Walking Toggle Please

[LadyCrimson]

I don't understand it either, but to each their own, as they say. If it immerses some that much to walk slowly through a game, more power to them. And as I said before, a walk toggle is not something that's going to impact anyone who doesn't want to walk. Technically speaking, it may require different/more animation work and thus could be why it wasn't added in (time and maybe cost factors to add it late in development, if they hadn't planned on it from early on).

 

Myself not liking to walk, I think it's largely real-time consideration (and impatience) - games like these can take enough hours as it is to experience fully/multiple times without my adding to it by taking 10+ minutes to walk from one end of town to another.

[Fajeth]

Some people need the option to move like a sane person PERIOD This doesn't even need an explanation imho. But if you must have it, here is mine: Imagine a scenery from a movie where it'd seem extremely awkward if the actors would run around intstead of walking. Imagine a group of adventurers running across the throne room to have their audience with the king or the same group traveling the land and constantly running again. Or the mighty hero, returning to his home city - who instead of majestically walking the promenade and letting the people admire him, runs like a madman and plows through the unsuspecting crowd with his shiny armor... And all that without an obvious reason. The list goes on and on; In most RL Situation people tend to walk and not run. You probably are  aware of the saying: The devil is in the details. I can't immerse myself into a fantasy world seeing this.  So you see, for some people it is not a minor issue but a immersion/game breaking one. And, after all, it is really not TOO much to ask for, is it? Whether you understand the motives or not, can't you just implement this tiny, little function anyway (there is really not much effort needed) and  make a lot of people happy? Instead of saying (figuratively): F* you, I don't share your opinion, nor is this option necessary in terms of gameplay so bare with it's absence or go to hell".

[Mlatimudan]

I didn't mean to say that they shouldn't get to walk in games if they really want to, but the very concept is so far removed from me that I genuinely don't understand what they get out of it.

 

I mean I have been playing crpgs for a pretty long time and I can get very immersed in a game, but walking slows down the game so much it becomes a chore and not a game, and running everywhere is certainly one of the least immersion breaking things around.

 

To me immersion has to do with characters, story, a believable world and stuff like that, it doesn't break my immersion that I can only run, or that I can't jump, or that I can hold 50 weapons that's just how games work.

[Heinous Hat]

For years I have been wondering the exact opposite, why in the hell do designers even put a walk toggle in a game, it never crossed my mind to walk instead of run in a game, it doesn't make me immersed it makes me bored.

 

Could someone please explain to me how you could want to walk everywhere in a game, because I am baffled, I just don't get it. I don't care how immersed you are in a world why would you walk across a continent(for example) instead of run if there was no transportation.

 

This is such a nitpicky thing to get angry about that my flabber is genuinely gasted that someone would skip a game because they couldn't walk instead of run.(and I suspect that they wouldn't walk everywhere if there was a toggle, I suspect they would run)

 

It was different for the IE games since they only had walking but you were going pretty quickly, imagine if normal speed in the IE was running and they took 2/3 off and called it walking

No way in hell would anyone use that option.

 

 

I don't understand it either, but to each their own, as they say. If it immerses some that much to walk slowly through a game, more power to them. And as I said before, a walk toggle is not something that's going to impact anyone who doesn't want to walk. Technically speaking, it may require different/more animation work and thus could be why it wasn't added in (time and maybe cost factors to add it late in development, if they hadn't planned on it from early on).

 

Myself not liking to walk, I think it's largely real-time consideration (and impatience) - games like these can take enough hours as it is to experience fully/multiple times without my adding to it by taking 10+ minutes to walk from one end of town to another.

 

 

Walking animations are on the same level as idle animations (i.e. standing around scratching yourself). They serve no purpose other than to make the game world look like a semi-believable place filled with people that act and move in a reasonable manner. When you remove these elements, that believability starts to fall apart.

 

Absolutely no one (I presume )  is suggesting that they want to walk everywhere, all of the time... probably not even most of the time. However, when your character(s) are performing a facsimile of a real life activity, like moving across a bar room floor or traversing some dimly lit coridoor, it looks absolutely bizarre to do it with your knees at right angles and your virtual cape fluttering in the breeze. Doing it in slow motion or in a half crouch doesn't quite cut it either, especially when other people are apparently capable of walking.

