IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad News

Attention Pilots!

It is our pleasure to announce some new Collector Planes for the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles series! We are still waist deep in Battle of Normandy and Flying Circus Vol. II development, but we have decided to push on with our partner Ugra Media and bring you a few more iconic and important aircraft! The following planes have long been discussed as possible projects or desired by community members and now we are able to make the commitment to build them. So, without further delay here they are. You can read the FULL ANNOUNCEMENT HERE on the IL-2 Official Discussion Forum.

- C-47A Skytrain

- Lisouov Li-2 (Soviet version of the DC-3/C-47)

- Sopwith Snipe 7.F1

- Siemens-Schuckert D.IV

First, let’s cover the C-47A. We already have the C-47A as an AI piloted aircraft in Great Battles. Many of you have requested that we make a cockpit for it and make it flyable, so we are. This will give the Americans and British a cargo plane, much like the Ju-52 on the German side. The Ju52 has been a good seller for us and a unique experience for fans of IL-2. We want to do the same with the C-47. The C-47 is the military version of the venerable Douglas DC-3 which first took flight in the 1930’s and served all over the world during WWII and very far beyond. Most notably it was the main troop transport for American and British paratroopers during the invasion of Normandy. As you have seen in an earlier Developer Diary, we have already built some awesome looking U.S. Army paratroopers that will jump from C-47s in BON. We are also making British paratrooper models as well., but they are not ready to be shown yet. The C-47 will provide a great new way to fly for the Allies.



Second, let’s talk briefly about the Lisunov Li-2. The Li-2 was a license-built Soviet version of the DC-3/C-47. It served bravely over the Eastern Front with the VVS and was even used as a bomber by the Soviets. Although it is seemingly identical to the C-47 it does have several differences, so extra work is needed to convert our C-47 into an Li-2. Our partners Ugra Media will begin this work once the C-47 cockpit is well in-hand. The Li-2 had different engines and cowlings, different instruments, a different cargo door and other small changes. Some also had a dorsal mounted gun turret for self-defense. The Li-2 will be a welcome addition to our Eastern Front themed titles. We will offer the Li-2 for Pre-Order as soon as work has officially begun in earnest.



The C-47/Li-2 holds a special place for us because it represents cooperation between the old Soviet Union and the USA, which for a team of Russian developers and an American producer is a historical metaphor for our own team.

Next, we will also partner with Ugra Media to create the British-built Sopwith Snipe 7.F1 fighter. The Snipe was a late entrant into the Great War, only coming to front-line service in the Summer of 1918. However, it was a successful aircraft and helped the Entente fight off the of the terrific late-war German designs in the final months and weeks of the war. The Snipe will be the first truly new WWI aircraft we committed to in a long time and this will bring a new combat experience to Flying Circus Volumes II and III. Pre-orders will be available once the Snipe has entered production.



Finally, Ugra Media will build a late-war German fighter as well – that being the Siemens-Schuckert D.IV. Like the Snipe it entered the war late, but was a terrific design and will be a deadly opponent for the Snipe and other Entente fighters. This plane will be a challenge to make as references are tough to come by and we don’t believe any original examples survive today. However, we love a good challenge and plan to make this bird take flight just like all the rest. It’s interesting to see the similarities of the Snipe and SS.DIV designs with their compact bodies which we would image makes them quite maneuverable. When work begins, we will give you a change to pre-order the SS.DIV.



All of these new planes do not have an impact on current development timelines for BON or FC2 and FC3 as we have been planning to make these aircraft for a while. We will work once again with our long-time partner Ugra Media to bring them to life in another team effort, much like we did for the famous U-2VS.

We hope you enjoyed hearing this news and we look forward to bringing these fantastic aircraft to the Great Battles series!

See you in the skies!

The Sturmovik Team and Ugra Media

281

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. Our community is full of amazing people.



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.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]










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

280

Dear Friends!

Today’s DD is pretty straightforward, we’d simply like to show you some shots of content that we have in the works for both Battle of Normandy and Flying Circus: Volume II.

First, we have multiple renders of new objects, vehicles and ships that are being created by a development partner of ours. They are coming along nicely as you can see. They will be fully integrated into the engine very soon.







