How smash Bracket handles speed

One of the most common sources I’ve seen for disagreements about the outcome of a fight are how people treat speed. There’s a ton of ways that this can be handled, but I will be breaking down the way that Smash Bracket is handling it. I will talk about a ton of different types of speed and how they factor into the speed we give our fighters, but all of those speeds are going to be reduced down to a single stat, which I will call effective combat speed.

Effective Combat Speed

In most fights, the only thing that really matters is how fast you can dodge and output attacks in relatively close quarters. This is not only a matter of speed, but a matter of control. Effective combat speed is the measure of how much speed a fighter is able to use in small increments and it is the stat that we are comparing between fighters. I will talk in future sections about how other types of speed play into effective combat speed, but I will briefly cover why this is the only stat that matters here.

What it all boils down to is this: speed doesn’t matter if it doesn’t help you hit your opponents or avoid their attacks. And it doesn’t matter if you are too fast to control within the bounds of your fight. A character’s effective combat speed is equal to the lowest speed that they’ve shown in the categories of attacks, thoughts, or movements. Each category’s speed is equal to the highest speed demonstrated in any of the sub-categories.

Attack Speed

Attacking Speed

Attacking speed refers to the speed that a character can move their limbs to attack. This could be anything from punches to kicks to activating a weapon.

Attacking speed is hugely important in a fight, but it’s not the only determining factor. A character is fully able to move their limbs faster than they are capable of conscious thought (try to react to your hand moving as fast as possible in front of your face. It’s super difficult if you’re actually reacting instead of predicting). It’s also very possible that a character is able to attack faster than they can move, even with kicks. The processes involved are totally different. Again, notice how you can kick your leg out super fast, but are incapable of maintaining that speed while moving your whole body around in a fight.

Speed of Attacks

The speed of an attack is the speed that attack can reach an opponent. For example, the speed of a bullet, arrow, or laser fired from a weapon.

Fast attacks are obviously much harder to dodge than slow attacks. However, just because I shoot a gun doesn’t mean I can move as fast as a bullet and it doesn’t mean I can react to things at the speed of a bullet. You could argue that the speed of attacks should stand alone as its own stat, but that is only true if an opponent has no way to predict the path of an attack. A defender with some skill in combat and who can see the attacker will be able to dodge an attack simply based on reading the body movements of the attacker. Since that describes most fights, this stat shouldn’t automatically stand on its own.

That said, this rule will have many exceptions. In cases where an attacker is unseen, a defender is inexperienced, or there is some other factor that prevents aim dodging, this stat should be treated as separate if it is relevant.

Movement Speed

Micro speed

Micro speed refers to the speed that a character can make small maneuvers in a short period of time. Examples include fighting someone in close quarters or running through an obstacle course.

Micro speed is almost always going to scale 1-to-1 with effective combat speed, but it’s worth separating out because sometimes speed of thought or attack speed will independently have better showings than micro speed.

Macro Speed

Macro speed refers to the speed that a character can travel large distances without needing to make small adjustments. Examples include flying to another planet or running a race.

Macro speed is an impressive display of a character’s ability, but it usually has little bearing in a fight. Long-distance travel doesn’t involve the kind of small maneuvering that a fight would require. It also doesn’t automatically imply reaction to keep up with those speeds, which is why you can still surprise an airplane pilot by throwing a baseball at them. However, that means the only thing holding back a character with high macro speed is their attack speed and speed of thought, which is why they will be able to have a higher effective combat speed than their macro speed if those other categories are higher.

Speed of thought never scales to macro speed unless it is explicitly shown to. When traveling, a person is planning on reaching some destination and can prepare for that ahead of time. This means that they wouldn’t be reacting at anywhere near the speeds of their movement since they can start the process of stopping or steering well before they need to. And in almost all cases where someone does react, it will be simple reaction speed, not complex reaction speed.

Speed of Thought

Simple Reaction Speed

Simple reaction speed is the speed that a character can perform a single, predetermined action in response to a single, predetermined action. Examples include pushing a button as soon as you see a light flash or starting to run a race as soon as you hear the starter pistol.

Simple reaction speed can easily be much higher than anything else a character can do because it is so limited in scope. As such, it is almost never actually applicable to a character. We never use simple reaction speed unless the attacker is resorting to a strategy that allows it (such as firing a gun at any object that moves into their sight).

Complex Reaction Speed

Complex reaction speed is how fast you can see an unknown stimulus and then choose an appropriate response. For example, pressing the letter on the keyboard that flashes on screen or this scene from Men in Black.

Complex reaction speed is absolutely crucial in a fight, but it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t move fast enough to get out of the way of (or line up your own) attacks. It is also useless if your attacks aren’t actually fast enough to hit your opponent. It is always at least equal to a character’s micro speed.

Conclusion

Hopefully breaking down the different types of speed that we use makes it clear why any one of them is insufficient to describe a character’s effective combat speed, while put together they paint a good picture of a character’s ability to maneuver.