Walking and Running

[Wulfic]

Hi there !

 

This will be my first topic here and before anyone points it out, im Polish so my grammar isnt perfect for which Im very sorry.

 

I loved the walking in both Baldur's gates. It was fast enough to not get frustrated and it really improved the whole atmosphere of being an adventurer ! The only thing about it which bothered me is that they walked in every situation: fights, sneaking past someone and so on. It would be great to see my whole party walk just through the world instead of running. Running should be made available to use only in some situations for example battle or when an event occurs for example fire in the city or collapsing cave. I know it would be hard to implement but it would improve the whole atmosphere so much more in my opinion. Important is that the walking animation shouldnt be made badass slow like in all other such titles. The npcs walk to slow as if they had all time in the world. They should march quickly and dynamic so that we players dont get frustrated.

 

What do you think ?

[motorizer]

yeah, walking like baldurs gate, maybe shift/click to run

[Few]

It would be great if walking was default and if you wanted to run maybe do something like motor said and have a shift click. To avoid having you and your party acting like the greatest marathon runners in history maybe add a mechanic whereby running slowly reduces stamina at a varying rate depending on certain stats you may or may not have.

 

Maybe then running would be a useful feature and when enemies broadcast aoe attacks or something similar you could run to get out of the way.

[cdx]

With the stamina / health system running could be a good option - say run for a minute and your stamina is wasted (average con / str type character). Would save some time backtracking, would include interesting mechanic - run all the time and when you get an encounter you'd be tired and less capable to fight.

 

Would introduce balancing issues though - see a tough slow monster - run away safely of just hit-and-run with ranged wapons / weak spells.

 

About the poll - I enjoyed BG games greatly with just walking. In fallout I liked running and it was always on. So I'd vote "I don't mind", which should probably on the poll answer list. Would give an idea of how many people would be fine with either as opposed to having a strong preference.

[UncleBourbon]

I'd like the walking normally, shift-click running. I don't want it tied to stamina or stats, though, especially if the party is trying to run away together. I could see there being some "tired" quality attached after running too long, though.

[Dawn_]

Second the Drunk uncle here

[Kevin Lynch]

I wouldn't mind there being a walking set of animations, but I wonder if most people won't just default to running everywhere anyway, making it rather pointless to put the effort into it. I know I'd tend to default to running and then walk in situations where I'm following a slow-moving character or moving a short distance. I couldn't vote, because there's no option for voting for both.

[Rosveen]

I think walking speed in Baldur's Gate was just right. Sure, it could be annoying when you had to backtrack a whole location, but it wasn't a big deal on a non-continuous map.

 

I don't like the idea of cost-free running. In every game that allows it I just toggle "always run" and forget that walking ever existed - and I'm not the only one. It would be great if we had some sort of fatigue mechanics; short sprints being all that our character can do. It shouldn't deplete stamina though: remember that stamina acts like a healthpool in this game.

 

I'm not sure how to vote in the poll. I usually prefer running, but I'm not against walking with a decent speed. Wulfic, would it be possible to edit the options to something like

• only walking
  
• walking and running, no restrictions
  
• walking and running, exhaustion mechanic?
  

Edited October 28, 2012 by Rosveen

[Wulfic]

I would gladly do that Rosveen the problem is Im not quite sure how to edit the poll even though I searched ,if someone knows I will gladly do some changes . Rosveen Pozdrowienia z Wrocławia

[kabaliero]

didn't vote

cause, you know: STAMINA based system

 

there will be runing even if u don't wanna

[svartelric]

I'd like something like FO 1/2 and maybe some exhaustion mechanic.

[UncleBourbon]

didn't vote

cause, you know: STAMINA based system

 

there will be runing even if u don't wanna

 

That's unlikely. I would rather not tie stamina to other actions. The purpose of having the statistic separate from health is to allow short-term damage to have a dramatic impact in a single fight without causing the full weight of that impact to carry over into subsequent battles. D&D addresses this through healing resources (cure x wounds spells/potions and, in 4E, healing surges) which must be spent to buoy party members from one fight to the next. But that does mean that you either have "healer" characters or a lot of healing items/healing resources that any character can use (healing surges). Using stamina as a common, rapidly recovered resource for all characters (that is separate from health) is another way to handle it. Such a system reduces reliance on frequent use of healing resources.

 

Taken from: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61958-crossing-from-fun-to-frustrating-by-design/page__st__60

 

I don't know that I like the trade off of running meaning lower combat survivability - and exhaustion mechanic might mean something simple like reduce accuracy or something,

[kabaliero]

1ce again, i loved stamina in jagged alliance 2

hopefully it will be somewhat similar

 

cause running around with a full inventory is just never a good idea

and not running at all - is even worse

[Rosveen]

I would gladly do that Rosveen the problem is Im not quite sure how to edit the poll even though I searched ,if someone knows I will gladly do some changes . Rosveen Pozdrowienia z Wrocławia

We are legion

Frankly, I don't even know if you can edit the poll, thus my question. There seems to be a clear preference towards walking, though...

