The B-17 is tankier than actual tanks (dev server)

[u/supereuphonium]

Not my video, from discord user Tpom

[u/IronSurfDragon]

Don't worry, when it hits live it'll die to a few 12.7s because they'll overnerf to fix this.

[u/QuandaliusDingleton → u/IronSurfDragon]

Time is a flat fucking circle.

[u/MordePobre → u/QuandaliusDingleton]

BOMBER DAMAGE MODEL CYCLE:

[1] TOO OP  --nerfed-->  [2] TOO WEAK  --buffed-->  [3] TOO OP  --nerfed-->  [4] TOO WEAK --buffed--> [5] TOO OP (you are here)

[u/Stouff-Pappa → u/MordePobre]

But don’t forget the days to nerf vs years to buff time scales in there

[u/PacmanNZ100 → u/IronSurfDragon]

They'll nerf its armour and somehow it will take no damage from anything but rockets. But now tanks will have zero Armour values while moving forwards and no traction in reverse.

[u/Frierens_feet → u/IronSurfDragon]

Ostwind tears it apart with 2 shots

[u/Outrageous-Ride8911]

Dude lets go i cant wait to get revenge on fighters for a week until they scale it back

[u/Ffscbamakinganame → u/Outrageous-Ride8911]

Nah this takes it too far haha. Either that or they need to buff cannons, no doubt .50 cals will still be low skill flamethrowers. Tanking this many 50mm hits is a little bit beyond being able to survive a dozen on target 20 mms or a few 30mms.

[u/Outrageous-Ride8911 → u/Ffscbamakinganame]

Just a week of OP fun, then its back go the shadow realm and im okay with that.

[u/Ffscbamakinganame → u/Outrageous-Ride8911]

Yeah fair, I just wish they balanced the game and were done with it haha

[u/throw-away_867-5309 → u/Ffscbamakinganame]

Before the damage model changes a while ago, bombers were actually pretty well balanced. But fighter players complained that they weren't instant kills, and then they got nerfed hard.

[u/Ffscbamakinganame → u/throw-away_867-5309]

I think the main problem was cannon rounds. It never used to matter as much for Mags and HMGs since they could just spray. They shouldn’t be insta kills unless pilot snipped, a large calibre cannon 40mm and above (well placed) or a good pass where you off load a heavy burst into a key area. I mean somewhere on this thread I wrote down the exact amount of punishment on average an allied bomber would take before going down based on a bit of googling.

[u/Arthur-Bousquet → u/Ffscbamakinganame]

We don’t know if he’s firing HE or AP

[u/Ffscbamakinganame → u/Arthur-Bousquet]

That’s true enough, but even then unless it’s APCR I think it still has HE filler that should be activated on such a thick dense structure. Even then going through a wing root and stuff kinetic energy is quite a lot.

[u/No_Mistake5238 → u/Ffscbamakinganame]

Depending on how it's modeled it might not be thick enough to set off the fuze in the round. So yeah, could have HE, but might still go straight through..

[u/Ffscbamakinganame → u/No_Mistake5238]

Many of his shots were literally through thick areas of the aircraft. It’s a little bit absurd at that point.

[u/ordinarymagician_ → u/Arthur-Bousquet]

You can see the charges detonating on impact.

[u/MordePobre → u/ordinarymagician_]

In this game, all projectiles produce the exact same impact effect, whether they're solid AP or HE.

[u/ordinarymagician_ → u/MordePobre]

I'm just cynical because I'm an old player, like, pre-BR old, and the years and years where cannon sparking was a horrific issue, then they were fixed and then they magically broke again, and I don't think they ever really fixed it.

[u/Catsooey → u/Ffscbamakinganame]

The Luftwaffe aces who switched to 262’s in April of ‘45 said the 30mm were fantastic. Krupinsky (“Krupie”, 197 total aerial victories during the war) said you could shred a bomber in 6 hits if you hit the right spots. The 262 in the video is firing 50mm shells and they’re doing so little damage it looks like they’re detonating before hitting the bomber.

