IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad News

Hello everyone!

As time goes on, the release date for the next update is approaching. As we said earlier, one of the central objects of this update will be a German tank destroyer - a self-propelled artillery Sd.Kfz.184 "Ferdinand". As many of you know, this monster was the result of the loss of Ferdinand Porsche in the competition for the creation of a heavy breakthrough tank for the Wehrmacht. That competition was won by the "Pz.Kpfw.VI Tiger" developed by Henschel. Porsche’s loss was caused by the extraordinary, even for the Germans, the complexity of the chassis. However, in the course of this rivalry, Porsche produced a significant amount of the chassis of a new type of heavy tank. This was subsequently used to create the most powerful and protected, at the time of the Battle of Kursk, anti-tank armored fighting vehicle in the world.

On the Porsche chassis, an armored fighting compartment was installed, protected in the frontal projection by a 200mm armored plate, the weight of which was similar to the weight of a large truck. Even the Tiger gun is not able to penetrate this 200mm obstacle when using armor-piercing shells and 152mm armor-piercing shells of the ML-20 howitzer can't do it either. To bring the frontal armoring of the front of the hull in line with the existing 100mm armor plates, an additional piece of 100m armor was installed. The sides and rear of the vehicle were protected by 80mm armor plates, which were an extremely difficult, almost insurmountable obstacle for 76mm Soviet armor-piercing shells. The roof and the bottom of the hull were also armored considerably.

The weak spots include the roof of a large-scale engine compartment, which was located in front of the tower and could be hit by large-caliber high-explosive fragmentation shells when they burst on the front armor plate of the fighting compartment. Also, the tank’s weak point is the relatively thin armor of the cooler exhaust manifold of the electric propulsion motors - a significant part of ammo is 'conveniently' located just above it. It is worth to note the completely unprotected gunsight of the main and only gun, located on the roof of the fighting compartment.

The Ferdinand is armed with an extremely powerful 88mm KwK-43 L / 71 gun, that was created on the basis of the Flak 41 long-barreled anti-aircraft gun, while the shorter Tiger gun (also 88mm) was created on the basis of the shorter Flak 37 anti-aircraft gun. Firing a similar armor-piercing projectile, but with a more powerful charge and a longer barrel length, the KwK-43 L / 71 gun accelerated it to 1000 m/s against 800 m/s in the KwK-36. The Ferdinand had no machine guns at the time of the Battle of Kursk. The disadvantages of its armament include a panoramic sight that is not very useful in anti-tank combat since it doesn't allow entering corrections in the field of view (it had a significant degree of amplification though), and a low horizontal aiming speed.

But the most remarkable feature of the "Ferdinand" is it’s progressive and promising, but very controversial electrical powertrain. This is one of those cases when technical thought was far ahead of technical capabilities. The idea of refusing the mechanical transmission of torque from the power plant to the propulsion system, which is widely used today in heavy equipment, at that time led to very serious problems. The electric drive motors gave an increase in speed, but with a significant loss of torque on the tracks. So the efficiency of the power plant as a whole, even when on a flat surface, was so low the vehicle could not reach speeds more than 20 km/h. Even with a huge fuel reserve of 950 liters, the range was just 150 km on the highway. Also, due to the features of the electric motors, the power plant had a reduced efficiency when driving backward.

To supply the required amount of electric energy, two engines from the Pz.Kpfw.IV tanks were installed in the Ferdinand, each with a corresponding DC generator. Both generators were connected to a single line that supplied current to the electric motors, and each of the motors had its own regulator to control the speed and direction of movement. This made it possible to continue driving even if one engine or generator failed. The high cost of materials required for the production of windings, conductors and switches of the electrical powertrain, the use of two engines, plus its huge mass of 65 tons led to extremely serious technological and operational difficulties even for such a rich and industrialized country as wartime Germany. That is why the competition was won by the more traditional and easier to produce Tiger-I of Henschel design even though the Tiger from Henschel was also not a cheap tank by any means and the labor costs for its production were many times higher than required for a mass-produced T-34. On the other hand, the simplicity and ease of control of the tank, as well as the softness of the ride were a bonus to those who manned it. The ability to turn the vehicle on the spot without using advanced mechanical systems required for a traditional powertrain was a welcome bonus.

