Greetings my fellow Eldars, I was wondering which Aspect warrior will be chosen as jump class for the Craftworlds at the launch of the game. Although it seems like one of the developers had somehow confirmed that there will be Swooping Hawks (see Mmorpg.com Dev Q&a post in the Resources & Interviews section), I'm still unsure about the outcome. There are the roots of my doubts: First of all, the actual answers of the developers: Q) "FireFall had a great mechanic with the soaring in the sky thing that reminded straightaway of Eldar Swooping Hawks. Will Swooping Hawks be able to travel like this high high up in the sky over the battle-field as deep penetration troops?"A-Brent) "Swooping Hawks will certainly swoop!"A-David) "We're planning on one jump/jet unit per faction."Both replies correlated make me feel like nothing has been decided yet, especially David's one. Second, the community factor: Warp Spiders seem to be the most anticipated of all the Aspect warriors in this game, far ahead the Swooping Hawks.Still, this argument may not be as strong as it first sounds since we all well know that the Eldar faction itself will be the less favored by the player community at the launch of the game. Third, the jump system: Last and not least factor which will probably influence the decision of the developers at most is the jump mechanism. It isn't at the advantage of the Warp Spiders since limited teleportation in a 3D environment is far more difficult to code than jumping or flying actions...However, others have already emit some interesting strategies aiming to circumvent the teleportation problem (see Warp Spiders Jump Mechanics and A Dying Flame In The Darkness [general Speculation] in the Eldar section; I especially like Quothe's idea in the latter topic by the way ^^)Your opinions and ideas on the matter?
The jump mechanics for WS are hard to implement indeed, so at launch it will probably be Swooping Hawks. But the community factor you described really makes it likely Warp Spiders to be added later.
Hawks seem more likely, in a couple of interviews they mention hawks or jet packs, so no love for us spiders fans at launch. At least I hope the Hawks can fly (very limited) or glide, definitely they need way more control in the air than assault marines/orks.
Well, as long as they are introduced, either at launch or later, it's all fine to me. I think Hawks will be able to fly, but for a limited time though; this would make them more maneuverable in the air than ASM, Raptors or Chokboyz, compensating their weak DPS and giving them more time to drop their grenades on their foes (and to make easier targets to them aswell). Still, they won't be my first character choice if they are intended to be the Eldar jump class at launch. I would rather stand as a Striking Scorpion or a Dire Avenger at the side of the Children of Isha.
Brent's reply gives a subtle hint that they at least know what they want for the Swooping Hawks if they implement them. To be honest, it's tough either way you slice it. Hawks fly rather than jump like the other jump classes, and Warp Spiders have a completely unique travel method that, as Anvael said, would be hard to code for (and balance!). In my opinion, we'll probably be getting Swooping Hawks that will be able to jump higher, faster or maybe even glide.
I've said it before, but making the Warp Spider's jump wouldn't be as hard to code for as some people think, conversely getting the Swooping Hawks to feel right would also be quite hard, probably harder than people are expecting. Nevertheless I agree that they seem the likeliest choice to fill the shoes of an opening line up jump unit. Again I feel like I'm repeating myself - and I am, however I'm worried that Swooping Hawks will be extremely limited in their tactical usefulness. Sure they can scout out areas well and position themselves on high ground to bomb harass the enemy or plink away at them with their flashlights only to kite away when the enemy approaches, however I'm not sure that mobile light harassment / scouting units are actually something that the Eldar have any shortage of, what with Jetbikes, Rangers and the like. No, more likely what we will be short of are units that can get deep into enemy lines to surgically remove specific threats such as Devastator marines or mounted weapon emplacements from dug in positions that would otherwise pin down and tie up units like Dark Reapers, Wraithguard and Vehicles. Basically what we need is for something to fill the tactical hole left by our not having jump assault units, and IMO as light harassment units Swooping Hawks really aren't suited to that, they would evaporate away too quickly under incoming fire... Frankly I think that the ideal units for that role are Warp Spiders, closely followed by Striking Scorpions - if they had a powerful stealth ability and Howling Banshees - if they were super fast and acrobatic, plus their Banshee masks really played havoc with incoming fire.
Considering the devs said they don't want to have snipers we might not get rangers and Jetbikes are a lot easier to see than Hawks most of the time and as well they're probably a lot better at distracting people.
Yeah I'd expect Rangers to drag their sorry asses out of the webway after the fight starts, but you have to admit they're scouting / harassment units.
