Niche unit. Jetpack Bots?

Jetpacks...
Alright so I know we've all seen the Kickstarter trailer correct? The drop pods with bots flying down to the ground? Well.. I have a propostion! How about that actually be made a single unit? I know many will be skeptical that it would replace gunships but I beleive it could be in it's own role on land.

These bots of course are very very versatile! Able to move very quickly. Their drawback is that they are insanely vulnerable to fighters and AA alike. They're mean't to be quick reinforcements. They have decreased dps when flying and very high dps when on the ground. They would run slower than the average bot maybe slightly buffed health. I beleive these could serve a good purpose as fast attack bots that can also be used as some quick reinforcements on the go to deter the enemy just rebuilding defenses before you can send some via the ground. Their range could be slightly less with a higher dps. No AA capabilities. Obviously more expensive than a normal bot. You could use these bots in a very tactical way using them to flank an enemy force that's just running straight into your main army. Just sounds like an interesting concept and I'd like to hear others thoughts on it!

I am also wondering.. What factory should this particular unit use? A bot factory, air? Or maybe a way to make things a little more interesting.. make the jetpack capability be something you build in an air factory and strap onto bots.. Similar to a mini Astreus I suppose.

Come on.. you can't say you wouldn't love this. <3

Example:

Justification:
So basically it could be a great unit for helping out with assaults that are ending with stalemates, using a little micro to get behind the enemy and flank without needing to stop the push and pull away to get around leaving you vulnerable.

Inspiration:
I came up with this idea while thinking about what Uber had said, bots are infantry, and I find that a Jetpack Bot could be a valid role as support infantry. This could also be pushed to Advanced because of the separate role it takes from a normal bot which is what advanced is all about.

Possible Problems:
A problem I could see with this is that it could possibly make single unit transports a little redundant. I am not afraid of it replacing gunships because of the very low DPS I would give this unit while flying if any.

Edit: Made the concept a little easier to understand, these bots are not ALWAYS in the air. They are less effective while flying because of lower dps. When they do land they have very high dps, low health, and slightly faster speed than the regular bot while losing some more valuable range. (this is subject to change I support compromises)

This is not in german and therefore should not be in the German general dicussion sub-forum, please pm a mod to move it to general discussion

I know I did right after posting. It was an accident my apologies.

moved to general discussions

I figured jetpack bots would be added to the advanced bot factory and they could jump over terrain features that block their path. It does make me wonder though, if we have terrain ignoring jetpack bots and terrain ignoring spiderbots, that would seem to be an overlap in specialized roles.

Aren't these called gunships?

The only way I'd be fine with a jetpack bot is if the jetpack allowed it to jump over cracks, lakes, and mountains and stuff.

If it's a permanently flying bot, well, that's a gunship.

I never liked ground units which ignore terrain constraints, they make the terrain meaningless.

I agree, but even with the cracks there would be issues. The game would have trouble knowing when to pathfind around things vs jump over them. It might also cut into territory reserved for the (possible) hovercraft role.

It's isn't permanetly flying it lands, I'm sorry if I didn't explain that enough my apologies! I tried to imply it by saying when it flies it has lower dps. The point is that when it lands and has higher dps!

Right, but then it is either an ability that you have to turn on (too much micro) or automatic (complicated pathfinding).

This is the reasoning behind a great number of air-hate posts... or those misconstrued as such.

A bot that can hop over cracks would be great, though I'm not certain if it'd put a strain on pathfinding to do so. Do very small water barriers count as cracks? Will it hop over walls? Also, might it get hit by AA fire during the brief "jump" period?

I'm worried "helicopter hat" single-unit transports would make this type of unit redundant, especially since you can do the same trick with a high-density unit like the Inferno instead of balancing the damage/HP specifically around the jump ability.

Yes I understand it needs micro but that's the point in this sort of unit, it's mean't to be a micro unit. You send it to flank behind the enemy then drop and actually.. you can simply just tell it to fly over there then land. Then you don't even need to watch.

They need to be primarily ground units and just use the jetpacks to jump around.

Hm.. I suppose that could work, use it to jump over the mountain? They could possibly have a speed buff while lowering DPS. I invisioned that it would be VERY fast.. The point would be that you could reinforce your army from the back without the long waiting time of letting them walk half way across the map. Now because of this speed they'd lose dps and would gain high vulnerability to air. It's mean't to help continue pushing with your forces while your army comes up there or to be used to assist an army by flanking around the other army and running straight through whilst your main army pushes forward as well constricting the enemy.

Pretty sure one of the key parts of the unit design philosophy in this game is supposed to be no unit abilities that need to be manually triggered. I don't think you will get your jetpack bots in the un-modded game, but unit abilities appear possible in the game engine (like the uber cannon) so it may end up in mods. The only real way to do this would be if they could be automated, which is probably not possible with the way pathfinding works.

It could be pretty simple all you'd need is a keybinding for switching between modes and make an attack plan. Shift then telling to fly to here, there, and then land here. It's just like making a little attack strategy for any other unit the only difference is one more command.

So people seem to be ok with sc2 reaperstyle assaultbots? i personaly dont mind ...

@squishypon3 there is no way you should have to click a button to switch modes. That totally kills the point of the game. Any functionality should happen automatically.

Yea- they'd basically be gunships. But jumping bots could be a great unit addition

when I saw this post I instantly thought of the reaper from StarCraft2.

mechanics wise they should act like the reaper, I see them as harass units. So high attack really low health. as well, they should definitely cross terrain automatically.

Is it really that difficult to go to the right of your screen where all the commands are and click a fly command tell it to go to point B from point A and then click a land command and tell it to land *here*? then move around normally? It's so simple.. We do that already as I've said before with using other commands. Infact there could be a land are command so that the jet pack bots land in different locations all around in the same area.