Dear Friends,

This one will be very short, sorry: we're preparing the update 5.002 release candidate right now and you already know what it will contain - Churchill tank (that was extensively covered by Daniel in the previous DD), dynamic visual damage and tactical numbers for all Great Battles aircraft and Normandy map improvements. We'll post the info about all this improvements simultaneously with the update release (hopefully it will happen early next week). Therefore there is little new info we can share today with two exceptions.

First, community member Enigma89 has published an interview with us:


And second, here's the first in-game shot of IAR and its cockpit which is early WIP at the moment:


However if you the IAR cockpit looks rather too "work in progress"-ish, take a look at this :)


Have a great weekend and enjoy BoN!

Dear Friends,

We're glad to inform you that Battle of Normandy and its accompanying Collector Planes are available on Steam!

Battle of Normandy includes 8 player controllable aircraft:

1. Hawker Typhoon Mk.Ib – British fighter/bomber,
   
2. North American P-51B-5 Mustang – American long range fighter,
   
3. Republic P-47D-22 Thunderbolt – American fighter/bomber,
   
4. Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 Late – late version of the German fighter,
   
5. Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-6 Würger - German fighter,
   
6. De Havilland Mosquito F.B. Mk.VI ser.2 – British twin engine fighter-bomber,
   
7. Messerschmitt Me 410 A-1 Hornisse – German twin engine fighter-bomber,
   
8. Junkers Ju 88 C-6 – German twin engine heavy fighter.

Two additional Collector Planes are released on Steam as separate DLCs: British fighter https://store.steampowered.com/app/2118562/2___MkXIV/ and German twin engine jet bomber and recon aircraft Arado Ar 234 B-2 Blitz (in addition to Quick Mission Builder, Advanced Quick Mission Generator and Multiplayer modes, you can fly them in Career mode during Battle of Normandy and Battle of Bodenplatte timeframes).



The new module sets the new record in terms of the work involved. New northern France and southern England map (107924 sq.km.), new airfield types, new airfields appearing on the map after D-Day - bringing their total amount to 100 airfields with historically accurate layouts! New objects created specially for the module - ships, ground vehicles, buildings, coastal defenses, V-1 buzzbombs and their launch positions, dozens of new aircraft paint schemes, etc. New mid-1944 Career mode includes 3 countries, 5 phases, 17 frontline states, 225 historical squadrons, 103 of them joinable by the player, many new mission types - all this is just a couple of clicks away.

Each aircraft includes a slew of historically correct modifications - unlike other games where each modification would be counted as a separate aircraft model, in Great Battles you can freely select and combine them. For instance, Me-410 A-1 mentioned above has modifications that, when selected, make it a whole model lineup:

1. Me-410 A-1/U2,
   
2. Me-410 A-1/U4,
   
3. Me-410 B,
   
4. Me-410 B-2,
   
5. Me-410 B-2/U1,
   
6. Me-410 B-2/U2,
   
7. Me-410 B-2/U4,
   
8. Me-410 B-2/U4 field mod with four MG 151 guns.

Meanwhile, we're actively developing the next HUGE update 5.002 - it is already in the beta-testing stage and will be released soon, in a couple of weeks. It will bring the long awaited Churchill IV player controllable tank and many improvements both for the Battle of Normandy and Great Battles series as a whole. Just take a look at the version highlights:

• Churchill IV Collector Vehicle
  
• Dynamic Visual Damage (DVD) tech for all aircraft in the Great Battles series (the projectile holes will appear at exact place of the impact corresponding to the skin material and round type)
  
• Customizable tactical numbers for all aircraft in the Great Battles series with historically accurate symbols and fonts for each represented country and timeframe (WWI or WWII) and additional paint schemes to accomodate them
  
• Liberty and Design 1013 cargo ships for Battle of Normandy
  
• A myriad of Normandy map enhancements: rivers, buildings, ports, churches, roads and railroads, airfields, harbors, cliffs etc.
  
• New propeller rotation and formation lights effects for all aircraft in the Great Battles series
  
• Enhanced AI attack routines for air and ground targets
  
• Dozens of other fixes and improvements

Stay tuned for our news and enjoy Normandy!

