Movement speed....

[RosesandAshes]

This is probably a moot point nowadays, but I've been playing BG1, P:T, etc. (I bought the Dungeons and Dragons Anthology Master Collection.) and one thing I noticed is that everyone just.....moves......so.....slowly. I'm assuming that because technology has advanced, that this won't really be an issue, but I'd love it if I didn't take forever to walk from one end of a town to another.

 

I don't know, maybe modern games have just spoiled me, maybe there's a run button I don't know about. I would just love it if my character in Project Eternity didn't walk as if she was going for a relaxing evening stroll all the time.

 

Again, it's probably a moot point in this day and age, but just thought I'd throw that out there!

[Gazoinks]

I know what you mean. I was playing IWD earlier and was stuck in a bad position in a battle, so I tried to get my guys out... At which point they casually sauntered away and got murdered. At least PS:T has walk/run. >.>

[mkreku]

If you think that is annoying you should try playing Fallout, when you're in a rat infested place and every two seconds you get stuck in a new encounter that takes 2 minutes to complete (because of the turn based combat), despite the rats being no threat to you and dies from one hit. The bastards always manages to stand behind something or make themselves impossible to hit somehow..

[Gazoinks]

If you think that is annoying you should try playing Fallout, when you're in a rat infested place and every two seconds you get stuck in a new encounter that takes 2 minutes to complete (because of the turn based combat), despite the rats being no threat to you and dies from one hit. The bastards always manages to stand behind something or make themselves impossible to hit somehow..

True. Thankfully, Fallout 2 lets you run in combat, which sped things up a fair bit.

[Yst]

It is I suppose a question worth asking: should differing movement speed restrictions apply to discrete 'in combat' and 'out of combat' states. And should clear 'in combat' and 'out of combat' graphical contexts/effects be used to distinguish these states, and make the discord between them feel less bizarre? This would allow for hasty motion around the cityscape (or what have you), but would likewise allow for interesting time-sensitive battlefield tactics.

 

I think a happy medium can be achieved without such a mechanism. And I think it is likely the safer solution. But two distinct movement timing models is one option which allows (if used well) for the best of both worlds. At least in principle. It comes with its own problems.

[kenup]

I think the speed problem comes from incompatibilities. As many patches as I use for Fallout, my character still runs slow most of the time. There are occasions where they suddenly speed up. On top of that I see playthroughs on youtube without any patches, and they run a lot better.

[khango]

I was happy with run/walk in PS:T, but I agree, IWD and such just crawl. I think in BG2 I forget about it because of boots of speed.

 

Problem is that it can be abused. In IW:D even without running you can basically lead any kind of basic undead and hit it with ranged if you feel like that sort of thing is a flaw.

Edited September 20, 2012 by khango

[RosesandAshes]

What I'd really like is a faster speed for out of combat scenarios. In combat it could be a bit slower, maybe, but even there, I wouldnt want to spend like, five minutes just walking up to the enemy so I can bash them over the head (or get in range for a projectile, or whatever).

[Bos_hybrid]

This thread brings back nightmares of DA2 combat.

[kenup]

You offend nightmares by bringing up DA2! My nightmares at least make more sense!

[Luckmann]

While this isn't about Project Eternity, I offer you this advice for BG1/2: Go to the Config, "Miscellaneous", and bump up the Frame Rate to whatever you think is appropriate. I usually leave it at 40, or even 45. It significantly speeds up the game, but it will make combat harder, and if you make it too fast, it's going to mess with some cutscenes (the characters will go through the motions and trigger speeches before preceding speech is finished, etc).

 

As for Project Eternity, I would look at Dragon Age: Origins for this. I don't think that ever felt slow, nor did the runspeed ever feel out of place. A walk/run toggle is all I need. In a group context, it could also be nice if some classes (low-to-medium armoured ones like Ranger or Barbarian or whatever is equivalent) had instant-use in-combat Sprint abilities.

[metiman]

It wasn't technology that made them move slow, but that is an amusing idea. It's funny because I haven't found their movement to be slow even at a measly 30 fps. Weird. Can you give an example of a game where movement is at what you consider to be normal speed?

[Shades]

I agree, in the IE games, your character always walks everywhere (except PS:T, I think you can run in that). This is fine on your first playthrough, because you're taking everything in. Even on your second playthrough where you'll see things you missed.

 

But when you get to your third playthrough and beyond... ? It starts to get a little slow. In the BG series I would toss boots of speed on all my characters to speed them up a bit, but those of course affect combat a bit too.

