"Flawed" Movement - The Bigger Problems in FPS'ers

I've been wanting to write a bunch of articles forever now, but always seem to get writers block. I figured I might as well share some of my ideas anyways... This is what I had so far...

---

"In a time long forgotten, bunnies roamed the arenas... Now near extinction, because of a vicious hunter known as "Valve". Has their relentless persuite of realism destroyed our once beloved game?" - me

This is not only a problem that Counter-Strike players have, but it has effected the gamers of Quake/2/3, UT/2003/4, PainKiller, CoD, and any number of titles from FPS games to other genres. Releasing a patch, x-pac, or second coming of the game can cause a public outcry if changes are made, however small or drastic. You still hear echos of 1.3 to this day from Counter-Strike players.

---

If you've been playing first person shooters as long as I have, you start to realize some of the bigger points in those types of games. Movement, is one of them. It's also worth noting that other sections of the game can effect movement as well. Sound and maps come to mind first and foremost, with how you control the game(keyboard/mouse, controller variant, etc) also being a huge factor.

For starters, basic movement would be forward, back, strafe left and strafe right. Going into more detail, we have walking and jumping. Now this is where it starts to get interesting, what other movements can we use? Certain games have added leaning and proning, some have added dodging, some combine two or more elements such as the duck/jump. It's really quite interesting to note that the "big" name FPS'ers all have different movements. Some by a programming error and others designed that way. Also, a lot of movement has been fairly explored and things will start to stale out in the coming generations.

Let's talk about some movements and learn how they manipulate the flow of said game, shall we?

Take Counter-Strike. For what should have been just a simple game, it has an incredible depth of movement. You can do the basics, directional movement, run/walk varients, ducking, jumping, small jump(tap duck), duck/jump(hold duck in the air), and possibly the greatest flaw ever found, the strafe jump. The strafe jump is really "curving" while in the air. Every weapon also has it's own movement speed as well. Making melee quite possible at times.

In Counter-Strike 1.3, you could also constantly jump with/out losing speed. Making for other movements as well. You could control how fast you went forward and jumped, so if you did it right you could "Bunny-Hop". As in CS, sound is beyond important. Bunny-Hopping is just jumping with/out making a noise. Now this is just the basics, I could go on and on trust me ;)

The small jump and duck add some tactics to the way you fight your battle. You could peak over objects with/out getting your head blown off and you could duck to avoid fire. The bunny-hopping changed the flow of the game. What normally seems slow, added a faster pace to those times when you didn't want to make noise and needed to move around. It also appears different as the constant jumping up and down seems more entertaining than the normally stale running.

Then came the dreaded 1.4 patch. Jumping now slows you down to a snails pace. Also of importance is that this patch made footsteps louder and heard at a greater distance(at least I think it was this one...?). The game now heavily relies on "Crosshair" Flow ((( http://www.mrfixitonline.com/readPosting.asp?PostingId=1671295 ))) and slow movement. As stated earlier, sound is of such a huge importance in Counter-Strike that it does basically come down to walking and quick peaking(letting go of walk and then peaking at camping spots then walking again).

Then take a game like UT or UT2003/4. A totally different move set. The huge factor in UT is the "dodge". A faster movement compared to running that is basically a leap in any direction. Of note you have to hit a direction two times in order to make the move. Mainly people run forward, look right or left, then hit strafe left or right in the opp direction they looked. While in the air they then look forward again. Repeat. Easier done than said perhaps ;)

UT2kX added a whole slew of other jumps as well. You could do a second jump while in the air. So you could jump onto a wall, then dodge off it. Dodge then do a jump. Jump and jump. Fall and dodge off of a wall. Etc. You really have a lot of crap you can do during and before/after combat. While in the air, you don't really have much control(aka strafe jumping/or curving) though. So, doing certain moves is a risk. Since UT is mainly DeathMatch, you want to get to certain places faster. You see a lot of dodge/jumping while not in combat.

The way you control the game changes it as well. Currently we use mouse/keyboard or a controller varient. Making certain movements easier or harder depending. Sometimes they even get removed. The pace of FPS'ers in console games is far slower than the keyboard/mouse PC games. You can try and change how you preform the move as well. In UT, you have to hit a direction twice to do a dodge. In say Zelda, you just hold "Z" then press any direction. In CS, you press strafe left and turn left to do a curve(or strafe) jump. In PK, however, you just hold forward and turn in the direction you want to curve to. Even a slight change like that can have unpredictable outcomes.

Finally, I'd like to talk about maps. Maps need to be made around the movements the game was designed with. Getting stuck all over the place is -NOT- fun. As I like to call them, "rocks in the field", shouldn't be tolerated. Make a slight invisible wall that is diagonal on courners so that players cannot get caught on them. A super fast game like say PK doesn't need off wall objects like say a very small door or something of that nature. The days of textures over polygons is shurly missed ;) Also, in say UT2003/4, have the layouts based around those movements.

--- --- ---

--- --- ---

--- --- ---

In closing:
A lot of movement has been explored and many games have different movements. Things will get stale soon. However, not all movements, things like flying hasn't really been totally focused on yet and you never know with game exploits/errors. Maps should be based around the game's movements, not just random crap. There are many ways to control certain movements. Nothing is certain on the future either, something might replace a keyboard/mouse anyday now. We could also be doing some virtual games or something of that nature, totally changing the way we play games.

Oh yeah...

CS weapons with UT2004 movements would be virtually crap and Quake's rocket launcher wouldn't be as fun in 1.4 as it is in say 1.3. Food for thought.

PS: BRING BACK THE sugarbeansING JUMPING