Painfully-Slow Projectile: Difference between revisions

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** Although bullets in ''Mass Effect'' hit instantly, all the heavier weapons move slowly enough to easily sidestep on foot or jump over in the Mako.

** Not so much in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'': heavier weapons are still slower than normal weapons, but they can now home in on you.

*** The ones you use, however, often miss the memo on that homing thing. Of particular note is the M-920 Cain, which [[Statistically Speaking|in theory]] fires a slug at 5 km/s, but [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|actually]] moves quite slowly.

*** The ones you use, however, often miss the memo on that homing thing. Of particular note is the M-920 Cain, which [[Statistically Speaking|in theory]] fires a slug at 5 km/s, but [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|actually]] moves quite slowly.

** In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', like [[Mass Effect 2]], the missiles home in on you. However, you can now dodge roll right before they hit you (and so can enemies), and it's even possible to shoot rockets out of the air. This is easiest done with adrenaline rush, the time-slowing mod for the sniper rifle, or by pouring bullets in the general direction of the rocket with the mounted machine gun.

* The plasma cannon overcharge shot in Space Marine is pretty slow, mostly because it kills ''everything'' within a thirty-foot radius of its point of impact.

* ''[[Halo]]'' has the Needler. Its projectiles are homing... but this is of little use since they are so freaking slow you can outrun them by walking backwards. In ''Halo 2'' and ''3'' their speed was increased enough to make the Needler usable, but they're still quite sluggish compared to other weapons. It also has the Fuel Rod Gun that fires a large neon-green projectile that can be easily dodged at medium to long ~~ranges.<br /><br />Any and all plasma projectiles are pretty much this. High visibility and relatively slow makes them very easy to dodge at certain~~ ranges.

* ''[[Halo]]'' has the Needler. Its projectiles are homing... but this is of little use since they are so freaking slow you can outrun them by walking backwards. In ''Halo 2'' and ''3'' their speed was increased enough to make the Needler usable, but they're still quite sluggish compared to other weapons. It also has the Fuel Rod Gun that fires a large neon-green projectile that can be easily dodged at medium to long ranges.

Any and all plasma projectiles are pretty much this. High visibility and relatively slow makes them very easy to dodge at certain ranges.

* Guns in ''[[Borderlands]]'' have a hidden "velocity" stat, which determines how fast the projectiles move. Normally it's fast enough to not matter, but with sniper rifles and missile launchers, it becomes important.

* Most non-hitscan projectiles in ''[[Unreal]]'' are surprisingly slow, but the biggest offenders have to be the boulders. When a Titan throws a rock, it does not "fly" through the air as much as slowly float its way toward the player. Of course, this is a good thing, as a hit from one of those boulders is usually a one-hit kill.

* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]],'' bullets travel instantaneously, even from across the map. Rockets, grenades, and arrows, however, will have a marked flight time, occasionally measurable in seconds. This is primarily a balancing issue, as the first two mentioned weapons have considerable splash damage (and the slow speed gives more fleet footed class time to evade). Pyros have the option to [[Playing Tennis With the Boss|play tennis with enemies]] and reflect the aforementioned projectiles back at the people who fired them.<br /><br />Going by the scale used for objects, Huntsman arrows travel at about 117-146 feet per second (35.7-44.5 m/s) depending on how long they've been drawn, which isn't too unreasonable for a bow of such an antiquated design and material. That's part of the reason a Pyro managing to deflect one into something is such a big deal.

* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]],'' bullets travel instantaneously, even from across the map. Rockets, grenades, and arrows, however, will have a marked flight time, occasionally measurable in seconds. This is primarily a balancing issue, as the first two mentioned weapons have considerable splash damage (and the slow speed gives more fleet footed class time to evade). Pyros have the option to [[Playing Tennis With the Boss|play tennis with enemies]] and reflect the aforementioned projectiles back at the people who fired them.

Going by the scale used for objects, Huntsman arrows travel at about 117–146 feet per second (35.7-44.5 m/s) depending on how long they've been drawn, which isn't too unreasonable for a bow of such an antiquated design and material. That's part of the reason a Pyro managing to deflect one into something is such a big deal.

* The pistol and nailgun in ''[[Quake 4]]''. The shotgun, machinegun, and a few others are hitscan, although still dodgeable.

