IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad News

Update 4.002

Dear Friends,

Our team is glad to announce that we finished another update 4.002. In this version, all Tank Crew owners get the SU-122 assault gun. In addition, everyone gets many improvements - some of them our community asked for a long time. After additional work on the aircraft visibility modeling against the clouds is improved. We also added automatic dive-recovery controls to four bombers from Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Moscow. The login time has been drastically decreased, it will now happen up to ten times faster than before. Tank and aircraft turrets aiming will be more convenient and there are many other minor improvements. Let's go into detail about the automatic dive-recovery controls:

Ju-87
When the dive system is engaged, the plane enters a dive when the air brakes are extended and will recover from the dive either by pressing the bomb drop button or when the air brakes are retracted. The dive system controls are separate: the trimmer tab on the right elevator is controlled by the dive system while the pilot controls the trimmer tab on the left elevator. Therefore the pilot input and dive system input of the trimmers are independent, and when the dive system is in operation, there is no indication of a trimmer position change in the technochat.

Ju-88
When the dive system is engaged, the plane enters a dive when the air brakes are extended or when the dive button (LCtrl + D by default) is pressed. The plane will recover from the dive either by pressing the bomb drop button or by pressing the dive button (LCtrl + D by default). The dive system will return to the neutral position of the elevator trim, while the full range of trimmer travel from the pilot’s input is preserved. Therefore the pilot input and dive system input of the trimmers are independent, and when the dive system is in operation, there is no indication of a trimmer position change in the technochat. Also, the elevator trim is automatically shifted when the stabilizer is moved to the landing position (when flaps are released to the landing position). This also shifts the trim back to the neutral position.

Pe-2 (both series)
When the dive system is engaged, the plane enters a dive when the air brakes are extended (pass through the 45° position) and will recover from the dive when you press the bomb drop button or the dive recovery button to exit the dive (LCtrl + D by default). The dive system controls the elevator trim -for correct operation, the trimmer must be in the range between -4.5 ° to + 4.5 ° before turning on the dive system. If the trimmer is outside this range or if the airplane is trimmed manually while the dive system is in operation or if the air brakes are retracted the dive system will disengage.

Ju-87 and Ju-88
Contact altimeters are installed on these aircraft. The RShift + K and RCtrl + K commands (by default) set the bomb release (contact) altitude. When the dive system is engaged, the buzzer will sound 250 m above the contact altitude. Buzzer turns off when the contact altitude is reached or when the dive system is disengaged. The pressure setting is adjusted by the same command as on the main altimeter (with a short pause after setting the pressure on the main altimeter). The contact altimeter is not connected with the dive system, it is a separate device that just gives an audio signal at a contact height.

Main features
1. SU-122 assault gun made by Ural heavy machinery factory in 1943 is now available for all Tank Crew owners;
2. Guns and MGs aiming using the mouse has been improved;
3. Turret aiming in VR is improved (you don't need to physically turn while aiming);
4. The issue with planes visually disappearing against the clouds at short distances has been minimized;
5. Planes visual pixelization against the clouds at medium distances has been greatly reduced;
6. Winter textures for all Bodenplatte buildings added;
7. Winter textures for all Bodenplatte vehicles added;
8. Speed and reliability of the online login have been greatly improved;
9. GMC CCKW fuel truck added;
10. Thanks to the new tech developed for Tank Crew, B-25D, P-47D and P-51D have correct British or US pilots depending on the country specified in the mission file;
11. Dive and recovery control automatics added to Ju-87 D-3, Ju 88 A-4, Pe-2 s. 87 and Pe-2 s. 35;
12. Ju-87 D-3 and Ju 88 A-4 dive bombers are equipped with contact altimeters;
13. LaGG-3 now sports 4K exterior textures made by Martin =ICDP= Catney;

