More troubleshooting DM against 0.30 caliber guns from bombers, using the Arcade Mode to spot problems.
This time, it's the Buffalo Mk I vs. a flight of 4 Ace D3A1 "Vals" since the Buffalo is too slow to keep up with the Wellingtons.
As for the B239, the engine is incredibly fragile, with just 2-4 bullets consistently being sufficient to make it instantly lose most of its compression, and 3-5 bullets being sufficient to render the engine inoperable.
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...1&d=1410990532
This screenshot shows damage sufficient to reduce engine power by about 25%, even though only two bullets actually hit the engine (the others passed between the cylinders or just hit the cowl).
No screenshot, but the armor glass in front of the pilot doesn't seem to have been modeled. Shots to the cockpit front go right through to kill or wound the pilot. The Buffalo I gave up a lot of performance for the sake of its armor plate, so it would be nice to actually have it.
Damage to the guns appears to be fairly well modeled, as are control cable hits since those hits don't seem to appear very often. Fuel tank leaks are fairly rare and reasonably well modeled - no leaks that result in fast loss of fuel or fires after just a few hits.
On the other hand, the damage model for the D3A1 overstates just how fragile the plane was. I was consistently getting kills (mostly central fuel tank fires) with just a few bullets - albeit possibly 0.50 caliber shots.
More to the point, the amount of damage required to trigger the "light damage" texture for the fuselage doesn't square with the amount of damage inflicted.
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...1&d=1410991223
Notice that just 3-4 bullets in the rear fuselage (possibly .50 cal) is enough to trigger the light damage result.
Keep in mind that the D3A was a fully aerobatic dive bomber, so there was nothing inherently weak about the airframe. Lack of armor and fuel tank protection isn't the same thing as ability to take structural damage.