Been playing entirely German until recently but now flying French. Noticed some surprising (to me) changes (note: I'm using HASP with SP3 still):

French missions are mainly offensive and German mainly defensive (EX: offensive patrols vs barrage patrol)

French promotions are faster.

French units are larger

French missions fly higher (actually, already knew this - kept wondering why the Germans flew so low and thus had trouble catching the Triple Alliance planes).

Seems that French missions are more overlapping, ie, for ex, an offensive patrol flies over a location and is followed by a balloon attack (now that the defending planes are occupied).

The German films are in German; the French ones in English with a bad French accent. There are very few intelligence films available.

None changes:

The AI still selects the wrong planes for the missions (IMO) when there are more then one plane type in a squadron - older planes should be on anti bomber patrols; new models on escort, etc where their likely opponents are enemy scouts.

The German style music is still German style for the French (oh well, can't have everything!)

Comments?

This isn't really against realism

The officer corps of the German Imperial Army was very rigid and class bound , promotions were slow, medals difficult to obtain.

until late 1916, the German HQ kept considering that the Fliegertruppen were primarilly servicing the ground forces, defending balloons, carryning recos, ... The French emphasized the fighter role from 1915, mainly because their pilots came from the Cavalry

The performance envelopes of the fighters were very different. Spads ViIs could operate at 5600m while Albatrosses were limited to 5000. By the end of 1917, Spad XIIIs had a ceiling of 6600m, while Fokkers VII in early 1918 were limited to 6000...

For plane selection, planes were usually assigned to pilots in function of their experience. Rookies, with a limited front life expectancy received the older models, while confirmed pilots got newer models

My own thought was that it is different to reflect the actual differences (what you said :) ). I just didn't expect it. Max altitudes were lowered in the game (there was a very good reason that I cannot remember) so maybe the altitude differences are there to simulate the higher ceilings of the allied planes. Anyway, to me it is a good thing. It is almost like starting over fresh. Didn't know that there were reloads until now too (none of the German guns in game were drum feed).

History aside: when did the British end the practice of buying higher officer rank by buying a retired officer's commission? What I am getting at, I know it ended pretty late but did it extend into WWI?

That system was abolished by the Cardwell reform , in 1871. The system had become politically unsustainable after the Crimean war and the need for professionnal standards was evidenced by the results of the French-Prussian war of 1870...

The Germans reorganized their air force in the fall of 1916. The creation of Jasta's, that were not attached anymore to ground army corps, came with a change of doctrine ( the commanding officers of the Jastas understood the concept of air warfare, hile the old staff generals has seen it as a form of cavalry or, worse, as a waste of resources) . The success of the first jasta justified what Boelke called "aggressive aerial warfare".

So if you play a German pilot in 1915-1916, you should expect defensive missions. If you enlist in Jasta 2 in the fall of 1916 and more generally whatever your assignment in 1917, you should expect a much more aggressive role.

In 1918, the Germans started to try new concepts again : superiority fighters and interceptors. Not a lot of them made it to the frontlines and the concept only started to be implemented in August 1918 with the Siemens D. IV and Junkers DI, but the idea was to have high altitude (8000m ) fighters with superior diving and climbing performance or faster / highly agile fighters. Basically, these outgunned and outmaneuvered anything that could match their performance and were faster and climbed faster that anything that matched their firepower.

Thanks; it's been so long since I read anything about it - couldn't remember. That should mean (a guess) that when I get around to the British planes, promotion rates should be similar to the French.