Dev blog #344: new Kuban campaign, air race news, new career mode missions

[LukeFF]

Dev blog #344 has been posted here: https://il2sturmovik.com/news/801/dev-blog-344/

 

[Rjel]

And you could've heard a pin drop.... 

 

Oh, and first.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Rjel

[tattywelshie]

Looks fab, and great about new mission types coming to Normandy, all adds to the immersion. 

[JG4_Moltke1871]

Umph…. Artillery spotting on Overlord beaches… sounds great, I already enjoy artillery adjustment missions in Flying Circus ? (maybe can enlarge the area radius from where I can transmit my corrections ?)

Also curious about the Arado recon missions.

Go ahead team! ➡️

[LuftManu]

Recce missions are really important for war times! Can't wait to employ Arado for that! ?

[LukeFF]

20 minutes ago, JG4_Moltke1871 said:

Also curious about the Arado recon missions.

 

They'll be solo recon missions where the objective is to photograph a strip of enemy-controlled territory at high altitudes. 

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

I will enjoy a lot this campaign, as all @BlackSix campaigns. Now I'm waiting for a campaign for the P-39 too. It is a forgotten plane even in the comunity campaigns.

Edited June 10, 2023 by LF_Mark_Krieger

[percydanvers]

I'm not a big YaK guy but if Blacksix is making the campaign I think I'll probably buy it. His stuff is always fun!

[spreckair]

Love to see another campaign focused on a Russian a/c.  I will be flying this one as soon as it comes out.

[Sandmarken]

Artillery spotting, is it gona be the destroyer shooting those shells or wil we get a new navalcraft!? ?

[LukeFF]

32 minutes ago, Sandmarken said:

Artillery spotting, is it gona be the destroyer shooting those shells or wil we get a new navalcraft!? ?

 

It'll be the US destroyer that's currently in the game.

[JLean]

You guys can read my mind 

 

I was just today, while jogging, thinking how I miss those regular friday updates. those really were something to wait and gave a great start for a weekend.

I was also thinking that DD does not need to be always some new announcement. I could be some glimpse of coming item with history background.

 

...and here it is. 

 

 JLean

 

 

[Spidey002]

Which Spit squadrons should I join for those naval spotter missions?

[Livai]

3 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

They'll be solo recon missions where the objective is to photograph a strip of enemy-controlled territory at high altitudes. 

 

What if "we fly very low altitudes creating very high-resolution photographs from the objectives gives this us some extra scores"

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, Spidey002 said:

Which Spit squadrons should I join for those naval spotter missions?

 

It'll be 26 and 63 Squadrons - they were for the most part dedicated artillery adjustment/reconnaissance units throughout their existence in WWII.

 

31 minutes ago, Livai said:

What if "we fly very low altitudes creating very high-resolution photographs from the objectives gives this us some extra scores"

 

Won't work - part of the requirement will be to fly at a specified altitude and bearing.

[sevenless]

Nice! Yak-7b campaign and adding new mission types for career-mode are highly appreciated. The more mission types the merrier. Any plans to integrate some tac-recce squadrons to career mode?

 

Like some of these?

 

5 Reconnaissance Wing
– No. 2, 4, 268 Squadrons

34 Reconnaissance Wing
– No. 16, 69, 140 Squadrons

39 (Canada) Reconnaissance Wing
– No. 168, 400, 414, 430 Squadrons (Canada)

[LukeFF]

14 minutes ago, sevenless said:

Nice! Yak-7b campaign and adding new mission types for career-mode are highly appreciated. The more mission types the merrier. Any plans to integrate some tac-recce squadrons to career mode?

 

Like some of these?

 

5 Reconnaissance Wing
– No. 2, 4, 268 Squadrons

34 Reconnaissance Wing
– No. 16, 69, 140 Squadrons

39 (Canada) Reconnaissance Wing
– No. 168, 400, 414, 430 Squadrons (Canada)

 

There's always a chance, but I don't want to get ahead of myself and say one way or another. ?

[Hamaha15]

Morning,

 

good news. Have only been waiting for WWII recce mission devices to give BDA missions a reasonable target - e.g. after the Eindhoven raid. Racing at tree top level across the Netherlands, competing against stirred up German defences to just make two passes over a confined area and take pictures at the right moment.

