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Dear Pilots! Behold the mighty Typhoon Mk.Ib in action! Coming soon to Battle of Normandy! It is now in Beta and is scheduled for release in June. It's another beauty by our talented team. This beast is armed with 4 x 20 mm Hispano cannons and can carry multiple rockets like the RP-3 in HE and AP flavors or a pair of 250 lb. or 500 lb. bombs. The cockpit is another tubular framework popular with British designers of the period. It just looks angry with those rockets slung under the wings! The Typhoon Mk.Ib helped pave the way for the Allied invasion of Normandy and soldiered on throughout the war pounding German ground units at every opportunity. We will feature no less than 21 Typhoon squadrons in our Normandy career with 4 of them flyable initially. Jason has created another special poster. This time inspired by the beautiful emblems of Typhoon equipped squadrons. These emblems were created by our artwork partner (and newly minted rocket engine engineer) Isaac "SolidKreate" Chavira. Full Size Poster HERE. We hope you enjoy these screenshots. They were a blast to make. Also in the works for Normandy is the solid nose Junkers Ju 88 C-6 which will make for an interesting maritime patrol and ground attack aircraft. Is it as effective and versatile as the American A-20B has proven to be? We shall find out! And finally, we have built a big 380 mm gun that was known as the Todt Battery. In BON it will try, and in real life it really did try to pound the Allied invasion forces into oblivion. During the real invasion it stayed operational until late September 1944 when it was finally captured by Canadian troops. Check out this short video as we test its animations. In other important news - next week, we plan to make an announcement about some additional content we plan to add to the Great Battles series, we hope you will be happy. Stay tuned! See you in the sky and on the battlefield! The Sturmovik Team You can discuss this post HERE.

Hello everybody, Many of you ask us how is the development of the recently announced mobile AAA is going. The physical model of a wheeled vehicle is nearly complete while the visual model of the Soviet GAZ-MM with 72-K AA gun being developed by our partners at Digital Forms has made good progress. You can see the attention to detail on these screenshots, it's really a labor of love: You may wonder how fast the German half-track chassis can be developed since it is partly wheeled and partly tracked, but in our engine, the player controllable vehicles have a sophisticated module structure where a combination of various propulsion types is possible. We plan to start the implementation of the German AAA half truck soon. On the other hand, the AA gunsights are a new thing, but we hope to make them as functional as Tank Crew artillery sights. Meanwhile, we're working on updating all the existing aircraft in the sim with the new visual models of the crew. All the fighters were given the new pilot models where it was possible to do in a universal way previously, and now we're adding the new models to the planes where unique adjustments are required. In the coming update, you'll get the new pilot model for P-39L-1. More detailed pilot appearance aside, this also means that an American or British pilot will be displayed if a P-39 is set to one of the countries in the mission file. Also, our friend Martin =ICDP= Catney have created an additional RAF skin for this airplane. Another of the many questions we got recently after showing the video of the new terrain effect on the vehicles, is how the new detailed terrain roughness will affect the aircraft outside the prepared airfields when making an emergency landing for instance or taking off from a field (which is an even more difficult task naturally). We think the best answer would be another short video: Enjoy! The Sturmovik Team

Update 4.503 Dear friends, Less than two weeks (wink-wink) have passed since the previous update and we just released another - 4.503. It doesn't contain so many changes, but it adds a new aircraft to the Battle of Normandy Early Access - Bf 109 G-6 late. With the MW-50 injection system engaged, it was a formidable machine capable of confronting the Allied fighters of that time. Normandy map and Battle of Normandy Career are still in development according to the development plan, but you can already use the new addition in the Rheinland career - we've added it to the five groups that have been using this Bf 109 during the Rheinland career timeframe historically. Also in this update, 4K external texturing for the German heavy fighter Bf 110 G-2 (Battle of Kuban) is added. As with other updated planes, this change is a big visual improvement. There are several improvements for Tank Crew as well in anticipation of its official release. The full changelist follows: 1. German fighter Bf 109 G-6 Late is available for Battle of Normandy owners; 2. Bf 109 G-6 Late added to the following Rheinland Career mode (Battle of Bodenplatte) groups the player can join: I./JG 3, II./JG 11, III./JG 26, III./JG 27 and II./JG 77. It is also used by AI-controlled groups III./JG 1, III./JG 4, III./JG 53, I./JG 76 and III./JG 300; 3. German heavy fighter Bf 110 G-2 has 4K quality external textures created by Martin =ICDP= Catney; 4. Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M player controllable tank now has a lower armor plate under the rear overhang modeled; 5. All player controllable tanks now have bulkheads (made of regular steel) between the fighting and the engine compartments; 6. M4A2 tank commander animation corrected (due to an error he could be wounded by enemy MG fire when inside the tank); 7. AI-controlled ground vehicle tracks are resistant to combat damage similarly to player controllable vehicle tracks 8. Combat damage resistance has been corrected for several player controllable tank tracks; 9. The maximum speeds of the simple AI-controlled tanks now correspond to the detailed ones; 10. Tracked and wheeled vehicles move up the hills faster and more realistically; 11. Recently released Tank Coop missions were improved; 12. Tank gunner AI prefers APHE ammo when it estimates that the target armor can be penetrated with different ammo types at the current relative position; 13. Tank driver AI has been improved, resulting in less jerking while driving backward; 14. Oxygen mask breathing sound has been toned down a bit; 15. Bf 109 G-2, G-4, G-6, G-14 and K-4 wheels texturing has been improved; 16. Hurricane Mk.II compass now has fluorescent needles; 17. A rare issue with generating a new day in the Career mode has been addressed.

