Having just read the whole thread including Geko's reply, I wonder why I didn't see one important datum.
Fly _was_ balanced vs the other travel powers.
But those other powers have changed, while flight remains the same.
SS used to just be fast and used to have an accuracy debuff, but now gives stealth and no debuff, in addition to almost no end cost.
SJ used to be far less controlable for where you would land, but now is completely steerable in direct opposition to actual physics. You can jump and then turn to land behind where you jumped from, something that you couldn't do in reality.
Fly on the other hand still has a HUGE accuracy debuff and costs vastly more endurance than either SS or SJ, and is imprecise since you have momentum that makes you slide instead of just stopping.
So why is it that Fly, balanced with the other powers at release, hasn't changed when the powers it's being compared to have changed drastically?
Why isn't Fly balanced with the current iterations of those powers?
The "but fly is safer" argument doesn't work, since you are visible and get shot by anyone you fly in sight of - while SS just zips by unaggroed.
I stood within 15 feet of +15 DE in steel canyon with just SS and got ignored. I get shot by things 100 feet away flying by.
The "you have vertical movement" argument doesn't work either, since most people are going to have hurdle and/or combat jumping to give some vertical movement, and even if they don't, the zones people actually USE, don't really require much vertical movement.
Yeah, fly rules in faultline, but noone ever fights there anyway since it's a horribly designed zone, filled with annoying enemy types in large groups.
Fly is handy in boomtown, but the superspeeder can get around easily enough - i've done it.
Superspeed _starting_ with a high base speed is fine, but flight should be able to achieve similar high speed with slotting, since it already has a lot more penalties than superspeed does to "balance" it.