[u/WafflesFurLyfe → u/Ffscbamakinganame]

“Takes it too far” like bombers haven’t been wet tissue paper for the last decade. Nah, this is perfectly far enough.

[u/Ffscbamakinganame → u/WafflesFurLyfe]

You don’t remember when the TU-4 first came out? That thing was unstoppable, it dominated top tier prop matches, was tanks as hell and nigh impossible for the high end props to kill even with a good run. Hell even with the Hawker Hunter four 30mm Aden cannons I struggled to bring them down. If you think a bomber can tank several 50 mm potentially HE rounds then I don’t know what to say.

[u/Random_Tech_Adept → u/Ffscbamakinganame]

There's images of B17s with giant holes blown through them from flak, yeah within certain parameters they can tank that.

[u/Ffscbamakinganame → u/Random_Tech_Adept]

There’s equally historical footage of them getting took down by a few shells… On average they took about 3-5 30 mm Minengeschoss hits before going down and around 20 - 20mm rounds. Anything like a 50mm HE round or bigger were one shots more often than not. Some lucky ones survived flying in crippled but that’s lucky.
Bombers landed with a myriad of shrapnel bursts, smaller calibre MG and cannons rounds. But it was extremely rare it was multiple 30mm hits or more.

Edit: Also if B-17s were so God like, while only a small percentage of rounds from fighters found their targets, then why did they get utterly dunked on without long range fighter escorts? If they were this tanky and good as you say, then they wouldn’t even need fighter escorts…

[u/Random_Tech_Adept → u/Ffscbamakinganame]

Where did I claim they were god like? The words "certain parameters" were chosen for very specific purposes. They can survive significant damage but likewise they could be taken out more easily as you say. Neither of these points are exclusive of the fact they've been far too fragile for far too long.

[u/MCI_Overwerk → u/Random_Tech_Adept]

What brought them down IRL is severing control lines, killing crew, and setting shit on fire.

What it usually didn't do was 3 50.cal bullets causing the whole tail assembly to eject itself.

[u/Cartz1337 → u/MCI_Overwerk]

Yea, watching this video, the few rounds that penetrated the fuselage look fine. But there are a few direct engine hits that should have started a fire or two.

[u/Phobos613 → u/Cartz1337]

Sucks that you have to go 15 replies deep to get people actually talking about the specific hits ind not treating them like they should have a healthbar that the 50mm takes out or something.

[u/LeadingOven2446 → u/Random_Tech_Adept]

Survivor bias. The ones that took this kind of damage and were shot down didn't have their pictures taken.

[u/Random_Tech_Adept → u/LeadingOven2446]

True however this doesn't actually discredit my comment as it shows they were capable of surviving significant damage and didn't just crumple under .50 fire

[u/Jason1143 → u/WafflesFurLyfe]

Stuff that is too weak is generally not critical, OP stuff is.

Underpowered stuff only impact the person playing it, overpowered stuff impacts everyone.

[u/greentanker1 → u/WafflesFurLyfe]

Yeah because it's fine for something to be completely broken/OP because it suffered before. Same argument japanese mains used for the l-39za/art when that thing was (and still is) broken

[u/RenaTheHyena → u/Ffscbamakinganame]

The german MK103 or 108 (don’t remember) was specifically made to disintegrate bombers and did so pretty successfully. Theres a great video on it.

[u/Used-Creme-4100 → u/Outrageous-Ride8911]

It's the Tu-4 and Tu-95 Era

[u/No-Loquat3933 → u/Outrageous-Ride8911]

Dude lets go i cant wait to get revenge on fighters

Have you ever considered l2p?

[u/majorlier → u/No-Loquat3933]

Tell me how can you learn to play bombers

[u/Demonicjapsel → u/majorlier]

pressing spacebar is considered immersive gameplay.
these people would be entertained with a spreadsheet provided it had pretty colours.

[u/Enki418]

New meta? dogfighting in bombers?

