Speed Up Walking Backwards

I don't know if its just me, but right now the movement seems kind of clunky and I think its because of how much slower you move while walking backwards. Any suggestions?

 

Walking backwards is meant to me slower than it is forwards, it's natural and realistic..

Ever tried running backwards IRL? It's hard, you risk tripping over and will always be slower than running forwards,,

 

^. I'd also like to add that using guns that way is WAY harder, since you can't just run back and shoot. I'd say make it even slower

 

You're not meant to be as fast backwards as you are forwards because of what @AURAfalco said. Chucklefish deliberately made it this way. If an enemy is getting too close you either need to change your strategy or look where you're running to so you can speed up.

Nah, the speed is fine the way it is. This is a video game after all.

 

but
I don't want realism in my sandbox game
that's why I'm playing a game in the first place
to fuck off from real life for a while

 

While you may not like realism in a sandbox game, many others (like myself) do.. being unrealistic doesn't mean you can't escape from IRL for a bit.. I like to see it as a second life.. in another world..

"I am an Avian.. AURAfalco is my name.. I struggle to survive in this vast, hostile universe.. as i learn the truth about other races along with the secrets of my own.. I am a survivor, an explorer, a builder, a conqueror, a farmer.. I can be a kind friend.. I can be a fierce foe.. I am.. I am a lot of things.. I am AURA" ~AURAfalco

 

Well then in that case, I find it hard to believe that a ship that can move at lightspeeds off of coal doesn't have built-in hunger mechanisms.
On that note, if you want slow backwards walking, then it would only apply to some of the races. I don't think glitch or novakid would realistically have any issue moving backwards as compared to forwards.
Plus, the universe is not really hostile at all. Every race can handle almost every planet with minimal support required, even outside Alpha sectors. Only planets without atmospheres require oxygen tanks, for instance, even though most planets that have atmospheres are likely methan-based, or something similarly different from oxygen (or whatever gas the race needs to survive).

My point is there's a line drawn with the realism in favour of good gameplay, and I think that making backwards walking slower doesn't add enough realism to justify the tedium.

 

It balances out fighting between ranged and melee fighters. I'm sure you wouldn't like it if someone kept shooting at you while they were running backwards as fast as you could run forwards.
And there's nothing stopping you from facing forwards to run and then turning back to shoot.

 

Agreed, walking slower backwards adds both realism and a limitation to keep the game balanced

For all we know, this world's coal may have different properties from our coal.. or perhaps their future technology allows them to modify it to make a better fuel.. like it could separate the molecules of said coal and for a new material.. one of which allows this feat of superlight speed..

But a few Illogical things doesn't mean "Well.. that means everything can be a mess" No, it doesn't.. almost every game has at least 1 point of anti-realism.. some more drastic than others, but that doesn't mean we can be like "Hey, this feature is illogical.. let's add in the ability to headbutt you way down to the core, every block explodes when you mine it, and farting can launch you 30 blocks into the air!" 1 unrealistic feature should not lead to 10..

On a second note, the game is meant to be balanced.. whether this be through realistic or unrealistic means.. walking backwards (as warped said) helps to balance combat, so you have to be careful when fighting enemies rather than walking backwards fast all the time.. that'd just make it OP.. and that's no fun, it gets boring too fast..

 

Coal is coal, it only has so much potential energy to offer. If it's not carbon, it's not coal. If the ship is getting the energy via fission, it should be able to use anything, not just coal.

I don't understand why you can't just use the fancy methods to fight enemies yourself, instead of making it a game requirement. Personally, I have shit coordination, so I have to rely on the walking backwards and I'm still likely to get killed. Keeping backwards walking fast is giving us both the option of the gameplay we want. Removing fast-backwards walking is removing my option, and forcing you into a different method of play.

 

rhomboid - I'm SOOOO glad someone else feels the same way about the controls. Man I cannot stand it. People who think that realism is more important than gameplay flow, can you please hear us out?

I fully understand the reasoning behind this "combat balance" to the game. It makes sense...but it doesn't necessarily justify the sacrificing of such wonderful freedom to player movement when the game is 20% combat 80% jumping and moving around a space.

When balancing out combat alone, having the backwards movement slower would make much more sense in a game like Gears of War that is pretty much pure combat for the entire game. Starbound is not pure combat in the experience you have when playing - and thus the game design decision is a poor one if you want to forfeit so much of the movement flow that players could possess.

Does that make sense? If you have a game that has such heavy weight on only combat, then yeah, probably go for the slower backwards movement mechanic. But in a game where you're needing to move the mouse all over the place, and the game has more focus on platforming and selecting things with the mouse...why would you ever forfeit and weigh/burden the player down all so that the combat can be more balanced? There has to be another way to balance the combat without forfeiting the bigger elements of the game.

At the end of the day, we can all have opinions on the matter, but when it comes to design, opinions are not enough - you have to have reasons to your actions. The reason to have this 'balance' is simply not enough to justify what is being sacrificed.

 

As it was said before, slower backwards movement helps with balance and combat gameplay in general. Maybe it needs a complete revamp, I'm not sure how this could be done.

Anyway, it's not specific enough in the way it's implemented. It should never happen in any case it's not useful. Having the mouse cursor in either the left or the right portion of the screen should have no impact whatsoever outside of combat.

So, if it's kept, slower backpedalling should occur in only a few cases, which are:
- Swinging a melee weapon
- Having a gun in either hand.

Maybe there are other cases, but you get the point.

 

There are two simple points why slowing down the backward movement of a player's avatar makes no sense:

* The player ALREADY sees every direction and slowing the avatar down only because the mouse points somewhere else is BUCKING ANNOYING AND NON-INTUITIVE.
* IT'S A 2D GAME. Not 3d, where you actually have to face in one direction at a time.

It's one of the MAIN reasons why I hated Nightly ever since it came out.

 

No see everyone walking backward should be faster!

Then we can all run around like it's Symphony of the Night!

 

Walking backward should be slower than walking forward. Yes.
Is it too slow since the changes? Yes.
Should it be less of a penalty? Yes

Why? The aiming system with the mouse in 2D space means that aiming with a vector using the cursor close to the body while moving is just not practical. Jumping around, moving the look/screen center, means that a close cursor necessary for quick turn arounds leads to wildly variable aiming.

It's not impossible, but it's a thorn in the side of fluidity and an unnecessary barrier to combat. I think it made more sense when there was knockback (which was fun actually, even if maybe a strength reduction would've been better than a removal).

 

It's not that hard. I am perfectly able to run backwards.

 

It feels like there should be a "realism" difficulty for people who want this, because i abhor it. I happen to hold the mousecursor a little wrong and I will fail a jump and possibly die. Yippie... I hope they'll remove this entirely, but i guess running backwards at 90% speed could be fine too.

 

Going more slowly while running backwards works fine. It balances ranged combat against other types of combat. Without it, you could just wail on a melee enemy forever without any worry of damage, as long as you didn't stop.

 

I'd argue that both falling damage and slower backwards movement don't belong in a platformer, especially a dualstick shooter that starbound tries to be. There are better ways to balance melee vs ranged -- as demonstrated by 3 armor sets; And besides that, I don't think Starbound is a kind of game where you can be pure melee or pure ranged. The strength of the game is in allowing you to mix, match and be flexible -- which is why, in my opinion, slower backwards walking doesn't fit in.

 

Maybe if there's a combat timer that causes the backward slowdown to activate which does so when you attack/are attacked?