Well I assume warship designers are aware of the dangers but that hasn't stopped warships blowing up from magazine explosions on a regular basis. From the Napoleonic wars, to Tsushima, to Jutland and many engagements in WW2, including the loss of the Fus? in the last battleship action in history at the Surigao Strait. Remember the spectacular picture of HMS Antelope in the Falklands War? That was her magazine exploding due to damage caused by a 500lb bomb (after unsuccessful defusing attempts). So however much warship designers are aware of the dangers of magazine explosions and however much they would prefer they didn't happen, they plainly do happen on a very regular basis.
I'm not sure I would call it "a very regular basis". It was certainly a very tiny percentage of warships that had their magazines explode.
It's not by any means a very tiny percentage. I don't know why I keep continuing this discussion when you ignore the facts I present but I'll give it one more go. Restricting ourselves to capital ships as they were the most important, lets look at the major battles of WW1 and WW2
WW1Dogger Bank: 1 ship lost (German). 1 ship heavily damaged by a magazine explosion (Also German)
Jutland. 5 capital ships sunk (3 British and 2 German): 4 out of 5 lost to magazine explosions.
So in WW1, out of six capital ships lost in battleship actions, two thirds were lost to magazine explosions! (Blucher was really a large armoured cruiser so its actually 80%)
WW2 (lets look at German losses first)
Bismarck was battered to destruction - no apparent magazine explosion
Tirpitz was attacked several times but was eventually sunk by RAF Lancasters after a bomb started a fire that caused a magazine explosion and blew the C turret off the ship.
Battle of North Cape: Scharnhorst crippled by magazine explosion in A and B turrets and eventually sunk. No British losses
Gneisnau (sister ship of Scharnhorst) was severely damaged in a bombing raid when her magazine exploded (losing her entire bow). She took no further part in the war.
So of the four German battleships, three suffered magazine explosions.
British losses: Royal Oak - torpedoed by U-47. (From uboataces.com) "The resulting fire ignited the cordite magazine, causing it to go off with a fiery orange blast right up through the decks"
Hood - completely destroyed by magazine explosion. 3 survivors
Barham - torpedoed by U-331. Magazines exploded and she sank with loss of 2/3rd of her crew
Repulse - sunk by Japanese aircraft
Prince of Wales - same (both ships capsized due to damage from torpedoes)
So of the five british battleships lost, three suffered magazine explosions
Japanese lossesHiei - sunk by US aircraft
Kirishima - lost at Guadalcanal. No contemporary report of magazine explosion but when the wreck was found in 1992, the bow had been blown off.
Mutsu suffered a catastrophic magazine explosion and sank instantly
Yamashiro - sunk at Surigao Strait
Fuso - lost to magazine explosion at Surigao Strait
Musashi - sunk after repeated bomb and torpedo hits
Yamato - sunk en route to Okinawa. "At 14:23, having taken 10 torpedo and 7 bomb hits, Yamato's forward ammunition magazines detonated. The smoke from the explosion—over 4 miles (6.4 km) high—was seen 100 miles (160 km) away"
So the Japanese lost three battleships to magazine explosions, including the largest battleship ever built, and possibly four
US lossesThe only two permament (as in never refloated) US Battleships lost were Arizona and Oklahoma. Arizona was lost to a catastrophic magazine explosion
So rather than a tiny percentage, it appears that around half the battleships sunk in WW1 and WW2 suffered magazine explosion. I hope this finally squashes the myth that magazine explosions were a rare event and explains why I believe they are needed to maintain realism in Aurora. In so many games, from Starfire to SFB, you have to pound every ship to complete destruction. That is simply doesn't reflect the real world where many ships, including some of the most powerful ever built, were lost to sudden, catastrophic explosions. I really don't want to spend any more time on this when I should be testing v4.0 so this will have to be my final word on the subject.
Steve