Hi. Huge fan of Xenonauts 1 , and in that essence Air Combat too. God, I watched almost 4 hours of Youtube videos just to master at it and obviously find it as mandatory part of the fun & strategy & what this game is all about. And I am offended when you define those beautiful moments 'mini - game' though , it is 'the' game.
I would like to build my air coverage strategy according to the fleet I have. I would like to train my pilots according to this strategy, watch them improve themselves from the battles they fought or find their place in hall of fame as fallen heroes just like a Xenonaut ; they are important part of this force against the aliens. Actually the first to face Alien Terror out in the sky when we are most vulnerable , when we thought Elon Musk and earth made Starships would skyrocket not those damned aliens who are polluting our skies with their own god-knows-how poisonous jet fuel! :-)
So I would lay out my opinions to support this important piece of game and pray for the Chris and others members of this community to hear me out
Hiring, improving pilots and having them stats like soldiers are a great idea. I would propose the same as the guy up there with 2 pilots per aircraft. One pilot and one shooter. Obviously if the pilot dies second pilot can take over but can not shoot. And yes in case of a plane shot down we should be able to save them if they parachuted out. The pilots who survived can be playable in the ground mission too with pistols of course , mostly trying to run or hide from enemy.
Piloting : Main skill, increases with flight hours, must have for maneuver incoming shots from enemy
Shooting : The guy with a hand on the gun controls, increases over using the red button and jumps up with fallen enemies
Stamina : Determines the cool down period between flights , increases over time spend in the base
Building and maintaining aircraft is always nice. Like Silent Hunter 5, where you ship can have a limit on stat but tweaks with your top skilled pilots. Even your guns and engine can benefit from those top guns increasing chance of hit or afterburner .
Pilots can have traits like 'night flier' who is skilled in night missions, 'cloud master' who gets bonus on maneuver stat in the clouds Chris mentioned and shooter and get bonus while shooting from clouds, 'sea gull' who gets bonus over the ocean flights or 'bomber' who gets bonus for firing heavy torpedoes. They are got over experience in missions of course.
We can buy or produce stuff for pilots that increases their efficiency in missions. For example 'night goggles' for night mission efficiency or 'enhanced war computer' for more accurate shots or 'flight computers' for better maneuverability .
I was in love with those mod I can not recall now but we had AWACS for radar coverage over area that we do not have a base. We can send our pilots to those missions and they gain stamina! We can send bombers to alien bases to reduce efficiency and pilots gain shooting experience. Later armed drones comes into play and the need for pilots reduces , they can take out small alien ships.
For engagements I am pretty OK with Xenonauts 1 real time play, but can be improved by Chris's idea to enlarge or dynamic battle field according to the behavior of enemy ship. If it turns and runs away we can burn afterburners and chase and shoot it till they face annihilation! If they face us we allow our planes to split and someone tries to tail him while the other changes direction etc. You know the drill! It's totally ok to pause and redraw lines and unpause by me. We can have this button here to 'parachute out' the pilots to save them from inevitable incoming missile. The other options like 'tail them until over land' or pre battle layout like 'split before facing them' I think are always nice for a group of fighters. I even would put 'escort' chopper option and troops until crash site to protect them from incoming enemy ships.
I strongly suggest putting tanker planes to assist our small range initial fighters to catch the enemy on the other side of the continent.
As you might have noticed I am in love with that air side of the game and beg you please wait a couple of months before making it worth 'cos I can surely wait and pay more with these options Thank you for taking the time to read if you have done already!
Best