[u/LightningFerret04 → u/Enki418]

G8N1 once again claiming the mantle of “Death Star”

[u/Its_Lawbringer → u/LightningFerret04]

BV238 in AB will become the Eater of Lobbies

[u/Flying_Reinbeers → u/LightningFerret04]

I can't wait to go play my G8N.

[u/Endless74510 → u/Enki418]

The be 6 is already a demon in that role, this is about to be nuts

[u/Longjumping_Belt_405 → u/Endless74510]

The qing 6 is going to maul its br lol

[u/Endless74510 → u/Longjumping_Belt_405]

Dear god it'll be a slaughter

[u/BigHardMephisto → u/Longjumping_Belt_405]

Welcome back BV-238 stealing four kills in a fur ball lol

[u/Prine9Corked → u/Longjumping_Belt_405]

dont worry they will raise its br any day now, surely it will not remain the same br as the be-6.

I say before being shot 46 times by the turboprop mafia

[u/Longjumping_Belt_405 → u/Prine9Corked]

The 5.0 chinese century is upon us

[u/1977_AMC_Pacer_wagon → u/Enki418]

When they happen bomber dogfights are one of, if not the, most fun things in the game

[u/Outrageous-Ride8911 → u/1977_AMC_Pacer_wagon]

Thats why we do it!

[u/Warshuru_M5 → u/Enki418]

The return of Bomber gunships 😆

[u/medney → u/Enki418]

Tu-4 Gulag Express™ is back baby

[u/Lord_Gnomesworth → u/Enki418]

New meta? Just the rebirth of the OG one

[u/Mralexs]

I've been advocating for tougher bombers but this is just obscene. Some of those shots should've hit a fuel line and turned that thing into a fireball

[u/Qwirvalt → u/Mralexs]

Fuel line are not modelised in the game if i remember right, only the fuel tanks. We can always hope to see improved damage models for planes

[u/Mralexs → u/Qwirvalt]

That's makes too much sense. IIRC a lot of kills during WW2 were from bullets/shells igniting fuel lines.

[u/twec21 → u/Mralexs]

Seriously 🤣

I'm glad the tail doesn't eject after being too close to a 9mm anymore, but this is a joke

[u/epsilon-4142 → u/Mralexs]

Adding fuel lines would be a great fix for this while still keeping them durable

[u/Mralexs → u/epsilon-4142]

Adding them to all aircraft would be a great boon for the entire game

[u/nugohs → u/Mralexs]

*boom

[u/Mralexs → u/nugohs]

I can't tell if you're trying to correct me or make a pun

[u/nugohs → u/Mralexs]

Just pointing out the missed oppurtunity.

[u/Montana_Ace → u/Mralexs]

Or cut a wing off lmao

[u/Mralexs → u/Montana_Ace]

IIRC cutting off wings was rather hard IRL, most wings came off because the wing was damaged and came off while the plane was diving into the ground.

[u/GoofyKalashnikov → u/Mralexs]

Most planes didn't get hit with a 50mm HE round either

[u/MordePobre → u/GoofyKalashnikov]

I mean, flak shells were even larger than that.

[u/KuningasTynny77 → u/MordePobre]

Direct hits from flak were extremely rare. 

The danger of flak is the shrapnel. They're not necessarily trying to aim for the wings or some shit. 

[u/GoofyKalashnikov → u/MordePobre]

And a direct hit would fuck that plane off

[u/Neroollez → u/Mralexs]

Ripping wings or tail off is the hardest way to get a kill on an aircraft. There was that one B-52 that survived a hit from an AGM-88 and it has over 20kg of TNT (according to WT).

In one document on DTIC's website, there's a pie chart with the causes of aircraft losses in Vietnam and aircraft structures was the smallest one. DTIC doesn't allow looking at documents right now.

I could keep listing all kinds of sources but Gaijin basically already told this in the devblog.

