4.12.2 de-bugging

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Using arcade mode, I'm noticing that I'm getting pilot kill hits from rifle-caliber MG shots directly from ahead or behind (through the front of the cockpit or fuselage), despite the fact that all but the Hawk 81/P-40A-B/Kittyhawk series the P-40 had armor or armor glass in those areas. (1.5 inches of armor glass, 7 mm of armor below the cockpit combing down to the engine block, 7 mm behind the pilot. The pilot's seat wasn't armored, however.)

Additionally, any hit to the front of the engine through the prop boss instantly (or nearly instantly) kills the engine.

Any hit from the front through the radiator housing kills the oil/cooling system, resulting in engine shutdown within about a minute. While this is legitimate, it's possible that the damage boxes for the cooler system are larger than they were in real life (see diagrams in the pilot's manual).

There are a lot of problems with the 3D model for the P-40E and M... both are getting a make over for a future patch. Totally new 3D mesh and damage model systems... I don't know for a fact but I would make a guess that this may help with the poor damage modeling.

[Mabroc]

I always found it funny that P-51, P-40, Bf-109 got damaged engines with overheat and loss of power when hit or instantly died with a good burst of fire but the P-39's have no noticeable loss of power and usually can fly 10+ minutes at full combat capability smoking a lot.
Even when they have almost the same engine and amount of oil than a P-51 and P-40, lots of oil tubes around the engine that you easily perforate meanwhile doing other damage to the engine from a 6 o clock firing position.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Mabroc

I always found it funny that P-51, P-40, Bf-109 got damaged engines with overheat and loss of power when hit or instantly died with a good burst of fire but the P-39's have no noticeable loss of power and usually can fly 10+ minutes at full combat capability smoking a lot.

This does seem strange, since one of the reasons that pilots disliked the P-39 was the fact that the engine's position made it more vulnerable to engine damage in combat.

Given that a particular model of engine had the same cooling and oil cooling needs regardless of which plane it was mounted in, it would make sense to just have overheat and engine damage models standardized around a particular engine rather than a particular plane.

Maybe not for inline engines where the plumbing and armor could vary, but certainly for radial engines.

[Mabroc]

Well, since the first IL-2 game the P-39's and then the P-63 enjoyed the russian "enhanced" engine survivability capable of still giving full power while heavily smoking. I have been flying this sim online for years and the russians planes seem to have less HIGHLANDER engines now but the P-39 still can fight you in a bf-109k4 at 5000m meanwhile smoking for a long time, and not on the defensive precisely.

[THOMO]

I Installed 4.12.2 today then I started it. all went normally until I chared my finnish campaign: the screen was completly filled with the presentation bar and no way to go out of that!!! it was running smoothly until then.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by IceFire

There are a lot of problems with the 3D model for the P-40E and M... both are getting a make over for a future patch. Totally new 3D mesh and damage model systems... I don't know for a fact but I would make a guess that this may help with the poor damage modeling.

I hope that the review will extend to the the Hawk 81/Kittyhawk/P-40A-C series, since they also suffer from the "one hit engine kill" problem.

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

I hope that the review will extend to the the Hawk 81/Kittyhawk/P-40A-C series, since they also suffer from the "one hit engine kill" problem.

Different model. I'm not sure... those are more accurate from a visual 3D standpoint at least.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by IceFire

Different model. I'm not sure... those are more accurate from a visual 3D standpoint at least.

I agree that the "short nosed" P-40 has a much prettier visual model and a much nicer looking cockpit, but its DM suffers from the same "one hit kill" to the engine, cockpit and coolant/oil coolant system as the later P-40s. My guess is that it was just copied from the P-40E-M model.

Flying the P-40C, I repeatedly get pilot kills by rifle-caliber bullets directly through the front of the of the cockpit at ranges of 50 m or more. That despite armor glass which was supposed to be proof against rifle-caliber bullets.

All this is based on lots of testing flying in arcade mode flying mostly against formations of rookie Ki-21, but flying relatively aggressively, just taking quick overtaking shots from the rear rather than high-side or frontal attacks. So, I know exactly where the bullets hit, where the bullets come from and what sort of gun is shooting the bullets.

My results are:

ANY hit directly through the prop spinner = instant engine kill. Despite the fact that a rifle-caliber bullet will not penetrate an automobile engine block at any great range, much less the block of a heavy engine.

Just about any hit directly through the front of the radiator = instant massive black smoke followed by the engine straining and dying within a few seconds. The quick engine failure might be realistic given the pressures and temperatures involved, but the massive black smoke is not. Instead, there should just be an oil leak or coolant leak effect, although IL2 doesn't model those.

Additionally, typically there is no engine overheat warning before the engine fails. For an oil or coolant leak, you should get a fast rise in temperature and an overheat warning first. Also, while the P-40 is normally very good about letting you run the engine for minutes after an overheat warning, the engine dies quickly after any sort of oil or coolant failure.

Any hit to the engine = massive black smoke and engine damage. Even for glancing hits by rifle-caliber bullets at long range.

Most hits to the front and bottom of the plane = fuel tank leak, even when it's a rifle-caliber bullet that has to pass through the firewall to hit the fuselage tanks. Furthermore, the self-sealing fuel tanks don't seem to work, so the fuel leak effect persists until you run out of fuel. And, mind you, this isn't against multiple hits, it's after just ONE bullet.

Any hit to the front of the cockpit = penetration to the cockpit and possible PK or multiple "X control destroyed" results, despite the armor glass.

Hits outboard of the P-40's guns, or even its ammo troughs, will occasionally result in a "gun jammed" result.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to abort a QMB bomber intercept mission with 1 P-40C vs. 16 Ki-21 because my engine was dead or dying, or because my pilot was killed, badly wounded or couldn't control the plane, but with less than a dozen rifle-caliber hits in my plane.

[Aviar]

Strange little bug. On the Kuban map, I can't get any AI planes to land on the airfield located in grid V-8.

When landing from the northeast, the planes will just keep circling. When landing from the southwest, they will attempt to land, but they crash into the hills before they reach the runway.

The funny thing is that they will land ok from the northeast on my HSFX-7 version. However, they still crash when landing from the southwest.

Aviar

[shelby]

navigation lights missing on lagg3's skin