[lawnmower]

As a newbie, let me start by giving a huge thanks to Oleg and the Team!

I just discovered this site, but have been playing Il2/1946 almost exclusively, along with Operation Flashpoint, and Grand Prix Legends.

Had some random thoughts:
1. Addons: One of the main things that I've found confusing is the management of the community addons which retain interest in a game long past it's release.
With OFP, people would make maps which need certain vehicles with certain effects, etc, etc, and eventually all these pile up, something is missing, and the campaign won't work.
Perhaps some sort of addon screen identifying everything installed by catagory would help?

2. Press coverage: All three of these games are my favorites, but none of them were on the front pages of Gamespot etc. as far as I know.
Mabye it's just American preferences, or the public's interest in WW2-era games in general, but I've only heard about SoW through existing forums.

3. Public interest: The game has a steep learning curve, which is half the fun, but mabye have a "super-arcade" mode for the kiddies...until they get used to repeated flat spins in the P-39s lol. Word of mouth also seems to create interest as much as advertising.
This game is very deserving of a large audience.

4. Education: I'd love to see SoW have more detailed maps of the areas.
For instance, the Russian/Soviet(please forgive my terminology ignorance) landscapes in the missions are all flat with random rivers and forests.
I'd like to scroll back out of the map to see where in Russia these places are, and what historical signifigance they have to the two sides(eg: the oilfields of Baku).

Much of the world was still farmland back then, so car-and-horses were probably seen on the roads as often as vehicles. Having vintage newpapers or sepia screens would add to the vintage flavor.

5. Mission briefings: Mabye active text pop-ups and symbols over certain areas would do the trick of making "the pilot" feel like he's in a hanger being told what is happening next. It would be more globally universal with smaller files than trying to make sound files for each mission.
For example:
"Good morning gentlemen."
"We have a tough day ahead of us".
"This is what we know."
"The German Army is pushing[symbol of arrow pointing eastwards pops up] from [city] [symbol flashing over some city or area]" "They are also coming from the[south]"
"We have spotted an active airfield here[symbol] which we need to attack today"
"You may encounter the [new FW-190 with their radial engines]."
"Do not attack these head on. They are fast and have good armorment"
"Your [Yak 9] group should stay high and try to catch them in a dive"
"We believe there are [five to ten] in the area, but we can't be sure"
"Your orders are to catch them off guard. Do not stay and fight"
"We are expecting bombers to arrive sometime around this time and they need protection".

6. Radio communications: Between teamates and during long flights. My great uncle flew the B-17s and said it was 10 hours of sheer boredom and 10 minutes of sheer terror. Most were still kids.
Things like:
"Break, break, one on your tail"
"Split them up and go for the ground"
"Stay with the bombers, we will keep them distracted here"
"I've lost you. You're on your own"
"There's the xxx river. If you get lost in the fog follow it back south to base"
"Number two red flight, your flaps are still down"
"Let me tell you about this dame I met in the boiler district last night"
"Radio silence please"