Next, we have the first shots of the Fokker D.VIII which is development by our friends at Ugra Media. This awesome high-winged monoplane will grace your installs next month assuming everything goes to plan. We plan to release it along with the Typhoon Mk.Ib (which we showed in a DD269) in our next update, which should happen by mid-June. Again, assuming final preparations go well.



Also, our great friend Luke 'Requiem' Campbell has created a very helpful video on how to operate the GAZ-MM 72-K and improve your accuracy when shooting at planes and vehicles. Check it out! Thank you to Requiem for making another great training video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8E5CzRMXRE
Additionally, we have added the GAZ-MM 72-K to our Steam store today where it along with the official webstore will have it on discount for another week. You can pick it up here.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1622750/IL2_Sturmovik_GAZMM_72K_AntiAircraft_Gun/

All other work continues and our efforts to expand the team a bit so we can finish Normandy as planned continues. Stay tuned to our DDs all spring and summer long as we continue to build out BON and FC2!

See you in the skies!

The Sturmovik Team

Update 4.601

Dear Friends,

Our team is proud to tell you that the work on update 4.601 is finished and it is up already. This update brings you three new toys at once. The first one of them is Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XIV Collectors Plane (included in Battle of Normandy Early Access). This late model of the legendary fighter has great fighting capabilities while retaining its captivating charisma. It has several historical modifications that make the Spitfire family in our project even more variable.



The second one is a new Collector Vehicle - Soviet self-propelled AAA - 25-mm 72-K gun installed on GAZ-MM chassis. Recreated with attention to detail, this vehicle is a new object class in our project. The experience you'll get operating it is unique - the life of the low-caliber AAA crews in World War II wasn't an easy one. It comes with a special mission type in QMB mode and new single missions.

NOTE: The GAZ-MM 72-K will be coming to Steam store in the coming days!



The third one is the first airplane of the Flying Circus Vol. 2 - French-made single-seat fighter Nieuport 28.C1 that was exclusively used in US squadrons. This speedy plane with good weaponry for its time was used by the most famous US fighter ace of the Great War - Eddy Rickenbacker. This aircraft had a unique way of regulating the rotative engine power by ignition breaker. All in all, an interesting machine - and it officially starts Flying Circus Vol. 2 Early Access program.



Also in this update are two very important new technologies, one of which is tactical numbers that can be customized before the mission. At the moment, it fully works on all Tank Crew tanks thanks to our partners at Digital Forms. P-51D-15 also got this capability for USAAF and RAF (it depends on the aircraft country specified in a mission) and it works on Nieuport 28.C1 too. Later this year we plan to enable it for all other aircraft (it takes a lot of work).



The second new technology is Dynamic Visual Damage (DVD) that visualizes the hit marks from various projectiles on aircraft and tanks. Please note that is a visual tech that is intended to make the battle damage more vivid. In the absolute majority of cases, the DVD hit marks will properly show the impacts, but there are limitations caused by multiplayer and performance that in some cases can make them inaccurate - the good level of performance is always our priority. Nevertheless, this new feature should greatly increase the damage diversity. Just like tactical numbers, this new tech already works on all Tank Crew tanks and P-51D-15 and Nieuport 28.C1 planes. Again, we plan to enable it for all other 60+ aircraft this year.



Also in this version is a huge update of the graphical effects. This isn't an easy task to do since we not only have to make them look awesome but retain the level of performance. This time we have all-new explosion effects for all HE munitions in the sim with increased variety - now there are clearly visible differences between, say, 50 and 100, 250 and 500, 1000 and 2500 kg bombs. The water explosions became much better and the explosions better light the surroundings.



