9.3 Ricochet Mechanics Explained

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Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/pc-browser/1/ricochet_game_mechanics_in_9_3/

Hello everyone,

Wargaming (on RU portal) made a post, explaining what’s going on in the new 9.3 ricochet mechanics.

How it works now

A ricochet is a deflected shot, that hits the armor under a very steep angle. In World of Tanks case, if the AP or APCR (subcaliber) shell hits the armor under the angle of 70 degrees or greater, the shell will automatically ricochet – it will be deflected by the armor without doing any damage. For HEAT shells, the angle is 80 degrees. HE and HESH shells on the other hand do not ricochet at all. Ricochet check is performed when the shell hits the armor (normalization is performed after ricochet check).

ricosh_1

Ricochet however does never happen when the “three calibers rule” is applied. This rule says that when the gun caliber (gun, not shell) is three times higher than the armor thickness, ricochets do not happen (HEAT shells do not use this rule however). Furthermore, ricochets do not happen when external modules of the tank are hit (tracks, optics and gun).

What is changed

Currently, two types of ricochets can happen. A shell can ricochet into a the tank (for example in a shot trap) – if, after it ricochets, the shell trajectory aims again at the tank, the shell tries to achieve penetration yet again. If it fails, it disappears. If the shell ricochets off the tank altogether in first place, it disappears.

In 9.3, after the first ricochet happens, the shell will continue on new trajectory in any case (it does not disappear regardless of where it flies). When that happens, APCR and AP shells lose 25 percent from their base penetration value, HEAT shells keep the same penetration value. If the ricocheted shells (with reduced penetration) hits another vehicle, the hit will be calculated based on normal game mechanics. Second such ricochet is not possible (if the shell ricochets again, it disappears).

Ricochets of your shells, hitting an enemy and ricocheting off, damaging your teammate, will not be punished.

63 thoughts on “9.3 Ricochet Mechanics Explained”

  1. I can see people using a Maus for skill shots after this patch…just think, Maus pulls up to a corner where there’s a heavy playing peek a boo, his buddy bounces one off the Maus & around the corner…damn, the possibility for abuse is going to be hilarious!

      • And there will be probably a medal when you kill an enemy tank while ricocheting from an another: Lucky^2

    • more than hilarious I can’t stop but think how they decided to “reward” players for using their armor to protect allies with less armor and at the same time they add a new “physics” who will make “tanking” a serious danger for teamwork

      just imagine a tank with strong armor sidescraping and a teammate/plattonmate doing peek-a-boo behind him when the enemy fires, the shell ricochets from the side armor and it hits his ally behind him

      it won’t take too loong for players to avoid those situations and that will create a problem when a player will need to hold a position by himself against one or more enemies and that will endanger the already lack of teamwork in WoT, altough the majority of players don’t need one more reason for it

    • I might be wrong… but hey I’ll take a punt.

      The detonator for the HEAT shell is located in the front, if the shell hits the tank at an angle which forces it to hit the front of the tank, the shell explodes and the stream comes out.

      If say, the front of the shell doesn’t hit the armor, let’s say it only hits the side of the shell, it’s entirely possible that it bounces straight into a nearby tank..

      This is just a theory…. :-P

    • In reality, NATO HEAT bounced off at 60 degrees and could still be used afterwards (although not fired, obviously). Soviets managed to increase that to 70%.

  4. How accurate is this? is there even such thing IRL? i know shells bounce but i thought most of the shell shatters if it hits something it cannot penetrate.

    And how the heck the shaped charge stream jet of a HEAT round bounces like ping pong?? lol!!

    • If HEAT shell is not triggered at all, it can glance off and detonate somewhere else. And such things can happen when angle exceeds 80 degrees.

    • Probably 80° or more is such a wide angle that the shell doesn’t even go off and ricochets away, either because the fuze doesn’t even strike on the armor surface or because the impact felt by the shell is too small.

    • Don’t confuse non penetrations and ricochets. Normal non penetrations wont do anything after failing to penetrate, in the case of HEAT charges they have already activated and failed to pen while AP or APCR will have used all their energy and probably shattered or otherwise deformed. At ricochet angles however the shaped charge is never set off and thus can be set off when it hits something else. AP and APCR shells will continue but lose some energy in the deflection, rather than modelling this (the finer the angle the less energy would be lost) wargaming have just gone for 25% pen loss regardless.