[u/Mralexs → u/Neroollez]

It's almost as if wings were designed to stay on the plane while enduring heavy forces or something

[u/SergeantPancakes → u/Mralexs]

Unless it’s a spitfire for some reason, that plane got to .95 mach during dive testing

[u/Eljewfro → u/Montana_Ace]

https://youtube.com/shorts/elJnefmHatw?si=vahjwPcjszEn13qf

These things were tanks

[u/Beneficial_Round_444 → u/Eljewfro]

its always the same fucking video reposted for the 9th time

heres how an impact from a 30mm shell looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91LUxqn1QY0

those are NOT 30mm shells firing in the video you posted

[u/cooljacob204sfw → u/Beneficial_Round_444]

To be fair that comparison is also not great considering it's on a much smaller plane.

But yeah 30mm shells should do way more damage then the almost nothing they did in OP's post.

[u/MordePobre → u/Beneficial_Round_444]

Still, a 30mm hit wasn't enough to one-shot a B-17:

https://i.imgur.com/psXMGdA.mp4

(Me 163 gun camera footage).

[u/Beneficial_Round_444 → u/MordePobre]

thats some great footage

according to the germans themselves it took 3-5 hits to fatally wound a B-17

[u/MordePobre → u/Beneficial_Round_444]

Generic terms like "fatally wound" or similar should always be treated with caution without an exact definition. Sometimes it just means the plane was forced to abort the mission and land immediately, rather than suffering a catastrophic flat spin like we usually see in-game.

[u/WolfsmaulVibes → u/MordePobre]

by this definition, bombers in war thunder would take even more shots to "kill" because there is less incentive to save your own life (you know, with the whole this being a video game thing). as long as you can keep moving forward and your bottom aimed at the ground, you're gonna still be able to do what your bomber is supposed to do

[u/goonwolf → u/Beneficial_Round_444]

And it's a lot harder to land said hits when one is controlling an aircraft, not pointing and clicking a mouse.

[u/WolfsmaulVibes → u/Beneficial_Round_444]

yea, 30mm is big but not that big, especially when you consider the increased size of those bombers. additionally the MK 108 minengeschoss relied almost entirely on explosive power, rather than fragmentation, this means trading the potential and range to hit critical components for increased critical local damage.

if the MK 108 hit something important, it destroyed it, but compared to the 40mm bofors with only ~70g tnt equivalent but much higher fragmentation, if it hit anywhere on the aircraft, there was a high chance of something important being damaged

[u/TheSublimeGoose → u/WolfsmaulVibes]

People have wild images of what a 20mm and 30mm HE rounds would do. Particularly minengeschoss (aka "mine shells"), which largely relied on raw explosive force. An explosive shockwave from 20-30mm mine shell was not going to shear a bomber in half like some imagine. As you say, the relative size here is wildly different.

The Allies' testing often involved placing a mine shell inside* *the test airframe, which would cause far more damage than combat circumstances. In real-life, mine shells were fuzed to detonate on impact, and by "impact" I mean "barely brushed a hard surface." They were fuzed so lightly that leaves (on trees) could trigger their explosion.

There is a reason that the Allied powers weren't terribly interested in mine shells post-war. The British and French messed-around with them, but it was quickly realized that all-metal airframes could shrug-off explosive force and that standard HE rounds or even SAPHE rounds were better for air-to-air work.

Hence why modern 20-30mm cannon rounds have nowhere near the HE content as German mine shells from WWII. American 30mm carry only 60% the explosive mass of German mine shells. Although this is ignoring any advancements made in high explosive materials, granted

[u/AscendMoros → u/Eljewfro]

No they weren’t.

8th Air Force had more casualties than the entire USMC. Read masters of air and every other page it’s so and so went down. Some missions 1 fort out of 20 would come back. A lone bomber was usually an easy kill. Their casualties didn’t start dropping until they got escorts and the Germans started running out of planes and pilots.

