I enjoy jets in certain maps. They add to the strategy and overall dynamic, but used improperly they can become an annoying tool for XP farmers or unskilled players who spam missiles. I wanted to make a few suggestions that could better balance JetShip play.
1. Increase missile damage, but also increase reload time OR decrease the missile payload from 4 to 2
- Increasing the reload time on missiles and/or cutting the maximum missile payload down from 4 will reduce missile spamming by requiring greater skill in terms of missile use. Players would need to be more deliberate about where they aim missiles and more careful in chosing targets as reload time and/or how many missiles they can fire at a time would be something to take into consideration. Currently the reload time is such that JetShip functions as a (slow) automatic missile gun.
2. Manual reload of JetShip missiles
- This one is pretty straightforward. Requiring the player to press 'r' to manually reload JetShip missiles will naturally counter missile spamming. Could be combined with the suggested reload time increase to greatly reduce missile spamming capability.
3. Replace existing infinite speed boost with temporary high-speed boost
- Right now JetShip can boost infinitely to fly faster than players can sprint but not so fast as to overtake a car. This is pretty crummy for two primary reasons. First, the infinite speed boost allows a player to make an easy escape from players on the ground to avoid being blown up, making it more difficult to take out jets from the ground. Second, the boost being slower than a car makes JetShip a less-than-effective tool as a defense against cars. Cars can easily outrun JetShips and outmaneuver if the driver is half decent. The current mid-speed infinite boost is a disadvantage for ground players and for JetShip players against cars. Instead, I propose removing the existing infinite speed boost and instead having a temporary, recharging high-speed boost, similar to an individual player energy bar. When engaged, the boost should allow a jet to overtake a car at top speed, but will only last for a limited time. The boost will recharge when not being used (and possibly also when not firing missiles). The high-speed nature of the boost enables JetShips to have greater ability against cars, but the temporary nature of the boost (and the time to recharge) means that the player using the ship must be careful when deciding to boost and for how long. This levels play against ground players because JetShips will not longer be able to infinitely boost away or up, making it more likely that ground players will be able to shoot down jets before they can run away.
4. Automatic attribution of coins OR reset coin total each round
- In my experience missile spamming is largely the result of less-skilled players who have collected coins that they did not earn using JetShips to farm XP and KDR. To counter this, I see two options. First, automatically add coins earned from headshots to the player who made the kill. This would prevent the collection of unearned coins, but still allow players to give coins to others using the 'z' button. Second, simply reset each player's coin total each round. This prevents skillful players from building up a significant coin reserve and reduces imbalance carryover from a previous round. It would also prevent less-skilled players from collecting unearned coins across multiple rounds to use for JetShip.
