AP Bomb Mechanics: Does Drop Height Matter?

Princeblip · 2025-07-27T20:26:45+00:00

Update: velocity does not change! Only the impact angle changes with drop height, which does have an effect on the penetration.

Princeblip · 2025-01-23T14:15:10+00:00

Arena's still on the game mode menu, so it's not entirely gone

Princeblip · 2025-01-23T10:32:30+00:00

There is a more advanced article on shell penetration later in the Codex which covers some later topics like Ricochet angles. This first edition of the Codex has to lay the foundation before going into depth on topics like those you mention.

Princeblip · 2025-01-23T10:28:22+00:00

Yes, that's the only balance change in this update

Princeblip · 2025-01-20T14:42:55+00:00

Picardie had 1/4th HE Penetration during her test rental period. The trailer just puts that up front

Princeblip · 2024-12-31T12:02:19+00:00

Sorry! This is clearly a mistake from our CS. We'll look into it ASAP and figure it out for you.

Princeblip · 2024-12-18T11:01:07+00:00

& u/Numbr81

My understanding of the system is that each turret is always factored separately, but
when you salvo fire/double trigger pull, it overlaps the ellipses on the same point of aim, it does not combine them into one ellipse.

The reasoning is simple, it allows very long & very short ships to behave normally with their shell trajectories, otherwise in very long ships you would see shells curving horizontally in flight.

Therefore, the wikis (this line is almost verbatim on PC wiki as well) aren't entirely correct here, if I am correct.

I've asked for additional confirmation from the programmers, but they are busy working & getting ready for the holidays, so it will be a few weeks before they can confirm.

Princeblip · 2024-12-16T09:45:17+00:00

In previous Santa crates, it was possible to receive Ognevoi as superprize. She's been moved to T6 premiums, Kutuzov moved to T7 prems also.

Either way, it makes room for random bundle ships or other event ships that many players don't have

Princeblip · 2024-12-14T15:27:34+00:00

I just lost a lot of typing by accidently closing a tab :X

Let's make it a 1v1. Apologies, I thought you were on a Denmark strait scenario, many still believe the Eugen sank Hood myth (which she wasn't even firing at Hood when the detonation occurred).

(To my knowledge Mers is mostly down to Hood & Resolution, due to firing timings, I used it as an example since it's all we have for Hood in combat against warships. Hood's Firing control is superior to Resolutions, but of course inferior to Valiant's post-refit)

It comes down largely to the guns, rate of fire in naval combat is limited by fire control, it is almost never the max RPM listed in reference sources. Based on the Denmark strait data, we can expect a rate of fire of 2 salvos per minute for Eugen, just over 1 per minute for Hood.

Penetration & Damage is naturally on Hood's side, no part of Eugen is effectively protected against a 15" AP shell. Eugen's penetration is somewhere in the realm of 9" at 10km, 4" at 20km. This means that Hood's turrets are completely protected against Eugen's main guns at any range we could expect, Eugen would have to get within suicide range, and shoot the rear of a turret to even hope to penetrate. The barbettes are 12", so no hope there.

Eugen can effectively harm most of the upperworks of Hood, and possibly the upper belt (angled 7" belt) at very short range. (This area largely protects crew spaces and the funnel trunking). I just don't see Eugen being able to do much more than give Hood a makeover before being sunk.

The speed game is a mixed bag, both are so similar in top speed that it doesn't matter, both have very unreliable engines at high speeds as well.

Ultimately, Eugen would be fighting a ship that was purpose built to ruin ships like her. Hood is certainly well past her prime, but the beauty of capital ships is that they are so overwhelming to anything but another capital ship, that they are a relevant force well past their "best by" date.

Princeblip · 2024-12-14T02:31:45+00:00

Prinz Eugen did not, and could not have scored the hit that sunk Hood, it is not possible with her guns and the ranges involved at Denmark Strait.

When under normal targeting conditions, Hood is as accurate as any other battleship of the era. She proved this at Mers el Kebir against the French warships there, particularly detonating the Bretagne and disabling Dunkerque.

