Speed

Speed is one of the primary four balance mechanics in class shooters.

Speed, also known as mobility, is one of the most powerful mechanics in high level gameplay. High speed classes are harder to hit, and can control where they are and where they engage opponents on the map the best. High speed also determines how and when classes can disengage and escape from their opponents.

Speed is often inversely proportional to damage, meaning that faster classes deal less damage as a balancing feature, but this is not always the case.

There are several methods of implementing mobility options to balance classes.

Speed Cost
mobility is often organized and balanced by the "cost" of using the mobility option. There tend to be four grades of cost: Free, Low, Medium, and High. The following mobility options are organized by cost and simplicity.

Free Mobility
Free mobility actions are always available, no matter the situation, and can be considered core elements of a class. There are no downsides to using these abilities, and they are the most invisible elements of speed balancing.

Run Speed
The most basic way to control a class' speed is by increasing or reducing their natural running speed. Run speed is considered one of, if not the only, free movement ability. Classes are almost always running, which means that run speed is the most impactful of the balancing options for speed.

Jumping
Jumping is a variant of run speed, deciding how many jumps a class can have, along with how high each jump is, can very heavily impact the mobility they have, both in combat and in terms of map accessibility. Most games give every class the same standard jump, and many games give some of their speedier classes a second "double jump."

Air-Strafe
Air-strafing is the ability to control movement while in the air. Usually the choice to have or not have air-strafing is a global decision, either available to all classes or none of them. However, if air-strafing is in a game, it can often be used in different increments, a statistic sometimes called "air control."

Low Cost Mobility
Low cost mobility usually involves some sort of cooldown, but leaves the class otherwise free from disadvantage. These options are available at almost any moment, regardless of situation, but must be used judiciously so as not to be unable to use them when they are needed for escape or other opportunities.

Boost
A boost is a temporary increase in movement speed. Boosts are most commonly an ability on a cooldown, or a buff received from an outside source. Boosts are available through some means to most classes and are best used to time escapes or chase down kills.

Dash
A more locked-in version of a boost, a dash is a sudden burst of speed for a certain distance or time, locked into a specific direction. Dashes can be either fixed, such as a forward dash or a backwards dash, or the initial direction of the dash can be controlled, often called a dodge. Dashes may be called "slides" or "rolls" in-game. Dashes are very useful for quick escapes or closing gaps against retreating enemies.

Dashes can often be accompanied by an automatic attack, such as a dash forward and melee swing (a lunge), or a backwards dash with a shot to cover the retreat. Dashes are always on some kind of cooldown to prevent constant use, thus costing access to the ability in the near future.

Leap
The leap is much like the dash, but with a more vertical component. While the dash only travels horizontally, the leap employs a considerable vertical movement in addition to lateral motion. This allows classes who employ the leap to reach new areas and attack from unusual directions. Leaps can, like dashes, be locked events, such as a "ground slam," with a distinct height, distance, and direction with a constant effect and travel time. Leaps can also be much more flexible, merely providing an initial burst of speed and direction, while allowing the player to take other actions and air-strafe. These flexible leaps can sometimes be called a "bounce" or "bounding."

Leaps and dashes are often treated as interchangeable, both having cooldowns and costing access to the ability in the immediate future.

Sprint
Sprinting is the ability to run much faster than the base movement speed in exchange for giving up any other immediate action (except jumping) while sprinting. Sprinting is common in many classless shooters, and in class shooters is usually attributed to the rifleman due to his similarity to classless shooter avatars.

Sprinting has the main characteristic of medium cost abilities, that being the inability to perform other actions during a sprint. However, sprinting is a low cost ability because it is possible to cancel the sprint at any time, though there is a slight delay between the end of sprinting and taking other actions, known as "sprint out time."

Sprinting is unique among low cost abilities, having no cooldown timer, making it possible to sprint immediately at any moment.

Medium Cost Mobility
Medium cost mobility actions are usually more powerful, but have either longer cooldowns, or come with other downsides such as being unable to perform other actions for the duration of the ability.