Dear Friends,

Today is a big day. IL-2 Sturmovik team is glad to report that after almost three years of development Battle of Normandy is out of Early Access and is officially released - 5.001 update is out!

The official release also means that in addition to Battle of Normandy Premium Edition in our webstore there’s now Standard Edition without two Collector Planes - German jet bomber Arado Ar 234 and British fighter Spitfire Mk.XIV (they can be bought individually). On Steam the new module and its accompanying Collector Planes will become available for purchase in the coming weeks - please stay tuned while we work out the details. As usual, Battle of Normandy owners who have linked IL-2 and Steam accounts can access all the new content in the Steam version already.



In addition to a ton of new content, update 5.001 brings the results of the big work on the damage model improvements which are of course are applicable to all the modules as usual - as you can see in the long list below, it required many changes in various parts of the sim. The testing and tuning of these changes by beta-testers from the community took a lot of time. We think this is the big step forward for Great Battles series and hope you’ll enjoy it.

There are many other fixes and improvements - for instance, the mission loading time has been reduced dramatically, several times less on some PC configurations! The pilot and tank crew AI got better, etc. The full changelist is avaialble here.

DD 326

Dear Pilots and Tankers!

Today’s DD gives you a glimpse of the gorgeous scenes that are possible with the new Normandy map which is rapidly nearing completion and we give you a sneak peak at the progress on the Churchill Mk.IV exterior and interior.

NOTE: Both Battle of Normandy and the Churchill Mk.IV Collector Tank will be released on Steam just as soon as they are ready.

Below are some recent screens I’ve taken with each of the aircraft built specifically for Battle of Normandy including the AI piloted B-26. Of course, all of these planes can be flown alongside your own or against in any title in the series. This really is our most detailed and complex map we’ve ever made and pushes our current map technology to its limit. It will provide countless hours of great missions and historical re-enactments of this pivotal battle and theater of the war. We think you’ll like it.





Below are some very WIP images of the Churchill Mk.IV tank coming to Great Battles. As you can see the interior is NOT textured completely, but you can tell that our friends at DigitalForms have once again done an amazing modeling job!





It’s another very busy summer for us. Stay tuned!

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Update 4.707

Dear Pilots and Tankers!

The IL-2 Sturmovik team is nearing the finish line of our Battle of Normandy development cycle. However, after some deliberation, we decided not to make you wait any longer than necessary for the next update and to prepare an interim release for you containing what is already ready. So, today we bring you the final aircraft in the BON hangar – the Me 410 A-1 ‘Hornisse’ and our new Custom Input Profile feature!

Our Me 410 was bult from scratch and became a very challenging model for us to build. It’s cockpit and rear facing gunner station is very unique and it took several modelers to finish it. There were many engineering challenges and complex equipment to model. It can appear to the user as an example of clever WWII German engineering or unnecessarily complex WWII German engineering long after the war had shifted against the Luftwaffe. Whichever way it strikes you, our 410 is the most highly detailed model of its kind in any combat flight simulator to date. Our very special team has built a very special bird. It comes loaded with many armament options to create several different sub-variants that you can try in virtual combat. Enjoy!

NOTE: This aircraft will be available on Steam just as soon as we complete Battle of Normandy and release it here.




In addition to the new aircraft, we have prepared for you a feature that you have been asking us to make for a long time – Custom Input Profiles and Pitch Response Profiles that can be assigned to individual aircraft. We created a video about this new feature for you earlier, but we recommend that you review it again so you can understand how it works. It’s quite simple, but powerful. Like all other features of Il-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles, this new feature will be available to owners of all titles in the series – Normandy, Stalingrad, Moscow, Kuban, Bodenplatte, Flying Circus I/II and Tank Crew.

The final Normandy release event will take place in the coming weeks as we put the finishing touches on the Normandy map and gameplay modes such as the Pilot Career, QMB and AQMG. We also need to finish our prep work for the V-1 “Buzz Bomb”. At that point we will release it here in the IL-2 Official Webstore and on Steam and remember that shortly thereafter the price will increase to its normal full price. If you haven’t already jumped in, now is a super great time to do so!!!

