IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad News

Dear Friends,

1C Game Studios and Ugra Media are proud to announce our next Great War themed product – FLYING CIRCUS: VOLUME II!

It’s been over 100 years since the end of WWI, a conflict that shaped the modern world and killed tens of millions of people. It was an era that saw a new invention, the airplane, become a weapon of war. It also saw devastation like never before all along the vast Western Front in France. Trench warfare, artillery barrages, machine guns nests, and poison gas made ground combat an ugly, nasty affair. But above the brutal meatgrinder, a ballet of winged machines made largely of canvas and wood, piloted by knights for a new age, dueled to the death in a most personal way. Flying Circus: Volume II brings a renewed effort to recreate the WWI aerial battlefield on your PC and expand upon the work of Flying Circus: Volume I with a more diverse plane-set, a larger map and a Pilot Career mode.



This is one part of a new two-part plan to create not only FC2, but also FC3 with our partner Ugra Media. Completion of this new plan will make the first three volumes of Flying Circus an exhilarating combat flying experience that will usher in a new era of development for Great War titles and content.

Content

Flying Circus: Volume II will continue our long tradition of bringing WWI aerial warfare to your computer with an explosive plane-set that includes not only fighters, but bombers and recon aircraft. This will bring a more diverse range of missions available to the user. When combined with the existing plane-set from FC1 most of the aircraft that saw combat from 1917 to the end of the war in 1918 are represented. Flying Circus: Volume II is a big leap forward in aircraft, map and mission content setting up the Flying Circus range of products for an exciting future.

Flying Circus: Volume II Plane-set:

Spad 7.C1
Airco DH.4
Sopwith Triplane
Nieuport 28.C1
Breguet 14.B2
Handley Page 0-400
Pfalz D.XII
Fokker D.VIII
DFW C.V.
Gotha G.V.

We plan to have the first aircraft from FC2 flying into your Early-Access hangar by Spring 2021 with more aircraft from the plane-set released on a steady clip after that. The Phase II map will likely we ready near the end of 2021.

Flying Circus: Volume II Map

The map we will build for FC2 will be much larger than our FC1 map and will aim to re-create the huge Western Front battlefield we created in our original WWI title – Rise of Flight. Of course, this map will use our latest map technologies which is currently showcased in our Arras map of Flying Circus: Volume I. This new map will be built in two phases. Phase I which is the Arras Map, was the testbed for making a WWI map in the Sturmovik engine and has been completed. Phases II and III will expand that work to eventually, over two product dev cycles, complete the map. We plan to make multiple seasons for this map to allow maximum opportunities to fly in various weather conditions. Also, once the larger map is completed, we plan to offer it to FC1 users.



We have designed each map phase to match the plane-set for each volume and the battles those planes participated in. By time FC3 is complete, the map itself will be whole and an amazing canvas to fly and fight over.

For more information and the full text of this announcement, please visit the Official IL-2 Discussion Forum.

We here at 1CGS and our friends at Ugra Media hope you are as excited as we are to build Flying Circus: Volume II and we appreciate everyone who has purchased Volume I this past year making Volume II possible.

We also wish you the absolute best this Holiday Season to you, your family, your friends and our dedicated development partners all over the world. We appreciate all the support and encouragement during this most difficult year. We will continue to do the hard work of making our flight-sim and armor-sim products the best they can be in 2021.

Note: Flying Circus Volume II will be available on Steam just as soon as it is released. To stay informed on FC2 development, please visit the Official IL-2 Discussion Forum or watch for announcements right here on Steam.

We’ll see you over the Front!

The 1CGS and Ugra Media Teams

#267

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:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]











Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

#266

Dear Friends,

As you know, the long-awaited Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka was released officially recently. This is a very important milestone in the development of the IL-2 Great Battles series even if it has deviated from the aviation theme a bit. However, those of you who read our Dev Blog regularly know that the tank project development contributed to the aircraft features immensely. And while today's Dev Blog is dedicated to tanks, in the near future all the aircraft in the series will benefit from both things we'll tell you about (3-dimensional visualization of the terrain unevenness and graphics effects improvements).