Tether
Tethering is the ability to grab a distant object or surface and be pulled towards it. Tethers can either be "direct," traveling along a straight line to the tether point, or "dynamic," being affected by gravity and/or air-strafing. Tethering is very strong on slower classes, allowing them to quickly travel to areas within a line of sight. This works best on supports who need to get to teammates quickly. A major disadvantage is that everyone can see the destination and take advantage of it.

Teleport
Instantly teleporting between two points is unfair and unbalanced, but a common alternative in games is to provide a teleportation option that has a "wind-up." This ability will either lock the class in place for a set animation, or require an extra setup to enable, such as placing down a destination marker. Teleportation is extremely powerful, allowing instantaneous travel over extreme distances. This is not usually as useful in combat with the initial delay, but it provides extremely good map accessibility to specialists or to other classes that don't have otherwise good movement abilities.

Teleporting can be considered a high cost movement ability when locking into an animation, since it makes it nearly impossible to use in combat. It straddles the line between medium and high cost.

High Cost Mobility
High cost abilities are by far the most powerful movement options in a game. They will invariably also have the highest cost to use. These abilities have very long cooldowns, often have extra activation requirements, and many will cost resources much more precious than time, such as the extremely important resource of health.

Explosive Jump
Explosive jumping is a staple from classic arena shooters. Originally a bug, explosive jumping has become a key feature of many games. The basic concept of explosive jumping involves jumping over an explosive blast to use the force as a boost to increase jump distance and speed. This is a great boost in movement, but is costly as it takes both health and ammunition to perform. This is one of the most powerful abilities for the rocketeer and grenadier, allowing them to become top contenders for the fastest class in a game.

There are two types of explosive jumps, the classic rocket jump, and the grenade jump.

Rocket Jump
Rocket jumping is exactly as it sounds, jumping using the force of a rocket blast to launch farther than normally possible. This is usually accomplished by shooting at a wall or floor in close proximity to the player, while jumping (and often crouching) just before being impacted by the explosion. This ability is only available to the rocketeer of his own volition, though other classes may use explosive force to launch themselves and "surf" off of incoming enemy damage.

Grenade Jump
Grenade jumping is similar to rocket jumping, but uses grenades instead. Grenade jumping is usually accomplished with sticky grenades because they are easier to control, though impact grenades can be used with limited success. Grenade jumping can only be done by the grenadier. Though, as with rocket jumping, other classes can take advantage of the explosive force to achieve similar effects.

Of the two types, rocket jumping is generally more flexible and reliable in combat, while grenade jumping can be more powerful, through use of multiple sticky grenades. Great care must be taken that the player has enough health to spend on a jump, as miscalculations can lead to death or extremely risky positioning with a nearly exhausted health pool.

Flight
True flight is the rarest movement ability in gaming, allowing the class to remain in the air for the duration of the ability. Flight is most often an ultimate ability, requiring a long charge time and limited duration. Lesser versions of flight, such as being able to hover for a short time, are often employed with a "fuel" gauge that recharges over time.

The main weakness of flight is that the class that employs it is entirely exposed as they rise above cover and float through the battlefield. Flight as a general rule is balanced to be slower than explosive jumps, and often slower than the faster end of basic running speed. This means that while a flying class has an advantage in height, being able to rain down on opponents, they also become exposed, being easy targets for hitscan classes and still manageable for high skill projectile classes.

Speed: a Summary
Mobility is an important element of game design and balancing, With some of the most important abilities in the class shooter genre. Speed is generally considered to be inverse to damage, and is balanced in three ways: limiting access to the ability, limiting other actions during use, and costing health to use. Speed is possibly the most powerful balancing tool in the gamemaker's arsenal, but a well made mobility system feels organic and integrated, often going unnoticed by the players. As a core mechanic of a class' identity and feel, speed should be in mind from the inception of the class, and should be changed only if absolutely necessary.