 

 

 

 

Glazed nose skin of Mosquito DZ314 F°GB created by @Taurus

Edited June 10, 2023 by Hamaha15

[BlackSix]

17 hours ago, LF_Mark_Krieger said:

I will enjoy a lot this campaign, as all @BlackSix campaigns. Now I'm waiting for a campaign for the P-39 too. It is a forgotten plane even in the comunity campaigns.

Thanks!

I've researched this issue in detail and so far I cannot decide to make such a campaign. During the spring battle, all P-39 regiments were located too far from the front line (from 70 to 125 km), this has a very bad effect on gameplay and I try not to create missions with such long-range flights in both directions. The only naval P-39 regiment, which was based close, in Gelendzhik, arrived only on May 20 and for a long time couldn't start full-fledged combat work, and then performed very peculiar tasks. I haven't completely abandoned this idea, but I don't know how to do it well yet. Maybe some new information will appear in the future.

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

15 minutes ago, BlackSix said:

Thanks!

I've researched this issue in detail and so far I cannot decide to make such a campaign. During the spring battle, all P-39 regiments were located too far from the front line (from 70 to 125 km), this has a very bad effect on gameplay and I try not to create missions with such long-range flights in both directions. The only naval P-39 regiment, which was based close, in Gelendzhik, arrived only on May 20 and for a long time couldn't start full-fledged combat work, and then performed very peculiar tasks. I haven't completely abandoned this idea, but I don't know how to do it well yet. Maybe some new information will appear in the future.

Ops. Didn't know the historical data. What you say makes sense, obviously. I prefer historical campaigns, but I undestand that the playability is important and too long distances are boring for most players. Would be nice to find something, but I completely understand. Thank you!

[BlackSix]

7 minutes ago, LF_Mark_Krieger said:

Ops. Didn't know the historical data. What you say makes sense, obviously. I prefer historical campaigns, but I undestand that the playability is important and too long distances are boring for most players. Would be nice to find something, but I completely understand. Thank you!

In the upcoming Yak-7 campaign, you'll have to make three sorties from Novotitarovskaya, located 80 km from the front line (in two sorties, you'll need to land on another, closer airfield). It was even boring to test and debug)) and it'll show the potential problem with the P-39 regiments to the fullest, since the entire P-39 campaign should consist of such sorties...

I'm still thinking about how to get around this problem.

[Freycinet]

Are you totally against making a small sacrifice of historical accuracy and shifting those P-39 squadrons to airfields closer to the front line?

 

In my opinion it would be a fully acceptable and very minor tweak. 

[BlackSix]

35 minutes ago, Freycinet said:

Are you totally against making a small sacrifice of historical accuracy and shifting those P-39 squadrons to airfields closer to the front line?

In my opinion it would be a fully acceptable and very minor tweak. 

In this situation, yes. Sometimes there is not enough information and you've to do something based on assumptions, but the history of these regiments and their locations are too well known, I cannot bring them closer to the front line, for me such a campaign will not be historical, sorry)

[Freycinet]

OK, cool.

 

I am a historian, and to me the added value of letting players vicariously experience a little bit of what it was like to be a fighter pilot in WWII weighs more heavily than such a small concession to historical reality.

 

No matter if a campaign has P-39s flying out of their actual airfield or an airfield closer to the front, the sim experience is still very far away from the actual reality of flying in WWII. However, with a gameplay concession such as this, many more players will try out a P-39 campaign. Hopefully a good part of them will want to delve more into the historical battles and read books about them (Bergström's...). And then they will discover that the P-39s actually flew from fields further away from the front. No big deal whatsoever. The important thing is that those players learnt about history, and they did so because of a cool campaign.

 

Just my 5 eurocents.     

[FeuerFliegen]

20 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

They'll be solo recon missions where the objective is to photograph a strip of enemy-controlled territory at high altitudes. 

 

Will they be just like the single mission that we have now that involves Arado recon?

[BlackSix]

36 minutes ago, Freycinet said:

OK, cool.

