Often times AH feels like a big game of rock/paper/scissors based on who has the better airplane and I feel like the overzealous labels is to blame for that. Having big red or green labels that show up almost 3 miles away, giving you all the info you need about the contact has really reduced much of the air v air combat to a contest where you don't have much of a chance unless you are in a select few planes that have the magic combo of 400+ mph and good turning at low energy. My main ride is the A5 or A8 190 but I also like the P51 and P47 or any number of mid-war planes and I consistently, almost always, loose 1v1 engagements against certain types: late war Spit, LA, Yak, Ki-84 etc and I almost always win against certain others. Twice tonight I lost in a 1v1 on equal terms with a Yak-9. Literally nothing I can do in an A5, he can catch me if I run and pull inside any conceivable maneuver I make. I've played for two years and I can fly my usual rides to the edge of the stall horn without loosing control so I know it's not me. Their plane is just better. Period.
In reality much of air combat is about who sees who first and who can sneak up on the other, this often evens the odds against a better airplane. But in AH, everyone knows where everyone is starting 2.5+ miles out. In the two years I've been playing I have only properly "bounced" people 3 times, in every other encounter the other person always knows I'm coming. If you are in certain aircraft you often have no chance and your only option is to not engage at all or get shot down in a 1v1. The only chance you really have is when there are teammates around you as that changes the whole dynamic. Even zoom and boom tactics are extremely difficult because your opponent always knows where you are, exactly when you start your dive and exactly when you're in firing range. Couple this with the near-360 degree view from the cockpit and it's very easy to pull just the right turn at just the right moment to avoid somebody's attack pass. I know this because I exploit it and I almost never get shot down by boom and zooms. It's also almost impossible to escape in many cases because it's so easy to spot you. In RL you had a chance to duck into a cloud or lose your pursuer by flying among trees, but the labels remove that element entirely. I often find myself not engaging anyone unless its a head-on, it's the same type of plane as me, or there are teammates around; I avoid any other encounter like the plague and it often gets boring. Oh it's a enemy Yak, LA etc might as well not even go there.
How much more exciting would the game play be if you didn't know what kind of plane a contact was, or even whether he was friendly or not until getting within 1000 yards or less? That would make for some interesting encounters and it would make the game about more than just raw plane performance.
