Aus Discord:
The damage model seems to be the same in Sim mode, but the big difference is the stages are much much longer, so if you smack it up a bit early on by 20 minutes something rattles loose by 30 minutes something falls off. It is very cool really, a truly demanding quest to finish a stage without stopping for repairs. Not impossible but by no means easy and it is all about the piloting.
The damage model seems to be the same in Sim mode, but the big difference is the stages are much much longer, so if you smack it up a bit early on by 20 minutes something rattles loose by 30 minutes something falls off. It is very cool really, a truly demanding quest to finish a stage without stopping for repairs. Not impossible but by no means easy and it is all about the piloting.