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Originally Posted by IceFire
That's interesting... most people consider them to be chronically underpowered. Why would you think that?
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Perhaps it's related to gunnery accuracy, but many times I've been shot down (PK or engine fire) flying against planes equipped with single 0.30/5.62 mm flexible gun positions. Sometimes I've been stupid and have been making almost dead astern attacks without manuevering, but a few times I've gotten zapped while doing things properly and making head-on or high-side high deflection shots.
Also, it seems like light caliber guns are a bit too effective at getting control surface critical hits.
Of course, on the other hand, flying planes like the Ki-43 or Hurricane Mk I is a challenge due to their light armament. But, that's sort of realistic since it reflects a conscious armament decision by the planes' builders which didn't work out so well in reality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by IceFire
The reason for the feeling of them being underpowered is due to the lack of a really complex damage modeling system so weapons that do a lot of structural damage are getting most of the benefit and other weapons that do internal systems damage are not getting as much of an effect.
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Hmm. I thought that each bullet is modeled as an "arrow" which penetrates through the plane model, like in "arcade mode". If it intersects with a vital system, there's a chance for a "critical hit." If it hits armor, it gets slowed or blocked. That's about as realistic as you can get without modeling things like explosive shell/bullet bursts, bullet fragmentation, or deflection/ricochet effects.
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Originally Posted by IceFire
Example... radiator cooling systems are not fully modeled so you can shoot a 109 in the radiator with little real effect.
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Isn't this a problem with individual planes (especially the older ones) rather than a systemic problem? Since I haven't looked at the DM for the various planes I don't know.
The problem with the Japanese guns is twofold:
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Originally Posted by IceFire
1) Lack of sources of detailed information on weapons and correct belting
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Strange. You'd think that the US military would have collected this sort of information. They did pretty extensive testing of just about every weapon they captured.
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Originally Posted by IceFire
2) The in-game guns use close approximations of whatever the Japanese were using and often use the German equivalent.
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Strange, since it's at least possible to get ballistic data for Japanese weapons.