Improvements to Flying Pals?

[Joey245]

I just wanna preface this by saying I LOVE the core gameplay of this game, of crafting and expanding and taming/raising new Pals, and would love to see the game improve. This game has been more satisfying than any mainline Pokemon game has been for me in a very long time, and there's a lot of potential.

The biggest issue I have with the game is...flying on a Pal feels a little underwhelming.

It's mostly the fact that flying pals feel less like majestic beasts taking to the sky and more like living helicopters that slowly rise and fall as you hold the up/down buttons. There's no elegance, no thrill, no feeling of danger or fun - just you and your Pal mechanically drifting through the air until your stamina runs out, at which point you just drop back down to the ground like a stone. And the animations for the Pal are always the same, save for the speed of wing flapping. My favorite flying Pal is Vanwyrm, and he feels slow and sluggish in the air when he SHOULD feel like Toothless in the How To Train Your Dragon movies.

How would I fix this? Well, increasing the non-sprint speed of all flying mounts would be a good start, if only to make it feel more like the landscape is zipping underneath you as you move. Also, maybe if you held down the sprint and descend buttons, your Pal could "dive" through the air and rapidly descend, flaring their wings out as they swoop in to attack. Maybe that could even deal damage on impact, like how Land pals can trample into things by sprinting, and that damage increases the farther you and your Pal dive through the air. And maybe ascending could be done more quickly by mashing the rise button, to make that climb into the sky feel more frantic - like you're fighting gravity to go even higher. I'm no game dev, of course, but maybe features like that could be added onto the existing flight system? (And adapted for aquatic mons if/when underwater exploration becomes a thing...fingers crossed!)

A more drastic option, one that would admittedly probably require a full rework, would be to make flying Pals operate like airplanes in GTA. That being that once they're in the air they can only travel forward, and either the movement input or the camera can be used to "steer" them through the air. Perhaps holding the aim button can bring the Pal into a "hover" mode, where it's easier to use weapons or Pal abilities as they stay still in the air. Not sure how feasible this is, though...or how wanted it would be.

What do you think? Are you satisfied with flight in the game? Or do you wish it was a little more fun and a little less tedious? I love the feeling of riding land pals, and the aquatic pals are also fun, but considering how much fun things like movies and TV shows make riding flying creatures I was hoping for something more fun and cinematic in this game. Feel free to give your own input, too! And if the devs ever read this, thank you for the awesome game so far! Can't wait to see where the adventure goes next

[GespenstKAF]

I'm content with the current VTOL controls, myself

[Burba]

It would be really cool of different Pals fly different ways. Like you would have some that fly like planes and some that fly like a VTOL. Maybe even have some that are just falling with style.

[Tetsuri]

Birds can hover IRL.

I don't understand why you want birds to be airplanes.

Early flyers are supposed to be slow. Don't complain about flying speed when you haven't riden Jetragon.

I believe you may be looking for something like Ark. There's certainly different ways to fly with those creatures, and I didn't appreciate that myself. Simple isn't always worse.

[Shrub]

Maybe my rosey goggles remember it differently, but Flyff had such a great casual flying experience, I'd love something a bit like that... IIRC lol. Casual GTA airplanes if you will.

Not expecting loop-dee-loop level controls, but yeah it'd be cool if it was more exciting. I like Burbas idea of having some pals maintain VTOL, that gives everyone their own cake to eat :)

As it stands, half the reason I use hangyu is that it gives me a similar thrill that Rust Minicopters would give me, having to weave through trees and mountain cliffs at extreme speed. I'm a junkie for that adrenaline.

[Hellsmoke]

The only problem I have with flying pals is that once you get on a Jetragon, you'll never fly another pal again. The lower level flyers need a speed buff.

[GespenstKAF]

Originally posted by Hellsmoke:

The only problem I have with flying pals is that once you get on a Jetragon, you'll never fly another pal again. The lower level flyers need a speed buff.

I actually still default to my Faleris (Aqua): I prefer being able to use my own weapons and not be locked into using Jetragon's missiles.

[TGC> The Games Collector]

The only thing I find hilariously bad about flying pals is when you climb up to a place, they have as little chance to fight back as any other walking pal, because they can't fly up to fight back. It's kind of silly.

[Tetsuri]

Originally posted by TGC> The Games Collector:

The only thing I find hilariously bad about flying pals is when you climb up to a place, they have as little chance to fight back as any other walking pal, because they can't fly up to fight back. It's kind of silly.

lol. AI has to land to fight to prevent them from being too difficult. Yes, it is funny, because it makes them easier to deal with than landed pals.