225 Dear friends, The Summer is in full swing and we're working on finishing the Bodenplatte project. P-51D, P-38J, B-25 and Tempest 3D models are nearing completion, their textures are being made right now. Today we can show you the cockpit of Hawker Tempest Mk.V: As we announced before, all Bodenplatte planes will have 4K external textures. Here are Bf 109 G-14 shots that show the texturing made by Martin =ICDP= Catney: In addition to the models, we're working on the important features like more detailed pilot's physiology effects. Fatigue caused by a high G stress, (in)ability to bail out and other such things. After that, we'll get to repairing, refueling and refitting the aircraft on the ground. At the moment we're moving to a newer FMOD version and our sound designer converts all the sounds to the newer sound engine. The main result of this work should be a fix of the disappearing sounds issue after playing for a while that was caused by having too many of them. We also started the research on making the aircraft and ships visible from several times farther distances. This task is very complex since it involves many various parts of the project - we can't make it at the cost of a significant performance loss in the graphics and network subsystems. The work on the Bodenplatte map is nearing completion and we'll be able to show you the screenshots showing the result of this tremendous work soon. This also means we started the work on the Career mode for it that will be called Battle of Rheinland. Starting on September 17th, 1944 and ending on April 1st, 1945, it will include several new mission types characteristic for this timeframe on the Western front. All the required information - squadron histories and emblems, pilot biographies, awards, news, etc. - was accumulated with the help from our community members and we're very grateful to those who participated in this task. Another important thing we must tell you is that American, British and German infantrymen models for Bodenplatte project are finished - they will man the guns, drive the vehicles and appear as airfield personnel. And here's the model of the Royal Air Force pilot for Summer of 1944: Now let's talk about other our projects. For Tank Crew, the next update will bring Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G that has autonomous electric turret turn mechanism for instance. And in September we plan to release the two scenario campaigns for Tank Crew - Breaking Point and Last Chance, telling about the fighting near Prokhorovka. Players will be able to participate in the battle from both sides. Today we can show you the title art for these campaigns that were created using in-game tank models and the screenshots of Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G in the sim. The next update is planned to include two - actually four - new aircraft for Flying Circus - Halberstadt CL.II, Halberstadt CL.IIau, Bristol Fighter F2 Falcon 2, Bristol Fighter F2 Falcon 3. After that, to complete this project we'll have to release Amiens-Arras-Lille map that will come with improved visual models for ground vehicles. Here are the screenshots of the coming planes: You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, While, as you know, we're working on several projects at once, today we'll tell you about our the current main one - Bodenplatte. The most important new tech we're developing for it is the FM improvement to take into account the air compressibility and its influence on the aircraft stability and handling that is noticeable at high speeds. The late war aircraft are a pinnacle of the piston engine technology and they can approach the sonic barrier, especially in a dive. And of course this new tech is paramount for our first jet - Messerschmitt Me.262 'Schwalbe'. You may have wandered will the new tech work for the existing aircraft released before - it certainly will, we always update all aircraft to take advantage of the new tech so they all have the same modeling fidelity. Meanwhile, our artists are working on several 3D models simultaneously (some are nearly complete and the work on others has just begun): Bf 109 K-4, Me 262 A-1, P-47D-28, Fw 190 D-9, Hawker Tempest Mk.V and P-51D-25. We also decided to improve the recently released Fw 190 A-8. It will be able to carry 1000 kg SC 1000 bombs with reduced ring stabilizers and "M8 Panzerblitz 1" HE rockets and you will be able to remove the nose-mounted 13 mm MG 131 machine guns, resulting in four different modifications of this plane: Fw 190 A-8 (fighter) Fw 190 A-8 Sturmjäger (better armoured interceptor) Fw 190 F-8 (attack plane) Fw 190 G-8 (fighter-bomber) So, while it may appear we have only one Fw 190 A-8 in the sim, in fact, you'll have 4 different modifications. This is also true for many other aircraft - in one of the coming Dev Blog releases we'll compile the complete list of aircraft including the possible modifications. Since the words are best followed with visuals, today we can show you the WIP screenshots of Messerschmitt Bf 109 K-4 'Kurfürst', Republic P-47D-28 'Thunderbolt' and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-9 'Langnasen-Dora': Our map designers also have something to show you today. In Dev Blog #193 we presented the early European map prototype. At the moment, th designers are working on the road network and settlements. The total amount of settlements will be around 300 including so many towns we have never modeled on one map before. To be able to finish this work in time while modeling the general layout of the cities and towns the special settlement block designer tool has been created. This is a small teaser, a Western European town made using this approach (this is not a particular historical town, but a test layout): You can discuss the news in this thread

