Totally get that.
Me thinks III came too late
There might be some hang up changing settings. I recklessly assume some of these are 10 min changes. Anything that has to update exe files is prolly out of the question.
In the end, I’d rather play what we have than other options. None of this stuff bothers me to the point of not playing at all.
I left in II, III id still kinda newish to me. I’m good.
The update to the radar (the awacs part) and kill messages came well after III was released if memory serves. Radar values can easily be changed in arena settings. It’s changed all the time for scenarios and FSO. Although the lower numbers and kill message thing makes it substantially easier to grief players without actually resorting to dubious means, it doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the radar settings. The awacs thing destroys fights and makes it much harder for smaller groups to combat larger ones.
I’ve spent the majority of my time in AH flying (stupidly) into the biggest red darbars on the maps. Before the radar change, I could fly headlong into 10 players and maybe dispatch one or two before getting clobbered. Now, as soon as I come in icon range of the first enemy, all 10 of those plots will instantly converge on me and I’ll have 2 or 3 of them saddled up before I can make a turn or two after the initial contact. Then there’s GVs which I can’t even see parked under trees giving me away because I’m in their icon range but they’re not in mine. So even if I’m not in range of any aircraft and there’s a tank near by, I’m being painted on radar to the entire other country and they can extrapolate (rather quickly) that I’m low and exactly what direction I’m headed. So I can’t even up from a base that’s under attack and have breathing room to get any speed or altitude before a horde is descending on my exact position.
