Working on the cobat and item system

Spitballing here….I want it to be as open as possible but also as compact and doable as possible. It is hard to balance the best operating method. Every item you wear may have a special ability on attack or defend. So far I have item effects. On weapons and abilities they get a down, held down, and up command and each item effect decides what to do. IE a ballistics weapon would on down fire a shot. Collect the closest enemy hit and operate on them and the attacker. It would 1 reduce the ammo count 2. Tell all equipped items there is a attack on X and do what you want. There is a helm with a 1% chance of life steal. It adds a life steam to the attack. Your chest piece might have a chance of butterflies attacking the enemy on hit (just an example of how different it could get down the road). However, when you are wearing all life steal I want to add it all up and use that. On the other hand the hundereds of other possible effects would be impossible to add. I think I need to look at the base stats of Health, Energy, and armor. Use them as a baseline somehow and all other effects would be their own thing. Then again there goes the open idea of having crazy effects like a possible pathogen that spreads to nearby enemys. I know there is a greay solution sooo… tonight I think =)… K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid..