Right now we have game play where the bomber guys fly with their hair on fire at 3-5k right into the action like madmen and the fighter guys fly around like a bunch of timid terrified wimps.
I know that limiting the number of aircraft a base can send off has been discussed before and rejected but IIRC the discussion was always centered on limiting "ALL" types of aircraft.
What if different sized bases could only sustain a certain number of bomber aircraft LOSSES per hour but infinite fighters could and die like usual?
I feel like that would encourage bombers to get back home which is a minor issue but more importantly would encourage escorts to actually try and keep them alive (and the only way to do that is by fighting).
Take it a step further and have scoring default to "attack" when ordinance is loaded, and make it so bases can only sustain so many bomber/attack losses per hour, however they can launch infinite fighters (which couldn't carry ord in this scenario).
So again, you could launch as many fighters as you wanted from a field, but if you wanted to launch bomber and attack sorties, you'd want to try and get those aircraft back safe and sound because landing them wouldn't count against you for the hour, but dying would. This would add an element of strategy to the gameplay for the guys who claim to like strategy, and it would encourage fighting because you'd want to defend your attack/bomber aircraft. Suicide/one way trips could still be effective and an option but now there would be a downside to them because of the very real possibility that your entire offensive stalls for a certain time if you lose too many bomber/attack aircraft.
Maybe even let supply goons to the field bring in more ord if a squad desperately wanted to suicide over and over - at least then it's coordinated and an accomplishment.