WELL......
remember one thing about turning off the ability to ho........they did that in AW3. look where they are now.
as bad as i suck at avoiding them, and as much as i hate them........and as much as i hate doing them...and i have when i get ho'd first........i don't think they should change anything. it works as it is.
Actually, in all the versions of AW I played there were no head on shots. Well not exactly, since you could still score head on hits but the probability was very low to the point that it was not a viable tactic if you were in a plane without nose mounted guns. In AW planes with nose mounted guns got a slight bonus modifier to the head on shot probability, these were the planes you would regularly see flying straight at you with guns blazing. Having no collisions either made it easier for these planes to do it as well.
Unless you modify individual player behavior, you'll never get rid of head on shots. You can even code it in the system like AW did and you'll still see players trying to HO, regardless if the system will score or recognize a head on shot. It's the nature of the human beast and for that reason, head ons will never be eliminated from the game. For most, its the path of least resistance and gives them a chance for a kill without any real investment in skill and training.
ack-ack