Before the tomatoes start flyin, let me put on my rain slicker first. Ok, I've got it on....fire when ready gridley!
Ok, having been here for more years than I can count on at least one hand, I have a couple suggestions for gameplay that might make it a bit more, shall we say, challenging. Since the real counterparts to the aircraft we fly around in the cartoon skies were more than just stick and throttle management, why not add some of these to the game? I'm speaking primarily of mixture controls, cowl flaps, oil cooler shutters, etc. I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement such things but it's something I thought of a few nights back, while sitting on a runway with the engine idling waiting for squadron mates to spawn for a fighter sweep over rookland. Watching the cylinder head temperature gauge gave me an idea to have a cowl flap command to open or close the cowl flaps to keep CHT's in the green. I also thought of this again while waiting for my 2800 to cool down after a protracted WEP climb. I'm getting in my way back machine now to a time when in AWIII, there was a scenario or period in general gameplay that running an engine full power for too long resulted in overheating and damage to your engine. Let's limit the WEP shall we? Our prototypes had limited War Emergency Power that did not recharge after it was used up. When the tanks empty, it's empty...an ADI gauge in the cockpit (if it's prototypically correct) would be a great addition. Our fuel tanks don't refill when they're empty...why does the WEP return after the engine cools down? Somewhere I got the idea that 5 minutes is all the time that War Emergency Power could be used for in total. I have no basis for this assumption and it might be wrong. I have no data on how big an ADI tank (MW50 for you luftwobble heads) is or how long it would last. Maybe gameplay now is accurate and I just don't know it. I see keyboard commands as a limiting factor to those who do not use joysticks and for that, there might be an auto setting, kind of like auto takeoff or the stall limiter. Some of us use it, some don't. I know I don't. There would have to be some sort of penalty for using the auto setting, just like the stall limiter...engines might not put out as much power or be as efficient with fuel as they otherwise would....just spitballing here.
In short, let's make it a little more challenging than to fly 10 minutes, engage, kill/die and reup for another go. Oh and let's not forget the obligatory smak talk on 200 for those that invariably feel they have been wronged when they die. No, I'm not alluding to changing the game to a Microsoft Flight Simulator, it's a game, not a simulator. Yes, it will bring it closer to the sim but it will make us think about condition monitoring and performance limitations. Oh and while I'm at it, how about a command to cage the gyro's before entering combat or they get tumbling damage? Hell I remember in Falcon 4.0 SP3 and 4, the aircraft had a nuclear consent switch just like the real one...and it worked IIRC, there was just no nuclear bomb option in the weapons loadout.
