I’m bit confused by the setting of Speed, from the lore aspect.
And some naive random thought.
About Speed
It seems like the game intentionally don’t want you to have high speed. You can only get speed modified by +10% by trait, but get very slow when you are hurt.
Even with SpeedyDex, at Dex 15 which can be considered 8+7(described as “Insanely Dextrous”), you only get 112 speed.
Sorry for my personal imagination, but a mutated cephalopod cyborg ninja may have easily double or triple the speed of a normal person in every aspect. A max speed like 200 maybe more “realistic” in lore for this kind of charater?
Is this low speed cap setting intended, for game balance?
About Stats
From the lore aspect, Dex seems like only representing how you do things accurately, and have nothing to do with how fast you are, becase by default Dex does nothing to Speed.
From the game system aspect, I still feel no motivation investing in Perception compared with other 3 Stats.
So I’m thinking, how about letting Perception represent how you do things accurately and have all the modifier to aiming/finesse (that you not only feel outside better, but also have better insight so that you could better control your own body, better perception on things you are crafting, etc), and let Dex represent how fast you are, so that both Dex and Per have more value? (though it’s actually your strength deciding how fast you are in real world)
There are ways to increase speed later in game, by mutating and bionics (one of the latter even allow you to stop time). Also i don’t think that the normal walking*/action speed of a person with good genes (or cyborg ninja) is that much increased in comparison with a normal person.
*Not sure how it would be for running - but you can outrun most zombies anyway (unless low on stamina).
Perception determines your vision range at night, along with other things, so I see it as important as it is…
You’re right, the game does not want you to increase your speed significantly, because
There’s no rationale for it. Is there anyone on the planet that does everything twice as fast as normal?
It would break the game, increasing speed by a large margin potentially puts your time to move + time to attack under a turn and under the time for the fastest enemy to move. If that happens you’ve essentially made it impossible for you to be attacked even when yourself attacking, which again breaks the game.
Strength is by far the best stat.
Between perception, dexterity and intelligence, all three are pretty lackluster and can be lowered with rather minimal impact on the gameplay.
OK, yes everything twice fast is too far. Let’s say walking, running and attack speed.
Note I’m imaging an end game transhuman character. In the game it is possible to get a 20 STR character at end game by stats focusing and specific mutations and bionics, and he would have a carrying weight of 93kg, over two times of default.
That’s quite monstrous and transhuman considering “a 545kg hourse would be best off carrying no more than 109kg”, making this character’s power large animal level?
It means a stats of 20 makes you a transhuman and it’s available in the game.
From RunRepeat, the average marathon finish time in 2001 is 4:28:56, and the world record is 1:59:40, so a non-transhuman champion could easily doulbe the long running speed of an averge marathon runner. It’s said an average person would run the 100m in 15-20 sec, and the world record is 9:57, 50%-100% faster, recorded from a non-transhuman person.
So for a 20 DEX transhuman character, I think it’s rational to run or walk double time?
From the gaming perspective, I’m using SpeedyDex so I have no complaints about the play. Just some thoughts.
So how fast will the game broke?
Does it means even the turrents and guns will never shoot becasue their turn will be skipped if your Speed is too high?
Yep, I have plans to cut that at least in half since it is out of line. Also you might want to read FMS: Frequently Made Suggestions - #7 by kevin.granade
In short, one set of unreasonable game features doesn’t justify other sets of unrealistic features. More likely than not, your “justification” is what’s out of line and what needs to be changed.
No, because we aren’t linking dexterity to running speed.
I’d say don’t worry about it, there’ll always be mods regardless of the intended balance. Despite all the attempts at making them obsolete.
Viva la Revolution!
Seriously though, it is impressive seeing the dedication to the project. I just hope that Kev and his crew don’t get development tunnel vision and forget to make the game fun for nearly everyone. The game is niche enough as is.
A little after the fact maybe, but this is a topic I’m used to addressing from other sources; I’ve had to explain this to more than one fledgling D&D player so I’ve gotten decent at it. I think I can spin it into a context that works here.
Dexterity (DEX) is not a measure of raw athletic speed. It doesn’t determine how fast you swing a sword, or run on foot. It’s a measure of deftness; manual precision, the “hand” in “hand-eye coordination”, and of your general ability to move your body in small but precise ways. The picture of Dexterity I usually conjure for people is a martial artist flipping a balisong (butterfly knife) around at high speed, without cutting themselves or losing control of it.
Most of the things DEX does in this game are related to this. Your ability to evade a trap, escape a grapple, throw an item, fire a ranged weapon, or drive. It is completely divorced from actual, athletic speed.
Of the four stats in C:DDA, the one that MIGHT affect sheer running speed would probably be Strength, except it doesn’t. Because that, too, is a poor representation of actually being a fast runner. Muscle helps with going fast, but only to a point.
To add to that, I personally see dexterity play a (rather large) role in dodging and catching. It doesn’t make you “faster” but instead helps you to get the timing right. Just as you stated, basically the movement of the “hand-eye coordination”.
Edit:
Oh, oh, I know a good (simplified) example for all stats: Imagine a batter in a game of baseball.
Dexterity determines his* timing on when to swing the bat, so it will hit the ball.
Perception determines his* ability to more or less accurately aim at the ball, so his* dexterity induced swing actually lands a hit. It tells him* where to swing.
Strength determines how hard he* hits the ball and therefore, also depending on his* perception and dexterity, how far it will fly.
…Intelligence helps by preventing him* to say stupid s… uh… stuff in an interview after the game.
*Or her/she. Not actually trying to be gender specific here.
That’s a pretty spot-on description, actually! I like that; I may steal that analogy for future uses.
Intelligence helps your baseball player know that they should run to First now, because they are playing baseball and that’s what you do when you smack the little white thing out into the big green space.
the lore is kind of undefined in some patches, its a bit up to you make your own conclusions. after so much has happened to the earth its hard to tell which event actually put the nail in the coffin for civilization.
I find a lot of newspaper pages which imply the existence of Zombies, but few (only rumors) to none about the others, so I think Zombies were here first (or at least the biggest threat while the printing presses were still running).
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