Helicopter Damage Model – A Much-Needed Rework

Machinery of War Discussion Helicopter
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I’m genuinely glad to see that the developers have taken steps to make heavy bombers’ damage models more realistic. That’s a great move.

But what about helicopters?

I’m a dedicated Helirush player, and don’t get me wrong – I have no issue with being blown to pieces by a 30mm HE round. That’s fair game. What does bother me is how a few bursts of 12.7mm fire can snap the tail off a Mi-24P – a flying tank that earned its “BMP of the sky” reputation for a reason.

To be upfront: I haven’t looked deeply into light helicopter survivability, and I’m sure they have their own share of issues, but probably not as glaring as the Mi-24’s.

In Afghanistan, the Hind proved time and again that it could take punishment and still bring its crew home. In War Thunder, that legendary toughness is nowhere to be found. Right now, roughly 80% of the fuselage skin shares a single pooled health value – and that simply doesn’t reflect reality. In practice, a few stray 12.7mm rounds grazing the tail often result in an instant severance.

The module damage logic is also far too punitive. Even 7.7mm coaxial machine gun fire can easily penetrate the Mi-24’s frontal armour and knock out avionics, leaving you completely unable to fire back. Or an engine takes a couple of 7.92mm hits and suddenly you’re losing power and flopping onto the ground like a stone.

Yes, I know – anything that flies is inherently fragile. But this is getting ridiculous. Heavy attack helicopters like the Mi-24 deserve better than being treated like paper kites. The biggest pain points right now are the unified skin HP pool and the tail severance mechanic.

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No.

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Frankly, it needs to be corrected. But good luck convincing a playerbase who primarily focuses on the mi 28 being effective of that fact.

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Listen man, suggestions like yours are Good, But the main problem is the community, not gaijin
If real life were related to this community, there will be no realism in real life.

I agree with you, almost all vehicles in air need a proper rework.

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i don’t understand why people say no to this as its something that needs work especially with the poor state of helicopters in game right now where they’re hard to grind effectively and hard to play well for the average person who isn’t a sweat or pro. someone like me who plays the game a couple hours each evening struggle to play these vehicles and the poor damage model doesn’t help, its like bombers no one really plays them because there’s no surviviblity as they’re instantly shot down

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Idk why people are saying no. Obviously Mi-28NM and AH-64E are a tad bit overpowered but cmon, that shouldn’t be an excuse to lobotomize every other heli in the game. Personally I just need to see an FCS module, I’m tired of not being able to fire my weapons cuz a single 7.62 bullet hit my rotor and now “fire controls are damaged, you cannot fire”

idk what genius decided that every time ur helicopter gets hit there should be a random chance it take out the non-existent FCS. Other than that, helicopters are fine

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helicopters shouldn’t be delicate little daisy’s, sure other than dedicated attack helis (ah64 and mi28) they shouldn’t be armoured tanks, but they should be able to take some damage and not fall out the sky, especially when there’s reports of helicopters like hueys and wessex coming back with serious damage

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Because the tank main is confused as to why hitting a helicopter with a 120mm subcaliber hypervelocity dart passing through thin sheet metal doesn’t cause a supernova that takes the entire enemy team with it, giving them 5,000 SP for 2 nukes while the dev team personally congratulates them on their achievement.

irony being top tiers like 28NM/64E are the only effective helis, even the SS.11 helis are only barely viable, outside of the Kiowa/Lynx/24D/maybe Z-11W everything else is cheeks

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Honestly, helis survive way more than they should already.

i put a solid dozen 30mms through them and they fly home a lot. or a full fat tank APFSDS clean though the engine and it still has enough time to spit all its rockets at me, even though that rotor should have been ripped clean out turning it into a thin skinned brick.

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that is how it should be especially for actual attack helicopters such as hinds, mi28 and ah64s. but lower br helicopters should be able to take more punishment as playing early helis are impossible due to them being made of glass

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YOUR HIGHLY SURVIVABLE VEHICLE, SIRE:

I’m convinced nerf it more, clearly 2 mags of pistol ammo was too much.

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im sorry but a 7kg tungsten slug going Mach jeebus through a helis turbine is swatting that lump of junk out of the sky as fast as a rocket would

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holy crap how much damage are infantry rifles doing?

ive not touched infantry since test #2 because it was just enlisted but buggier, good god they overtuned

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Im fine for all aircraft, including helis to get the main damage model broken down into smaller pieces, but it should also come with far better modeling of internal modules too. Such as wiring, and hydraulic lines.

But the last thing we want is a return to the days of KA-50/52s just being unkillable. Probably also should make the rotor blades more vulnerable to damage than they are currently, as im sure a nearby missile exploding would probably actually damage them.

They also need to ensure helis can be targeted by radar weapons too by fixing the radar signature.

There is also an ongoing issue where helis are wierdly tanky to certain missile types, often taken multiple hits to bring down. So that too needs addressing

So… TLDR, im fine with a total overhaul, but it would be just as much a nerf as it would be a buff.

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if you hit the turbine sure, but not when you don’t hit anything like that it shouldn’t swat it out the sky, but most modern helis can fly with 1 engine but that impossible in game right now as soon as you lose one engine that’s it, your falling out the sky