Let's keep it real, attainable, and the lists short (AND sans aircraft), say your top three ambiance inspired RoF wet dreams.
And no dogs in parachutes, please...

3) simple smoke emitters for those industrial chimneys! Hey, ambiance is ambiance and they are low impact...
2) more variable cloud formations, it's looking a little too similar from day to day in campaigns-- it ain't Arizona out there!
1) Archie/AAA like it should be over the front, white and black bursts that pilots can use to help spot aircraft just beyond visual range. This would make a HUGE difference for players.

A flyable Zeppelin, Sikorsky Ilya Muromets bombers and RNAS ops.

Here's what I want ...

I want the function key view range to be limited. That would allow AI controlled airccraft to be rendered only when they are nearby. That in turn would make many free flying aircraft much less of a resource hog ... and that would make time compression work with my campaign generator . Or at least I think it would ...

A bit more serious ... more human like AI with more of a survival instinct. AI that bugs when damaged or badly outnumbered. With that in place I would like randomized "personalities" in the AI pilots. It's not as hard as it sounds - two paremeters maybe
Caution - how careful is the pilot
Courage - how likely is the pilot to panic.

With those two you could do so much randomization:
A commander may or may not choose to attack or retreat based on odds.
A pilot may sieze up and fly straight.
A pilot may stay in the fight or run based on any number of factors.

I wrote out a state transition diagram once ... long ago.

Cut mixture—http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=15680

Clear jam—http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=14365

Invisible armor—http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=13524, http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3161388/1.html

Tracers—http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=13290

Arm animation bug—http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=209397#p209397

SPAD aileron damage—when cable is gone aileron still moves. This may occur for all controls and other aircraft, but I've confirmed it for the SPAD XIII.

Sun through crack—sun shines through non-existent crack in the wing. When your wing is undamaged, there are tiny cracks in the wing model where the two parts come together. These two parts separate when the wing rips off. Usually the crack is invisible, as it should be, but sometimes the sun shines through it even when the wing is undamaged.

Pilot damage—it always takes exactly three to four bullets to kill a healthy pilot or gunner with direct gunfire, even if all bullets strike him in the head.

Engine sound—you can currently hear other aircraft's engines over your own, when you should not. This prevents the common historical tactic of sneaking up on someone from behind and below and opening fire at close range.

Camera cylinder—while using TrackIR, when looking up, turning your real head to the side rotates your virtual head instead of turning it. The effect is the same when using mouse or keyboard instead of TrackIR.

Unduck death—if you survive a flip on landing in the Sopwith Dolphin by ducking your head, if you raise your head after the aircraft comes to rest upside down, you will be killed. In short, the pilot kills himself by pushing his head into the ground while the aircraft is not moving.

Moon size—at any given zoom level, the moon is several times larger than it is in reality.

Fokker E.III wing warping—the animation is missing some frames.

Fokker E.III missing wind sound bug—http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=128&t=17292

Sopwith Dolphin bubble—the slip-and-skid indicator bubble cannot can be seen unless in direct sunlight.

Wind bug—wind affects aircraft's airspeed even when wind is constant and aircraft was already accelerated to the velocity of the airmass.

New clouds...the present ones are very unrealistic and just don't look right compared to pretty much every other sim out there
More planes...obviously
More WW1 ground units to turn the rather sterile landscape into something that resembles a war going on down there
Improved AI...no more fight to the death
Anything that creates more atmosphere to be honest

My number one wish would be the clouds.

I would like a solution to the fps hit that happens when flying and fighting in and around the large clouds. I think the clouds look great but I don't like the slide show effect.


My second wish, as already mentioned would be to get some life happening on the ground, let’s see some troops, horses moving about down there. (not sure how hard this will be)

Third wish, improved ground textures. ROF looks amazing at altitude, low down, especially over the trenches the ground textures don't quite cut if for me.

Fourth wish, A long life span for ROF, as even with the above taken into account I think it is one amazing game.

Cheers

for me,

1. better visiblity of other aircraft at a distance,
2. a better filled out early war planeset, more utility types instead of just the glamourous jobbies.
3. the new campaign system to use said planes

i am hopeful of the last 2 items coming to fruition over time, but don't like my chances with the first.

Cheers
Craig

There are such smoke emitters in ME. Unfortunately one must put them in right place by hand...

And my wishlist:
1) CheckZone and Proximity triggers working in DM/TDM.
2) Models (planes, trucks etc) working in mission without AI -> static objects.
3) Infantry.
4) More infantry.
5) Just some more infantry.

S!

Sure the smoke emitters exist, we've all seen them, but why couldn't they have been installed as a package onto the terrain, i.e. chimney with smoke emitter, rather than just chimney. Now somebody has to put them in by hand... A simple short duration smoke emitter has very little FPS impact.

Many of you mention aircraft view distance as an issue.
I couldn't agree more, but apparently there are some complex limitations. As I mentioned, having active AAA with the historically accurate white (Entente) and black smoke bursts (Central) would go a great deal towards pilots awareness of other aircraft beyond game viewing distance. This is how it was, and how it truly works in two other WWI sims that I have played. It makes a HUGE difference.

I really like Patrick's wish to have AI with a morale check. It does seem so intuitive, but AFAIK no sim has ever utilized it... Please correct me if wrong.

Another wish (who says wishes have to come in 3's):
Crashed aircraft that linger on the ground until you clear the area, or at least last a bit longer.
That way you can land and take your trophy for the squad mess!

They actually have a "return to base" option when they sustain damage, but they have to be clear of the enemy. It's never checked in Career missions, though.

On the wishlist side, definately the draw distance issue. Oh, and the draw distance issue. Third, the draw distance should be increased.

Other than that, the only thing I think really needs fixed is the too short of draw distance for aircraft.

So Dart, what do you think of the draw distance?

I would like:

QMB- to have a save and load function for the various setups that you make.

QMB- to have a Random selection for where they are coming from so you don't know if it will be a head on, chase, or from the side so you have to keep scanning the sky looking for where that enemy might be instead of knowing where he's coming from.

1) Lewis/Parabellum MG14 that need to be reloaded, ie. no 500 round drums
2) British Nieuport 17 with Lewis instead of Vickers MG
3) Real sync gear, meaning not the interrupter gear which it is now, but rod actuated, ie. no firing without running engine (and cadence depending on rpm)

Dobby

1) FM fixes for all planes
2) Reducing effective gunnery range from 500 meters to 50 meters.
3) BR1 Camel

1) Ability to jump from plane, with a small chance of survival, depending on altitude, etc. (I just want a small chance to survive, and no I'm not going to stay in a burning plane. Yes, I'll stay in the plane as long as possible to add to my chances of survival: will try to burn speed off of my damaged plane, etc.) No, I dont want a parachute.

2) Option to jump into a recorded flight (like in the old RB) while watching it, and continue the flight. Great for training and learning from mistakes.

3) Winching down balloons (I think this is in the game now) when attacked, and observers that jump from the basket (and subsequently parachute to the ground, providing me an optional target

1.) A more streamlined MP dserver.

2.) A way to make MP servers hold hundreds of pilots and objects.

3.) For the current map to be divided up into smaller more managable pieces, and the appropriate channel area(s) added.

4.) ...and of course, more planes.

1. Increased draw distance
2. Realistic reload and gun jams (Lewis etc)
3. Better frontlines
4. Troops and wagons on roads
5. Crashed planes do not disappear
6. Historical AAA colors
7. Life at airfields

+1

Exactly my wishlist. Better long distance aircraft spotting, more early war planes (Scouts and two-seaters)and the new campaign

1. Option to turn off lens flare.
2. Default loadout of fighters should not include bombs so random fighters can be selected in qmb without a disadvantage to the fighters that would have carried bombs oherwise.
3. Draw distance of aircraft

1) Better Map transition from peaceful French countryside to the trenches. There should be tent cities, ammo dumps, etc. back behind the reserve trench.

2) Remove the random archie fire. I rather have a few wide spread archie batteries responding to plane movement. Machine guns tracers should still come from the trenches (in fact I would have the trench MGs fire on both enemy and friendly planes). The random ground artillery shell hits should stay. There was harassing artillery fire at all times, but I think the random archie fire is unrealistic.

3) Marching infantry columns that scatter when fired on would be cool. The solders could be sprits instead of full 3d models.