Axis vs Allied Rides - Posted by DOC
Some of us who built this game have high standard PvP air combat in flight simulators going back 15 years. In general, the Luftwaffe stuff has ALWAYS demanded more of the aspiring ace than the Allied stuff.
If you MUST generalize (and that isn't a very good idea but everyone still does it) then it IS true to say that LW planes are harder for a non expert to understand and extract instant success out of.
You know why ? We do.
The German approach at the onset of WWII in Europe (after lessosn learned in spain to a large degree) was to abandon the more traditional "dogfight" reliance of the 1st World War on turning as the mainstay, and to instead go for the "interceptor" approach of high climb rate, high top level speed and good exit strategy post bounce.
Most non expert combat pilot people (most gamers are not experienced air combat pilots in real life) fall easily into the natural TnB (turnNburn) style of fighting as bank and yank is the first and most obvious approach of any approach you could imagine. For some it IS the only approach they can imagine.
BnZ (boomNzoom) and the subtler qualities and disciplines of E and Angles fighting take time and practice to master, and often an instructor. However, once mastered, the LW iron generally does these things better in the 1940-> 1943 timeframe (where the more traditional British brought their more old school approaches, like TnB for one example) ... until after you pass the 1944 time frame where the Americans arrive with all these lessons learned and their iron is grat at late WWII air combat requiring less of the turn and more of the burn. The British too were more up to date with modern demands of air combat now as well.
Look, you'll argue over this because we're all forced to generalize unless we write a thesis on the subject with a years worth of dedicated research behind it.
In the 1940 -> 1943/44 timeframe, Allied rides reflect better than average TnB ability through design philosophy, as a general rule. Axis rides will better reflect a BnZ or E/Angles fight approach, as a general rule. This makes Allied rides easier if you restirct your options (or knowledge and skill) to the TnB plane of manoeuvre. After 1943/44, you're all in the same boat, so it doesn't really matter much anymore.
We're still stuck with a very obvious 1940->43 environment. So the differance is more obvious. A skilled opponent in the more difficult to understand Axis approach type aircraft (less TnB orientated by design) is always going to be highly dangerous, on average, maybe more so than his Allied equivalent unless they are both highly trained and experienced. Then it is a line ball call.
For beginners, the Allied rides suit the "bank the airplane, now yank back the stick" approach of the less skilled minset that doesn't even know what an angles fight is yet. they also suit the non beginner who doesn't progress his skill suite beyond the first few types of manoeuvre he has somehow discovered.
It's been this way in EVERY PvP AIR COMBAT SIM WE HAVE FLOWN IN 15 YEARS guys. It would be foolish to expect it to be any different here. Yes, there are things that you could argue or wrong, need changing, have to be fixed, blah blah blah ... if all was perfect and all was just as it might otherwise be (the elusive "perfect" we will never have if you must know) ... were all that to be true you would still complain about the differance between n00b friendliness of the early Axis rides to the early Allied rides.
Because that's the way they were built. The differance begins in the intention of their designers, who were not designing the planes a bunch of gamers wanted 60 years later in order to have dirty evil fun that met their gamer orientated opinions of what is fair or not.
Also note that real life air combat was not a yank and bank knights of the sky contest to show all on the internet who's the greatest. It was a life and death struggle full of fear, heroism, cowardice, hate anger and compassion. The way pilots flew there and in games is very very different for the vast majority of the time. In the air their mission was more often than not nothing like what your gamer mission is (what YOU want to do compared to what THEY wanted to do) ... and often what they fought against and flew alongside of to protect was also different. It wasn't the "best ride" versus the "best ride" that many gamer naturallys seek out. There were things you never encounter, physical deprivations, injuries, pain and suffering they had to endure and push through or capitulate to.
There were also aircraft types and mission objectives they flew that you'll never encounter in an online game.
Sometimes the most broken thing in games like this is your experience of the real thing you're comparing it to, and seeing how the game isn't like real life and can never be until how you fly makes that possible.
Even then, it won't be. It'll maybe come closer in your mind, your WWII fighter/bomber pilot fantasy ... but it will never be real life no matter what you or I or the developers you support do to make it so.