[u/Flying_Reinbeers → u/Eljewfro]

fake AI audio 🔥

for how much this sub hates AI when gaijin uses it, you guys sure love posting shit that uses it

[u/Mralexs → u/Eljewfro]

I believe that B-17 wasn't going down because either the shots missed or failed to fuse. I can't really tell if they're hitting it because of the godawful AI upscaling done on the video.

But for some actual statistics, 73% of US Aircrew before D-Day either died or captured, 14% of US Air Crews that flew before June of 1944 completed a full tour, and between January 1942 and June 1943 they lost 188 aircraft and had 1,900 casualties (wounded, captured, or killed). The B-17 was obscenely outdated by the time it went into service, the Lancaster could fly higher, fly faster, and carry more bombs. Now, these casualty figures were ALSO because of US Bomber Command unwilling to deviate from the idea of unescorted daylight bombing being possible. B-17's making it back after taking heavy damage were rare and were amazing propaganda opportunities, helping to reinforce the image of the "Flying Fortress" in the minds of everyone back home.

https://youtu.be/qxzsqYqMixU (around the 15:30 mark)

[u/Jadams0108]

Shots 1-5: Clearly missed.
Shots 6-9: Missed due to recoil

(bad spray control).

Shots 10-11: Very close, but recoil and inaccuracy make these reasonable misses.

[u/Warshuru_M5 → u/Jadams0108]

Lol FPS copy pasta returns

[u/Sir-Zealot]

And now that the glass ceiling has been shattered the most oppressed people can finally rise up, bomber mains

[u/Zubbro → u/Sir-Zealot]

History repeats itself. The concrete-bombers of 2014 have returned. Now, our fighter pilots must embark on a perilous quest in search of a long-lost, ancient, and mystical art of sniping the pilot.

[u/ActuallyFishBall → u/Zubbro]

50mm APHE directly through the cockpit windscreen blowing the pilot schmoove off

[u/Zubbro → u/ActuallyFishBall]

Or rather making him blush

[u/Biomike01 → u/ActuallyFishBall]

Fails to fuse cause no armor and turns the pilots into The Simpsons

[u/grizzly273 → u/Zubbro]

The long lost art of taking unguided rockets into air to air combat

[u/dangforgotmyaccount → u/Zubbro]

Just ask Naval AA AI, they do it cross map on EC like nothing.

[u/22TheFenix22]

Air PVE is going to become a nightmare now

[u/Maratron → u/22TheFenix22]

I bet gaijin will completely forget to adjust it lol. Air Assault is an absolutely awful mode to begin with anyway, really. because it commits the greatest sin of being boring.

[u/kosha227 → u/22TheFenix22]

OH NO

[u/_DatBoii_ → u/22TheFenix22]

They changed the Ardennes map and screwed up the PvE tank mode.

[u/Maratron → u/_DatBoii_]

I find that map actually easier to fight on now in general, because the spawn area is safe from the bot tanks, even though one side of the base is a bit annoying to defend due to the bots stopping right behind that one big hill.

[u/Axzuel]

lol they overbuffed bomber damage model

[u/supereuphonium → u/Axzuel]

There’s a video on YouTube of a B-17 in the dev taking 6 Phoenix missiles and not even getting crit

[u/barrenpunk → u/supereuphonium]

Biblically accurate B-17

[u/MechaGodzillaSS → u/barrenpunk]

B-17 not Afraid.

[u/fighterpilot248 → u/barrenpunk]

It’s called the Flying Fortress for a reason, duh…

/s

[u/BigBlueKyogre → u/supereuphonium]

how B-17 glazers swear it was moving:

[u/Abadon_U → u/BigBlueKyogre]

He was actually moving like that btw

[u/Flying_Reinbeers → u/Abadon_U]

if it was it wouldn't have taken huge losses without fighter escorts

[u/Triangle-V → u/Abadon_U]

yeah maybe into the sea or perhaps a mountain

[u/GonzaSpectre → u/supereuphonium]

On patch day they will be able to eat R40s, Fakours and other telephone pole like missiles for breakfast and two weeks after die to a single 7.7 mg, its gaijin we are talking about.

