Rolling plane set is great for FSO and special events and I agree it makes for better fights, but wouldn't work in the MA, you'd have to structure maps by the years as you wouldn't want early war on a huge map, that was half my issue with mid war and early war arenas back then, the map was too damn big for those slower planes and it made it look like there was no action going on and people wouldn't stick around. Should have used some smaller custom made maps.
I could respond to the rest, but don't really have time unfortunately, but I'll stick to this quote.
While that is generally correct, it doesn't matter how good a pilot is if they are in a older plane vs an equal pilot in a newer plane. If both pilots are equal, the plane absolutely does matter, along with positional awareness. Plane capability makes a huge difference, it's why they never stopped trying to make planes faster and faster.
Also, it's about the Situational Awareness as well. A good pilot in a very slow plane isn't going to be able to out run the 3 190Ds and 2 Yaks coming to gang. You have to be much smarter about planning your attack and getting out of the fight. A tempest on the other hand, you can dive in and make mistakes with SA and press X immediately if you get too slow, and most planes still aren't going to be able to catch you.
IMO, decent sticks in less super late war planes will make the game much better for noobs. A noob fighting a vet where both are in spit 16 negates any plane advantage a noob may have.
Too many Tempest being used does not help noobs. It was once again a top 5 killer last tour. It needs to be perked much higher. Fast planes like a 190D with 500 cannons need to be 5 or 6 eny atleast. These types of planes make fights very boring because BnZ is a boring style of gameplay. Generally Noobs aren't going to have fun fighting 190D BnZ and Tempest when they are already disadvantaged and defending a base anyway.
I wouldn't recommend a P51 to a newb. They aren't goon enough at aiming to be effective with the 50 cals. And they aren't good enough when they get too slow and planes jump on them, that's one reason why the K/D is so much lower than a 190D. A 190D is better for a noob to learn. However they should understand that theres a time for attack planes and a time for defense planes, so they should also learn a Ki84 or spit8-16 to understand how to properly defend bases as well. If they only fly a P51 or 190D trying to defend, they aren't going to be very successful with that either.
Just keeping the response short. The P-51, Spitfire, B-17, B-29, Corsair, maybe 109s are big sellers because so iconic. Most replies from 51 jockies say the same. Ya have to make them available to those who are here for that reason. What draws players and how plane-set works to vets are conflicting arguments.
It was never fair play plane-sets in real war.
What clears this up to me is why events are very important, to quench that thirst.
Since early AW, the MA is just for practice for events. Not enough events? Get involved and make it happen.
Drums up interest in FSOs, revive Combat Challenge, AvA. IMO, there lays half your answer.
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