Exactly..Nothing to researching planes..Like Skunk says click on plane you want and just play the game with that country..NO need to pay for planes.I did the same thing as Skunk (bought a shit load of planes before patch).Saved me 5 millions in lions and bought as many planes as I could..They let us know that the patch was coming way before it did, somewhat they let you know too that buying planes was going to change,, so you guys had plenty of time to buy them..Yes the game play has change a bit, but, They are still testing some settings and feed back is welcome,,you see they patch it again soon after, cause some shit was not right, and guess what, they will continue to do so along the way as long as POSITIVE feed back is giving, and the LOVE for the game will come back for yo guys... Remember guys,Still a FREE game is you play your cards right, Way better than paying 60 or so bucks , than pay as you go for map packs.. which is what most of these games are doing now..Have yet to pay for new maps here..
I my self have research 4 planes and I am all ready working on 4 more..So NO issues for me here..
P.s.. After buying plane old way you still had to play with plane to unlock shit..same as now, yeah you pay for research , but guess what,,they gave you research points for free..I started with 4.2 million and earning more along the way too..after research is done you pay to unlock it,,not a big deal if you have the lions..(is not that much to buy the perks)...Not really worry about tanks either. I play the game cause of the planes, if I wanted tanks I go to War of tanks..