Martin =ICDP= Catney updated a lot of the external textures he made for us and this time two of the previously released aircraft were updated to 4K - Macchi MC 202 Folgore Collector Plane and Ju 88 A-4 bomber (Battle of Moscow). Please note that soon all the aircraft in our project will have 4K quality external textures. Oyster_KAI continued his work on improving the tremendous amount of aircraft cockpits, namely all Spitfires, Bf 109s, Bf 110s, Ju 87, Ju 88 and U-2VS. All the text above is just the highlights of the new update, you can read the changelist below:


Main Features:

1. Spitfire Mk.XIV Collector Plane is available to all owners of Battle of Normandy Premium Edition;
2. Nieuport 28.C1 is available to all owners of Flying Circus Vol. 2 and the Early Access program for Vol. 2 officially starts;
3. 25 mm 72-К AA gun on GAZ-MM truck is available to customers who prepurchased it;
4. New special mission type for QMB mode and 5 single missions added for AAA guns;
5. Dynamic Visual Damage (DVD) technology is added to the sim, that shows (with some limitations) the hit marks of projectiles on various objects. At the moment it works for all detailed tanks of Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka, 72-K GAZ-MM AAA, P-51D-15 fighter, and Nieuport 28.C1 airplane;
6. Dynamic tactical markings technology is added to the sim, allowing to customize the tactical numbers on aircraft and vehicles. At the moment it works for all detailed tanks of Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka, 72-K GAZ-MM AAA, P-51D-15 fighter, and Nieuport 28.C1 airplane;
7. More detailed railyards added to 19 cities on the Rhineland map (Bodenplatte): Antwerp, Liege, Mainz, Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne, Duisburg, Brussels, Charleroi, Düsseldorf, Munster, Koblenz, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Nijmegen, Essen, Enschede, Hengelo, Osnabrück;
8. Completely new graphical effects are added for all munitions in the game for ground, water and object impacts and for midair explosions;
9. All F, G and K series Bf 109 fighters got the corrected tail models. Now the sturdiness of their elements are on par with the rest of the fighters and these elements can be shot off individually;
10. 4K quality external texturing added for MC.202 fighter and Ju 88 bomber while all Spitfires, Bf 109s, Bf 110s, Ju 87, Ju 88 and U-2VS cockpits were updated;

Aircraft Improvements:

11. Spitfire Mk.XIV added to Rhineland Career mode (Bodenplatte) to the following squadrons the player can join: No. 41 Squadron RAF, No. 130 Squadron RAF, No. 350 (Belgian) Squadron RAF, No. 402 Squadron RCAF and No. 610 Squadron RAF.
12. The player flight takes off correctly in the 15th mission of the “Achtung Spitfire!” campaign;
13. An issue that could cause a AI fighter to approach to an air target too close and potentially to collide with it has been corrected;
14. AI fighter correctly attack balloons;
15. AI pilots aiming the MGs and guns at ground targets has been corrected;
16. Less experienced AI pilots engage the ground targets at closer distances;
17. Flying Circus aircraft visibility at large distances has been corrected to correspond to other aircraft in the game (it was 3 times lower);
18. Fuel tank and ammo explosion effects can be observed on other players in multiplayer;
19. An issue with potential fuel tank catastrophic detonation in case of engine(s) fire has been corrected;
20. The power of a fuel tank explosion now depends on the actual amount of ignited fuel or fuel vapors in a partially spent fuel tank;
21. Modeling of the putting out the fuel tank fire by sideslipping the aircraft at high speed has been improved;
22. Multiple ammo storage explosions are now possible (previously it could happen only once);
23. Maximum ATA near the ground level with C3 injection system on Fw-190 A5/A6 has been corrected (increased);
24. Roll shaking at high speed corrected for AI or mouse controlled Sopwith Dolphin;
25. A visual bar on the rotating Fw 190 A-6 spinner removed;
26. Rear formation light corrected on Fw 190 A-6;
27. Fw 190 A-8 small clock hand restored;
28. Added missing luminous paint on some Tempest, Spitfire Mk.IX, Bf 110 G-2 and Ju 52 instruments;
29. P-38 formation lights corrected;
30. Spitfire IX mirror position corrected;
31. Oil from the damaged engine on canopy effect corrected on P-51D-15;
32. A small visual issue corrected on MC.202 (attitude indicator tube);

Player Controlled Tanks Improvements:

