@nrshida - Cheers, old boy! I certainly didn't mean to make points that would sadden you! To the contrary, AH is currently on an upswing after all - player numbers seem to be steadily climbing, we have active YouTube content creators (you!) generating interest, we have the potential for up to 64 (count 'em!) skins per aircraft now, and as CptTrips pointed out we have special events that are the jewel of AH.
There is a terrific special event going on right now in fact, Saturdays at 7PM EST. Late War ETO tactical air combat - B-26s, escorted by '51Bs, '38Js, and P-47s pounding targets in occupied France as they try to help Allied armies race to Paris for its liberation. German fighter defenses are superb as always, with a dedicated cadre of experienced Luftwaffe flyers putting up potent resistance. This event is almost in your time frame - a bit on the late side, but well worth staying up for on a Saturday night a few times a year. Walk-ons are welcome! Scenario play is so different and to my mind so much more immersive fun than the MA, but both have their place. I love being part of a team executing a plan, against another team executing their own plan, and flying against period-correct enemy aircraft on a realistic-looking terrain.
Speaking of MA play, there is just no other sim I've found (except for Warbirds back in the day) where a new player can step in and immediately feel like part of the action. AH's built in voice comms let newcomers see and hear the action going on right away. IL-2 Great Battles and DCS WWII are fantastic in their own right, but I always feel sort-of isolated when I log into multiplayer servers there. I know the other players are real people, but it often feels more like single-player to me. They just don't give me the immediate sense of energy I get when I login to AH.
We have new terrains now making their way into the game. And perhaps above all, the advantage the Ace High runs well on middling gaming machines - system requirements have gone up over the years, sure, but they are well below what IL-2 and DCS require for playable fps. Not sure about War Thunder's requirements.
BTW, I may be the only one who doesn't really pine for AH in its heyday, back when numbers were so large it had to be split into two servers (Orange and Blue, IIRC). Titanic Tuesdays combined everyone into a single server but it seemed like it was too much for the server as there was weirdness going on - I seem to recall unusual warping or issues with rubber bullets and stuff like that. To me, AH's sweet spot is about 250-300 players in the MA, and we are almost halfway there! With decent sized maps and ~100 players per side, you could find (or create) action all over the map. Sure there were the usual hordes, but there was room for small group actions in other areas, or you could lone-wolf if you wanted.