 

I am a historian, and to me the added value of letting players vicariously experience a little bit of what it was like to be a fighter pilot in WWII weighs more heavily than such a small concession to historical reality.

 

No matter if a campaign has P-39s flying out of their actual airfield or an airfield closer to the front, the sim experience is still very far away from the actual reality of flying in WWII. However, with a gameplay concession such as this, many more players will try out a P-39 campaign. Hopefully a good part of them will want to delve more into the historical battles and read books about them (Bergström's...). And then they will discover that the P-39s actually flew from fields further away from the front. No big deal whatsoever. The important thing is that those players learnt about history, and they did so because of a cool campaign.

 

Just my 5 eurocents.     

I largely agree with you, but for me this is an insurmountable obstacle, I can’t do anything with myself))

In any case, I won't have to deal with this issue in the next two campaigns (La-5 ser.8 and Bf 109 G-4) yet.

[Avimimus]

I think featuring history, and stories is a really good idea for generating interest. Reading history books and biographies really helped my interest in flights sims - as did flight simulator manuals that included history (e.g. SWOTL manual and Air Combat Classics Strategy guide).

 

For instance, doing a couple dev updates talking about the Lisunov Li-2 when pre-orders start could boost sales - and there is are a lot of dramatic stories to talk about, for instance:

Interview with Olga Mikhaylovna Lisikova – Lend-Lease

 

By the way, if we got a couple of cargo payloads for the U-2VS we could more fully recreate her career (and expand the transport/liaison careers available)  

 

P.S. Excited about the new mission types (can't help imagining doing some artillery spotting in an Fi-156, Fw-189, or Ar-196 someday... one can dream)!

 

 

 

  

5 hours ago, BlackSix said:

In this situation, yes. Sometimes there is not enough information and you've to do something based on assumptions, but the history of these regiments and their locations are too well known, I cannot bring them closer to the front line, for me such a campaign will not be historical, sorry)

 

It is a bit sad that the structure of the mission files doesn't allow having air-start as an option (for those of us who have less time to spare). I suppose we can just be more selective about which campaigns to play though!

 

I do hope we get a WWI AQMB that has air-starts very close to the target area (WWI aircraft are slow!!) Anyway, scripted campaigns are much more likely to be worth the time than dynamic/generated campaigns - so there is still a reason to prefer them if one has limited time.

[Avimimus]

18 hours ago, sevenless said:

Like some of these?

 

5 Reconnaissance Wing
– No. 2, 4, 268 Squadrons

34 Reconnaissance Wing
– No. 16, 69, 140 Squadrons

39 (Canada) Reconnaissance Wing
– No. 168, 400, 414, 430 Squadrons (Canada)

 

Spoiler

When you're seven miles up in the heavens,
And that's a heck of a lonely spot,
And it's fifty degrees below zero,
Which isn't exactly hot.

 

When you're frozen blue like your Spitfire,
And you're scared a Mosquito pink,
When you're thousands of miles from nowhere,
And there's nothing below but the drink -

 

It's then you will see the gremlins,
Green and gamboge and gold,
Male and female and neuter,
Gremlins both young and old.

 

White ones'll wiggle your wingtips,
Male ones'll muddle your maps,
Green ones'll guzzle your glycol,
Females will flutter your flaps.

 

Pink ones will perch on your perspex,
And dance pirouettes on your prop,
There's one spherical middle-aged gremlin
Who spins on your stick like a top.

 

They'll freeze up your camera shutters,
They'll bite through your aileron wires,
They'll cause your whole tail to flutter,
They'll insert toasting forks in your tyres.

 

This is the song of the gremlins
As sung by the P R U,
Pretty Ruddy Unlikely to many,
But fact nonetheless to the few.

 

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

11 hours ago, BlackSix said:

I largely agree with you, but for me this is an insurmountable obstacle, I can’t do anything with myself))

In any case, I won't have to deal with this issue in the next two campaigns (La-5 ser.8 and Bf 109 G-4) yet.

I understand you. Anyway in single player we have the option to accelerate time x8 if the frontline is far and we don't have time. La-5 would be another great add to the campaigns, too.

