Is it faster to walk/sprint or take a ferry?

[Kanon]

I'm on day 3 now, and I feel like I wasted a whole lot of time taking the ferry around the town (from the haruspex lair to the polyhedron in particular). I read in another discussion thread that the ferry is slower than walking when you circle around the perimeter of the town. This led me to wonder, when is it faster to take the ferry and when are you better off walking? Is the ferry only faster when traveling in straight lines along the river? What ferry travel times are not worth it?

[Heikai]

From what I remember when I was testing this, ferry is never faster than going on foot. It still has the utility of avoiding infected districts. I didn't use ferries almost at all in my playthrough. It didn't feel like it was worth it. Using ferries also prevents you from trading and looting bins while travelling.

[Kanon]

Originally posted by Heikai:

From what I remember when I was testing this, ferry is never faster than going on foot. It still has the utility of avoiding infected districts. I didn't use ferries almost at all in my playthrough. It didn't feel like it was worth it. Using ferries also prevents you from trading and looting bins while travelling.

Did you ever find yourself very short on time, like on day 3 for example? As I was finding myself in that position even on the second day.

[Mikeavelli]

Time moves faster on later days, but ferries always take a constant amount of time. By around day 8 or 9 the ferry is consistently faster than walking.

[N.KagnitO)))]

I sometimes take the ferry up and down the rivers. Like, for example, from Lara's place (the Shelter), to the Factory, it's a short boat ride that skips a large part of the town. Usually the town is very annoying to navigate, so I like to take short ferries like this to skip some annoying walking and, on later days, to avoid plague districts.

However, going from one tributary to another is not very smart. A 45 minute "scenic route" through the town's waterways is something to be avoided, you're better off walking across the bridges.

[NoTimeToWait]

Basically, if you are new to the game, you should prefer walking most of the time. It will help you
1) remember the layout of the town
2) get yourself into multiple interesting situations
3) experience all of the atmosphere of the game
And in rare occasions when the time is of utmost importance, you should fasttravel.

If you are a seasoned menkhu, you probably have unlimited supply of the coins needed by boatmen (and by unlimited I mean 30+ of them) from trading with kids and stashes.

In this case it is almost always preferable to go using boatmen, unless you make a really big turnabout.
1) most of the time it takes around the same time, as running directly (sometimes less)
2) you won't lose your health\immunity traversing districts with marauders or infection
3) you won't lose time by being distracted by whatever happens between points A and B
4) not sure about this, but if I remember correctly, your fatigue and hunger won't rise or it would be less noticeable compared to running the same distance

Originally posted by ☭☭☭Ko-chan☭☭☭:

Originally posted by Heikai:

From what I remember when I was testing this, ferry is never faster than going on foot. It still has the utility of avoiding infected districts. I didn't use ferries almost at all in my playthrough. It didn't feel like it was worth it. Using ferries also prevents you from trading and looting bins while travelling.

Did you ever find yourself very short on time, like on day 3 for example? As I was finding myself in that position even on the second day.

This game is all about having a cake and not being able to eat it. It is intended that you miss most of the quests and character development. It was INTENDED.

With experience, you will find ways to do everything you want, but I would say, that this will turn Pathologic 2 into a kind of min-maxing game (which is about utilizing game mechanics in most efficient way not experiencing them in the intended way), where you have to go almost without sleep multiple days and your health will be below 25% most of the time, but you will be able to do everything and save everyone.

[Heikai]

Originally posted by NoTimeToWait:

With experience, you will find ways to do everything you want, but I would say, that this will turn Pathologic 2 into a kind of min-maxing game...

Yeah. Games usually have a challenge/skill element which means you can get very good at them. Because of this I'm not sure the design goal of making the game "almost unbearable" was successful. All in all, P2 wasn't very hard imo. Certainly not "almost unbearable". Even if it was much harder, I would have thought of it as an interesting challenge or maybe as a dull drag if the design wasn't good. It would be the best if the game was interesting even when played at a high skill level.

PS. I think walking simulator style games are fine when the story is the main point.

[NoTimeToWait]

Originally posted by Heikai:

Originally posted by NoTimeToWait:

With experience, you will find ways to do everything you want, but I would say, that this will turn Pathologic 2 into a kind of min-maxing game...

Yeah. Games usually have a challenge/skill element which means you can get very good at them. Because of this I'm not sure the design goal of making the game "almost unbearable" was successful. All in all, P2 wasn't very hard imo. Certainly not "almost unbearable". Even if it was much harder, I would have thought of it as an interesting challenge or maybe as a dull drag if the design wasn't good. It would be the best if the game was interesting even when played at a high skill level.

PS. I think walking simulator style games are fine when the story is the main point.

It IS unbearable. But not in the terms of difficulty. It completely antagonizes a player, so it is not really hard to play but it is hard to RETURN to playing it (yes, and the dull drag actually does seem to be an intended? part of it too). I guess this is really the main reason this game is not successful, because it really makes you not to want to play it again in some way.

I find it fascinating, because it has a really strong attraction in terms of its story, and it is quite hard to stop playing once you start... but when you stop it is really not very compelling to return to.

And the point of the game is that you lose not when you die or not when you fail your main quest and even not when all of the town dies, but when you stop playing it.

Originally posted by Heikai:

Originally posted by NoTimeToWait:

With experience, you will find ways to do everything you want, but I would say, that this will turn Pathologic 2 into a kind of min-maxing game...

It would be the best if the game was interesting even when played at a high skill level.

Oh, it IS interesting. Like with every min-maxing game, you just want to see how far you can push your character by optimizing its routine and still be able to complete the game (sometimes it comes to the fact that you have to play the whole game with 5-10% health, because it is always advisable to sell bandages and not to sleep most of the time). In these terms it becomes more like an economical tactical game where you have to plan many steps ahead and do only the most efficient moves. In these terms the second games is miles and leagues better than the first one