Why some HMG break wings & others don't

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Ice_Eagle

Well its does recognize different parts.. sort of. For example, and engine will have a damage threshold of 350, the rudder 20, ailerons 100, and so on.

Giving various aircraft parts a "panzer rating" or some sort of "damage resistance" or "penetration threshold" rating is only the beginning of modeling terminal ballistics realistically.

Where I think that IL2's terminal ballistics fall down is that the game doesn't model retained energy correctly, especially when a bullet penetrates a fuel tank or thick armor plate.

For example, on some aircraft (e.g. the Ki-21), it is possible to shoot bullets entirely through a large, completely full fuselage tank, with the bullets retaining enough energy that they can still penetrate the aluminum on the other side of the fuselage and carry on to damage the engine on the other side!

Additionally, the game doesn't do a good job with bullets like HE or M-geschoss which should make a big hole on the airplane's surface, but shouldn't penetrate to do damage to internal parts.

Finally, the game does a terrible job with fragmentation damage, where tiny fragments from 12.7mm bullets can travel dozens of meters and still retain enough energy to penetrate not just a layer of aircraft aluminum, but also an engine block!

Originally Posted by Ice_Eagle

But as far as AI aiming for certain areas of the plane, seems they almost always go for the engines. At least that's what I observe.

When it aims correctly, AI always aims for an aircraft's "center of mass" - which typically means the engine and the cockpit area for a single-engined plane. Fly a P-38 or Bf-110 sometime and you'll notice that your guns and cockpit will get all shot up, but your engines will be unscathed.

The exception is that AI might be programmed to go for engines or fuel tanks on 4-engined bombers. I'll have to check it out.