Hey guys, I was thinking about making some units have the ability to use jetpacks to get over some obstacles and buildings. These units would be small, have decent weapons but low health and are more expensive than similar units. They would be able to fly over things like small canyons, rivers, buildings and walls. They would not be capable of sustained flight but have just enough flight time to get over these obstacles. TLDR: certain units should have jetpacks to get over obstacles, yet have low health and decent weapons.
I'm all in favor of a unit that can 'jump' obstacles, as long as pathing is smart and it's handled automatically for me.
I hate to bring up star craft but there were some units that had this auto jump feature, where you'd give them a move order and they'd start jumping across cliffs to get where they were going. It was pretty neat, and I think it could go in the game without adding too much micro. Also there was another thread out there somewhere that talking about different units having different types of movement. Hovering, wheels, treads, bipedal legs, spider legs. And each of them would have different over all themes as far as their stats go. tanks with treads would be tougher, wheeled units would be faster, bipedal robots would be able to turn faster, that sort of thing. And one of the stats that came up was how steep of an incline they could go up. So you'd have a bunch of different inclines that make up the landscape, and some units could go up ramps that others couldn't. It's not jetpacks but you'd still have different units that can go places others can't. Also you'd be able to quickly look at a unit and tell how it's going to behave by what it uses to move.
Welcome to the forums! You might want to check out the topic index to get a quick idea of what's going on. There has been a great deal of discussion on motion and unit mobility of all types. Generally, any new movement option for a unit counts as a "perk", and it must pay an extra (minor to moderate) cost for the privilege. The most basic of units are presumed to have no special traits, with their perk being the best overall unit for the job. All units will have a need for specialized transports to move them across vast distances of both planets and space. Units that have independent powers can benefit from them directly in combat.
