It's not that the cone has been narrowed any Ripnort, it's just where the shells go within the cone.
In the older versions, there was bullet dispersion that would make your shells tend to disperse from the aim point, as they should. The problem was that they were dispersing randomly, so you would get a "shotgun" pattern with randomly dispersed bullets when you fired a burst. In the new version, the dispersion is weighted toward the center of the cone, so although the cone of fire is still the same width, more of the shells will tend to strike in the middle of the dispersion pattern than at the edges. This makes for a much more realistic distribution of shells.
For the cannon armed birds, it makes those long range shots more difficult. You can't rely on the shotgun effect as much, and you have to really get the aim right to have a good chance of putting shells on target. It has been a small boost to the MG armed planes, since they require a bunch of strikes in one area to get a kill. With more shells going where you aim them, the .50's will get more hits in the same place and are a bit more likely to get a kill.
Just one more little improvement to what is already the best gunnery model in the online sim world, to date anyway, AFAIK. What a huge step up from the "high velocity basketballs" of the old WB days.
(Oh, there I go chearleading again...
Gimme and H... Gimme a T.... Gimme a C! Yay HTC! <attempts to do the splits> Uh.... a little help here?)
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Lephturn - Chief Trainer
A member of The Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com "A pig is a jolly companion, Boar, sow, barrow, or gilt --
A pig is a pal, who'll boost your morale, Though mountains may topple and tilt.
When they've blackballed, bamboozled, and burned you, When they've turned on you, Tory and Whig,
Though you may be thrown over by Tabby and Rover, You'll never go wrong with a pig, a pig,
You'll never go wrong with a pig!" -- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
