First things first A jetpack is a jetpack Right now we have two seperate cert trees for the jetpack , one for horizontal , and one for verticle. While I agree these should be viable cert paths that can be augmented , the problem lies in the fact that you can only equip one of them at a time. In the future jetpacks would be able to switch between fuel consumption modes just like you can switch fire modes in a rifle. Translated into gameplay terms , you should be able to bind a key that switches the travel mode in question. So you reach the top of a building using vertical thrust and need to reach a deck of another building , you simply press a key and it switches to horizontal mode.The reason this is important is the horizontal mode of travel is completely useless in game ALONE . If you cant get to high places in the first place how are you going to hover around? So both modes need to be able to available to the player at all times. Now for my new idea that can change how jetpacks are used. Imagine a third mode independant of horizontal and vertical. Here is how it works. You hold down the space bar and a circle icon (like healing and repairing) appears and begins counting up the longer you hold the space bar.. This is the amount of unburnt fuel you are "dumping" shortly behind you in a cloud of sorts , and when you release the spacebar the cloud ignites into a small explosion that propels the player forward in the direction they were pointing at high speed (about the speed of a jump pad) . The amount potential distance you can cover with a fully charged "superjump" is great. for example you can jump all the way to the landing pad of a biolab or jump horizontally accross a canyon. But alot of people would think this would often kill the player instantly with fall damage and thats why a limited amount of fuel will be reserved to "brake" as you are in the final few meters of decent. So just enough fuel to stop you safely , but not enough to fly around. I can hear you complaining already about how "OP this would make the light assault class and how it would change biolab fights , but that is the point. Only the lightly armed light assault would be able to make the jump. and medics and engis with their ammo would still need to get there the traditional way. They would be the tip of the spear on a biolab assault and if not resupplied quickly would run out of ammo. anyway here is a list of things that can balance this and make it great. - When you cause this "explosion" of gas behind you , it knocks out your shields. So while in flight you are COMPLETELY vulnerable to all small arms fire. By the time you land your sheilds should be recharging. - The cooldown on this ability will be LONG , like a minute or longer. This would prevent people from simply bunny hopping all the way across the map in massive roaving bunny hoards. - You would be unable to fire any weapons while making the jump. - If you hit something during the jump (a mosqito or a wall) you die so what do you guys think?
I sort of like the idea behind combining the horizontal and vertical jumps, except both can be achieved with the vertical jump jets. Albeit with a very limited run time while gliding horizontally. Right now if the jet packs get fixed chances are skilled users will use that trick a lot more effectively since it relies heavily on fuel capacity and recharge rate. I don't much like the third ability though. If we were able to switch between horizontal and vertical JJs then that would be promised utility enough for most of us. The "super jump" would go far above and beyond what we should be capable of. It's not that it would be overpowering directly, just that the class would become overly popular.
I think just having drift jets and normal jets equipped at the same time would be enough of a boost to our mobility. Make holding shift a way to change jetpack modes (even mid flight). The big thing LA needs is a way to be more effective in team play. Which could come from a tweaking of C4/explosives, or from a new tool. Higby mentioned a way to scavenge ammo from corpses, but that still keeps us lone wolf-y.
I love it that way honestly. Means I'm not running into enemies every 2 feet on rooftops and can do my job without hindrances. If LA had a super jump ability, it would make the class extremely popular, and popularity dictates power more then simple stats do. And as cool as this ability sounds, there is just no need for it. At all. Actually I think the easiest toggle method might be the F key which is already set as the infantry "special ability". Tap F to switch from mode to mode, you'd need an icon in the charge bar or something to show what mode you were currently on though.
nah , B would be better as that F might be used for future abilities like said ammo grab from corpses
B toggles weapon fire modes. F does nothing, and I think if we got ammo grab ability it would just treat all corpses as ammo boxes that give us half (or less) the normal amount of ammo. That is how I'd work it out if I was developing the ability anyway.
I'm not saying a toggle, but an on-hold button. I tend to hold shift to sprint before a jump anyway and it doesn't take any fingers away from movement control like F or B. Holding sprint would correspond to horizontal mobility, release and you are back in normal fly mode, and holding it again would switch back. This could easily be done mid-flight and would allow from some great strafing moves. B changes the equipped weapon's firing mode, and would be really confusing if it did both, switch to drifters, now in semi-auto mode, doh! F should be reserved for the scavenging thingy.
You've got a good point on shift, that would actually be perfect as a means of letting us move horizontally faster on the fly as well as vertically. Still I've never tried the horizontal thrusters, how effective are they with strafing? I'd rather LA just treated corpses like ammo boxes. Walk over one and you get half the normal amount of rounds back, or one tic of the normal amount of rounds from an ammo box.
I too would prefer them to be single tic (or based on how much ammo they had) ammo boxes. I don't want to have to stop and scrounge. I haven't actually gotten the drifters yet, but I'll give them a go tomorrow and report back.
More's the pity. LA utility really shines in Sunderer defense, I just recently learned. We had a situation last night where it was a three-way battle for an AMP station. We, the VS rolled in first against a moderately defended NC. While the main zerg smashed itself against the gate closest to our line of travel, I noticed the vehicle force field was down and swung out of line and around the base to another gate. I managed to get my Sunderer inside the wire before they got the field back up and just as the TR hit the base from the other side. We did a good job of keeping the Sunderer repped and the 3/4 xp points were coming like a torret as I was the only sundie to have deployed before the manage-de-battle ensued. The main problem was keeping the nearby fortress wall and the surrounding rooftops clear of NC and TR LA. When we did have a couple of friendly LA around, no problem. When we didn't, theirs were lobbing grenades and spawn-killing our guys. I opted for a heavy to deal with the maxes that kept coming around and put myself on a rooftop overlooking the sundie, but it would have been much better to have an LA or two in overwatch.
I think the vertical one is basically good now already if they would just have higher serts actually increase the time.) I see no reason to mess with what works.
Exchanging your jetpak for a jumppak? That sounds like a rather interesting idea, but I'd rather have them tweak the jetpack a bit first. Also, your idea of having them combine aspects of the horizontal and vertical uses for the jumpaks (in order to make BOTH viably usable) is a very good idea. There really is no point in having a hoverpak if you can't get high enough to USE the blasted thing. Maybe they should have players start with a standard jetpak, which can be given extra vertical OR horizontal usability WITHOUT crippling its basic functionality. That would probably be the best idea; it wouldn't take away from the game balance, but would allow for more concrete control of our characters.
And make sure to include Tribes-esque "skiing". I love that an entire aspect of Tribes was based on a graphics engine quirk that wasn't discovered until well into the game's development.
There is PLENTY of terrain that would work, too. I've never played a shooter that had anything like the rush of zipping across the map, timing your jetpack bursts to match the terrain, just clearing the crest of hills and sliding faster and faster down the other side. That brings up a vision of the VS, TR, and NC fighting it out on Auraxis only to be invaded by Blood Eagles and Children Of Phoenix. It would make for interesting combat, anyway, as the PS2 humans turn en masse to meet the fast-moving, spinfusor-armed humans from a thousand years in the future.
I would wavedash and crossup the **** out of everyone I ran into. Suddenly years of playing fighting games would have a purpose outside of the genre.
