Why not completely throw away the perk system. Give every player 1000 perks a month with no way of earning more until the next month. Use them how you choose, equal playing field.
How would that level the playing field? All that would do would give the better players an advantage due to their skill in perked planes vs the newb/average player.
Absolutely Shuff. Can't have those evil commies taking over now can we? Though 15 bucks could also be seen as earning some perks every month. If everyone has the same quantity of perk planes every month well then there can be no complaints who flies them. That Tempest pilot who makes it through until the end of the month without destroying his aircraft would be worthy of some genuine praise.
...or ridiculed for being a wuss/runner who avoids any type of fight unless he has all the advantages. We have enough of those already.
Get vulched by a 262 on week four of the month? Well why hasn't the server shot them all down yet? Perk plane hunting would become a great sport again, making perk plane abusers now rethink all the attention they are getting.
You have more opportunities to hunt perk planes now. Go with the limited number of perks per month and they will be far less chances.
While we are at it, put a perk cost on half the planeset. The end of every tour would be early war heaven with furballs on the deck again.
I think the whole perk system should be revamped. Some planes need their perks lowered like the Yak while other need them raised. Last tour the T34/85 had 8323 kills, 5 times more than the next tank, the Panzer IV. Heck, the T34 had 3.5 times the number of kills the Pony had....can we say Aces LOW?
Bat, when was the last time you flew in the MA? It has changed a lot from the old days. If your not flying a fast plane you dont have a lot of chances at a kill let alone a fight. Its too bad, the old days had more variety of planes/fights which kept the interest high. Todays players are afraid to die and are after just the kill counts. Even any changes to the perk system will come across as HTC saying "you cant fly what you want any more", and we certainty dont want to see that.
Not that I would think HTC would do this, but I think but maybe tie the perks into your subscription. At the end of each tour you could earn a percentage of a discount to your monthly subscription cost, 5%, 10%, or maybe 20% off. Of course there would have to be a set range tied to the number of hours played per tour or these guys playing 100 hours would always hit the the most off. Make a contest out of it. Instead of buying your way to an advantage you could work your way to a discount of your subscription. And what better way to earn those perks than flying mid and early war planes.