Difference between revisions of "Skipwalking"

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(Keyboard-only skipwalking method explained)
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{{ParentArticle|[[Game logic]]}}
 
{{ParentArticle|[[Game logic]]}}
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Early on, players discovered that if you rhythmically click the right mouse button while your Worm is walking, it can walk faster. Some people this to be cheating. Others feel that it is a legitimate skill, and a way to reduce the monotony of long walks. It is, however, generally agreed upon that skipwalking should be disallowed in [[Battle race]]s.
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=== How skipwalking works ===
  
 
The worm walking physics is rather complex in Worms 2/W:A/WWP. There are two basic phases to walking; an "expanding" phase and a "contracting" phase. During the latter phase, very little forward motion is acheived.
 
The worm walking physics is rather complex in Worms 2/W:A/WWP. There are two basic phases to walking; an "expanding" phase and a "contracting" phase. During the latter phase, very little forward motion is acheived.
  
This can be exploited. Early on, players discovered that if you rhythmically click the right mouse button while making your worm walk, it can walk faster. The technical reason for this is that right-clicking causes the game to open the weapons panel; input (the arrow key which makes the worm walk) then immediately closes the panel, but the upshot is that input is ignored for one frame (1/50 second). This causes the phase of the walk to be reset, and the slower "contracting" phase is skipped.
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This can be exploited. Right-clicking causes the game to open the weapons panel. The panel immediately closes because of the arrow key being held down, but the upshot is that input is ignored for one frame (1/50 second). This causes the phase of the walk to be reset, and the slower "contracting" phase is skipped.
  
The rate at which the right mouse button is clicked makes a big difference. Click too slowly, and there's little gain in speed. Click too fast and the worm will actually advance more slowly. At best, it provides a 1.43× speed boost; jumping forward is a faster way to travel when the terrain allows it.
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=== Practical aspects of skipwalking ===
  
Because of the way skipwalking works, it would be theoretically possible to do so by holding an arrow key for 1/10 second, releasing it for 1/50 second, then pressing it again, etc. This would be useful, because right-clicking has no effect during a retreat. It is virtually impossible to do in practice; however, by holding one arrow key and tapping the opposite, a skipwalk can be acheived during retreat time (because in W:A, opposite arrow keys cancel each other out).
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The rate at which the right mouse button is clicked makes a big difference. Click too fast or too slowly, and the worm will actually advance more slowly. At best, skipwalking provides a 1.43× speed boost; jumping forward is a faster way to travel when the terrain allows it.
  
Some people consider skipwalking — also known as the fastwalk glitch, or "cheatwalking" — to be a disreputable cheat. Others feel that it is a legitimate skill, and a way to reduce the monotony of long walks. It is, however, generally agreed upon that skipwalking should be disallowed in [[Battle race]]s.
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Because of the way skipwalking works, it would be theoretically possible to do so by holding an arrow key for 1/10 second, releasing it for 1/50 second, then pressing it again, etc. This would be useful, because right-clicking has no effect during a retreat. It is virtually impossible to do in practice; however, by holding one arrow key and tapping the opposite, a skipwalk can be acheived during retreat time (because in W:A, opposite arrow keys cancel each other out).
  
 
=== Speed comparison ===
 
=== Speed comparison ===

Revision as of 01:22, 11 October 2006

(Up to Game logic)

Early on, players discovered that if you rhythmically click the right mouse button while your Worm is walking, it can walk faster. Some people this to be cheating. Others feel that it is a legitimate skill, and a way to reduce the monotony of long walks. It is, however, generally agreed upon that skipwalking should be disallowed in Battle races.

How skipwalking works

The worm walking physics is rather complex in Worms 2/W:A/WWP. There are two basic phases to walking; an "expanding" phase and a "contracting" phase. During the latter phase, very little forward motion is acheived.

This can be exploited. Right-clicking causes the game to open the weapons panel. The panel immediately closes because of the arrow key being held down, but the upshot is that input is ignored for one frame (1/50 second). This causes the phase of the walk to be reset, and the slower "contracting" phase is skipped.

Practical aspects of skipwalking

The rate at which the right mouse button is clicked makes a big difference. Click too fast or too slowly, and the worm will actually advance more slowly. At best, skipwalking provides a 1.43× speed boost; jumping forward is a faster way to travel when the terrain allows it.

Because of the way skipwalking works, it would be theoretically possible to do so by holding an arrow key for 1/10 second, releasing it for 1/50 second, then pressing it again, etc. This would be useful, because right-clicking has no effect during a retreat. It is virtually impossible to do in practice; however, by holding one arrow key and tapping the opposite, a skipwalk can be acheived during retreat time (because in W:A, opposite arrow keys cancel each other out).

Speed comparison

1.00000× speed with 0.04 sec warmup - Normal Walking
1.00000× speed - Skipwalking slowdown threshold (2.84211 clicks/second; a slower rate yields slow walking)
1.00000× speed - Skipwalking slowdown threshold (6.05000 clicks/second; a faster rate yields slow walking)
1.14263× speed - Optimum Jumping up a 45° slope (period=0.94 sec)
1.43098× speed - Optimum Skipwalking (period=0.22 sec, 4.54545 clicks/second)
1.98402× speed - Nearly Optimum Jumping on a flat surface (period=1.32 sec)
2.00000× speed with 2/3 second warmup - Walking with Fast Walk utility
2.00030× speed - Optimum Jumping on a flat surface (period=1.3 sec)
2.32279× speed - Optimum Jumping down a 44.74° slope (period=1.78 sec)

Skipwalking speed comparison

period=0.16 sec: 0.92593× speed
period=0.18 sec: 1.18313× speed
period=0.20 sec: 1.34259× speed
period=0.22 sec: 1.43098× speed
period=0.24 sec: 1.35031× speed
period=0.26 sec: 1.24644× speed
period=0.28 sec: 1.19048× speed
period=0.30 sec: 1.14198× speed
period=0.32 sec: 1.09954× speed
period=0.34 sec: 1.03486× speed
period=0.36 sec: 0.97737× speed
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