A Missing Movement Powers...

[StrykerGaming]

...that should be in the game. What is you ask? Glide and Running vertically and horizontally on buildings/walls. There are Heroes in Marvel and DC universe that are capable of gliding to the ground. Moon Knight and Batman for instance. For some characters I've built, I take Flight; however, its not really what I need that makes up these toons abilities to get around. I'd love to be able to have super jump and leap to a tall building then glide down to some point in a zone. Likewise, with super speed, like Flash, have the ability to run up a wall/building to the top or nearest horizontal platform. I'd love to see these introduced into the game if at all possible. Thanks. 😄

[Guardia]

It is a lot harder than you might imagine.

 

You'd have to code in an entire new system of how the game orients characters.

 

Currently the game just orients them in one direction: Up. Doesn't care what's under it's feet, doesn't even check beyond basic collision detection.

 

Wall running would require a new detection system to scan the surface under a character's feet to figure out angle to orient the model.

 

The other games can do it because they coded the ability directly into their game's movement system, planning from the beginning to have wall attach powers.

 

Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to see this happen. But it would be a massive undertaking to support one travel power.

Edited February 27, 2020 by Guardia

[VileTerror]

 . . . not to get anyone's hopes up, as rumours being rumours there isn't any implicit guarantee here . . . buuuuut . . . 

 

There are Devs who are working on Vectored Knockback code.  Something like that might be a stepping stone toward reorientation of "Up" on a per character basis.

 

Don't you dare quote me on that, though!

[Leogunner]

This has been suggested before but it's rather rare to see suggested.  As described above, there has been some exploration of the code and limitations aren't so much limitations as they are complications.  I'd like to hear more about this suggestion and descriptions of its implementation.  

[dangeraaron10]

If nothing else, I feel like Gliding would work fine if it's basically the air control of Combat Jumping that lets you move even faster in the air while slowing your descent and negating fall damage.

 

All that would be left is some new animations so its not just the default falling animations.  I could see multiple ones for each direction you glide like "sliding" has.

 

Edit: bonus points for wings with a gliding animation or activated jetpacks/boots

 

Edited February 27, 2020 by dangeraaron10

[Doc_Scorpion]

1 hour ago, VileTerror said:

There are Devs who are working on Vectored Knockback code.  Something like that might be a stepping stone toward reorientation of "Up" on a per character basis.

 

Don't you dare quote me on that, though!

 Quoted because I never could resist a challenge...

[aethereal]

41 minutes ago, dangeraaron10 said:

If nothing else, I feel like Gliding would work fine if it's basically the air control of Combat Jumping that lets you move even faster in the air while slowing your descent and negating fall damage.

 

All that would be left is some new animations so its not just the default falling animations.  I could see multiple ones for each direction you glide like "sliding" has.

 

Edit: bonus points for wings with a gliding animation or activated jetpacks/boots

 

How would that work though?  Like, how would you get the altitude to glide down from in the first place?

You could like go through the doors on the (relatively few) buildings that have doors to the roof and then jump off, and that'd be, you know, conceptually fun, but I don't think it would make for a functional travel power.

[arcane]

Gliding was implemented well in guild wars 2, but that game has a lot more going on, vertically speaking. You have to have lots of good cliffs, ledges, etc. to make it worthwhile. In that case, zones were specifically designed with gliding in mind (heart of thorns).

[Haijinx]

Motorcycles

[Call Me Awesome]

It would be nice, but I don't believe the game's current engine can handle it... and changing the engine would be a MAJOR undertaking I imagine.

[gameboy1234]

4 hours ago, Haijinx said:

Motorcycles

This is good.  Actually any kind of vehicle (motorcycle, jet, helicopter, fancy fast car, etc.)  Though we do have hover boards.

 

Swing lines are missing.  Both "organic" style of lines, as well as wrist grapples and grapple guns.

 

Running up buildings is also a fun idea, as is the idea of "wall crawling" up buildings too.

 

[dangeraaron10]

4 hours ago, aethereal said:

How would that work though?  Like, how would you get the altitude to glide down from in the first place?

You could like go through the doors on the (relatively few) buildings that have doors to the roof and then jump off, and that'd be, you know, conceptually fun, but I don't think it would make for a functional travel power.

