REALLY hard to see...
 

I love the challenge of Sim mode. It's really great. But it might be a little TOO hard to spot enemy planes. The looking around is a little cumbersome to begin with, so I find myself constantly losing sight of bogies, as well as trouble finding them in the first place. Same goes for ground targets. I may be the only one having this trouble. But, until games reach the resolution of actual real-life, you might have to fudge it a bit to help out. The big blips when aircraft are far away, for example, are helpful, but then they get mid-range, and literally disappear before me. And I have a nice big ol' plasma, so that's saying something.

Just a thought.

I'm playing this game like a fiend right now. Straight up fiend.

I also dont like simulation mode because it allows the virtual cockpit. I hate the virtual cockpit and refuse to play with it, but it gives an advantage in sim mode while you look around in it looking for bogies...Basically, to be effective in Simulation mode you need to whore the virtual cockpit and map View, which I find annoying and unfun.

I find the best balance to be realistic...yea everyone knows where everyone is and it has all of the annoying arrows & triangles, but its just a game after all and games should be fun. Seems like the only person having fun in Simulation is the bastard known in whispered circles as "el Diablo Pedro de GOAT."

With all of that said, I KNOW FOR A FACT, that it would be 10x easier to play this game in simulation mode if I set up my projector and blew the screen up to 120," but I don't have the room in my house to do that so I am stuck with playin on my couch with my 40" 1080p.

Turn off the HUD in realistic. That's the best way. Still challenging but you have padlock view.

Its a matter of getting used to the feel of sim mode. I often use the map to determine where my enemys are located. If i got the general direction i usually find them without problems (also in sim mode MP).
Also the enemy in SP always fly the same patterns, so if you memorize the way the a.i. interacts, it becomes even more easy to spot the enemy.
Ground Targets are a bit tricky on sim mode. I usually try to remember the terrain or better use the smoke that rises up at the target zone after bombing as a helper to find the enemy again.
Where i reach my limits at ground bombing is as a example the stalingrad mission, where enemys are located between buildings ( i switched back to realism on that mission, was impossible to achive!)
But in the End Sim is so rewarding, i hate that blinky screen crap stuff on realism mode!

yes but you nerf yourself in multi then cause other deuchs have the arrows on

I'm a total noob to this game, just got it yesterday. But already I find sim mode the best by far. I usually don't have a problem finding enemies (using the map to get the general location helps), and the kills are much more rewarding. I also think it's far more immersive as you don't have arrows and triangles all over the screen.

I've been doing a lot of the campaign in realistic with minimal HUD. I find this to be the best compromise. I got through the earlier missions in sim but finding ground targets can be a complete joke, I just don't have that kind of patience. Props to anyone who does do it all in sim though.

To find ground target I fly very low and scan the area. Admittedly I have not been successful to identify all the ground targets in Stalingrad, but a pilot's life was much tougher in WWII than in the modern days (and even now pilots sometimes shoot their own guys or wedding parties).

I really don't like having target markers in a WWII sim, it kills my immersion.

True but I've done a fair bit of flying and it's a damn site easier to see cars on the ground if you're flying an actual, real plane at 3,000ft than it is to see them in this even when you're flying at 300ft. Eyes have a very much higher resolution than 720p and even cramped cockpits offer a wider field of vision than a telly. It's like flying a plane, whilst peering through a letterbox and wearing glasses smeared with butter. As detailed as the ground is in this sim it's nothing like the view from a plane in terms of readily identifiable landmarks with which to orient yourself.

Also with minimal HUD you don't get the target markers all over the place but you do get to use padlock view. I don't find it destroys immersion but merely compensates for some of the inherent deficiencies of playing on a screen.

Interesting idea.... but how do you know what you have targetted without the icons? Seems it could be a bit random as to what you have padlocked? I suppose its just a case of remembering what you last aimed at when pressing the target button? But it could still get confusing if you pressed cycle target, you wouldn't really know what your locking your view on to.