That’s because you dont aim where you should. I play the XM247, it has no APDS, but an almost full AP-I belt. THAT IS the round you should be worried about, not the APDS. It barely has more pen than the Falcon yet I’m able to pen and overpressure pretty much anything, even MBTs.
Aim for turret rings, cupolas, optics (some tanks have optics that when penned the round goes straight into the turret and fuses, like the T-72s). All you need is ONE penning shot and they’re done for.
Besides, you can always still play the Marksman, I believe it still has its APDS belt if that’s what’s worrying you.
Falcon doesnt deserve 8.3. I understand the time when it had APDS, but now… Look at Swedish VEAK 40. It has radar. It has AP round with 95 mm pen. His weapon has a larger caliber - 40mm, and its rate of fire is not significantly lower than that of the Falcon. And guess what - it’s 7.7. How is Falcon better than VEAK 40?
I think developers must move it to 7.0 or return APDSes
I also forgot to mention that it constantly loses track of the target, unlike SPAAs with radar. And, idk whether its bag after the lasst patch or what, but its shoot prediction is very laggy and bad
zsu 57 without proxy is just a tank destroyer with enough gun elevation to be put in the spaa line.
The 40 apds on the gepards are the least of the problem. Its aphe cancer ammo is beyond busted. Enough to over pressure everything it shoots at that happends to have an optic or a cupolla
All SPAA with radar should be above 8.0 imho. 7.x + radar kills off too much of the WW2 air force, which is still prevalent on a BR like 7.3 (M163 with aiming radar imho be the lowest with aiming assist). Try to use any plane when you use a 6.3 or 6.7 WW2 lineup…especially as Germany its not possible. Aby Bf109,262 or any bomber gets shot out of the sky when it gets close to the ground map. Too slow to counter the op radar generated amining assist reticle.
the Gepard APDS belt is 40 (20 since twinlinked guns) rounds and not baked into its main APIT (more like APHE) belt. It is not the same thing nor is it a double standard as the entire point of the 40 APDS shells is last resort.
If gepard had APDS baked into main ammo youd have an argument, it does not.
We can’t really compare it.
Guepard could fire more APDS, but since it is for self defence, and the secondary belt the guepard can switch on is 40 shells, they decided to use this number to limit the APDS (for balance of course).
Falcon can have a belt with only 1/4 shell an APDS (yes, it couldn’t be used since the APDS is much faster than other shells and so on), but I think that if it would have shot it, it would be kind of in the same optic as the ZSU-57-2, combining anti-air and as well as ground support.
And I might be wrong, but I think that the limited dual feed is as well the reason why the OTOMATIC can only take 12 APFSDS.
Edit: for the OTOMATIC, the emergency belt was only 3 anti-tank rounds, and 9 more could be stored in the hull.
You should be aware the Falcon only existed as single unit prototype project, which was abandoned. It was never supposed to use APDS (since its an AA project with a single belt w/o dual feed option). It also has to be said that there are indications it never fired somethig different than practice rounds irl.
Nice try, but even with 1/4 APDS it was outright dominating the ground battlefield. Especially all of the smaller maps or maps with low line of sight. Which means almost all maps. However. Compared to other SPAAs, like the US Gepard clone (also no APDS), its BR seems to be more or less ok. Maybe -0.3.
The only real question is why only the Falcon? There are quite some high pen SPAAs still ingame. Some even with full belts at lower BRs. Also things like the ZSU with 150mm APHE pen still exists at 7.0 or something. So considering this it seems to be unfair, indeed. Like Britain was singled out here.
overall it has less APDS shells than falcon had if every 4th shell was APDS. A fourth of 340 belt is 85, which is also coupled with its APHE so you just hold down button and something will go through.
It can keep the radar and go back down, the radar is terrible. M163 has radar at 7.3, the ZSU-37-2 and VEAK 40 both have radars at 7.7.
The ZSU-37-2 and VEAK 40 both also have far better AP ammunition with the former having rounds with 83mm of penetration and the latter having 95mm of penetration.
It has 68mm of penetration compared to the 53mm the Falcon has, that’s a decent jump. That’s like saying the Falcon barely has more penetration than the M163 which is 40mm compared to 53mm. The XM246 is also far better at maintaining its penetration over range.