Nevertheless, with all the technological and operational difficulties it had, this combat vehicle during the Summer of 1943 was the most dangerous on the battlefield - if it was able to reach it in time to participate in a head-on tank battle. It was important for us to recreate it as close to the real one as possible, just like all the vehicles we already have in Tank Crew, and it was really hard to do. There is only one early Ferdinand remaining in the world - #501, it is located in the armored forces museum in Kubinka near Moscow. Another one, later modification called Elefant with a commander cupola and MG installed, is in the US. The available documentation is very segmentary, short and incomplete. However thanks to the effort of our partners in Digital Forms and application of cross-checking analysis, we have one of the best recreations of this combat vehicle available. From our side, we contributed to the recreation of its maneuverability, armament and systems functioning peculiarities, which required a lot of work as well. On the screenshots, you see exactly that Ferdininand #501 that was captured in the Kursk battle and ended in the Kubinka museum.

The last what we want to tell you about this tank destroyer - its release will complete the lineup of the combat vehicles we planned to recreate together with Digital Forms for the Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka project. This moment will be a very important milestone in the history of our project. It won't mark the end of the work on this project - as usual, we continue to support, improve and deepen all our projects after the official release date. IL-2 Sturmovik and Digital Forms teams hope you'll enjoy the result of our joint effort.



Note: IL-2 Sturmovik: Tank Crew will be released on Steam once it is ready.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Hello Everyone!

Summer has finally come to us, but this is not a reason to relax and slow down - the work continues. Work is going on in many directions at once, especially now, when in the next big update, we will see two major events. First, the readiness and release of the American P-47D-22 "Razorback" fighter, which will mean the beginning of the Early Access stage of Battle of Normandy. Second, this is the completion and release of the German tank destroyer Sd.Kfz.184 "Ferdinand", which will mark the completion of all the planned tanks in Tank Crew. Although, this does not mean we will stop working on it, more improvements will be made in the coming months, several are being designed and prepared now.

Several aircraft, six in total, both for BON and a Collector’s aircraft, are currently under development. The P-51B, P-47D-22, C-47, Spitfire Mk.XIV, Typhoon Mk.Ib and Hurricane Mk.II are all on the production line at once, many of them are in a fairly high degree of readiness. For those who keep asking about the status of the Hurricane, today we will show you a couple of Work in Progress screenshots of the cockpit:



Creating new aircraft is not the only thing our team is busy with right now. Having finished work on the airframe damage model airframe and control linkages, we smoothly proceed to the development of a more detailed model of fuel systems and their damage. After completing the next iteration of improving lower level logic for air combat AI fighter aircraft - maneuvering and aiming, we have moved on to improvements in matters of the upper level - the choice of targets and operational solutions. Work on the creation of the “Battle for Normandy” map has been launched on all fronts, its borders have been defined, a prioritized list of cities and airfields has been compiled, work has begun on the creation of ground equipment, and a list of development sites is under final approval before production begins. All these works are proceeding in accordance with the approved development plan and, at the moment, we have no serious deviations - we hope that this will continue in the future.

In parallel with this, work continues on updating the flight crews for all previous projects, and a German pilot in early winter uniforms will be ready soon. And at the same time, owners of the U-2VS airplane, we have some good news: a special and famous pilot model is ready for this aircraft in three uniforms (pre-summer 1943 and post-summer 1943 and winter). However, such news, of course, is better to see than to read:



Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Dear Friends,

We've decided to release the new update 4.007 relatively soon after the previous one, because the fixes and improvements it brings, while not being major, are nevertheless important for the project as a whole. We have heard your feedback on the view system improvements, added new options to the multiplayer functionality, which govern the usage of graphical mods, in addition, we did additional research on the workarounds for the Direct 3D functionality not supported by one of the graphics cards vendors. Damage modeling has been improved to take into account the control systems damage (rods, wires, etc.). We have also added a new German pilot model in the early summer uniform. The full list of changes follows:

1. Ju 87 D-3 dive bomber has been upgraded to 4K external texturing thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney, including two additional official skins;



