Shutdown range is a British term when two ships are so close to each other, with gun trajectories so flat that neither are able to actually hit critical components below the waterline. Meaning despite the almost guaranteed accuracy the damage isnt immediately fatal.
In War Thunder we see this happen a lot. Shells penetrating belt armor but because of the flat trajectory dont dive deeper into the ship to hit critical components. This is why ships like Kongo can be so tanky, with components deep below the waterline it becomes very annyoing to try and sink her.
This also makes ships with any vulnerabilities above or very near the waterline utter death traps in a CQC brawl, See Standards and Japanese Fuso. We do, however, have ships that benefit from this, such as Orion where shells hit above her belt doing nothing, or hitting it but doing minimal because the magazines are too deep.
Maps for battleships needs to take this into account, anything below 10km should not be allowed. Maps should average around 15km to 18km, this gives space for gun trajectories to be a threar to internal components and space for players to find the range they feel are best for their ships.
Well, as War Thunder does not take ‘arcade’ shell flying time like WOWs, 18 km combat range would mean 30 seconds + needs for shell to land. Don’t think this would be fun. Also, some ships would have serious issue penetrating enemy battleship’s armor at such range.
And for the British battleships you mention, they will be still almost impossible to detonate in such range as it was Admiralty’s intention for ship’s survivability XD
So? Most battleships have 30 second reloads so players will be waiting regardless for the splashdown. As for the concern about penetration from weaker guns, thats a BR and matchmaking issue.
Also your last claim is nonsensical. Orion can blow up in medium to long ranges but in short ranges it doesnt because the shells dont have the trajectory to harm it is a example of British ‘survivability’? Do you not know how silly this sounds?
What I’m concerning about is WT naval being World of Warship-ish battle, oh I say it wrong, World of Sniping-ish battle. There is no worth to play such game in War Thunder while WOWs is much better in those area.
Orion is actually exception among British capital ships, as irl it is stepstone from dreadnought to final design of superdreadnoughts.