About weakpoints

[Aeraaa]

Well, I do know that when a tank is struck by an enemy shell, there's a chance that it will be hit on a weakpoint, in which case there will be some extra points of penetration, usually depending on the distance. What I usually see is that the extra points of penetration are around 1-4 points of extra penetration (or a bit more in extremely rare cases); this is good against early WW2 tanks, but its irrelevant against anything newer than that. So I am wondering if it would be better to make the extra penetration as a percentage of the armor hit? For example, let's assume that the penetration of a weakpoint is affected by the armor of the target. Let's say the target is an early model M1 (40 frontal armor) and that the usual (weakpoint) penetration percentage is 25% of its base frontal armor. That means that a weapon that hits the M1 frontally and manages to hit a weakpoint will usually do 10 more points of penetration to it. Of course, that means that the penetration of the weapon is also important, hence a BMP-2 will still find it near impossible to knock it out frontally (but it will mean that older tanks like T-55 or T-62 do have a fighting chance against an M1). So what are your opinion guys? Is it a better alternative to the current model, or not?

[Suhiir]

Actually I see pretty large variations in penetration with HEAT ammo. True AP ammo doesn't get such large variations but there aren't THAT many weak points.

And since I know for fact (I saw the tank and spoke to the crew) T-72 rounds failed to penetrate the side armor on at least one Abrams during the '91 Gulf War the fact that a 73 or 100mm BMP cannon can't penetrate the frontal armor doesn't surprise me in the least.

[Aeraaa]

https://www.quora.com/Could-the-RPG-...e-Challenger-2

OK, it is from another game, it's accuracy is questionable but still, you can see that even in an M1A2 there ARE places that even a T54 can penetrate frontally (the area below the gun and the commander's hatch). It is just that the chance of hitting these spots is really low (and remember that even in WinSP the chance of hitting a weakspot is already very low).

I agree about the HEAT round variation in penetration (and HESH has even more, it can effectively double its penetration occasionally), but tbh I would prefer if the variation was as little as the KE and the weakspot penetration to be increased.

Lastly, about the GW M1 you mentioned, I'm not that surprised actually. The M1 has quite strong front side turret armor and also decent front side hull armor; a hit in these areas at a significant angle from an early T72's gun has little chance of penetrating. There are even more bizarre things in history, like for example a M4 Sherman tank in Ardennes that was hit by the 128mm AP shell of a Jagdtiger and the shell bouncing off the rear turret armor, because it hit at an extremely oblique angle. That has happened in the game many times as well, hitting targets at extreme angles and not killing them because of that. That being said, the opposite should also happen from time to time, an armored vehicle getting killed by a gun that on paper shouldn't penetrate because it hit a place where the armor is not as strong (and most modern tanks are full of places like that). Currently, unless you fight mostly early WW2 battles, you rarely see a weakspot hit translating to a penetration that normally shouldn't happen.


BTW, another good article about the armor layout of the initial M1. Here you can see that the turret side armor, as well as front side hull armor are quite different from the rest of the side armor of the tank:

https://below-the-turret-ring.blogsp...ite-armor.html

[Imp]

Exact wording is in the game guide but the chance of hitting a weak spot are based on range & your rangefinder. A laser rangefinder has a chance of a critical hit at far greater range than a WWII one.
Unsure but the additional accuracy from being a consecutive shot at the same target may help, I have certainly had rare 20+ over penetration hits.

Also need to remember game gives minor damage shots BMP 2 immobilising a Challenger comes to mind & I have lost weapons to low AP hits before though its not as frequent as WWII probably due to the larger diffrence between armor & the AP.