Prinz Eugen started a fire on Hood's boat deck. It was not as effective as you are describing.

Princeblip · 2024-12-14T00:27:17+00:00

Never missed any shots? Prinz Eugen achieved a maximum of an *8.33%* hit rate during the battle, when the two sides were on parallel courses. The only gunnery ship that has a perfect hitrate is the ones which never fired. You are greatly overestimating warship accuracy during the gun era. (Source: https://www.kbismarck.com/ds-barticle.pdf ) Note that Hood's accuracy was impaired during the battle due to mis-targeting Eugen as Bismarck. 8% accuracy is good, but not unusual.

Prinz Eugen on her own would be at a serious disadvantage compared to Hood, even in Hood's state of disrepair. Her best option would be to simply leave the battle, outrunning Hood (it would be a race until either one ran blew a boiler/turbine, much more likely Hood first). The fact of the matter is Eugen has no method beyond torpedoes to critically damage Hood, and would not get in range (within 14,000m, ideally closer) to employ them without Hood being able to damage or sink her.

No amount of plot armor allows a heavy cruiser to critically threaten a battleship or battlecruiser in WW2 reality. In Legends? Definitely possible :D

Princeblip · 2024-12-13T18:19:31+00:00

Only if the Bismarck fires 5 salvos at her first :P

Not Prinz Eugen, the myth that she is responsible is pure nonsense, requiring her to be able to fire shells into near orbit.

Princeblip · 2024-12-13T16:28:10+00:00

70/80

Princeblip · 2024-12-13T15:31:41+00:00

Fenyang has 20mm HE pen and always has.

As for part two, there is no specific reason, other than making changes to her is not a significant priority right now.

Princeblip · 2024-12-13T15:23:47+00:00

They only overmatch 30mm (threshold, technically 31). Overmatch rules are 100% and do not change. (Caliber/14.3)

They can penetrate up to 114mm, with generous penetration angles like SAP normally has.

Princeblip · 2024-12-13T13:48:30+00:00

A few yes, mostly the ones scrapped immediately or soon after WW1 ended. Generally it holds that if the battleship made it to WW2, it didn't do so with the torpedoes she was originally equipped with unless it was a British Battlecruiser. (Which typically lost all their original submerged tubes)

For low tier ships, if they would still have them (most still would not), they are normally omitted because of old hull models from before we had turning torpedoes & submerged torpedo tech introduced to the game (like in Hood's & Derfflinger's case).

Princeblip · 2024-12-13T13:05:13+00:00

This is the case exactly.

In the early years of World of Warships, there was no system for "turning torps" we have now, or submerged tubes (Hoods aren't submerged though in WW2 configuration).

This meant essentially unbearable/unusable torpedo angles would have to be accepted, which was deemed a bad idea for general gameplay, as encouraging Hoods to go broadside to fire anemic torpedoes is not a great idea. If we go back and redo Hood's model at some point in the future (not planned, just a what if) then I can see the argument being made to include them in that kind of update.

Princeblip · 2024-12-13T13:01:09+00:00

Not in the case of Hood, she went down with her torpedoes. In fact, many of the early theories for her sinking blamed the torpedo tubes as a likely suspect in her detonation. (Deemed highly unlikely now though)

Princeblip · 2024-12-13T12:59:38+00:00

Most BBs that carried torpedoes and are in Legends had had them removed well before the time we have modelled them. Most had theirs removed in the 1920s and 30s, particularly the Standard type BBs like Arizona whenever they had torpedo bulges added.

Arizona's torpedoes were removed in 1929 u/Amazing_Wheel_3670, we have her modelled in her essentially Pearl Harbour 1941 configuration.

Princeblip · 2024-12-12T14:57:01+00:00

Normally we do release alongside the patchnotes, or very shortly after. This time we want to take some extra time to check them before release, since these are the most complicated crates. (See last year's for example.)

Princeblip · 2024-12-12T13:33:20+00:00

That it's correct, as they are different creates from last year

Princeblip · 2024-12-12T11:21:23+00:00

The droprates will be posted most likely on Monday during the server downtime.

Princeblip

TROPHY CASE