IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad News

Dear Friends,

Today is a very important day - we have just released update 4.008 that includes the first Battle of Normandy aircraft and the last tank for Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka project. The first BoN plane is P-47D-22 "Razorback", the one so many of you had waited for. Battle of Normandy is at a very early stage of development, in the first quarter of the whole plan, but some of its parts are already taking shape - for instance, this new plane we told you in detail in the Dev Blog #225. This release officially starts the Early Access program for the Battle of Normandy and its owners will gradually get more and more content as soon as it is ready, starting with the "Razorback" today.

The last combat vehicle for Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka is Sd.Kfz.184 "Ferdinand" tank destroyer, you could learn more about its history and design peculiarities in our Dev Blog #254. Tank Crew owners can try it right now. This fearsome machine completes the vehicle lineup of this unique and interesting 'Clash at Prokhorovka' project.

Another new addition in this release is the new historical campaign Ice Ring by Alexander =BlackSix= Timoshokov. Consisting of 15 scenarios, it is dedicated to very interesting and strategically important events of November and December 1942 in Stalingrad area - the actions of the special IL-2 group under the command of Major Leonid Karpovich Chumachenko which was tasked with interdiction of the German 'air bridge', the air supply route for the encircled Paulus' 6th Army. The campaign can be purchased here and requires only the Battle of Stalingrad module to play.

Battle of Moscow owners also will find something new in this update - Martin =ICDP= Catney has finished the work on new 4K quality external textures for IL-2 mod. 1941. They, as well as Battle of Stalingrad customers, just received the new early war Luftwaffe pilot model in winter uniform and additional stuff - sidearm, animations for putting the glasses on when starting from parking and the oxygen mask when it is needed.

Another neat feature we want to tell you about is the support for a special in-game voice communications system known as SRS - "Simple Radio Standalone" (IL2-SRS). At the moment its support is not final, but it can be used with ease already. You can find all the info on how to install and use it here.

Less than a month has passed since the previous update, but again we have found ourselves posting a vast list of changes made. Sometimes the corrections mean that a user-created content needs to be updated as it happened now with height map corrections for Battle of Moscow, but the required actions are minimal, you can learn more about them here. Other numerous changes and corrections in 4.008 are listed below. Please note that some of them are quite important and should get your attention:

Main Features:
1. P-47D-22 “Razorback” heavy fighter is available to all customers who pre-ordered the Battle of Normandy. Early Access phase starts for Battle of Normandy project;
2. Sd.Kfz.184 “Ferdinand” tank destroyer is now available to all owners of the “Tank Crew” project, completing its 10 vehicles lineup; Official retail release of Tank Crew is TBD.
3. The new historical campaign “Ice Ring” is released and available for purchase (it requires Battle of Stalingrad);
4. Support for special SRS Radio voice comms app. The final version of SRS for IL-2 is still WIP by its author and will be released soon. We have created a special section in the forum dedicated to SRS instructions and discussions. https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/forum/147-srs-radio/
5. The 1941 IL-2 attack aircraft now has 4K quality external texturing thanks to Martin = ICDP = Catney;
6. The new model of the early war Luftwaffe fighter pilot in the winter uniform has been added for Battle of Moscow and Battle of Stalingrad;
7. The new model of a hand holding a pistol or flare gun in a 1st person view added for early war Luftwaffe pilot;



