Speed caps on armor.

[Drakeero]

No one likes them, at all. Everyone wants to see them changed [preferably removed outright]. What purpose do they even have?

As best as I can tell they don't really seem to have much of a purpose -at the moment-. FAQ's don't know where they came from or why they're here. My personal guess is that they're a carryover from Crossfire and/or the earliest server managers of GK thought they would be a good idea.

Speed caps on armor can add a level of realism to the game and help enforce certain niches of combat. The "slow but tough" vs the "nimble but weaker" type of fighters. I don't think combat in GK is all that terribly advanced enough to really use half of a check and balance for a system that doesn't seem to be really implemented in the first place.

I've put together a few ideas and some pros and cons associated with them to try to fix this:

===Main Suggestion===

Remove them completely from all armor OR, very strongly decrease their severity across the board, not just for special stuff. This is my personal favorite.

Pros: People will be happier. The game will be more enjoyable from a practical standpoint [that I am sure of], and from what I've heard other people talking about combat might get a little more interesting as well. The range of useful armors will be increased a bit. There will be a lot more "mediocre" armors for use instead of polarizing the game's selection between "pure junk" and "tiny sliver of usefulness/awesome". Also means that people might have more opportunity to consider armors on aesthetics as well [instead of trying to figure out how that glitch works where you can display one armor while wearing another.]

Cons: Its a drastic change [especially removing them completely] and there's a lot of people who don't like to see change or don't think combat will be "balanced" anymore. The worst that could happen is people experiment without speed caps and if it all goes to hell you simply put them back to their original values.


===Other Suggestions===

Speed is important in any game because people like to move from one location to another and not waste what they consider too much time doing it. The majority of games offer fixed rates of speed [usually two, walk or run] and a large game world. In GK we're actually pretty lucky to have a modifiable standard run speed that can be boosted up and down. Its very useful considering how large the world is [until you get 4+ speed, then it gets kinda small]. However given speed caps and the specialization of stats on most items you generally have to choose between speed and something else like magic/prayer or combat.

Even if the above suggestion is unacceptable, there may be other ways to handle the basic issue: people not liking to move slower then they are accustomed to when making the millionth run through the dungeons, taking 3 hours to do x number of maps rather then 1 hour, trying to catch the ferry before it leaves the docks, or whatever reason [I'm sure the playerbase can contribute plenty] people dislike moving really slowly. Since most forms of combat limit your speed [either directly with the caps, or indirectly by being mutually exclusive with better speed items] those without access to some impressive gear are kinda stuck having to choose between one or the other.

So here we go:

1: Many games implement some sort of "fast travel" system. We at GK have a unique ferry system which, despite irritating, is part of the game and who knows, might be charming. The rest of "fast travel" is covered by the unstick me command which is godly lifesaver, especially when travelling between islands and cutting out the ferry entirely. I can make an entire list of suggestions for improved fast travel or legitimate "warps" either in the form of spells or between waypoint monoliths or what have you. Doesn't matter how you implement it, the final idea is the same.

2: Improving the hotkey system in some way to support assigning multiple items to a single hotkey so you can change entire gear profiles at once. [I dare you, try to find an efficient way to assign multiple rings to hotkeys and switch them out when you need to without a lot of research, trial and error, frustration, and wasted hotkey space]. To prevent abuse in spars, use a variation of what's presented in the next suggestion.

3: The game has already been programmed to tell the difference between fighting and normal areas. There are the spar arenas, kingdoms core, battle island [if those two are still open], and the old system of kingdom islands being at "war" from awhile back. Certainly has to be bits of useful code floating around. Disable the speed caps in armor outside of combat zones [thus making the armors more practical without taking them off/putting them on all the time] and make PK'ing more chaotic. Then, when entering the battleground, have the armor speed caps re-enabled. As for the previous solution, just disable the improved hotkeys like you disable the use of healing items in kingdoms core.

So, there we go. A bunch of ideas I've put together to maybe help improve a bunch of complaints about speed caps. Pick one, pick all, mix and match, whatever you think will work. Feel free to argue/flame/ignore now .