Turn of Combat Reformulated - Velocity

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by KarlKost

Actually it would be Velocity 20 that would equate to ATR 1, V10 would be normal average human, but yeah, this is basically it.
+1 Velocity would indeed be 1/10 of ATR; yes, a fight between someone with V10 and V11 would indeed be a close call, however the V11 would eventually act over the course of 10 seconds a total of 11 times, while the V10 only 10 times.
It's going to be a small difference, but that small difference - 1 action every second vs 1 action every 0.91 seconds - but that small difference can in fact be the difference between life and death (and in truth, +/-1 Velocity has a huge impact). It garantees that the faster fighter will have a privileged sequence of actions before the slower one.

How is that to be kept track of?

Suppose that X and Y are fighting, and X has Velocity 10, and Y has Velocity 9. Velocity 9 gives one action per 1.11 seconds.

Second 1: X acts; Y does not.
Second 2: Y acts at .11 seconds; X acts at end.
Second 3: Y acts at .22 seconds; X acts at end.
Second 4: Y acts at .33 seconds; X acts at end.

... and so on, till second 11, when Y acts at .99 seconds and X at the end—or when you round Y up, and X and Y act simultaneously?

It seems as if you are going to be doing a lot of bookkeeping to keep track of who acts when. There's a reason that RPGs other than GURPS split combat into discrete rounds/turns (for example, Champions has a 12-second span of time, in which Speed 1 lets you act on phase 7, Speed 2 on phases 6 and 12, Speed 3 on phases 4, 8, and 12, and so on). It seems as if you would be adding a lot to the GM's load.

It also seems as if, in every second after the first, the slower fighter actually acts before the faster one.

Or do you want to segment combat into, say, centiseconds, and count off: .01, .02, .03, .04, .05, ... ?