I'm definitely looking forward to what the new damage model can do. Especially for machine guns. Machine guns really aren't that much about melting the physical structure of the plane like cannons do. Cannons rip stuff up and tear it off and turn it into tiny pieces. Machine guns are more the death of a thousand needles approach so damage being done to internal components. The last I read SoW will have everything from oxygen bottles to ammo boxes and so forth. That'll be huge when a machine gun armed aircraft rips all those things up.
The thing is that reality and the gameplay don't exactly agree when it comes to human behavior. The other night I was flying a 109K-4 and I took a hit to my controls. If it were real life I would have bailed out almost straight away. Instead I stuck with it and managed to crash land at home base. I'm not fearing for my life so I took my chances on a wacky crash landing. That part you can never get right...just different levels of involvement.
The one thing that I'm not expecting is planes melting in .303 fire. The .303s were ineffective...often leaving planes full of holes and wounded crew (horrific I know) but with no crippling damage to the plane itself. A solid burst to a 109E with the new damage model will do things like damage the engine, oil, coolant, oxygen, and so forth. There will be holes in the structure but its those vital components. Fire away at the wingtip or the armor plate for the pilot and it'll be much less effective. Either way it'll take a few seconds of continued fire to make it count. IL-2 does this well...SoW will be awesome I think.
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