AI improvements
14. AI pilots can resume engaging a target after losing it;
15. AI pilots won't try to engage a distant target flying at negative G for a prolonged time;
16. AI pilots won't crash into the ground while doing a defense spiral maneuver;
17. AI pilots won't get stuck in a shallow dive during a defense maneuver;
18. AI pilots won't attempt dangerous evasion maneuvers at low altitudes which caused them to crash;
19. AI pilots won't get too excited following a falling target and crash into the ground after it;
20. AI pilots attacking air targets will attack the planes that take off or land;
21. AI pilots won't get stuck in an upside position during a dogfight;
22. AI pilots won't get stuck in a roll during an evasion maneuver which could end in a crash;
23. AI pilots will try to bail out of a burning plane (now it depends on how fast it will decide to bail out and if he has strength left to do so);
24. Self-propelled AAA switch to combat position if they don't have movement orders and have an attack targets in area command (even if there are no targets present);
25. Ship guns aiming corrected;

Aircraft improvements
26. Ju-87 D-3 has animated servo tabs;
27. Ju-87 D-3 has visual indicators for the extended dive brakes;
28. Ju-88 A-4 elevator trim adjusts automatically when the stabilizer is switched to the landing position;
29. Ju-88 A-4 has animated servo tabs;
30. heavier aircraft like He-111, Ju-52/87/88, A-20, IL-2, Pe-2 won't shake as much when their tails are damaged;
31. Pe-2 and He-111: the camera automatically turns in a correct direction when switching to a new MG in turrets with several MGs;
32. Ju-52/3mg4e 2nd pilot animations have been restored;
33. P-38J-25: canopy close sound won't play too early;
34. P-38J-25: the instruments panel can be damaged;
35. P-38J-25: signal lights won't float in the air on a severely damaged aircraft;
36. IL-2 elevator control rods damage has been corrected;
37. All additional armor elements on Bf-110 correctly shield the aircraft;
38. P-51D-15 rear landing gear can be damaged now;
39. MC 202 s8: MG151 ammo reserves can be damaged now;
40. Fw 190 A-8 ammo reserves can be damaged now;
41. Fw 190 A-8 wing pylons look correctly from various distances;
42. Bf 109 G4/G6/G14/K4: the right underwing cannon won't stop working after the loss of ammo in the left wing anymore;
43. Bf 109s except for G14 and K4: jettisoned canopies are correctly repaired;
44. Bristol Fighter will correctly register radiator hits;
45. Pedals animated correctly on Bristol Fighter;
46. Static U-2VS has winter skin;
47. IL-2 mod. 1942 has its exterior color saturation corrected;

Tank Crew improvements
48. Visual detail of plates above the tracks on KV-1s has been improved;
49. Speedometer added to KV-1s (it is on the engine compartment bulkhead);
50. Batteries are visible in the KV-1s interior;
51. Many visual improvements to KV-1s interior (level of detail, textures, etc.);
52. Recoil indicators added to KV-1s and T-34 mod. 1943;
53. Panoramic sight cupola stopper added to KV-1s and T-34 mod. 1943;
54. T-34 mod. 1943 tracks have been visually improved;
55. T-34 mod. 1943 internal collision model (that is used in damage calculations) has been improved;
56. Engine exhaust is visible at the idle engine RPM;

Other changes
57. Caquot balloons won't disappear at medium distances;
58. The inner walls of the damaged detailed buildings on the Prokhorovka map won't disappear at medium distances;
59. It's now possible to turn off the VR rendering mode for the propellers - any negative values specified for the prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr parameter in startup.cfg file (like prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr = -1) will result in the normal propellers rendering;
60. Object Fake_Block can be used on the airfields (its collision object has been lowered below the ground);
61. Levitating buildings on Stalingrad map have been fixed;
62. It's now possible to win the 5th mission of the Turning point campaign after a successful retreat;
63. The excessive effect of concussion and possible loss of consciousness after HE hits at a tank or aircraft has been removed if the player or AI weren't wounded by these hits.
64. Ten Days of Autumn campaign: all static objects have been updated to correct durability values, other minor improvements;
65. Fortress on the Volga campaign: minor improvements;
66. A black line won't appear in the middle of some Bodenplatte timeframe newspapers;
67. Added another (fifth) voice of a Soviet tanker;
68. Trees preventing a takeoff from some airfields were cut down on all Rheinland maps.



The Sturmovik Team

Dear Pilots!

We have a few important announcements to share with you about our BOBP and FC Steam Releases and our latest Collector Planes Pre-Orders.

