In the interest of NOT spamming up the comment thread, I will try to contain my inane botherings to this thread

On the subject of the plane crashes... you said:

"As far the air support... believe it or not it's like 50% of what it used to be lol, but I will look into reducing it further. The last thing I want is people crashing or lagging out from the planes alone."

Got me thinking about things from the perspective of that whole "Crimson Tide" Horde aspect...

It's not air support, per se, that is the issue... that not only adds another dimension to gameplay that is kind of lacking in COH2 in general (One of the few mods where I find myself putting Ostwinds in AA mode!), but, especially late game, it really makes sense from the historical situation on the Eastern Front specifically... as far as I know the IL-2 (and I think maybe including the IL-10) is still the most produced model of aircraft in history, or at least combat aircraft...

When you say it's 50% of what it was, is that 50% of the frequency of those call-ins being used, or 50% of the damage they inflict?

My issue with the whole thing is that as it stands right now, it actually punishes the player who has a stout air defense set-up, especially the recon flights... normally, recon just comes on-board, does its thing, and then flies off. (Side question: Does the AI even gain a benefit from recon? I assumed they could already see everything on the map). With decent AA coverage, the recon plane is often shot down very soon after it actually enters the playfield, and it seems like there is a 50% chance for it to magically crash into something important, doing wild damage. While an IL-2 coming down on you would certainly ruin your day, it's really one of those vanilla game aspects that isn't super realistic because of how small the play areas are compared to real-world distances, etc... so it's like shooting fish in a barrel. It's especially frustrating when it comes to garrisoned troops because it seems like even if the damage to the building is light, EVERY person in it is guaranteed to die when a plane hits the building. (Again, I am sure a vanilla mechanic that is outside of your control)

Instead of reducing the number of flights, have you looked at possibly reducing the damage planes do when they crash?

I did a little looking and I found:

http://www.coh2-stats.com/explosive_weapons/stuka_plane_crash_mp

and

http://www.coh2-stats.com/explosive_weapons/il_2_plane_crash_mp

(Curiously nothing for Typhoons and P-47s, so maybe they just use the IL-2 stats?) but significantly cutting that damage and/or penetration down would potentially mitigate the problem of the kamikaze IL-2 spam.

100% there SHOULD be plenty of strafing runs, rocket strikes, PTABs/FABs, etc... (Hell, the Russians had lend/lead P-47s too)... it's the vanilla component of any plane that gets hit IMMEDIATELY departing controlled flight and doing Armageddon damage rather than more likely flying well off the map before it crashed (especially the supposed "flying tank" IL-2) that becomes a problem when there is almost always a plane in the air.

The impact to performance is what it is... my COH2 likes to crash no matter the mod I am playing.