Improvement: Light Assault Backpacks - Ammo Drop, Radar Booster, and more! The Jetpack Tradeoff!

[Zekeen]

Alright, so recently I was watching the old first alpha footage when Higby was zipping around as a light assault. I have come to accept and love light assault and the 50 billion flying jetpackers we will be seeing, but then I started wondering "How can you limit the number of jetpackers without actually enforcing a limit on players?". I have come up with an answer that not only fixes this, but also fixes many other Light Assault balance issues, all with one simple feature type that improves gameplay as well! The idea is simply this:



Allow Light Assault to equip backpacks in place of jetpacks that give them enhanced support roles and extended combat capability.


Before I go into specific types of backpacks, I'll list the problems that this helps us go around.
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Light Assault will be nothing but jetpackers, meaning anyone using this class will be jumping around, distracting in giant hoards just out of coincidence. It's fine to be an annoying grasshopper hoard, but that should be a group pre-planned bit of fun, not just because they all have jetpacks.

Light Assault is "overpowered". Not in the sense of being able to kill, but in having too much they can do at once. Jetpacks are a very big tactical advantage, give them ammo drop boxes too and they have two distinct, large scale tactical advantages with no extra cost. As Higby always says, "There has to be a tradeoff!"

Light Assault is automatically the ammo drop class. This forces a bit of a support role onto the player, even though the class is more geared out for rushing combat. There should be a selection for how the player prefers to play, rather than being given everything. As it stands, players will be requesting ammo from fleeting jetpackers flying past without a care, as they choose to be attack centered, and their allies cannot spot those who will give support.
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Those are the problems, and here are the solutions. These are backpacks that can be equipped instead of a jetpack, so you can follow your team as an assistance or support role (but no drop in firepower, it is light assault after all). One VERY BIG subject I have to address on this idea though, is that EVERY support enhancing effect should have an individual bonus for the player. Being able to support your team has to give you an advantage, even if you are alone.

Ammunition Supply Pack - A backpack loaded with the ammunition for your allies. Ignoring the fact we don't know the final way ammo boxes will work, this supply pack will come with a few boxes, 1-3, and on top of that gives a considerable increase to the maximum number of clips the player can hold.

Radar Backpack - A backpack with enhanced sensors that help spot enemies in the area. This lets you see where incoming enemies are and spot enemies that shoot at you longer. It reveals their location for your allies, but the obvious radar antenna and large backpack expose you as a high risk to enemies. Do note, this is all MAP based revealing. Little red dots, with a higher view than normal individuals, and let enemies be revealed for longer periods of time when they fire from a location.

Ordinance Backpack - Rather than a direct support role, the ordinance pack increases the number of grenades and devices you can carry with you. Throw more frags, toss more smokes, it can be an individual or support role based on what you bring with you!

Command Pack - Rather than more obvious improvements the other packs provide, the Command Pack is much more subtle. It decreases command based timed abilities. Want your troops to reinforce by drop pod more often? Shave a couple of seconds off with this pack! Most likely, only up to 20% of the time would be reduced.


Light Assault, in its current state, would only be used for getting up, being annoying, and otherwise trying to fulfill a tactical role while dieing more and doing less.Jetpacks should be used for an offensive role and other packs for support and other light armor type roles you would expect. Using these backpacks, you could increase the tactical use of a light assault many more times than it is worth now. It also breaks up the use of jetpacks without adding cost, limitations, or anything else. Instead, players will choose other advantages, making a jetpack a less common thought and a more tactical choice.

Now, I know one problem with this feature, if you can call it an actual problem. Higby wants it to be easy to know where your support comes from. Engineer to repair, medic to heal, heavy assault and MAX to fight on the front, infiltrator to recon/sniper, and light assault to get in odd places and supply ammo. But in the end, jetpacks AND ammo drop are too much, and the jetpack could become too odd when massive numbers are around. Thus, we separate the ammo drop (which most rushing players with jetpacks don't care for anyways) and give more features that can be selected as replacements for the jetpacks.

These ideas turn a Light Assault role from - flying recon, advancing combat, resupply - to a more variable role of - Tactical Deployment -

If you want a more spread out idea of the Light Assault role, for all it can do, it'd be this - Resupply, Command, Advancing Combat, Flying Recon, Ordinance Support, Tactical Enhancment - In the end, the Light Assault GAINS abilities and roles instead of being limited, having some removed, or otherwise. Yes, the jetpacker would have "lost" ammo resupply for their fellow jetpacks squatting on top of a building with them, but the class would gain a more tactical definition of its role and be much more attractive to players. The risk of light armor and a lighter weapon for more tactical support is very tempting. You can now fly, resupply, grenade, find, and lead. I do believe that sounds better than being able to just fly everywhere and drop ammo boxes everywhere.