2. Aircraft control systems DM has been upgraded. The probability of losing control in a certain control axis depends on the control wires or rods configuration of a particular aircraft and existence of a reserve control channel (or its lack thereof);
3. Workarounds for the remaining graphical artifacts on AMD cards (like black contour around the aircraft when viewed from its cockpit) have been implemented;
4. New multiplayer server option “Restrict Injectors” allows the server hosters to restrict access for users with graphics injectors like Reshade or 3dmigoto;
5. Five new mappable (RCtrl+NumPad_Del,1,2,3,0 by default) zoom commands have been added that allow quick zooming to various degrees (minimal, maximal and 3 intermediate levels). Zoom value set by a mouse or joystick axis or keyboard keys is not affected by the new quick zoom and after releasing a quick zoom button the FOV will return to the one set by an axis. These new commands work in either 2D or VR mode. The old 'VR zoom' command has been deprecated (its equivalent is the new maximum quick zoom, RCtl+NumPad_0);
6. There is a new setting in the Camera options that governs the speed of the new zoom commands;
7. Tank commander binoculars give three times more powerful zoom than before (they give a minimal FOV that is technically possible in the game);
8. The current FOV (Field Of View) value is shown next to the in-game FPS counter (that is activated by Backspace key by default);
9. Gunsight FOVs have been corrected for all tanks;
10. German fighter pilots of the Battle of Moscow, Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kuban have a new visual model and a sidearm during Summer (new Winter model, also with a sidearm, will be added later when it is ready). Because of this, the default camera position and user-customizable snapviews (.svc files) were changed on Bf 109-G14, Bf 109-K4, Me 262-A, Fw 190-A3, Fw 190-53, Fw 190-A8 and Fw 190-D9. The updater should overwrite the old files for these planes with the new updated ones for you, but in case this action was blocked by antivirus software on your PC and you see a wrong view in the cockpit of these aircraft in the game, please copy the new default .svc files for these aircraft from \data\LuaScripts\snapviews\defaults to \data\LuaScripts\snapviews manually. If you haven't customized the view positions on other aircraft, you can just copy all the files from snapviews\defaults to snapviews folder;
11. Bomb holders on both Bristol Fighters appear correctly depending on the ammo loadout;
12. Pedals on both Bristol Fighters appear correctly in a neutral position;
13. The issue that made the detached parts of Flying Circus aircraft invisible in the multiplayer has been found and fixed;
14. Fw 190 D-9 canopy glass appear correctly at medium distances;
15. Fw 190 D-9 oil on windshield visual effect has been restored;
16. Destroyed static KV-1 model won't have white tracks when viewed from a distance;
17. Tank turret turn indicator won't visually 'jump' when passing the back position;
18. APHE rounds stopped by the armor won't damage outside objects;
19. Train wagons won't appear detached from the locomotive in some missions;
20. Guest crew members in multiplayer will correctly hear the sound of the tank turret turning;
21. Guest crew members in multiplayer will correctly hear the sounds of the hatches closing or opening;
22. Certain HE rounds explosions can be heard from an aircraft cockpit;
23. The arm model has a correct sidearm in it in VR mode;
24. The arm model won't drop a shadow when there is no body rendered;
25. The arm model has the correct size in VR mode;
26. Missing road segments that sunk inside the terrain have been corrected on Kuban map.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Developer Diary #252

Hello Friends,

As you know, the recently released update 4.006 brought many important and interesting changes. Our work continues and soon we will start to prepare the new update 4.008 that is planned to include P-47D-22 "Razorback" fighter for Battle of Normandy and tank destroyer Sd.Kfz.184 "Ferdinand" for Tank Crew. You may have noticed and wondered why the mission number isn't 4.007? The answer is that we plan to release an intermediate update before that, it will add some important functionality and new features. They will be based on your feedback mostly and will bring some features long-awaited by the community. The update 4.007 is already in beta testing and we hope it will be ready in the coming week. Among other changes it will include 4К quality external texturing by Martin =ICDP= Catney for the legendary Ju-87D-3 from Battle of Stalingrad, here are some screenshots of it:



Speaking on the update 4.008, which is planned for late June - early July, we have also something to show you already. Another legendary plane, P-47D-22 "Razorback", will begin the Early Access for Battle of Normandy:




Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Dear Friends,

Around a month has passed since the previous humongous update and we have another right here. Its changelist is not as so hideously long (it is still too long, however - more than 80 items), but some of them are quite important. First of all, two new Collector Planes are released, Yak-9 and Yak-9T. It was the most mass-produced Soviet WWII aircraft, the real victory weapon. They had very good flight characteristics, bubble canopy with armored glass on the front and back, good manufacturability. The modification Yak-9T armed with powerful 37mm gun NS-37 was designed for bomber intercepts but was also widely used against ground targets. Yak-9s were used in the Battle of Kuban, so you can use it in the Career mode at this theater of war as well as in QMB and multiplayer.