Aircraft improvements:
8. In a multiplayer game, the next steps have been taken to eliminate the problem of invisible planes that appear only at the moment they start to shoot. Because reproduction of this problem is extremely difficult, please help: if you encounter this problem again, be sure to report it and attach a flight record to your message;
9. The option to leave a destroyed object in the game now works for aircraft (uncheck the “Delete after death” checkbox in mission editor);
10. P-47D-28 stall behavior has been corrected: the aircraft is less likely to suddenly stall at a beyond-stall angle of attack;
11. P-47D-28: damping moments have been corrected, resulting in the more inert and 'heavy' feel of controls;
12. P-47D-28 controls effectiveness has been corrected. The maximum roll rate has been reduced to correspond to the historical data. At high speeds (before the air compressibility effects kick in) the aircraft is more controllable along the roll and pitch axes. During the Mach-tuck the controls lose effectiveness making exiting a dive more difficult;
13. P-47D-28: maximum wing lift with extended flaps has been reduced;
14. P-47D-28 engine thermal model corrected (it became more resistant to overheating);
15. P-47D-28: the visual image of the rotating rotorhead has been improved;
16. P-47D-28: the problem with the rotation of the bent screw when using boost has been fixed;
17. P-47D-28: 150-octane fuel modification has been added;
18. P-47D-28 injection system corrected: when there is no liquid in the system left, the engine can’t be switched to combat emergency mode. The pressure gauge shows correct pressure in the injection system;
19. P-47D-28: the description of the aircraft and the related tips in the technochat were updated;
20. P-47D-28: the outside and inside sound mismatch has been addressed;
21. P-38, P-47, P-51, Tempest, Ju-88, Me-262: landing gear doors of other players in multiplayer won’t stay visibly open;
22. Me-262: landing gear doors in the hangar are now open;
23. P-51: landing gear doors in the hangar are now open while the flaps are down due to the lack of hydraulic pressure;
24. P-38: antenna between the two rudders disappears when one of them is lost;

Player Controllable Tanks improvements:
25. Crew members can be gradually poisoned with CO gas when firing the main gun with the hatches of the fighting compartment closed and ventilation turned off or damaged. M4A2, KV-1s, SU-152 the ventilation system is powered from a working main engine while on other tanks it is electric and won’t work with no electric power;
26. The engine won’t stop so frequently after a collision;
27. Tanks shouldn’t visibly ‘levitate’ above the ground;
28. A bug that reduced the actual number of shots for the main gun by 1 for each ammo type has been fixed;
29. A bug that caused the number of shells to be calculated incorrectly when one ammo type is spent (it did not decrease at first and then decreased by 2 after a next shot) has been fixed;
30. Driving along the shallow coastal part of the river is no longer like driving on a highway;
31. A toppled over tank won’t glide on a terrain slope like on ice;
32. A bug that could cause a detailed tank to explode multiple times has been fixed;
33. The effective destruction ranges of light vehicles have been corrected in HE shells descriptions;
34. Pz.Kpfw.VI ammo descriptions updated (trajectory drop and HEAT speeds);
35. Pz.III Ausf. M, Pz.V Ausf. D, Pz.VI Ausf. H1 starting procedure has been updated (the manual fuel pumping was replaced by an electric one with the addition of the required buttons in the driver compartment);
36. Pz.III Ausf. M now has a functioning fuel gauge (to the lower right on the bulkhead of the engine compartment);
37. Pz.III Ausf. M traverse indicator is now illuminated;
38. Pz.III Ausf. M and Pz. IV Ausf. G intercom Z18 parts are covered in self-luminous paint;
39. Pz.IV Ausf. G and Pz.V Ausf. D odometers have been corrected;
40. T-34-76UVZ-1943, SU-122 and SU-152 fuel and oil pipes color has been corrected (made less vivid);
41. The external tools attached to the German tanks were improved to look better, ground jack added for Pz.V Ausf. D;
42. Other changes and improvements to the German tank interiors;
43. The sounds of control levers, pedals and the hand brake are added to Tank Crew tanks;
44. Turning the SU-122 and SU-152 panoramic commander sight produces a sound;
45. Pz.IV Ausf. G and Pz.V Ausf. D odometers have been corrected indicate a change of direction;
46. A failure of one of the M4A2 engines now affects the instrument readings and the engine sound;
47. M4A2 low oil pressure indicator lamps have been corrected;
48. Sound of the M4A2 engine's startup has been improved;

Visual Crew Improvements:
49. The color of pilot’s glasses of the late war Bf 109 Luftwaffe pilots has been corrected;
50. The “holes” in the texture of the American flare gun were eliminated;
51. The texture of the flare gun on the British pilot model has been corrected;
52. Shooting any pistol ejects a casing;
53. Soviet tankers have less gloss effect on the faces;

