This was my #1 complaint when I first got into '46. I have come to love the game (online and off) but when I first began to realize that the AI was "cheating" and how deeply it affected the simulation it gave me a very disappointing feeling that the sim was just... broken.
I've read around quite a bit and from some the consensus seems to be that if you can't outrun, chase down, or outmaneuver the AI aircraft, then you just don't understand CEM enough, or that they're too easy to defeat as it is so nobody should complain that they act as if they have super-powers.
I've come to realize just how great of a sim '46 is. The better I get at shooting, the more hits I score and the more aircraft I down in a given dogfight, but sometimes it can be very distracting that setting the enemy to a higher skill level often seems to be less like "Ace" and more like "Rolls More Often". Still a blast, just distracting.
The problem with giving the computer "cheap" behaviors in response to a given situation is that those behaviors become repetitive and predictable. Most of us know that when you roll up on the six of an AI aircraft and hit your convergence distance, the enemy is always going to start rolling around for dear life, sometimes followed by settling into a long slow turn (this is where they usually get shot down) or buzzing away in a straight line without overheating (this is where the wise make a simple 90 degree right turn which is apparently so infuriating to the enemy that he must immediately change his plan to escape death and return to the battle).
Given enough time I might learn to outfight the Millenium Falcon in a Spit, but I'd rather just have the AI pilots behave within the realm of reality, rather than overcoming their miracle planes by sheer skill. The AI should have to fight with all of the same aircraft and physical limitations as the player (blackouts and overheats, etc.), and there should always be the possibility of pilot error, ineptitude and lack of piloting skill (of various degrees).
So... it's frustrating to see this behavior has found it's way into CoD. It's not what any of us had hoped for, but that's the way it is. Every game has a release date, this one came (for whatever reason) at a time when not everything was as perfect as it might have been given unlimited time and resources. I'm not giving up or complaining about a game I don't even own yet (I consider it a definite purchase, but I'm waiting to see improvement), just giving my perspective. AI is a make-it-or-break-it feature, and it's one of the hardest to do right, but it can be done.
If someone was counting votes, my vote would go to making legitimate AI a priority.
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