well it can always be improved of course but there is simply no reason for it to have less HE effect than heat if something heat should have way less
the performance against armor is one thing the fact 22kg of HE equivalent is just ignored and it cant kill light tanks is another
The reason HESH has less HE effect than HEAT is that they work fundamentally differently. HEAT relies on a focused penetration effect using a molten jet, while HESH causes spalling by spreading shockwaves across the armor surface.
If HESH simply had a stronger HE effect, it wouldn’t be a proper fix it would just turn it into another HE round rather than simulating its intended purpose. The real issue is that HESH’s spalling effect is too weak and inconsistent in the game. Instead of adjusting HE effects, the focus should be on making spall damage more realistic.
Of course, if HESH rounds at least caused the creation of medium/small fragments upon impact with an enemy vehicle, it would already greatly improve the usability of this ammunition in many aspects.
It’s also obvious that the ‘knockout’ effect should be maintained because 22 kg of TNT hitting a vehicle wouldn’t just incapacitate the crew regardless of the impact location it could leave them with serious injuries due to the sheer force of the blast. Considering we are talking about WWI and WWII-era armored vehicles, where crew protection consisted of simple uniforms with zero defense against shockwaves or shrapnel, the impact should be much more severe.
Trying to apply the same destruction mechanics from one shell type to another makes the existence of both unnecessary in the game. We need the development team to give proper attention to HESH rounds so they actually have the destructive power they should!
Or at least 70% of it, which would already be perfect and even then, a large part of the community would probably consider it overpowered.
Kind of the Point
Have you noticed most tanks that use HESH don’t have a HE round?
Becouse it is a HE round and regarding the amount of explosive a really good one the entire Middle is filled with explosive behind a very thin wall.
Why haven’t we all switched to HESH then?
Because similar to the German Stielhand granades
He Effect is less effective than Fragments against Infantry
So He-frag doas win in that regard(which means much thicker walls and less explosive)
It doesn’t need to a one to one ratio but 20kg of TNT equivalent should at least perform like a 5kg he (Minus the spalling unless armor is hit)
To fix HESH though I think they’d also need to rework APCB shells since they too heavily rely on shrapnel to do the work of wrecking the contents of the tank.
Instead at the moment we have APHE rounds that go off like a bomb if they penetrate or worse glance off the top of a tank and nuke the crew (I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been killed through the turret from a glancing shot when solid shot did nothing. Or worse, from a HESH that should have popped the roof off like a tin can but only managed to knock out an aerial or MG to then get wrecked by a main gun I can’t see the muzzle of from a crew that should have been stunned at the very least.