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Part 1: An interview with Jason Williams and Daniel Tuseev, IL-2: Great Battles Series
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76.IAP-Blackbird, in IL-2 Series / Pacific Fighters / Cliffs of Dover: News
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By 76.IAP-Blackbird
Dev Blog №1
Well — here it is, this moment. We announce to you, dear friends, our new project and our new game world — "Korea. IL-2 Series." From now on and until the release of the game, we plan to publish developer diaries regularly and quite often, in which we will tell you in detail about most aspects of the new flight simulator. In this, the first, introductory entry, we will "go over the top" and outline the main features of the new project.
What is it about?
"Korea. IL-2" immerses the player in a virtual world that recreates the air battles in the skies over the Korean Peninsula from April 1951 to July 1953. Military operations during this time were concentrated in the northern part of the peninsula, and much was decided in the air. These events became a landmark in the history of aviation and military affairs: it was the swan song of propeller aviation (which played a very important role in the Korean War) and the rise of jet aviation. By the time of release, it is planned to recreate no less than 8 player-controlled aircraft — half of them will be jets and the other half will be piston-engined aircraft. The jets will be represented not only by the first "pioneers" of the new era, in which designers and pilots for the first time faced unknown challenges to their skills, but also by the powerful and efficient second-generation F-86A Sabre and MiG-15bis. Piston-engined aircraft will be the quintessence of the era — in the skies of Korea piston aviation enthusiasts will be able to fly the most powerful and efficient machines of this type in history: the F-51D Mustang and F4U Corsair and their Soviet opponents. One of them will be the Il-10 attack plane — where else but in a flight simulator about the Korean War could we pay tribute to the last attack plane of the famous Il-2 series? With improved aerodynamic contours, a more powerful engine, improved flight characteristics, still powerfully armed, and having an armored fuselage — in the hands of an experienced pilot it was a powerful machine.
Who is it about?
In the new project we are recreating the air forces of those countries whose pilots were most involved in the aerial battles: the USA, North Korea, the USSR and China. It is interesting that both the Soviet pilots and the Chinese People’s Volunteers participated under the legend that they were all flying North Korean planes — the identification marks of the USSR and China were painted over by the marks of the North Korean Air Force. In fact, there were air regiments in the command structure of the Soviet and Chinese armies, which will be reflected in the uniforms and equipment of the pilots and the language of radio communication. In the main game mode, the player will no longer be an ordinary pilot, concerned only with individual success in a series of combat missions — now the player will be a commander of an entire unit, and on his shoulders will rest not only the management of personnel, but also the planning of combat missions based on the situation and the management of the unit’s resources — the personnel and aircraft.
What's new?
The new game engine is even more different from Great Battles than Great Battles was from Rise of Flight. DirectX 12, Physically Based Rendering (PBR) technologies, new visualization systems for atmosphere, vegetation, graphical effects, integration of a new version of the sound API, a new GUI engine and design, an evolution of the aircraft simulation physics engine, including a new aerodynamics, systems operation and damage model, a new damage model for ground objects and ships, a new system of decision making and giving orders to AI pilots, a new radio communication system, and, of course, a new qualitative evolution of the main game mode — all this together makes a qualitative leap, not just an evolutionary step. It required a huge investment of effort and resources from us, because for the new technologies all models, effects, sounds, graphical interface — all this had to be created from scratch. In other words — this is not just "a new version of IL-2," no. "Korea. IL-2 Series" is a completely new version of the engine and has completely new content. What's next? Actually, we started the development of "Korea" in parallel with the development of "Great Battles" back in the summer of 2022, and most of the work has already been done. Now we are actively developing the graphical interface and game modes: the development of aircraft has already moved to the stage of creating cockpit models, while the map of Korea is in its final shape and we are already filling it with cities and airfields. The development of dozens of types of ground and sea objects is nearing completion, and the new technological base — engine and tools — is already ready. Most of the development path has been completed, all the parameters of the new project have been defined, and that’s why we can finally announce it with peace of mind and tell you about its features without making promises we weren’t sure we could keep. Thanks for your patience! We will try to keep you updated on what we have already created and how we are progressing during the development cycle until the release.
Dev Blog №1 (il2-korea.com)
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By 76.IAP-Blackbird
Dear Friends,
Today we'd like to tell you about the new Great War aircraft that are in development.
While transferring them from our classic project Rise of Flight to IL-2 Great Battles, we are fixing problems we found during this work - sometimes there are some asymmetric aerodynamic elements, a wrong object hierarchy, engine overheating/overcooling, and other similar problems.
For example, while working on the Airco DH.2 recently, we found problems - it had an invisible "ghost" stabilizer in the physical model, inconsistencies in drag values, and it was also missing its top speed - judging by the reference data, it was missing it by about 15 kph. Well, mistakes happen, and they will be corrected: the DH.2 in FC will have recalculated drag values, corrected handling, and an increased top speed. Soon the beta testers will try it out, and some additional changes may be in order after these tests.
Its AI will also be updated as it needs to be taught how to use its blip switch for taxiing (such early flying machines had no throttle and the engine always ran at full power - its pilot had to press and hold a blip switch button that cut the ignition when he wanted to slow down).
Another upcoming aircraft, the Sopwith Pup, also had some problems with its flight characteristics and engine, which are currently being corrected.
While working on Flying Circus aircraft, we are not only adding new features thanks to the IL-2 Great Battles engine but also fixing old problems whenever we get the chance. The new Flying Circus aircraft pack is scheduled for release this summer.
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By 76.IAP-Blackbird
Dear friends,
Today we'd like to inform you about the upcoming update 5.203. In this update, the AQMG (Advanced Quick Mission Generator) mode will be greatly expanded. New mission types will be added: glider towing to the Normandy and Rhineland maps and artillery spotting and balloon defense to the Western Front WWI map. But the most significant addition will be made to the detailed map of Prokhorovka.
Tank Crew will now have a completely new mode that wasn't available before - Ground Forces AQM. Just like its aerial counterpart, it will allow you to choose a specific mission type that will affect the composition and positions of your forces: Strongpoint Defense, Enemy Strongpoint Attack, Breakthrough, and Enemy Rear Area Attack. You'll be able to set an initial distance from the enemy (since ground vehicles are very slow compared to aircraft), the strength of your force, the enemy force, and air support.
Other changes in this update include the correction of the distance at which nearby aircraft can be heard, further updates to the Lightning Strikes, Havoc over the Kuban, and Hell Hawks over the Bulge campaigns, various minor improvements such as fixes to career progression, taxiing on certain airfields, mission generation, etc. The popular community-created campaigns Kerch-Eltigen Operation and Battle of the Hürtgenwald will be included in the game with the permission of their authors.
We also want to start a multiplayer-related competition today: submit your best in-game tracks of multiplayer action! You can show any action, plane, or tank, as long as it is interesting and recorded in multiplayer (if you already have a saved track that you love and it loads in the game, you can submit it as well). Tracks should be short, showing an interesting event and a few seconds before and after. Please submit your tracks by April 12th. Then we'll choose the best ones - their authors will be awarded Collector planes of their choice and we will create a multiplayer promo video using these tracks. Please post the links to your tracks here or in our Discord channel till the end of April 11th.
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