Realistic pilots?

[Furio]

Originally Posted by TheGrunch

Options are always nice.

Here I agree wholeheartedly. “Option” is the word I like, since it protects me from changes I don’t like.
Generally speaking, the burden of the proof belongs to the people who ask for changing, and all aspects must be duly considered. For example, if you factor fatigue, you must also factor rest. And how do you implement rest? Referring to the calendar? If my pilot named Joe Dumb is fatigued today, I let it on the ground and fly with my second pilot, Jim Foggy. Or, if I fly just once a week, I’ll never have long-term fatigue effects. But, if I fly for Luftwaffe in 1945, or in VVS in 1942, I should not be allowed rest, so, what?
Then, we should not focus exclusively on online, as most Il2 players fly offline. In that case, fatigue must be introduced for AI pilots, with the same considerations about resting time and active pilots available.

Another point: if we talk of realism, we should consider that in real life prolonged high-g combats were a rarity. Most dogfights lasted few minutes, just seconds sometimes, before opponents got separated.
If our goal is realism at all cost, we should address this first. But we really want long and boring flights with just seconds of frantic action, and then an equally boring returning home? You can easily see, here, that “realism” is a word that should be used with caution.