BOBP, P-38J-25, Fw-190 D-9 and FC Steam Release Date

We are thrilled to announce that Battle of Bodenplatte and Flying Circus are coming to the Steam store immediately after the Autumn Sale ends. We are aiming for December 3rd 2019 for the release. The BOBP release on Steam will be the Standard Edition with the two additional Collector Planes being sold separately. Flying Circus will include all ten aircraft, same as on our website. Each product will have a launch discount equivalent to the current Early Access discount enjoyed by customers on our website. The prices are as follows.

Battle of Bodenplatte on Steam - $44.99 (Reg. $49.99)
P-38J-25 Collector Plane - $17.49 (Reg. $19.99)
Fw-190 D-9 Collector Plane - $17.49 (Reg. $19.99)
Flying Circus on Steam - $69.99 (Reg. $79.99)

The launch discounts on Steam will be in effect for one week once launched which is the maximum time Steam allows.

Hurricane Mk.II, Yak-9 and Yak-9T Pre-Order Launched

We are proud to announce that we have begun taking Pre-Orders for the Yak-9, Yak-9T and Hurricane Mk.II Collector Planes in the IL-2 Webstore. These planes will be available on Steam when they are finished and ready to be flown.

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. 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. 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 Yak-9 was the first model in the most mass-produced family of the WWII Soviet fighters - with its many modifications the total amount of units produced reached 16,769. The work on the new long-range recon and fighter plane began in the Yakovlev design bureau during Spring 1942. Compared to the earlier Ya-7, it had a boosted M-105PF engine, a lighter wing of composite structure, and the lower spine with a bubble canopy that significantly improved the rearward visibility. However, the armament was reduced to one nose-mounted 12.7mm UBS MG and one engine-mounted 20mm SHVAK cannon firing through the propeller hub. The mass production of the new fighter and its arrival to the frontline units begun only in 1943. In combat, the Yak-9 proved itself as very maneuverable and easy to control fighter, earning the love and respect of many Soviet pilots along with volunteer French from the Normandie Niemen fighter regiment.



An important variant of the Yak-9 family was the Yak-9T (tank), which appeared in early 1943. In addition to one 12.7mm UBS MG it was armed with a 37mm engine-mounted cannon model 11P (later NS-37) instead of the usual 20mm SHVAK. The installation of such a heavy and large weapon required reinforcing the airframe in the nose section and moving the pilot cabin 40cm (1.31 ft.) rearward, which resulted in worse forward and underside visibility. Combat trials showed that Yak-9T is capable of not only engaging bombers and various ground targets, but it could also hold its own as dogfighter. Its flight characteristics were only marginally worse than Yak-9 while packing a much bigger punch. Its production started in March 1943 and ended only in June 1945 with a total of 2,748 units produced.



Note: This announcement includes items not yet available on Steam, but will be once they are completed.

The Sturmovik Team

Dear Pilots!

The Autumn Sale is here to officially kick-off the Holiday Shopping Season and we are giving you the opportunity to purchase our Great Battles modules, Scripted Campaigns and Collector Planes for an amazing 75% OFF right here on STEAM!

Remember, these make great Christmas gifts for friends, family or wingmates!

BOS = 75% OFF
BOM = 75% OFF
BOK = 75% OFF

All Collector Planes = 75% OFF

Blazing Steppe = 75% OFF
Fortress on the Volga = 75% OFF

All Rise of Flight Content = 75% OFF

We hope you enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

235

Hello everybody,

Only one week has passed since the huge release, but we're already preparing for the next update. Of course, it won't be as massive - we can't do so much each month - but it will bring a number of important things nevertheless. As we promised, we're working on improving the overall quality of the product.

First of all, we have found a way to improve the situation with the planes disappearing too early against a cloud. This won't fix the pixelization issue (it is a different matter), but we hope the coming update will address the problem when a plane can visually disappear at 2 km or so. We plan to start the work on minimizing the pixelization issue before the end of this year. Another good news is that we have managed to fix a very old problem with excessively long login into the game - if the testing goes well, in the next update you'll see your login times decrease nearly tenfold, from dozens of seconds to single digits, and the dreaded login fail error #2 should be gone as well.