As always, in addition to the main changes, we have made a number of improvements and fixes aimed at improving the quality of your simulation experience. We hope you enjoy.

4.707

Main Features:
1. The German Me 410 twin-engine two-seat fighter-bomber is now available for all players who have pre-ordered Battle of Normandy;
2. You can now create various Input Profiles and assign them to different planes and tanks;
3. You can now create pitch axis response profiles and assign them to different aircraft;
4. New gunners model (as well as navigator in the A-20 and radio operator in the C-47) for American A-20, B-25, and C-47 aircraft crews added;
5. New bridge destruction visual effects added;

Armament Changes:
6. Machine guns and automatic cannons on aircraft and player controllable tanks can now misfire when overheated (including the turret guns);
7. If a loader is killed in a player controllable tank, the player has to press the reloading key after each shot to reload the gun;
8. The bug that caused too frequent misfires of WWI aircraft weapons has been fixed;
9. MG81 gun barrel overheat value has been corrected (it overheated too fast);
10. Restored the techno-chat message about machine gun overheating in aircraft and tank turrets;
11. The issue where an AP shell could be stopped by one 100mm plate but couldn't be stopped by 50mm+50mm double plates was fixed. Spaced armor plates with total thickness similar to one thick plate now stop AP rounds better than one plate;
12. An explosion of an APHE projectile inside a detailed tank would correctly damage nearby equipment or crew members (previously it could result in no damage in some cases);
13. The issue of large bombs damaging only a small part of a dense scene (many objects) has been minimized;

Arado 234 Changes:
14. The destructive overload value listed in the Ar 234 aircraft datasheet has been corrected;
15. The effect of Ar 234 flight stability loss at overcritical Mach numbers has been reduced;
16. Ar 234 cockpit reflections became more pronounced;

AI Changes:
17. AI controlled planes which rotated on the ground because of damaged landing gear are now removed from the simulation after some time (previously such planes could rotate infinitely during takeoff or landing and thus occupy the runway);
18. AI terrain recognition algorithm has been improved when flying in groups (previously its shortcomings could cause them to crash when flying over a terrain with big altitude differences, like over mountains on the Kuban map);
19. AI aircraft turret gunners now lean to the machine gun and prepare to fire on the target in advance, before it enters the fire zone;
20. AI pilots differentiate by altitude while landing on a same airfield;
21. Due to a bug in the target selection the AI tank gunners operating the guns with a limited fire sector did not fire when they were assigned targets outside their fire sector - this shouldn’t happen again;

Mission Editor Changes:
22. It is possible to edit countries and coalitions for multiple locations of the same type;
23. The ability to place outgoing target links from MCU:Complex Trigger has been removed (the necessary links were and still are set only through Events in the Advanced Properties of the Trigger itself, the outgoing target link did not work);
24. Object links for Land and Take Off commands can be set only for aircraft;
25. The performance when copying/pasting objects in large missions has been improved;
26. New Ungroup Recursive command was added for a group of objects, allowing to ungroup all subgroups in it;
27. The durability of Building, Block, Bridge, and Airfield object types can be reset to default values using the Reset Durability button. There is also a new command in the Tools menu with the self-explanatory name Reset All Durability;

Multiplayer Changes:
28. When connecting to a Dogfight server, airfields in the lobby appear faster;
29. Mission script commands in Cooperative game mode work for groups of objects with players;

Other Changes:
30. Oyster_KAI has improved cockpit detail of P-51B, Mosquito, Bf-110E2/G, Ju-88A4/C6 and He-111H6/H16;
31. The (fictional) photographers' names appear under photos in newspapers in Career mode;
32. Landscape parts shouldn’t disappear from view on wide-angle VR HMDs anymore;
33. Pause button during recorded track playback works correctly;
34. Me 410 has been added to the Rhineland pilot career mode to II./KG 51 (joinable by player).

See you in the skies and on the battlefield!

The Sturmovik Team

325

Dear Pilots,

Today’s Developer Diary is a video that shows the Me 410 in action! We’re very proud of this aircraft because it is the most detailed and comprehensive modeling of a 410 ever in a combat flight simulator. It took several team members to complete it and lots of testing from the Beta testers to get it to its final form, but here is a sneak peak of the upcoming ‘Hornisse’ in action. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we worked to ready the 410 for release.












