Over 3 years ago, user CaID submitted a report on the AMX-50 Surbaissé, showing it had a single-plane stabilizer mechanism that would automatically correct the aim whilst moving. This suggestion is old, in War Thunder timeline, ancient even. Since it is currently on the old forum, I thought it would be a good idea to bump the suggestion to give it some attention again.
Personally I do not think stabilization at low speeds would change the performance of the Surbaissé all to much, especially with its low armor and gigantic profile mostly keeping it to longer ranges. This means it can stay at the same battle rating, but provide a more diverse playstyle and keep it strong in a full 8.7 uptier.
It’s also worth noting the AMX-50 Surbaissé is notoriously missing its 20mm cannon mounted on the roof, a report I’ll also be linking, though this is mostly to discuss its stabilizer and its impact on this AMX-50 model
Link to report:
Missing 20mm:
Thank you to CaID, and LeGrandSarrazin for reporting these and doing the required research
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I was thinking about that recently and honestly, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to remake these suggestions here, on the new forum. For the 20mm, the links to the pics are unfortunately broken but for the stabilisation it seems to be working still.
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I think its good to make some noise about issues left untouched for many years, like this with the AMX-50 Surbaisse
As for the 20mms, I might post them here later, they’re from the Saumur museum so really easy to find, on basically all images from the original AMX-50
From my understanding of the report, it’s not stabilizing the gun in relation to the direction of fire, rather it is stabilizing the gun in relation to the tank with a shock absorber, basically keeping the gun from bouncing up and down…
This is pretty much already done in WarThunder.
Edit: Yeah I just went over one of the remaining images on the report and the document says that it is a “damping system”, not stabilization.
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iirc the “Stabiliser” on those tanks wasnt gun stabilisation but 1 plane sight stabilisation and would instead not allow you to fire until the gun and sight aligned through the bumps.
I may be getting mixed up with the amx 30s system or a separate part to the shock absorber, either way its a cool system which will have its scuffed quirks but that’s the whole vibe of the french tree
That is for AMX-30, which I think is a myth anyways, but AMX-50 Surbaisse does automatically correct its gun alignment
However it is not, not even close
Any amount of movement sends the Surbaisse into six years of bouncing more than an electromagnetically powered perpetual motion machine
When I mean that it is already done in WarThunder, I mean that all guns are stable in relation to the tank they are mounted on.
What happens with the suspension is a completely different issue.
The Surblinde had a 20mm.
in that case its a similar stabilisation system to what conqueror should have. Conq isn’t meant to be full stab at all just bump dampening
In this case the Surbaisse should be similar to Sherman’s low-speed stabilizer
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The Sherman stabilizer has a gyroscope that detects when the gun’s elevation changes and sends an electrical signal to a pump that pneumatically changes the gun’s elevation.
The bug report on the AMX-50 shows no such mechanism. It is a simple system meant to prevent the turret itself from bouncing up and down when on the move.
its in game functionality would be similar to the sherman “quick stop” and interwar shoulder stabilisers but more forgiving at all speeds, just not perfect at any speed
Not according to the report, which specifically states that it would automatically, and I quote, correct the aim on the move
That’s CaiD being misleading. Again, I’m looking at the documents that have been provided.
The section where the document mentions this system is called damping (“amortissement”), not stabilization. This alone is a decent indicator.
The way the system works (a cyllinder and a shock absorber) allows the system to detect changes in the turret’s elevation in relation to the tank itself. What this means is, for example, say you fire your gun and your turret is thrown upwards a bit. The system will detect that and compensate. Or say that, in real life (since this wouldn’t happen in WarThunder), your tank goes over rough terrain and the turret gets thrown up and down due to its weight. The system will detect that and compensate.
However it is not similar at all to what the Sherman’s system does. The gyroscope of the Sherman can detect changes in the tank’s elevation, meaning it can detect when a tank changes from flat ground to a hill, and can therefore compensate for it. This simply does not happen on the AMX-50.
In short: this system can detect when the turret itself changes elevation. But it cannot detect when the tank in its entirety changes elevation.
That is FAR closer to the single-plane stabilizer than to what we have currently in game
Whilst not perfect, it would certainly be significantly beneficial, from anything such as coming to a stop, firing (which leaves the tank misaligned with the target currently as-is) or accelerating, or even moving at extremely low speeds, your gun still gets tossed out of place hard
This system would mean a vast improvement over current gameplay, as, if you’ve ever touched a Surbaisse, you’d know how easily they get thrown out of place, and how long it takes for the gun to focus again
Except the reason those things happen isn’t because the turret itself is being thrown out of the way, it’s because the gunner is trying to automatically adjust the turret when the hull (and consequently the turret) get thrown around.
When you come to a stop, the hull of your tank gets thrown forward and your turret dips below your crosshair, so the gunner tries to automatically adjust the gun upwards, but shortly after the hull returns back to its original position, and Voilà: the turret is now aiming above where it was supposed to due to the automatic adjustment of the gunner.
The exact same thing (but in the opposite direction) happens when you fire your gun: the hull gets thrown backwards, the gunner tries to depress the gun to adjust, and when the hull returns back to its position the gun is now under where you want to aim, because the gunner tried to adjust automatically.
All your examples are due to the gunner himself trying to automatically adjust the gun back into the crosshair. It has nothing to do with what this system actually corrects for.
Now we’re getting into the territory of lame excuses. If the system is made to detect rough terrain and compensate for the turret’s movement, why can it not do that at all in the game. Or when you fire and it compensates. In-game it cannot do that. No matter the level of your crew
It is missing this system. It should benefit from it.
Honestly, not considering it’s missing two historical features, the AMX-50 Surbaissé is incredibly stable specially at medium speeds around 30 Km/H, and the 20 mm wouldn’t do much since, for some reason french 20 mm autocannons are a garbage.
Surblindé ≠ Surbiassé.
