Add a toggle to disable the jetpack

[Omnifarious]

TL;DR

Add a toggle enable or disable the jetpack on the mech armor.

What?

There should be a button near the one for the exoskeleton that lets you turn the jetpack on and off. If the jetpack is off, then the automatic flying over things behavior would be disabled and it would be like normal power armor. When it is on, you get the current behavior.

Why?

I like the new mech suit, but like the exoskeleton, there are times when I'd kind of like to be able to disable the jetpack.

Having the jetpack enabled all the time is a little less problematic than the exoskeleton. Having many exoskeletons can make it nearly impossible to position yourself with any precision. There is a similar issue with the jetpack in the sense that sometimes, I don't want to be directly on top of a pipe or a building, but it's hard to do that, especially with exoskeletons and the jetpack in combination. And when zoomed out it can be difficult to even tell if I'm on top of a building or not.

Also, it's easier to get a feel for a space, where you can and can't build, things like that, if your movement is obstructed by obstacles.

I like the choice to make flying automatic when the jetpack is on. There is almost nothing about Factorio that is based on detailed, precise fine motor actions in a limited timeframe. And having a manually activated jetpack would change this, and change the experience of Factorio.

[Clair]

+1 I was looking for if there was a toggle for this.

The hovering and landing animations have just enough jitter to them, and it engages based on position with no resistance, that I end up missing some of my clicks when moving horizontally. Bumping into the sides of objects is too useful for positioning to me.

I also just dislike how hovering affects the feel of the game; obstructions added a texture to a factory's character that I desperately missed once I equiped the mech suit. Leaving little corridors between solar panels and planning pipes around walking through them, gets lost and it feels more like I'm just a slippery cursor that jitters up and down sometimes.

[ikarikeiji]

+1 from me too, having just obtained the mech suit.

It's such a simple QoL feature - they're probably secretly working on it already

[IsaacOscar]

Hmm, I've noticed no problems at all, except when trying to interact with something just within reach, the jetpack movement can close the GUI. But I wouldn't eant to disable my jetpack, just move closer to the thing.

I can't think of any reason to disable it, (unless I am trying to get a certain achievement tjat becomes impossible with the mech armor)

[jaylawl]

+ an achievement for getting run-over by a train because you forgot to turn the jetpack on again

[Abkaal]

+1

I hope this suggestion won't just fade away.

[Iccor56]

+1 please!! it's jerky.

[Johnson1893]

Bump, please add the switch

[Hurkyl]

Hmm, I've noticed no problems at all, except when trying to interact with something just within reach, the jetpack movement can close the GUI. But I wouldn't eant to disable my jetpack, just move closer to the thing.

I can't think of any reason to disable it, (unless I am trying to get a certain achievement tjat becomes impossible with the mech armor)

My specific issue (I'm not the OP) is that walking gets tile movement bonuses and flight does not. This hits in two fasions.

Making small corrections in position (particularly when wearing exoskeletons) is inconsistent, since how much a keypress moves you depends on whether you're flying or not.

When travelling, the frequent changes between faster and slower movement as you jetpack over obstacles gives me a headache.

Being able to turn it off would be one way to fix this issue. (that said, I'd prefer being able to force the jetpack to always be on, or to get immunity to tile movement bonuses)

The only thing I've heard the devs say on mech suit movement is that they won't give the flying speed the tile movement bonus -- I really hope they do something to fix this inconsistency....

[vnightsong]

i came looking for this post, i also would like this as a setting. thank u

[atarihomestar1]

+1

Ran into this issue while trying to get the Golem achievement after beating the game with legendary mech armor. I stocked it up with a bunch of legendary energy shields, went over to a train, and realized I would have to make some power armor instead. It wasn't until after that I also realized I had enough health research to tank 500 train damage and get the achievement...

However it would be easier to be able to just disable the jetpack

[EvilPLa]

+1

[AbstractHand]

+1 since 2.1 will likely be the very last chance to see this addressed. While I still think the most intuitive solution would be the (rejected) idea of applying tile bonus speed while flying, I understand that this may be a deliberate balance choice. That being said, the "always auto" mode that the jetpack currently uses means that unless you have designed your base in a specific way, the mech armor could be can be more of a downgrade for movement within one's factory. This trade-off makes sense for a vehicle such as spidertron, where the movement inaccuracy is easily overcome by simply hitting a button to get out. Similarly, when using modular armor, power armor, or power armor mkII, you can toggle off your exoskeletons when you need fine control.

With the mech armor, however, there is no avoiding this issue if you have any paving in your base. Even without exoskeletons, the constant speed change can be very frustrating to play with, and at times the jittery behavior can even induce some motion sickness when I have more than a few exoskeletons installed.

The only ways I know of to work around this issue are to either 1. Stick with power armor mkII, losing all of the endgame benefits of the final armor tier, 2. Remove all paving from our bases, essentially reversing progression, which is very frustrating, or 3. Enforce specific base design philosophy to make sure there are always clear pathways through the factory in order to get uninterrupted "ground time". This option in particular doesn't sit well as it largely seems to invalidate the main benefit of being able to fly over obstacles, if it's only a smooth experience where the obstacles are sparse or absent.

My ideal solution would be either a quickbar shortcut or gameplay setting for the jetpack that we can cycle between "auto" (current behavior) "always on" and "always off, keeping you airborne and grounded, respectively.

I would really love to see this updated, or pretty please if not implemented, some insight for the reason behind the current design choice? when I searched for other topics on this issue the only dev response I was able to find was essentially confirming that the current behavior was intentional and not a bug, but didn't get into the player feedback on the experience at all

[Hurkyl]

And for consolidation, here is my request for fixes operating under the assumption that the devs refuse to give tile movement bonus to flight speed.