Protection

[Enguzrad]

Some of you may know about the Protection stat in the Vehicles.txt file. It is not shown in the game, but every vehicle got some value of protection. Does actually anyone know what it does?

At first I thought it might have something to do with how much damage driver takes from incoming fire. I tested it and it is not true.
Then I thought maybe it affects the chance to get sniped out with Soporific ammunition. Testing seems to prove otherwise.
Not to mention that even Behemoth chassis has a value of protection, even though it can't have a driver. So It probably has nothing to do with drivers.

But what it does then? Is that value even used?

[Morgan]

Well, I don't know what it could be. However, it's not the first thing we can't understand in OW's files. Maybe some of these unknown things were planned to be developed but then canceled as they released the game urgently.

[Antitheus]

AOE damage? Mines? If, like Morgan said, it does something at all.

[Enguzrad]

AOE damage? Mines? If, like Morgan said, it does something at all.

I thought about damage from AoE too, but that would mean that buildings should have that statistic too. Same would logicaly apply to mines (not that everything in OW makes sense).
It should be something specific to vehicles, but god knows what it is...

Right now I would say it just does nothing. That's why I tried to ask.

[Szymiew]

Protection from Siberite radiation maybe?

[Enguzrad]

Protection from Siberite radiation maybe?

Tried that one too. Nope.
Looks like it behaves like a normal attack would, so it's affected by defense. Protection again does nothing.

[Enguzrad]

So I just heard that protection was actually commented out in the older versions of the game. So it really does nothing.

[Jakskomiksu]

At first I thought it might have something to do with how much damage driver takes from incoming fire. I tested it and it is not true.
Then I thought maybe it affects the chance to get sniped out with Soporific ammunition. Testing seems to prove otherwise.
Not to mention that even Behemoth chassis has a value of protection, even though it can't have a driver. So It probably has nothing to do with drivers.

The protection stat. does work and always did. The major thing is that in non modified game it's really hard to spot the difference and understand the full algorythm.
It is the easiest to spot the difference with and without 'vechicle armor' in Ru02 mission - vs opponents bunkers.
It has always have been issue to properly balance dmg vs dmg mitigation in any game so i'd strongly suggest trying it out some more before putting it as some kind of mistake or 'fake/ empty property'.
Here is some of examples presented (only for snipers though): https://original-war.net/articles.php?a=personnel

Can't say i'm specialized in modding this game so far but i'll try to put a better example to the light.
Check out of the newest Sand of Siberia version and compare it to the dmg counting in the original game, then you will probably conclude (as i do) that it is much more close to the actual realism than before.