 

I don't know that I like the trade off of running meaning lower combat survivability - and exhaustion mechanic might mean something simple like reduce accuracy or something,

Aha. As I see it, running would be used mainly in two situations:

• fleeing from the enemy - because they're too powerful or we're battered after our last fight. Either way, the whole point is to survive, so if we lose stamina we're even more likely to get smashed if we happen to stumble across a random encounter. Out of the frying pan and into the fire?
  
• quickly moving through a map we previously visited. If the map is cleared, then it's fine. If enemies respawn or we're coming back for a boss we didn't manage to vanquish last time, then once again, we're not going to run lest we get killed by a wandering band of goblins. This can be partially countered by sleep mechanic so we can swiftly traverse the map and then rest before we move on.
  

Edited October 28, 2012 by Rosveen

[BasaltineBadger]

Running all the way, this is an adventure, not sightseeing, I don't have time to slowly walk from one place to another.

[kabaliero]

Running all the way, this is an adventure, not sightseeing, I don't have time to slowly walk from one place to another.

this is exactly the type of player attitude EA makes money on

[nikolokolus]

Constant running should eventually impose some kind of small competence penalty, maybe not draining stamina but a small ding to damage and or to-hit, etc.

[quechn1tlan]

I honestly don't care how you call it, be it walking or running. Only thing that matters is that getting from point A to point B doesn't make you want to kill yourself.

[BasaltineBadger]

Running all the way, this is an adventure, not sightseeing, I don't have time to slowly walk from one place to another.

this is exactly the type of player attitude EA makes money on

 

This is the exact type of player Bethesda makes money on. Fan of hiking simulators. Never confuse him with an RPG enthusiast.

[rjshae]

Short-ranged click = walk; mid-ranged click = jog; long-ranged click = run.

 

Greater speed = greater likelihood of being spotted or heard from a distance.

[rjshae]

Running should cost stamina where stamina loss is adjusted by how much the character is carrying. It also shouldn't be a small drain: not everyone is super fit or able to run for long with a big pack on. Let's not have characters run everywhere.

My understanding is that Stamina is not going to be used for non-combat activities.

[Zoma]

Since it was mentioned in the interviews that "charge" is being implemented in battles, walking is fine with me.

[UncleBourbon]

That's unlikely. I would rather not tie stamina to other actions. The purpose of having the statistic separate from health is to allow short-term damage to have a dramatic impact in a single fight without causing the full weight of that impact to carry over into subsequent battles. D&D addresses this through healing resources (cure x wounds spells/potions and, in 4E, healing surges) which must be spent to buoy party members from one fight to the next. But that does mean that you either have "healer" characters or a lot of healing items/healing resources that any character can use (healing surges). Using stamina as a common, rapidly recovered resource for all characters (that is separate from health) is another way to handle it. Such a system reduces reliance on frequent use of healing resources.

 

Taken from: http://forums.obsidi...gn/page__st__60

[PsychoBlonde]

I'd like the walking normally, shift-click running. I don't want it tied to stamina or stats, though, especially if the party is trying to run away together. I could see there being some "tired" quality attached after running too long, though.

 

Stamina for running always becomes tiresome to me, nor is it "realistic", exactly. Trained humans can run all day and all night without ill effects. Persistence hunters do this, chasing 4-legged game animals until those animals fall over from exhaustion. Heck, during the historic Route 66 race, some of the one-day stretches were 70+ miles, and they ran day after day without a break. Our body layout is actually pretty mechanically advantageous over long distances.

 

If they're going to have nasty jerky awkward running animations, though, I'd rather stick with the walking. I did like that you could increase the game speed in Baldur's Gate though.

Edited October 28, 2012 by PsychoBlonde

[kabaliero]

Running all the way, this is an adventure, not sightseeing, I don't have time to slowly walk from one place to another.

this is exactly the type of player attitude EA makes money on

 

This is the exact type of player Bethesda makes money on. Fan of hiking simulators. Never confuse him with an RPG enthusiast.

 

they wish!

didn't even play through New Vegas, despite all the good talk around it

 

besides, there's not just "always-run", there's actually "auto-run" shortkey

so morrowind clones are something to be mentioned the least, as an example of "walker" fan's preference

also, fast travel is what guys-in-a-hurry should rather be favoring, as one might assume

 

so, Bethesda >and< EA

$cha-ching!$