Full Canvas Jacket Superpatch - FCJ Control Panel can change the bullet mass for single player.
http://www.wingsofhonour.com/redbaron3d/resources/html_woh_redbaron3d_resources_files_unofficialpatches_uop.en.html From what I remember being told or discussed a few years ago (maybe many years now) was that they decided MvR/Red Baron, had the best best kill to bullet use ratio. So they they took the number of know bullets used and the number of aerial kills from those bullets and came up with an average of 50 or so.
So the bullet mass (size and hitting power of the bullet) was changed around until they themselves go an average of 50 bullets per kill. (At least that is what I remember being talked about, how close to the truth is unknown.
Now, here is the thing about the bullet mass and bullets in RB3D. The larger the number of the bullet mass, the larger the bullet, the more damage it does and the less range it has. The smaller the bullet mass is, the smaller the bullet, the less damage it does, but the farther it will travel.
So a large bullet mass can destroy an aeroplane with one single hit. One quick burst and pieces go falling downwards. The lesser bullet mass does less damage when it hits, so you can empty the entirety of your rounds into a single aeroplane and it will still be flying.
HOWEVER, there is one other thing about RB3D bullets. Once a bullet hits a hit box, it stops. It does not continue to do further damage to the aeroplane. For example, the fuselage of an aeroplane is like a bullet proof shield/sponge. Bullets hit it and do no damage, and upon hitting the fuselage, no longer continue to travel to cause more damage.
Which means, the larger your bullet mass, the better chance they will hit non-destructive plane parts, and therefore do no damage.
There are three areas to attack to bring down an enemy plane, #1 is the Wings, #2 is the Tail, and #3 is the Pilot/Engine area. The larger the bullet mass, the less likely you will get hits on the pilot for a kill, of the engine to cause a flamer because your larger bullet is hitting something else first.
Now, setting the bullet mass to "1" can make it harder to do serious damage to the aeroplane (you hit it, but for little damage) but the bullets are less likely to be stopped by other parts, so has a High tendency to cause engine fires or killing the enemy out right. In one mission with a bullet mass of "1" I had five kills, all engine fires and headshots, some of the enemy planes going down from a less then three second burst.
For Single player I have been using a bullet mass of 12 and now I am luck to get three kills, and sometimes am lucky to get out of battle without a kill.
