posted 08-29- 01:18 PM               

* A new General/Network Option "Use Bullet Penatration" has been added, this changes the default behaviour of bullets so they will penatrate and pass through an object if they have enough energy. The amount of energy needed to penetrate an object is defined by a new property, obSkinStrength, which takes a single value representing the obHits required to penetrate the objects skin.

* Bullet penetration is consistent with the non-penetrating version. This means that models are damaged as with non-penetration, but the bullets will pass through and hit something else. The exception is shells with explosive warheads, which will not explode if they penetrate and will only cause the damage a passive round of the same weight would.

Let me get this straight:

*A bullet hits a model.
*It's energy is translated to obHits and compared with the obSkinStrength's obHits.
*If the bullet is stronger it will pass through the object and also reduce the model's obHits (not the obSkinStrength's). It will continue in its path but with reduced energy. (how much?)
*If it is weaker it will simply give away all its obHits but not continue in its path.

Is there some objections to how this works? Should for example a bullet do as much damage to a material it passes through as one that stops it? (IMO it seems rather reasonable but I'm not sure... By the way - does the damage currently depend on energy? An object that was passed by a bullet may not care about how fast it went through it... Although in some cases it may - and with greater damage the slower the projectile passed.)
Should the obSkinStrength be lowered a slight bit with every bullet hit it gets? Does it now?
The cannon shell thingy; Weren't they made so that they would explode just after they hit something? This could give some problems for us as it currently may pass through the hole plane without exploding. Any suggestions of another method? Some kind of trigger value and a timer?
Also another important problem we have is if the "half the bullets - twice the damage" code, that to my knowledge is used, will have any side effect?

But anyway - Have anyone found suitable values for materials? Or know how resistant they are?

Aluminium
Steel
Wood
Fabric
Rubber
Glass
Armored glass
Plexiglass
Plastic
Kevlar
etc

Of course those would all differ with individual types and thickness, for example 2, 5 and 10 mm, but would anyone care to start guessing some values? If we go to the extremes - what would stop a 30mm projectile? What would stop a rifle bullet of 8mm? Naturally this will depend on impact speed, projectile weight, shape etc, but it would be interesting if we could start gathering some data on this subject. Anyone that have test fired various guns care to give some examples?

posted 08-30- 09:12 PM               

Damage works as normal, BUT - now a bullet can continue causing damage AFTER the initial collision - if it was not stopped by the initial strike. Keep in mind that this is just an experiment that you may or may not find useful...really it is more important for WWI aircraft - because bullest pass through wings and hit pilots, etc.

So a wing with a weak skin will let bullets through - maybe to even kill a pilot or strike a gas tank, etc. But maybe instead, enough bullets will pass though the wing to weaken and snap off the wing... before any other critical stuff gets hit.

posted 08-31- 09:13 AM               

Now this fits very well with what I wanted to do with wings for WW1. You build a model structure with internal 'ribs' and make the skin you see a child object of the struts. This way, you can damage or even detach the fabric part. Since this would hold the airfoil properties, the results would be as normal.

What this means, though, is that if I set values for the skin, bullets could hit the spars and cause a 'critical hit' that takes out a wing. One lucky burst of fire, and away goes the wing. Before, this couldn't happen, so the thing would just be cosmetic!