As many players are aware, in the current build of Starbound you move slowly when walking in the opposite direction of where you face. Many players find this highly annoying, despite how necessary it is to be implemented to balance guns and other projectile-emitting equipment. However, this is a (Possibly) simple solution for this movement issue: Remove the slowed-down reverse walk for everything except projectile-based weaponry, or possibly only apply it to all weaponry, rather than whenever you backpedal. I am not sure on how hard-coded the slowed reverse speed is, but if it is at all possible for it to be turned "off" and "on" by an item, this could be a good idea. Weapons, specifically projectile-based weapons, are the reason why slow backwards walking is in place. It prevents people from running backwards at the same pace as someone walking forwards, and staying out of reach of the other person while still attacking. If slow reverse speed was only applied to projectile-firing equipment, then this would alleviate some concerns about movement in general. It's not too difficult to define what has it and what doesn't, either - an item can simply have a parameter "slowBackstep" and define if it's true or false based on the gentype of the object - a gun, for example, would have "slowBackstep" : "true", while a pickaxe would have "slowBackstep" : "false". This is an example, of course - I am not sure if the backpedal speed can be toggled like that via an item. What else would removing slowed backwards walking for all non-wholly melee weapons mean? It would mean you wouldn't walk slowly backwards when holding, say, food. Or bandages. Or your MM. Or any sort of usable item or block. It alleviates the issue many people have of accidentally turning around and suddenly losing a lot of speed, only because their mouse is on the wrong side of the screen. TL;DR: Weapons should be the only thing to slow you when backpedaling, not everything that changes your direction.
walking backwards slowly is definitely a thing that pisses me off when i'm playing. i am a-ok with this solution
I'm fine with moving slow when moving backwards. It's never been a problem for me before. Running backwards is never going to be as fast as running forward, since the legs of the player characters aren't exactly made for that. On top of that, we're usually running backwards on non-flat terrain.
Im generally indifferent to the whole thing. I understand why they did it, but I am not necessarily attached to it should it be removed. Your suggestion has some merit, so ill go with "agree".
I've been playing since the very beginning, and I can honestly say that I'm fine with the slower backwards movement. It's never really hindered me in a fight because if you need to move faster, just move your mouse in the other direction. Or use one of the techs to dash out of the way. Or jump. There are a number of solutions already in-game that don't require completely removing it, and the idea of just removing it for melee players while sticking it to ranged players still seems kind of unfair. So just leave it be in vanilla. Though, I'm all for the idea of players being able to easily mod this and turn it off if it just doesn't suit them. Being able to set something like that on a weapon with a simple true or false could lead to interesting weapon varieties too. Trade off power for more flexible movement?
I agree with this, its very annoying building when walking backwards has slowed movement. Here's a little change to your idea that seems pretty fair and reasonable. The only weapons that should let you walk normally backwards are close range like swords. Holding up your shield should slow down walking backwards regardless if you are using a melee weapon with it.
I'm not sure why they don't just make the slowdown occur while firing a ranged weapon when your x velocity is in the opposite direction to the target of the shot. You could do a dead stop as soon as the shot is fired backwards forcing the player to get back to full run speed from zero.
I also think this is a problematic implementation and makes certain areas harder than they need to be. Here's another proposed solution: The problem, IMO, isn't so much "You move slowly backwards" as "Your character's eyes are permanently focused on the cursor." Right now movement can be summed up as "Your character is always focused on the cursor, and if they're moving in the opposite direction of it, they are moving backwards and therefore slowly." I think a better solution would be "Your character by default is watching where they're going. If the player moves the cursor or clicks, the character focuses on the cursor, turning around if need be." Or to put it another way - If you're facing one direction and start moving the other way, you turn around and move at full speed, regardless of where the cursor is. If you move the cursor or click, and it's in the opposite direction you're facing, you turn to face it and now move slowly. If you're moving backwards, then release and repress the movement key, the character turns to face where they're going again and moves quickly, until the mouse changes. When you fire a weapon, a 'turnaround cooldown' is applied and you cannot turn around for a brief time (the weapon's cooldown, maybe slightly longer). Continuous fire would prevent turning around entirely until you stop, of course. Doing this would make platforming sections doable without forcing the player to swing the cursor back and forth, while still maintaining the spirit of slowing you down while actually fighting.
I also find the mechanic really annoying for platforming. My current solution is to simply leave both hands empty unless I'm actively engaging in combat--that way, your character always faces the direction he/she is moving. This works, but unfortunately that requires that I leave the 'R' and 'L' slots completely empty. I would find it extremely helpful if some non-combat, non-targeted items (like food?) didn't change your character's facing towards the mouse cursor, that way I could just keep that item on my action bar and switch to it when I want to do some platforming.
