What's the obsession with highest game speed?

[darbyjack]

I've noticed that most players are opting for the highest game speed in CnC games. I cannot think of a logical reason why. There must be some psychological reason, where by impulse, people perceive higher as better. 

It just seems strange to play this game with ore trucks going as fast as sports cars, and Kirov airships dashing like aeroplanes. 

I'd wager that if there was an option for an even higher speed, like 100 FPS, most people would blindly pick it. This is certainly the case with Red Alert 1. Some of the videos are just insane, with tanks flying across the map within seconds. Tank battles are almost like watching videos of ants in a colony, sped up several times. 

This was not how the game was intended. But for many people, faster = better. 

I appreciate I am in the minority here, but was wondering if there's at least a few who agree? I do quite enjoy the in-game animations at a normal speeds (Fast 30fps?) - it certainly adds the immersion! There's lots of cool little details, like tanks having to accelerate and speed up when given an order to go somewhere - things like this are missed on fastest game speeds. 

Edited August 9, 2018 by darbyjack

[XXxPrePxX]

Offline game speeds at that pace are ridiculous and only for the extreme minority who may be looking for a new challenge. 

 

Online, you need to have the high speed setting (at least on Ra2/YR) of FPS 60 otherwise it will lag hard. 

[total_annihilationx666]

Slower speeds appeal to me as well too —gives you more time to contemplate your moves & make judgements. However, I guess temporarily increasing speeds [in single-player] can be quite handy to increase production time. But anyone with a modicum of logic can tell the game is more breathtaking at a speed lower than default, which is 'Fast,' so tone it down one notch (6 to 5) as I have.

[Kikematamitos]

Is related to the APM of the players, hi APM player can make more in less of time so they not boring at slow speed. 

[dkeeton]

7 hours ago, darbyjack said:

I'd wager that if there was an option for an even higher speed, like 100 FPS, most people would blindly pick it.

This is not true. Most players are very sensitive to 60fps. See below: I believe the game was designed to be played at 60fps in online multiplayer.

 

7 hours ago, darbyjack said:

This is certainly the case with Red Alert 1. Some of the videos are just insane, with tanks flying across the map within seconds. Tank battles are almost like watching videos of ants in a colony, sped up several times.  

This was not how the game was intended. But for many people, faster = better. 

There was an interview with a Westwood developer who said that during play testing they found that players wanted to play at the highest game speed. This was even back in 1995.

The novelty of seeing the animations wears off after a few dozen hours of game play.

[darbyjack]

14 hours ago, dkeeton said:

There was an interview with a Westwood developer who said that during play testing they found that players wanted to play at the highest game speed. This was even back in 1995.

That's quite interesting, didn't hear about that before. Although bear in mind, setting the game to the fastest speed back then would be a far cry from the speeds we see today. CPU's were quite slow. I remember playing RA1 on fastest speed on an 88mhz CPU, and again, RA2 at fastest on a 1Ghz CPU. Definitely wasn't that fast! 

I highly doubt multiplayer was designed to be played at the speeds we're seeing now, simply because there weren't any computers that could pull it off. 
 

20 hours ago, XXxPrePxX said:

Online, you need to have the high speed setting (at least on Ra2/YR) of FPS 60 otherwise it will lag hard. 

I've been lucky so far. Currently living in Thailand and playing with my pals back in Europe. Lag hasn't been too bad. Is this because of the CnCnet servers, or poor netcode within the game itself? I remember playing on a 56k modem back in 2002, thank goodness I don't have to do that anymore! Games back then were too slow, even for me! 
 

[XXxPrePxX]

6 hours ago, darbyjack said:

I've been lucky so far. Currently living in Thailand and playing with my pals back in Europe. Lag hasn't been too bad. Is this because of the CnCnet servers, or poor netcode within the game itself? I remember playing on a 56k modem back in 2002, thank goodness I don't have to do that anymore! Games back then were too slow, even for me! 

I don't know the reason, but it's just a p2p thing I'd imagine...

Anything lower than the highest and you get snail speed that is unfortunate to play in for everyone. Any time I see a host with a setting of FPS 45 or lower I tell them to up the FPS or it will lag hard.

[darbyjack]

Just did several hours worth of games at 45fps with a friend. Ran beautifully despite the long distance. I would have preferred 30fps but my friend insisted 45, ha!

[[CC] RaVaGe]

But... We got a need for speed!!!