Talk:Flying Suit

Once a soldier with armour on is hit during the course of a mission, is the armour then depleted in any way? For example, if a solider in personal armour takes a laser pistol hit to the chest, is the soldier's chestplate armour rating reduced in any way? Majick 13:07, 29 November 2006 (PST)

According to the damage article, it is. But only if the shot did damage to the soldier. You can confirm this by mind controlling some aliens after taking a few shots at them. Or maybe even letting your soldiers shoot at each other (not recommended).--Dumas 15:13, 29 November 2006 (PST)

Stamina drain while flying

Like many other objectionable aspects of X-Com, I think it's silly that flying in the suit costs stamina. "I just flew in from Chicago. Man, are my arms tired." -NightChime

For a different take on it, consider how much a Power Suit or Flying Suit must weigh, considering the 'inch thick' plating expounded on in the Power Suit article. I know it's fluff made for the wiki, but consider how much that weighs. It may be that the Energy/Stamina bar for a soldier in a Power or Flying Suit represents not just the soldier's own capacity, but the charge in the reactor of the suit used to power the movement assistance servos and motors. In fact, reactor power may well be the majority of the bar at that point, since power armor in fiction often is designed with the armor really moving the body and the user only needing to make minor movements to move. This is so that the wearer doesn't get tired as fast as normal. So flying still drains energy off of the reactor to move the hover. And less fit (lower energy) soldiers aren't as adept in the use of the suit, thereby draining the power reserve off faster. This is obviously a bit of a retroactive explanation, but it makes sense to me. Arrow Quivershaft 11:51, 27 October 2008 (CDT)

Another explanation is simply gameplay: flying is a very convenient way to overcome some terrain obstacles. It would make sense to restrict to hinder flying in some way to balance its advantages. Hobbes 18:56, 27 October 2008 (CDT)

The Flying Suit's weakness

Shock horror - It just occurred to me that the Flying Suit has a mobility disadvantage. Going down slopes!

Just did a quick comparison of a flying suit soldier and an unarmoured soldier deploying from the Skyranger. I needed to get both of the units on the ground. However, TU drain to get the Flying suit on the top most section of the ramp was 12 TUs, while the unarmoured unit only spent 4 TUs tops!

Indeed a minor weakness at best - and there aren't too many occasions where it will matter once you are deployed. Still the 8 TUs in that single action is quite a significant hit to your reaction score.

-NKF 05:13, 28 January 2009 (CST)

It's not just slopes. Anytime you need to get from a higher level to a lower level this happens too. Take for instance, getting down from a roof of a building. A soldier without a Flying Suit can just jump and it'll only take 4 TU to get to the ground. A unit in a Flying Suit must fly to the edge (4 TU) and then go down a level (8 TU) for a total of 12. The effect is even worse the higher up you go as the guy in the Flying Suit needs an additional 8 TU for each level he's above ground.

But this minor problem is negated when you think about how many TU it took to get up to the level in the first place. A normal soldier would need to walk through a building, open doors (or shoot them away), walk up steps, and then walk some more just to get up one level. For the guy in the Flying Suit, he already starts at L1 from the craft, so for the lower buildings he can walk on to the roof with just 4 TU. Going up even higher requires the additional 8 TU again, but that isn't a big price to pay when you compare that to an unarmored unit.

So the idea is not to move your guys in a Flying Suit down too much as it eats up TU. --Zombie 08:01, 28 January 2009 (CST)

Heh, basically the Flying Suit is more efficient when staying on the level or going up - but is less efficient if you need to drop down. So the moral of the story is: If you're wearing a flying suit, fly - otherwise utilise ground pounders.

I'll make a note in the main article as it's worth knowing. -NKF 23:04, 28 January 2009 (CST)

Concerning the following sentence added by Arrow on the article page:

Similarly, a grenade deposited on the roof will blow up any nearby soldier.

It's not that big of a deal since we are dealing with the ultimate suit of armor in the game. You can still get injured from explosions at your level while flying but you can negate the effect with the Alien Grenade. Depending on how you are facing, if you are looking at the blast you only need to be 2 tiles away from Ground Zero to be impervious. For the sides, it's 3 tiles, and for the back, 4 tiles. This final distance also means your soldier will not see any damage whatsoever wherever he/she faces. So like before, the moral is to get away from the edge of rooftops by 4 tiles to ward off grenades. It also exposes the soft underbelly of the suit to ranged attacks from below so you have to get support troops on the ground nearby to eliminate those threats. --Zombie 10:39, 29 January 2009 (CST)

It's a good thing to keep in mind when combating Floaters, Ethereals and Cyberdiscs that are off the ground. Nothing like a high explosive on a roof to clear the air of cheeky Floaters who think they've eliminated your ability to use grenades and stun rods! -NKF 01:30, 30 January 2009 (CST)

Stairs

I'm having some trouble getting my troops down stairs during a base defense, what's the problem? Is there any way a flying suited individual can go downstairs? Jachra 17:46, 20 August 2009 (EDT)

Indeed there is. Fly down. Do this by either dropping the view down and clicking the exact spot, or just fly over the gap and order the soldier to go down one elevation.

I'm assuming here that you're clicking the space above the area where you want your flying suit soldier to go. Recall that your unit has flight and your order to the soldier was to fly to a point above the gap, hence why the soldier isn't going down the stairs. In a sense, flying suits costs much more to get down stairs than it does for the other suits of armor. A small price to pay for flight. -NKF 01:46, 21 August 2009 (EDT)