There’s been something bugging me about this game for a while, and that’s the sense of scale that the world has. Despite the plaza map being huge and filled with stuff, It has always felt small in a way.
I haven’t been able to really pinpoint exactly what it was until I looked at how I was moving across the plaza and other areas - by flying at mach speed with my jetpack, ignoring all the obstacles, intricate pathways, the monorail, player vehicles, and whatever else the game has to offer to get from point A to B.
Out of curiosity I timed how long it would take me to run from one side of the plaza map to the other compared to my typical jetpack route and method.
If you don’t want to watch the video, the times were 8.25 seconds with the jetpack and 44.26 seconds by sprinting across on the ground.
That’s a 36 second difference. Admittedly I did get stuck in the pool for a little while but the point still stands - I really shouldn’t be going this fast across what’s meant to be the biggest default area in the game.
Also consider that while I’m flying up in the sky I’m also ignoring most of the details PixelTail worked so hard to put into the map. It’s like going to an art gallery and sprinting to the exit, I’ve reached the end of my visit but I didn’t really experience anything other than getting a novelty mug at the gift shop.
On a another point, because I’m flying that may be contributing to the feeling of the world feeling empty; I’m one less person in a visible space and I spend far less time in that space because of how fast I’m also going. You’d have to be specifically looking for me to notice that I’m also in the plaza with you.
To further nail in my point -
The most basic jetpack costs 2,000 units. That’s basically nothing, a single round of any gameworld will get you that. But any kind of deployable vehicle will take significantly more time to obtain as a good chunk of them are locked behind milestones and arcade tickets.
Once you get a jetpack, there’s no real need to explore the map as intended anymore. There’s exploration achievements, but those can be completed very quickly with a guide and a jetpack. Don’t forget that some of these exploration achievements require a jetpack to reach certain points (e.g. snail on-top of arcade).
The monorail is really cool and good effort was put into designing its track and how it connects to each major hotspot of the plaza, but one of the many reasons as to why nobody uses it is because they can just effectively warp across the plaza with their jetpack.
The game has a quick travel system in it with the maps scattered across the plaza, but I don’t remember ever needing or wanting to use it - it takes more thought than just launching myself with my jetpack towards the door. It’s practically muscle memory at this point.
Have you ever used the winding pathways around the minigame arena? Have you ever seen someone use them outside of the Halloween event pumpkin hunt?
This is nitpicky, but I really don’t like how the jetpacks look on my player model. I exclusively use the superpower jetpack for this reason, but even that has a visual effect with it applying a blue sparkle in flight.
The big problem here is that jetpacks have been in the game for so long that I can’t see removing or disabling them to be received well at all;
Removing them entirely isn’t a solution - what about condos that make use of jetpacks for navigation? What about the rarer and more expensive jetpack reskins people have grinded for?
Disabling them in most or all areas of the plaza would work, but that is going to make players confused when they equip their jetpack and can’t use it, and also upset the players who have been using the jetpack as their main form of plaza transport.
Significantly reducing their horizontal speed and turning them strictly into a vertical movement tool would feel awkward to use (or at least it would in my opinion).
Making them have some kind of recharging fuel/battery meter is a good middle-ground option, but that comes with all of the frustrations you get from games with stamina bars - it’s not fun to suddenly lose your speed and have to wait for it to recharge.
Increasing the cost of jetpacks to be more in-line with deployable vehicles is a solution that only works for new players who have yet to purchase a jetpack, and that window is incredibly small with how cheap and accessible they are.
This was mostly just a rant post, I don’t expect anything to be done about this for the reasons I’ve listed above. The most i’d say is that you as an individual should try playing the game without a jetpack equipped, I guarantee that it would make for a more immersive experience for you and potentially others.
Yeah, I feel that. I actually use it less over the years. And now I use it based on workshop models. More specifically invisible jetpack due to characters already having wings.
