IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad News

Update 4.704

The Sturmovik Team and Ugra-Media have completed the Sopwith Triplane which is the final aircraft planned for Flying Circus Vol.II. The new Western Front map is still in development.

The "Tripe" as it was famously called, has three beautiful wings! Each wing has its own ailerons making it quite maneuverable in battle with enough armament to allow its pilots to be confident in a dogfight with any adversary of the era. We think you will enjoy her!



In addition to the new aircraft there are many changes and additions in this update that will improve your gameplay experience:

4.704
1. Sopwith Triplane is available as flyable to all owners of Flying Circus Vol.II;
2. Distant buildings visualization system has been improved; single medium sized buildings that are viable targets are displayed from farther away;
3. Shadows rendering in the hangar is more detailed;
4. Tank gun firing visual effects are further improved;
5. Fire effects are improved for various vehicle types;
6. Additional optimization of the landscape rendering system reduced the potential stutters while moving on the map;
7. Loading times of larger maps were improved a bit;
8. Sensitivity settings for the pitch axis, the vertical guidance axis of the tank turret and other similar axes, the direction of the axis position indicator and its caption have been improved;
9. Adjusting the axes control settings was made clearer thanks to better dead zone visualization;
10. Second and third engine axes response settings have corrected labels;
11. GUI instrument panel turns off after bailing out;
12. A rare GUI issue that sometimes could lead to generating a Quick Mission Builder scenario without a player flight if the player flight count has been set to random has been fixed;
13. Balloons now have markers like aircraft do;
14. Bombs dropped from a bomb bay backwards (tails first) won't visibly jerk along their axis;
15. Simple ground vehicles and ships will correctly engage the targets assigned by MCU_CMD_AttackTarget command with High priority;
16. Square visual artifacts on the water surface that were visible from high altitude at certain sun position won't appear on Rhineland map anymore;
17. AI pilots will switch off their navigation lights when engaged by the enemy during the landing;
18. All German gauges have been redrawn to be as historically accurate as possible. Different gauges are assigned to each model variant (Oyster_KAI);
19. Colors of all German interior equipment/placard have been checked and repainted to their correct color or design (Oyster_KAI);
20. New different throttle quadrant markings & pitch control switch for Bf-109 F/G/K.
21. New drop tank placard & oil cooler placard for Bf-109 E-7 (Oyster_KAI);
22. New headrest for Bf-109G6 (Oyster_KAI);
23. New details for He-111s (Oyster_KAI);
24. New rudder pedal belt texture for all German planes (Oyster_KAI);
25. In the Me-262 exterior view, the 2 pixelated circular holes behind the seats have been redrawn (Oyster_KAI);
26. Added circuit breaker markings on the instrument panel for Bf-109s, Fw-190s, and the Me-262 (Oyster_KAI);
27. Added screws for the Fw-190A's left & right canopy frame (Oyster_KAI);
28. Bf-110s, M.C202, and P-51D external views now have visible instrument reflections (Oyster_KAI);
29. P-51D placards won't glow at night (Oyster_KAI);
30. Scrollbar in the aircraft selection menu in Dogfight won't overlap with the aircraft images
31. A minor issue in the tactical number selection menu has been fixed;
32. Mission Editor won't crash during loading of the Prokhorovka map;
33. Aircraft lists in the Mission Editor are sorted correctly (alphabetically).

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Attention ALL Pilots and Tankers!

The SPRING (EASTER) SALE has launched!! Time to fill up your hangar!

The SPRING (EASTER) SALE runs from 10:00am PST April 15th to 10:00am PST April 29th right here on STEAM.

