Apparently, armor piercing bombs only increase penetration based on the altitude at which they are dropped. However, even for WWII planes, we can reach dive speeds of up to Mach 0.7, which would effectively increase the penetration of such an artifact (in addition to the fact that it gains even more speed after being dropped).
Since the game considers penetration based on altitude, I believe that the effect of gravity is already taken into account, the only thing missing is the effect of the speed of the plane itself at the time of launch.
I would assume gaijin is just uses altitude to simplify calculating terminal velocity/Acceleration/drag on the bombs.
A dive bomber and a bomb would have 2 very different terminal velocities. A bomb will probably have a higher TV, regardless of the speed the aircraft was going. So they just figure the bomb will accelerate up to that point based upon a reasonable drop alt rather than trying factor in acceleration. Whilst some aircraft can dive at such speeds, most probably wont.
So overall, they probably have too much pen. Assuming they reach max pen at a reasonable alt (like 1000-2000ft)
(a 1000lb bomb based upon some data I found online has a TV of around mach 1. So a 1000lb bomb dropped by a aircraft diving at 0.7 mach should accelerate to a higher speed than the aircraft was going if it has enough time to do so. Its speed doesnt become 1.7 mach because it was dropped from a diving aircraft)
Well, I don’t know, I think that even if a bomb can reach Mach 10 in free fall (absurdly extrapolating) 0.7 Mach is something that impacts its penetration power, so it should be considered (it would be 7% of the bomb’s speed, in this absurd extrapolated example)
Furthermore, bombs are not a common artifact to see in naval games, and it would not add that much complexity to the code. A simple speed calculation, something that there are algorithms for that are easy to apply. When we attack a battleship from the First World War, it has no anti-aircraft defense, so it is very common to have the possibility of attacking it with a precise dive. Especially if you are using an aircraft like the BTD, which is excellent for this feat, reaching 885 km/h IAS.
The question is, how high does a bomb need to be dropped to reach its terminal velocity.
(iirc, tall-boys, were dropped from about 20k ft so that they would reach terminal velocity . But I dont know about a much smaller, more typical bomb)
A bomb cannot fall at a speed greater than its terminal velocity un-powered (i.e something like a rocket motor).
If we a assume these bombs have a max TV of mach 1 and IRL it takes dropping them from lets say. 10k ft for them to reach TV at the point of impact and Gaijin is calculating based upon that fact. Then pen would be higher if they actually calculated the speed of the bomb fully. Because a bomb dropped already going at 0.7 mach will reach TV faster (and in a shorter distance) than one dropped without an applied acceleration.
However, if a bomb reaches its max pen when dropped from a reasonable drop altitude regardless of the drop speed. Then proper calculations would only nerf bombs.
The questions that need to be answered are:
What altitude does a bomb need to be dropped for max pen? (in-game)
How long does it take a typical AP bomb to reach TV IRL (especially how far would it need to fall)?
Because your bomb has a “arced path” it takes time for it to hit 90°, if it ever even does, it takes time for a fairly large and heavy object with high wind resistance to fully vector into its terminal velocity, which changes depending on the weight.
Yes, but the thing is the time it takes for it to convert with horizontal speed into vertical acceleration, which takes a complete change in vector.
Generally speaking gaijin could have it do this, but it differs per bomb and many other variables. Not to mention they still have a directional stabilization fin, which increases drag to make sure the head of the bomb contacts first.
I think the main issue here is dive bombers with AP bombs.
Whilst yes, you are right for a bomb dropped in level flightly from something like a heavy bomber. There should be no delay in the bomb flying fairly straight when dropped from a dive bomber.
If an AP bomb, dropped by a dive bomber at 3000ft has significantly better pen than a bomb dropped at 2000ft but in a much faster aircraft. Then it could be an issue.
Since War Thunder is a game, from the moment you equip it, or even when you release the bomb in the air, the game is necessarily already calculating the speed of the bomb. This change in speed from horizontal to vertical is already done and properly calculated by the game.
Furthermore, for calculating penetration, the only speed that matters is the speed at the moment of impact.