Right now, shell balance in War Thunder is completely broken. Solid Shot, APDS, HESH, and HEAT-FS regularly turn crew members yellow or vanish into modules, while APHE acts like a 360-degree mini-nuke that wipes out entire crews from a cupola shot.
Nobody wants the game to feel frustrating, and we don’t need to ruin APHE to fix it. Here is a fair compromise that makes the game better for everyone:
Change APHE to a realistic forward-facing spall cone, while keeping its reliable fuse detonation (no annoying real-life dud RNG). Center-mass shots still devastate tanks, but cupola shots stop wiping the whole hull.
Buff Solid Shot, APDS, HESH, and HEAT-FS spalling so high-caliber kinetic and chemical rounds actually generate realistic behind-armor shrapnel instead of acting like needles.
Run the test INSIDE the live game client with a hangar banner and an in-game poll—not buried on the forums where a small vocal minority can brigade the vote before most players even know a test exists.
Every player—no matter what nation they main—deserves consistent, skill-based damage models instead of getting “Gaijin’d” every match. If we want this, we need to push for an in-game test event and in-game voting. We as the Solid Shotter, the HEAT & HESH enjoyers should plan something to force Gaijin to change it.
well thats why the APHEs usually cant pen heavy targets reliably and all others can :/
Then dont touch it lol.
Most of the time APDS and HEATFS play against each other on the higher battle ratings, and when they`re lower they are basically an OVERKILL for each and every armor plate. If they are to damage more, what’s the point in having lower pen APHE round that cant silouethe-shoot a heavy target?
That is what i can agree with even tho i disagree much with the idea itself. We need votings to be in game client so to reflect the real statistics. Tho we also need them to be open so everyone can check if its rigged.
Most tanks aren’t heavy targets, most tanks struggle to pen heavy targets & APDS is super crap with constant “shell shattered” and inconsistent with post-pen damage, HEAT & HEATFS is the same inconsistent post-pen damage. APHE can keep it’s damage but being shot in a nuck or crany of my tank & dying because all four guys die due to a mini nuke going of in my tank is not fun or balance.
APHE is ahistorically overperforming. But when there was the option to fix it, people cried that their precious rounds wouldn’t be brokenly effective still.
The inverse is the case for APDS: shatters on angles that it shouldn’t, so it is worthless in its implementation on anything with a vaguely long reload. Though arguably with the rate of failed penetrations on surfaces it shouldn’t shatter against, it’s not particularly worth it with a decent reload either. Just tend not to have the option for more useful round.
I know but hopefully with GTA VI release & Gaijin trying to keep a good player retention rate, it will change with time. The vote was super close & APHE babies will have to deal with it I guess, but even if APHE isn’t change, just fixing the other shells would make the game so much better. Thus making more nations fun to play and also the player base is like 50/50 on the amount of players that play solid shot or others vs those whom play APHE mainly.
Are they? Even if they arent considered such, you try to pen the M60/T-54/ZTZs with them APHEs, either small caliber like BMP2 one or normal like T-54, i would gladly look. And lower by BR, close to 6.7, basically every 2nd tank you meet is heavy tank.
Which is because it can easilly pen each and every target?
17PDR APDS can easilly pen Panther hull, and 84mm APDS easilly pens them Tiger 2s hull which is otherwice unpennable. Same hoes for HEAT and HEATFS. On the lower rating, for example 3.3 Italy, the choise is either HEAT with 100mm pen or the APHE with 60. So either damage or penetration, which in some cases costs you life.
I agree! They need to fix the armor layourts as they are so bad now! Its super frustrating seeing pens that otherwice shouldnt be a pen!
Not that it should matter. Realism is being ignored in favour of a fiction, and it’s a joke that they keep claiming realism when there are issues with modeling that are this fundamental to the game. Even if you aren’t partial to those trees, you should still push for better modeling across the board.
Especially with how far ahead APHE is, and how far behind documentation solid shot is.
Well we all struggle with the heavy targets like even with APCBC if you pen on shot you may have to still pen 2-3-4 times just to kill the target due to trash post-pen damage. It is much easier to take a little extra time line up the shot & know that it will kill that tank vs with APDS or APCBC where you could line up you best shot & you only kill one person & the other guy, which you have revealed you position to, cannon is loaded & he kills you instantly.
100%, and when they want to work to start fixing it everybody cries because it is “broken” or “nerfed”, but it is technically currently broken & for a game sold on realism, at higher BR that really starts falling apart
Yeah and even if APHE stayed the same realistic Solid Shot rounds AP, DS & CR would just make it not feel like hell when you want a good time play for the game
Knowing that you can have situations that you just CANT pen (again look up the pen model of BR412D/BR471D against some of the better protected MBTs) or cant pen reliably VS you 100% pen but need to aim for the weakspots is two different things tho.
That sometimes happends. But with APHE users also. Shell explodes on armor/gets eaten by MG/by tracks, all because you need to aim for weakspots on most of the APHE slingers.
APHE being reworked to act more realistically was already unanimously quashed since the most popular nations all heavily use APHE. Most of the player base aren’t going to vote against their own best interests.
Everybody who isn’t being disingenuous already knows APHE is much better than most other types of shell especially in low/mid BRs.
As for solidshot/APDS etc nothing gaijin can do would make them as strong as APHE is because of the different way they work. APHE is so dominant because you can pull off things like cupola shots and just nuke the whole turret crew, as long as you pen you are more likely than not going to do enough damage to outright kill or prevent the enemy from retaliating.