Dear Pilots and Drivers! We start this Dev Blog with a somber reminder that 77 years ago, on June 22, 1941, German troops, under the control of the Nazi regime in Berlin, launched the largest invasion in the history of warfare. They crossed the Soviet Union border in a surprise blitzkrieg attack obliterating the non-aggression pact signed between Germany and the USSR. This escalation of WWII would forever change the history of the USSR and the rest of the world. Modern history still to this day is divided into 'before' and 'after' the war. The German war machine was powerful, effective, modern and technologically advanced. Its soldiers were highly motivated and exceptionally trained. Operation Barbarossa was planned by the best minds of the German general staff. The plan was for three army groups, 'North', 'Center' and 'South' to smash the USSR in just 5 months with the help of the cavalry of the new age - the air force. This outcome may have seemed inevitable if not for the tenacity of the Soviet people and military. Surprisingly for the German High Command, as Barbarossa rolled on and early victories showed Soviet unpreparedness, the Soviet resistance began to stiffen and harden with each passing day. The Soviets withstood the initial, most powerful impact of the enemy with grim determination. This determination and composure turned into a shield and spear that would eventually stop and kill the enemy. We all know the price of this victory - there was no family untouched by the war, countries were destroyed, cities turned to rubble, tens of millions of people killed and millions of children became orphans. The price was hideous and we can't forget it because our ancestors live in our memory. We hope such an event never happens again. This price wasn't paid in vain - the modern world as we know it comes from the great joint victory over Nazis. The victory which wasn't possible without the blood of the Soviet people, which begun on this day, June 22, 1941. This new project of ours - Tank Crew: Clash at Prokhorovka is our tribute to this memory. We tell about the machines of WWII and the fighting in the skies above its battlefields. And starting this year, we'll also tell you about the fighting on the ground. We'll begin with one of the most famous and critical battles of the war - the battle of Kursk. In 1943, the Wehrmacht gathered all available forces, which in 1943 were still considerable and far from defeated and attempted to turn the tide of the war after the setbacks in 1941 and 1942 in one coordinated all-out assault. It can't be said that this attempt was entirely hopeless, the German forces nearly broke through the last lines of defense, but the Red Army held and counterattacked. And with that, the final outcome of the war became clear. The symbol of that battle, of course, is the armored combat machines that defined the battlefield – TANKS! Tanks alone are little more than expensive metal heaps without their human crews. This project is dedicated to the crews who bravely went to battle in them. The action in Tank Crew: Clash at Prokhorovka will take place in 100x100 km area around Belgorod, including the place where the greatest tank battle of all time was waged, near Prokhorovka village. You can see that the map size is smaller than in our other projects, but we made it smaller on purpose to use our recently developed landscape detail scaling technology. This tech will make the landscape wireframe 16 times more detailed than our usual maps that are designed for aircraft engagements. While being smaller than our other maps, this map size is still unequal among tank sims. We don't do this just to boast about it either - the size of our map makes joint multiplayer with tanks and aircraft possible on the same multiplayer server. In addition to 16 times more detailed landscape, we also implemented the knock-over-trees tech which in some aspects is more advanced than in competing titles. The terrain texturing has also been improved to make creating believable settlements and villages possible. The settlements also required new tech advances because this project is focused on tanks, so we have implemented more detailed building damage modeling. Of course, we can’t get carried away, because populating all settlements and big towns with detailed damage model buildings won't be feasible from both development resources and sim performance standpoints. The bulk of the map will be populated like on the regular maps while the historically important areas where the major tank engagements happened will have the new detailed buildings. This will make ramming the buildings possible by the way. As you can imagine, the area of the Prokhorovka battle will be one of these highly detailed areas. The size of just this area is comparable to the full size of the map in some tank games. Now let's list the tanks that will be made for the project, it is called Tank Crew after all. There will be 10 armored vehicles and two Anti-Aircraft vehicles: 1. T-34-76 model 1943 2. KV-1s 3. M4A2 4. SU-122 5. SU-152 6. GAZ-MM + 72K 7. PzKpfw III Ausf.M 8. PzKpfw IV Ausf.G 9. PzKpfw V Ausf.D "Panther" 10. PzKpfw VI Ausf.H1 "Tiger" 11. Sd. Kfz. 184 "Ferdinand" 12. Sd. Kfz. 10 + Flak38 For this project, we performed historical research on the construction of these tanks and their equipment and weapons for exterior and interior 3D modeling and texturing. Part of our team is working on improving the engine, making the physical tank models and their damage modeling, creating the map and improving the user interface for the tank crews. We've