[blottogg]

Good idea, Ilya. Thanks for asking for input.

Nothing really new from me, but to repeat some of the suggestions I've seen in this thread and like:

- Secondary explosions. A stick of bombs from an He-111 walking across an airfield, and plowing up nothing but dirt until one bomb hits an ammo bunker. There's nothing better than instant feedback on your targeting. This could apply to ammunition and bombs inside airborne aircraft, too. Nothing gratuitous, but where appropriate for the amount of damage taken, and the explosive nature of the point of impact.

- Fratricide. This might be annoying (especially if it's your wingman shooting you down by mistake), but from reading historical accounts, this happened fairly often. Give us a reason for all the recognition stripes and colors, besides really cool paint schemes from the skinners. In other words, make the Ai make human-like mistakes, instead of computer-like mistakes. To steal a line from the beginning of 'Rustler's Rhapsody': "For starters, maybe he wouldn't be so damn perfect all the time."

- For historical accuracy, some squadrons during some periods will have the same mission type day after day. Others will be more dynamic, and controllable by the player. Examples of the latter include Rhubarb, armed recce and Frei Jagd type missions. Motorcycle gang tactics, cruising an area armed and looking for trouble.

- After a swirling dogfight, finding a friendly Ai fighter and joining up on him for mutual support while leaving the area.

- I'm not sure how to implement it, but if players on non-recce missions see something of interest, give them the opportunity to report it, and possibly have that report generate a mission to attack it (or at least photograph it) later. This might encourage folks to look around, instead of just droning from waypoint to waypoint. For example, while escorting bombers to airfield target X, the player notices a supply dump 5 km south of the target airfield. Or a group of ships in port making steam in preparation to depart.

- Lost aircraft going the wrong way, and occasionally landing at the wrong field. This happened with allied aircraft landing at a different (friendly) field fairly often, and much more rarely with aircraft landing at an enemy airfield.

- The ability to commandeer a subordinate's aircraft after yours has been damaged, or suffers a mechanical problem before takeoff. Rank Has Its Privileges, though this could have repercussions on the junior pilot's experience and skill.

- I like the idea of landing to rescue a downed squadron-mate too. This opportunity would be historically very rare, and very difficult.

That would be the bottom line for most of these "holy sh**" moments in general. They should be rare enough to be realistic, but not so rare that the player never encounters any of them. One of your biggest tricks is going to be finding the balance between over-saturation, and historical rarity. Good luck, and I look forward to your efforts.