This is a game mechanic that, in my opinion, does not belong in simulator battles at all. In reality, the gunner in the tank does not know exactly what inside the target vehicle he hit, exactly how many crew members died, whether the gun breech is functional or not. Likewise, shooting through smoke, when you can tell where the enemy is by the machine gun fire. Just like in the real world, the player would have to rely on what he sees and recognize whether the vehicle is destroyed or not. The application of such a mechanic should be very easy, because it can be set in the settings, but it should be like that for all players in this mode. I completely understand that in arcade battles it is interesting for the players, but in simulator battles it is pointless.
You should have a cracked screen .jpg when your gunner optics get damaged. Also your commander should be exposed when you are in 3rd person. And tanks should have a limited fuel supply too!
However, these are mechanics that would have to be created from scratch, and no one will do that.
The exposed commander and tank fuel are needed in SIM.
The screen not.
Just do a cam switch to the gunner and stay in gunner view.
When the gunner is dead, switch to driver view and run to a cap to get a crew member back.
The hit cam being removed would be excellent but I don’t think it would work mainly for gameplay purposes. War Thunder is particularly removed from reality where solid shot is concerned. There’s times when APDS shatters again flat armour plates (I won’t get started on the 17lber’s AP) and being able to see a shatter/bounce in the hit cam at least allows you to potentially plan around it if you aren’t one-shot deleted instantly after.
That said the hit cam absolutely has to go when smoke is deployed. Smoke is the single most useless tool in the game as all the other player has to do is spray the MG and find you in the camera. Absolutely and utterly stupid.
I’d love actual engine/transmission management to be in the game, I play with manual (but with no clutch) gears and it’s easily manageable and adds some extra realism/challenge to the game. It’d be fantastic if they added damage that could occur to the gearbox/engine if it was misused. It’s also another way to add balance to the game especially where historically unreliable yet overpowered tanks are concerned.
Also add a shellshock mechanic that delays crew actions for higher calibre guns (not AA). For non penetrating hits make it only one or two seconds but with a penetration to the crew compartment make it longer. Not only is this more realism but it’ll help the slower reloading tanks… it’s ridiculous that a tank crew can scrape the remains of a loader/gunner from their station, reload and fire back before the offensive tank can reload.
You might jest, but I’d love this in aircraft.
We used to have cracked canopies in fact.
I don’t (get to) play GSB nearly enough to comment, but I do think it’d be very cool if tanks had similar.
And if we got these back for our planes.
Ground simulator battles needs a completely blank UI with at least battle log and aim is more than enough to play a match.
Returning the radio effects in voice, adding more voicelines either between crew talking or reacting to the environment could be a great start for a update focusing in improving simulator battles,
And promoting player-created rooms just like air simulator battles can bring more players interested in simulator battle in a specific battle rating or tier.
This would require a increase in rewards, even though anyone that uses the brain can deal with a tank in one hit, having to constantly manage these problems is not really fun specially in a game less than realistic like War Thunder.
Spiderweb crack on damaged optics is definitely needed