Quote:
Originally Posted by PopskiPPA
Regarding auto pivot
How about teaching the AI not to present 12 o'clock but 11 or 01?
Just like the drivers of a Tiger were taught, show the corner, not the front (for Tigers it was 10:30 and 01:30).
This adds 15% to the front armor and doubles the side armor. It protects the front and all hits to the side should glance off.
Maybe a check could be implemented if the front armor is a lot stronger than the side armor (e.g. Panther) and then decided if it's better to present the front or the corner.
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From a programming perspective, it opens a can of worms to try to code specifically for one type of tank. As Don mentioned, what I was seeing was based on my experience. I'm playing a German campaign and am currently in North Africa. I did some test firing against of a British 2pdr against a Pzkw IIIe. At a 30 degree angle, 61% of hits deflected, while at a 0 degree angle 26% of hits deflected. Hits that didn't deflect penetrated doing damage or killing the target. So what I was seeing is true.
But lets look at the tank I tested. It has hull armor of 3 all around and the turret front is 5 and sides and rear 3. With a tank like that, it benefits from the artificial slope my 30 degree angle created. That's because the hull armor on the front and side are the same. Odds are, the turret will be turned toward the enemy so that's not a factor.
Now, lets look at a tank like the Panther A. It has front hull armor of 14 with sides and rear of 5. Without doing the math, I have to believe that my 30 degree angle is not going to generate a ballistic thickness for the side that occurs with the frontal armor and it's normal slope at a 0 degree angle.
With that, there is one instance where the angle helps and one where it doesn't. More than likely, considering tank design focused on making frontal armor significantly thicker than side and rear armor as the war went on, the auto pivot helps more than it hurts. It's a matter of knowing your equipment and doing what you can with it. As long as I have tanks with armor on the front, sides and rear that are close, I will impart the angle before I take my shots. When the frontal armor starts being significantly thicker than my side and rear armor, then I will face my enemy straight on before I fire. And all of this only matters if you are trading shots with one enemy tank. When there are dozens returning shots at you, auto pivot or manually setting the angle won't matter. Someone is going to get a sweet shot at you.