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Jump Packs & Flight Packs
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 4:06 pm    Post subject: Jump Packs & Flight Packs Reply with quote

The RAW stats for jet packs, rocket packs, etc, don't do a very good job of distinguishing between the two; they both use the same basic form: "can move x # of meters horizontally or x# of meters vertically, has x # of charges."

What I've long wanted to do is redesign them based on game function, rather than the tech used to achieve it. Simply put, I'm picturing making two different categories: jump packs and flight packs.

Jump Packs would function very much like the existing rules, allowing a single vertical or horizontal move that begins and ends with a character standing on a solid surface (although I can see circumstances where a character could conceivably make a second "jump" while still in mid-air). This would be a separate Mechanical skill, but at lower Difficulty than a Flight Pack, since there isn't a whole lot of maneuvering involved.

Flight Packs would function more like wearable vehicles, complete with Maneuverability and Speed values. They could hover, accelerate and decelerate, and would mainly be limited by their fuel capacity.

Beyond that, it's conceivable that advanced versions that combine both functions exist, as well as environment-specific "flight" packs would exist for use underwater or in space.

I'm going to be chewing on some game stats, but I wanted to get this out there and see if anyone has any input.
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not sure if this matters to you, but I've always wondered how something like a flight pack is steered. I don't recall seeing any "controls" on such things in films or cartoons.

After seeing what this thread bears, I may steal.... erm... borrow some ideas for the rocket and repulsor skates I've been trying to conceptualize.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 9:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Naaman wrote:
Not sure if this matters to you, but I've always wondered how something like a flight pack is steered. I don't recall seeing any "controls" on such things in films or cartoons.

Tough to say. It's conceivably tied to body movements, like how in RotJ, Boba Fett raised his arms over his head like Superman when his jetpack activated. I'll need to go back and watch the Jango scenes in AotC to see if he made any movements that might qualify...

Quote:
After seeing what this thread bears, I may steal.... erm... borrow some ideas for the rocket and repulsor skates I've been trying to conceptualize.

Knock yourself out.

This being Star Wars, there's a strong chance that both function off of repulsorlifts with rocket/jet assistance. It's the only way a lot of what we see makes sense.
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah. For a shoe type system, though, I'm wondering how it might work to accelerate and decelerate or invert mid flight, etc.

Heck, even a rocket pack makes me wonder how the throttle is controlled, assuming the idea is to allow for both hands to fire guns or shoot grapplers, etc.
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Raven Redstar
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 12:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cad bane used rocket boots which he controlled from a wrist mounted computer.

I like the idea of doing flight packs. We can finally have a proper backpack for those of us who want flying bounty hunters!
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 3:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wonder if body movements like CRM mentioned is the answer.

Suppose the user wore sensors on his belt, his wrists, and his ankles. The rocket pack would communicate wirelessly with the sensors to know what to do...

The sensors could be magnetic or radio, I suppose.
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Darklighter79
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 4:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:

Tough to say. It's conceivably tied to body movements, like how in RotJ, Boba Fett raised his arms over his head like Superman when his jetpack activated. I'll need to go back and watch the Jango scenes in AotC to see if he made any movements that might qualify...



In AotC where he fights with Kenobi there so special action to activate the jet pack (no button clicking, voice command ect.). Turning is made by leaning to left of right, although I have no idea how he makes turn in upward flight. Maybe there some assistance from repulsor tech?
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There appear to be a lot of things Jango does with his armor that don't require visible controls; both the jetpack and the missile launcher appear to function without any sort of visible control mechanism. I suppose a sufficiently advanced integrated system could even be run off of eye movement (as in, look at a specific icon on your HUD, blink twice/say a code word/whatever, and your armor's AI systems activate the appropriate system). It could even conceivably be run off of a neural interface (which have to exist in varying degrees for bionic limbs to be a thing).
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Bren
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 11:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I could see using controls via sensors reading the motions of specific muscle groups. To prevent the jets from firing at an accidental or inappropriate muscle twitch, the user would need to enable flight mode via a voice command ("Up! Up! And away!"), button, or tongue switch.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 1:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It'd probably be best to just keep any description general, as in "a variety of different control mechanisms" and let people invent their own ideas from there. This being space opera, the ability to fly and/or jump as part of a game scenario is what's important. We never really question how stormtroopers or Mandalorians activate the different systems built into their armor, we just accept the fact that they do as part of the game rules.

So, some more details on this...

Flight Packs seem relatively straight forward. All that's needed is to give them a base Atmosphere Speed and Maneuverability. However, I do think it's appropriate for them to still have some sort of limit on usage, maybe with one "charge" expended for every Move they make. I'm also open to suggestions on altitude limitations.

For Jump Packs, I'm picturing something similar to the Grenade skill, as in, jumper designates his landing point, then rolls his Jump Pack skill, with a miss dictated by the Grenade Scatter Chart. The Jump Pack could even have a "Range", just like a weapon, to make longer jumps have higher Difficulty. There would also need to be rules for clearing obstacles, like trees or buildings...
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 11:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is the idea behind the jump pack that it just launches the character with one initial burst and he lands wherever (based on his skil roll)?

In other words, the character would need to have some kind of control over how high and how far he jumps (whether it is an accute arc, or a broad one) and would need control over his rate of descent, or else he'll just break his knees when he lands from a certain height.

It makes sense to me that if the rate of descent can be controlled, that landing exactly where you want should be pretty easy.

What do you think?
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RyanDarkstar
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 9:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Naaman wrote:
Is the idea behind the jump pack that it just launches the character with one initial burst and he lands wherever (based on his skil roll)?

In other words, the character would need to have some kind of control over how high and how far he jumps (whether it is an accute arc, or a broad one) and would need control over his rate of descent, or else he'll just break his knees when he lands from a certain height.

It makes sense to me that if the rate of descent can be controlled, that landing exactly where you want should be pretty easy.

What do you think?


Would it look something like this?
https://youtu.be/RTutHf8_aPk?t=542
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 10:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, that's pretty good.

Not sure what CRMcNeill is going for, though. It's just something that comes to mind for me (as something that he might actually want to address, given his affinity for details).
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MrNexx
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 11:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wonder how small one could make a repulsorlift. Like, would a back-pack sized one be feasible?
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RyanDarkstar
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 1:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MrNexx wrote:
I wonder how small one could make a repulsorlift. Like, would a back-pack sized one be feasible?


A lot of droids have repulsorlifts, though I'm not sure if they'd be powerful enough to allow Superman-style flight, but YMMV.

For example, Probe droids seem to be able to float and move about for long periods of time.
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