managed to set up the joint workflow with our development partners so Tank Crew development doesn't affect the progress we're making on our other big project – Battle of Bodenplatte. We can tell you a bit about the gameplay already. The player will be able to occupy one of the four stations: - Tank commander - Driver - Gunner - Radioman/MG gunner The required support for drivable tanks and vehicles has been created in advance. All our customers should try the existing two tanks, T-34 and Pz. III. Now we're improving and expanding this support, and one of the most important directions of this improvement is making the damage model of the tank and its systems more detailed. We'll also improve the ground vehicle AI so it will be capable of controlling detailed tanks, the ones that human players control. This is required for single player - you'll be acting as part of tank squads or companies. For each side we plan to create a Scripted Campaign consisting of several missions connected with a single story, telling about the historical events of this battle. As we see things now, the Tank Commander role is shaping up to be the most interesting one - you'll be able to command your crew, give orders to your unit as a whole or any particular tank under your command. On Expert difficulty level, you'll do all this from your seat inside the tank relying only on the visual information which has been possible to obtain in real life. Players assuming the role of a driver will notice the realistic tank movement physics that includes the complex interaction of the tank tracks (or wheels for a car) with the ground, engine and transmission, resulting in realistic dynamic characteristics of a given tank or vehicle. Since we are not only a simulator, but also a game, it will be possible to control this complex dynamical model with simple input devices. The gunner will operate the realistic optical gun sight. We have performed significant research to model the ballistics of all the rounds used in these tanks. At the moment we plan that it will be possible to use 5 round types: AP, APHE, APCR, HEAT and HE (it's likely you know what these mean if you're interested in tank warfare). The types available will be historically accurate, for instance, the 76mm HEAT round was forbidden to use in 1943 because of the many cases of its premature bursting in the barrel, or there were no solid AP rounds for German guns, they used APHE. All MGs installed on the tanks will be accurately modeled as well. The Radioman/MG gunner will operate his MG most of the time but losing a radioman will prevent you from talking with other tanks of your unit. The loader will be also modeled, but he will be controlled by AI. We plan to start the Early Access program for Tank Crew: Clash at Prokhorovka as early as this July. Of course, we'll have only a small bit of the final product available at the start. The official release date is more than one year ahead in the future, but early adopters of Tank Crew will have something to play with: - Highly detailed (exterior and interior) KV-1s and PzKpfw VI Ausf.H1 "Tiger" tanks; - Nearly complete physics model of these tanks; - Detailed ballistics model for 50mm, 76mm and 88mm rounds; - Ability to occupy any tank station (tank commander functionality won't be ready, but you'll be able to take the commander seat); - Numerous improvements to other game functionality which will improve a ground vehicle gameplay. Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, but here is a bunch for several thousand words! You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, The time has come to tell you more about the historical timeframe of Battle of Bodenplatte. As we said in our previous Dev Blog #192, we're making all four different seasons for this map. Some might think that we'll model only 1-2 days of the actual Bodenplatte operation when the Luftwaffe made the all-out attack on the Allied airfields near Brussels and Antwerp. However, our “Battle of” series is much more than that! The Career mode for this new theatre of war will last from September 17th, 1944 to March 28th, 1945 – 188 days of war in total. Historically, 11 significant engagements took place in this area during the given timeframe. In the Career mode, you'll see your area of operations, mission types, acting air force units, their home airfields and other details that correspond to the historical data. You'll be flying in and around many famous operations and battles. Of course, we can’t model every skirmish or battle on the ground, but we will have an exciting Career spanning this later stage of the war when the Allies were fighting their way into Germany. Operation Market Garden (September 17 – 26, 1944) Battle of Aachen (October 2 – 21, 1944) Battle of the Scheldt (October 2 – November 8, 1944) Operation Queen (November 16 – December 15, 1944) Operation Watch on the Rhine (December 16 – 25, 1944) Allied Counter-Offensive (December 26, 1944 – January 25, 1945) Operation Bodenplatte (January 1, 1945) Operation Veritable (February 8 – March 10, 1945) Operation Clarion (February 22 – 23, 1945) Operation Grenade (February 23 – March 10, 1945) Operation Plunder (March 23 – 28, 1945) As said above, we won't be able to recreate these ground operations in super detail, but the overall situation, mission tasks, home airfields and mission targets will change as they should historically just as you experience with Stalingrad, Moscow and Kuban. This, along with the corresponding features of the Career mode like pilot biographies, squadron histories, newspaper articles, videos, squadron rosters, medals and rank progression will create an authentic experience of flying on the