AI Improvements:
54. AI pilots won’t try to attack targets with the parameter engageable = 0 which could cause steep diving on a ground target with no chance of recovery;
55. AI pilots aim at air and ground targets better and the rockets and projectiles won’t fall short of a ground target at the beginning of a burst;
56. AI fighter pilots won’t chase its target too far from their assigned route or area of operations;
57. All AIs in a fighter group will attack a target (previously one of them could ignore it and follow its mates in a formation;
58. A rare random bug that could cause the AI gunner of a player tank to spontaneously rotate the turret at the beginning of the mission has been fixed;
59. A knocked off detailed AI tank (no marker visible and other AIs don’t see it as a threat) won’t continue to fire at targets sometimes;
60. When all the gunner visors of an AI-controlled detailed tank are damaged, it won’t track the targets and fire at them;

Other Improvements and Fixes:
61. The residual inertia in the first-person non-VR view of the gradual zoom at maximum zoom and maximum zooming speed option when not using a mouse for looking around has been addressed;
62. The contours of objects against a clouds background have been minimized by using special tech;
63. The lowest cloud quality setting still causes significant artifacts on the aircraft visible against a cloud at near distances, but no longer gives an unfair advantage in spotting a distant aircraft;
64. The double triggering of onKilled events in the mission script shouldn’t happen again;
65. New training missions added for Battle of Moscow in the spirit of the real initial training of a MiG-3 pilot (Missions – Battle of Moscow – Migalovo training);
66. The recently found error on the Moscow map (the landscape height above the sea level was 50m less than it should) has been fixed;
67. The missing buildings at the Liege / Bierset A-93 2414/7 airfield on the Rhineland map have been added;
68. The poor-looking machine shop buildings in the industrial district of Belgorod (Prokhorovka map) were replaced with better ones;
69. The truncated or missing phrases of one of the USAAF air traffic controllers and RAF and USAAF forward observers were corrected;
70. The shimmering of very long railways on Kuban map that was visible up close has been corrected;
71. The look of the passenger and freight railroad wagon roofs has been improved;
72. Selecting a random Entente aircraft in the duel on Arras map in QMB no longer produces a Bf 109F-4.

Note: Tank Crew title will be coming to Steam store in the near future.

We hope you enjoy these additions and improvements!

The Sturmovik Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049440/IL2_Sturmovik_Desert_Wings__Tobruk/

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube] Attention Sturmovik fans! A new Add-On for Cliffs of Dover - Blitz is coming soon!

In this exciting new IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover - Blitz Desert War expansion, you can fly with over 40 aircraft and variants from the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe or the Regia Aeronautica. See combat in the legendary Spitfire, sturdy Hurricanes, stubby Martlets, and rugged Kittyhawks, or take wing in deadly Messerschmitts and Macchis. The game introduces a flyable Wellington bomber, as well as updated versions of the Ju-88 and Heinkel 111H. Desert Wings allows bomber and fighter jocks of all skill levels the opportunity to fully challenge themselves in this historically based campaign.

In addition to the long list of flyable aircraft, there are over 25 new tanks, artillery and vehicles as well as 17 new ships, including massive battleships, cruisers, destroyers, patrol boats, submarines, torpedo boats and merchant ships; these additions allowing huge land and naval battles in ferocious detail.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Desert Wings- TOBRUK will feature a 385km x 385km North African map recreating in precise detail the strategic stronghold of Tobruk and the rugged contours of coast, desert and sea which surrounds it, with over 75 airfields, multiple landmarks and towns, an extensive road system as well as the historical fortifications, minefields and defenses, all based on actual maps from the war. Combined with the excellent multiplayer environment that allows over 100 players and dozens of AI aircraft online simultaneously, IL-2 Sturmovik: Desert Wings - TOBRUK promises intense and challenging human versus human aerial battles.

