thinks of the red zone sniper using a jet pack to jump straight up to get a mile of fire before dropping back down to the safety of his unattackable position

thinks of the heavy with a HMG jet packing over the hill the scout just scrambled around for cover

thinks of the AR guys who will suddenly be able to defeat any and all cover that doesn't have a roof

thinks the original poster is either out of his mind or needs to go play some tribes

Read Before expressing your hatred of this idea.

Jetpacks can be balanced, can be useful, and are inherently fun.

[HOW THEY SHOULD WORK]

Jetpacks should take 5 or 6 seconds to activate: this will prevent people from using them to cower out of gun battles.

Guns cannot be used while jetpack is active: This will keep them from being overpowered.

Jetpacks should have very limited climb: This will prevent people from being able to fly up high on top of towers to camp. EDIT: The climb is limited, but still high enough to get on a small building.

Jetpacks flight should be limited by regenerating power system similar to infantry stamina (maybe 15-20 seconds of continuous flight): This will prevent people from being in the air for too long.

Players with active jetpacks should be susceptible to swarm launcher lock-on and fire.

EDIT: It is to be a vehicle, not a module, or equipment.

[USEFULNESS]

Jetpacks would be very useful, especially for the logistics dropsuits. It could be used for flying past enemies to plant drop uplinks for his team to spawn, or flying to downed players to revive.

Jetpacks would be considerably useful for scouts to get on top of buildings to spot and call out enemy locations for their team, and provide covering fire.

Jetpacks would be useful for general travel on large battlefields if a player needs to travel alone in which extra seats aren't needed. Some might think lone travelers imply lack of teamwork, or lone-wolves, but travelling alone can be useful for the team if the player is acting as a distraction, or sneaking behind enemies to hunt them down (which prevents them from getting to objectives), or to call out their positions.

Jetpacks would NOT REPLACE DROPSHIPS, nor render them obsolete. Jetpacks would occupy a very different niche. Dropships would remain vital because of all the things they can do or have that jetpacks don't; dropships would have much higher climb, much more armor and shields, turrets, and slots to customize (like adding a CRU).

* Jetpacks don't have to look or even fly like anything like conventional jetpacks. It could even look like a more horizontal version of the inertia dampener animation with a different color effect or something.


EDIT:
They don't have to be as "nerfed" as I present them in the OP, but It would be good for them to start that way, then gradually balanced into just the right amount of power. Otherwise, they might start out too strong, and cause a massive uproar, then get overnerfed to uselessness.
Despite all the proposed limitations (which are totally subject to change), I still think they will be quite useful because of the boost of personal speed.
The low-flying nature of jetpacks would make them harder for swarm launcher users to spot them, so they're not all that vulnerable.

EDIT 2: Being unable to use guns, and having to wait 5+ seconds just to activate jetpacks may make it not fun, so those proposed limitations can be dropped.

EDIT 3: Though I use logistics as an example, it should not be limited for only one suit.

Ok... you may unleash your hate now.