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[WxTech]

Until someone gets round to successfully altering the necessary Java for damage calculations, here's a viable expedient that effectively makes P-40s less easy to have their engines knocked out. In short, the engine-related hit boxes have been reduced in size, making it about twice as hard to kill the engine.

Get it here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/l0nxj78pihbjkgn/%25210_WxTech_tougher_P-40_engines.7z/file


From the included readme file:

This mod is an expedient to overcome the long-standing 'glass jaw' of the P-40 series, whereby the engine was too easy to knock out even with the smallest calibre gunfire.

This mod builds upon the stock meshes (up to BAT 4), and should work with all game versions. Obviously, the intended user is the off-line player.

If you have any P-40 mod which has improved the nose modeling, but retains the same hit box structure, you can simply copy these hit box data to your preferred Engine1 meshes. Unless, of course, the plane class has had the damage calculations improved upon, in which case this mod is surpassed, superfluous and superseded.    At least for those planes so improved upon.

The planes now altered:
----------------------
Hawk81A-2
P-40B
P-40C
Tomahawk IIa
Tomahawk IIb
P-40E
P-40E-M-105
P-40F
P-40K
P-40L
P-40M
P-40N

The foregoing are all stock in BAT 4.0. Planes not altered are any mod planes having their own assigned slots (don't use the stock plane folders.) It would be easy enough to copy over the whole [CoCommon] section from a plane of the same or similar model.

Here I've merely reduced the sizes of the various hit boxes within the Engine1 meshes. These hit boxes are for:
Case
Cylinders
Prop Governor
Oil cooler
Supercharger

The most critical here are the first two (case and cylinders), which I've given the most pronounced reduction; their volume has been reduced to about 1/4. This reduces the chance of a hit, resulting in roughly double the number of rounds required on average to kill the engine. A lucky or well-aimed burst will still knock out the engine (the prop stops) as easily as before. But in general the chances have been about halved. Which makes the P-40 effectively a tougher bird now.

I did try to edit the hitBone method (for damage calculations) in the P-40 plane class, which would have been the more elegant solution. But for some strange reason my BAT 4.0 Red Core game just refuses to 'see' so many of the plane classes I try to alter, insisting on reading from the SFS archives. Until that hurdle is overcome, this expedient will serve well enough. I sure do enjoy the generally greater volume of fire I have to lob their way. And the better survivability when strapped into one.

Another thing fixed along the way is the air intake 'hump' along the upper surface of the forward cowling for those planes from the E onward which have them. (The K and L do not.) I've somewhat flattened them along with reducing the height, so that they do not protrude so unrealistically as a sharp ridge.


As always, this work is offered for the use by any and all, for any purpose, without restriction.

WxTech
May 24, 2021

[SAS~Ghost129er]

Oh my God, THANK YOU. The P40 took 1 bullet for the engine to seize and become inoperable, even this didn't happen in BoX but ye, hope this can get added into our UP3.3 

[stanislao]

    Well ! I unload it and try it!   

[urmel]

Thanks again WxTech!!!

[erafitti]

God job 

Un saludo.

[Mick]

... very well done, congrats for this very welcome improvement ...! 

[ben_wh]

WxTech,

Thank you very much for this.

You mentioned that you've experimented with modifying HitBone method - would you mind posting that here as well?  Please ignore if you have not retained a copy or if this is too much trouble.  Just curious about how this is done, and whether it works in non BAT version.

Thank you again,

[WxTech]

Ben
In case you weren't aware, the hitBone method is Java stuff, and requires to be able to compile and hash into the classes as used by the game. These classes are the files whose names are a fixed number of alphanumeric characters in a seeming random sequence.

Whenever I alter a class as part of a mod, I always include the Java file  (readable with any text editor) so that other modders can see what I did. I retain the original code or variables in place as REM'd out remarks. If and when I succeed here, the same will be done.

[Brother B.]

Thanks again for the next great mod.

[ben_wh]

Whenever I alter a class as part of a mod, I always include the Java file  (readable with any text editor) so that other modders can see what I did. I retain the original code or variables in place as REM'd out remarks. If and when I succeed here, the same will be done.

WxTech,

Thank you - I am aware of how this works at least within IL-2 1946.  Based on your comments, I thought you have a set of java files already modified using the HitBone modification method but couldn't get them to be read by BAT.  If so I thought I might want to test those files.  If not, all is fine too.  Your current approach would help address the original problem through a different angle.  Don't want to make this a request and add to your workload unnecessarily.

Thank you again,

[genXgamer]

Flew a long escort mission to Salamaua.
Copped a lone bullet that stopped my engine dead.
Bailed out over enemy territory and was soon captured.
After weeks of torture/interrogation I was beheaded.

Time to download WxTech's tougher P-40 engine mod!

[vegetarian]

Ouch - sorry to hear that!
I can highly recommend WxTech's Tougher p-40 engine mod - completed the RAF_112 Sqd campaign without one random rifle bullet incident. Flak and cannons still ruined my day though!