I agree on the need for extra realism but let's not be dismissive here. The game/sim (depending on how each one wants to use it) should not be "dumbed down" by default, but it should also be accessible. That's what the difficulty options are for anyway.

Also, if you think about it, relaxed difficulty options are good for the old-timers and "veterans" of the series too. If the new guys can't gradually ease themselves into the complexity and they become lost, they probably won't stick around much. If they can gradually learn however, enabling higher difficulty settings as they go along with it, they have a better chance of staying for the long haul and you have a better chance of getting lots of new and inexperienced targets in your sights ;)

Exactly, Blackdog_kt. This is a game (a girl in my spitfire!) and it needs to be accessible for starters. Having an easy mode that doesn't make you an ace is just daft and will surely be fixed.

Just making sure you are all on your toes ;)

I lmao in retrospect too :P

Yeah, just a slight difference hey! I was imagining trying to dogfight with no aileron - would be an interesting experience! :-P

You're missing the point completely. It's not about learning to play the game the way it "should" be played, but rather about the game being broken.

What if the roles were reversed and the CEM system was totally messed up, making it impossible to play the game with CEM turned on? Wouldn't that piss you off? The developers give the player all of these realism options for a reason, and to not allow people to enjoy the game any other way when they supposedly give all these options isn't right.

Obviously games are never perfect (especially this one) on release, and bugs always exist. That said, it's a pretty damn big deal when one of the most advanced systems in the game is required to enjoy the game on any level. Not only is it alienating to lots of players -- it's not fair to money-paying customers to limit the way you want to play the game.

I totally intend on learning the ins and outs of CEM, just like I learned the ins and outs of everything in IL2 1946. I consider myself a "hardcore" player who wants to learn how to do every advanced thing in the game. That said, I still find the presence of the major game-breaking CEM bug in the game to be totally unfair to players who either are still learning the fundamentals of flight sims or don't want to deal with the realism options.

If the option is given to the money-paying customer, it should work. Especially when said broken option is essential to enjoying the game on any level. It's that simple.