Did you even see the first video of the 50s when the pilot strafed the oil tanks, I saw about 20-30 rounds at the most go to it and blow it up. In AH it takes more than it should to blow it up, tested it in offline and it was about a 2-3 second burst from 4 50 cals.
Seriously? You're really going to make me answer that? The answer is so glaringly obvious that it would feel like I'm insulting your intelligence by pointing out the obvious.
1) You cannot get a reasonable approximation of how many rounds were fired in those videos, 20 to 30 is just a number range you pulled out of thin air to help shore off a sinking point.
2) Comparing the hardness of the oil tanks and the comparable object in AH, the fuel tanks is, well, useless. You fail to take into account that you're comparing an object in the real world to an object in the game world with hardness settings set for game play reasons and does not in any way reflect the actual structural integrity of the object in real life. The fuel tanks were strengthened in game about 7-8 years ago to make them more difficult to destroy.
Another reason I can say the 50s are wrong, I was flying in a pony in the MA, came across a Ki-84, got on his 6, hit him a load of times all over the fuselage, and he didn't catch fire, blow up, or take any damage what so ever (this was about a 2-3 second burst.) As you look in the videos I posted, 50's should as you should know be doing more damage, you should even know that since your flying a 50 cal plane.
All you are describing is someone that has very, very poor fire discipline and is hitting the bandit either beyond or before teh convergence point. Your description of seeing hits all over the plane just confirms it. If you were hitting at the convergence, you'd see a smaller, more concentrated impact zone instead of hit sprites all over the plane, which
you are not seeing because you're not hitting at the optimal spot.
As you look in the videos I posted, 50's should as you should know be doing more damage, you should even know that since your flying a 50 cal plane.
From looking at those videos, I can say that they do seem to be representative of the .50 calibers in game. The irony of you using those videos is that they actually prove that AH has the .50's down pretty good.
ack-ack