I played scharnhorst and got ammoracked 3 sec after elevator was on fire. By contrast I detonated the two shell rooms of kronstadt and ignited his elevator 3 times he still have 50% crew left. Then I died because his first round ignited my elevator.
How come this is a reasonable mechanism? Is fire more threatening than shell explosion? Or it takes 3 seconds for the fire to spread from the top of elevator to the magazine?
The time for fire to spread into magazine is affected by where the fire initiates, which depends on where the incoming shell explodes. If the fire is initiated at the lower ammo elevator, it can spread into the magazine in just a few seconds. Scharnhorst has particularly short ammo elevator and her magazine is placed over the shell room so she’s exceptionally vulnerable to this kind of threat. Kronshtadt and many other ships with shell room over magazine are not particularly vulnerable to fire from the ammo elevator because the fire would have to ignite the shell room before reaching the magazine, whereas shell room destruction is not fatal to the ship.