 

Put another way, if your game design doesn't include walking, then it doesn't make sense to include scenarios where a reasonable person would walk.

 

Essentially, it looks cheap and it feels cheap.  It's visually unsettling in an otherwise richly detailed game world.

[Cantousent]

I'm not concerned with it and, although I understand the arguments, I don't find that always running pacts my perception. The NPCs always running probably would. If it's not difficult, however, I think it'd be cool for folks who want a toggle.

[barakav]

You again OP? At least this time your post hasn't been so offensive...

[DrBrian]

I didn't even notice my characters were running before I read that thread.

[Lohi]

And yet such a feature (two movement speeds and animations) is pretty rare in isometric RPGs that this game is inspired by.

So if someone's not going to play this game because it's missing I can only assume they missed out on Baldur's Gate also.  Or is the problem the animation of running when an animation of walking is desired?

[lsberlin]

Wasteland 2 did the same failure, BUT they fixed it. After the second Patch the Player could walk OR run. For me, it is very important to walk !

Always running like a excited chicken has something unreal is not plausible. Peter Hines from Bethesda (Elder Scrolls) knows exactly what Immersion means.

His 20 Million Seller Skyrim, shows in nearly every Promotion Video a WALKING HERO, and not a running one. Please Devs, let us Players decide to run or to walk.

 

Best

LS

[Vanant]

And yet such a feature (two movement speeds and animations) is pretty rare in isometric RPGs that this game is inspired by.

 

Planescape and Fallout had it. In Neverwinter with the exploration mode you could walk too. It´s Diablo style games the ones missing it.

[Fajeth]

And yet such a feature (two movement speeds and animations) is pretty rare in isometric RPGs that this game is inspired by.

So if someone's not going to play this game because it's missing I can only assume they missed out on Baldur's Gate also.  Or is the problem the animation of running when an animation of walking is desired?

Exactly. It didn't bother me in BG or Planescape because the characters seemed to walk normaly as default animation. And btw: The legendary Diablo 2 had this option. It was even part of the game mechanics due to the fact that running depleted stamina. Though I wouldn't want this for Pillars since many hated it (not me ) a simple walk switch would be absolutely necessary.

[CynicalThought]

I created a forum account specifically to add my name to the list of people requesting this feature.  As mentioned, in previous IE games the default movement animation for your sprite was a normal walk so it didn't seem out of place in an inn or similar indoor area where "jogging" everywhere is silly and immersion breaking.  I never even used the "boots of speed" in BG/BG2 outside of combat.  The issue in PoE is that changing the speed via "Fast" or "Slow" mode doesn't modify the animation.  We know a walking animation does exist in in-game cut-scenes so it seems to me like  implementing a "toggle" wouldn't be a very difficult thing to do from a developer standpoint.

And in the event that anyone from Obsidian reads these things, I'd also like to add that being able to go into stealth mode with an individual character as opposed to as a group would be nice.  My Old Vailian aristocrat wizard doesn't skulk in the shadows or scout ahead, he has his minions - err, party members do that for him.

[kabaliero]

 

And yet such a feature (two movement speeds and animations) is pretty rare in isometric RPGs that this game is inspired by.

 

Planescape and Fallout had it. In Neverwinter with the exploration mode you could walk too. It´s Diablo style games the ones missing it.

 

Actually Diablo 1 & 2 had walks and only 3 doesn't, 'cause it's made in favour of

modern gaming majority who don't really care for anything except flashy fuss.

[Fearabbit]

Wouldn't it be possible to change the stealth animations to walking animations and turn stealth into normal walking? After all, we *mostly* use stealth for looking for traps and secrets, and you don't need to crouch when you do that.

 

A more complex mod could switch to the sneaking animation as soon as a character enters the detection radius of an enemy. That would actually be something I'd love to have.

[aiqidar]

 

And yet such a feature (two movement speeds and animations) is pretty rare in isometric RPGs that this game is inspired by.

 

Planescape and Fallout had it. In Neverwinter with the exploration mode you could walk too. It´s Diablo style games the ones missing it.

 

 

Pretty sure Diablo 2 had both walking and running. Diablo 3 I can't quire recall though.

[bimpnottin]

I am having difficulty understanding how a team that created such an amazing rpg didn't care about this! you are forced to run everywhere like mad. It particularly looks weird when everything else looks so good.. I hope they implement a run/walk toggle soon! 

