icwatudidthar.

Actually, I was thinking the same thing.
Why not lock a zone down from flying until you've received the zone exploration achievement? Once you've seen it, you might as well fly over it. But it keeps things new and interesting in zones where things should be new and interesting.

Rather than actually lock the zones down, I would suggest flying mobs as a "power barrier". If you're too weak (read low level or under-geared), you don't fly there because you die. Same idea as mobs on the ground now. I prefer this kind of approach since it feels less "artificial" and maintains the sense of adventure.

That said, in complete honesty I only feel that way the first time through. Leveling an alt through the same zones makes me LOVE being able to fly past all the danger...

@:Sicadastra: I was thinking something on those lines too. Like using some kind of "fuel" to be able to fly. Or fly for a certain amount of time until your mount has to "rest" because of fatigue. Maybe that would introduce some kind of interesting danger into the flying system. Right now, if you're flying, you're essentially untouchable.

Sometimes I find myself walking around or using ground mounts, forgetting that I can fly. I think flying is cool and interesting, but eventually it just become a way to get from point A to B without knowing what's happening down on the ground.

But like you said, its great when you can just fly past all the unnecesary danger when leveling alts.

I don't think it's this way so much now, but in the Cata beta, there were parts of Twilight Highlands that it was very risky to fly through. There were drakes flying through those areas that *would* attack you, and they were pretty formidable at the time. I would fly around those parts of the zone, after having been killed a few times when I carelessly flew through their airspace.

I can understand what you're saying, however I really appreciate the ability to fly when scoping out areas, like Deepholm, finding objectives and determining the best place to set down.

The thing is, there is relatively little you can do in the air other than look for things or move from point to point. Pretty much anything significant happens on the ground. For instance in the Twilight Highlands quest where, as Horde, you assault a fort and prison, it was very useful to fly above it, scout out the locations of objects, see where mobs were clustered, and pick a spot to drop down rather than just pull the nearest mob and slog on in. If anything, flying enhanced the adventure in that case. If anything, I think flying can help a lot, since Blizz will be more free to develop areas that don't have to be easily accessible from a given direction.

Also - do you really, really want flying mobs? Vashj'ir is essentially flying with mobs in 3 dimensions, and one thing you notice very quickly is that the interface is designed to allow you to see very far in one direction, but keeping an eye out in all directions around you is rather difficult.

Ogri'la has air restrictions. The dragons and Legion flak cannons all require you to pay attention when flying. When I was at level in that area, I recall flying usually took place near ground level... essentially you skimmed the ground to get the extra speed, but kept low to avoid the dragons and flak. So, essentially, flying was so hazardous it degraded to faster ground riding. If that's the case, there isn't a huge reason to have flying to begin with.

It's definitely a tough thing to design well. I can't blame Blizz for holding off on that (especially when so many other things are borked).

I guess you haven't been knocked from the sky too often. I have. Even in outlands long after I was lvl 80. There is an Elite dragon in Blades Edge that loves to gobble flying mounts. I think i was on my rogue who got shot of his mount. After my spirit rez the f8cker camped me and killed me (Well ok maybe not camped but he was waiting for me to take flight again)
Here's the best part about this argument. NO ONE tells you that you have to use your flying mount :) So no. I don't think the fact that we CAN fly has ruined anything. In fact I think it lets us see things (especially in cities) that we normally didn't get to see before. So for me it opened up a whole area of adventure. I still haven't had the time to fully explore the old areas and see the changes. I plan on doing that this weekend after I get my main to 85.

These comments are why Blizz should keep player influences to a minimum. Nobody here is thinking about how they could personally avoid the problem by self-discipline (read: don't fly until you're ready). Instead they're mentioning ways to force other players to play the game their way.

Ever thought maybe a lot of people just don't care, and it is completely fine it they just want to fly over new areas?

I mean, yeah I like adventuring through places the first time without just flying over then. I didn't fly around and map Twilight Highlands. I did it one sub-zone at a time as I adventured. I don't want to be an asshole, though, and tell other people you have to do it this way because I did. Let them play the game the way they want. If you flew over everything and miss the old days of adventuring, you have absolutely nobody to blame but yourself. It's about self-discipline. Don't try to force your play style upon others.

Some of you are really going to be in a shocker when you learn here are players that skip all the quest text and lore just to play the mechanics of the game - and they enjoy it. timer on quest text before the accept button works anyone? Leave other people alone. You sound like big government.