Make the Walk power disable player hitboxes to better facilitate RP

[Solvernia]

Super Speed now has Speed Phase which lets you indefinitely turn your hitbox off for RP purposes, but unfortunately it lacks a minimal FX option and requires a power pool pick. Since trying to work around the giant player hitboxes is a significant issue in RP, and Walk is a power designed exclusively for RP that detoggles your travel powers and removes your ability to affect others, incorporating the phase effect to let you walk through players would be a very good addition to the Walk power.

[Rudra]

Ah yes, I can see it now. Everyone RPs ghosts and walks through each other in Pocket D. ... ... no thanks.

 

Edit: Actually, change that to a maybe. I could turn on Walk in a mission and be invincible while my pets kill everything! (Seriously, still no thanks.)

Edited April 27, 2022 by Rudra

[biostem]

I could get behind an alternate walk that has this, but I then become concerned that some griefer may "inhabit" your personal space in such a situation.  I suppose this later scenario could be addressed under the general "griefing" rules, though...

[Ghost]

Why do RPers need to be able to walk through each other ?

[Rudra]

No clue. Apparently

5 hours ago, Solvernia said:

trying to work around the giant player hitboxes is a significant issue in RP,

 despite the fact I have never witnessed anyone having any trouble walking around other players RP'ing in Pocket D. Maybe there is a higher population Pocket D where large clusters of RP'ers are blocking access to everything and can't reach their respective RP group? Or the RP is happening in a SG base with tiny rooms? I'm kind of partial to the turn on Walk and be invincible in my missions since I have no hit boxes aspect of the idea myself. (Not really, but I am rather fixated on how this got missed in the OP.)

[biostem]

2 hours ago, Ghost said:

Why do RPers need to be able to walk through each other ?

I think it's a matter of wanting to be able to get closer than the game currently allows...

[Andreah]

If it were possible to have walk adopt a minimal hit box, I'd be in favor of that. But no, not walking through each other.

 

Hit boxes also seem kind of janky as is, so I think it's perhaps not a good thing to fool with without some careful scrubbing first.

[Cancrusher]

What do we call the power?  Close quarters hot rubbin'?  😂

 

I'm just joshing ya.  I don't really give a hoot about this, one way or the other.  🤷‍♂️

[Solvernia]

17 hours ago, Ghost said:

Why do RPers need to be able to walk through each other ?

Wide hitboxes make things hard for RPers. They can't get close together, they can't walk through gaps between characters that would otherwise be reasonable to do so. It's just not fun.

 

22 hours ago, Rudra said:

Ah yes, I can see it now. Everyone RPs ghosts and walks through each other in Pocket D. ... ... no thanks.

 

Edit: Actually, change that to a maybe. I could turn on Walk in a mission and be invincible while my pets kill everything! (Seriously, still no thanks.)

 

The phase effect does not make you invincible. It makes you pass through hitboxes at the cost of not being able to attack or order your pets. There would be no way to use this to your advantage in combat, especially considering that Walk disables travel powers and reduces your speed to 3 mph.

 

22 hours ago, biostem said:

I could get behind an alternate walk that has this, but I then become concerned that some griefer may "inhabit" your personal space in such a situation.  I suppose this later scenario could be addressed under the general "griefing" rules, though...

This can already be done with the Speed Phase component of Super Speed. The problem is that this requires you to take a power specifically for this purpose, and it has an obnoxious graphical effect that cannot be removed. This is not fun.

 

There's no reason that phase can't be incorporated into the Walk power. There is no possible way to grief or cheat with this that doesn't already exist elsewhere. It would only make things more fun overall. Non-RPers do not need to worry about this change as they have no reason to use Walk in the first place.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Solvernia

[Ghost]

3 hours ago, Andreah said:

If it were possible to have walk adopt a minimal hit box, I'd be in favor of that. But no, not walking through each other.

 

Hit boxes also seem kind of janky as is, so I think it's perhaps not a good thing to fool with without some careful scrubbing first.

This I can understand, but the need to “walk through” players make me think the OP may be playing the wrong type of game.