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

GAZ-MM 72-K - 50% Off
Sd.Kfz. 10/5 Flak 38- 50% Off

BOS – 85% Off
BOM – 75% Off
BOK – 75% Off
BOBP – 75% Off
FC1 – 66% Off
Tank Crew - 66% Off

Hurricane Mk.II - 66% Off
Yak-9 – 66% Off
Yak-9T – 66% Off
Fw-190 D-9 – 75% Off
P-38 J-15 – 75% Off
U-2VS -75% Off
Ju-52/3M – 75% Off
Bf-109 G-6 – 75% Off
Yak-1B – 75% Off
Spitfire Mk. VB – 75 % Off
LA-5FN – 75% Off
HS-129 B-2 – 85% Off
P-40E-1 – 85% Off
Macchi MC.202 – 85% Off
Fw-190 A-3 – 85% Off
LA-5 Series 8 – 85% Off

Ice Ring – 66% Off
Blazing Steppe – 75% Off
Fortress on the Volga – 75% Off


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

All ROF Content – 75% Off

Enjoy!

See you in the skies and on the battlefield!

The Sturmovik Team

314

Dear Pilots!

Today’s Developer Diary brings us pics of the classic Sopwith Triplane in action along with some pics of B-26 liveries. The Tripe is the tenth plane for Flying Circus - Vol. II and it will be in the next update which is due at the end of the month. We continue to work on the map for FC2. The AI B-26 will be in a later update. The Tripe will have the option of mounting one or two Vickers machine guns. Work and testing for the 4.704 update is well underway and will include some new optimizations that should speed up loading times for many of you.

Sopwith Triplane



B-26B-55 Skins



Enjoy and Happy Easter to everyone!

The Sturmovik Team

313

Dear Friends,

Today’s DD features two great, new additions that we think you will be excited about!

First, we have in-game pics of the awesome and often overlooked workhorse of the USAAF – the B-26! The B-26 was considered a fast medium bomber and it saw action on all fronts in WWII for the USAAF. It was somewhat tricky to fly and had a not so good reputation in the eyes of early aircrews. Accidents were known to happen quite often. But once in theater the B-26 rose to the occasion and usually bombed tactical targets from lower altitudes than the heavy bombers like the B-17 and B-24. Targets like bridges, airfields, command posts, beaches and railyards are all prime targets for the B-26. The B-26 in Great Battles is the Block 55 model which were numerous in the European theater during the Normandy time-frame and this model also came in both olive drab and natural metal finishes which will add variety to our skins. Our B-26 is an AI controlled plane, like our B-25. However, with the inclusion of the B-26 we can have much more interesting missions and gameplay with some proper Allied level-bombers playing their role. Plus, it is just a beautifully streamlined aircraft that really makes for some great photos! Also, we cannot wait to see what skin artists will do with her.



On a personal note, my grandfather served in B-26s during WWII in England and France with the 9th Air Force and seeing the B-26 take flight in Great Battles makes it extra special for me. It's this kind of personal connection to history that makes this job and hobby worth the effort.


I addition to the B-26 we have finally begun work on improvements to our controller assignment system. In Rise of Flight, we had a great system for assigning key maps, joystick curves to custom input profiles which could be assigned to individual planes or set as default. The system worked well and was popular.

We are now taking the time to add a similar system to Sturmovik and we think you’re going to be very happy with it. I hesitate to show you such early, early draft images, but they demonstrate where we are headed. Also, we are adding the ability to virtually adjust the pitch like we had in ROF, which for WWI crates makes them much more comfortable to fly and increases the fun factor.




Enjoy!

Jason and The Sturmovik Team

312

Dear Friends,

Today’s Developer Diary showcases our upcoming and awesome Mosquito FB Mk.VI. Isn’t she a beauty? Our “Wooden Wonder” as it was called, is in the later stages of development and we have already completed some of her skins that will be included. Work on her flight model has begun and work on finishing her cockpit continues. We are doing all we can to get her into your hangars just as soon as possible. We know she is a hotly anticipated plane and the wait is difficult, but please have patience, we think she will be worth it!



As you know, we frequently re-visit some of our older technology and try to improve it. A recent example is our sky, clouds and lighting, which we still hope to improve further in time. Recently, we finally had some time to re-visit our technology that affects the appearance of our Propeller Disk. Our current prop disk has some issues that we wanted to rectify including how it seems to disappear at certain angles. We also wanted to make its appearance more realistic and dynamic. We think we achieved this and here are a couple screens to help demonstrate. It’s hard to get the whole effect in still images or even a video, but we wanted to make you aware of this development. We think you’ll enjoy it once it’s in-game.



Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team