To be honest none of the poll options grabbed me.
What I will say though, and I know some will think this is not important, and I apologise if this has been covered before - but for my two cents - the net code and ladder support are absolutely critical for 1C to include in the next incarnation of IL-2. Why? Because in my most humble opinion as a gamer, if 1C does not address this, then some other developer will come along and nail it (ie. the MP code and ladder support) , probably also noting 1C's strongpoints in damage and physics rendering but probably not doing so good an effort. A lesser game, marketed well, could eat away at the player base of IL-2. I don't think any of us want that here.
Rather, if 1C spent a little time on the multiplayer aspect and looked at how things like the much applauded (and also criticised) Hyperlobby have changed IL-2, and made it easier for teams to arrange matches and interact with each other, you could/should/will have an űber-sim so to speak...
I am a former CO of an Australian squadron that constantly had problems with matchups that HL wasn't able to solve. In the end, but principally by other factors, the isolation of infrequent matches killed the Squadron. Now firstly, I am in no way blaming anybody except myself for this, however - had there been a proper matchup system implemented into IL-2 earlier it would significantly improved our chances of staying in the air.
The combat flight sim community has a lot of dedicated enthusiasts without a doubt. What needs to happen is for those people to be able to get into the air as quickly as possible with a minimum of fuss. Ladder support and attention to the multiplayer aspect would go a long way into achieving another long period with BoB becoming the choice of us combat propeller-heads.
I would also really hope that the next FMB editor allow creation of new maps (specifically terrain etc.) for us to contribute to recreation of all theatres of war without having to wait for patch updates hoping that what we desire to have in the game gets released.
I can appreciate that 1C already has a lot on it's plate at the moment, and BoB is already shaping up to be the next generation CFS that we are hoping for - but since I haven't seen anyone in any forum say much about these topics, I thought it was worth at least discussing.
Thanks for listening
