Some advice for the ground unit damage and destruction determinant

The destruction effect of the A2G weapons(mainly bombs and rockets) need to be modified.

Hello all.

I think that the present power of the bombs seems to be too low.It looks like this phenomenon began to exist since the release of the FC2. There some typical example of how the bombs and rockets are underestimated.

Let's use the M1A2 as the target

1. To use a A-10 to drop a MK84. The bomb falls and lands about 3 meters away of the tank. However, the tank doesn't explode. It still has 10% lifebar.

2. To use a SU-33 to drop a RBK-500U(Looks like it is the most effective anti-tank weapon that MIG-29 and SU-27/33 has)

,good hit. And the tank's lifebar seems unchanged,almost 100%. Finally,after I throw 6 RBK-500Us at the same time,it makes a difference:2 tanks are destroyed.

After I tried almost every bombs that I can drop. I found that the most effective anti-tank weapon is the CBU-97..Although it is a terminate sensitive bomb, the kill probability of it is still low.

I think that we can compare that with the BMS4. In BMS4, even a 220kg MK20 will destroy one or two tanks after a good hit. However in the DCS, it can't. It even can't reduce the lifebar of the tanks by 50%

It is also unbelievable that a 1-ton MK84 can't destroy a tank after explosion 3 meters away of it. There are many M1s destroyed by the IDE's made of one 155HE shells. It is strange that a 1-ton bomb can't do that.

And the rockets.Unless a direct hit for the S-8 KOM...The tank won't be destroyed.

The reason that causes this phenomenon is that there is only one lifebar for the whole unit. In the real world, after being hit by cluster bombs, the tank's track maybe damaged and it can't move any more;its aiming systems can be damaged and it can't be used to aim. What's more, the clusters may penetrate through the top armor and ignite the vehicle. This can't be realized by one lifebar. In the real world, when the tank can't fight any longer, the tank is dead( lose value). However in the game, a tank's death only equals the appearance of the wreckage.This is not so rational. In the real world, the "death" of a tank doesn't necessary means that the tank breaks apart. It may be caused by the death of the crew after a hit of a rocket. I think in the game, we can just use the wreckage of a tank to represent all the serious malfunction and destruction.

So my suggestions are as follows(The impact and destruction effects for bombs and rockets)

1.To use two hitbox for the vehicles that have a obvious turret. Mainly MBT,SPA,SPAAA. The other vehicles use only one hitbox.

2.Abandon the lifebar.To use the probability calculation to decide the status of a tank (SPA....SPAAA...) directly. We can use a Curvefitting-probability distribution to decide the probability. Once we abandon the lifebar we can save a storage space.

I believe they are already looking at more realistic implementations of munitions in the game.

I have to disagree. absolving the hitpoint system for a probability curve sounds like a lot of work without really moving the sim forward. I hope that one day we'll have a really good damage model that approaches realism and until then the hitpoint system is fine, in my opinion. Nobody wants to pray to the random number gods that the tank will blow. I also wonder what you do with your CBU 97's to claim their Pk is low. Perhaps you fuze them to high or to low or you're just not accurate?

Almost all the ground vehicles with turrets already have a separate hitbox for Turret, Body and Gun. Presently they are not used.

The damage model used by Ships would be a good fit for ground vehicles. Most of the ships have ten or more hitbbox regions.

A ship can have it's systems disabled without being completely sunk. You probably don't notice it but it is working just like that for ships.

Almost all the ground vehicles with turrets already have a separate hitbox for Turret, Body and Gun. Presently they are not used.

 

The damage model used by Ships would be a good fit for ground vehicles. Most of the ships have ten or more hitbbox regions.

 

A ship can have it's systems disabled without being completely sunk. You probably don't notice it but it is working just like that for ships.

The problem is there is no proper penetration mechanics and damage calculates just simple arithmetic and basic location. The problem with ships is that systems appear (visually) unchanged by damage - I have noticed gun mounts stop working - but visually it's difficult because there's no visible damage. This runs also in vice versa - I've seen a search radar even missing from a frigate the entire mast had collapsed yet I was still being spiked from the ship with a search radar, so yeah. Also the actual sinking mechanics for ships is pretty awful and really needs updating (something like the sinking simulation present in the silent hunter series)