@YogiKlatt-CIG (can you please share this with the vehicle/flight experience team? Thank you and sorry for tagging you.) Why I think master modes was a mistake and it's not what you think: Confining maneuvering inside a tiny 220~ m/s box means there is little room for ship identity. The boost mechanic to get outside of this tiny box is a mandatory mechanic that you must always use and is just as tedious "someone" trying to manage their power triangle. The result of these changes has promoted a combat model that encourages gang fighting (bring more pilots than the enemy) and bigger guns. In addition to the confinement management of the ship become more complex. There's a lot more buttons to press that don't really contribute to the overall experience in a positive manner. Edit: feedback given on the gang fighting as being a negative thing, which actually I think is positive. MM has done a good job bringing the fights closer together so Kudos for that. What I mean I mean is that it leaves little room for ship identity and numbers/guns trump everything. Small ships can't even run away very well. Edit2: Even if the answer is no way we are keeping master modes I hope the ideas of afterburner/speed wall curve fit within the scope of MM and can give inspiration for tuning going forward. Why did I reference Einstein? Because I think the solution lies there. Relativity. For a brief hand wavy explanation the nature of space time and relativity say that as an object increases in speed it gains mass and thus requires infinite energy to achieve the speed limit of the universe. Special thanks to chat gpt for generating a visual representation of said physics. So how can we apply this to the game? 1) Delete Master Modes. 2) Delete Boost. 3) Re-introduce "Afterburner" 4) Re-introduce "Overheat" Afterburner as a mechanic is not a button but a throttle position that requires management by the pilot. It accumulates heat that must be counteracted by the coolers. It increases signal value for IR. It damages the ship if held in the "red zone" for too long eventually disabling afterburner. Afterburner only works on main thruster. Afterburner allows progression into higher velocities based on relativity. So what we need to do to satisfy CIG's vision of the combat space as presented by current master modes is to introduce diminishing returns on thrust that require more and more afterburner to push into. Lets look at real life speeds. Fighter Jets regularly reach speeds of Mach 1-2 for travel in a straight line but rarely fight at those speeds. Subsonic: 343 m/s or less. Tran sonic: 274 to 411m/s Supersonic: 343m/s and above. Mach Speeds (Supersonic Levels) 343m/s 686m/s 1029m/s 1372m/s 1715m/s After that we get into hyper sonic speeds which are already above the desired speeds for CIG. "Dog Fighting" takes place at Subsonic speeds (less than Mach 1) so it seems reasonable that the speed wall was set to 220~ m/s as a starting point. The maximum turn rate of many 4th gen aircraft occurs around 300m/s which is pushing the pilot to its limits. However, we are in spaceships that can fly sideways and backwards. Thus having diminishing returns on thrust at around 275m/s seems reasonable. What this means is that in order to reach higher speeds the pilot must use the main engines and push afterburner level throttle. The more you turn the more forces are applied to the craft and thus increase the rate of heat accumulation. What happens if I fly straight? Well you'll be able to go supersonic speeds as long as you manage your heat. Up to a point where we are pushing the "universal speed limit" which for our game engine appears to be around 1400m/s (given current Navigation mode maximum velocities). What happens if I want to turn (alter my vector) at those speeds? It will be very very slow as the mass accumulated by your increased velocity is substantial. For space magic and game reasons lets assume your ship has a bubble of space dilation due to your new mass. Thus you are relative to the bubble and able to "flip/rotate" etc at will using your supporting thrusters. But overcoming your current vector will require your main engines to alter the vector and it will take significant effort. Here we have an example of an objects mass bending the space around it. This is what allows your ship to rotate freely at such high velocities and thus use your main engine and the afterburner mechanic to alter your vector and descend the velocity ramp. Okay so what does this do for us? Slower speeds grants agility and thus encourages positional fighting. Unrestricted velocity (with diminishing returns) allows for tuning ship profiles for unique flight characteristics. Example heavy fighters can have more powerful engines and go faster in a straight line but turn slower and are less agile. Unintentional side/back strafe holding will not benefit players as it did in the 3.22 model as they will eventually be overcome by the attacking player. No more button mashing mechanics for boost. Interesting heat mechanic increases skill ceiling but doesn't raise the floor. Very intuitive. Cargo and Miners are no longer extremely vulnerable while traveling in atmosphere (unable to jump and restricted NAV mode speed) since they can have shields and weapons up. Promotes a more "sim like" flight model that original backers were promised. Missiles now can be modeled like they behave in earth combat you can defend against a missile using speed and piloting skill (cranking etc.) Short range IR missiles, long range cross section missiles, EM based smart missiles... add flavor to the missiles and their behavior. Bonus: What about racing? Racing ships should have all their weapons removed and in exchange have inertial dampeners, more coolers, and stronger afterburners. These ships should be MONSTERS of flight but not able to do combat. It would be impossible to balance. In exchange they are essentially able to freely disengage. This I think would be a win for everyone. Make Flying Great Again!