Some Changes to Standing and Resting mechanics

[Frank_Stein]

Couple of ideas and then some ways they could all work together

1. Going from standing to resting should happen almost instantly from the button press. This represents diving to the floor
   
2. During the first second or so of going from standing to resting should confer the A faster movement speed while giving you the benefits of having the resting position, such as being able to move under things and shots fired passing over your head. After this passes you move slowly as is the current crawl speed. This represents air time when diving down
   
3. While resting, you can still use your hands as normal, but with a small lag delay between clicks and actions being accepted, to prevent rapidly spamming an action like firing a gun. In addition, the status effects system can be tweaked to add a new status effect that comes with tripping or being knocked to the ground, to retain the element of dropping and being unable to use items while knocked to the floor. This allows players to use items when on the ground by choice, but through status effects still cause item drop and temporary disability
   
4. Going from resting to standing should have a small time delay. Switching back to resting before going back to standing fully activates a few tiles worth of normal speed movement, at stamina cost. The former represents lifting yourself back up off the floor, while the later represents rolling
   
5. Certain elements in the environment take into account player's resting or standing position, based on height. A table, for stance, fully blocks a resting person but leaves a standing person's upper half exposed.
   

How it all fits together:

• A prone person can have shots fly over them, and take cover behind lower objects. With a fast switch between standing and resting, and a movement bonus in those first moments, a player has the option to take dives in combat. Dives are high defensive maneuvers to cover, or even risky dashes in combat to close distance, since you still can use your weapon during a dive but not as quickly while standing.
  
• Diving carries the disadvantages of the reduced action performance rate, and the time delay to cancel out of resting by waiting on the delay to go back into standing
  
• Rolls, the act of canceling the stand to go back into resting gives the player a bit of a safety net, by letting them continue to make evasive maneuvers to make up for giving up there offense, but the stamina cost keeps them from spamming it
  

[kyle2143]

I like the idea of making rest instant, but currently I think it just happens on the next game tic. So it really only takes a long time if there's lag, and that's not gonna have too much of an effect.

The other thing I really liked was the dives. Just yesterday I was talking to a friend trying to figure out if the trait Matrix Flopout (where flipping lets you dodge a bullet) was ever actually worth it? It costs 50 stamina to use, and that's only a bit less then a taser shot. Plus, you're only flipping for half a second and with lag it's a complete crapshoot. A dedicated dodge ability/button could be more interesting than the current strategy of clicking rest to drop under a taser shot. Which is also far superior to the matrix flopout.

As for the rest, I think those are more horizontal changes than anything else. The dropping held items when resting is a feature to add some challange to self-surgery. And adding latency to actions performed while prone or getting up seems like a lot of work for no gain.