Movement Speed?

[Egavactip]

Can someone explain movement speed to me, using little words? I just don't get how it is different from traditional speed boosts. Thanks.

[Nick]

The simple version is it adds to the number of steps you can take in a regular turn. So with +1 to movement speed, you can take two steps where you would have been able to take one; with +3 to movement speed, you can take four steps in place of one.

It works in exactly the same way extra shots does.

The way the game actually calculates it is instead of a step taking 100 energy, it takes 100/(1 + movement speed) energy - so 50 energy for +1 moves, 25 energy for +3 moves, etc. To see what this means in practice, I'm going to give a short description of what energy means in the game.

Every game turn, the player and monsters are given some energy - 10 points at normal speed, more or less if they are faster or slower. Then it checks who has built up energy over 100, and of those, the one with the most energy gets to move next. Once the player or monster has moved, they normally get 100 energy deducted, so have to build up energy again before they get to move again. But if a player has +1 movement speed, only 50 energy gets deducted per step taken, so they get to move again quicker.

Note that movement speed only affects the energy used for movement - energy use for spellcasting, melee, using devices etc is still 100.

[bughunter]

Is the encumbered movement due to heavy armor the same?

My kobold ranger, Sparky, puts on Partial Plate Armour, and gets the message:

The weight of your armor encumbers your movement.

When he takes it off:

You feel able to move more freely.

I can see no differences in the stat page, nor do I notice any difference moving around the dungeon.

(He's gonna wear that randart armor for now, regardless. It's nice: [40,+11] +3 Con, protConf, and +1 Light.)

[Nick]

Is the encumbered movement due to heavy armor the same?

No, armor encumbrance only affects mana.

[bughunter]

No, armor encumbrance only affects mana.

Ha - didn't look there.

Ha^2 - it reduces his cl34 mana from 39 to 38 points.

[fph]

The message could be improved, I guess, but I don't see a good alternative to suggest.
"The weight of your armour encumbers your spellcasting"? "Your arms can move less freely for spellcasting"? "Casting spells feels more tiring with this heavy armour"?

[Grotug]

As someone who shies away from technical jargon, here's my laymen understanding of movement speed vs normal speed:

Movement speed only affects how fast @ walks through the dungeon, whereas normal speed affects everything @ does from walking, to shooting, to meleeing, to quaffing. Each value of movement speed is very powerful (as I learned from personal experience when I picked up a sling with +4 movement speed):
+1 movement speed is the same as having +10 speed, except it only affects the speed at which you walk. So if you have +1 movement speed and +10 normal speed you'll walk through the dungeon at what effectively amounts to +20 speed but you'll still do all your actions (fighting, casting, activating, quaffing etc) at +10 speed.

Normal speed (or global speed since it affects your actions and your walking) stacks with movement speed. So when I found that sling with +4 movement speed I was moving through the dungeon at ludicrous speed. Faster than any amount of normal speed would be able to achieve since normal speed has diminishing returns after +28 speed. If normal speed did not have diminishing returns +4 movement speed would be said to have @ walking through the dungeon at +50 speed (assuming he had no normal speed boosts), but since normal speed does have diminishing returns +4 movement speed has @ moving at just over +70 speed.

Now here's the crazy part: since movement speed is a separate stat to normal speed they work independently of each other (ie. they stack):

That's why I thought when my @ had the +4 movement speed sling that the game was suffering a bug, because I was moving and monsters were pretty much just standing still.

If @ has + 4 movement speed and +20 speed then @ walks through the dungeon at what effectively would be a speed far greater than an infinite amount of normal speed would let you. So if @ were to walk away from a monster who has normal speed @ would move 15 squares before the chasing monster would move 1 square. If @ was running away from Sauron @ would move 5 squares before Sauron would move 1 square.

If @ moved at normal speed but had +2 movement speed and @ was running away from Sauron, then @ and Sauron would move through the dungeon at the same speed. But as soon as @ would take an action (fire a bolt from their wand, shoot a bolt from their heavy crossbow or engage in a round of melee) Sauron is going to follow @'s turn with 3 turns, because Sauron's normal speed is +20 and your normal speed is 0 and you perform one turn of actions in the amount of time Sauron is able to perform three turns of actions (or three turns of movement).

tldr: movement speed and normal speed are separate stats, the former only affects @'s speed as @ walks through the dungeon and the other affects both @'s movement and the action @ takes.

[bughunter]

The message could be improved, I guess, but I don't see a good alternative to suggest.
"The weight of your armour encumbers your spellcasting"? "Your arms can move less freely for spellcasting"? "Casting spells feels more tiring with this heavy armour"?

Is it really the weight, or the type of armor? (e.g., Partial Plate vs Studded Leather?)

"The bulk of your armor restricts your spellcasting."

The messages for wearing gauntlets are clear. Follow their example if you decide to change the armor messages.

(But honestly, the vagueness of the messages adds to the mystique...)

[Egavactip]

As someone who shies away from technical jargon, here's my laymen understanding of movement speed vs normal speed:

Movement speed only affects how fast @ walks through the dungeon, whereas normal speed affects everything @ does from walking, to shooting, to meleeing, to quaffing. Each value of movement speed is very powerful (as I learned from personal experience when I picked up a sling with +4 movement speed):
+1 movement speed is the same as having +10 speed, except it only affects the speed at which you walk. So if you have +1 movement speed and +10 normal speed you'll walk through the dungeon at what effectively amounts to +20 speed but you'll still do all your actions (fighting, casting, activating, quaffing etc) at +10 speed.

Normal speed (or global speed since it affects your actions and your walking) stacks with movement speed. So when I found that sling with +4 movement speed I was moving through the dungeon at ludicrous speed. Faster than any amount of normal speed would be able to achieve since normal speed has diminishing returns after +28 speed. If normal speed did not have diminishing returns +4 movement speed would be said to have @ walking through the dungeon at +50 speed (assuming he had no normal speed boosts), but since normal speed does have diminishing returns +4 movement speed has @ moving at just over +70 speed.

Now here's the crazy part: since movement speed is a separate stat to normal speed they work independently of each other (ie. they stack):

That's why I thought when my @ had the +4 movement speed sling that the game was suffering a bug, because I was moving and monsters were pretty much just standing still.

If @ has + 4 movement speed and +20 speed then @ walks through the dungeon at what effectively would be a speed far greater than an infinite amount of normal speed would let you. So if @ were to walk away from a monster who has normal speed @ would move 15 squares before the chasing monster would move 1 square. If @ was running away from Sauron @ would move 5 squares before Sauron would move 1 square.

If @ moved at normal speed but had +2 movement speed and @ was running away from Sauron, then @ and Sauron would move through the dungeon at the same speed. But as soon as @ would take an action (fire a bolt from their wand, shoot a bolt from their heavy crossbow or engage in a round of melee) Sauron is going to follow @'s turn with 3 turns, because Sauron's normal speed is +20 and your normal speed is 0 and you perform one turn of actions in the amount of time Sauron is able to perform three turns of actions (or three turns of movement).

tldr: movement speed and normal speed are separate stats, the former only affects @'s speed as @ walks through the dungeon and the other affects both @'s movement and the action @ takes.

That's really useful, thanks!

[Monkey Face]

Is it really the weight, or the type of armor? (e.g., Partial Plate vs Studded Leather?)

"The bulk of your armor restricts your spellcasting."

The messages for wearing gauntlets are clear. Follow their example if you decide to change the armor messages.

(But honestly, the vagueness of the messages adds to the mystique...)

It's the total weight of the armor. If you put on a heavy shield that puts you over the limit, you may be able to take off your cloak and be under the limit or closer to the limit so you lose less mana. (The further over the limit you are, the more mana you lose.)

[Pete Mack]

In amy case, armor weight is only important when you don't have much mana to begin with. It is 1MP for every pound over the limit. It doesn't scale with max mana

[NCountr]

Newb Trap

So Movement Speed still has not been clearly defined. It's still completely undocumented for a new-comer to Angband. This is a Newb Trap. It should be removed from vanilla and kicked back out to the off-shoots.

[Sky]

vanilla = 4.1.3
off-shoots = 4.2

the answer is contained within your question.

[NCountr]

The cold seeps into your bones..

the answer is contained within your question.

Wow, we're being awful creative with the side effects of a lot of here-to-fore basic attacks.

Here's yet another example of how the Game Designers are inventing rather random fixes (impairments) in vain attempts to balance out the wrong point of the game.

The game was thrown into disarray long ago with Arrows (+3, +2) being boring. Now we've seen the culmination of this track in to ever more petty inconveniences to the player. No longer will it be perfunctory enough to have double-cold resist up (which used to be akin to Immunity). No, no, no.. now, we're going to let cold bust not only your potions .. through double resist .. and bust up your Dexterity. Newb Trap!!

Seriously?

[Nick]

Wow, we're being awful creative with the side effects of a lot of here-to-fore basic attacks.

Here's yet another example of how the Game Designers are inventing rather random fixes (impairments) in vain attempts to balance out the wrong point of the game.

The game was thrown into disarray long ago with Arrows (+3, +2) being boring. Now we've seen the culmination of this track in to ever more petty inconveniences to the player. No longer will it be perfunctory enough to have double-cold resist up (which used to be akin to Immunity). No, no, no.. now, we're going to let cold bust not only your potions .. through double resist .. and bust up your Dexterity. Newb Trap!!

Seriously?

This effect only happens for powerful monsters (POWERFUL flag or spell power 80 or more), and if the damage after resistance is greater than 500, and if it passes a random roll. So a player with a single source of RCold hit by a maximum strength cold breath from a powerful monster has a one in 16 chance of DEX damage. A player with double resist has zero chance.

The intent of this is a gentle warning to the player that taking a full-strength breath of one of the base elements from a powerful monster while singly resisting might not be a great idea.