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== Platform Game ==

* ''[[Contra]]'' has enemies attack with bullets and missiles that travel at a shockingly slow pace across the screen. Their deadliness usually comes in [[More Dakka|waves]], from the fact you're a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]], and from the fact that it's 2D so you can't just casually sidestep the shots. This is particularly WTF-inducing in ''Contra 3'', where on lower difficulties, an enemy behind you fires a bullet at you traveling ''slightly faster'' than the character. Since the animation of your character makes it look like he's merely jogging, dodging the bullet would simply be a matter of him picking up the pace and literally ''outrunning the bullet''. <ref>To ''really'' drive in the WTF factor, note that this means that if your character could sprint, you could jump out of the bullet's path, let it pass under you, and then, as is lazily floats away from you, run after it and '''kill yourself by hitting it from behind'''.</ref>

* ''[[Contra]]'' has enemies attack with bullets and missiles that travel at a shockingly slow pace across the screen. Their deadliness usually comes in [[More Dakka|waves]], from the fact you're a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]], and from the fact that it's 2D so you can't just casually sidestep the shots. This is particularly WTF-inducing in ''Contra 3'', where on lower difficulties, an enemy behind you fires a bullet at you traveling ''slightly faster'' than the character. Since the animation of your character makes it look like he's merely jogging, dodging the bullet would simply be a matter of him picking up the pace and literally ''outrunning the bullet''.<ref>To ''really'' drive in the WTF factor, note that this means that if your character could sprint, you could jump out of the bullet's path, let it pass under you, and then, as is lazily floats away from you, run after it and '''kill yourself by hitting it from behind'''.</ref>

* Lampshaded in ''[[Metal Slug]]''. There's an enemy that's basically a big cannon on wheels; it has a large barrel, and when it readies to fire it looks like it'll blast half the screen away. It then does a huge boom, ~~and -- plops~~ down a sloooowly rolling projectile that acts as a moving landmine.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Metal Slug]]''. There's an enemy that's basically a big cannon on wheels; it has a large barrel, and when it readies to fire it looks like it'll blast half the screen away. It then does a huge boom, and—plops down a sloooowly rolling projectile that acts as a moving landmine.

* ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series

** Mega Man's projectiles, and heck, almost any projectiles in the game are usually slow.

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* Annoth the Firebreather Dragon in ''[[I of the Dragon]]'' has access to the ''Hound'' spell which works like this... fortunately though, it does cast good damage and it is also a [[Homing Projectile]].

= Non-Video Game Examples: =

= Non-Video Game Examples =

== Anime and Manga ==

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* Until the advent of gunpowder, a man on foot had a decent chance of dodging artillery projectiles by the virtue of the fact that the projectiles were not particularly fast and rather large. As long as he wasn't hindered by a tight packed formation.

* Paintball. For safety reasons, markers are capped at a muzzle velocity of three hundred feet per second. Slow enough that it's possible (Albeit difficult and does require good reflexes or long distance) to hear someone firing at you, see the paintball coming, and dive for cover.

* Battleship shells are only painfully slow with respect to their range, which leads to an interesting scenario: a battleship firing at extreme range cannot hit a destroyer except through pure luck, as the destroyer moves several times its own length in the time it takes the shells to arrive, giving it plenty of options for dodging. <ref>However, if the destroyer were to move close enough to engage the battleship with its main guns, this problem would no longer apply.</ref>

* Battleship shells are only painfully slow with respect to their range, which leads to an interesting scenario: a battleship firing at extreme range cannot hit a destroyer except through pure luck, as the destroyer moves several times its own length in the time it takes the shells to arrive, giving it plenty of options for dodging.<ref>However, if the destroyer were to move close enough to engage the battleship with its main guns, this problem would no longer apply.</ref>

* Early guided missiles, particularly of anti-armor type, flew relatively slowly so that they could be seen and controlled manually and could take upwards of ~~15-20~~ seconds to reach a target. These could easily be countered by the enemy looking for dust and/or smoke kicked up by a missile and shooting at the launch position to break the operator's concentration.

* Early guided missiles, particularly of anti-armor type, flew relatively slowly so that they could be seen and controlled manually and could take upwards of 15–20 seconds to reach a target. These could easily be countered by the enemy looking for dust and/or smoke kicked up by a missile and shooting at the launch position to break the operator's concentration.

* Naval torpedoes are quite slow and a shallow-running torpedo can easily be seen. Partially averted by rocket-powered supercavitating torpedoes, by creating a drag-reducing air bubble they can travel 2-4 times faster than traditional units.