Regarding the killing ability of the NS-37mm cannon on the IL2 here are the facts.
Its fired a 760 gram AP shell at 2887 fps. Now the hunters here can understand I load a 217 grain bullet in my .338 win mag to about that speed. The weight of the 37mm shell in grains is 11,728 grains. It had a ROF of 250 to 260 rpm for each gun, so that equals 500 to 520 for the airplane. So thats 8 to 9 RPS, a 1 second burst shoots 8 to 9. Each round could punch thru 50mm of Tank armor at 200 m.
http://www.russianammo.org/37mm.htmlHeres one pass i took at a Tiger Tank last night. You cant see the distance icon but when rounds first start firing I'm 200 away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FpD3xfnq-8 I counted 5 shots thru the thin top armor of the tank. Can you imagine the effect of 5 AP shells, of that size, with all that kinetic energy, fired point blank, zinging around crew areas, ammo storage, engine machinery?
Well the A-10 tank busters 30mm, we currently use, fires a 527 gram DU rounds that penetrates 69mm at 500 m while at 3300 fps. As far as I know it can defeat any top armor of any tank in the world. The simple fact is MBTs have far thinner top plates of armor and always will in order to operate at a reasonable vehicle weight.
Clearly the effectiveness of the NS-37mm cannon, in this game, is modeled correctly. It was, and is, a very effective weapon when used correctly.
You can argue all day about recoil and the effect is has on cartoon planes/vehicles vis-a-vis real ones historically. But how would you change one without changing them all? And what criteria would you use, other then "one particular one is ruining my day"?