Other than my half-smartalek answer earlier, I figure I could clarify.....
First off, if a bullet would do damage, it should do damage IMO. HOs suck to die by, and I still do, but not nearly as often as I used to. Most HOs CAN BE AVOIDED. As I said before, it's gotten to where if someone goes for the HO first, I have more confidence in the fight (and if someone goes to HO, never fires a shot, and I notice a merge maneuver at the point of crossing, I know I'm screwed ;-) ).
But when it comes to artificially limiting damage done, how do we determine what is the "proper" cone? What if I have a La7 on my 6 in my 38J, and am able to rolling scissor him into a shot at his front quarter? Would it be fair to limit me when I outflew the other pilot? What about against a bomber, when I'm diving out of the sun which happens to be at his 12:30 horizontal, 1:00 high? How about that 47 I roped and was able to rudder nose down as he's reaching stall speed? These aren't cheap "HOs", these are legitimate maneuverings that IMO deserve reward, not limitation.
So other than limiting what would happen realisitically, what are some other ways we can limit HOs?
Personally, I love the idea of chaning the ranging system. We don't need to eliminate it entirely, but currently, we see ranges from 6k in... how about a plane indicator at 6k, and the plane TYPE change at 2k, but no range indicator, just a +/- sign such as...
-bishsymbol- SPIT +
(It means you're gaining on a Bishop Spitfire between 2k and 6k from you)
-rooksymbol- P51D -
(You're losing distance on a Rook P-51D closer than 2k from you)
It'd still give an idea of what you're up against, including the country, but eliminate the huge 2 line icons, eliminiate the specified distance, and make aiming more of a judging size to gunsight like it used to be, which may also make gunnery take more skill, including on bombers. Dunno if it would help against HOs, but definitely make aiming a little more..... "interesting" =)