Orbital
(you fly over things to avoid things instead of taking the learned, or described safe path; "go straight! when you come to the barbarian fishing village, turn left and follow the river north. You'll run into the spires and see a guarded bridge. hmm? yes they are human guards from that city 2 zones away, one of the final outposts. Just be careful along the way north, dont get distracted" )
if there must be flight, let it be the only theme-parked thing. If the gnomes can have a zoo, they can have a trained griffon where you can take a fixed orbital ride - for a fee- where you will get an arial view of the land up to a point. fixed path, limited time same route. If the devs wanted to be cute they could throw in some RNG pathing where the grffon may land and discharge the passenger at a random spot instead of returning the passenger to the starting point, or a mid-air battle.
Rethink.
Rather than levitate always being what it was, I think you should go more D&D-ish. Give us a levitate spell that can raise us straight up that or lower us safely down only. It has a casting time, so can't really be used in emergencies, but it could potentially assist certain casters with climbing. Then give us a featherfall type spell, but it only lets you descend straight down. Instant cast or very quick cast if you are fast enough while your falling to save yourself or a friend.
I dislike the flight on tracks (it basically becomes free exploration initially and expedited travel later) and while independent flight is cool, it ruins this kind of game. If people want to fly, that's what flight sim is for.
