After playing with the Light Assault a bit on NC and TR, along with quite a bit of time on VS. I have came to realize that Drifters are useless in 8/10 battles. When the base does permit the use of Drifters it seems like I could have a similar if not better experience with Jump Jets. So I began thinking what does Drifters lack? The answer I came up with was vertical thrust. So here is an idea that can be thrown around a little. This idea was inspired by watching some Drifter videos and browsing the forums a little bit. Jump Jets-Maintain the recharge rates but increase speed by 50% at max level, but with this decrease fuel levels so you will only be able to get to the height level of the current Jump Jets. This will make it so the Jump Jets will be the more aggressive option but still staying balanced with other classes abilities. Drifter Jets-Add vertical thrust speed that would be slightly lower than the current level, decrease fuel amount and decrease recharge. This will make the Drifters the traveler option out of the two. In summary, these new Jump Jets will be used for Combat and quick leaps. While the new Drifters can be used for getting to higher grounds but at a slower rate. Please ask questions and give ideas that will balance this proposed system.
The whole point of drifters is they increase horizontal movement speed (even on the ground), and can be combined with grav lifts and jump pads for fast relocation within and between bases. They are already the traveler option. You can still use them to climb up mountains, sometimes faster than with jump jets because you won't have to wait for the recharge. That said, they're not really that useful in fights, they're useful between fights. Jump jets are great for doing sneak attacks, going in from unexpected angles and escaping behind vertical cover, so someone who's used to doing all that will obviously find drifter jets lacking. You need to judge drifter jets on other merits.
True, but I feel like there isn't any real meaning to the drifters traveling wise as of right now, given that a flash will get the job done if you are trying to get to hex to hex. If you are traversing mountains then yes it is the suitable option but that is a uncommon circumstance. I might have painted the wrong picture when I meant traveling in my original post. I was meaning to say for example: an Amp station wrecker who can get to the main building and kill infiltrators then fly on top of the wall while picking off people. This idea could be applied to many more bases than the current drifters but I do get the point you are getting across. Also, I'd like to see more "Slingshotters" and "Elevators" in base design, I just think it adds to the general battle.
Drifters problem is they grant faster movement but... It's not fast enough to give a relevant advantage. And the accuracy penalty while drifting should be totally removed. Right now you cant hit anyone during flight. Basically strafing or standing still grant bigger chances to kill the enemy than using drifters.
Yeah, but if driftors did function like that it would still be not enough for me to use them besides on a couple bases on Indar and Hossin.
The main problem is drifters are VERY niche, they wont help you in most fights as they just give you distance but you'll mostly be shot out of the sky anyway so jumpjets are usually the best option. I usually only use drifters as I just love being able to slide about and reach places people don't expect me.. BUT I accept I shouldn't use them as I get shot constantly while trying to climb walls and driven insane trying to climb walls as you often just fall a lot as you try to climb stuff.. Overall jumpjets are always the best choice, in mountain bases drifters are kinda cool as you can be WAY above the enemy getting further out than they expect you but when you land you've suddenly got no advantage at all.. so if anything drifters make you a bad infiltrator as they can stealth to get where they aren't expected but can keep stealthing to move about while drifter LAs land then are more or a less a class with NO ability.
Well I think if they would add some vertical it will be a good side-grade to the Jump Jets, instead of a down grade.
These ideas are nice, but where are my Dark Trooper style jetpacks? Battlefront 2 had amazing jetpack units
That would be a beautiful thing but I think "burst" jets could be a different class of jets. These jets could add some interesting hit and run play styles with the shotgun.
Quick history lesson. In Tech test we had the Icarus Jumpjets, which gave incredible vertical thrust in trade for fast fuel consumption and low horizontal thrust. The balance issue discovered is that the Icarus could be used for ANY situation, especially in place evasion by simply flying up to cover, or up and slightly over to drop in behind a close by aggressor. Most of the time the other player couldn't keep up with the rate of change, and funky netcode at the time made tracking them even harder then it already was. The Icarus was quickly scrapped because of this, and they buffed the normal jump jets to fill the role of high ground ascent. Drifters were pretty bad from the getgo because it required far too much height to get started, and its decent angle was way too steep for the speed it traveled. It was substantially faster to use regular jump jets to jump down, sprint across, then ascend back up then it was for the drifters to cover any gap wider then 15m. There was also a huge problem where Drifters wouldn't prevent you from touching the ground, and causing you to come to a dead stop where ever you landed. For a time they revamped the Drifters to arrest decent better, and forced a minimum ground distance of 1m when it was active. This allowed you to slide over terrain, using the wasd as a vector control to move and look in different directions. While not particularly great in combat due to it using jump state CoF, the ADS was just good enough to let you fire while maintain good movement speed. This was eventually undone through 2 stealth nerfs and the ADS/jump change a while back. As for a solution? Burst movement is discouraged due to its impact on netcode and object tracking. However, retooling it for faster sustained horizontal, shortening its burn time, weakening some of its arrest power, nominalizing at a softer decent angle, and giving the LA a slightly higher initial jump height, would substantially improve their Travel ability in areas of cover, while not giving the same kind of vertical reach the normal Jump jets have.