We continue to finish the Normandy map, which is the most complex map we have ever made, and work continues on our other Collector Planes and Tanks as planned. We hope to have more images to show you soon on those. The FC2 map continues to be worked on as well.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

324

Hello Pilots and Tankers!

Today’s Developer Diary is a video of a GREAT NEW FEATURE for the Great Battles series – Custom Input Profiles! This will allow you to create many different input profiles and pitch responses for your favorite planes and tanks and assign them to each one. The profiles will automatically load each time you jump into the cockpit. This has been a long-requested feature and we are happy that it is just about ready for release. It makes managing your Great Battles install a lot easier. We hope you like what you see in the video.

Note: Steam users this feature will be available for all users and all Great Battles titles as soon as it's released.



Work on Battle of Normandy and all other content continues as planned and the ME 410 is on final approach. As we have mentioned before, it has proven to be one of the most challenging to build, but we think you will get a kick out of flying it!

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

323

Dear Pilots and Tankers!

As the team continues to work on finishing the ME 410 and work out the kinks in the Normandy map, here are a few pics showing progress on a some hotly awaited Collector content – the Siemens-Schuckert D.IV and the Stug III Ausf. G. Both are progressing nicely as they are built by Ugra Media and DigitalForms respectively. We look forward to releasing them to you as they will both make excellent additions to Flying Circus and Tank Crew.

Note: The Siemens-Schuckert D.IV and the Stug III Ausf. G. will be made available for purchase on Steam just as soon as they are ready.

Siemens-Schuckert D.IV





Stug III Ausf. G.



Work on our Custom Input Profile system also continues as does work on the Normandy Career. All of our other announced collector aircraft and vehicles such as the C-47, Churchill, IAR 80/81 and Spitfire Mk. XIV “Bubble Top” are also inching closer to being ready. It’s a hot and busy summer for the team!

We also have a new FREE Scripted Campaign for Battle of Bodenplatte coming later this summer called Wild Mustangs featuring the P-51D which was built by our friend and partner Jaegermeister. It’s looks like a lot of fun! More on that soon.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

322

Dear Pilots!

Today’s Developer Diary is a continuation of last weeks with more pictures of the upcoming ME 410 release, this time of the very cool looking cockpit along with more images of airfields on the Normandy map.

The ME 410 is the last of the player flyable aircraft from the Normandy plane-set to be released and the cockpit proved to be a challenge to create, especially with its unique defensive armament arrangement and complicated gunner controls. However, our modeling and engineering teams have once again created an amazing combat experience for IL-2 pilots. The ME 410 will enter beta testing very soon and testers can put it through its paces. We’re almost there Hornisse fans!

NOTE: The ME 410 will become available to Steam users as soon as Battle of Normandy is released on Steam this Summer.






A fun fact about the Normandy map is that there are 100 airfields total when you combine the airfields in southern England and Normandy regions. These pics are just a few.




Work on the Normandy map, Normandy Career and remaining vehicles and ships continue full throttle as we march to release in the coming weeks.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

321

Dear Pilots,

Today’s DD brings us images of the ME 410 A-1 in the engine finally, showing off some of its paint-schemes and beautiful lines. This beautiful bird has been in development for a long time, but the wait has been worth it. The cockpit was an especially challenging piece of work and we’ll have pics of it in the next Developer Diary, but today feast your eyes on its external beauty. Our 410 an A-1 model, but with various modifications that are included it can also become a B-2 variant. We think you will really enjoy the ME 410 A-1 ‘Hornisse’ as it was known. It’s another triumph for the Sturmovik modeling and engineering teams! The ME 410 will enter Beta in about a week’s time.





We also have several images of airfields that will be present on the Normandy map. It’s nearing completion and will enter Beta soon as well. It should be noted that the images below are still WIP and some textures may not final. As we have highlighted in previous diaries, different fields have different surfaces. These images definitely demonstrate a variety of different types. Just like our previous maps there will be numerous airfields to launch missions from and of course attack! There is just a huge variety of different airfield types to choose from.





Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team