But there is a subset of players that would like to see something radically different. How big is that group? I dunno but it is bound to be bigger than the current population.
This is key, I think.
Dawger, you weren't here when this happened. The desire to have an arena with historical plane sets and more realistic settings was the cause of the birth of the AvA's predecessor, which at the time was called the Combat Theater. It was player-run, by the grace, but not necessarily with the blessing, of HTC. The dedicated WWII air history afficionados all came here, and the world was good. Probably something like this was going on in Warbirds more or less simultaneously. Many might consider it the height of WWII flight simulation.
Sadly, those people either are gone or became bored with that aspect of the game. I watched them leave here, and you probably watched them leave Warbirds. Age, marriage, other real world interests, who knows? One way or the other, they were replaced by Competitors, who care much less for the history and aren't willing to sacrifice plane choice or squad affiliation to achieve it.
So: I challenge your assertion that there is a core group of realistic WWII simulators who are out there just waiting for the perfect AvA situation to arise. I think they're all gone.
On the other hand: Your idea of longer plane sets, and historic progression, is a good one. It has been tried already, though, with theBug giving us a hard-working performance of keeping it all going. It really didn't change the numbers significantly, I think all will agree (and, most sadly, we lost theBug because of that).
- oldman