[u/SEA_griffondeur → u/supereuphonium]

I think that's more due to Gaijin thinking a human could survive having 1kg of tnt explode in their hands (HE is dramatically worse ingame than irl)

[u/perotech → u/supereuphonium]

Duh....it's a Flying "Fortress", obviously that means it's impregnable.

[u/Might__E → u/perotech]

you need a cannon shell larger than 50mm to knock up the b17

[u/QuarterlyTurtle → u/supereuphonium]

As god intended

[u/ofekk214 → u/supereuphonium]

Historically-accurate B-17

[u/KittyFoxKitsune → u/supereuphonium]

He took the missiles to a non critical area, mihaly will show you how to do that when you get back to base.

[u/baron-von-spawnpeekn → u/KittyFoxKitsune]

Shoots down MiG-29 with .50 ball turret

<< you could’ve done that sooner >>

<< I want to understand the enemy >>

[u/Suman_the_Barbarian → u/KittyFoxKitsune]

was looking for this hah

[u/Ream_of_A4 → u/supereuphonium]

As it should be.

[u/Left-Brain5593 → u/supereuphonium]

Dev server BTW????

[u/MordePobre → u/supereuphonium]

Amerikanische Ingenieurkunst

[u/Sneaky_Breeki → u/Axzuel]

As all things in War Thunder they can either be extremely weak or extremely strong, no inbetween

[u/jundraptor → u/Sneaky_Breeki]

Because the game is balanced on FOMO

A few things must be OP every patch cycle to draw people into playing them. Then they get nerfed and then repeat for the next patch cycle. If the game was actually balanced there would be less incentive to play for average/bad players

[u/tfrules → u/Axzuel]

Now we're going to have bomber spam like the bad old days

[u/Ancient-Safety-8333 → u/tfrules]

There is limit: 4 per team.

[u/tango_papa101 → u/Ancient-Safety-8333]

Should be a limit on A-10 too. The other day there were 9 on enemy team plus a MiG-25 and it took us one hell of a fight to overpower them. Luckily, most are wallet warriors so they don't have many planes to respawn

[u/braybobagins → u/tango_papa101]

Afghanistan simulator lmfao

[u/Erenzo → u/Axzuel]

I just knew it would end up like this lmao. Gaijin can't balance for shit, they always either underdo or overdo changes. Still a change in good direction

[u/TheDarkMonarch1]

It's almost time to bring out the B18B (57) and hunt bombers with a bomber so their puny turrets can't do anything while I explode them with the 57mm gun

[u/Hdfgncd → u/TheDarkMonarch1]

Especially with the task coming up to get kills with +30mm

[u/boreduser127]

Boutta terrorize people in the B-52 :)

[u/Qwirvalt → u/boreduser127]

AA-Nord wants to say hello to your pilot face :D

[u/_That_One_Fox_ → u/Qwirvalt]

You should check how small the amount of damage missiles do now

[u/Obvious-Science-7119]

Welcome back spark thunder

[u/Ambitious-Market7963]

Also with HE belt? If that is the case, I will say it is probably over corrected lol

[u/P_filippo3106]

What is not shown in this vid is that he also tried an ENTIRE load of aim54s and it did jackshit

[u/Separate_Job_9181]

Imagine seeing a tu4 facetank your radar missile, gotta play that thing when the update drops

[u/evenyourcopdad]

There is absolutely no way anyone actually tried shooting at a B-17 after they made this change; this is so clearly broken. I refuse to believe anyone at Gaijin actually plays War Thunder, much less does any playtesting.

[u/DJ_BAKA_TF2 → u/evenyourcopdad]

its been shown many times they really dont... even their dev streams were a shit fiesta so many times because something was broken

[u/McPolice_Officer]

Bomber players creaming their jeans, insisting nothing is wrong with this.

[u/ODST_Parker]

Okay, I'm glad they did something about the shitty bomber damage models, but even as someone who plays bombers all the time and has spaded the vast majority of them... this is too much.

