Rather than to continue in the P-47 thread, I'm posting the latest version here. I have made some minor corrections and a change to the FW 190A-8 configuration.
Explanation:
This chart shows the total firepower of a fighter, based on a burst by all weapons for one second.
This is no judgement by myself. I merely compiled the weapon data from Anthony Williams website
http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/WW2guneffect.htmIn a nutshell,
firepower of a weapon is defined as (kinetic energy + chemical energy)*ROF, measured at the muzzle. The chart is not taking into account how a weapon is mounted on a plane or the quality of the gun's trajectory (= ease of aim)
For the curious, here the table my chart is based upon. You can see the configuration I chose for each plane:
A few additional notes
1. Every fighter in the planeset can & will kill it's target under the right circumstances. Being on the lower end doesn't mean you can't kill your enemy. Provided you are shooting at close range and can hold your guns on target, the seemingly "puny" Brownings of the Hurr I will shred a F4U or P47.
This table is meant to give you a rough overview & guide on firepower. It's not meant for "But plane X has 27.5% less firepower, no way you could have killed my B17 blah blah" arguments
2. Ballistic characteristics do play a great role. The P-51B may have a lesser destructive power as the A6M2, but the .50cal M2 has the far better trajectory than the mixed armament of the Japanese fighter. Despite having cannons, the A6M2 has often much bigger problems to hit and thus to kill it's target at ranges the P-51B pilot just point and shoots.
3. Ammo supply was not accounted for. The NS-37 is a marvelous gun, but 32 rpg are a serious limit.
4. Different guns, even of the same caliber, can vary vastly in their firepower value.
For example: MG 151/20 (many German fighters and C.205) vs Ho-5 (Ki-61). The Ho-105 is firing a round of similar weight as the MG 151, at slightly higher muzzle velocity and higher ROF. But despite having the highest ROF of all 20mm cannons in the game, it doesn't compensate the fact that the projectile MG 151 is carrying an explosive load three times as large! Second for second, the MG 151 is simply putting more energy on it's target.
5. All data was based on raw, unsynchronized weapon specs. Due to gun mountings the actual ROF (and thus Firepower value) can differ, but these differences are rather small and would sometime be very hard to spot on that chart at all. Once I have tested all weapons in AH for ROF, I could do an updated chart.
6. This table isn't meant to replace the gun comparison table on the Training Corps website. The numbers here are are real world values. The values on the AHTC page show the destructive power of a single round vs objects in Aces High and are tested & verified withing the game. Both tables can give you different results.
And do not hestitate to point out any errors, inconsistencies or "misinformations". As usual - this is a work in progress.