Western Front during the late war period. The whole timeframe will be divided into 5 chapters: Chapter 1: Fighting in Holland (September 17 – October 1, 1944) Chapter 2: Autumn Offensive (October 2 – December 15, 1944) Chapter 3: Battle of the Bulge (December 16 – 25, 1944) Chapter 4: Allied Counter-Offensive (December 26, 1944 – February 7, 1945) Chapter 5: Battle of the Rhine (February 8 – March 28, 1945) To create this new theatre of war, a thorough research will be done on where the units of both sides were based, their tasks and what aircraft they used day by day. Two new award systems for the US and Great Britain are to be created from scratch, as well as the late war pilot models for Luftwaffe, RAF and USAAF along with their chutes. The Newspaper articles is a huge task on their own and takes several months to complete. If you’d like to help with this contact Jason. We also plan on making additional mission types for this unique location and timeframe. All in all, this will be a lot of work for us, but progress is already being made. For example, we have finalized the map boundaries and the airfield locations. This map is bigger than we initially planned (flyable area is 401 x 324 km - it is 129.900 sq.km) and several compromises will have to be made to make it a reality. It will stretch us to the limit of what is possible in our development schedule, but as with our other maps it will be really cool when it’s done. You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, There are holidays at the beginning of May in Russia, but to this day we have managed to release the important 3.002 update and its hotfixes. Moreover, we have found a temporary solution for our Russian customers who were affected by the recent mass blocking of the Amazon IP addresses (we use its web services). While one part of the team has been working on the update, others have continued the development of our next big project - Bodenplatte. For instance, we have reached an important milestone in the development of the new map. Evgeny Isaev, our lead landscape and game world artist, has this to say: It's important to note that the new map will be special and different (once again!). The set development time limits force us to find the ways to optimize our work, simultaneously increasing the quality of the landscape. This means we ought to implement new design methods, namely using digital geodata (with required historical corrections) instead of drawing by hand. This way we can save time, but increase the accuracy of the resulting map. At the moment, we already have the map with height data, rivers and forests. The result is not final, but it required a lot of work already. Now we're working on the settlements. It is possible that we'll increase their number in the course of development, but we'll make the decision when we have the major towns and smaller settlements ready. The airfields list is ready and we have collected enough information to make them. In addition, we have a general concept of how we'll texture the landscape for different seasons, but we'll give it a bit more thought. It is said than one picture is worth a thousand words, how about fourteen: You can find it here https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/168-developer-diary/?page=5&tab=comments#comment-611219

Hello guys, after the release of 3.001 of Il2 Series, there is a good in depth review at Stormbirds. For all who is interested in an up to date and very detailed WW2 sim, should read it and maybe, try it out. I hope you guys enjoy the reading and if you have any comments or questions, just post them below. I will read them all. https://stormbirds.blog/2018/04/11/il-2-battle-of-kuban-in-depth-review/ Have fun and have a nice weekend

Hello everybody, After releasing 3.001 update and going wild with the celebration - having 5 work days in a week instead of 7 - we continue the further development. Thankfully, 3.001 release went ok and didn't require any urgent critical hotfixes, which is strange for such fundamental changes, to be honest. Anyway, at this moment we already have around 40 changes and enhancements we plan to release in the next 3-4 weeks. Graphics, Career, AI, multiplayer and some other stuff will be addressed. In parallel, we're developing the next big thing, Bodenplatte. The work on the map, buildings and its first planes has already started. We have a huge task in front of us, but we already got used to big plans and we know how to follow them. Soon we'll tell you about the other projects of IL-2 Great Battles series - the work is going on them as well. Meanwhile, today we can show you the first WIP screenshots of Spitfire F/LF Mk.IXe and Bf 109 G-14 fighters from Bodenplatte aircraft list - we're working on their 3D models and FMs. We plan to start the Bodenplatte Early Access program when they are ready. And here's some "insider's bonus" for you: You can discuss the news in this thread

