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Damn Those Zombies Are Slow!


Pumpkinhead

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Back in my geeky high school days, I once worked out that a character's TU's work out to the equivalent speed of 0.36 km/h (running) or if you prefer the other way around, 1 Turn = 2.5s (at 1m per square) :D

 

You may be wondering, wtf is this guy on... Why the **** would he work that out? Well, it's simple... I wanted to find out how fast everything was in UFO! Listed below is what I came up with:

 

Aliens:

Zombie = 14.5 kmph

Silacoid = 14.5 kmph

Snakeman = 14.5 kmph

Floater = 18 kmph

Sectoid = 20 kmph

Muton = 21 kmph

Cyberdisc = 22 kmph

Reaper = 22 kmph

Sectopod = 22 kmph

Celatid = 25 kmph

Ethereal = 25 kmph

Chryssalid = 40 kmph

 

X-Com:

Average Agent = 20 kmph

Tanks = 25 kmph

Elite Agent = 36 kmph

Hovertanks = 36 kmph

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Actually we've already figured this out on the forums so you've beewn beaten to it! It was for opposite reasons when it was done here though. You say zombies are slow, we wanted to know how fast Chryssalids were :D

When I worked this out back in '94, I think I also did it to mainly find out how fast the Chryssalids were :D Great minds think alike!

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BUT...the number of blocks he moves depend on his TU's...not his speed..

When you think about it, TUs are speed... The more TUs a character has, the more squares they can travel per turn, which can translate to the more "distance" they can travel per "unit of time" (hence "Time Units") which works out to the universal formula of distance over time, which equals speed!

 

If you wanna think about it in relation to "doing stuff", the more TUs someone has, the more they can do per turn, right? Which means they are faster than someone with less TUs... Get me?

 

And in reference to your first post, I agree, it has nothing to do with strategy... It's purely a curiosity thing! :D

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Overall TUs represent the speed at which certain fixed cost tasks can be accomplished (i.e. how many times you can do it in a turn) in the given time frame of a turn (turn time is, as yet, an unknown variable).

 

Most important tasks are percentage based, so the amount of time units is irrelevant except with extreme low values, but that's not our current topic of discussion, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

 

Unobstructed movement costs 4 time units per tile. Obstructions would be the corals in TFTD for example, or slopes, which can make movement costs really expensive.

 

What else do we need to know? The area a tile covers. Again, a much debated unknown variable, though 1 meter seems to be the general consensus.

 

Difficulty levels have a modifier that increase these values for the aliens. We should be able to work this out, but I suppose it's not really that important for now.

 

How about this. Let's not look at speed with a unit by unit comparison. Let's look at it purley from a time unit viewpoint. The type of unit really doesn't matter. Right?

 

We know unobstructed movement costs 4 time units. Therefore, we can say that a unit with 40 time units can move 10 tiles. A unit with 80 time units can move 20 t/pt (Tiles per turn). A unit with 120 time unit can move 30 t/pt, and so on, up to a possible maximum of 255 time units* (before the unsigned char (8-bit unsigned value byte) wrap around kicks in) which means the unit can move 63t/pt (the largest map in the game is only 60 tiles in width an height). All these assume we're walking in a straight line.

 

This is all and well, but it still brings us back to determining the dimensions of the tiles and amount of time each turn uses. We've many interpretations of these two unknown variables, so it's hard to say what's what.

 

If we had some real world comparisons of the ground speeds of various people (unfit average civilian - new recruit - veteran) walking in full combat gear (or just carrying a heavy load), these values could possibly be worked out.

 

- NKF

 

* 255 time units is the absolute maximum a unit can have. However, you should never be able to achieve this unless you cheat or your you have an earlier version of the game that doesn't have the attributes capped.

 

edit: Heh, Pumpkinhead said it best. The general gist of it is TUs = speed. However it does not equal speed for tasks that use percentages.

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TU's=Speed\Agility.

They probably want "proven" Facts for Fanfic............

Huh? :dontgetit: The only variable in my working is that I based an "elite agent" on an athlete, running about 10m/s (as I only recently found was stated in the other thread) which I admit is a pretty high expectation considering what they're wearing and carrying... Maybe I should change it to about 0.30kmph/TU or something :D Hmmm...

 

Edit: I just did several searches on the good ol' net and found that the average adult running speed is 24 km/h, which would equal a TU value of 67 in my system... However, we know that the average agent is 50-60 TUs... But if we change the conversion to suit those "average agents", it would make an elite agent with 100TUs faster than the worlds fastest sprinters :D

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What else do we need to know? The area a tile covers. Again, a much debated unknown variable, though 1 meter seems to be the general consensus.

A doorway in UFO fits into one tile and the doorways of my house are about 90cm (inc. the frame), so I think 1m is a pretty good measurement :D

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  • 1 month later...

After much careful deliberation, I've decided that 0.09 kmph/TU is actually a much better value, being a walking speed, seeing as no one is going to be running around... This now makes 1 Turn = 10s...

 

So here are my new values-

 

Aliens (Superhuman Level):

Zombie = 4.23 km/h

Silacoid = 4.23 km/h

Snakeman (Commander) = 4.77 km/h

Sectoid = 5.67 km/h

Muton = 5.85 km/h

Floater (Commander) = 6.3 km/h

Cyberdisc = 6.48 km/h

Reaper = 6.48 km/h

Sectopod = 6.48 km/h

Ethereal = 7.11 km/h

Celatid = 7.38 km/h

Chryssalid = 11.16 km/h

 

X-Com:

Average Agent = 4.5-5.4 km/h

Tanks = 6.3 km/h

Elite Agent = 7.2 km/h

Hovertanks = 9 km/h

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A note on weapons:

 

Because weapons are percentage-based rather than TU-based, it means that it takes the same amount of time to fire whether you have 100TUs or 50...

 

A grenade, for instance, will take 5 seconds to prime (50%) and 2.5 seconds to throw (25%) no matter how fast the agent ;)

 

 

 

Just thought I'd add that :)

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That depends on whether the soldiers walk or run in the game. Based on animation I'd said they walk, but who knows. Also, PK, you've said that the average human speed is 24 km/h and it corresponds to 67 TU, but the average agent has around 60 TU (or even less). But don't forget that he wears armour and is carrying a heavy load.
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  • 1 year later...

Just a note after reading Danial's comments on speed

 

Wonderquest says average unladen humans run at about 27 kph (7.5m/s), Olympic sprinters at 39 kph (10.3m/s), and an attacking tiger at 56 kph. See also The Reality of Running Away from Stuff.

 

And we can't neglect the XCOM 100 Meter Dash animation

 

Although the question's still unanswered as to whether a soldier would run or walk around the battlefield, consider this:

If Chrysallids run after their prey it might be fair to give them a speed of 10m/s (rottweiler speed).

If we assume the humans would run around the battlefield as necessary, it explains why they use up stamina points when moving.

A realistic range of soldier speed might be 5kph (heavily loaded, low TU) to 25kph (lightly loaded, high TU).

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