Quick answers:

1. The AVID Assistant app addresses all of your speed-of-play and difficulty issues, especially if it makes it to the stretch goal for full vector movement plotting. Hopefully, folks have read the stuff about the app and can see exactly how that works. (Web version of the app will be free to anyone.)the AVID every segment or two. Instead, you're just deciding where you're going to be pointed at the end of the turn and that's it. Thrust, you just take all of the thrust that you would accumulate during an 8 segment turn and apply it all at once. Boom. Aside from all of the mechanical ways that things speed up, you only make decisions once per turn instead of 8 times per turn. That's a huge difference.

Redrawing all the symbols on the AVID is something that gives new players problems, there's a lot of "Did I do that right?" especially when pivoting "diagonally" like up and clockwise. The app restricts you to legal choices, and all you have to do is move your nose and it will put all of you other attitude markers in the correct locations. You can roll the ship just the same.

If you had an early version of AV:T, some of the play aids were clunky, especially for figuring the slant range to a target and the elevation band that a target's in. Squadron Strike has much better playaids, like a quick chart that lets you find true range and elevation angle at the same time. The plotting play aids are much faster to use than anything that AV:T had. And there are other touches right on the play aids. Anyhow, for elevation and true range, the app will handle that, so you won't even need that play aid anymore.