 

Basically I would love to see a slider where I can increase the game speed if I want to (so that the speed of everything increases, enemies, time passing etc). I don't know how easy or difficult this would be to actually implement (I think you can do it in some RTS games?). Sometimes I just want to be able to play through the whole game a lot faster, because I don't have a lot of spare time.

[Loranc]

In the config options you can increase the FPS of the games which increases movement speed.

[RosesandAshes]

It wasn't technology that made them move slow, but that is an amusing idea. It's funny because I haven't found their movement to be slow even at a measly 30 fps. Weird. Can you give an example of a game where movement is at what you consider to be normal speed?

 

The only CRPG I've played where I could tolerate the movement speed is Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition, but I haven't played it in a while so I can't remember how it compares to the IE games. I'm playing Arcanum right now, and the speed's tolerable.

 

Here's a gameplay vid of Heretic Kingdoms:

[Shades]

It wasn't technology that made them move slow, but that is an amusing idea. It's funny because I haven't found their movement to be slow even at a measly 30 fps. Weird. Can you give an example of a game where movement is at what you consider to be normal speed?

 

The only CRPG I've played where I could tolerate the movement speed is Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition, but I haven't played it in a while so I can't remember how it compares to the IE games. I'm playing Arcanum right now, and the speed's tolerable.

 

Here's a gameplay vid of Heretic Kingdoms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY3oTuJz0LM

 

See, even that I would want to speed up on subsequent playthroughs to save me time. Sigh, I'm just one of those difficult to please people.

[Ieo]

Walk/run toggle is a big plus. That's one of those funny mechanisms that PS:T had but none of the other IE games had. Weird.

[Sight Unseen]

I know what you mean. I was playing IWD earlier and was stuck in a bad position in a battle, so I tried to get my guys out... At which point they casually sauntered away and got murdered. At least PS:T has walk/run. >.>

 

Really? Because my GF and I are playing Icewind Dale together right now online and we both find that everyone moves SUPER fast... Stuff is happening so quickly we can't even register that it's happened before it's already done. Especially in combat.

[cdx]

I was quite happy with the walking speed in BG 1/2. It made sense for the characters to walk rather than run. Armor and weapons and backpacks full of gold. Then boots of speed made them super-quick, as magic should.

 

Although, back then I was in still in school and had tons of time. Now I'd be lucky to get a couple of hours in a stretch. I guess the option of speeding up everything would be quite useful. I remember using it in Fallout 2, where it was available.

[jb.]

What about a toggle to run (eg, left click = walk, ctrl+leftclick = run), but this uses up a recharging "sprint" meter at a rate that depends on your character's armour and strength? That way you could have your character charge into a ranged opponent, or flee hastily, at something other than a sustainable walking pace.

[Shades]

What about a toggle to run (eg, left click = walk, ctrl+leftclick = run), but this uses up a recharging "sprint" meter at a rate that depends on your character's armour and strength? That way you could have your character charge into a ranged opponent, or flee hastily, at something other than a sustainable walking pace.

 

I think that was how PS:T worked, but without the recharging bit or being able to charge opponents. I think in terms of speeding up getting around the place I wound find a recharge on the run a bit of a pain (unless as mentioned I also have something where I can just speed up the whole game, in which case a recharge on running wouldn't bother me).

[Larkaloke]

I find the walking speed in both Baldur's Gate II and the Icewind Dale games to be perfectly acceptable, although I do find it to be a bit aggravatingly slow in Baldur's Gate (particularly when just coming from playing one of the other games).

 

The walk/run toggle in Planescape: Torment was nice to have, though. I ended up having it on run almost all the time because I found the walk speed to be more in line with Baldur's Gate than the other two, but there were still a few times I used the walk speed. I'd prefer if the ability to run didn't recharge, although I do admit it might make more sense if it did -- one can't keep running all over the place forever, after all.

[nikolokolus]

I don't mind a walk/run toggle ... but if they put one in, then endurance should be drained over time (particularly for heavy armor wearers).

[ion.sh]

Oh yeah. Waiting for a group of characters to get to one side of the map to another (that I cleared before) was always a pain in those early games. I wonder if there's a way for the devs to combine running system in say, Skyrim with the 2D isometric perspective engine...

[Sensuki]

I find that the 40FPS movement speed in BG/IWD is pretty good without movement speed enhancement. I'm open to but skeptical about different movement mechanics though, there becomes a risk of making it a bit too clunky (need good programming/animations).