This is not really a post about putting astromech droids into Open. We already have R2-D2 playable in Legends and FA... well at least he's semi-playable. A big issue is that R2 has no animations whatsoever, yet is able to do a bunch of things like kicking and rolling. Not to mention the sound fx are wrong as well, you can hear R2 gasp when he does a roll? But I'm not flaming the devs for not implementing that yet, it's a) not a huge priority to make R2-D2 feel great to play and b) it's sort of hard to imagine how you would animate an astromech. I do have some gameplay ideas, but I'm going to start off with my suggestions for how to animate R2 droids:
Animation:
Front Kick: I think R2's "kick" should be swinging his chasis forward while keeping both main legs on the ground.
Back Kick: Same as front kick, but the other way. If you need a reference to help visualize it, funny enough the Minecraft bell animation is exactly what I was thinking.
Side Kicks: I don't think it's possible to animate this naturally, so IMO astromechs should simply not be able to kick to the sides.
Punch: R2 should swing his little blue mechanic arm out and in. Sort of like a smacking motion. He could alternate between the two little arm things like a pummel of slaps.
Grabs / Katas: Unless you are going to give R2 a grapple like BB-8, astromechs should never be able to do grab-like motions.
Rolls: also remove rolls from R-series astromech droids, they have jetpack to break the fall instead.
Grounded Flying kick: This one is actually good as is, even without animation it just looks like R2 is ramming his body into the enemy and it looks fine.
Air kicks: This one is hard to animate but I think it should stay because it synergizes with the jetpack ability, so perhaps just rotate the whole model to swing the side of the legs.
Uppercut: R2 takes his mechanic arm and dose an upward motion instead of the slapping motion.
Melee Blocking: This one was tricky to think about, I think a funny thing that could work would just be to rotate the head completely backwards.
Celebrate: Spin head in circles rapidly.
Knockdown: Like a just tipped over like a garbage can. He has to swing himself up like a turtle to get up.
Crouch and Spinkick: also removed.
Gameplay Compensation:
My suggested animation changes went a bit further than just animation, I would remove side-wards kicks, grabs, crouch, and rolls from their kit. For compensation, perhaps the standing "kicks" deal more damage than average, and perhaps air "kicks" while using jet boosters set the opponent on fire? These new limitations and additions would make the class a lot more unique feeling.
Audio:
Foot step sounds should be replaced with a mechanical whirling sound. The jetboosters should sound unique compared to the basic jetpack. Any human-like gasping sounds should be removed. Also a minor visual improvement, make the jetbooster VFX actually come out of the side boosters.
Why All This?:
Lack of visual feedback makes R2 in close-range melee situations virtually impossible for opponents to read, it can also be very confusing as the R2 player where you can be knocked down without even knowing it. It should also be said that R2 is one of the most iconic and beloved characters in the franchise, from R2's potty mouth to always coming in clutch plus being cute, R2 was also in every Skywalker Saga Star Wars movie. I think R2 and droids like R2 deserve better. Once R2 is improved you can add R-series droids on many FA maps to add more quality variety. If R2 is put into a more playable and finished state, I think more people will eventually come around to the idea of an open class.
New Gameplay Ideas:
R2 is very cool, but in it's current state still feels a bit like a hodge-podge of taking existing abilities from other classes. So I wanted to come up with some inventive astromech abilities.
Tracking Device: I wanted to come up with a support ability that was NOT a heal nor ammo dispenser. What makes the tracking device different from the tracking dart? The tracking device is a gravity-affected projectile, not a hitscan. The tracking device makes the target visible to ALL, not just R2. The tracking device lasts for about 25 seconds before falling off. Would be a class special.
Turtle: this is a passive that makes R2 slightly resistant to knockdowns and somewhat resistant to melee attack damage, however, it also means R2 has a particularly slow getup animation. So it's harder to knock down R2 but also more punishing for R2 if he lets himself get knocked down. Also makes R2 completely immune to afterburn fire damage since they can't roll to put it out.
Jetboost Spin: This is a new ability to replace the spin-kick. Instead of doing a spin kick; When standing still, holding crouch, and pressing kick, R2 will fly straight up into the air spinning shooting oil and jetboost flames igniting the floor in the whole surrounding area. Sort of like throwing a fire nade on yourself except it is faster than arming a fire nade, costs fuel, and does not injure the R2. This would allow for a type of playstyle where the R2 will try to sneak up on groups of players and to a jetboost spin in the middle of them or to cut off their exit.
Diagnostics: This is a passive ability that when looking at an enemy you can see their current health armor, and in sith-case force points.
If more R2-series droids other than R2-D2 get added to more FA maps, these abilities can help distinguish them better. Additionally these might be cool ideas if in the far future astromech in open does become a thing. I don't think a single astromech should have all of the above abilities at the same time. Either distribute them across different droid characters or implement them into the point-based loadout system.
Summary:
I think R2 in FA and Legends feels completely unfinished in the animation department and semi-finished with audio. Some gameplay kit changes could also be made to R2 to add more novelty to the class, such as tracking devices, slow getup, and a powerful jetbooster aoe attack. We should get all the improvements to R2 out of the way in FA and Legends before ever considering adding astromechs as an open class.
