Quote:
Originally Posted by Pursuivant
True. I didn't make my point clear. What I was trying to say was that there is an unrealistically high percentage of bullets that can start fires (tracer, incendiary, explosive) in the standard beltings. AP and ball ammo make holes in things, other types of bullets start fires.
So, if you look at the beltings, you have a very high percentage of bullets that can start fires.
(...)
That makes sense. After all, IL2 models planes at the peak of their performance.
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So in the end I think we agree while still thinking we're disagreeing. There might be too many incendiary bullets for 1939-1941 planes and scenarios, but by 1942 the beltings in-game start to look like like they did in the war. It would be nice if players or mission builders could pick their beltings, but that may not be so easily done.
"There's also the issue of the bullet completely blowing through an engine cylinder to penetrate whatever is behind the cylinder."
But without knowing what the modeled components look like, we can't actually tell what the bullet went through, right? I can't find the thread that showed an image of the components of a radial engine in-game, but I remember that it wasn't just a disk, it was detailed enough that there were V-shaped spaces between the cylinders. So a bullet could pass freely through the V to hit something behind the engine.
"But, the big problem is that I was consistently getting that particular result. When I post a screenshot, it might represent a sample of 10 or more trials. I don't post weird "on-off" results, since in combat anything can happen."
It could be that there are enough critical components modeled in and behind the engine that when you test the way you do (flying directly behind a bomber's six and eating bullets), you will consistently take critical damage.
To simplify things, think of the engine is a big, two-dimensional disk when you look at it head-on. What percentage of the disk's surface area is taken up by components that would cause decreased power, leaks, or other damage that you experience: 20%, 30%, 50%? Let's say that 25% of that disk is vulnerable. If you hit the disk with 3 bullets, your chances of hitting a critical component are already 58% (
http://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial.aspx). If you assume that 30% of that disk is vulnerable, then your chances of sustaining damage with at least one of the 3 bullets is 66%. If half of that disk is vulnerable then at least one of those 3 bullets will hit a vulnerable spot 88% of the time.