Fix Walk in the AE quiet rooms

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Tough. Walk was created by one dev on his own time specifically for role players that wanted to be able to walk around and RP when they weren't fighting.

don't like it, don't use it.

SOLVED!!

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

Kudos to that guy - that's pretty cool

I retract my "ridiculous" and just call it "surprising", as this is the only game I've seen where "walk" isn't a simple toggle that doesn't affect anything else. My initial assumption was that it would function like Sprint, which *doesn't* disable everything.

*GASP* I can't believe I didn't think of that myself!

But seriously, I obviously don't "walk" when I'm in combat. But the functionality got me in trouble a couple times when I was brand new at the game — I'd been trying out the different features and failed to notice that "Walk" had turned off all my defensive toggles (I play with "Disable FX when close" enabled because a lot of the defensive auras murder my FPS, so I was accustomed to not seeing the FX anyway) and then I went into combat without my defenses up. But this was no different than using the Rocket Board, which did the same thing to me a few times before I caught on.

It's been a while, so I may be remembering this slightly off, but essentially, the problem is that the way this game does animation, to make a fully functional walking speed would require re-doing all the current combat animations and then give them special cases that say "do this when walking, do that when not". So since, as mentioned, this was a free-time project, it was decided it would just be simpler to disable powers, rather than re-code the entire dang game.

Such are the limitations of a game engine eight years old that was only designed to work certain ways.

Not only would that dev had to code the animations for every single existing power, but it has since been explained to us that the devs would have to go back and add animations for every new power that gets added to the game.

But I like it and I want to use it more often...

Walk stopped working in Studio B when the bug which broke the suppression field in there was fixed. Walk was previously tagged to be exempt from suppression fields, but I think whoever reintiated the power suppression field in there just used the "Disable_All" mode which all powers are I believe coded to disable for by default. It seems like a quick solution that simply ignores the problem of walk in the same way as fine-tuning problems have been ignored lately.

*edit*
Correction, Walk appears to only ever disable itself when you're hit specifically with a "Disable_Walk" mode and specifically NOT under Disable_All conditions. I'm thinking they used something on a lower level to disable our powers in the Architect.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

'cept the devs made it clear a long time ago when AE was new that it was cool to use [walk] in there, since Studio B made for a good RP room.

Also, you got a little something on your nose, there. Might wanna wipe it off.

You are badly wrong. Walk was intentionally allowed to work under "power suppression" conditions on player request, and the power is currently tagged to NOT suppress under the "Suppress_All" condition, so it not suppressiong when all other powers are is how it's intended to work. A power intentionally designed to not suppress under the effects of a suppression field but suppressing anyway is a bug, because it works counter to how the power is designed to work.

No bug was fixed. As a point of fact, a bug was introduced, and one that serves no real purpose. Many people's argument was that if we're power-suppressed and losing our run speed buffs, it already feels like we're walking, and walking looks prettier than jogging in slow motion. The argument, further, is that the suppression field in the Architect is intended to keep the room "quiet" by removing all powers with sound effects and auras. Walk does not produce any effects and only has the same sound as basic walking.

Walk not working in Studio B is a bug, it's just such a low-priority bug I doubt we'll ever see it addressed. A lot like the typos in Maria Jenkins' "Ask about this contact" description.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Please reference redname post that this was the intent.

I refuse to accept any player's claims to know what is intended by the Dev Team without supporting evidence.

Great. So do you have supporting evidence, or should we refuse to accept your claim?

Hmm, I suppose my reply could be taken that way. No, I'm not implying that Sam is lying, but would like to see the basis for his statement that I am wrong. If there is such, I'll gladly admit that I am wrong on this point. No hard feelings on my part, it would not be the first time I was proven wrong... and probably not be the last.

These forums are rife with people who state their opinions, interpretations, etc are "what was intended". I occasionally call them on it. It's nothing personal.

Excellent. See, you're thinking for yourself. Feels good, doesn't it? To answer your question, no, I don't expect you to blindly accept my opinion, any more than you should expect me to accept yours.

I'm going to rely on Occam's Razor on this.

To restate/expand my view on this:

All powers were suppressed in the "Quiet Room" except for Walk, which if I am correct, was a solo project that BAB created in his spare time. I believe the power suppression was more likely created to supress "all powers" than to suppress "all powers except Walk."

Lacking specific evidence that Walk (among all the powers in the game) is intentionally NOT disabled in this zone sounds (to me) like an oversight that has since been corrected.

You may agree with my line of reason, or disagree with it. Until we get a definitive answer from someone who knows what the Dev's intentions are, we can't honestly say who is right and who is wrong. Until then, we can go round and round on this forever.

As always, YMMV

Even if these aren't lost to forum purges, it's been so long that sourcing red name posts is a pain in the *** that I'm not going to go through. I can tell you for a fact that we peladed with BABs to allow Walk to be used in Power Suppression situations since, theoretically, it hurt nothing to have the power active then. If we're not using any movement-boosting powers anyway, we may as well walk. This was added as a deliberate change at one point, and to the best of my knowledge should still be the case in places where the power suppression field never failed, such as the Praetorian Trading House.

As for actual evidence, City of Data provides. Pick any power at random. Let's say Blaster -> Archery -> Snap Shot since it's the first alphabetically. Check the power's listing and you'll note where it says "Modes disallowed: Disable_All." In other words, this power cannot be used whenever the character enters a Disable_All state, such as when dead. Let's take another power, and we'll shoot for a more complex one this time: Peacebringer -> Luminous Blast -> Gleaming Bolt. This one says "Modes disallowed: Peacebringer_Blaster_Mode, Peacebringer_Tanker_Mode, Disable_All." What this means is you can't use this power when you're dead, essentially, or when you're in the "tanker mode" which White Dwarf sets you to, or when you're in the "blaster mode" which Bright Nova puts you in.

Now let's look at Walk itself, here titled as Inherent -> Walk. Check what disables this power and you'll find "Modes disallowed: Disable_Walk." This should tell you two things. First, this power is intentionally NOT tagged to disable from the mode which is designed to disable all powers, hence instances where all powers are disabled should not affect Walk. Second, Walk is intended to only ever suppress under specific conditions, to the point where it has its own mode named after it that a character has to be placed in for Walk to suppress. In short, Walk is intended to suppress only and solely when the game calls for walk to be suppressed specifically and should not suppress when broad-range power suppression is used.

This is, obviously, only circumstantial evidence. However, if you take my word that I have seen Christopher "Back Alley Brawler" Bruce, art lead of the studio at the time, make this change on player request, then it's very strong circumstantial evidence. Considering the only reason Walk even exists is that BABs made it on his own free time without being paid for it just because people kept asking for it, tagging the power to not suppress in the Praetorian Trading House and in the Architect by player request would be the natural thing to do when it's evidently not that complex.

Why the power broke is that something about the Architect suppression field broke and it disabled entirely, and then someone else had to fix it long after BABs had left. Since he was the only reason Walk even exists, it's pretty easy to see how someone either didn't know to make sure Walk still worked, or otherwise considered it too low of a priority.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

in this instance sam knows precisely what he's talking about.