[BlackSix]

15 hours ago, Avimimus said:

It is a bit sad that the structure of the mission files doesn't allow having air-start as an option (for those of us who have less time to spare). I suppose we can just be more selective about which campaigns to play though!

To be honest, I wouldn't want this opportunity for the players. Myself and other mission creators usually put a lot of effort into saturate the airspace with planes around the airfield and add ground columns and trains during your takeoffs and landings, and this work can be wasted in case of air-start...

Moreover, very important events can occur during takeoff or landing, and then we'll have to give up such unforeseen moments.

 

The option of skipping part of the route would be more optimal, but then the work on saturating it would also be lost, if we are not talking about flights over the sea. But even there, you can show the player sea convoys, submarines, etc.

[JG4_Moltke1871]

2 hours ago, BlackSix said:

To be honest, I wouldn't want this opportunity for the players. Myself and other mission creators usually put a lot of effort into saturate the airspace with planes around the airfield and add ground columns and trains during your takeoffs and landings, and this work can be wasted in case of air-start...

Moreover, very important events can occur during takeoff or landing, and then we'll have to give up such unforeseen moments.

 

The option of skipping part of the route would be more optimal, but then the work on saturating it would also be lost, if we are not talking about flights over the sea. But even there, you can show the player sea convoys, submarines, etc.

That’s the dilemma …. Speak for myself every mission can start cold and dark on the ramp. If it’s offered I even enjoy the taxiing ?( unfortunately not offered in the career mode ) I also really enjoy the ambiance of the traffic in the air and on the ground. But I can understand if someone have less time for all this… Best would be offer air+ground options like in the career but I don’t know it’s possible.

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

With time I also learnt to enjoy longer missions. Today I even starter a He 111 career with the start on the runway. I also prefer to start with motors off, although I always use preheated engines option.

[LukeFF]

On 6/10/2023 at 4:35 AM, SCG_FeuerFliegen said:

Will they be just like the single mission that we have now that involves Arado recon?

 

Most likely.

[Jaegermeister]

On 6/10/2023 at 7:35 AM, SCG_FeuerFliegen said:

 

Will they be just like the single mission that we have now that involves Arado recon?

 

There are various ways to display or utilize the photo recon actions, but the mechanics will be about the same. Different results besides an image of the recon picture can be displayed or triggered when you take the photograph. We will have to wait and see how they are set up.

[JG4_Moltke1871]

56 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

There are various ways to display or utilize the photo recon actions, but the mechanics will be about the same. Different results besides an image of the recon picture can be displayed or triggered when you take the photograph. We will have to wait and see how they are set up.

BTW, it would be nice can have the option to set the trigger to open the menu for photo, ground recon and artillery adjustment (Flying Circus) on a button of own choice. So far only have the keybind LWin+1

[Jaegermeister]

8 hours ago, JG4_Moltke1871 said:

BTW, it would be nice can have the option to set the trigger to open the menu for photo, ground recon and artillery adjustment (Flying Circus) on a button of own choice. So far only have the keybind LWin+1

 

It is hard coded into the interface.

 

I have a Max keyboard Falcon 20 keypad that is set up to duplicate all the F_ buttons in VR so I don't have to use a keyboard. One of those keys also duplicates LWin+1

 

Spoiler

 

[JG4_Moltke1871]

8 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

It is hard coded into the interface.

 

I have a Max keyboard Falcon 20 keypad that is set up to duplicate all the F_ buttons in VR so I don't have to use a keyboard. One of those keys also duplicates LWin+1

I tried to put this key command on my stream deck but for unknown reason the game accept the LWin+1 command only from my keyboard, not from stream deck. Windows react… any idea why Il2 not?

[Jaegermeister]

8 hours ago, JG4_Moltke1871 said:

I tried to put this key command on my stream deck but for unknown reason the game accept the LWin+1 command only from my keyboard, not from stream deck. Windows react… any idea why Il2 not?

 

You might want to look for a thread in the controllers section, or start one.

[[JGzbV]Phenom]

after all these yrs its still moving forward with great stuff

[Gambit21]

WWI aircraft races would be awesome.

 

Tighter course/sharper turns around pylons etc.