I was really excited about this product. Many other games have high fidelity ground combat, but simple flight models. Now we reverse it on those poor ground pounders and have a high fidelity flight sim with lower ground ops! Take that. :)
Really, though, I've enjoyed CA so far. My first impressions are overall positive and I'm really excited to see where this goes from here. I've often been frustrated when playing a mission at how the ground combatants operate, so now I can tell them what to do (and likely get them killed faster).
I think one of the open questions that keeps being brandied about on the forums that people are trying to get a handle on is just what CA might ultimately be. Will it's focus primarily be on the flight element, with aircraft being modeled in intricate detail, but ground operations being more simplistic (AFM vs SFM mentality), and if so, what will be the limits of the ground units detail? Or, is the eventual goal to try and gain just as much detail in operation of a tank as it is to fly the A-10?
As a purely personal preference, I'm okay with the former. DCS seems primarily focused on flight, and I've played enough games in the past where the ground operations have been more detailed than the air operations, so it's about time the tables are reversed. And I'd hate to see the development of the flight area of DCS get bogged down by DSC: Fuel Truck. :)
Having said that, I've noticed a lot of good first thoughts already of improvements, and I thought I'd just add an observation of my own: speed. It seems all vehicles, when controlled by the first person, seem roughly to have the same performance. You can get a tank reliably up to about 80-85 mph in a straight line, and all the other vehicles seem to top out about there as well. Now, I love seeing my tank booking it between buildings, laughing hysterically as the enemy tries to target me as I fly by, but... :) Part of the problem is operational. Why take an APC into combat that has more mobility when I can take a tank that has the same mobility and better armor and weapons?
What I take from this is that currently most of the ground units pretty much are drawing from the same performance stats in the game. They all go roughly the same speed, roughly accelerate the same, etc. I'm thinking this is a product of the first beta though. Will we see vehicles adjusted to perform more to their real world specifications in terms of general performance later on?