First, though, we'd like to show you the new Tank Crew promotion trailer created by =HH=Pauk. It showcases the main features we focused on with our partner Digital Forms during the development - operations of the realistically looking and accurately modeled combat vehicles on the real terrain that were recreated according to historical documents of the Prokhorovka battle and the events immediately before and after it. Taking into account the two bundled historical campaigns, it is a massive historical reconstruction of the tank actions in that area. Here it goes:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]










It is well-known that we continue the improvement of our modules long after their official release dates, that's why we keep them in one 'package', so all the modules shared the newest benefits of the sim core. In the next update, you'll see the terrain roughness that previously was modeled physically and affected the tank movement is now visible and have a realistic size and layout. This also affects the aircraft in case of an emergency landing in a field. The second addition is the set of newly developed gunfire visual effects for the detailed tanks - their guns and machine guns. Before all the gunfire effects looked similar, but now they'll differ depending on the muzzle brake and the power of the gun. We plan to do the same for the aircraft guns of the planes in development and later on for the previously released ones. This video demonstrates the new effects better than many words can:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]










Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Attention Pilots!

The Annual Autumn Sale has begun right here on Steam! Save between 25% to 85% on most items. With the world still grappling with quarantines and lock-downs now is a great time to explore the Sturmovik universe in great depth by playing our Pilot Career or a Scripted Campaign or try your Tank Commander skills in our newly released Tan Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka or perhaps give multiplayer a try? There are so many gameplay options and something for every style of virtual pilot!

The Annual Autumn sale runs from 10:00am PST November 25th to 10:00am PST December 1st.

Battle of Stalingrad = 85% Off
Battle of Moscow = 75% Off
Battle of Kuban = 75% Off
Battle of Bodenplatte = 66% Off
Flying Circus: Volume I = 66% Off

Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka - 13% Off (Launch Discount Ends 11/27)
Hurricane MK.II - 25% Off (Launch Discount Ends 11/27)

La-5 Series 8 = 85%
Fw-190 A-3 = 85%
P-40E-1 = 85%
Mc.202 Series VIII = 85%
Hs-129.B2 = 85%
Spitfire Vb = 75%
Bf-109 G-6 = 75%
Yak-1b = 75%
U-2VS = 75%
Ju-52/3m = 75%
La-5FN = 75%
P-38J-25 = 66% Off
Fw-190 D-9 = 66% Off
Yak-9 = = 30% Off
Yak-9T = 30% Off
Blazing Steppe Campaign = 75% Off
Fortress on the Volga Campaign = 75% Off

https://store.steampowered.com/app/307960/IL2_Sturmovik_Battle_of_Stalingrad/

Cliffs of Dover - Blitz = 75% Off
Desert Wings - Tobruk - 25% Off

https://store.steampowered.com/app/754530/IL2_Sturmovik_Cliffs_of_Dover_Blitz_Edition/

All ROF Content = 75% Off

https://store.steampowered.com/app/244050/Rise_of_Flight_United/

See you in the skies!

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Attention Tankers and Pilots!

We are proud to announce that IL-2 Sturmovik: Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka is officially released! Take one of these armored beasts into combat in both single-player Campaigns and intense multiplayer action today! We've brought armored combat to the Great Battles series where tanks and aircraft seamlessly occupy the same battlefield in both single-player and multiplayer environments. Experience WWII from inside a massive armored machine that is impervious to machine-gun bullets, but not one well-placed cannon round or aerial bomb! 

We are also happy to announce that both Tank Crew and the Hurricane MK.II are now AVAILABLE on the STEAM platform starting today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1467120/IL2_Sturmovik_Tank_Crew__Clash_at_Prokhorovka/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1467121/IL2_Sturmovik_Hurricane_MkII_Collector_Plane/
Both Tank Crew and Hurricane MK.II on Steam include a Launch Discount for the next 7 days!  







Hurricane MK.II

The legendary British-built Hurricane came to fame during the Battle of Britain where it did the heavy lifting for the RAF in that pivotal battle. Unlike popular belief, it was the sturdy and more numerous Hurricane and not the sexier Spitfire that really made the difference. The Hurricane was built in large numbers and the Mk.II series was sent to all corners of the war to fly and fight, including the Eastern Front where the Soviet VVS put them to good use in several sectors. The Hurricane Mk.II saw action over the sands of North Africa, the ports of Malta, the jungles of the Far East and protected convoys in the Atlantic. Hurricanes even saw action over Leningrad, Murmansk and many other battles over the vast Russian steppe. It was a true WWII legend and workhorse.

The Hurricane Mk.II series which consisted of the a, b, c and d variants was outfitted with a few different armament configurations. This included either the 12 x .303 machine guns in the wings or 4 x 20mm Hispano cannons also fitted in the wings. Many of the Mk.II’s were of the “Hurribomber” variety with wing racks for 250lb or 500lb bombs. One later variant could also carry two 40mm cannons for anti-armor duty. 





See you in the skies and on the battlefield!

The Sturmovik Team