Note: The Yak-9 and Yak-9T Collector Planes will be coming to Steam store soon. For now, they are A.I. if you did not pre-order them from the IL-2 Website. Please have patience while we work to get them offered on Steam.



For Tank Crew customers this update adds a long-awaited Zveroboy ("Beast Slayer") - self-propelled heavy howitzer (assault gun) SU-152 based on KV-1s chassis and armed with a very powerful 152mm gun-howitzer ML-20S. While these assault guns were designed primarily for knocking out heavy defenses, at the Kursk Battle it was probably the only Soviet armored vehicle capable of killing Tigers and Panthers at far distances. Its 152mm APHE round weighed nearly 49 kg and its hit was lethal for a Tiger up to 2 km distance. Panther's thick and sloped frontal armor and 200mm frontal armor of Ferdinand tank destroyers could withstand it, but a HE shell hit at a Panther turret guaranteed to breach the thin hull roof near the hit area and APHE hit at a Panther side could knock it out easily. Being very powerful, SU-152 wasn't an absolute weapon of course. Limited armor and gun traverse angles, low ammo reserve and slow rate of fire demanded the combat skills from the crew and interaction of a group of these machines to reach its combat potential fully. Nevertheless, it was the first dangerous adversary for the newest German cats of prey.



This update also includes three new Scripted Campaigns – Kaiserschlacht, Spring Offensive and Lightning Strikes.

Kaiserschlacht and Spring Offensive are two campaigns developed by our friends at The Syndicate which tells about the same events from different sides of the front line of the spring of 1918. Although previously released to the public, these campaigns have been enlarged to include new unreleased missions. These are the first official campaigns for Flying Circus, allowing you to more fully evaluate the full potential and atmosphere of this great product. These two campaigns will be available free of charge to those who have already purchased Flying Circus: Volume One. There is an accompanying skin-pack for this campaign. It is available in the forum.

And for those who own the P-38J-25 Collector Plane and Battle of Bodenplatte, we also have a cool new Scripted Campaign for you - Lightning Strikes! This campaign was developed by our friend and talented mission maker Jaegermeister and it portrays P-38 combat missions in the skies of Europe from October to the end of December 1944. The campaign includes an outstanding number of missions, 25 of them, the last of which tells about the notorious events of January 1, 1945. This campaign is included free of charge to everyone who owns the P-8J-25 and Battle of Bodenplatte. There is also an accompanying skin-pack for this campaign and is available in the forum as well.



While new aircraft, tanks and campaigns are the lead stars of our sim, the most important change in this update is the release of the new graphics rendering engine based on Deferred Shading. This is the base for a new powerful shoot forward in the visual part of the project. It's impossible to unlock all this potential at once, but in this update, we already added a number of improvements based on this fundamental change. More natural-looking aircraft exterior, cockpit and instrument reflections, better-looking water surfaces - this is just a start.



Thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney we have the external textures of 4 more existing aircraft in 4K quality: two bombers He 111 H-6 (BoM) and He 111 H-16 (BoS) and two Collectors Planes, La-5 series 8 and La-5FN series 2. The new textures push the visuals of these planes to a new level.



These huge additions aren't all - the update 4.006 brings many others which are also important. Aircraft FM and DM were updated basing on your feedback, Soviet fighter pilots have new visual model, there is a lot of changes for ground and naval units as well as for player controllable Tank Crew war machines. Multiplayer functionality has been also addressed. All this serves one purpose - constant improvement of the quality of gameplay and accuracy of the simulation. IL-2 Sturmovik team hopes that you'll enjoy all these changes.

Main Features
1. Yak-9 series 1 Collector Plane is available;
2. Yak-9T series 1 Collector Plane is available;
3. SU-152 heavy assault gun is available for all Tank Crew customers;
4. La-5 series 8 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
5. La-5FN Collectors Plane exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
6. He-111 H-6 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
7. He-111 H-16 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
8. Two scenario campaigns, Kaiserschlacht and Spring offensive, are available for all Flying Circus Vol.1 customers for free;
9. A huge (25 missions!) scenario campaign Lightning Strikes is available for all Bodenplatte Premium customers (you can also play it if you have purchased Bodenplatte Standard Edition and P-38J-25 Collector Plane separately);
10. The graphics engine of the sim now uses Deferred Shading technology;

