It's very discouraging after spending weeks, or months, or years learning the intricacies of Aces High only to have HT continually change the nature of the game in the name of "realism". Sometimes this is done with unannounced flight model changes, and sometimes with patches. What I see is that while the planes are more realistic to fly, Aces High itself has gone from a semi-simulation to an arcade game.
The horde effect is being promoted as fast as these 'realism' effects are implemented.
In real life airfield ack was harder to kill, there was a lot more of it, it was a lot more accurate, and it usually had range and altitude measurements to use in aiming. In Aces High a manned field gun has a range of about 2.5k max with a slim chance of hitting a moving target while a couple of .303 pings destroy them. The AI guns rarely hit anything and then only cause fuel or oil leaks. The ostis are useless because of shell dispersion and operator difficulty in aiming due to shaking and tracers you can't see. It's much harder to kill running troops with a stationary hull mounted machine gun than it should be. Basically, the ability to defend a field from the ground has gone to a new low.
Meanwhile, sideswitching has been made easier for those who like to horde. This is realistic??
Make the acks and anti-aircraft gvs harder, more accurate, and more of them. Minimize side switching instead of encouraging it. As I write this the rooks have at least 100 more players online in the game than either the knights or the bishops.
