Dev Blog #371: Latest news on the Odessa and Leningrad module and more

[Bell]

I'm afraid they will not make TB-3.

 

 

[Docholiday]

In my Opinion it is still the Beaufighter (TFX or VIC) who is needed as alied Bomber!   

 

But a B-25G with straffer nose would be fine too!

 

 

At least a A- 20G should be in the game.    🫣

 

 

For FC   The Hansa Brandenburg   and the Felixtowe  would be good additions 😉

 

Doc

Edited August 26 by Docholiday

[BlitzPig_EL]

Good choices Doc, any of them could be my Huckleberry.

 

[Jackfraser24]

8 hours ago, Docholiday said:

In my Opinion it is still the Beaufighter (TFX or VIC) who is needed as alied Bomber!   

 

But a B-25G with straffer nose would be fine too!

 

 

At least a A- 20G should be in the game.    🫣

I agree that we need the Beaufighter Mk.VIc and the A-20G in the game, as the latter would be a great fit on the Eastern Front, and both would be great additions on the Western Front. 
 

Another aircraft I have heard to be very much desired is the Mosquito Mk.IV, which I think (though correct me if I’m wrong) saw service in Normandy and Benelux in 1944. I wonder if that is in the pipeline.

[Plants]

I know it's beating a dead horse, and the team has their hands full with other projects. But a B-24 or B-17 even AI only would be a game changer to singleplayer and multiplayer. Pretty much all of the German planes from Normandy onwards have engines tuned for high altitude, and heavy cannons made for shooting at bombers. Plenty for the allies to do by escorting them, and getting to fight at high altitude where planes like the P-47 are meant to. Getting the Ta-152 as a collector plane was the biggest shock, because it's like having a Stuka with no tanks or ships to drop bombs on. It was designed for no other purpose. 

 

I know the game engine can't handle 4 engine bombers, but when there's a will there's a way. Fallout 3 engine didn't support moving vehicles at all, but they needed a scene where the player rides in a train, so they made an NPC wear a train as a hat, and walk. I'm not saying something so extreme needs to happen, but you could have a basic flightmodel that has the appearance of 4 engines, but with thrust only coming from 2, just providing double the thrust. 

 

The problem then, is CPU loading from having lots of gunners etc. We already have the He-111 which has 5 gunners each. Even if the numbers have to be reduced, better to have that than no heavy bombers at all.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, Plants said:

I know the game engine can't handle 4 engine bombers

That's a myth that has long been debunked. The game supports 4-engine bombers just fine. The reason there aren't any is that they cost significantly more resources to make than smaller aircraft, even when AI only.

 

What the game cannot handle, is large formations of tens or even hundreds of aircraft. But that has nothing to do with 4-engine bombers per se.

 

I do agree with the rest of your post though. A B-17 would enable a completely new mission type, even if we cannot have complete formations. Still, you're correct that you're beating a dead horse here since we won't see any in the current engine

Edited August 27 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Plants]

1 hour ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

That's a myth that has long been debunked. The game supports 4-engine bombers just fine. The reason there aren't any is that they cost significantly more resources to make than smaller aircraft, even when AI only.

 

What the game cannot handle, is large formations of tens or even hundreds of aircraft. But that has nothing to do with 4-engine bombers per se.

 

I do agree with the rest of your post though. A B-17 would enable a completely new mission type, even if we cannot have complete formations. Still, you're correct that you're beating a dead horse here since we won't see any in the current engine

 

 

I stand corrected about the engine limitation, but I'd still rather take off to intercept a flight of 4-8 B-17s than a flight of 0 B-17s 😥

Edited August 27 by Plants

[Kubert]

I don't understand why people keep asking for strategic bombers. I am not even part of dev team and consider it annoying. Even if it would be easy to make them, Battle of Normandy module showed us that the game is not ideal for capturing huge operations with thousands of units like operation Overlord or, in this case, strategic bombing campaign. I can very well imagine how would it look if strategic bombers was in the game. We would get mission to intercept bombing of, let's say, Frankfurt...and there would be only 12 bombers at most with maybe 10 Mustangs as cover. I don't know about you, but for me it would be extremely immersion breaking. I would rather flown mid-altitude mission against the same formation of B-25 or B-26 which would be definitely more believable.

 

Another thing is map. Bodenplatte don't have airports for strategic bombers. What if you follow them to the border of the map? They despawn in front of you? Or start circeling because they won't have where to go?

 

Strategic bombers had have a lot of issues even if they would be in the game already. I consider dev's focus at tactical warfare a lot more reasonable and I like that they are don't making a project which would be impossible to make in scale it deserves.

 

I would like to fly full scaled Battle of Britain or western front strategic bombing campaign, but let's be realistic here and focus on low to mid altitude tactical warfare. The thing this game was made for at first place and in my opinion excells in it. Better to focus on expanding strong suits than weak ones. 

Edited August 27 by Kubert

[Bell]

52 minutes ago, Kubert said:

I don't understand why people keep asking for strategic bombers

B-25 is medium bomber and Tu-2 is frontline bomber,but they still don't want to make them flyable.Look at A-20B,it doesn't have navigator position.They just don't want to make aircraft with multi positions.