We also have managed to find the cause of the random bug some of you have reported, when some planes suddenly lose their rudders in the flight. It turns out this issue is caused by the signal noise in some joystick controllers. Such noise spikes in the input cause the control surfaces in the sim to turn so sharply that their durability limit is exceeded and they are torn off by the ram air. This means that fixing this particular bug is no trivial matter - on one hand, we need to keep the durability limit of the control surfaces realistic while on another we don't want to add a new layer of filtering for the joystick axes input we have minimized so recently before. This is a very fine work involving re-checking every plane control behavior, but our engineers have done it and we plan to include its result in the next update as well.

Another important improvement is for Tank Crew users that play in VR - now you won't have to rotate your head when looking through the gunsight and rotating it using the mouse. Like most improvements for the tanks, it will be also useful for aircraft - operating turrets in VR will be easier. We're also starting the work on two other important things for the tanks (they won't be ready for the next update though) - improving the gun aiming (fixing the problem when the rotation marker 'jumps' too far) and adding the binoculars for tank commanders.

We also hope to include important AI improvements in the next update - aircraft AI should better attack the ground targets in hilly areas while ground vehicle AI should better navigate through numerous obstacles like driving through a village.

SU-122 assault gun will be the main addition of the next update. It demanded several new technologies and some of them, like aiming for indirect fire at large distances, will be added later. 122mm HE shell is very powerful since when it hits the turret its fragments can penetrate the thin hull roof armor while 122mm HEAT rounds can penetrate up to 120mm of armor, enough to engage any tank in the game from any angle. Of course, there's a catch - low muzzle speed and narrow range of vertical adjustment of the howitzer (+-10°) make aiming at large distances a nontrivial matter. The 45mm front armor inherited from T-34 tank the assault gun is based on (and the fact that its slope is less than on T-34) make the face-off with enemy heavy tanks very difficult. At least this task is much more realistic than engaging them having only a 76mm gun at your disposal.



The work on another cat in German arsenal, Pz.Kpfw.V Ausf.D "Panther" is underway as well and we hope to have it ready for the release before the New Year. Here are several WIP screenshots from our partners at Digital Forms:



And to finish today's diary we'd like to show you two promo videos. One of them showcasing Flying Circus Vol. 1 was created by ShamrockOneFive while another promoting Battle of Kuban is the work of =HH=Pauk. Here they are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkRmBD3VQpA&feature=emb_title
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uuK1ZRqkYk&feature=emb_title

The Sturmovik Team

Update 4.001

Dear Pilots!

Finally, we have reached a very important milestone for our latest IL-2 Sturmovik titles. Today, two projects moving from the Early Access phase to Official Release. The first of these is Battle of Bodenplatte, which acquired the last major content components that were missing - the seasonal textures for the Rhineland map and the Pilot's Career. However, this does not mean that work on this project is completely done, we plan to spend some time before we begin our next project on fine-tuning and polishing a number of its components and adding a couple yet to be completed pieces such as Air Marshal. However, we feel it contains enough content and features that we can begin to sell it in all our channels including Steam as we head into the Holiday Season. In addition, we plan to closely monitor your messages in order to improve the quality of the project as much as we can in the last part of 2019. Bodenplatte turned out to be a truly record-setting job for us, the volume of work done on the development of maps and aircraft of the late period of the war is unprecedented for us. The late period imposes serious additional requirements on the manufactured equipment; however, the result is extremely interesting. The included aircraft make an incredible impression, because this is already the "apogee" of piston powered planes and, at the same time, the "dawn" of jet aircraft. The Rhineland map impresses with its scale, size and richness of cities and the number and historically researched airfields. The career "Battle of the Rhine" takes place over a fairly long period of time that includes four seasons - from September 17th, 1944 to April 1st, 1945. The Career covers a very significant part of the war on the western front - more than half a year. Battle of Bodenplatte was a bold step for us and when coupled with our other two projects, it pushed us to our creative limits. We hope you will enjoy it! Also, a Standard Edition of BOBP will be coming soon with the P-38J and Fw-190 D-9 offered as Collector Planes to give users more buying options. BOBP will also be available on Steam in the coming weeks, there are still a few details we must work out there first.

