M109's and Overpressure and SPGs in general

Is the overpressure mechanic bugged? Ive shot tanks with this 155mm round and it will do absolutely nothing. I get a nice back turret shot or side turret shot and its like I shot a plastic BB at the tank. He then turns and shoots me once while i reload for 13 seconds.

What is the point of SPGs in WT? You dont get enhanced zoom. You dont get indirect fire. Your supposed to just play as a tank without getting any upgrades to armor that let you play like a tank. Your 155mm round will hit a tank and act as if it wasnt even shot. Im pretty sure anything hit by a 155mm round would be absolutely thrashed, but in WT its a mere scratch. Your just a slow unarmored tank with no real purpose and a long reload time that gets punished by a bad overpressure mechanic that doesnt work.

So what is the deal with SPGs? Is this just bad game development and I shouldnt play these things or is there something Im missing.

SPGs mostly exist to have higher firepower before “regular” vehicles get it. That doesn’t actually happen with all of them though, just look at missile carriers being at the same BR as IFVs with the same missiles. Pretty good for just camping, but map design heavily favours highly mobile tanks with solid armor so most of the time you would do better with whatever medium tank is available.
The cursed nature of explosive shells in the game makes artillery vehicles particularly bad. You can shoot the same enemy 3 times in the same spot and every time the result is different, you’d rather be shooting HEAT at them since the damage is at least somewhat predictable.

Thats kind of what im feeling. Just better off playing a medium tank with a 5 second reload, more armor and better round that is more consistent.

Its definitely like you said. You can shoot the 155mm round at the same spot 3 times and have 3 different results. Which is why I asked if overpressure is bugged.

The entire vehicle just feels lackluster and meh for what it should be. Give SPGS more zoom if you want them to be arty without indirect fire capabilities. Its a no brainer. But instead im forced to brawl with a thing that wasnt designed for it with a round that doesnt work.

So this is just bad development?

Overpressure mechanic is still very unreliable. Your best bet to kill moderately to heavily armored vehicles with SPG/Hs is to fire at the top half or top of turret, or directly underneath their hull if it’s facihg towards you.

Yea thats exactly what I do.

Its really crazy because on test range the round seems to kill all the vehicles in it in 1 shot. Then you get into game and try the same shots and you will literally do zero damage. No crew taken out. No weapons disabled. Turret works fine. Tracks all there.

If a 155mm round exploded on your turret everyone inside would be mashed potato and the tank would be in absolute disarray. In WT? Not even a scratch.

Why do SPGs exist in this game if overpressure is a broken mechanic and there is no real artillery system in place. They are just useless vehicles that were poorly implemented.

Do we have to wait until Russians get SPGs for overpressure and a real arty system? Its looking thats the only way these things get fixed and become relevant.

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During my last match earlier today, I landed two shots on the turret of a KV-1 with the Brummbär. We were at point blank range (not that it matters for HE, just to specify that it wasn’t a case of aiming too low or too high). Both did zero damage.

HE is unreliable as of right now, sadly no option but to live with it.

I was just more curious if more people were having the same issues I was or it was just a skill issue because I wasnt aiming for the right areas. After speaking with people on this issue it does appear overpressure is just a broken and inconsistent mechanic.

So SPGs with no real indirect fire system that are forced to be brawlers with zero armor and also near zero fire power due to overpressure inconsistency. Dead vehicles on arrival. Its a real shame to do all the model work for something like this and then put it into the game broken…but then again it is a NATO vehicle. So par for course I suppose.

When Russia gets SPGs im sure they will magically invent a arty indirect fire system and SPGs from then on will be better. Sadly they never go back and fix what was already implemented. So i expect the M109 to remain a dumpster and to be uptiered to 7.0 because thats how this game works when it comes to NATO equipment.

While I understand your irritation at the broken mechanic, you are forgetting two critical facts.

The first is that the Soviet tech tree has several vehicles at low BRs that also rely on high-calibre HE for damage output, and that is just as bugged as everyone else’s. I’ve definitely been hit, in the past, by Soviet 152mm guns that mysteriously only destroyed my tracks, or just broke my optics, allowing me to serenely return fire and one-shot them through the lower front plate… and even the German captured KV2, which I have, has the same problem.

The snail giveth, the snail taketh away.

The second fact you should keep in mind is that the Soviet tech tree received an SPG earlier than most: the 2S3M. That has since been augmented by the introduction of the 2S1 to the Soviet tree.

These also behave unpredictably on the battlefield. Sometimes a 2S3M will one-shot my Jagdtiger by overpressuring the roof. Sometimes it will hit my LeKPanzer in the turret and do no damage at all.

Its always like this. Also with helicopters. When I use my Tiger UHT chopper @ test range it kills every target with one hit. Like boom, boom, booom…doesn’t matter if tank, truck or SPAA.

Ingame however its like fail, fail, fail … you hit alot without doing lethal damage. Its like the test range has other game mechanics and other weapon stats.

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