I find Pluck a Pal Crane little more fun though not as good as other Grappling guns from other games
I agree that everybody flying around is a detriment to the social aspects of tower. It leads to less incidental run-ins and spontaneous interactions and discoveries.
It’s probably too late to go back now but I wish it weren’t this way.
Also the movement prediction is so consistently poor even with under 30 ping that I can’t move well with it at all. If I’m not holding space for a very long time I jitter all over the place and it’s nauseating.
Another issue caused by the jetpacks are the accumulative achievements, particularly “Jumping Jack Rabbit”. People technically don’t “jump” much because of the jetpacks.
The movement in this game is jank in general, it feels like there’s basically no inbetween for going slow and fast. Jetpacks feel extra jank because of this too as you’re now moving even faster which is likely harder for the server tickrate to keep up with.
It only really feels good when you’re on a very low ping server, so a good chunk of that is on networking but that’s a whole different can of worms - unreal really doesn’t work that well with large player counts where each player has numerous unique traits about them (cosmetics, models, effects, etc etc), and the way that Fortnite got around it is complicated.
Another thing that I feel jetpacks diminished was the player cohesion; a bunch of people in the lobby having impromptu moments of running into each other and hanging out. Sometimes you’re around a new player/strangers and they just take off and are gone, then you check the scoreboard and they’re at “the great outdoors.” Great, that could be literally anywhere, most likely the God damn sky that is approximately +90% of the map. Seems like these moments only occur between the subway exit to the fountain.
On that topic, a long time ago, when the game was in a much different state, I REALLY wanted there to be golf carts, or at least some way to chauffeur a party around. I even drew a diagram to demonstrate my frustrations with moving as a group to another location:
Back in the lobby 1 Gmod Tower days, the map was almost all interior rooms and halls so a jetpack never broke much in terms of navigation and space. I think the state of jetpacks are simply an early holdover.
While I whole heartedly agree with just about all your points and have felt similarly about it for a long time. I guess the question is if it’s too late to do anything at this point. Like more of a retrospective of a mistep. The game is coming up on being 10 years old. Is it worth changing at this point? Jetpacks almost feel like part of the games DNA.
Basically the point I was getting at in the original post.
I see the problem, but I don’t think it can be fixed without upsetting a significant amount of people who have gotten used to flinging themselves around with their jetpack. It’s a question on if:
Pixeltail agrees with the points brought up in this thread.
Whether or not they’re up for doing something that’s admittedly risky for assumed gains in player interaction and immersion.
Players would support doing such a thing at all. Based on the reaction to this thread I’d say there’s some support for it, but this forum is more of a vocal minority of the actual, larger community.
Yeah that is something that I also felt was a bit weird
I don’t agree with that, for me it is just another way to fast travel, or a tool to explore places that are unreachable without
That is true, for me it is just too slow and I have no reason to go all the way around when I have multiple ways of reaching my destination quicker and more direct. It is cute tho
I disagree, me and many other users prefer using the map. I’d say if my destination is not in walking distance I go with the fast travel map first. And it is also super helpful to visually see where people are. And it is also usually quicker than flying there (for me, at least the places that aren’t right by the subway)
Actually there are multiple events that require you to walk around that area. But yeah I definitely use it more rarely than other places on the map. There’s just no reason too because frankly, that area is boring as hell (and it is also quite confusing)
That’s a thing that always bothered me too. I fear the majority don’t like the looks of it. What if instead of jetpacks we just got more wings, hoverboards etc… like do many different objects instead of the same item in different skins
I have a lot of thoughts on why the changes from GMT to Tower caused a loss of cohesion, but your point on interior spaces is the big one in the background I agree with.
very tangential thought here, but it bugs the hell out of me how half of the map is just “the great outdoors”
it makes it freaking impossible to find my friends.
there are multiple events that require you to walk around that area. But yeah I definitely use it more rarely than other places on the map. There’s just no reason too because frankly, that area is boring as hell (and it is also quite confusing)