Oblivion:Passive Player Speed
One aspect of route logic that is important is to have a high amount of passive player speed. While methods like Potion Stacking or Spell Stacking can yield a high amount of movement speed, these setups often require extremely frequent and tedious refresh times that are only worth it for isolated sections of the route, such as Map Exploration. The goal is to have a high permanent player speed throughout the run so that the player can focus solely on the flow of quest completion, skill books, Nirnroot, etc.
Movement Speed Basics
The following factors calculate into your movement speed, assuming that the player is running on land as is the case throughout the run:
- The character's Speed attribute value.
- The character's Athletics skill level.
- Whether or not the character has a weapon unsheathed.
- Equipped weapon/armor weight (unless you are a master of Light Armor or Heavy Armor, in which case the associated items are considered weightless).
- The character's height.
For a more detailed breakdown of movement formulas when considering other types of movement, such as sneaking or swimming, refer to the UESP article about movement formulas.
Athletics vs. Speed
Athletics and Speed each affect your overall movement speed slightly differently, but it is better to have a balance of both instead of boosting only one of the two stats. According to analysis of how movement formulas work, it appears that the optimal ratio of Athletics to Speed is to have 74 more Speed than Athletics.
Other Considerations
According to the UESP article about races, the High Elf is the tallest race in the game, moving 10% faster than most other races. Nord is the second tallest, and male Bosmer is the shortest. In the 100% route, we use the Female High Elf for several reasons, with passive movement speed being one of them.
Since unsheathing a weapon reduces movement speed, it is optimal to have it sheathed as often as possible. In the 100% route we do not actually wear armor for extended periods of time, but we do carry the Apotheosis weapon, adding a very slight penalty to our movement speed.