Graphics Improvements
11. FXAA or MSAA can be selected in the game options;
12. New option - cockpit reflections;
13. Metallic and lacquered aircraft surfaces reflect the light softer and more naturally;
14. There are canopy and instrument reflections in the cockpit;
15. The aircraft visual image won't suddenly darken when zooming out or at a distance;
16. Damage textures won't light up too much when zooming out or at a distance;
17. Rivers and lakes water visuals improved;
18. Clouds reflections in water bodies improved;
19. Excessive brightness of the high detail buildings on the Prokhorovka map has been reduced;
20. Shell casings won't become transparent when too close to a camera;

Crew Models
21. There is a new pilot model on all Soviet fighters and on A-20 (pilot and navigator);
22. This new pilot model has three uniform variations depending on the mission date (before April 1942, April 1942 - May 1943, late war);
23. The new pilot model has a sidearm (press RCtrl+4 when the cockpit is open). Pilots of the other aircraft will receive it when their models are updated;
24. Battle of Bodenplatte aircraft which have been also lend-leased to USSR (Spitfire-IX, B-25D, P-47D) can have Soviet crews if their country in a mission file is set to the USSR;
25. P-40E (BoM), Spitfire-Vb (BoK) and Spitfire-IXe (BoBp) have American pilots if their country in a mission file is set to the USA;
26. P-40E (BoM), Spitfire-Vb (BoK) and P-51D (BoBp) have British pilots if their country in a mission file is set to the UK;

Player-controllable Tanks
27. New quick missions for tanks - Tank Duel and Tank Skirmish;
28. All player controllable tanks have the transmission from forward-backward and left-right user controls to the simulated tank controls corrected, which improved their turnability at high speeds and reduced the tendency to enter a skid;
29. The commanders of the indirect fire capable self-propelled guns (SU-122 and SU-152 at the moment) can order the AI gunner(s) of their tank or tank platoon to fire at a set distance and direction;
30. T-34UVZ-43 got two new modifications - additional all-steel internally sprung wheels;
31. SU-122 OF-462 HE shell ballistics corrected;
32. Death of a radioman correctly affects the radio functioning on player controllable tanks;
33. When the turret ventilation system is off, you can see from the outside the smoke coming off the crew hatch;
34. The smoke can be seen escaping the engine compartment of KV-1s and M4A2 after a shot;
35. All Soviet tanks have animated oil pumping in the engine start procedure;
36. Т-34UVZ and SU-122 have correctly looking headlights at a medium distance (without a block dot);
37. Older Pz.III.Ausf.L and T-34-76-STZ-42 tanks have correctly damageable suspension and armament;
38. All 45mm and bigger shells don't have tracers anymore if a real shell didn't have it (HE shells mostly and 122mm HEAT). This is true for AI units as well;
39. All 45mm and bigger shells without tracers have a generic visual model (HE shells mostly and 122mm HEAT). This is true for AI units as well;

Aircraft Physics, Systems and Visuals
40. The maximum airspeed at which the pilot is able to bail out now depends on the vertical G-load acting on the pilot: the smaller positive G-load, or the greater negative G-load, the easier it is for the pilot to leave the plane;
41. A G-load indicator is added to the HUD. When simplified instruments are switched off, G-load is indicated without a fractional part;
42. A message about turret ammo replenishing and turret repair has been added to the technochat;
43. A message about servicing the engine oil system or cooling system in the repair area is added to the technochat. The service is performed if the engine oil or coolant have cooled down significantly during the aircraft stop (previously in these cases the player periodically received information about the repairing of the corresponding system, which wasn't really clear);
44. SPAD 13.C1: the roll oscillation of an AI-controlled airplane at a speed of about 200 km/h has been fixed;
45. Yak-7B polar curve has been corrected (the critical angle of attack was reduced, the inductive drag at large angles of attack was increased, the turn rate was reduced, the maximum speed and climb rate remained the same);
46. Yak-7B: the engine heat balance has been adjusted (the engine won't overheat as quickly as before);
47. Yak-7B, Yak-1 (ser. 69, 127): the ailerons hinge moment and ailerons effectiveness at high airspeed were corrected (the roll rate is increased);
48. Bf-110 (G2, E2): the airplane polar curve was corrected (aerodynamic drag was increased), the turn rate, maximum speed and climb rate are corrected to be as close to the values specified in the airplane in-game specification as possible;
49. Bf-110 (G2, E2): aerodynamic characteristics corrected at supercritical angles of attack (the effectiveness of slats was improved, the drag was increased, and the nature of the stall was adjusted);
50. P-38J25 landing gear doors are visibly opened in the hangar;
51. Bf-109 G14 emergency engine power has been fixed (increased);
52. An aircraft won't appear underground when a season is set incorrectly or undefined in the mission file;
53. Sopwith Camel: when the option “Simplified Controls” is enabled in the difficulty settings, the automatic helper better stabilizes the plane along the roll axis at a high angle of attack;
54. Spitfire Mk IX: excess struts on the pylons were removed;

