After some of the onslaught of moderator goodness appears to be over nothing seems to have changed after all.
Personally I find it scary that so many people cling to the "plane performance" straw as that is only a very small part of the whole picture.
What do you really want from the game?
Total balance? Then play 109vs109 or Spit vs. Spit and show if your skills are where your mouth is. Alternatively go and play some other "instant hero" game like Super Mario and stomp the hell out of some slowly moving carrots or other weird stuff.
Realism? Then keep in mind that a game can only do so much to re-create and simulate the situation, maybe 25% max., and that it means often ending on the ground - especially when going up against human opponents.
Personally I also have to wonder what all that "taking sides" is about. Do some of you guys want to re-create the war? How about you meet privately on a remote island and just go at it? This is just a game and history can only go so far. In fact this part of history is over.
As for me I enjoy flying and to be frank the plane doesn't really matter to me. Not even the setting. My favorite "real" plane isn't even in the game and even if it would be... what's the point of all this anger boiling up? I'm German but I like other planes as well, in fact I fly other stuff more than German planes (including space sim/games). No need to constantly take sides - it just spoils the fun and limits your options. We're all just humans from Earth.
Still, I believe they should strive to make the planes handle similar to the real thing. It can't be simulated perfectly of course but the game should try to be close. And after that? It's mostly pilot skill and pilot equipment.
Ok, so one plane is 5% faster or whatever, big deal... If I get home from work I'm sometimes so freaking tired that my reaction time is like 1000% slower. Or if I'm chasing someone but need to pee. I vibrate and jump around but my precision is down the drain already.
What about guys with hardware issues? No head tracking, crappo joysticks etc.? What about visual impaired or hearing impaired?
Are all of you the perfect health youth pilots that flew the originals? Are you always in perfect shape when flying online? Do you die when you get shot, do you have to deal with the stress and hormones, fear, sleep deprivation, bad food, being apart from your family, seing friends and comrades die all the time etc.? Can you actually be certain that your failure was due to your planes limitations or are you simply a not so great pilot? Why is it that people stop liking a plane as soon as it turns out that there is no ONE MAGIC MANEUVER TO KILL THEM ALL.
This could be a much longer text wall, literally. But in short words:
- If you want balance go and play Quake 3 Arena. Show if you got the aim and skills.
- If you want strategy play Civilization V.
- If you want dynamic real time strategy and intense input speed play Starcraft II.
- If you want to fly an old crappy piece of junk oldtimer warbird with it's strenghts and weaknesses then pick one you like that minute and day and fly it. Get shot down, respawn. This game's actually good at it.
- And if you want to fly the above but against a fair oponent then just fly 109vs109 or spit vs. spit. This could also be done with this game and no one can blame performance of the plane anymore.
Also please keep in mind that not everyone during WW2 was an ace. And even the top aces killed MUCH less than the average noob IL-2 player.
Also here's another update in case you missed it: The war is over. It can't and shouldn't be re-created for many obvious reasons. (such as not having the luxury of playing games e.g.)
Sometimes it feels as if some are forgetting the circumstances the real pilots and planes went through during wartimes which ultimately lead to the results we have today.