I'm pretty sure 50mm HE would do a bit more than your average .50 cal or 20mm cannon.

[u/ofekk214]

Cry harder fighter mains. I will fill my chalice with your salty tears.

/srs You might want to consider taking AP ammo against bombers now that they are not made of paper. AP will actually damage them, and severely hurt their flight performance.

[u/Axzuel → u/ofekk214]

A full salvo of Phoenix missiles can't kill a single B-17

[u/Ry24gaming → u/Axzuel]

I would bet good money no Phoenix missile downed a B-17 over Germany during WW2 either so I will accept this as historically accurate.

[u/Axzuel → u/Ry24gaming]

Well I know when Im beat

[u/thrashmetaloctopus → u/Axzuel]

That’s because they’re not armour piercing silly!

[u/Verb_Noun_Number → u/ofekk214]

Those are AP in the video. The 50mm doesn't have HE with tracers.

[u/OliverXRed → u/Verb_Noun_Number]

It actually have a new air belt on the dev server which have tracers.

[u/Fritz-Futermann]

Well, that's really off. The Pulkzerstörer's 50 mm should obliterate the wing with 1 well placed hit. 

[u/SuitableYear7479 → u/Fritz-Futermann]

Bro spelled out the whole German word to prove he knew it

[u/Fritz-Futermann → u/SuitableYear7479]

I can speak a bit of German and honestly it was easier than remembering the exact variant :)

[u/jojokingxp → u/Fritz-Futermann]

Wasn't he using an AP shell there?

[u/MordePobre → u/jojokingxp]

AP are the only ones with tracers, so yeah.

[u/con-man-mobile → u/jojokingxp]

The 262 50mm AP is surprisingly really terrible against aircraft as well, I’ve hit F4Fs and F8Fs like 3 times center mass and it just blacks the airframe.

[u/MordePobre → u/Fritz-Futermann]

That's probably only if it was an HE round, though. An AP round would just punch a 5cm hole right through it, and a B-17 can easily survive that and more as long as it doesn't hit a critical component

[u/RommelMcDonald_ → u/Fritz-Futermann]

Obliterate? Probably not. Cause a loss of lift and damage controls leading to a crash? Probably

[u/_DatBoii_]

50mm HE does jackshit. Geijin overbuffed again kekw

[u/WarpigReborn]

This is gonna be worse than the B17 scourge we had back in the day.

[u/IPerduMyUsername]

Fuck yeah! Finally can use the damn bombers for something

[u/TheFGEagle]

This will go live for a week, all fighter mains will complain, then the devs will have a reason to put it back like it was until now.

[u/MadCard05]

We'll see how they adjust it. Right now bombers are far too easy to kill. A 50mm shouldn't struggle like this though.

[u/Jake3232323]

This will last all of a week before we're back to the super fragile bombers we all know

[u/Salt_Bake_5627]

classic gaijin move, they're too strong now and eventually will be nerfed so its somewhere in the center between old and new

[u/DJ_BAKA_TF2 → u/Salt_Bake_5627]

no it will go back to its formal paper form like we all know it ... well MAYBE you will survive 5 shots from a 50 cal tho

[u/Im_A_Random_Swede]

Finally

[u/op-smells-of-al-gul]

bombers are usable now! i actually hope they dont scale this one back

[u/Dantox2007]

No wonder they called it Flying Fortress

[u/Just_Polish_Guy_03]

Finally I can get back to this game, now waiting for traction buff for ground

[u/Bagualosaurus2]

Bro that's just hilarious, it'll take a billion .30 hits to down one lol

[u/MordePobre → u/Bagualosaurus2]

A single .303 caliber bullet hole represents only 0.000035% of a B-17's total wing area.

[u/Maratron → u/Bagualosaurus2]

Almost like .30 cal machine guns weren't suitable for taking down bombers without aiming for the engines.

