Movement speed overhaul
Posted: 2007-06-25 05:21
I am going to throw up a controversial idea here. I am sure I will catch some flak for this, many will not like it, even I recognize it has some flaws and it may not even be possible - but please, at least think about it before you write it off and flame senselessly. Ok, here it comes:
Increase movement speed!
This is not about turning PR into run-and-gun Quake Wars. I do not think anybody would hate that more than I. In fact, it is about making PR more realistic. More on that below.
The thing is, they way BF2 is so insanely un-moddable there are going to be some compromises. Just listen to Eggman:
I think we can all agree the optimum would be those five speeds Eggman mentions: Crawl, crouch, walk, run, sprint. Alas, we cannot have all five so one has to go. Where 0.607 has removed sprinting, I suggest we instead remove walking.
That is right: Remove walking! Think about it: When does a soldier ever walk during battle? Answer: Never! Soldiers do not walk - they run, or at least 'trot' like Eggman said. It therefore seems reasonable that walking should not be the default speed. The only time one would walk during a combat situation is when approaching an enemy position, weapon poised to fire - and even in these situations you might in fact also trot, depending on a number of factors.
I admit it: Not being able to walk, even if it is only used in this situation, seems like a bitter pill to swallow. Still, it is not that crucial: You can get almost the same effect by moving crouched towards the enemy. Besides, we just agreed there were going to be some compromises, right? The benefits of substituting walking with running (trotting, when scoped in) far outweigh the drawbacks:
-Soldiers run on the battlefield with a sense of urgency. This is war - we are fighting for our lives here, pushing ourselves to the limit, not taking some relaxed Sunday stroll
-It becomes possible to fire while running, something you most certainly do in real life, in fact all the time. This feature is sorely missing from PR right now and is in fact a quite big shortcoming: In current PR, players tend to either move [read: run. Rarely do players walk] or fire since they cannot do both, but this is not realistic at all: You always fire while moving, to keep the enemy ducked down (you provide cover for yourself, so to speak). Firing when changing positions is one of the first things you learn in the army - and yet we cannot do it in the game! Needless to say, we are not talking about running and sniping enemies, either: You have horrible accuracy while running, a bit better when looking down the sights
-In real life close combat, when clearing buildings, you move at a speed that resembles running more than walking. This becomes possible
-It allows us to bring back sprinting, another very important trait of movement and combat, that, again, is lacking with the current system. Here, I want to totally change sprinting and make it more like in Vanilla BF2: Very short, draining stamina extremely quickly. Basically you should only be able to dash across the street before becoming exhausted and it would take a while before you could do it again. Holding down the 'sprint' key would no longer be your primary means of travel. It would be only for running for cover. Animation should be changed back so soldier lowers his weapon while sprinting
The drawbacks of my idea other than the neglible not being able to walk are the following:
-It becomes harder to fine-tune your position used when trying to obtain maximum cover when looking around corners, out windows etc. You can still fine-tune by crouching, though
-It is only a really good idea if the game engine allows for slower movement when strafing or moving backwards than when moving forwards. Accuracy should be lower, as well. However, even if this is not possible, I still think raising speeds is worth considering.
Increase movement speed!
This is not about turning PR into run-and-gun Quake Wars. I do not think anybody would hate that more than I. In fact, it is about making PR more realistic. More on that below.
The thing is, they way BF2 is so insanely un-moddable there are going to be some compromises. Just listen to Eggman:
Source: http://realitymod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23097'[R-DEV wrote:eggman']I am not aware of any way to get a "3rd gear" .. technically a 5th gear because movement speed definitions are:
- crawl
- crouch
- walk
- run
It's not possible to add a 5th gear. So the current movement speeds are a compromise between tactical movement speeds and a good cross country trot speed.
Soldiers are trained to NOT sprint. "Trot" is how I am aware they are trained. Having said that, I am sure that when it all goes to hell, yer gonna sprint across a street or the like.. but what we have now is a compromise that, within the engine limitations, gives us a much more tactically realistic movement speed than the previous speeds.
If we could I'd love a 3 to 5 second burst of sprint speed over and above the trot speed, but as noted I dunno how to do this with BF2 (and am 99% sure it's not possible).
I think we can all agree the optimum would be those five speeds Eggman mentions: Crawl, crouch, walk, run, sprint. Alas, we cannot have all five so one has to go. Where 0.607 has removed sprinting, I suggest we instead remove walking.
That is right: Remove walking! Think about it: When does a soldier ever walk during battle? Answer: Never! Soldiers do not walk - they run, or at least 'trot' like Eggman said. It therefore seems reasonable that walking should not be the default speed. The only time one would walk during a combat situation is when approaching an enemy position, weapon poised to fire - and even in these situations you might in fact also trot, depending on a number of factors.
I admit it: Not being able to walk, even if it is only used in this situation, seems like a bitter pill to swallow. Still, it is not that crucial: You can get almost the same effect by moving crouched towards the enemy. Besides, we just agreed there were going to be some compromises, right? The benefits of substituting walking with running (trotting, when scoped in) far outweigh the drawbacks:
-Soldiers run on the battlefield with a sense of urgency. This is war - we are fighting for our lives here, pushing ourselves to the limit, not taking some relaxed Sunday stroll
-It becomes possible to fire while running, something you most certainly do in real life, in fact all the time. This feature is sorely missing from PR right now and is in fact a quite big shortcoming: In current PR, players tend to either move [read: run. Rarely do players walk] or fire since they cannot do both, but this is not realistic at all: You always fire while moving, to keep the enemy ducked down (you provide cover for yourself, so to speak). Firing when changing positions is one of the first things you learn in the army - and yet we cannot do it in the game! Needless to say, we are not talking about running and sniping enemies, either: You have horrible accuracy while running, a bit better when looking down the sights
-In real life close combat, when clearing buildings, you move at a speed that resembles running more than walking. This becomes possible
-It allows us to bring back sprinting, another very important trait of movement and combat, that, again, is lacking with the current system. Here, I want to totally change sprinting and make it more like in Vanilla BF2: Very short, draining stamina extremely quickly. Basically you should only be able to dash across the street before becoming exhausted and it would take a while before you could do it again. Holding down the 'sprint' key would no longer be your primary means of travel. It would be only for running for cover. Animation should be changed back so soldier lowers his weapon while sprinting
The drawbacks of my idea other than the neglible not being able to walk are the following:
-It becomes harder to fine-tune your position used when trying to obtain maximum cover when looking around corners, out windows etc. You can still fine-tune by crouching, though
-It is only a really good idea if the game engine allows for slower movement when strafing or moving backwards than when moving forwards. Accuracy should be lower, as well. However, even if this is not possible, I still think raising speeds is worth considering.
