I'm in favor of doing SOMETHING to break the constant monotony of the MA. I mean, damn near all you see are spits, N1s, la7s, and 51s, with some F4Us, F6Fs, 38s, Doras, and 109s thrown in for minimal variety. Every TD it's always the same 4 or 5 planes having the vast bulk of the sorties and the same 5 or 6 more making up most of the remainder. So like 80% of the planeset hardly sees any use at all.
The only way this will ever change is if these 8-10 popular planes are not available at all. Otherwise, most folks will continue to fly them because the odds just ain't with the other planes in the type of fight typical in the MA. So this other 80% of the planeset will only be flown occasionally by the curious, the ignorant, and those seeking a deliberate handicap. Which, in a nutshell, is what happens now.
The question, therefore, is whether or not removing these popular planes from circulation, at least for part of a TD, is a good idea. It will certainly annoy some folks. OTOH, the present same-ol'-same-ol' situation has already annoyed a lot of folks, or there wouldn't be threads like this one. Obviously, no single thing is going to make everybody happy at once. So to me, the only fair thing is to take turns being annoyed. I'm annoyed now and have been for some time, so I say it's the turn of the spit9 and lamer7 dweebs
. Get them damn things outta here!
An RPS might be nice. However, I did NOT like the way WB did it. WB so compressed the 1st several years of the war, and so extended the last few months, that in effect it was the same as not having an RPS at all. Things changed too fast in the 1st part of the camp for any patterns to emerge--new planes appeared every stinkin' day-- and then it bogged down into what we have today in AH's MA: all the late-war planes, all the time.
So if AH ever gets an RPS, I'd like to see things balanced in duration. Say 1 week of the TD = 1 year and all planes that appeared that year are available all week. Or better yet, make an entire TD equal 1 real year, so that it takes 4 or 5 whole TDs to work through the planeset. In each TD, perk different rides to get the same effect we have now with all planes. I favor this latter option because it puts people on an even footing long enough for everybody to get accustomed to the available planes. Different planes would be found to dominate the MA's typical action and folks would have to learn how to use them. Plus it avoids a WB problem where folks would just sit out a week or so of the camp until their plane became available, or after the planes they hated did so. If you take those planes away for months, you take away that option. Then the late-war lamers will either quit entirely (good riddance IMHO) or show up and learn to fly other stuff, maybe discovering something they like enough to keep flying in the late-war TD (thus improving the variety then). Plus, it would mean I could go for a couple months at a time w/out seeing the planes I'm totally sick of constantly seeing.
Another option would be to do something like AW used to do and have alternating TDs with PTO and ETO planesets, without worrying about dates. This would provide some variety while still giving the habitual drivers of the popular rides most of their favorites in both TDs, especially the ETO. Look at what's popular every TD (more or less in order): spit9, La7, 51, N1, spit5, F4U, F6F, 38, Typhoon, Dora, 109G10. In the PTO, you'd have the 51, N1, seafire (basically a spit5), F4U, F6F, and 38. In the ETO you'd have the spit9, La7, 51, spit5, 38, Typhoon, Dora, and G10.
Anyway, whatever happens, I'd really like to see something change the daily fare in the MA while avoiding the problems of WB's skewed RPS. If that pisses some folks off, too bad--it's their turn