Aircraft Damage Model
55. The piston engines' combat survivability has been adjusted - the protection from the engine casings has been reduced, bullets and shells cause more damage to the crank gear, while shell fragments cause less damage to the engine.
56. All Flying Circus airplanes: hitting at the central section of the top wing now also leads to breaking the top wing (its left or right part);
57. The geometry of wing spars of all Flying Circus airplanes has been checked and brought into strict compliance with known sources. In general, now it requires much more bullet hits to break the wings of World War I aircraft;
58. The absence of visual and hearing disorders under the high G-loads for gunners in the single-player mode was fixed;
59. A rare bug has been fixed, which caused the fragments not damaging the airframe sometimes;
60. Pe-2 (ser. 35, 87): fixed rudders 'wobbling' when their control wires are broken;
61. Pe-2 (ser. 35, 87): a bug has been fixed that caused the left rudder to react to the controls slightly when its control wires were actually broken;
62. All Bf-109 fighters except E7 can now lose the left or right side of the horizontal stabilizer when hit at its central part (Bf-109 E7 has a central part of the stabilizer which can be lost by itself);
63. P-38: fixed a bug due to which the oxygen system could erroneously take damage;
64. Ju-52: fixed rudder 'wobbling' when its control wires are broken;
65. Fixed a problem with repairing aircraft turrets;
66. Fixed the undamageable machine guns in a number of aircraft turrets;

Ground and Naval Units
67. Ships have a more advanced physical model - they can be damaged by collisions, run aground, lay on the shore (and not sink into it), and lay on the bottom when sank;
68. All naval guns and howitzers fire physically modeled projectiles (previously explosions were created in the target area), making their combat use much more realistic;
69. All naval guns and howitzers have AP ammo available (around 10% of ammo reserve);
70. AAA guns can fire at the ground area (if the mission trigger Attack Area is set on the ground level);
71. The issue that made the first several salvos of an artillery battery too accurate has been found and fixed;
72. The issue with AI aiming the guns of player controllable tanks has been fixed;
73. Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.F1 and Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G have their armor plates thickness corrected;
74. Groups and columns of AI-controlled ground vehicles can stop on shallow slopes (previously they couldn't);
75. Tank AI gunner no longer try to fire at flying targets;
76. Ground vehicle AIs can't spot targets through a dense enough forest (if at least 50m of the line of sight to a target travels through the forest area);
77. Field guns (AT and divisional ones) can fire at a maximum distance when given the Attack Area -> Ground command in the mission;
78. Aiming tables for several AA guns have been corrected;

Aircraft AI
79. The firing accuracy at air and ground targets depends on the AI pilot level;
80. View sectors have been corrected for Hs-129, Ju-52, A-20 and U-2 crews;
81. The minimal fuel reserve calculations have been corrected (previously they could cause AI pilots to RTB too early);

Multiplayer
82. The audibility of hits on the own plane has been corrected when the cockpit canopy is damaged;
83. New server-side option “Restrict tank AI gunners” blocks the ability of the tank commander to assign a dynamic object as a target for the AI gunner or order it to search for targets on its own;
84. Tech chat and handling tips are now governed by difficulty settings that can be enforced on a multiplayer server;

General Fixes
84. The recently introduced error in the armor penetration modeling has been corrected (it made the projectile speed - armor penetration function graduated and could cause an armor penetration in a case when it shouldn't occur);
85. Concussion won't cause the loss of hearing for too long;
86. UK and US careers (Bodenplatte) will work correctly with the Simplified Chinese language selected;
87. A rare error in scripted campaigns that could cause the progress to be lost after re-entering the game has been found and fixed.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team