2021 Sturmovik Year in Review

[+76.IAP-Blackbird]

Dear Friends,

 

I wanted to post this before the end of the year, but our schedule was too intense and time was short. I also wanted to post it during our New Year’s holiday break, but as was trying to finish this up, I was forced to do battle with a moderate form of COVID. Luckily, after a few really annoying days I am able to function again and get back to our yearly round up. So, without any further delay here it is, finally.

 

This was a very hard year for us, even more so than 2020 thanks to the prolonged pandemic and lingering half-open, half-closed nature of major cities and office environment coupled with our busy development schedule. In addition, we had several team members get sick and require time off, plus family members who got sick needed the attention of team members to aid in recovery. Also, doing remote work, which can have advantages, is not always ideal for our development work. Our office environment has always been one of our strengths where problems and discoveries can be easily shared and discussed much quicker and focus can be better maintained. Regardless we have continued our work and even with some aircraft delayed, our overall timeline for Battle of Normandy is on track. With each new product, we set more ambitious goals for ourselves and keep pushing what we are capable of as a team. Sometimes, these goals are easily reached and sometimes not. We promise to keep pushing in 2022 and beyond.

 

Let’s take a look at what we accomplished in 2021 shall we.

 

Q1

 

2021 started off promising with worldwide vaccination drives and we all thought it would allow us to get back to a normal work environment and I could once again travel to Moscow to meet with the team in person. That didn’t really happen as planned, but work on IL-2 continued and we were able to do the following in Q1.

 

In February we released update 4.506. Highlights include:

 

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In February we released update 4.506. Highlights include:

 

- German fighter/bomber Fw 190 A-6 is now available to all Battle of Normandy owners

- Fw 190 A-6 added to Rhineland Career mode (to the 1st and 2nd chapters to joinable squadrons III./JG 11, I./JG 26 and II./JG 26 and to all chapters to AI squadrons III./KG 51 and NSGr. 20)

- Bf 109 E-7 got 4K quality external textures by Martin =ICDP= Catney

- New truck variations (which look exactly like the regular ones) that are loaded with ammo and explode when attacked in a spectacular way

- Many cockpit texture improvements by Chiawei =Oyster_KAI= Liang
- AI improvements

- Improved explosion effects

 

    

 

Q2

 

The second quarter was a busy one for Sturmovik as we released two major updates - 4.601 in April and 4.602 in June. These updates brought several new planes and vehicles to BON and Flying Circus and even brought our first Collector Vehicle to market!

 

Some highlights from 4.601 and 4.602 include:

 

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Q3

 

Autumn 2021 saw two more updates that really boosted Flying Circus II content with 3 new planes and we released our mobile German Flak half-track. If you look through the highlights below, you’ll notice a lot of rather small, but important changes. Such details are important for our sim, but they take time and require research. Also notice our unique pilot fatigue modeling that makes dogfights and combat feel more real and less superhuman. Imagine being a young kid flying one of these machines and the physicality it took to be successful as a fighter pilot. It wasn’t always just about the performance of the aircraft like we seem to focus on in the sim. The human factor played a larger role in real life.

 

4.603 and 4.604

 

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Q4

 

The push was on to finish the year strong even though our fabulous twin-engine aircraft for Normandy had developed slower than planned. So, we focused on adding the AQMG and New Clouds to IL-2 as fast as we could. Update 4.605 came in October and updates 4.701 and 4.702 hit in December wrapping up the year.

 

Updates 4.605, 4.701 and 4.702 includes these great additions and much more.

 

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Special Thanks

 

As is always the case, we cannot do what we do without the support of talent individuals that help us improve the simulation. Sometimes they help in small ways and sometimes in big ways, but it all adds up to make users enjoy Sturmovik that much more. This is in incomplete list and I’m likely to forget someone, but we want to say special thanks to ICDP, Raptorattacker, LukeFF, SYN_Vander, Jaegermeister, Oyster_Kai, Requiem, SYN_Haashashin, Pat_Wilson, MisterSmith, ShamrockFive, Gambit21, Haluter, BlackHellHound1, Rowdyb00t, SolidKreate, ROEN911, Juri_JS, PatCartier, Obelix, E69_Cananas, J2_Trupobaw, namhee2, SCG_Fenris_Wolf, LF_Gallahad, Mr. Black Dog and all our Beta Testers and anyone else who pitched in to help us this past year in any capacity!