Flying Circus - Volume 1 is now available in its fully planned state and all the remaining ground-based equipment of the First World War have been added in our new standard of visual quality. Observation balloons with observers who may leap from their post when under attack are also included now. A number of improvements were also made on the map, primarily to the front line. We hope that users who purchase this project will like the step forward in comparison with our previous title Rise of Flight, especially in the visual quality of aircraft and the environment that we, together with our partner Yugra Media, have created for you. Although the flight models generally correspond to the ones from Rise of Flight, many of the improvements that have been made over the past 7 years for Il-2 Sturmovik play a role in Flying Circus as well. Such improvements automatically benefit all projects within the framework of our one common game world and give a new, previously unavailable experience of virtual flight and combat in the First World War. All these new opportunities unfold in their fullest when playing with the use of virtual reality devices. FC includes so many new things - new landscape technology, new lighting and clouds, better sound, new AI and improved ballistics, new graphic effects and new materials for aircraft surfaces, new detailing of textures and models - all this and much more gives the virtual pilots of the First World War something that is not available anywhere else. We hope to make more Flying Circus volumes in the future and we thank those who have jumped into this new product so far!

Note: We have extended the $10 Off Early Access discount for days more, but it will go to full MSRP very soon. Make your purchase before the price goes up!

Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka is still under development, as one more tank and three self-propelled guns are being built by our DigitalForms partners. However, from the point of view of the gameplay, this project has almost reached its planned goals - this is expressed in the release of the Breakpoint and Last Chance scenario campaigns in this version. These campaigns tell the story, in the maximum possible historical manner we can, about the complex and intricate events of one of the greatest tank battles on the Eastern Front - the battle of Prokhorovka.


This battle was not limited only to the events of July 12th, it took place over several tense days, from July 6th to July 16th, 1943. The events and outcomes of this battle are extremely complex and controversial. Although the Soviet troops and armored forces suffered heavy losses, the German command was never able to achieve their planned goals. At the end of the battle, the situation in this sector of the war front almost returned to what it was before it began. However, numbers or the “net book balance” does not always determine the magnitude of the event. The incredible tension, power, complexity and intensity of this military clash, which practically merged into one single and continuous epic multi-day battle, has few equals in world history. And the ambiguity of the outcome of the battle only enhances the intensity of the drama of these events, which do not require any embellishment - simply being retold "as is", without exaggeration is incredibly exciting. It should also be noted that the release of these tank campaigns is accompanied by the completion of the development of some of the most important features of Tank Crew – the radio and command interface. This will allow you to better control your own tank and your tank platoon. We also plan to continue the refinement of our tank project in the coming months as this project too readies for official release.

And finally, the Achtung Spitfire! Scripted Campaign is also now released and ready to be played! Developed by our friends The Syndicate, this historically inspired campaign contains 20 missions featuring a fictional story-line that is inspired by historical events. Your character is a young Russian pilot from Siberia serving on the North Caucasus Front in late May 1943. The campaign features missions inspired by the Soviet 37th and 56th Armies attack on the German 44th Army Corps west of the city of Krymskaya. You’ll fly a bird of a different feather in the lend-lease Spitfire Mk.Vb over the beautiful Kuban region of the Soviet Union. The campaign is great fun and full of action.

This campaign also has a new feature. We have added support for special assigned skins for the player’s plane and other planes I the mission. This is a first for us in a pay-ware campaign such as this. However, to see them, you must download the free skin pack from HERE and place the skins in the Spitfire Mk.Vb Skins folder. We have decided to offer the skin pack as an optional download to lighten our distribution costs and the size of your install if you don’t own this campaign. The skin pack is offered free of charge of course.

We thank you for your patience as we have readied this product for release and many of you have already pre-ordered it and we appreciate your support. Products like these add more diversity to our product line and help fund many new innovations and content for all of you.

And now we proudly present version 4.001 to you, our friends, partners and customers. And like most huge updates, there are likely to be some bugs or other unintended issues missed in testing. We of course, as always, will address them just as fast as we can. We appreciate your support as we have worked hard to build all of these new products. Here’s to you and to more great combat-sim goodness in the future!

The Sturmovik Team

Note: This announcement showcases content that is not yet available on Steam, but it is coming soon now that we reached this milestone in our development.

Full change-log is on our forum here.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/12826-game-updates/?do=findComment&comment=848043