I’ve had a thought recently about how the StuG III A has fake armor covering up where a gap should be for the gunner’s optics. If I remember correctly, there used to actually be a armor hole there before the StuG was buffed sometime in 2016/2017 by removing that. It reminded me that some other tanks have this, too, specifically the Sturmtiger having armor over the gunner’s optics where it should just be a hole and the American T29/T30/T32/T34 series having buffed armor over the gunner’s optics where it should just be around 30 mm.
Does anyone else know other vehicles that have this?
List of Vehicles with "Artificial"/Fake Armor
T29, T30, T32, T32E1, & T34: Buffed mantlet covering what should be a relatively thin internal line for the gunner’s sight.
StuG III A: Armor over what should be an open port for the gunner’s sight
38 cm Sturmmörser: Armor over what should be an open port for the gunner’s sight
Honestly all vehicles in-game have artificial armor over the optics, though that can be excused for most of them since most vehicles have small openings where it would just result in some volumetric mess if they were modeled. Though, for the larger ones they should be modeled, like the American heavies.
I feel like I’m missing more of the cases where there really shouldn’t be any armor, like the StuG III A and Sturmtiger. It’s weirdly selective, because then open-tops like the Marders don’t have armor where the openings for their optics are.
I really feel like the StuG III A had the opening at one time because I can vaguely remember being able to knock the gunner out with my machine guns, like a decade ago. Adding it back would give them a reason to add the later StuG III C, D, and/or E which specifically moved the gunner’s sight to a periscope to avoid the problem of the opening for the telescope sight being shot into.
This applies to several Italian low rank SPGs as well.
I’ve seen some people object to correcting this armor modeling error since it would mean that they could be easily nuked by any HE/HEAT shell, but that’s not quite how the game handles it in the code.
My understanding of it from testing on some vehicles and checking the datamine is that vehicles that are open-topped have modules organized by compartments, which then have the pressure damage vulnerability manually enabled. This allows the splash radius of chemical rounds to completely ignore their armor. This is why an M10 GMC’s hull crewmen can consistently die to low caliber HE rounds that wouldn’t be able to kill a far less armored, but otherwise fully enclosed reserve light tanks.
Just having an opening in the armor is different, since without overpressure enabled, the round actually has to explode around the opening to reach the crew. This can be observed with certain bugged open-topped vehicles. The LVT(A) (Zis-2) is one such case. It should be no less vulnerable to HE than any other open-top, but because it has no designated open compartment in the code, the turret crew are unusually resilient.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa holdup jus a second. Check my stats for any of those tanks. You won’t find them. I have no problem fighting them and I’m a mid player. So I think it’s a skill issue if you can’t fight then current moment. Git gud instead of complaining about heavy tanks at HEATFS BRs