Bonus Notes:
I really want to see some BB model astromechs after R series models are worked on. BB-8 was my favorite character to play for the brief period where I played Battlefront 2, had most fun in that game sneaking up and sweeping the ankles of the imps with grapple lines. I definately don't think BB droids should even be considered for Open, but BB-8 could be a really fun Legends character. BB-8 is after IMO one of the few good characters to come out of the sequels.
Animation:
Front Kick: I think R2's "kick" should be swinging his chasis forward while keeping both main legs on the ground.
Back Kick: Same as front kick, but the other way. If you need a reference to help visualize it, funny enough the Minecraft bell animation is exactly what I was thinking.
Side Kicks: I don't think it's possible to animate this naturally, so IMO astromechs should simply not be able to kick to the sides.
Punch: R2 should swing his little blue mechanic arm out and in. Sort of like a smacking motion. He could alternate between the two little arm things like a pummel of slaps.
Grabs / Katas: Unless you are going to give R2 a grapple like BB-8, astromechs should never be able to do grab-like motions.
Rolls: also remove rolls from R-series astromech droids, they have jetpack to break the fall instead.
Grounded Flying kick: This one is actually good as is, even without animation it just looks like R2 is ramming his body into the enemy and it looks fine.
Air kicks: This one is hard to animate but I think it should stay because it synergizes with the jetpack ability, so perhaps just rotate the whole model to swing the side of the legs.
Uppercut: R2 takes his mechanic arm and dose an upward motion instead of the slapping motion.
Melee Blocking: This one was tricky to think about, I think a funny thing that could work would just be to rotate the head completely backwards.
Celebrate: Spin head in circles rapidly.
Knockdown: Like a just tipped over like a garbage can. He has to swing himself up like a turtle to get up.
Crouch and Spinkick: also removed.
Gameplay Compensation:
My suggested animation changes went a bit further than just animation, I would remove side-wards kicks, grabs, crouch, and rolls from their kit. For compensation, perhaps the standing "kicks" deal more damage than average, and perhaps air "kicks" while using jet boosters set the opponent on fire? These new limitations and additions would make the class a lot more unique feeling.
Audio:
Foot step sounds should be replaced with a mechanical whirling sound. The jetboosters should sound unique compared to the basic jetpack. Any human-like gasping sounds should be removed. Also a minor visual improvement, make the jetbooster VFX actually come out of the side boosters.
Why All This?:
Lack of visual feedback makes R2 in close-range melee situations virtually impossible for opponents to read, it can also be very confusing as the R2 player where you can be knocked down without even knowing it. It should also be said that R2 is one of the most iconic and beloved characters in the franchise, from R2's potty mouth to always coming in clutch plus being cute, R2 was also in every Skywalker Saga Star Wars movie. I think R2 and droids like R2 deserve better. Once R2 is improved you can add R-series droids on many FA maps to add more quality variety. If R2 is put into a more playable and finished state, I think more people will eventually come around to the idea of an open class.
New Gameplay Ideas:
R2 is very cool, but in it's current state still feels a bit like a hodge-podge of taking existing abilities from other classes. So I wanted to come up with some inventive astromech abilities.
Tracking Device: I wanted to come up with a support ability that was NOT a heal nor ammo dispenser. What makes the tracking device different from the tracking dart? The tracking device is a gravity-affected projectile, not a hitscan. The tracking device makes the target visible to ALL, not just R2. The tracking device lasts for about 25 seconds before falling off. Would be a class special.
Turtle: this is a passive that makes R2 slightly resistant to knockdowns and somewhat resistant to melee attack damage, however, it also means R2 has a particularly slow getup animation. So it's harder to knock down R2 but also more punishing for R2 if he lets himself get knocked down. Also makes R2 completely immune to afterburn fire damage since they can't roll to put it out.
Jetboost Spin: This is a new ability to replace the spin-kick. Instead of doing a spin kick; When standing still, holding crouch, and pressing kick, R2 will fly straight up into the air spinning shooting oil and jetboost flames igniting the floor in the whole surrounding area. Sort of like throwing a fire nade on yourself except it is faster than arming a fire nade, costs fuel, and does not injure the R2. This would allow for a type of playstyle where the R2 will try to sneak up on groups of players and to a jetboost spin in the middle of them or to cut off their exit.
Diagnostics: This is a passive ability that when looking at an enemy you can see their current health armor, and in sith-case force points.
If more R2-series droids other than R2-D2 get added to more FA maps, these abilities can help distinguish them better. Additionally these might be cool ideas if in the far future astromech in open does become a thing. I don't think a single astromech should have all of the above abilities at the same time. Either distribute them across different droid characters or implement them into the point-based loadout system.
Summary:
I think R2 in FA and Legends feels completely unfinished in the animation department and semi-finished with audio. Some gameplay kit changes could also be made to R2 to add more novelty to the class, such as tracking devices, slow getup, and a powerful jetbooster aoe attack. We should get all the improvements to R2 out of the way in FA and Legends before ever considering adding astromechs as an open class.
Bonus Notes:
I really want to see some BB model astromechs after R series models are worked on. BB-8 was my favorite character to play for the brief period where I played Battlefront 2, had most fun in that game sneaking up and sweeping the ankles of the imps with grapple lines. I definately don't think BB droids should even be considered for Open, but BB-8 could be a really fun Legends character. BB-8 is after IMO one of the few good characters to come out of the sequels.