In the AVA, to compensate for no enemy icons, the radar setting are usually turned up. low icon setting is at 200. if you fly at 1k or higher, no one will ever sneak up on you as long as you have radar up. this is done to keep people from sneaking up and killing people. it has been like that for a very long time. to say that cloud cover and background terrain is a advantage, it absolutely is. so is the paint scheme on the planes. colors matter in the AVA. that's what makes it different. in the mains, you can grab a plane and use any paint scheme you want, but that red sticker will give you away. in the AVA it wont, and works to your advantage. it also works for the other guy when he needs to "extend" and uses ground clutter to move away.
the AVA is an alternative, and not for everyone. we wish that more people liked it as much as we do. those that fly it like. some that go in there don't. plenty of choices in the game, everyone makes their own fun, we try to make the AVA as much fun as possible. do we hit the mark every time, probably not, but we do try hard! <S>