Aero vertical diagonal flight
fly upn/e/w/s fly downn/e/w/s and so on

Basically the proposition is that aero's should be able to move on the vertical diagonals. Basically banking ascents and descents.

It would turn fly commands that are pretty common, like

fly up up up up up up n n n n n up up n n e se

A route that to graph looks a bit like this.

a chained movement of 19 moves into.

fly upn upn upn upn upn upn upn upe se

A graph that probably looks a bit like this.

A chained movement of 9 moves.

The performance benefits could be rather decent as well, as flying fast tends to lag the server like a motherfucker, and less moves would probably mean less lag overall on the server side.

1. No weird cardinal direction i.e. upn

Instead, if you fly in two coordinating directions such as up and east OR down and north - it would automagically vertically diagonal fly you.

2. Flaps to activate/regulate this feature.

A pilot would have to select FLAPS UP/DOWN to enable this feature and it would only allow vertical diagonal flight in the corresponding direction. Unfortunately, this would also increase piloting difficulty and therefore potential to stall out, etc. and going in the cardinal direction opposing the flaps would consume more fuel if a pilot is not paying attention.

Flaps would also be a part of an aero that could be damaged.

3. I don't think that's enough.

We need some more ways to balance this feature.

Make it take double the fuel economy.

Suddenly this is balanced, and still allows for the simple logic of being able to do it. Because you can make these types of moves on the horizontal already.

It also simplifies routing severely. Which is an issue for aeros.

I could see this type of movement requiring a higher skill check to avoid stalling as well.

Hell I could see it working into the greater economy of gaining player skill as a pilot, with the landmarks that Johnny was talking about in OOC being added.

With novice pilots trusting their eyes more than their instruments, and going from landmark to landmark. But as they gain experience, they realize that there's a full 360 degrees of freedom around them in every direction and instead of going from the land mark at 1, 1, 1, on the xyz grid to the landmark at 2, 7, 3, by going up twice times east once and then south six times. they can instead cut the corner and go upeast once, upsouth once and south five times. And trusting their instruments more than their eyes.

Things We Consider Poor Form

1. Posting or advocating for ideas that will benefit only a select few in character IE: make the gun my character uses 10x better. The BGBB is about improving the game and the community as a whole.

It's about benefiting EVERY player, that WILL ever own or use an Aero.

This is about improving the game for aero pilots as a whole.

I won't discuss my own characters positions beyond to say that I do not "directly" benefit from this.I may only benefit from it by the usage of aero's by other people. As would all other players who acquired the services of a skilled pilot.

Finally... Anecdotal sure... But nearly every pilot I have known has either complained about lag while flying, or had staff tell them to fly slower in certain places.

In the Mix they're extraordinarily powerful. An aero can be in any outdoor room within seconds, outrun any pursuers or pursuees, can exit rooms before a player can type a single letter much less engage them with their character. For offensive and defensive purposes they're the single strongest support tool any character can use.

Flying permapad vehicles which are even stronger are completely unbalanced on every level and really should have been removed entirely, and they're the absolutely last thing that need QoL improvements or buffs.

It's disingenuous to frame something as being for everyone when what's actually being presented are improvements to the most overpowered thing in the game.

That being said, I do not think vehicles are inherently unbalanced, but certainly the ways to interact with them negatively could be easier. I think we are getting there, and this latest round of patches set a groundwork for the next steps.