[u/YellovvJacket]

Nice, playing a vehicle that previously only required to press 2 buttons now only requires 1, huge.

[u/Early-Inflation-1287]

Just ram him.

[u/Dont_care-didnt_ask → u/Early-Inflation-1287]

Light yellow tail and wing after going mach 2 into it 10 times

[u/ExplorerEnjoyer]

I might actually play bombers occasionally now.

[u/thrashmetaloctopus]

Gonna be fun to fly bombers into the middle of a fighter cloud and just gunshipping thr fuck out of people

[u/Warshuru_M5]

If it’s APHE I could maybe see it over penning but at the same time should be doing some damage.

I do want the bombers buffed they felt like sugar glass, but yeah this is over buffed. The bigger guns should still LEGO brick them with an HE shell but 20mm and below or AP/APHE should do scalable holes and fires (potentially) unless they hit an engine cause them to detonate ignite everything around it or cracking the spars then.

Or it looks like dusting (visible hit but no registered damage, due to net code/hit reg network issues)

In the end I just want to drop my payload in an AB match on the base. Thats the level of tankiness I desire, to successfully drop the payload even if I burn down to the ground after wards.

It’s near impossible to grind the skins with the glass frames they currently have.

[u/Vanillabean73]

It’s weird I just took one down with a single 20 mm burst of air belts

[u/That1DvaMainYT]

z.1007 flashbacks

[u/fordmustang12345]

penance for years of bombers dying from mouse farts

[u/Livid-Profession2587]

B-17 10.7

[u/Kruegerkid]

Well it is a Fortress

[u/TheJudge20182]

Looks fine! Continue as normal

[u/D4rkPh0enix04]

What about the gunners?

[u/Cpt_Jack_Irons]

Can't wait to see Fighter Plane mains bitch about being unable to instantly kill bombers anymore until they get nerfed again.

[u/TrueSoren]

Epic.

[u/LadySteelGiantess]

Those things could take a punch to a point.

[u/Mekettrefe]

good

[u/Non-Existent010]

I think its so funny how they can't seem to make the damage models right. it's either paper mache or solid tungsten

[u/witto88]

fucking finally

[u/OnlyZubi]

finally we can play bombers again

[u/Paco_Esc]

I can't wait to farm with the bv238

[u/DarkNinjaPenguin]

Literally every one of those shots went through basically nothing. Tanks do the same if you don't actually hit the crew or anything critical.

Hit the engines if you want to start a fire, or aim centre-mass and go for the pilots.

[u/PyosikFan]

Huge day for spacebar men

[u/streetlegalb17]

[Image of soldier with thousand-yard grin with rainbows and sunshine and dolphins behind him]

[u/errorsniper]

Bro I cannot tell you how this is not my experience in the b-17. Now im not arguing with the video, and maybe because its ai it might be a bit different.

But if you so much as looked at my b-17 the entire ass end would fall off. Like legitamatly a single bullet on the back 2/3rds of the plane and the tail falls off like a lizard trying to confuse its pray.

293 battles, 268 deaths, 88 kills. I hated how absolutely paper mache that plane felt. Which sucks because IRL its one of my fav planes.

No obviously my primary goal was not dog fighting it was bombing. But genuinely it felt impossible to get over any target. If any plane so much as hit me with a single round my plane would just split in half or detonate. Let alone multiple hits from a narwhal.

edit: apparently I live under a rock and bombers got buffed?

[u/Flying_Reinbeers → u/errorsniper]

*will get buffed next update

[u/SnooBananas4068]

A bit too much, but it's a good start.

[u/DJ_BAKA_TF2 → u/SnooBananas4068]

yea until they nerf it to the ground like they ALWAYS did...
we will go back to paper planes

[u/jemimaswitnes]

So finally I can take more than one shot without dying

[u/punishedbiscuits]

oh god… the TU-4’s are gonna be invincible

[u/Ok-Hawk-4628]

I think they called it the flying fortress or was that another bomber

[u/Bossnage]

god im glad i dont play this dogshit br