Exactly. I don't understand people who have not even tested it and try to judge it. It is no fantasy crap, it is the result of some hard work and alot of discussions and research. People simply have no idea how far 500m are ingame. You can snipe enemy tanks over half the map.
I don't agree with this statement to be honest.
Let's go through the 5 points of the tank damage system I noted
earlier and see how the values for each are determined.
1. Base damage and minimum damageBase damage = 50 + Calibre in mm
Minimum damage = Calibre in cm * 25
Note that the unmodified damage a projectile does depends solely on the calibre of the projectile. This means that the unmodified damage of the Sherman's 75mmL40 and the Panther's 75mmL70 are identical.
2. Distance modifierThe distance modifier for all AP projectiles in the latest beta is currently a linear decrease from base damage to minimum damage over 600 metres. Note that this means that the Panther's 75mmL70 loses damage just as quickly as the Sherman's 75mmL40! If we compare the actual penetration tables for the
75mmL70 and the
75mmL40 we see that at 500 metres the 75mmL70 penetrates 120mm and at 2000m 90mm and that the 75mmL40 penetrates 70mm at 455 metres and 50mm at 1820m. Thus the 75mmL70 retains 75% of its damage at that distance and the 75mmL40 under 70% (it is hard to compare, as the distances aren't directly comparable). If we look at the 75mmL43 for example, we see only a 63% damage retention. Thus, it makes little sense to have the same distance modifier for all projectiles, yet this is exactly the case.
3. Material modifierEach projectile is assigned a material based on the penetration it has at 500 metres at 30 degrees (basic reported value in literature). We saw in the previous point that the 75mmL70 penetrates 120mm, so it gets the material "120mm_penetration".
Do note that the actual penetration is 124mm, but since we only have materials at 10mm intervals, we have to use 120mm. Making materials for every 5mm interval will make the damage impossible to manage (if it isn't already!).
To calculate the material damage modifier we use the following algorithm.
The 120mm penetrating projectile will have a damage modifier of 3.75 against 120mm thick armour. For every 10mm less armour you have, your damage modifier will increase by 1.5. For anything above the penetrating values, the damage modifier will be 0 (no penetration).
So, against the Sherman's 80mm front armour you will have 3.75 + 1.5 * 4 =
9.75.
The Sherman has 70mm penetration, so it will not penetrate 80mm.
Against the Sherman's 40mm side armour the 75mmL70 will have 3.75 + 1.5 * 8 =
12.75.
Against 40mm the Sherman's 75mmL40 will have 3.75 + 1.5 * 3 =
8.25.
This has been the major change from 2.4 to 2.45. Before this, the relation was exponential.
4. AnglemodI am not 100% sure how the anglemod works and I can't check, because its discussion was mostly held in a section of the old internal forum that was not fully copied.
At any rate, the anglemod regulates the damage done, so it will only be applied on penetrating hits. Then, the angle is checked, in increments I believe, and another damage modifier is executed. Due to its quantified nature, it does not follow the sine curve exactly, but rather does 100% damage up to 20 degrees and 0% damage over 80 degrees or something along those lines.
This is actually, in my opinion, the factor in the damage calculation that is least arbitrary and most closely follows the physical world.
5. HitpointsThis is probably the most arbitrary values in the damage calculation.
The general formula is:
(Side armour (in mm) + Rear armour (in mm)) / 2 * 25
So for the Tiger that would mean: (80 + 80) / 2 * 25 = 2000
For the Sherman: (40 + 40) / 2 * 25 = 1000
These values are however often modified. For example, the Tiger actually only has 1500 hitpoints, because otherwise it would be far too powerful.
Of these 5 points, the internal beta differs from the 2.45 public release only in 2 things:
1. The range modifier has been changed to have minimum damage at 600 instead of 300.
2. Some few vehicles have had their hitpoints changed based on individual feedback.
Of course, there are other changes, such as the awesome new collision meshes, which greatly reduce the chances of greatly unexpected results, such as accidentally hitting at an odd angle because of a bad collision mesh or getting hits that do no damage.
But do not be fooled by the range modifier. This is actually a pretty large change.
Minimum damage is generally about 40% of base damage. In 2.45 at 300m you will do 40% of base damage. Now you will do 70% of base damage, so that is nearly twice as much. However, the further you get from 300m, the smaller the difference between 2.45 and the current beta will be. So at point blank range and at 600 you will do the same amounts of damage in both 2.45 and the beta.