[Solvernia]

3 hours ago, Andreah said:

If it were possible to have walk adopt a minimal hit box, I'd be in favor of that. But no, not walking through each other.

 

Hit boxes also seem kind of janky as is, so I think it's perhaps not a good thing to fool with without some careful scrubbing first.

You can already walk through people with Speed Phase. Again, the problem is the obnoxious graphical effect and the fact that you have to specifically take Super Speed to use it. This requires RPers to either incorporate it into their build or waste a second or third build slot specifically to have an 'RP toolkit'. It's not fun.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Solvernia

[Solvernia]

Just now, Ghost said:

This I can understand, but the need to “walk through” players make me think the OP may be playing the wrong type of game.

You can already walk through players with Speed Phase. Again, the problem is the obnoxious graphical effect and the fact that you have to specifically take Super Speed to use it. This requires RPers to either incorporate it into their build or waste a second or third build slot specifically to have an 'RP toolkit'. It's not fun.

[Ghost]

1 minute ago, Solvernia said:

You can already walk through people with Speed Phase, this would not change anything.

Ahh.  Guess it was me who was fixated on the wrong thing 

[Andreah]

There a few other circumstances when you can walk through people, too. 

[Solvernia]

Just now, Andreah said:

There a few other circumstances when you can walk through people, too. 

 

Yes, and all of them are troublesome to use in RP. This is a purely QoL change that would not confer any mechanical advantages or allow people to do things they can't already do (after going through the unnecessary trouble to do so.)

[Andreah]

I think being able to walk up closer to other players could have some use in rp; but not through. There's higher things on my person wish list, but I think this is reasonable ask assuming the existing bugs didn't make everything work worse in total.

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Solvernia said:

The phase effect does not make you invincible. It makes you pass through hitboxes at the cost of not being able to attack or order your pets. There would be no way to use this to your advantage in combat, especially considering that Walk disables travel powers and reduces your speed to 3 mph.

Phase literally makes you unhittable. If you cannot be hit, you cannot be damaged. How else would you define invincible than incapable of suffering injury? Or have I just been getting extremely lucky with Phase Shift?

Edited April 28, 2022 by Rudra

[Solvernia]

44 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Phase literally makes you unhittable. If you cannot be hit, you cannot be damaged. How else would you define invincible than incapable of suffering injury? Or have I just been getting extremely lucky with Phase Shift?

 

I'm not talking about Phase Shift, which specifically makes you intangible and would definitely not be a reasonable thing to add to the Walk power.

 

Speed Phase lets you go through hitboxes without making you unhittable, and that exact mechanic is used extensively in RP -- it would be a simple and easy improvement to add similar functionality to Walk so that roleplayers don't have to take a build with super speed and have a glowy aura around them if they want to stand and emote closer to each other.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Solvernia

[Rudra]

I don't have any. I don't take the Speed pool.

[Solvernia]

2 minutes ago, Rudra said:

I don't have any. I don't take the Speed pool.

 

Speed Phase is a secondary power attached to the Super Speed travel power. It allows you to run through allies and enemies, but does not prevent enemies from attacking you. It also makes you 'only affect self' so you cannot attack enemies while using it.

 

This makes it useful for RP when you want characters to move closer together or be able to maneuver past each other at close range. Unfortunately, there are issues:

 

Walk already suppresses travel powers and makes you 'only affect self'. This means if you want to use Speed Phase to better facilitate RP, you are forced to move at super speed, which makes positioning in RP much more difficult. Additionally, the power FX of Speed Phase cannot be hidden and it produces a constant, annoying sound.

 

It would not be hard to add the same mechanic to Walk. It would not make anyone capable of doing anything they couldn't otherwise do, nor would it give anyone any advantage whatsoever in gameplay. It's a pure QOL improvement.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Solvernia

[Rudra]

If that is the case, then I have no opinion.

[COH-KittyKat]

Everlasting - It would be nice from an RP Standpoint if there were smaller hitboxes on players, so they can sit closer on couches, dance closer or say they are standing closer to talk to a person. The hitbox is INSANE right now where you have to keep 3ft away from a person. I get that too close and they blend into each other but for a little toon to lean on a larger toon takes fancy footing.