Dear Friends, We are proud and excited to announce that the Battle of Kuban development cycle is completed and Battle of Kuban is officially released! As Producer of the Sturmovik product series it is always a pleasure to announce major milestones to the community and this one is very special. Battle of Kuban was a technical challenge from start to finish, but the team has once again proven why they are the best. When I took over as Producer I promised you a new and improved Sturmovik experience. A Sturmovik with a more hardcore feel with more classic flight-sim features for both single-player and multiplayer modes along with other touches that remind you of past Sturmovik titles while embracing new genre-leading technology. In the past 18 months we’ve done just that and transformed this generation of Sturmovik into a real leader. As you will see below, the amount of work that has gone into just version 3.001 is huge, not to mention ALL of the enhancements, improvements, fixes and content that was developed for Battle of Kuban and the engine as a whole during this cycle. Every department has worked hard to make this release special. This was months and months of hard work by an extremely talented and dedicated team who spent very long hours trying to make the vision I announced in fall 2016 a reality. If you are a fan of Sturmovik, either old or new, they deserve your continued support. Please tell your flight-sim friends about how much Sturmovik has improved with the Kuban release. Together, the Sturmovik line-up will continue to grow and thrive as our big announcement about Bodenplatte, Flying Circus and Tank Crews this past November shows. We have big plans, but we need your support to make them happen. We have no magic safety net. Your support allows us to expand our team and spend time clearing development bottlenecks or solving long stubborn issues. As with any major release, many compromises in scheduling and work-flow had to occur. Some features not in our original plan were added (new distant terrain rendering, new shadows, improved flight-models) and some were delayed (Air Marshall, Object Viewer) and some work took much longer than planned (Pilot Career, P-39). As a result, a few new features planned for the Kuban cycle have been pushed to this Spring and Summer and will be part of the Battle of Bodenplatte development cycle. Since our core engine powers all products it really is just one large development cycle. All we need is enough time, patience and support from you and all can become a reality Let this release be an example of our unending desire to make a better product and do the best job we can with our small team and limited resources. The team has worked a miracle here once again and made me very proud of them as I know my constant demands make their lives more difficult. Please think of them when you fly and enjoy Battle of Kuban. P.S. I hope to see some of you at the 2018 Flight-Sim Expo in Las Vegas, NV USA taking place June 9-10of this year. https://www.flightsimexpo.com/ Sincerely, Jason And without further delay, here is Daniel aka “Han” with the goodies you have been waiting for… From Daniel – Development Manager Hello Everybody, So, the day has come. Half a year has passed since the last update 2.012 which was, as you remember, quite large on its own and added many new features to the sim. But today the new 3.001 update, sets a new record for our project. We have never released so many additions of different types at once. Sure, it comes from the fact that much time has passed since the previous update. You may ask why it has taken so long - because two fundamental game parts were re-made almost completely. First of all, the old dynamic campaign is now replaced by the new Career. In this mode we have tried to create the best single-player experience we could. We’ve taken some elements from our Rise of Flight Career mode you may be familiar with and some from the Battle of Stalingrad campaign system and we added tons of new features and abilities along the way. This mode takes a WWII combat pilot experience to the next level and works in any theatre of war you own - Battle of Stalingrad, Battle of Moscow and Battle of Kuban. If you have all three, you can play through all of them with the same character, starting in the cold winter of 1941 and finishing in 1943 on the warm shores of the Black Sea. The AI has been significantly improved to function in this mode as well. It is important to note that we plan to develop it further improving it and adding new mission types and interesting gameplay features in the very near future. The second hugely improved part of the game is its core. The evolutionary development we started back in 2017 brings fruit right now in the 3.001 update. The biggest change is the increased rendering distance of course. But this fundamental change led to many other additions and corrections, you can read the change list below. Many of these changes were anticipated by the community while some will be a pleasant surprise. The cumulative result of these changes makes our graphics engine one of the best in the genre. Another important addition is the new Cooperative multiplayer mode. Together with the updated statistics system and other new features, it will give our customers who prefer multiplayer new exciting opportunities. And of course, the biggest chunk of the 3.001 update is the new content. Five new aircraft including two new Collector Planes and the new historical static campaign 'Sea Dragons'. Also included are many new aircraft skins, the ability to host a game server from within the game client without using the dedicated server executable, 'Mods On' mode and many others. It is difficult not to forget something in this short overview, so here goes the update 3.001 change list: New Content: 1. A-20B bomber is added to the project and all Battle of Kuban owners can fly it now; 2. Yak-7b series 36 fighter is added to the project and all Battle of Kuban owners can fly it now; 3. P-39L-1 fighter is added to the project and all Battle of Kuban owners can fly it now; 4. New Collectors Plane: Bf 109 G-6 fighter; 5. New Collectors Plane: La-5FN series 2; 6. New Career single-player mode replaces the old dynamic campaign; 7. The new Cooperative multiplayer mode is available along with the classic Dogfight; 8. New historical static campaign 'Sea Dragons' designed by Alexander -BlackSix- Timoshkov telling the story of an IL-2 