Lite version with minimum of additional sounds, textures ect. to keep file size low

Changes in this version:

- code handling armor modeling and penetration calcs is enhanced. Only some simple but fundamental changes for this release:

The single armor value for whole tank, is split to separate turret and hull armor. Turret armor can be different than hull, also hit angle is calculated separately for turret and hull.

The table for penetration @ angle is thrown away and simple function is used instead (armor resistance at angle is calculated as:

armorfactor * 1/cos(angle)^1.6

It's just most simple function that can be used in today's game. More advanced armor modeling will be added in the future. Don't expect miracles any more - angling the tank can buy you an extra 30% of protection at best, as in real life. Not extra 300% as in original RO.

For turret and hull armor factors and for penetration tables real values are used, instead of abstract numbers used in RO. Then results are fine tuned to some degree to get historically correct results (some armor is angled, some can be of different quality, so armor factor can be different than simple armor thickness). For example Russian armor is of high hardness, this can cause worse pefrormance in T-34 hull (thin plates) or better performance in IS-2 turret (thick cast).
Exact values used in the mod will be published later, but as they are taken from real life you can just check the armor or penetration of the real tank/gun. The results should be also similar like in CMBB or SPWaW games. If you played them, you know what to expect.

Penetration now changes with range smoothly, not in steps. This mean that you'll get a bit more penetration from 10m than from 40m. Can be important for PTRD shooters, as it's penetration is now barely enough to kill early German tanks from side or rear and close range.

The penetration value is a little random, for each shot can vary from about 90% to 105% of table value, though most results should be within 95...103%.

The damage done by each penetrating shot is also not constant. Can vary from 30% to 150% of base value. Some times one shot will do the job, some times you will need 3 shots.

The speed of the projectile is restored to it's original value (slowed down 2 times in stock RO), after some testing this seem to not cause problems. We'll see.

- other changes:

Tank reload times are reduced to more credible values.

You can now exit to the tank's turret roof or engine deck, from commander's position. You can then ride on the tank or use it to enhance your field of view, or look above obstacles with binoculars.

The tracers of tank shells are smaller, harder to see and track. Combined with greater projectile speed, it makes gunnery distinctly harder than in stock RO. Setting the sight to correct range before shooting can really help now. Tracer colors are not changed yet.

More correct ammo loadings for main guns and MGs were estabilished and set, in most cases it means much more MG ammo than in stock game.

Tank turrets don't shake anymore with coaxial MG firing. And the fire spread is reduced, you can hit something even at longer ranges.

The tank commander's binocularas are made dual-magnification. Original zoom is 4.25x but the view trough computer binoculars is not as good as with real 4x binoculars in real life, because of monitor size/screen resolution limitations. The binocular's zoom could be increased, but the field of view would be reduced too, which is not good. So the original panoramic 4.25x zoom is retained, and second 8.5x detailed zoom is added. The second zoom is 2 times larger than default zoom, so the marks on binoc's scale are spaced 16 mils apart in 4.25x zoom, and 8 mils apart in the second 8.5x zoom level.

Same monitor size/screen resolution limitation refers to tank gun optics - in the game, a tank can be hardly seen at 1000m in a standard 2.5x zoom. This will be adressed in the future, we'll try to incrase the zoom as possible without reducing the field of view. At present, using the strengthened commander's binoculars to find targets and sense the shots can help (you can trace yous shells better trough binocs, than trough gun sight).

The damage of Panzerfaust rocket is increased a bit, don't try to shoot your feets or a tank 2m away anymore. The damage and radius of sachel charge is reduced too, now you better place it as close to tank as possible and better yet use two of them to kill a tank. But the modeling of those weapons is still bad, damage radius of fausts and sachels is same against tanks and people. Needs remodelling in the future.

Things NOT changed or adressed yet: Tank speed and acceleration. Separate commander's station. Better damage modeling with vehicle systems breakdowns and deaths of individual crew members (crew hitboxes). More realistic ammo and fuel hitboxes (still not changed currently). Better tank collision models (removing of those huge slabs over commander's hatches than are treated as turret armor). More advanced armor and penetration modeling (things like frontlower/frontupper/thickness/armor angle/true 3D hit angle/kinetic damage /thickness to diameter ratio/shot shatter). And many more. If something is still wrong and not fixed in this mod, it's probably planned. Remember it's only a first version, and a beta still.

In the meantime, have a nice play.

Ami