Wow, never expected to see such a reaction
Okay, here's my plan for now.
Technology: Fighter planes can and should be taken from their real-life counterparts. Meaning you get Spitfires, Fw-190s, all the nice stuff that was available at the end of WW2. Jet planes are just starting to appear, for the moment, they are the stuff of wild rumours among pilots.
One major difference here is that physics work a bit different. In this Universe, there exists an eleme4nt that basically acts as a countergrav unit, similar to the Unobtainium that featured prominently in James Cameron's Avatar. This allows the construction of heavier-than-air Airships like the ones from Starslayer's concept art featured in the first post. For now, this element is extremely rare, so only states have access to vast quantities of it, and they use it to apply traditional naval doctrine to air combat vessels (In this universe, Pearl Harbor and WW2 never happened, so majestic Battleships are still a must for any self-respecting nation).
The more outlandish, Crimson Skies-like planes can exist as well, but I'd like to keep things simple for now.
Politics:
Damn you swashmebuckle! Get out of my head!
The feel is very frenetic. Everyone knows that the world is teetering on the edge of a second World War, as the grievances left behind by the first one are still left unresolved in the eyes of many. Extrapolate the feel of the 20s, and leave out the global economy meltdown. As you said, Alliances shift rapidly, as Europe is trying to find a new balance of power. America, meanwhile, tries its best to keep Europe unstable; In the wake of the collapse of the vast colonial empires (except for the Commonwealth, but we'll get to that later), they have vowed to spread independence wherever they can. Their strategy is to keep the Europeans busy with themselves, while they send aid, both economic and political, into the former colonies to help secure their independence.
Look and Feel of the mod:
As said before, Crimson Skies-ish. Combat is (by comparison to stock FS2) fast and frenetic, with the ground being a constant source of danger. Weapons used are primarily guns; While there are early guided missiles, they are still somewhat inaccurate, and the radar systems necessary are too big to be mounted on regular daytime fighters.
Musically, the kind of score you'd see in a swashbuckling movie, or Indiana Jones film.
Visual effects: Not certain yet. If we can get a sort of grainy black-and-white filter on there for cutscenes, that'll be great. Everything else should be left clean.