 

By not being a Pool Power and being something you can grab in the P2W vendor, and combine it with ninja run, beast run, super jump, or even flight.  I made the suggestion while I was on break at work so I couldn't elaborate further, but Gliding doesn't help you gain altitude which makes it subpar as a standalone travel power and a terrible use of a precious power pick if it was a Pool power. If it was a Pool Power it'd need to be bundled with some variant of Super Jump to gain initial altitude, or better yet, not have it as a power pick at all and just be a P2W freebie you can combine with a different travel power.

[Steampunkette]

No object in the game counts as a "Wall". It's just a physical object you can't move through. In that regard a Streetlamp is a "Wall" in the same way an office map's walls are "Walls". So is a Car, fire hydrant, or another player. The game doesn't have any understanding of those things as "Wall"

 

So we'd need a new type of "Ground" to be described to the game's engine. This ground would be a Mesh of some sort that could be place in duodimensional squares with a set in game length (Say 5ft squares)... That's where the trouble comes in.

 

Every single map in the game would need a Dev to edit it to add in this new "WallGround" object hundreds or thousands of times to create a wall you can run on with the appropriate power. And any "Wall-like Object" in that map would need to be divisible by the size of the squares being added. Say, for example, a building with an arch on it that is five feet wide at either end, but only two feet wide in the middle. Putting the little 5ft square on that object would have an overhang of 3 feet where the player "Runs on Air". Ugly, but not a dealbreaker.

 

The big problem is that this would SKYROCKET the object count in every single zone in the game. You ever wonder why Granville was so laggy in Spider City? It's because there's thousands of objects, there. Most of them halfway embedded in other objects to hide the ugly ends of them. For Grandville? You'd need to add -millions- of these little "Wallground" objects in order for the game to allow you to run along the side of the spider webs.

 

In any case... it's simply too huge a task to add to a game. This is the sort of power which needs to be present from the start for it to really work.

[biostem]

Wouldn't gliding basically just be a slowed descent speed?  Besides thematic reasons, though, why take such a power?  I'd just like to see slottable versions of ninja running and the jump/steam pack-type powers...

[Steampunkette]

5 minutes ago, biostem said:

Wouldn't gliding basically just be a slowed descent speed?  Besides thematic reasons, though, why take such a power?  I'd just like to see slottable versions of ninja running and the jump/steam pack-type powers...

There'd need to be variable falling speeds for Glide to work. Right now there just aren't. It'd be comparatively easy to create a variable falling speed with different levels of air control than, say, Combat Jumping or Flight.

[Menelruin]

So, weird thought....you know how Flash could run up a 5 story building and get momentum to go up 6 stories or higher?  Is it possible that slamming into an obstacle at super speed gives you a half-second duration EXTREME boost to jump HEIGHT, paired with a debuff to jump SPEED?  Basically as if you had used the object as a ramp to send yourself flying upwards, almost completely vertically. 

[Garble]

If you assume that "gliding" also allows you to catch and ride gusts of wind, then it could basically be a version of Jump Pack/Steam Jump but with no time limit and different animation.

 

The effect is that you are still being pulled down by gravity, but can "jump" even in air to gain verticality (the head-cannon would be that you're angling to catch air and ride it up), and have slower decent and the ability to steer directions while falling.

 

As for wall-crawling the closest is using a jump power near on one of the War Walls where the slight angle lets you shoot up. Before travel powers unlocked at 4, combat jumping on war walls was a fun way for a lowbie to get through dangerous zones.

 

Motorcycles

 

I think vehicles could be done using the transformation mechanics from kheldians and vet powers. Like, turn into a car model and get SS with slight jump. Or become a tank with no increase to speed but gain resistance and a single, target aoe attack. For the motorcycle, they would need to adapt the summoning animation for Bruiser and the rider would have to be standardized, like a Biker wearing a Paragon Protector helmet.

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

The issue with doing a standard generic rider, is well we also have huge size characters. There really is no reason to create a alter form travel power that simply ignores a meaningful portion of characters.

 

About the only vehicle transformations that frankly imo warrant attention are those that are more universal due to hiding the operator. Something like a skyskiff imo would be a good start. While we would have to bend our imaginations for huge guys using them, they conceal the pilot, and are basically a normal mob size flying vehicle. They might even be able to have it be the first alt form power with attacks,