Shell position on impact - is it modelled?

[moneymaxx]

OK here is a question I always had about CM that wasn't really answered until now.

Some tanks like the Hetzer are very difficult to destroy from the front because of their (front) armour at extreme angles.

My question:

Does a shot from a low velocity gun, e.g. a HC shell from an infantry gun, have a higher chance of penetration at larger distances then at shorter distances, since the shell flies a ballistic curve and therefore the shell position on impact should result in a better impact angle (assuming that the fuse/tip of the shell impacts first)?

I appreciate the answers in this thread:

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=007518

But a final answer is still missing.

[Goose]

I'm no expert on guns, but I would expect gun barrels to be rifled for the same reason that rifles are: Rifling makes the projectile spin as it leaves the barrel, giving gyroscopical stabilization and thus higher accuracy.

This also means that instead of flying "head first", the projectile will tend to keep its heading, even as it flies along a ballistic curve. This in turn means that in your example, the round should have LOWER penetration ability, since it is not striking the armour plate head on.

All this assuming that I haven't fundamentally misunderstood gun barrel design, ballistics, gyroscopics, or armour penetration mechanics.

And your question: is it modeled? I haven't a clue. I would guess no.

[Redwolf]

Well, if that is correct then no model is the correct model

[Goose]

What I meant to say is, if I've gotten things right then in moneymaxx's example the penetration should be slightly lower than what a simple distance/facing model yields, because the projectil is travelling slightly sideways.

Don't know if that got more or less clear.

[Wolfe]

Steve (or was it Charles?) said that concerning CMBO the game simply draws a straight laser-beam line from shooter to target to determine the angle of impact. Ballistic curves aren't modelled. IIRC they also said it wouldn't be hard to do, but would cost more CPU cycles during turn calculation, and so they left it out. I don't know if this changed for CMBB.

- Chris

[Captain Pies]

I'm no expert but logic tells me that air resistance will always ensure that a pointed shell will have it's nose oriented along the ballistic flight path. If it didn't, things like VT fused shells wouldn't work as the fuse would be pointing upwards as it approached the ground. Thus ballistic impact angles for HC would favour penetration on highly sloped plates because that angle ought to be closer to the normal than not. If this is modeled or not I don't know.