v2.3.5

Improvements

Pilot pay now caps at the time the trip should reasonably take (FSC-4033)

Pilot rank pay continues to be your time in the air multiplied by your hourly rate, but it now has a generous ceiling tied to the trip itself. A small number of players were running the meter up by parking the plane in a hold near the destination, by flying past the field and back, or by other padding tricks. From this release on, you are paid for the trip you actually flew rather than for time spent padding it.

The ceiling is shaped to be generous on short hops, where climb, descent and taxi overhead is a big slice of the flight, and tight on long-haul, where padding would otherwise be most profitable. Genuine holds, diversions, headwinds and slow types should sit comfortably under the curve.

We replayed the new rule against every flight from the last year (over 23,000 trips) before shipping it. 169 trips would have been touched, with a median trim of 17 minutes. This is not retroactive (pay you have already received is unchanged), and the cap only applies to flights you disembark from this release onwards.