mod. 1943 pilot is added to the project and all Battle of Kuban owners can play it now; 9. Now you can host a multiplayer server from within the game client and play on it yourself; 10. New 'Mods On' mode allows modifying the game files. Multiplayer server owners can allow or disallow players with the modified game files to connect; 11. Bf-109 G-6 Collector Plane comes with painstakingly researched paint schemes created by community enthusiasts III/JG2_Gustav05 and I./ZG1_Panzerbar; 12. La-5FN series 2 Collector Plane comes with painstakingly researched paint schemes created by the community enthusiast I./ZG1_Panzerbar; 13. IL-2 mod. 1943 now comes with all of its textures made in 4K quality (default and all official paint schemes, bump, specular and damage textures) created by the community enthusiast =BlackHellHound1=; Graphics: 14. Terrain visibility distance has been increased from 40 to 150 kilometers with Settings option; 15. New raindrops effect on the cockpit and pilot glasses; 16. Clouds visibility distance has been increased from 40 to 150 kilometers; 17. Heavy cumulus clouds were made more complex, some of the weather variations now have two level clouds; 18. Because of the increased rendering distance, cumulus cloud patterns were reworked for all weather types; 19. Fixed the issue where clouds could drop shadows on the mountains above them; 20. Cloud 'moving' effect when you fly very close to it has been minimized; 21. Large white horizon band has been removed thanks to the new rendering distance; 22. Skydome lighting has been made bluer; 23. Cirrus clouds rendering has been improved; 24. Winter lighting has been tuned for more contrast shadows with a slight blue hue; 25. Completely redone texturing of summer and autumn Stalingrad maps: overall steppe look was made more authentic, fields tiling has been removed; 26. Landscape texture flickering on the big and steep mountains has been eliminated; 27. Tree crowns drop more detailed shadows; 28. Landscape detail change with distance has been made less apparent on Ultra graphics preset; 29. There is a new graphics option that enables or disables 4K textures (when set to On, the game will use 4K textures if available); 30. Player controlled tanks use the new visual tech that simulates prismatic optical instruments; 31. Player controlled tank Panzer III now has a movable prismatic visor and armor hatches that can cover the view slits; 32. Main menu and aircraft settings hangar scene now has a different lighting; welding blinks and sounds were removed; 33. Player controlled tank T-34 now uses the new tech that allows very detailed tank tracks (it will be used for the Tank Crew vehicles); AI Aircraft and Game World: 34. Damage to large objects from small explosions now calculated more accurately; 35. Some trees (on tree-line, along with the roads, individual ones) can be toppled with a powerful impact; 36. AI pilots evade mountains and hills better; 37. Shallow dive ground attack procedure has been improved for cases with high initial aircraft altitude; 38. AI pilots evade ground objects during shallow dive ground attack procedure better; 39. AI pilots will follow the flight leader even if the wingman player decides to fly elsewhere; 40. AI Hs-129 B-2 takes off correctly; 41. Heavy loaded AI planes take off correctly; 42. All AI planes in the group attack targets if there are enough of them; 43. All AI planes in the group choose targets correctly and won't attack the same target if there are enough of them; 44. AI priorities during the ground attack were updated. Primary targets are AAA, then locomotives, then tanks, then artillery, then everything else. Targets closer to the center of the ground attack area have more priority; 45. Ships damage modeling has been improved, they are harder to destroy; 46. Large ships except tankers have simulated damage control; 47. AI groups taxi to a flight strip faster; 48. Parachutes are correctly modeled in multiplayer; Physics, Aircraft Systems and Models: 49. Yak-1 machinegun synchronizer C2K-19 has been replaced with C2K-26 that fires three rounds per one propeller revolution instead of one; 50. UB machineguns and ShVAK dispersion on Yak-1 fighters has been corrected using the newly found test data; 51. IL-2 canopies can be fixed in the open position; 52. Ultimate load factor calculations were updated for all aircraft; 53. 'Unbreakable' difficulty option now works correctly - an aircraft won't explode from a powerful impact when it is on; 54. The issue with He-111 engines having different initial throttle control positions after starting a mission in the air has been fixed; 55. IL-2 mod. 1943 instruments illumination works correctly now; 56. Compass locator on all aircraft now works only when powered and won't show strange readings when power is turned on or off or whenever a beacon signal is found or lost; 57. 'Unbreakable' difficulty option now works correctly for Bf-110, He-111, Ju-88, Ju-52, IL-2 and Pe-2; 58. 'Unbreakable' difficulty option now correctly turns flopped over MiG-3 and Hs-129 B2 back to normal position; 59. 