Note: Desert Wings - Tobruk is an add-on for IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover. It is not part of the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles series. Although they are both part of the IL-2 Sturmovik franchise, they use different simulation engines.

Dear Friends,

Continuing from the previous Dev Diary, this time we'll tell you about the second important addition (well, depending on your personal preference it may be the first important addition actually) coming in our next update - version 4.008. The P-47D-22 "Razorback", the first aircraft of Battle of Normandy, will kick off the Early Access program for this module.

The main difference from the P-47D-28 you have flown in Bodenplatte is the cockpit canopy design with significant canopy framing and dorsal spine behind it. The front part of the canopy includes two angled parts and a windshield center post that would have blocked the view through the gunsight if it was installed in the center, so the gunsight was moved to the right like in the German fighters. The space between the gunsight and the angled windshield parts is occupied by the armored glass protecting the pilot from fragments and small-caliber projectiles coming from the forward hemisphere. On the top of the framing, a rear-view mirror is installed - it was standard-issue, not an optional modification. Contrary to the P-47D-28, the canopy was opened in a classic way, manually, and not by a fancy electric motor.



The "Razorback" had a different propeller than the D-28 and the propeller pitch was controlled by hydraulics, not an electrical drive which had no manual mode. The P-47D-22 can use high-octane fuel, which affects the engine power, and the good news is that P-47D-28 will receive this option in the next update as well. As we have stated many times before, we don't forget about a module after its release date and will always continue to improve it and add new features whenever possible.



While we were working on the Razorback, its successor from Bodenplatte got the same flight model refinements as well: for instance, the effectiveness of the flaps has been reduced somewhat and the aircraft behavior beyond stall angles has been corrected - it won't stall so unpredictably and will indicate the coming stall by buffeting and lowering the nose. The load on the control surfaces have been corrected as well - the ailerons are affected by the ram air a bit earlier, but the load increases at higher speeds more smoothly and the elevator load at high speeds was also reduced somewhat. The Mach number effect on the controls has been additionally adjusted. Overall, this resulted in better compliance with the reference data for roll speed and increased Mach-tuck tendency at high speeds. In general, P-47 now feels more like a heavy machine it was.

It is interesting to note that while Razorback was an earlier model than D-28, it has a bit higher climb rate and significantly (+27 kph) speed at emergency engine mode. To a degree, this difference comes from a different propeller, but mainly it was caused by the dorsal spine. Bubble canopy, while being vastly superior for offering a much better view, creates flow swirling behind them. Dorsal spine fairing increases the lift-drag ratio of a plane.

Bodenplatte fans will be happy to hear that we are going to insert the D-22 into the BOBP Pilot Career once the plane is finished. Some Razorback models were still in operation during this period so you will be able to fly them and against them in the BOBP Career before the Normandy Career is ready. However, you will need to have purchased BON to have access to their cockpits in BOBP. This gives an added benefit to participating in BON Early Access. Would-be Razorback pilots - it's time to enlist!

To complete today's Dev Blog, we would like to showcase another improvement that we did exclusively for our previous projects - new early Luftwaffe pilot winter uniform which will be later used for all fighters and then bombers from Battle of Moscow and Battle of Stalingrad:




Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Dear Pilots,

The Annual Summer Sale is ON! Now is THE BEST TIME to turn and burn!!

June 25th - July 9th on Steam

Battle of Bodenplatte = 50% OFF
Flying Circus = 50% OFF
Battle of Stalingrad = 75% OFF
Battle of Moscow = 75% OFF
Battle of Kuban = 75% OFF

All released Collector Planes – 75% OFF (Except P-38, Fw-190 D-9, Yak-9, Yak-9T)
P-38J-25 = 50% OFF
Fw-190 D-9 = 50% OFF

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

All Rise of Flight Content = 75% OFF (ROF On Steam)

IL-2 on Steam

NOTE: having at least the base game (Stalingrad) on Steam means you can launch it from the Steam client without entering a login and password and you can access your IL-2 content purchased elsewhere if you link the accounts.

www.il2sturmovik.com

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

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