yes and I have been since the begining with some breaks lately.
I'll see what I get done... with only 2 hours of sleep, blah.
1. I've only heard of 109's three wings from the whiners (however FM's werent exactly correct back then either, just the tri-wing thing is something I haven't seen by said by dev's, so to me thats been whiner rumours)
Currently probably most 'funnest' FM's are on spitfire, 109s and havoc: before 109 engine tweak (the famous Penttiku vs. Hatch match), it did perhaps 3 loops starting from NOE, which after it was about to crash.
Havoc with full bombload did far better in loops.. spitfires even better - climbing altitude, whereas every other plane eventually were to crash when looping (starting from NOE, again)
This got bit better with 109, but to by the last check a _somewhile_ ago, spit and havoc were still too amazing loopers.
Some people who I think are more reliable than whiners at PS forum, have said that spitfire was able to catch climbing 109 by doing steep climbs, then going shallow dive, steep climb, shallow dive.. rinse & repeat (see what I said about loops above.. I haven't tested this one, but seems highly possible to me, matching with the looping results and these other people say they've tested to some extent)
This is even further magnified effect when it seems that 109 is performing under the historical rates and spitfire defying some physics for it's setup
Other planes are doing tad better by the last time I tested...
(except every other test than US one, reports Hawk 75 slower than it is in the game - which is said to use US data but ignores all the other tests, like for example french and finnish)
2. HE damage / airplane speeds thing you talk about, I'd say you're too confident of the theory.
3. about the wingtips.. I've noticed that only a very little scrape does only shake the plane, but the object going about 30cm into the wingtip and you'll blow
How do I know? tried it when I were curious why and when the plane can survive touch with an object
Propellers however does not get any negative effect from touching the ground or plane itself, thats true. (as long as nothing comes in the way)
4. I _hear_ the HE bug is back again and tanks are getting killed too often by HE rounds.
However, there has been times before when HE has not been screwed up too badly.
A13, Vickers, Panhard and Daimler could be killed by airplane guns, however anything bigger would be asking too much.
Proving to Downtown that for example S35 and Char B1 does not get easily dispatched by an airplane, I conducted several tests with a friend, who got bored in his tank when nothing happened.. only time was when a leak was found in S35, very small and very hard place to hit with an airplane (and in the process trying avoid EA's who insisted to interrupt testing once in a while)
Anyway, once again complaints of airplanes killing S35/Char with ease were found to be just a stupid whine (if it's a tank is claimed to be easily killed by an airplane, then one must wonder why such frequently killable tank cannot be killed with several BF110 loads of 20mm and 7.92mm, with several different angles and hit places)
but well, the very latest versions, I don't know..
5. when you get hit and the hit causes loss of lift, you will notice where you were hit... at least I've noticed if the plane has been hit in elevator or right wing a tad too much, up to a point where it's about impossible to fly straight.
Even though you don't see your wing ripping off, it doesn't mean there isn't same kind of effects as AH when wing visibly rips off..
(in fact AH has a system i dont quite like - wing lift is 100% until it is finally ripped off due to extensive damage)
Problem with WWIIOL wing damage has been too little negative effect towards lift by damage.
(and the other problem too easily lit up planes... not sure how it's now though, after some tweaks to fuel tanks according to readme since FM renewal IIRC)
and by the time 'armour' fails, the plane would be going down already..
unless you want to model tennis ball sized holes, which again would fall to lack of processing power.
Although this is an issue for debate, since two can think differently of how armour on plane should be handled.
Ground pounding however is in better shape than planes