'Unbreakable' difficulty option now turns flopped over planes back to normal position without excessive overload and won't cause shaking of aircraft laying on the ground with retracted landing gear; 60. An aircraft or its parts won't kick up a dust or snow hitting a runway or other hard surface; 61. An aircraft losing a small part won't display a debris cloud effect; 62. Damage model issue has been fixed (a fractured part won't break off when completely stationary); 63. Aircraft canopies now break off at correct places; 64. Jettisoned Bf-109 Е7 canopy now correctly adds drag, broken off parts have corrected aerodynamic characteristics; 65. Oil viscosity changes with temperature, causing an engine to be damaged faster when the maximum oil temperature is exceeded; 66. The control wheel of the R-7 constant speed governor rotates much slower according to reference data resulting in much slower propeller RPM switching (IL-2, MiG-3, Pe-2 series 87, Yak-1 series 69 and Yak-7b series 36 are affected); 67. Because of the slower propeller RPM switching on IL-2, MiG-3, Pe-2 series 87, Yak-1 series 69 and Yak-7b series 36, 'Engine auto control' difficulty option automatically lowers the propeller pitch if the landing gear is released and IAS is dropping (to make go-around during landing possible); 68. Ammo counters on Fw-190 A-3, Fw-190 A-5, Bf-110 G-2 and MC.202 ser. 8 were corrected; 69. Metal surfaces on P-40E-1, P-39L-1, A-20B and MC.202 series 8 now rendered differently for polished metal visual effect (others to come in the future); 70. IL-2 mod. 1943 visual damage effects were corrected so fractured parts won't appear hanging in the air; 71. Rear armored glass joints on Yak-1b series 127 now look better; 72. MG 15 reload handle position on Ju 52 has been corrected; Statistics System: 73. Remnants of the aircraft unlocking system in statistics are completely gone; 74. Statistics data in all game modes made more detailed with subcategories; 75. Statistics screen shows secondary objective status in all game modes; 76. Completed and failed objectives can be displayed on the flight map in all game modes if enabled by a mission designer; 77. Victory points are now calculated differently and don't depend on difficulty level; 78. All game modes now share the same flight status system. Point modifiers are changed in Dogfight mode; 79. Pilot capture by the enemy now works in all game modes (if a mission designer has set up the friendly and enemy territories using Influence Area instrument). Tank crews can't be captured; Multiplayer: 80. Multiplayer server options now don't depend on the difficulty level; 81. Player ban time can be specified in server options; 82. Players can view Dogfight statistics and vote for a ban in the lobby or during flight; 83. Dogfight servers now recognize Trigger Mission Objective conditions (completing Primary Objective grants a win to one of the teams while completing Secondary Objectives reduces the 'life points' of a team; User interface: 84. Mission route on the map made clearer; 85. Single mission lists made more convenient and compact; 86. Campaign designers can now block aircraft loadouts and modifications separately (previously it was possible to block them only simultaneously); 87. Many user interface elements made more compact; 88. New option added: user interface scaling (useful for monitors with high DPI); 89. Credits added to the main menu; 90. The game client won't hang anymore on the very first run during input devices initialization; 'Blazing Steppe' campaign: 91. The campaign has been updated to the current mission design standard; 92. Map tactical overlays are updated to be more detailed; 93. Waypoint following logic has been improved; 94. Take-off is counted when 30 meters altitude is reached instead of 200, making the take-off of large joint groups faster and reducing the possibility of skipping the first waypoint; 95. Text translations are updated. '10 Days of Autumn' campaign: 96. The campaign has been completely reworked; 97. Map tactical overlays are redone; 98. Waypoint following logic has been improved; 99. Take-off is counted when 30 meters altitude is reached instead of 200, making the take-off of large joint groups faster and reducing the possibility of skipping the first waypoint; 100. Skipping intermediate waypoints won't interfere with the mission progress and landing on the home airfield anymore; 101. Now there are more aircraft in the air at the same time in some missions, somewhat increasing the difficulty level; 102. Text translations are updated. Please discuss the update in this thread.

Hello everybody, Update 3.001 testing is progressing well: almost all the planned functionality is in and ready. We know that you'd like to hear an exact release date, but since this update is shaping up to be the biggest of all, it's hard to pinpoint an exact release date. Nevertheless, as we said before, we're doing our best to release this update before the end of Winter. Major tasks that still remain include P-39 cockpit texturing and completion of 25 Career mission types that will be included in the initial release (after it the work on the new mode will continue to increase the total number of the mission types to 40). Once again, this update is going to be the leader in terms of changes and additions - the change list includes more than 80 items already. Speaking of the further development, we'll start to disclose various details about it pretty soon. For now, we can say that the work on 3D models of P-47, Spitfire Mk.IXe and Bf 109 G-14 has already started while we're collecting reference documents on Tempest Mk.V. In the same time, we have started adapting the existing WWI aircraft FM for IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles engine for Flying Circus project. The work on Tank Crew is also progressing: new track assembly animation tech and increased height map detail are accompanied by the new detailed buildings destruction tech which will be used on 'Clash at Prokhorovka' map; the first two new 3D tank models are in the works as well. We'll tell you about them later, but they are heavies. To spice up today's diary, here are the official A-20B skins. Important note is that external textures of A-20B are made in 4K resolution: You can discuss the news in this thread