Real Armor Mod Wiki/RAM Explained

Intro
RAM adds highly realistic armor and penetration modelling to Arma 3. The difference is dramatic. The game goes from an "arcade" version of armored warfare to one of the most detailed armor simulations publicly available.

P.S. A visit to this Glossary is suggested for new readers.

What's in Stock Arma 3
To BI's credit, Arma contains much of the groundwork for a detailed armor simulation. Without this original code working "under the hood", RAM would probably have been a futile effort. That being said, the game contains some glaring deficiencies; in the end, the mod does 10 times the amount of work to achieve a result that could be handled by a few simple code changes.

Limitations of RAM
There are weaknesses of Arma 3 which RAM does not attempt to correct because they are beyond the scope of the mod. Here are some examples, in rough order of importance:

AI
Vanilla Arma 3 AI is just barely capable of managing as an arcade-style FPS opponent. It's tactical capabilities are quite limited. RAM just makes this more evident. e.g.:
 * AI opponents have no awareness of armor and penetration zones. If AI units have what they consider to be an anti-tank weapon, they will fire it at a vehicle without any attempt to position themselves for an optimal shot (e.g. the flank or rear of a tank).
 * Arma does not model suppression. You cannot do things like suppress anti-tank infantry with artillery or direct fire.

Guided Weapons (e.g. ATGM's)
Arma 3's modeling of guided missiles is primitive and essentially undifferentiated. There is certainly no simulation of details like sensor physics, obscurants, misfires and duds, etc. (To be fair, such weaknesses are common even among "simulation" games).

High-Explosives
HE warheads are handled in a rather simplified fashion. The results are adequate if not terribly detailed, particularly when it comes to virtual HE 'penetration' vs. armored vehicles.

Differentiating KE Weapons
KE warhead penetration is not differentiated by type: small caliber AP uses the same 'physics' as large caliber shells. It means we don't go into things like how a piece of armor might be more vulnerable to long-rod sabot penetrators vs. standard AP rounds. We consider this acceptable as there is no reliable data on such properties anyway.