Wait. Just hear me out.
Aces High is the premier WWII air sim for event play in my opinion. It is also the premier sandbox for non event play (again, my opinion). Having said that, are the events hosted here reenactments? I mean, are they designed to exactly replicate the event right down to the end result? No. Of course not. The battles are designed (or attempted) to go either way (even the battles that were lop-sided).
And the MA? It isn't close to being an historical setting. Nor should it be.
Why are we (the AH community) so dead set against alternate reality settings? Is it because we think of ourselves as purists when it comes to this game and its relation to simulating WWII air war? We aren't. Not really. Certainly not as a whole. I, myself, have supported the idea that the restrictions placed on some things but not all things in Aces High serve a purpose that differentiates this game and community from others and perhaps it does. Now I wonder if that difference is necessarily serving the best interests of either. I bring this up just to explore the possibilities of helping the game to shrug off some of the 'staleness' that some seem to express when it comes to the 'same ol-same ol.'
'Alternate reality' is a very popular element in the gaming world now. Players seem to be entranced by the novelty of it. And it doesn't have to be completely off the wall stuff like dog-fighting against dragons or ground battles against Cthulhu. We've all wondered (or maybe not all but many) what if this battle took a slight twist here and what if that victory turned out to be a loss. What if World War II didn't end in 1945 but in 1946 or 1947 or even later? What if the Manhattan Project failed? What if it was never attempted? What if the planes that never quite fought in that war .... did?
I know, that sounds a bit like War Thunder (*spit*). But Dolby mentioned to me, in another thread, that there is a demographic among online air sim enthusiasts (in that other game *spit*) that are drawn to aircraft not featured in Aces High (granted, he was referencing the Beaufighter but in looking closer at the WT crowd and what they fly we could have just as easily been talking about Bearcats or Meteors). Players want to play with rare toys. 'What if' toys.
What if Dale loosened the restrictions a bit and expanded the sandbox timeline a couple of years both ways? Lets say Aces High evolves to air combat with plane models from 1938-1948? A decade of war and progress. Players could experience uber-bipes to early jets and the inventory could easily double. In my opinion, it would draw in players.
Now, I know that such would be a heavy load on Dale under current circumstances. I've played devil's advocate more often than I care to admit in the Wishlist forum when it comes to practicality or achievability (if that were a word). But this isn't something that would have to be an overnight thing or even as dauntingly comprehensive as is sounds. It could be tested in 'baby steps.' Maybe a rare plane from WWII that failed in real life but fills a void in AH. A German heavy bomber, the Heinkel He 177 Greif, for instance. It doesn't really fall against current model acceptance rules with there being over a thousand built and it was organized into units that saw some form of action. It still opens the 'what if' curtain just a little for both events and the MA. Same to be said for the Meteor jet. Planes that just almost saw war service like the Bearcat, the P(F)-80 or were introduced within a year or two after like Yak-15. These new toys would bring with them curiosity of what it would be like to play with them in Aces High from new and veteran players.
At the opposite spectrum, yes, here it comes, planes that flew in the Spanish Civil War may inspire just as much curiosity.
If the envelope was pushed just a little further from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War to the end of the Korean War (1953) you would have a window of 17 years of aircraft innovation with more 'what if' possibilities available. And it could be done much better than in WT.
Back to Dale taking on such a monster. What I'm suggesting could be just that ... a monster. But if, in small steps, it does bring in more revenue then that might open up an opportunity to expand the staff a bit. Without knowing the details of Dale's business model (and I'm not asking/prying) I see re-expanding as a possibly good thing (even if it still involves staff working from home).
What if ....
*ShruG*