Damage Model issue?
 

I guess this belongs in this section but it may have already been brought up.

I've been flying offline almost exclusively since buying CloD, but recently I started flying online (not using new beta patch). With practice I finally started to win dogfights, (spit flying against 109s). after about a dozen or so kills over the last week I have noticed a very odd bug.

almost every time I manage to get a good deflection shot on a 109, I'm able to make it 'explode' with a great fireball, however EVERY time it happens online, the 109 continues to dogfight seemingly without any mechanical damage being sustained. the first couple times its happened I would disengage thinking the plane was destroyed, but now I follow the 109 and continue to attack it completely ignoring the meaningless 'fireworks show'....
:(

Offline when i manage to get a 109 to 'brew up' the AI pilot immediately goes into bail-out mode, or causes a pilot kill, or complete of loses control.

Again this happens to me only online and against AI pilots as well as human.

is anyone else experiencing this bug?

the whole thing is completely off anyway, this giant fireball should be accompanied by some kind of fuselage structural failure... not just a ball of flame... its a very confusing damage animation and needs an overhaul from the devs.

I noticed this a few weeks ago

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=31650

I assume the AI 109 pilots realise they shouldn't stay with their aircraft after it explodes.

well it doesnt seem to be just a AI issue as the online AI reacts differently than offline.

it seems when online the fireball means nothing in terms of damage. there also seems to be two types of fireballs... ones that just expand from the middle of the plane then dissipate immediately leaving no visible damage to the plane... the other seems to be a fireball that creates a flame trail coming from the engine cowling that lasts for a few seconds then goes away. Offline, these animations seem to have no effect on the planes performance.

has anyone else noticed this from other planes? I have only seen it happen to 109s

Online if you blow up a 109's fuel tank, they will run out of fuel within a minute or less and the engine will stop. In a few cases, I have seen where the fire spreads to the cockpit area and the pilot is forced to bail or die.

I have seen the same thing occur with Hurricane wing tanks. Large explosion, plane continues on.

It's a bug. The fuel tank "explodes" but doesn't damage the aircraft.

well at least its been noted...

its funny now, but i was absolutely crushed and shocked after the first time it happened.. I was so thrilled at my apparent 'skilled' deflection shot, only to be completely dumbfounded to see the 109 wheeling back around to get on my six after I banked away :shock:

The first time it happened to me I saw "Fuel tank: exploded" come up on the HUD and fire everywhere, so I bailed out ASAP.

From external view I could see my 109 keep flying away, relatively unscathed.

A previous poster was correct though, when he said that the 109 will run out of fuel in very short order. Over England, I'd bet against him getting back to France, even with a full tank.

I think either the fireball is wrongly depicted because tank did not explode but just was damaged. Or the damage model is not right. If it explodes it should make a big hole or even ripp of large chunks of the plane.

BTW: Are there by chance planes that do not explode at all?

If the 109 tank is indeed exploding as the animation would suggest it should result in death or severe burns since the pilot is sitting on the tank. Maybe the seat armor redirects some of the blast outwards but the pilot would surely feel the need to exit immediately.

It is laughable how often the wing tanks on any of the blue bombers explode and rip the wing off at the engine. That has to be the most common method of bomber destruction when I fly red. However, it is few and far between that an engine catches fire, seems it should be the other way around.

The flight and damage models are just borked in a general sense.

I was saying in another thread that it's trivially easy to de-wing a Blenheim. No cannon required.