Notice no one really talks about Warblunder? I think Warblunder is closer to AH than DCS is and I'm willing to bet AH bleeds more players to Warblunder than it does to DCS.
One year of AH is $179.88
I haven't played DCS much other then flying around offline with the free planes, however I have played War Thunder and IL2 extensively. I have seen many more players that have left AH3 in IL2 then in War Thunder. There are also hundreds of thousands of players in War Thunder it could be that they just get lost in the numbers.
Since" no one really talks about Warblunder?" I figured maybe I should give people my opinion based on my experience.
War Thunder is really like 3 different games.
Arcade mode: This one is gamy as hell with air spawns, multiple re-spawns in the same battle nothing at all simulation like. I don't think the planes even spin in arcade and most people there fly with a mouse. There is no engine management and I think your ammo reloads in midair when you run out. Guns here are like lasers.
Realistic mode: (This one is the closest to AH3). It is a one life per battle event. You have to take off and land to rearm/repair (Just like AH3) it has icon with the range of the icons depending on your crew skill (icons just like AH3) the flight model is a little tougher in realistic then in AH3. Some of the aircraft can be challenging to recover from spins. You have combat trim (just like AH3) and limited autopilot (plane can be set to fly on autopilot while in gunner position or bomb sight) You have to watch your engine temps here and you can set up manual prop controls if you want but it's not required. The ballistics are modeled with different behaviors for different guns including guns or cannons and they can jam/malfunction.
Simulator mode. This mode is closer to IL2 then AH3. There is no auto trim. There is no auto pilot. Full engine management is required. There are no icons except on enemy planes at very close range (around 500) The flight models are tough and if you push some planes too hard you can enter unrecoverable spins. I've done it with the F4U-1 at slow speeds. The later model F4Us are much easier to manage. The ballistics are highly modeled including guns jamming/malfunction. If you spray and pray you will cause a malfunction here.
That said, with 4 accounts on War Thunder and 4 accounts on IL2 I don't think I've spent as much money as I would have on an AH3 subscription over the time I've been gone. (A year and some change) I'm still here because I still have some buddies around and I've been hoping something would change with the subscription model or FTP or something that would get me back into the game.
Thanks for mentioning the sale. I think I'm gonna go see what's out there.