33. All detailed tanks now have tactical numbers in Last Chance and Breaking Point tank campaigns;
34. Radio antennas on all Tank Crew detailed tanks can be damaged by enemy fire (in addition to damageable radio equipment that was modeled before);
35. Detailed tanks won't 'freeze in the air' after colliding with another object that was later moved;
36. AI gunners will properly burst fire the coaxial MGs of the detailed tanks;
37. An issue with the inability to hit the gun barrel on some tanks has been fixed;
38. Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M lower turret armor has been corrected;
39. The missing part of the Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M ammo reserve can be damaged by enemy fire;
40. T-34-76 UTZ (1943) coaxial MG can be damaged by enemy fire;
41. Additional external parts of Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.H1 like various covers and splashers can be shot off;
42. KV-1 and SU-152 splashers and rear deflector can be shot off;

Additional Improvements:

43. A graphics issue that caused z-fighting of the shadows on certain buildings in MSAA x4 mode has been corrected;
44. External objects like trees, buildings and aircraft drop visible shadows on the player aircraft or vehicle and its cockpit in non-VR mode;
45. Gamma can be lowered down to 0.5 for more comfort in VR mode;
46. A visible city blocks shadow 'border' at large distances has been minimized;
47. A visible city blocks fog 'border' at large distances has been minimized;
48. An issue with certain European buildings glowing in the night has been fixed;
49. A GUI issue that could cause the regiment symbols to disappear from the Career creation screen has been fixed;
50. A GUI issue that could cause the mission start coordinates to reset to 0 on the Career HQ screen;

51. Water explosions of large bombs have dedicated graphical effects;
52. 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000(1800) and 2500 kg bombs now have more diverse graphical explosion effects;
53. Soviet Tank Crew tanks headlamp lens, visor, and mirror textures have been improved;
54. The issues with pilots and tankers animations have been fixed in multiplayer;
55. The bomber group leader will correctly proceed to the next waypoint after dropping the bombs.

We hope you enjoy this update!

See you in the skies and on the battlefield!

The Sturmovik Team

DD 279

Dear Friends,

Work on our next update, which is version 4.6 continues as planned and should be released before the end of this month. This update will be a pretty big one with new content, some new features and lots of small tweaks as usual.

We also continue to make new airplanes and other models that will be incorporated into the sim this year and beyond. Work never slows down for us as you know. Today I’d like to share some screens of ongoing work that you’ll enjoy as we finalize the next update.

Here are some images that help demonstrate our DVD system for our tanks and AAA vehicles along with our Tactical Codes technology. DVD definitely adds another interesting layer to our damage modeling.





Work on the Normandy map is going strong and here you can see some towns that are taking shape. The terrain textures are not final and borrowed from the Rhineland map at the moment.



And here’s the terrible vengeance weapon that terrorized Great Britain for many months during the war - the Fieseler Fi 103 or simply the V-1 “Buzz Bomb”. The British sarcastically nicknamed it the “Doodlebug”, but there was nothing cute about them in reality. It was the world’s first jet powered cruise missile, and it was a deadly, dangerous weapon that fell from the sky at seemingly random locations with little or no warning. About 8,000 V-1s were launched against Britain with about 2,400 of them getting through the defenses. Over 6,000 people were killed and many thousands more wounded by them. Over 44,000 Allied sorties were flown to try and intercept them along with the flak batteries that tried desperately to knock them down. Truly a flying terror. You’ll be able to simulate intercepting them before they are able to strike their targets along the southern coast of England when the BON map is ready. They were also used against targets in France and Belgium in smaller numbers as the Allies advanced.



We also have added more railyards to BOBP cities and here is the current list that has increased to a total of 19. We apologize for not having pictures of them, but COVID has decided to interfere with this operation. Just a reminder that we are not totally out of the woods yet with the pandemic.

Antwerp
Liege
Mainz
Frankfurt
Bonn
Cologne
Disburg
Brussels
Charleroi
Dusseldorf
Munster
Koblenz
Eindhoven
Tillburg
Nijmegen
Essen
Enschede
Hengelo
Osnabruck



And before we end this DD, here are three new posters Jason has created featuring all three Spitfire variants found in Great Battles including the new Spitfire Mk. XIV. We hope you enjoy this artwork.



And of course, here are a few pics of the upcoming Spitfire Mk.XIV and Nieuport 28.





Enjoy your weekend everyone and stay safe!

The Sturmovik Team