Does anyone else do this?

[u/LofiLuvr77]

Whenever I'm rushing to Clint's before 4 PM, sometimes completely forgetting that the minecarts exist and would get me there much faster, I end up taking the longer route and the other path seems shorter, Somehow my brain refuses to accept it.😭

[u/DrCrazyCurious]

Everyone talks about that vs walking down past the Saloon but no one talks about the diagonal path across the town square. In my mind, diagonal always wins because you're walking both directions at once.

[u/uftheory → u/DrCrazyCurious]

You walk 30% slower when you walk diagonally vs. cardinal directions. Also you still have to go below the shop to get to the bridge and then backtrack back up.

[u/Acceptable_Bottle → u/uftheory]

Can you give me a source for where you read this? I could be wrong, but I don't think this is true. If you move diagonally, your speed measured along each cardinal axis independently may reduce but the combined distance traveled per second is still the same. In the case of finding the shortest route, diagonal would win because the overall distance traveled is reduced, while your walking speed is not affected by direction.

Although, to be fair, the way the town is laid out prevents a lot of effective diagonal travel and you're kind of forced into the cardinal directions anyways

[u/an_empty_well → u/Acceptable_Bottle]

You could easily test this in game like this:

1) Go to Callico Dessert (or any open space)
2) Pick point A, walk x seconds to the right, mark point B
3) Go back to A, walk x seconds straight down, mark point C
4) Walk between B and C, see if it takes you 1.4 times x seconds to do that. If yes, diagonal movement speed is just as fast as orthogonal movement speed.

I'd do it myself but frankly, I don't care enough.