Yep.
Big Speed Revisions
We've found some, at times related, issues with a few of our speed categories through the discussion in
this thread. Here I'll aim to summarise the keystone issues and proposed solutions.
With how many options there are, keep in mind that you can rank your preferences. I'll do my best to sift through everyone's rankings to get the most preferred option after we get enough votes.
Issue 1: Reaction and Combat Distinction
The factors separating these aren't entirely clear. A few definitions have been proposed, which implies that some pages on the wiki right now may be separating them under different definitions.
These definitions differ by how much they focus on biomechanics, fictional trends, etc. I've made them in forms that wouldn't properly fit on the page so that they're easier for us to digest and discuss en masse; proper fully-worded definitions can be given once we narrow down to a few proper candidates.
In solving this, we both want people to mention how many current profiles these explained distinctions seem to match with, and which of these distinctions people think is ideal to enshrine moving forward.
Definition 1-i:
Reaction speed is turning one's head or eyes, combat speed is more significant movements like dodging things or catching things.
Definition 1-ii:
Reaction speed is dodging or eluding, while combat speed is fighting back.
Definition 1-iii:
Combat speed is moving one's whole body around, while reaction speed is at most bending one's body out the way of an attack.
Definition 1-iv:
Reaction speed is for reflexes, while combat speed is for them fighting.
Definition 1-v:
Reaction speed is for few actions that can't be done in response to other actions at the same speed, combat speed is for many actions that can be done in response to other actions at the same speed.
Definition 1-vi:
Reaction speed should be changed to reaction time, and should measure the time it takes before one starts moving in response to information. Combat speed would cover the velocity of movements themselves.
Definition 1-vii:
Reaction speed is just for dodging, fighting back or engaging in defensive manoeuvres like blocking and parrying are combat speed.
Issue 1-a: Removing the Distinction
A rather simple solution would be to remove the distinction between reaction and combat speed. If characters have some abilities/technology that let them react faster but not fight faster, we can already index that by mentioning it's through that ability/equipment which is restricted in that way.
This would probably come through defaulting to taking the higher speed, and believing that the distinction isn't justified, unless the justification on the profile gives a good reason to think otherwise.
Issue 2: Travel Speed Distinction
How far does one have to travel before it becomes travel speed? And would properly enshrining this require large-scale revisions, due to many profiles just listing combat speed, with us assuming they can travel at that speed too?
Definition 2-i:
Travel speed is any whole-body movement.
Definition 2-ii:
Travel speed is any movement past a certain fixed distance.
Definition 2-iii:
Travel speed is originally defined from a fixed distance, but this is scaled with a character's size, to make it so that small characters can reasonably get travel speed, and large characters don't automatically get it.
Definition 2-iv:
Travel speed is originally defined from a fixed distance, but this is scaled to the speed rating in question, so the character would need to run for a certain amount of "subjective time" to reach it. On top of the cases caught by the previous definition, this makes it so that fast characters won't incidentally get travel speed during combat. Although this may cause issues for Infinite and above speed.
Definition 2-v:
Travel speed is defined based on how far the character canonically travels during active combat; any distance above the furthest they've moved in a fight is travel speed. This covers all situations, including characters whose fights go across timelines, but makes the ratings mean different things for different characters. Although the previous two already do this to some extent.
Definition 2-vi:
Travel speed is any speed sustained over a certain fixed duration.
Non-Issue
Other speed ratings seem fine to maintain, as we appear to universally agree on them. Perception speed is how quickly your brain can receive information from your senses. Attack speed is the speed of any combat-relevant thing sourced from the character. Flight speed is travel speed but without touching the ground.
Our current status quo of combat speed being the default speed seems fine to keep, and we'll assume that's in place for the changes we implement.