    • After second or third bounce the shell velocity would be so low that it’d be likely to tumble and just bounce randomly (and probably be gone to ground soon), not following further.

      • A shell that ricocheted once would loose some momentum but would be not flying true. It would be distorted, wobbling or even tumbling and would have a much reduced chance of penetrating or having another clean ricochet where it could penetrate anything. Sorry but a 25% reduction in pen after the first ricochet is very generous and the possibility of multiple events happening is just not on.
        Consider the server load in a low tier game with everyone shoot auto cannons and machine guns if there was more than one ricochet.

        • I agree with you on the very generous 25% reduction, getting hit would make it lose most if not all of it’s momentum. Though it is likely it will change in due time

          • yep. most likely they will implement a formula that reduces pen depending on the angle of impact.

  10. I’m kind afraid of Maus/E-100+something troll platoons teamkilling as much as they like. Or until someone posts an replay of that to the suppport, but EU support, you know.

    • Don’t see that happening as if they engaged a friendly and killed you it would probably count as a team kill, but who knows, WG

      • (this should go to Homo-petteri)

        It won’t be really common, when trolls can riccochet off enemy tank to TK friendly.

        Because the article said nothing about riccocheting off friendly to hit friendly, which afaik you are discussing.

        It’s pretty possible, that such shots will be punished.

  15. The question that is not answered though…how far will the shell travel after ricocheting? Does it lose pen over distance beyond the 25% loss? Etc.

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  18. I think there are two interesting questions:
    1. What exactly is meant with “Ricochets of your shells, hitting an enemy and ricocheting off, damaging your teammate, will not be punished”? Will a ricochet into a teammate damage him (I assume yes), but the shooter will not get the typical teamdamage punishments (in terms of becoming blue, ban, etc.), OR will a ricochet into a teammate cause no damage? (I don’t think so)

    2. Assuming the ricochet will cause teamdamage and the shooter will not be punished by the game, the question is how the damaged player will react? There will always be players, who will blame the ricochet on the shooter and will start to damage the teammate, who caused the ricochet. Maybe because they will be angry, or maybe because they will not understand the ricochet mechanics and will think the ricochet was a deliberate shot. Thus, it could turn out that, although it is counter-intuitive, it is better if the ricochets do not cause team damage and can only damage enemies.

  19. “Ricochet however does never happen when the “three calibers rule” is applied. ”

    Overmatch is a lie.

      • overmatch is broken as shit ingame, othewise NOTHING would bounce a bathax on tier 10, yet that thing still glances shots like noone even when it’s made of wet paperboard a 155mm shell can magi-bounce off the deck, front, back, etc

        • Exactly the example I had in mind. God only knows how many 155mm rounds I’ve bounced off the ass end of Batshits.

          The Batchat’s ass end is 30mm thick.

          If overmatch worked, that would mean that AP from any 90mm in the game should penetrate with 100% reliability.

          Good luck with that.

          The back of the turret is 15mm thick. Any 76mm gun in the game should overmatch. Hah.

          Spaced armor is still broken too. Do I need to dig up the JPE100 vs Tetrarch video again?

          • what tetrarch vs jpe video?, link that!

            and yes, space armor is broken even since they “fixed” it, T95 used to absorb HE shells just like it should, after the fix any arty hit even on the tracks will deal damage

            • There’s a video of a Tetrarch eating a 170mm round from a JPE100 thru the gun mantlet for 0 damage at 0 meters.

              Spaced armor “loses” the shell after the first penetration and then the game no longer registers it. That’s why you get the “black” icon flash to signify a bounce and the “penetration” voice prompt to signify a penetration but 0 damage.

              It’s a broken core mechanic. Spaced armor is retarded.

  20. Overmatch doesn’t work. I submitted a ticket when my 120 mm AP shell from my AMX ’48 bounced the side of an AMX 12t. It overmatched by a factor of 6 and it bounced. No module damage, no critical hit, it bounced. I was told that a bounce is still possible regardless of the caliber if the shell. I asked them to change the wiki as it was not accurate, they have not. If it is in the video then they are still spewing forth the overmatch lie.

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