[Tiwatz]

I'm a combat veteran and I've personally seen a dozen different color tracers on the battlefield flying at my side and from my side back at the enemy... the same would have been the case in the skies over battlefields of world war two. different countries used different colors for different calibers and different types of ammunition... So, historically accurate tracer colors and brightness would be very nice on the eyes.

Has anyone noticed that only the tracers in the game actually seem to exist? Traditionally, ammunition for smaller caliber machine guns (or even .50s) would be loaded 1 in 5 tracer, the other 4 being ball or armor piercing, sometimes they'd be loaded with API, Armor Piercing Incendiary, which were generally all tracers- it would look like a stream of red or white lasers coming out of each gun- but the guns would heat up faster. Larger cannons, which generally had a slower rate of fire and less ammunition due to the rounds' actual size would fire all tracer usually because most cannon rounds were tracers, they'd be fire in short bursts to save ammunition because they couldn't carry very much... Look at actual combat footage when large caliber guns hit planes and ever smaller caliber ones with exploding or incendiary ammunition there are a lot of flashes and pieces of things and holes ripped into stuff. So at least for visuals there should be more lead per gun flying out than there are tracers- so there should be more tiny flashes and little holes. there doesn't have to be any change to the damage potential of each tracer- just make each non-tracer round due far less damage so that it won't alter gameplay, just visuals... I think it's kind of odd to see all my half dozen .50s on my P51 Mustang firing at water and only seeing 7 or 8 splashes after holding the trigger down for a second- when in reality it would be a stream of a couple hundred rounds I just let fly... the water would be a torrent of geysers in a stream, the affect of gunnery on that magnitude is like spraying a garden hose.

Another possibility is to make a new setting that would coincide with limited ammo and fuel. Limited cannon ammo only? Or, better yet, just treat cannons as as a secondary weapon like rockets or bombs. utilize the pressure sensitive controller and make the trigger fire only machine guns at light pressure and all guns on higher pressure.

Another problem I've noticed is quite frustrating... The dorsal turret on the A20 is for some reason unable to turn 360 degrees... which in real life- it could... it could even be used by the pilot and fire at the same target as the forward .50s in the nose. the same problem exists for the Dorsal gunner in the B17G... the dorsal turret could in-fact turn 360 degrees and had coverage over the entire top hemisphere of the plane. For some reason I can't seem to use the ball turret on the B17G at all... or at least it wont fire down. The ball turret had complete coverage of the bottom hemisphere of the B17 and could even fire straight down... The ball turret gunner frequently performed flips and spins and was frequently upside down shooting at enemy fighters... So, i think all the turrets should be fixed.

I also would like a new bombardiers view in the bombers, especially the He 111 and the B17G... Even in arcade mode you can't even come close to seeing a target if you fly at realistic altitudes- B17s flew at over 20000 feet on normal missions. Targets don't even show up on the in game radar over 15000 feet.

Also- and this is a stretch... but I'd like to be able to use my squadron from the campaign (the ability to command 3 or at least some AI controlled aircraft) in multiplayer. I think filling the skies with more planes, some commanded by a player, would be sweet. I'd love to have 4 B17G's flying in a formation--- but how'd you have them drop their bombs at the same time as you? Another problem with this is that generally even the most hardened AI plane I've seen in the game is very easy to shoot down... the skill of the AI would have to be beefed up to be like real Luftwaffe pilots in the early days of the war, or to last more than 10 seconds in a multiplayer team battle.