A general question about computer games overall: why do the majority of games make it impossible to match the speed of NPCs...and then give you missions where you have to follow said NPCs? Usually your fast speed is faster than the NPC's (which makes sense if you're a superhero), but your slow speed is too slow -- meaning you either have to run/stop/run/stop or else they quickly outdistance you.
I've always assumed this is just lazy programming, but I thought I'd ask MWM and the general community whether there is a justifiable reason for this annoyance. Would allowing the player to match the speed of an NPC break something else in the game?
As a side question: if it is just lazy programming, will CoT avoid this?
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Spurn all ye kindle.
Not an answer to your exact question, but in CoH I would sometimes target an NPC civilian and auto follow it. It stuttered sure, but with pet/s out it allowed me to afk farm Marcone bosses in PO.
You must answer the question of why pcs are faster than npcs in the type of games you refer to.
There are a couple of reasons.
Foremost is game play ability. If at your base speed the pc were the same speed as npc, and the
Noc movdd away, you would never catch up. If there were a run toggle, most players wiuld the use it all the time negating the need or purpose of base speed. Most games only want to worry about a single action for going into a sprint (whether for UI, limited button options as in console contollers).
Another part of game play is feel. Being quicker than npcs imparts a sense of action in the character. It makes playing the character feel more dynamic.
When it comes to "follow this npc" it is usually for the purpose of the story. To set up a scene, or transition to another scene.
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Aye, I don't have a problem with player characters having a speed that's faster than the npc speed, but why can't the player character slow speed (e.g. Walk instead of Run) match the npc slow speed?
Spurn all ye kindle.
One reason could be a game challenge. If the follow NPC is part of a stealth mission then going to close, but if you walk at the same speed you don't have to worry just auto walk at a good distance and boom. The different speeds make it difficult.
NPC speeds vs Player speeds been talked about before. The hated escort missions the NPC speed being different also adds difficulty. You have to adjust how fast, slow you go in order to protect NPC or go to far away and risk NPC getting into trouble. The auto walk or auto run with the same speeds removes that challenge.
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Sure, but a good auto-Follow routine makes it less of a problem. Auto-follow also simplifies the task of staying in melee-range of opponents, for those with short range attacks. Auto-follow helps ensure that I don't accidentally face the wrong way, in a scrimmage. I've used auto-follow to pick a failing teammate out of the crowd and zip over to assist them with my Tanker's aggro-aura. In cases like that, often enough, a ranged attack just isn't enough to pull the heat off.
I hope there will be a good auto-follow routine in this game. I like the one in LotRO, which is smart enough to pilot around obstacles, like rocks, trees, bushes, and the like.
Be Well!
Fireheart
If that's the thinking behind this sort of design, it seems to me a strangely artificial and binary sort of challenge. Choice A: Walk = automatic failure due to falling behind; Choice B: Run/Walk/Run/Walk/etc = mission success while looking extremely unrealistic and not remotely stealthy.
Spurn all ye kindle.
Uh ... the PC can use Walk too ... but most Players are too hyper to remember that it's there.
As far as auto-follow is concerned, that's a key component of the Jackie Chan Bind for ALL melee range archetypes. It was the thing that made Scrapperlock so FUN. No need to waste time selecting targets, just attack whatever is closest and stick to them like glue until they faceplant.
/targetenemynear$$follow
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In real life we govern our own speeds to walk along with other people. We don't all walk the same speed naturally. So in an escort mission in which the NPC is walking, I don't see why it wouldn't be designed such that the NPC walking speed is the same as the PC walking speed.
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"In real life" is the key words you're looking at.
This isn't real life, it's a game and people whined when they thought there was a speed difference between the characters run speeds in CoH. There may have been at first too, but there was still whining when there wasn't. Also, anyone who ever checked out the huge build, would know it certainly felt slow. :p
Sure, in every game I've played, 'big' people seem, subjectively, slower than 'little' people, even though they usually have the same objective speed. It's the slothful slogging of long limbs, versus the pitter-patter of tiny feet.
I want PCs to be inherently faster-moving than NPCs, so that one can either run away or run and catch. NPCs that jumped up the side of a building and skittered away on the power-lines always struck me as inherently unfair. At least, until I got Fly or another movement power.
I do remember, that one game, where there was one NPC that was faster than the fastest PC, and the sense of Caution, even Paranoia, that was triggered every time one had to pass through that NPC's territory. Until one out-leveled the NPC, anyway.
I think the worst torture in NPC speed-dom, is where the NPC says, "Hurry! We must (insert priority mission) before (terrible calamity)!" and then proceeds to amble off, or 'run' in super-slo-mo. Also, their pathing (naturally) leads them into every annoying ambush along the way. Meanwhile, the PC is thinking that, even with Zero movement enhancements, they could have been 'there' and back again, Twice, if they didn't have to stay and defend the NPC from stupidly stumbling into obvious hazards. I can't count how many times I've completely Cleared the map, before 'releasing' Lady Jane Agropants from captivity, just so she would get to the goal and open the danged chest!
Be Well!
Fireheart
I see you took so much offense to the opening three words that you failed to read the remainder.
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
I read it all. I just picked to comment on the body type speeds. As for the NPC speeds, just more whining really :p Ever think that slower speed NPCs and slightly higher speed NPCs could make missions interesting. :p