated by a blinking red label). The Integrity level for the robot decreases with every hit they take, the value subtracted depending on certain conditions and which body part was hit. Some examples are as follows:
- Getting hit in the head should still be very bad. Losing one pixel may put you one condition lower, but having a large chunk of head getting cut off will either kill you outright or put you immediately into Critical condition. Decapitation should kill regardless of integrity.
- Losing a limb will definitely put you into Orange condition - you have been disabled in some way. If this was your sword hand, something special happens: your integrity will start decreasing over time! When it hits zero, you die. That means the inevitable will happen even if you don't want it to, and yet you don't just die outright (unless you took other severe damage too, it's still easy to get killed!) This happens to enemies too, but I'll explain that later.
- Losing bits of limbs and torso shouldn't be too bad. A few pixels of your left shoulderpad and a few dings on your right knee is enough to get you to Yellow condition, for example. But little things add up! Missing your Bow arm, one pixel of your head, and both legs have been hit at least once? Critical condition, be careful from now on!
- Non-humanoid robots obviously have different ways of getting their integrity reduced, Spider trons 5000 and 6000 will still be in Green condition if you sliced a part of one leg off. Hitting their weak points are still deadly though - in the case of Spider tron 6000 it will put him in Orange (or whatever counts as half) condition if his legs were left unscathed. This gives him a chance to be "deactivated" the next time you hit his head but fail to destroy the remaining eye, though it is very slight until you get him into Critical condition (or at least one step lower from Orange - it may not even be Red condition that's next!
Some hits are still insta-kill, like decapitation or getting cut in half, but most other hits should be a little less fatal this way. Integrity has a visual cue as well - the more sparks from the robot, the more damaged it is.
About losing limbs: This is the most dramatic change with the introduction to Integrity - losing your sword hand only gradually kills you instead of instantly kills you. You can't do much to damage foes, perhaps kick them down or jetpack around and lure them into sawblades, but that's about it. There is no effective way to dispatch enemies without your sword, and that will make for some boring times. Thankfully, your integrity degrades when something like this happens, and you should eventually die without much tedium. This goes double for enemies without their swords - they may run around trying to avoid you or try to kick you down, but they will eventually deactivate on their own if enough time passes, so no long, drawn-out chases around the arena!
It's optional if Doborog wants the same to happen when both legs are cut off, at least how I play I am more likely to cut a robot in two than take off both their feet.
TL;DR: Have a label that shows how damaged you are and have it change according to what parts are damaged or gone. Have it degrade when sword arm is missing until it kills you due to lack of integrity and have that affect enemies as well.