Unvanquished Forum

Soar to the skies with our new jetpack!

Back in Tremulous, the jetpack provided the human team with their sole means of vertical movement. Available at stage 2, the jetpack could be worn over light armor, allowing for the user to be protected while slowly hovering across the map, picking off aliens from the air with a mass driver or another reliable long-range weapon. On certain maps, this led to particularly irritating behavior, as the alien team lacked the capacity to take down the flying human, short of destroying the reactor or firing a well-aimed dragoon barb. The rare legitimate usages of the jetpack involved building in interesting places and taking advantage of routes normally available to aliens in the early game. Inexplicably, the jetpack also allowed for rapid movement in vents.

Our new jetpack was designed by Alex B. O'Dowd, and while we haven't gotten to modeling it yet, we're already working on it from the gameplay side of things. In fact, you can expect to play with some of the new jetpack features this weekend on our Sunday development game. Unlike Tremulous, our jetpack will not allow you to slowly hover in place. Instead, the jetpack will integrate with your regular movement and won't be triggered manually anymore. The jetpack will provide much more rapid flight, at the expense of a fuel limit. Presumably, the jetpack fuel will regenerate over time, or may be renewed at a base structure.

Click here to read this article on the main site!

kharnov wrote:

Instead, the jetpack will integrate with your regular movement and won't be triggered manually anymore.

I assume that means that if you jump you will more inclined to fly rather than the jetpack will activate at any point in time, throwing you off a cliff.

Please tell me it will have more fuel than what is on the dev server currently :P

Train a bit with it: You can go very fast in pretty much any direction. It's not made for hovering over an area but to traverse it quickly or get a temporary combat advantage. Therefor, flight time will most likely stay in the range of 5s to 10s (currently 5s).

Instead, the jetpack will integrate with your regular movement and won't be triggered manually anymore

This is what I don't like about commercial games. They over-simplify things for newbies and disallow varied combat.

For example, in trem 1.1 I actually use jetpack to assist dodging dragoons.
Sounds stupid for its mobility, but it works best in atcs hallways, it isn't quite effective but just about as effective as gpp dodge when used in the right context.

Btw, review KoRx and Xonotic style jets, because they are the type I'm looking forward towards, not like the WoW one that kills half your hp to jump a few hundred metres...

ViruS wrote:

Instead, the jetpack will integrate with your regular movement and won't be triggered manually anymore

This is what I don't like about commercial games. They over-simplify things for newbies and disallow varied combat.

Intuitive few-key controls do in no way imply lack of variance. The new jetpack can perform many more tasks than the old one. You can go in any direction qickly. You can use it in combat even when the room is not high enough to jet-camp outside enemy reach. Most importantly, movement skill became relevant as the usual in-air physics apply and you can quickly toggle the jets by repeatedly pressing and releasing the jump key. I assume it is even possible to "air-strafe" with it, just like you can change your direction significantly without losing much speed by lookind sideways in a circle-jump manner. I believe the new jetpack is clearly superior from the perspective of a skill-focused player. At the same time we are one step closer to getting rid of the scroll-and-select inventory that was preventing newbes from using items such as medkit, grenade and jetpack in combat.

If you wanna test the new jetpack, participate in the development games today starting at 20:00 UTC.

Any thoughts on the concept of two types of jetpacks?Electric Jetpack - Slower, more regulated, sustained flight Reloads at repeater, reactor, and armory Can explode rarely from marauder shock (KoRx did this) Ideal for building or patrolFuel Jetpack Faster movement and more rapid take-off Only reloads at armory Larger fuel capacity Ideal for scouting or strike team

I'd rather fit every niche with one item at most and make it as flexible as possible.

The alien team has always and will always hate jet packs. If this new jetpack shows signs of being overused and overpowered would you consider starting with a slower moving jetpack when its first unlocked, then as confidence grows a permanent improvement to the jetpack so the game has more time to progress before the humans can easily achieve air dominance.
But I suppose the flying alien is a check for that. Just an idea.

Viech wrote:

games today starting at 20:00 UTC.[/b]

like I could. Dev server's empty this morning when I woke up.