It's the game stupid!
You can make the most superb eye candy and flight models you want, but even they get boring. The best way to make and keep the game is recreating WWII, it's major campaigns, battles, techological advancements etc.
Obviously the names of the countries as well as the size/shape of the land masses should reflect reality. Be it Europe, North Africa, Russia, Japan, south Pacific islands, Hawaii, any contested areas of that month during the war years etc. wishing to be deplicted for the day or week or whatever.
The default for users in other sims is always the easiest, quickiest way into the air, however, if launch included a brief synopois of the current situation (time period with explanation of current situation, # of planes assigned to each country, current damage, available planes from each country), that would automatically put ALL players into real play, not just a bunch of lone wolfs occasionally forming a association of convenience.
In my opinion, for AH to stand out it needs to make some radical changes in the structure of the gameplay itself to give it more of a dynamic direction than the limitations from arbitrary permanent labels assigned to players which are then left to organize and create their own game...that only marginally works and in the end produces mostly boredom and complaints, i.e. users ripe for another distraction.
Re creation = recreation
One virtural pilots point of view.
Lutz
P.S.
Of course by a beta's very nature it is not a finished product. Perhaps I have no basis to assume player setup will be like every other online sim but I have seen or read nothing to the contrary to what I have written above. This is merely a fresh idea offered hopefully before all is finalized.
Sorry if you feel I am speaking out of turn but these developers are to fixated on the technology and don't do the marketing surveys and actual play development research they ought to, according to me.
[This message has been edited by Lutz (edited 10-01-1999).]
