Damage Model Bug Stomping

[Pursuivant]

This is a continuation of the FW-190 Durability topic, and the work I did prior to the 4.13 release.

Using RPS69's test mission as a base, I've been working my way through the single-engined propeller fighters, testing their vulnerability to engine fire and wing breakage when fired upon at point-blank range by .50 caliber MG fire.

Each "mission" consists of setting up a B-25J on the runway, with the target plane immediately behind it at a distance of approximately 20 m, then blazing away using the twin .50 caliber guns in the tail to pour concentrated fire onto the engine and wings.

I use unlimited ammo to give myself sufficient firepower and arcade mode to judge exactly where my shots hit. At such short ranges, there's almost no chance of missing or hitting anything other than the intended parts of the target.

Tests consist of waiting until the target plane starts it engine and runs it up to operating temperature, then firing on the engine to see if a fire occurs. Once the fire starts, I start walking bullets along one wing until the wing breaks.

When shooting at the wing, I always try to aim at the leading edge so that the bullets would penetrate the main wing spar in real life. Realistically, the intense concentration of .50 caliber fire through the spar should cause a wing collapse, even when the plane is parked on the ground. (Mind you, this should be a difficult thing to achieve in aerial combat, I'm only testing whether a particular plane has parts which can be broken using .50 caliber fire.)

Typically, only 5-10 seconds of fire is necessary to trigger the desired result. When an anomalous result occurs, the target plane will take enough damage to make it "vanish" (that is, lethal damage and despawn when the plane touches the ground) after about 15-30 seconds.

Here are my results so far:


Buffalo Series (B-239, F2A, Buffalo Mk I) - Engine fires: yes. Wing breakage: No, regardless of where the bullets hit.

CW-21 - Engine fires: yes. Wing breakage: Yes, wing breaks at midpoint, but will not break at the wing root.

Fokker D-XXI series (Danish & Dutch): Engine fires: yes. Wing breakage: Yes, wing breaks at midpoint, but will not break at the wing root.

F4F series (F4F-3, F4F-4, FM-2) - Engine fires: yes. Wing breakage: Yes, but only for hits to the outer wing. Aiming anyplace else on the wing will not break it, either at midpoint or at the wing root.

The fatal damage texture/breaking parts for outer wing damage represents damage that the F4F was provably able to survive!

F4U series (F4U-1A, F4U-1C, F4U-1D, Corsair I, Corsair IV) - Engine fires: yes, but only after 8-9 seconds of concentrated and continuous point blank fire. The fire might represent a fuel tank fire rather than an engine fire. Wing breakage: Yes, but only for hits to the extreme outer wing. Aiming anyplace else on the wing will not break it. Aiming anyplace else on the wing will not break it, either at midpoint or at the wing root.

The fatal damage texture/breaking parts for outer wing damage represents damage that the Corsair was provably able to survive!

F6F series (F6F-3 late, F6F-5) - Engine fires: Yes. Wing breakage: Yes, but only for hits to the outer wing about 3 yards/meters in from the wingtip. Aiming anyplace else on the wing will not break it, either at midpoint or at the wing root.

FW-190A series (FW-190A-4 to A-9, including mistel & ATA) - Engine fires: no. Wing breakage: Yes. Wing will break at both midpoint and wing root.

Fulmar - Engine fires: Yes. Just a few bullets will start a full-blown fire, so perhaps the engine catches fire a bit too easily. Wing breakage: Yes, but hits to extreme outboard wingtip cause the wing to break off just outside the landing gear. Hits to the inboard wing can't make the wing break off at the wing root.

Hurricane Series (Mk I, Mk IIb, Mk IIc, Field Mod) - Engine fires: Yes. Just a few bullets will start a full-blown fire, so perhaps the engine catches fire a bit too easily. Wing breakage: Yes. Wings break at both midpoint and at wing root. Good DM!

I-15bis series (I-15bis, I-15bis w/ skis): Engine fires: Yes. Just a few bullets will start a full-blown fire, so perhaps the engine catches fire a bit too easily. Wing breakage: Yes. Top wings break at both midpoint and at wing root. Bottom wing just breaks at wing root.

[Furio]

Good job. This is a simple but effective experiment, producing facts, rather than feelings.

[majorfailure]

Did a quick check:

UB(Pe-8 ) vs. Fw190D9 -engine burns, wings break
vs. F4F and F4U -same
.50cal(B-24) is not able to break wings - engine fire still possible.
neither Italian 7.7mm SAFAT nor MG81 can break any wings, but F4F engine can be set on fire.

[Woke Up Dead]

Originally Posted by majorfailure

Did a quick check:

UB(Pe-8 ) vs. Fw190D9 -engine burns, wings break
vs. F4F and F4U -same

You sure it was the UB and not the 20mm cannon on the Pe-8? Cannons in the tail and on the back of that plane. The IL-4 has a UB on its back.

[majorfailure]

Originally Posted by Woke Up Dead

You sure it was the UB and not the 20mm cannon on the Pe-8? Cannons in the tail and on the back of that plane. The IL-4 has a UB on its back.

I had to turn the Pe-8, else you cannot fire from the engine gondolas, so yes, I'm pretty sure, and also the traces were pure white, and only white(IIRC ShvaK has slightly roseish and yellowish white traces), and RoF was what I would expect from a HMG not a cannon. And I did check what happens when firing from the top of a Pe-8, just to be sure, and the results are more devastating, engine gone in a few shots, wings usually break with first burst.

[RPS69]

Pursuivant, this is placed on the folder files/com/maddox/il2/objects.

The file is technichs .ini

; Number of shots to kill tank (panzer thickness(meters) \ energy)
[_TankShotPanzer_]
;thick\energy 0.00 7.62- 7.62 12.7 20.0 37.0 45.0 75.0 100 150
0 1000 3500 10000 27250 160000 300000 1100000 4800000 8000000
0.000 9999 60 10 2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
0.005 9999 100 15 5 2 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
0.010 9999 400 35 20 8 0.8 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0
0.015 9999 9999 1000 40 18 1.0 0.4 0.1 0.0 0.0
0.020 9999 9999 9999 700 28 1.3 0.5 0.2 0.0 0.0
0.025 9999 9999 9999 900 50 1.5 0.8 0.3 0.0 0.0
0.030 9999 9999 9999 2000 120 1.8 1.5 0.9 0.0 0.0
0.040 9999 9999 9999 9999 200 3 1.8 1.1 0.1 0.0
0.050 9999 9999 9999 9999 1000 10 5 1.5 0.6 0.0
0.070 9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 500 50 1.9 0.8 0.1
0.100 9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 2000 1000 6 1.0 0.5
0.150 9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 100 5 0.8
0.200 9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 800 200 15


That's how the game evaluate a penetration, that actually implies destruction of a ground object.
Air objects should not behave differently.
You may try to fire 9999 bullets on a wing, but I doubt it will actually break.

Also, there must be some damage boxes inside the wing that will trigger different effects. From what I tested, bigger planes got more damage boxes than small ones.

So, hitting the plane in different places may not break the wing in different patterns, because there will probably be just one box for the whole wing, unless someone coded a varied wing breaking pattern, it will probably be always the same.
Bigger planes got boxes for ailerons, so they can miss ailerons, but smaller ones appears not to have them.

If you start hitting them selectively, you will just be finding the boxes placement.