A major problem with mods that claim to be as realistic as possible is that they arent. Not even basic things like unit stats.

First problem, real life numbers.
Whats the true and effective armor thickness of a M1? What type of steel, what ingredients, how is it hardened. Dont get me started on compound armor. How effective is it against different types of ammunition, different angles, were there problems with quality and so on.

Second, represent that in W:EE
We have no clue what things will be modable. But in the end, W:EE will not be able to handle all mentioned above. One will have to abstract the complex model of a real tank to fit in the game e.g. front armor which is represented by one single number.

This will make the mod different from what we have now but not necessarily real or close to realistic

And thats for technical stuff, wait for humans to come into play like tank crew

@quigglebert
not sure about tank air conditioner but 900 - 1500 °C should make tank crew sweat

+1
But really you will have to wait for the AI in multi before it will be enjoyable as finding opponents for mods is hard. A mod community will not spring up before that.

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Yes. Hard numbers are hard to come by but there are plenty of non-classified data from different sources (like Janes) that can be put together for use. There are also a few commercial games that is being used by varies Army like Tacops 4 for their training which is about as close to realistic as you can get from non-classified source. I would rather play Tacops 4 than this except Tacops 4 mostly only have US units (a few Canadian and Australian) and I want to play with the German and British army.

depends on th transmission of the armour, as far as the several inches of steel, they might sweat but they'd be cool, buttoning up is prrof against all NCB threats so worst to worst their BV's would make tea faster

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When you are designing a war game about modern war, you have to accept that it will not reflect totally the reality. The real life is much more complex than any game can possibly hope perhaps to emulate in some degree of accuracy ... ( I think you understood the point ). It's just impossible to model all factors with precision (think only about the wind ...) . Some games have actually succeed to be quite close to reality, like Combat Mission, but it's far from perfect and penetration tables are perhaps a little to rigid in this particular game. It's probably easier when your game is about an holder era with weapons with unclassified characteristics.

When mod tools will be availlable, I think it will be possible to make a realistic mod. Some other games that were not that realistic have mods which are rather near of reality.

The "realism" in any sort of wargame will reflect the biases and prejudices of its designers, IMO.

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Total objectivity doesn't exist in real life, even in natural sciences. I remember reading a epistemological study which noted that professionnal researchers often ignore data that doesn't confirm what they tought the results would be.

As a student in history, I'm sensitive to that reality. When we write about some historical period, our works reflect our conceptions, but we try to be truthful and not to manipulate the facts. It's hard to do and we aren't always totally objective, but that's an integral part of this human science. The finding of the truth is an ever restarting quest and you have to look of on many points of view to start to see the truth. Often, young people who begin their history classes think that what they ear is simply the truth, but in fact, it's only what we think is the truth at this time. All sciences evolve over time and history is no exception.

So I completely agree with you, but it doesn't stop me to love realistic games. ^^

WRT to the original topic name, I'd love to see someone do a mod with the design principles and sensibilities of the tabletop miniatures game "Cold War Commander".

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I'm for an as close to reality as possible mod. Bear in mind that there always will be abstractions needed. Tracks can be lost at random, turret rings damaged and your tank stuck with having to turn itself in order to aim, etc...

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"Rocks are OP. Paper is fine" signed: Scissors

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.........just think also about what a computer can handle in real time ????? It's not only a problem of game design

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