Shoot the wings off: planes that break where you hit them
A single health bar tells a boring story: fine, fine, fine, dead. Now damage lands somewhere specific — and a shot-up plane flies shot-up, which changes how every dogfight ends.
Hits that mean something
Land your rounds and you're not just chipping away at a number anymore. Where you hit matters:
- Hit the engine and it starts trailing smoke and losing power — your target can still limp home, but they can't run from you.
- Clip a wing and the plane wants to roll toward the wounded side. The pilot has to fight it the whole way, and a hard wing hit can take someone out of a turning fight entirely.
- Punch the fuel tanks and they leak — the engine will eventually starve unless they get home and patch up (faster if they can reach a carrier deck).
- Hit the pilot and their controls go heavy and sluggish for a few seconds while they recover.
Suddenly there's a reason to aim, not just to spray. Going for the engine to make a kill stick, or hammering a wing to spoil someone's turn, becomes a real choice in the moment.
The question used to be "is he dead yet?" Now it's "what did I just break, and can he still fight with it?"
And you can see it. A damaged plane smokes, weeps fuel, and visibly looks like it's been through it — so you can read an enemy's condition at a glance and decide whether to press or pick an easier target.
Tanks that hit like tanks
The ground war got meaner, too. The heavy tank now carries a proper direct-fire main gun instead of a stream of light flak. That's a single, heavy shell with a punch — it'll wreck vehicles and rattle ships — but a slow reload you feel between every shot. Crew one and you get a clear reload readout under your sights: it counts down, then turns green when you're hot. It's a deliberate, weighty weapon that makes holding the line on the ground its own little game of timing.
A hands-off autopilot
Finally, a small quality-of-life win: a proper autopilot. Flip it on and the plane simply flies itself straight and level — no slow wandering or porpoising like the old assist, just steady hands-off flight. Great for lining up a long bombing run, catching your breath after a fight, or grabbing a sip of coffee mid-ferry. It only lets go when you do, so it stays out of your way until you want it.