Aiming at a certain part of the tank - How does the gun AI work?

[Bone_Vulture]

I was thinking how exactly is the progressive aiming and firing round after round from a AT gun to the target armor is modelled:

Does the AI simply roll a "hit dice", see if the shot hits the target and then calculate the most probable part where the hit will occur? Or does the gun AI aim at a part of the tank with the best hit/penetration probability? Will the gun AI attempt to scire a hit on the more fragile turret once the tank is zeroed in?

A whole bunch of questions... This started puzzling me when I thought of the IS-2 dilemma: it has well enough hull armor to withstand German 75L46/48 rounds, but the turret front is the Achilles' heel. If the gun AI aimed for the easiest to hit part of the tank, wouldn't it be more practical to expose the IS tanks completely to lure easy, non-penetrating shots to the hull plates?

I honestly don't know how the AI/simulation really works in this case.. Have there been any investigations?

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Well I know that I started doing better with T-34s by not letting them go hull down. Might be a coincidence but I feel their survivebility went up, rather then down.

[Zarquon]

It's randomly determined, no aiming at specific parts. I think it's 30% for the turret, no matter which tank. So it might or might not be better to seek a hull down position, depending on the tank's armor. This has been discussed in lenght, try a search.

[Bone_Vulture]

If the part where a hit tank takes the blow is truly calculated at random (taking the facing and concealed parts of tanks under consideration of course), then it'd obviously be more tactically savvy to maneuver boldly with tanks that have hull armor sturdy enough to withstand AT gun fire, than to attempt firing behind cover.

The only problem is still the "sissy tank crew syndrome" that drives especially Russian crews hysterical in the worst possible moments.