 

Also, we want to say thanks to our professional development partners Ugra Media, DigitalForms, Michael Luchin & Team and Ivan Shirshov who are doing a great job expanding the Great Battles series!

 

Plans for 2022

 

So, what’s in store for 2022? Lots of things! Our main goals are to release BON and FCII by the summertime and work to release the Collector Planes and Tanks we have previously announced. As we do that, we will begin planning for future titles and continue to try and beef up our personnel so we can have better options then we’ve had previously for parallel development and new technology.

 

You can check out the list of the content we previously announced and what their status currently is. There is much new content coming in 2022 along with some new features and usability improvements that we will share in our Developer Diaries.

 

Fokker D.VIII - Released in 2021
Spad 7 150hp -  Released in 2021
Spitfire Mk.XIV - Released in 2021
Fw-190 A-6 - Released in 2021
Nieuport 28.C1 - Released in 2021
Spad 7 180hp - Released in 2021
GAZ-MM 72-K - Released in 2021
Sd. Kfz. 10/5 + Flak38 - Released in 2021
Typhoon Mk.Ib - Released in 2021
P-51B/C - - Released in 2021
Pfalz D.XII - Released in 2021
Breguet 14.B2 - Released in 2021
DFW C.V. - Released in 2021
Airco DH.4 - Released in 2021

Western Front WWI Map – Scheduled for Q1 2022, might slip to Q2 if quality issues. (Made by Ugra Media)
Normandy Map - Scheduled for Q2 2022
Sopwith Triplane – Scheduled for Q1 2022
Ju 88 C-6 – Scheduled for Q1 2022
Handley Page 0-400 – Scheduled for late Q1 2022
Gotha G.V – Coming in Q1 2022
C-47A – Scheduled for Q2 2022 (Made by Ugra Media)
B-26 (AI) – Scheduled for late Q1 2022
V-1 Cruise Missile – Scheduled for Q2 2022 (new engineering needed to make this to launch and fly right)
Ar-234 – Scheduled for Q2 2022
Mosquito FB Mk.VI – Scheduled for Q2 2022
Me-410 – Scheduled for Q2 2022
IAR – 80/81 – Second half of 2022 (Made by Ivan Shirshov)
Churchill Mk.IV Tank – Summer 2022
Stug III Mobile Assault Gun – Summer 2022
Siemens & Schuckert D.IV – Scheduled for 2022 (Made by Ugra Media)
Sopwith Snipe – Scheduled for 2022 (Made by Ugra Media)
Li-2 – After C-47 (Made by Ugra Media)
 

Thanks again to all of your support in 2021 and for your continued support in 2022!!

 

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by 76.IAP-Blackbird

[TeargasHorse]

I've been playing IL-2 since the first version came out in 2001. The effort at content and graphics, aircraft all of it is outstanding and I can't wait to see more. I was thinking as I started reading the article was "man, I hope they add the B-26 and 4 engine bombers. Well, I see the AI B-26 so I'm sure a flyable model will come in time. I really hope 2022 brings all the struggle with the sickness to an end (I have it now too) so that we can all feel better. Keep up the great work, and all of our spirits will follow!

[Dutch_P47M]

Because swapping from a GTX1080 to an RTX3070 did give me the opportunity  to give it a retry, after an absence from nearly one year. Sorry to say but the WW1 game made by Uglymedia is still a cheap RoF swapjob, fuzzy looking and in VR a weird 3D cockpit look (this is not counting for the WW2 plane sets), while at the highest graphical settings it’s still a VR-shimmer festival and seeing trees doing pirouettes. On the other hand clouds are a great improvement for VR  users. 

Pity because there are a lots of  Nvidia stuff and injectors for VR that can really be helpfully. After more then 20y of only combat flysims (mainly WW1) I went to VR race sims and here you see a much better VR implementation. Even the old Assetto Corsa, is with Content Manager/SOL  from modders, up to date in graphical eye candy.  1C should not neglect the VR users. 

But who knows time will solve this, as an outsider like Asobo or a combat flysim studio is using the FS2020 game engine or like  Assetto Corsa Competizone the Unreal game engine.