Lately i have been playing a bit Titanfall (thanks to the free 3 days playtime) and whenever i wall-run, wall-jump and climb around the buildings and roofs, i often find myself thinking: "That is something the PS2 Light Assault needs!". Now please don't judge this idea on your opinion of titanfall, i know many guys don't like its "fast paced" action. Also other people generally dislike the "speed" of a certain fps series. Generally i also wouldn't "copy" the titanfall movement system, but leave out some aspects like double jump and the general extreme high movement speed and very fast animations (for example climbing goes way too fast). I thought (just theoretically), even though it might be engine wise impossible, to implement a "wall-runner jump jet" with the Light Assault Revamp. The jump jets thrusters could push you against the wall, so you get more friction, maybe even a little push upward, so the light assaults don't get weary too fast. I'd definitely like such a complete new "mechanic" much more, than something rather simple and boring as "dual wielding pistols". What do you think about this "theoretical" idea?
I thought that myself when I first played Titanfall. But there is a fundamental difference between the philosophy of movement in Titanfall and PS2, and I'm not even talking about engine limitations. In Titanfall, your main means of movement are your feet, the "jump jets" in Titanfall simply assist you in jumping, or provide a short burst, equal to mid air jump. But in PS2, Light Assaults CAN FLY. And when you can fly, you don't need jumping and wallrunning. You can already fly along the wall with the same result. "Saving fuel" wouldn't work, because Jump Jets would still need to assist while wallrunning. If SOE really wanted to make LA gameplay more fluid, they could just make the Jump Jets faster by 50%. / Titanfall rant below Titanfall is actually not that fast paced, more like "frantic". It combines the worst features of modern FPS with best features of old ones. Best: freedom of movement. Worst: bad realization. There were a lot of places on Titanfall maps that had "almost possible" jumps. It's like they intentionally taunted you: "hey, jump here!", and you would jump and fail to reach the ledge by 1 meter. There is also this "cling to the wall" mechanic I never quite figured how to activate, but each time I did it by accident I instantly died. Best: good weapon balance and interesting and diverse weapons. Anti-titan weapons extremely ineffective against infantry, so no rocket primaries there. Worst: very bad hip fire, and aim down sights mechanic that actually exclude any meaningful "fast paced" action, since to actually hit anything you have to land and aim down sights, and extremely short TTK. So camping is very effective, while running around trying to shoot stuff is not. Melee attack is a personal pet peeve of mine. It's OHK even when taken to the face, and can't be prevented in any way. I've seen people develop reflexes to spin randomly and spam melee attack when they're getting shot, that's how effective it is. The most annoying part it's a kick, even though every soldier has a perfectly viable knife. There's something insulting in being kicked. Due to inability to hit anything past 2m with hip fire, the "fast paced action" of Titanfall boils down to who closes the distance and presses melee attack first.
That would be the point. While flying with either drifter or jump jets has a slow speed but high flexibility, wall-running would increase the speed by a good portion, but meanwhile limit your free movement (flying to roofs), as you'd need good wallrun combos to get to high places.
I don't see why running with jet assist should be faster than full time flying with powerful jet pack. Yes, current jump jets are too slow, and should be buffed, but running faster than flying would make no sense whatsoever.
I think functionality alone wouldn't be enough. Map design plays a huge role in making it happen. You see mostly urban areas. PS2 colonization structures are spread apart quite fairly. Also I don't think we need to be faster. I think JJs need to be more responsive - as in less acceleration and deceleration impact.
