A few armored car musings and misc. requests

[Kool Kat]

Yes! You're basically saying that there are factors going beyond simple armor thickness that must be taken into account - I agree completely. Well, what are they? And how much of an effect do they have on defense?

Only the original developers can answer that question? :chin:

However, I'm having trouble believing that this machine is as fragile as a halftrack (but HT's are smaller and faster?). In Panzerblitz, the Panther tank had a defense of '13' and the Marder '5.' Yet in this game, the Panther retains its '13' rating, while the Marder defense was lowered to a '2' which, according to my home-grown system, (10mm of armor = 1 defense, + 1 if fully tracked & fully enclosed) the JTCS rating is actually more accurate. Interesting to think about and ponder Imo.

"The entire Marder series suffered from a rather high profile, making them vulnerable, and their crews were not effectively protected against anything heavier than small-arms fire. All vehicles were open at the top and carried canvas covers for protection from weather during rest and transport."

"Due to weight and space constraints of these small chassis, Marder series were not fully armored. Weak armor protection was provided only for the front and sides. All Marder series had open tops. Some were issued with canvas tops to protect the crew from the elements."

Again, every armor resource that I have referenced has similar quotes as the above ones... so again I have no difficulty with the Marder being assigned a 2 defense.

Perhaps this all comes down to a difference of opinion - it is just a game - but I suppose what I'm struggling with is, what are all the parameters used to determine the defense factor of our armored vehicles? I cannot believe we would just leave things up in the air, at the whim of some random designer, for want of an actual system used to determine such values.

Bottom line - Either an original developer or someone in the know over at Matrix needs to weigh in on this thread and post the formula / method / system (whatever?) was (and is?) being utilized to generate unit combat factors (including defense factors)... or we can just keep "guessing" :whis:

I think that "dead horse" is starting to stink? :eek1: