No replies to this topic

[Cementi]

Three things have bugged me about jumpjets, even before the nerf.

One they do not jump nearly as far as they are supposed to. While I can concede this I do think that the fact one jump jet gives different amounts of thrust for each weight class is a problem. Ideally they were all supposed to give the same, just bigger jump jets for the bigger mechs. It does not scale well I know but maybe making one jump jet give the same thrust for every mech and then adjusting their weights away from table top might make balancing them easier. ie lights .5 ton, mediums 1 ton, heavies 1.5 ton, and assaults 2 ton. Also for the love of (insert deity) unlock them from the clan mechs. Of course you need to make Jump Jets better so that maybe people will want to take large numbers of them.

Two you cannot change direction when in the air.....no turning allowed only spinning but once in the air you still travel in a straight line. While I do not want to see jumpjets make mechs into aerospace fighters I do not think giving us a little bit of control in the air would be the end of the world. Tie this maneuverability to the amount of jump jets you have. The more you have the faster you can turn.

Three the fact that they do not recharge at all while in the air. Now I can see possible exploits keeping mechs in the air to far. However having it so that each jump jet has a resting point slightly above expended that it would allow you to recharge to could be balanceable and allow you to truly make use of your full jump value if it allowed you to recharge a bit so that you can soften the landing, not enough to go from falling to jumping again before you hit the ground but enough that you do not damage your legs. Obviously this would increase for each jump jet you have mounted. ie say a jump jet allowed you to jump 10 m (arbitrary number not suggesting this be the thrust value) high when fully depleted. Maybe say that you can recharge up to 30% of this jet value. So once you get under 30% you let off and it will recharge back to that but no more. You then have 30% of your jump that you can use to soften the landing. Obviously testing would be required so that you could not pump your jump jets and keep yourself in the air too long but at least this way there is another incentive to having more than one or two jump jets.

So to sum up my suggestions would be as follows.

Equalize the performance of all jump jets across weight classes but adjust the weights so that heavier mechs have to pay for that agility. ie lights .5 ton, mediums 1 ton, heavies 1.5 ton, and assaults 2 ton.

Tie rotation speed of jump jets not to the chassis but to how many jump jets you have equipped. Also allow thrust applied while in the air to change your direction, how much again depends on how many jump jets you have.

Give jumpjets a resting point that they can recharge to while in the air, say 30%. That way you can soften your landings. If it is percent based then it could scale increaseing how much of a reserve you have as you add more jump jets.

Ideally these changes would make having more than 1 or 2 jumpjets an advantage so that clan jumpjets could be unlocked from the omnipods. With the current implementation they simply hurt the bad chassis and do nothing but add that touch of mobility the good variants need. is summoner is bad cannot get rid of jump jets, timber and dire are good can add in omnipods that a jet or two just to add that edge.

Or do you guys have your own suggestions. I love jumpjets in tabletop. Even in MWO I use them alot, more than 1 or 2 on many of my mechs but I would not mind seeing them improved so that there was a reason to truly use those max jumpjet slots.