[Vanant]

 

 

And yet such a feature (two movement speeds and animations) is pretty rare in isometric RPGs that this game is inspired by.

 

Planescape and Fallout had it. In Neverwinter with the exploration mode you could walk too. It´s Diablo style games the ones missing it.

 

 

Pretty sure Diablo 2 had both walking and running. Diablo 3 I can't quire recall though.

 

By Diablo style I meant his sons, more than Diablo itself. Titan Quest, Heretic Kingdoms, Torchlight... I can understand why it´s not neccessary to walk in those.

[sim-h]

It's been stated by the development leads that compromises were made, presumably this is one of them.

 

I would love to see walking added, together with de-synching the character movement animations when grouped, so their strides are not all exactly in unison - looks like they are running as a single unit. Yuck!

 

I haven't trawled all the thread pages but for those saying use 'S', it is very different running in slow motion, to walking.

[Sleazebag]

In my mind, I roleplay every step my character makes. I imagine it in full detail - every breath they make, every move they make. This game should have a slow breathing toggle for when my character is stressed.

 

i'll be watching you

[sim-h]

In my mind, I roleplay every step my character makes. I imagine it in full detail - every breath they make, every move they make. This game should have a slow breathing toggle for when my character is stressed.

 

i'll be watching you

 

Fast breathing, surely??!

[Sleazebag]

 

In my mind, I roleplay every step my character makes. I imagine it in full detail - every breath they make, every move they make. This game should have a slow breathing toggle for when my character is stressed.

 

i'll be watching you

 

Fast breathing, surely??!

 

No it's to calm my character down, Dyrwood is a stressful place

[RottenBrain]

+1 to sheathe weapons for greater immersion.

Just keep an empty weapon set and switch to it when you feel the need to sheathe your weapon.

[Vaalac]

Couldn't we mod that by the way ? The walking toggle I mean.

[bimpnottin]

It would be so great if someone made a mod like that

[Osvir]

Running causes all kinds of problems, in my opinion. It is too late for it all but here's my opinions and thoughts on what would've been better:

A) You already have Fast-Mode, you don't need Running. In fact, I barely did anything without Fast-Mode, why wouldn't I? It is there, and it speeds up the game greatly. Combat slows down to Normal Speed anyways. Fast-Mode solves all "perceived problems" that Walking would've "caused". But Walking would've solved way more problems in Combat, in Exploration, in Feels. There are also Bracelets of Speed and Boots of Speed too, that really serves Zero purpose because above mentioned flaws in Running (These Bracelets and Boots would've had much more purpose with Walking).

B) Running messes with combat. It does. When you spot an enemy, running into the Engagement and the Enemy running into yours causes a lot of fickle movements and twitches to the characters. It looks chaotic at many times, and it would've done the game more justice to have characters walk into engagement or walk whilst encountering each other in melee combat. It would've also been more controlled, as characters wouldn't have sped around like junkies on adrenaline. It would've also served enemy types and challenge if the characters had been Walking instead.

Some enemies could've been faster, and that would've been a challenge in and of itself. "****! This enemy is running! Pause!" and preparing and calculating what to do. There is not much or any of that at this point. Walking would've AIDED tactics and strategy in combat.

C) Scout Mode. I use it almost everywhere I go where I perceive there is danger nearby. It feels wise to do so. The "crack" or "twitch" in the pace of movement feels awkward when combat begins. From lurking/scouting/searching into running. Walking would've solved this as well, or, keep the "scout" stance and use that stance in combat as well as "readied" into combat. At the moment, character's "scout" with their weapons ready, and when combat begins, they drop their stance, lower their weapons to their sides, runs into engagement, and then brings up their weapons again. So many holes in their defenses!

D) Sprinting. All characters having some sort of "Wild Sprint" equivalent that the Barbarian has, a limited, per encounter (Fatigue draining) ability that they could use in combat. A burst of movement. This would've aided mobility in combat. Specific "Sprint AI Scripts" to add even more flavor to B) enemies. Meeting a Fighter, or a Rogue in combat, and you see them Sprint? You'd have to react, think and calculate. I.E. It would've added more reactivity in combat.

All in all: Running wasn't necessary to begin with. It works against the mechanics, not for them.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Osvir