Unfortunately I don't see a way to adapt to the current trend of free to play while maintaining a simulator feel. By going free to play you will need to create reasons for people to pay money. It could be as simple as skins, but that wouldn't draw enough, you'll need people to pay that $10-15 a month for premium. And what would premium give without making the game pay to win? More perks per action wouldn't be very enticing, a grind to fly good planes is not going to work without separating the Tempests from the Spit 1's. Proper free to play is the only way you are going to get a high number of players in the game though because of its ancient GUI and aging graphics. If its a bait and switch like the current format, you'll always have bad reviews on Steam that keep most people from even trying it. The first thing that popped up when I downloaded this free to play game on Steam was the opportunity for discounted membership, alot of people would uninstall right then and there. Like War Thunder and World of Tanks has shown, free to play doesn't mean you aren't going to be profitable, all those thousands of players that are playing for free entice their friends to play too, and for every person there is a chance you get people like me that will spend way more than $15/month on a game without thinking twice. The biggest hurdle is just determining how to implement this sandbox world conquest game into a format that would allow paying customers a reason to pay without destroying the will of the non paying customers.