We all know premium ammo currently needs to be rebalanced for better or worse. What ive been pondering on for a while now is an overpenetration mechanic.
Here's the basics of the idea point by point:
-First of all, normalize the cost of all shells on every tank(Excluding spgs cause that's a different topic). Premium ammo is called that for a reason and it's literally just a way for wargaming to justify the purchase of premium time.
-The overpenetration mechanic would work as such that you would deal reduced damage if you use a round that simply cuts through the armor like butter. Let's say between 20%-40% reduced damage depending on how great the overpenetration is. Enough to make you actually think about what you are firing instead of just pouring a gold bar down your gun. For example, an E100 firing heat against an IS3: 180 effective armor vs 330 pen which means the effective pen used would be around 230 to guarantee the penetration, leaving 100 pen unused, 100/330 gives you a value of 30% of overpenetration meaning your shell would deal 30% less damage. Naturally, this value would have a cap of 40%~ reduced damage to maintain the game status of an arcade game. This is a primitive example and calculation of how it would work but I think it gives a solid idea of how to balance around it. With this change, the natural Rng dice roll of damage would be lowered to 10%/-10%, and possibly adding a maximal damage bonus if the penetration is within a perfect range, this bonus should never exceed the 10% increased damage state however.
-It would give a solid way to further express skill and knowledge of tanks beyond the current meta of firing nothing but gold past a certain tier. The armor changes never worked and it never will if you allow people to mindlessly press a key to go through most things that oppose you. Furthermore, it allows a certain new dynamic when dealing with undeniably OP tanks like the 279 and Chieftain.
Nowhere am I claiming that this is a fully-fledged and thought out suggestion of a rebalance but maybe it's going to put some gears into action in some key areas. Hope you enjoyed reading.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/sk00g2/premium_ammo_rebalance_shower_thoughts/