combat acceleration & decceleration

[Truthsayer]

I've seen this advantage on a few write ups and I'm wondering what it does.

[Tom]

Re: combat acceleration & decceleration

 

I've seen this advantage on a few write ups and I'm wondering what it does.

 

Most movement powers can only accelerate/deccelerate at a rate of 5"/hex (ie: char with 20" of flight needs to move 4 hexes to reach his full velocity). Adding the accel/deccel Advantage allows you to reach your full velocity in one hex (or come to a complete stop in one hex).

 

Can come in really handy for move-by/through in tight spaces...

[Rapier]

Re: combat acceleration & decceleration

 

Can come in really handy for move-by/through in tight spaces...

 

I always considered it a sign of your dedication to heroness when you plow face-first into a concrete wall.

 

Maybe that's just me!

[Hyper-Man]

Re: combat acceleration & decceleration

 

It's a confusing Advantage.

 

I seem to recall that 5er advises against purchasing it for Leaping however Steve implies that it would be necessary in certain situations. So as a default, I always purchase it for characters with extra Leaping.

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26084&highlight=leaping+acceleration

 

Leaping and Move Throughs

A player had this question for me about leaping and Move throughs: When you leap aren't you already moving at you max speed so that you could do a move through when standing 1" from someone at full velocity? My immediate answer was no but looking at the movement section it refers to running, flying, gliding and swimming in the acceleration/deceleration page but no leaping! And since they can be at least 1" away to start a Move Through if a brick with 75 STR and 30" of super leaping does a move-through that would be 15+10= 25 dice of damage! So is this possible with leaping or is there something I'm missing here?

 

Leaping uses the standard acceleration rules. It's entirely possible to do a leaping Move Through -- "brick" characters, among others, do 'em all the time -- but if the attacker is close to the target, he may not have the room to accelerate to full velocity.

[Rapier]

Re: combat acceleration & decceleration

 

It's a confusing Advantage.

 

I seem to recall that 5er advises against purchasing it for Leaping however Steve implies that it would be necessary in certain situations. So as a default, I always purchase it for characters with extra Leaping.

 

The problem for Leaping is that its a realism vs game mechanic thing.

 

Realistically, we all realise that the minute you leave the ground in a leap (a true SFX leap, not just Leaping defined as jump jets or something) that you can no longer accelerate. You are at your max velocity. However, that would make Leaping different than all the rest of the movement powers. So what do you do? You just force it in and say "eh."

 

Obviously, Jump Jets are a situation where you COULD accelerate a leap after it begins.

 

So you just need to figure out how you want jumps to happen in your campaign. In mine, the physicist in me won't allow anything buy a max velocity as you leave the ground (insta accel/decel).

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: combat acceleration & decceleration

 

Obviously, Jump Jets are a situation where you COULD accelerate a leap after it begins.

 

So you just need to figure out how you want jumps to happen in your campaign. In mine, the physicist in me won't allow anything but a max velocity as you leave the ground (insta accel/decel).

 

What is the velocity further out? Unlike running, flight, etc., shouldn't the leaping character be decelerating throughout his Leap, at least as far as horizontal velocity goes?

[Rapier]

Re: combat acceleration & decceleration

 

What is the velocity further out? Unlike running' date=' flight, etc., shouldn't the leaping character be decelerating throughout his Leap, at least as far as horizontal velocity goes?[/quote']

 

Well, its not a horizontal or vertical thing (for the most part). It's a vector thing. If you jump at a 45 degree angle, the vast majority of jumps will not suffer from horizontal decel. Vertically, only half-way. Obviously, the character will decelerate until he reaches epogee and the accelerate until he hits the ground.

 

That's pretty complicated to model for a simple jump. So I've simplified and just said a standard Jump has Combat Accel/Decel. You hit max velocity when you leave the ground and keep it until you stop when you hit the ground.

 

If the character happens to do a leaping move-thru on a flying character, I'm not gonna spend the extra time to calculate his vectors and figure in vertical decel. Just not worth it.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: combat acceleration & decceleration

 

Well, its not a horizontal or vertical thing (for the most part). It's a vector thing. If you jump at a 45 degree angle, the vast majority of jumps will not suffer from horizontal decel. Vertically, only half-way. Obviously, the character will decelerate until he reaches epogee and the accelerate until he hits the ground.

 

That's pretty complicated to model for a simple jump. So I've simplified and just said a standard Jump has Combat Accel/Decel. You hit max velocity when you leave the ground and keep it until you stop when you hit the ground.

 

If the character happens to do a leaping move-thru on a flying character, I'm not gonna spend the extra time to calculate his vectors and figure in vertical decel. Just not worth it.

 

While I agree with you that the computations are likely not worthwhile, it's not a far stretch, IMO, to suspend disbelief further and either accept the acceleration issue, or require characters to purchase combat acceleration on their leaps.

 

Your point on a 45 degree leap opens up another issue, however. How many games limit the horizontal distance based on the vertical distance? From the perspective of a move through or move by, your target needs to be the right distance off the ground at that point in your leap for such an attack to have any chance of success.

 

Perhaps a balanced answer for Leaping Move attacks would be to limit them to the hex you depart from and the hex you land in, at least for targets on the ground. Unlike other movement powers, velocity would reasonably be considered to always equal the distance travelled (or intended to travel) in the leap. Targetting fliers with a leap could require a more complex formula, but I'd say as long as he's within your leaping abilities, you could connect with him, in the interests of simplicity. That's pretty restrictive on leaping attacks, but leaping is a comparatively cheap movement power.

 

[That said, my group works out range modifiers for attacks against targets in the air using pythagorean math - the sum of the squares - so they could view "simple" differently than some groups.]