What is needed is what we have here, a complete game. There is something for everyone in this game. Fighters, tanks, bombers, base captures, win the war, and yes even strat attacks. Until those other games add all of that they dont have a chance of lasting as long as this game has.
I agree with the first point. Today only AH is this complete game that the entire flight sim community is actually urging for. I disagree 100% with the last point. All the popular games today (DCS, IL-2, War Thunder) have lasted for more than a decade already. Il-2 came out in 2001. DCS in 2008. War Thunder in 2012. Each of them has a player base that is orders of magnitude larger than AH has ever had.
Why is that? One can only speculate. As for myself, pre DCS, I would actually never imagine that people actually would urge for the degree of fidelity that DCS has. It's downright ridiculous in many aspects, but it obviously sells. The same can be said about War Thunder, only it's in the exact opposite end of the "game spectrum". Why is War Thunder popular when it's 100% arcade?
War Thunder is perhaps the easiest to answer. It can be played on
any PC and on any game console. Just jump in, play the game and have fun. No investment in time and studying is needed. No investment in PC or sim gear is needed. DCS is the exact opposite. Super steep and long learning curve (for each and every aircraft). Not really playable unless you have a minimum $2000 gaming PC and minimum $1000 HOTAS setup and $300 pedals, not to mention at least a huge screen and some head tracking, another $1000, unless investing in top of the line VR (and only top of the line will work with
somewhat satisfactory degree in DCS).
My point was that ENY is a solution to a problem that shouldn't be there in the first place. It's one of those things that drives people away from AH. It's essentially a hack to fix poor strat design, or poor game design. AH is the only game with a decent amount of strat today, yet people rather set up their own servers with (ancient) IL-2 1946 or (ancient) Falcon 4, simply to get
something with real looking strat. ENY dumbs the game down, it's as simple as that. It makes it more game and less sim in a dumbed down manner. Many people want more game and less sim, and they go to War Thunder. If people want less game and more sim, they go to IL-2 or DCS.
ENY is a mechanic to adjust the "fairness" of the game. If a team is always out numbered and with the best equipment how fair or fun is it for the underdog? ENY is a must.
Again, WHY is a team "always" out numbered, and WHY is that ruining the fun? Rhetorical questions, I don't except an answer.
The problem with AH is it's a "sandboxed" game with it's own "sandboxed" rules and game mechanics. Its fun only as long as you agree, or at least can live with these sandboxed rules. ENY is part of this. Il-2, and in particular DCS, has shown that this sandboxing is not what people want. People want realism, the more the merrier. Strat is lacking in Il-2 and DCS. It is included in AH, but only limited, and only within the "box". One thing in particular is lacking, and that is to link credit (points, score, rank whatever) to missions that affect the strat status in a positive direction. This will give more immersion, more depth, more realism. Otherwise, quite frankly, why not just play War Thunder? (which is exactly what people do for quick and uncomplicated fun. I cannot understand what's fun about it, but that's just me I guess).
For us old-timers coming from WarBirds, AH was continuation of a game that was disintegrating (WarBirds). AH was a viable alternative in the workings. It didn't offer anything new though. The same sandboxing, the same rules (for all practical purposes). Most had one foot in AH, one foot in WB for a long time. AH won eventually. But, at the same this opened the eyes to several other games with much added realism, like Il-2 and Falcon 4. In particular Falcon 4 showed what
could be done with (AI) strat in particular and fidelity of the aircraft systems, while Il-2 was a more realistic WarBirds in many ways, less sandboxing, more aircraft fidelity and realism. Il-2 initially had some strat, but this was more or less gone in the newer series from 2013.
I don't know. War Thunder aside (hopeless case), Il-2 and DCS have some visions of the future for more and better online activity. ENY has been in AH since the very beginning as far as I can remember. Hated by most, defended by few. Surely it's time to put it at rest. Replace it with something that adds realism. Or maybe not
