People complain about dive-bombing/fun-ruining buff pilots, daily. Here's a few ideas:
1) HEAVY strat targets. Imagine a huge oil refinery that took lots of bombs to damage (thanks to whoever mentioned it before!) that would call for cooperation between multiple players and would effect the gaming arena for hours, rather than minutes! Or a city target that would have an effect on the number of troops being alloted to each C-47 (say a city that if dropped 25% would limit the troop load by 25% and so on); an ammunition factory for cannons or machine gun ammunition and one for bombs (or one big Soviet-style mondo factory for both) that would limit the ammunition or bomb load for the country (again, a HEAVY target that would take, say, an entire squad working together to damage to any significant degree and effect the area for longer than 15 minutes); a capital that awarded, say, an ENY penalty for the attacked side (call it a morale lowering attack) and would call for DOZENS of buffs to make any significant dent, but award HIGH points to those who endevoured such a mission.
2) HEAVY AAA defenses at these sites. Think WWII pilots had to navigate a few batteries? They had to navigate LOTS of them. Maybe put 10-15 puffies at these targets, along with heavy 88mms or something to swat buffs from the sky like toys if they got too low (this would also eliminate the dive-bombers if the ack was programmed for level, rather than proximity).
3) B-29 w/out nuke and a bomber version of the ME-262, priced at about the same rate as the ME-262 is now. A highly priced B-29 would STILL be seen daily in the MA, as would the 262, I think, and it would give those thousands of perks something to be used for.
Also for the GVs...
1) Sherman tank (either with the popgun or the up-gunned Firefly) (un-perked), Pershing (perked), JgdPanzer/Tiger/Panther (perked), Panther (unperked), IS-2 (unperked), ISU 120-150 (PERKED!!!) and another AA gun (for Zazen and the rest). The Sherman with the up-gunned turret would be a match for just about any tank named in the hands of a skilled driver; the Pershing would be the equalizer to the Tiger; the Jager would be useful for base-killing, tank killing and anything else on the ground; the Panther would be a good addition to the tank family; the IS-2 would be the most powerful unperked vehicle in the game (and end up being perked in a month or so); the ISUs would be PERFECT for anything ground-related and could decimate a town or field in minutes; and the other AA would add a variation to what you see on the ground.
2) More tank towns. Also maybe spawn points inside of cities, as that's where the best fighting always happens, as you scour the city for that all-too-close "CRACK" sound. Some of the best times I've had on this game is whispering to the other Rooks about the Tiger hidden in the city that's picking us all off... sneaking around behind him... and then putting a 75mm through its engine and getting the kill message!
3) Find a way to limit or remove the "art" of spawn camping. This has to be the most annoying part about this game for me. I like GVing when tank town is up and can usually rack up 4-10 kills by hunting down Knights or Rooks in the town, but more and more, I see my myself getting killed within seconds of launch by someone camped out in the trees directly to my 6.
4) A map specially designed as a "Kursk" scenario of sorts. Tank bases situated around a wide open area with clear access for aircraft and no trees; only cover is revetments in the ground and ditched dug along the lengths of the area.
And for the fighters...
1) Meteor; more underclassed Japanese bombers; the addition of a lighter-load-carrying B-26 flying from carriers; a few French fighters.
2) Heavier AAA at airfields, the scope increasing as the size of the field does. Vultching to pad scores would be a thing of the past, when the vultcher had to contend with four 37mms, two 88mms and two 5-inchers as he dove in.
3) All hangars take heavier loads to knock down. Make the dive-bombing Lancs work for their kills; make the dive-bomb-BOOM-auger-dweebs a thing of the past.
4) Maybe have a system message "RunStang1 Just Scampered away from Arcades057" whenever someone does the drop and run approach... well, maybe not
It would be funny to see it, though...
5) INCREASE lethality on buff guns/ DECREASE the ammount of heat fighters have to put into a buff to get it down. Firing 250 20mms into a Lanc from my Zero, only to see a smoky engine is getting boring.
6) Increase perk points awarded for multiple kill sorties, cumulative on the amount of kills. Ie, if you land one kill in an LA-7 you're awarded with, say, 0.68 perks. If you get two kills you now recieve 0.68 perks, another 0.68 perks, plus the going perk bonus. Someone landing 8 kills in an LA-7 would recieve a string like this, say:
.68 x 8 + .68 x 8 + going perk bonus per kill.
I think there would be a lot more landed sorties if it was worth the landing of three or four kills.
7) Re-tweek the pilot wound/oil spray coding. SOme planes seem to get these regardless of the direction of the shot (I've lost my tail gunner and my oil at the same time from a HO in an ME-110, and I've lost chin-gunner and tail-gunner in B-17 from someone firing directly at my 6-o'clock level.
OK, another LOOOOONG post rehashing everything others have said. I think I've boiled it all down in one post, though! Tell me what you think.