Originally posted by J_A_B
You appear to fall into the second category. Perk tags can't fix that. Instead of worrying so much about the enemy, you need to let them worry about you. Your entire problem with the perk tags amounts to the fact that they let the enemy recognize you and perhaps pick you out of the mob and attack you.
You're missing the point. You seem to think I'm complaining that people shoot at me. That's wrong. I'm complaining that people will dive from 25000feet through a furball to stop cherry picking and kill a perk plane at low alt. Pilots will waste thier entire ammo bin spraying from 1200yards out, just hoping for a lucky hit. Have six enemies on your tail? No problem, just get at the perk plane before they get ya!
A free plane is a kill.
A perk plane is a trophy.
Most players will do ANYTHING to kill a perk plane. Even if it means they're going to die also. This applies to pilots who normally don't suicide. I once had someone chase my f4u4 for over 50 miles, you think someone is going to chase an la7 that far? I don't mind people trying to kill me, it would be stupid to expect otherwise, but with every dweeb within 6000yards focused on killing you without any thought to anything else, it's hard to get by. And yes, these actions DO make many of these people easy kills, but when you have everyone who can get thier nose pointed at you doing this, the odds are far against you.
There is a good reason that the f4u4 and spit14 see so little usage, and it's not because of thier performance or cost. There is a good reason the f4u-1c has better stats than the f4u4, and spit14, and it's not the performance.
Right now what we have are perk planes which are essentially worthless in the MA. By making these planes the targets they are, any small performance advantage is crushed. Perks are supposed to be a reward for flying earlier war planes, currently the perked planes are only a punishment for flying something late war.
You can't take a perk fighter into(Cherry picking from above a fight is not getting into a fight) any serious fight and expect to have any chance of living. Your only options are to hang out above the fight cherry picking, or hanging around where there is massive friendly superiority. While I'm sure some people get off on climbing to 25000feet, and then picking off anyone who happens to be AFK, the vast majority of players would rather fly something else instead.
You once said(I think it was you, too lazy to check) that flying a low eny plane like the p51d cost perks, because you earned less. What use are perks if they're no fun to use? I know I'm not alone in having several thousand perks which I don't plan on using, simply because there is no fun in it.
The problem with the perk system is that for the majority of players, earning the perks is more fun than using them.
I invite you to fly even a half a dozen sorties in the f4u4 and then comment.
