Ok... I am normally a 'Luftwhiner'. My main interest is flying German airplanes. I'll probably never even fly the Spit14 online.
That said.. Hitech, you DO have a small contengent of British fans in this game. By "british fans' I mean people that enjoy flying British planes, and only British planes. Just like most "luftwhiners' enjoy flying German planes, and only German planes. They have many reasons for their interest in British planes, most of them probably sounding pretty stupid to your average observer (go ahead, can ANYONE come up with a REALLY good reason for only flying a particular plane in a fantasy game with so many to choose from? And I mean a reason that wouldn't make you sound like a blathering idoit to someone who doesn't play Aces High? Thought so
).
The SpitXIV is a double-edged sword, in my opinion. It is great that you added it. The British plane set needed a late war Spitfire that is representative of what was REALLY flying at the same time as the P51D, P38L, P47D,N1K2,La7,109G10,Ta152.. the list goes on and on. However, I think 60 perks is a little bit, uhm... expensive. The plane is good, yes. It is not 60 times better than the SpitIX we have in the game now. Around 1,000 Spit XIVs were made. While that is not a whole ton of planes for WW2, it is a pretty substantial production run. If you were aiming to perk it that high because it is rare, I don't think it is rare enough to justify a perk of that magnitude.
The Spit XIV has pretty good performance. It can turn very well (it IS a spitfire after all
), it makes 355-360 or so on the deck, placing it in the 'pretty fast' category. I've heard it makes 400 or so at 8k, that makes it a pretty fast plane. But so does the La7- and it isn't perked. It climbs very well. But so does the 109G-10... and it isn't perked. Granted, in a 1 on 1 situation, a Spit XIV will probably eat the La7s or G-10s nanas, but... our MA is obviously not a 1 on 1 situation.
I honestly think that the Spit XIV isn't even a good enough plane to run a 2/1 overall K/D in a tour. I could be wrong here, but only time will tell. The Spit XIV will be able to out turn the P51s, Doras, and LA7s, and it will be able to outrun the N1K2s and SpitIXs... but it won't be able to do a thing when 3 La7s and 5 SpitIXs are after it. That is a recipe for lost perk points. I know, I know. SA is king, blah blah blah. SA has absolutely nothing to do with it. Flying like a popsicle is king. The only way a Spit XIV will be able to avoid getting gangbanged is to avoid fighting altogther, or to fly with huge packs of friendly planes against 1 or 2 low enemies.
Furthermore, by perking the Spit XIV to 60 points, you have essentially placed it out of reach for the people who wanted it- I.E. the British fans. Many of the people that fly N1K2's and SpitIXs (and probably La7 and P51 and maybe even the Dora- although I think most people that are looking for an 'edge' would fly the La7 or P51 over the Dora) now would switch to the Spit XIV if it were unperked, I'll grant you that. But they aren't real fans of the plane- they are real fans of whatever plane gives them the biggest crutch they can use to make up for their lack of skill. The real 'fans' of the RAF fly the Spitfire (or Hurricane or Typhoon) because they honestly LIKE the planes. They'd dearly love to be able to fly the Spit XIV, but because it is so expensive they will probably only get to try it out once a week or so, hardly enough time to be able to learn how to get the most out of the plane. And that is if they save every single perk point they earn in the SpitIX or SpitV and put it towards flying a Spit XIV.
I'd like to put forward some possible solutions to what I see as a problem. You may not even see it as a problem, that is fine.
1. Drop the perk on the Spitfire XIV to 15 points. That should place it well within the realm of the British fans, while keeping it out of the realm of 'everybody uses it all the time'.
2. Alternatively, raise the ENY value of the SpitV to 40 or 45. This would give Spitfire fans a chance to earn perk points comparatively quickly, thus enabling them to fly the Spit XIV more often. Yes, I realize the SpitV is a pretty good plane, but it is not insanely common and it would let people earn perk points quickly without having to resort to flying the rather anemic Spit I. As it stands now, if you want to earn perk points really quickly, the only planes that have decent killing power and performance are the 109G2,109F4, and C205. I honestly doubt that a true fan of the British plane set would enjoy having to fly these planes to gather the perk points he needs to fly his favorite plane.
3. Introduce the Spit IX LF. Karnak could probably help me out with the exact version, cause I can't find my Spitfire book right now. It was a truly representative version of the Spitfire flying in 1944. It had more power than the Spit IX we have now, clipped wings, and the supercharger was optimized for fighting below 20k. This plane should either be free or be a cheap perk like the C-Hog, without the "gangbang icon" (in other words, just the generic "Spit" tag. This would give the RAF fans a truly representative 1944 Spitfire with better performance than the early IX we have now.
That is all I have to say right now, feel free to chime in with your opinion.
