Originally posted by bkbandit
So the spits wings are weaker then the zeros wings. The spit kill was pretty much a snap shot. The zero was a line of flashes not 4 5 pings across but a solid line from tip to tip. And he was pretty close between 200 and 400. He take at LEAST 6 hit in his cockpit alone. Ill watch the same 2 planes in a pacific war documentary and 5 hits to the body and the zero goes on fires. I mean he should have had some damage at least.
No, not so much that the wings are weaker, jsut more likely that the hts were concentrated. Your snap shot likely landed multiple pings in the same damage zone....and thats an important concept in understandign how AH models damage.
Each aircraft is divided into a large numebr of invisible "hit boxes". Some of these are connected to critical systems, like an airelon, a fuel tank, or a radiator, that cause specific system loss or a fire. Others are structural, like a wing section or the empennage (the tail/stabilizer package).
The game keeps track of each hit box seperately. Partial damage is NOT efective -- in order for that small section of wing or fuselage to hinder flight, the total damage has to exceed the hit box' limit. Once that threshold is passed, the damage -- wether its a chunk of wing, an airelon, or a fire generation section (fuel line or unsealed tank --like the early japanese planes had) -- takes effect and the flight capacity degrades.
So, if you spread hits among several boxes, you wont see damage.
Incidentally, Bandit, the cockpit is the one area that has a small enough threshoild to cause plane death with a single ping. One mean but enoyable trick is to get your parachuted pilot to the hangar or runway, and use the 45 to shoot at the pilots as enemy planes appear. Its purely a "one shot, one kill" exercise. In the air, a cockpit hit makes the plane explode and teh pilot immediately go to the tower.
So your experience with "5-6" hits in the cockpit area is probably an example of combat adrenaline cahnging perception. Every single time I've seen someone have similar "no fair" complaints in AH, but with a film to back it up, analysis has shown that the hits were not as numerous or as well placed as teh pilot remembered.
Secondly, about the film clips on TV -- dont forget the concept of "selection bias." Of all the guncamera films to see, the ones with dramatic results are far more likely to get on the tube. So, even if "every one" shows a flaming zeke -- there are probably hundreds that showed flashes without a kill, and those wont ever end up being viewed by a national audience.