Edited August 27 by Bell

[tattywelshie]

2 hours ago, Kubert said:

I don't understand why people keep asking for strategic bombers. I am not even part of dev team and consider it annoying. Even if it would be easy to make them, Battle of Normandy module showed us that the game is not ideal for capturing huge operations with thousands of units like operation Overlord or, in this case, strategic bombing campaign. I can very well imagine how would it look if strategic bombers was in the game. We would get mission to intercept bombing of, let's say, Frankfurt...and there would be only 12 bombers at most with maybe 10 Mustangs as cover. I don't know about you, but for me it would be extremely immersion breaking. I would rather flown mid-altitude mission against the same formation of B-25 or B-26 which would be definitely more believable.

 

Another thing is map. Bodenplatte don't have airports for strategic bombers. What if you follow them to the border of the map? They despawn in front of you? Or start circeling because they won't have where to go?

 

Strategic bombers had have a lot of issues even if they would be in the game already. I consider dev's focus at tactical warfare a lot more reasonable and I like that they are don't making a project which would be impossible to make in scale it deserves.

 

I would like to fly full scaled Battle of Britain or western front strategic bombing campaign, but let's be realistic here and focus on low to mid altitude tactical warfare. The thing this game was made for at first place and in my opinion excells in it. Better to focus on expanding strong suits than weak ones. 

I totally agree with this, never understood the obsession with shoehorning 4 engine bombers into a tactical air combat simulator. 

[Kubert]

@Bell

When people ask for B-25 or B-26 I completely support that. But strategic bombers would require more than just the plane added to the game. New module with bigger map ideally...which is also a limitation if I remember correctly. It is already hundred times explained no go, but people keep asking. 

[Bell]

4 hours ago, Kubert said:

@Bell

When people ask for B-25 or B-26 I completely support that. But strategic bombers would require more than just the plane added to the game. New module with bigger map ideally...which is also a limitation if I remember correctly. It is already hundred times explained no go, but people keep asking. 

Tu-2 is Korea,but they still are not willing to make it flyable.

[357th_KW]

The reason people keep asking for the B-17/B-24 is because they played an ENORMOUS role in the air war on the western front during 1944/45.  Entire battles were fought around them.  Some of the aircraft and modifications we have in the game were designed and built specifically for these campaigns.  By comparison the B-25/B-26 almost never encountered German fighters.  To give an example of this, Luftflotte 3 (the German fighter organization covering France during the Normandy period) filed around 35 claims during daylight against 4 engined bombers (B-17/B-24/Lanc) from June 6th through the end of July 1944.  Over the same period there were 4 claims against Allied light and medium bombers (A-20/B-25/B-26). 

 

And this is ignoring HUNDREDS of claims during the same time period from Luftwaffe day fighters operating over the Reich against 8th and 15th Air Force heavy bombers.  And while many of those battles took place off the maps we have, a fair number did occur over parts of the Rhineland and Normandy maps from 1942-1945.  And we have aircraft like the Ta-152 in game which never saw action over any part of any of our maps. 

 

There are more cases of mediums being engaged by fighters during the Bodenplatte time frame (specifically on Dec 23rd/24th), but during the same time the 8th staged raids on Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz, Frankfurt etc.

 

And complaints about scale and not enough aircraft/ground vehicles apply to every late war western front battle.  Whether we are talking about Normandy or Bodenplatte, we just can't get close to matching the historical scale of any of the major events, whether we are talking about the Normandy beach landings, the huge armored columns trapped at Falaise, the waves of transports flying to Arnhem, or entire Geschwader formations attacking individual airfields during Bodenplatte.  Using a small box of 18 bombers with 6-12 escorts and interceptors (which is entirely doable right now)  is no different then having a few flights of fighters engaging over a dozen or so tanks and artillery pieces.  The scale is vastly reduced from the big historical battles, but we can still get a lot of the individual experience where battles quickly broke down into small engagements with flights and pairs.

 

In short, the heavy bombers and the high altitude combat they bring with them was a HUGE part of the historical battles on the Western front, and the game would benefit from their addition, even in a streamlined AI-only format.

[Trooper117]

Not this again... 

[Kubert]

I said everything I wanted and I promise to not dissect this anymore. We can go back to the topic. Let's think what this "winged engines" could be. I suppose it could be something with an aviation...but I am not really sure. 

[150_GIAP-Red_Dragon]

Helicopter? 

[Jaegermeister]

3 hours ago, 150_GIAP-Red_Dragon said:

Helicopter? 

 

Yes, maybe the Sikorsky XR-4... That was operational in 1944 with the USAAF 

 

 

 

 

[BlitzPig_EL]

Not a chance.

 

We need an Allied medium bomber more than anything.

[Jaegermeister]

35 minutes ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Not a chance.

 

We need an Allied medium bomber more than anything.

 

All kidding aside, that is probably the most asked for addition of them all. If it's all about generating sales, that would be a good thing to bet on.

[Avimimus]

13 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Not a chance.

 

We need an Allied medium bomber more than anything.

 

You say that - but I still dream of a Fw-189! Technically a lot of wing for a couple of tiny engines.

 

  

13 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Not a chance.

 

We need an Allied medium bomber more than anything.

 

If I were picking an allied medium bomber - I'd go for something slow enough to be caught by the Ju-88C... i.e. Il-4 (Beaufighter or a British night bomber would work too). That said, an early model Pe-3 would take less resources and I'm still keen on it.

[BlitzPig_EL]

Perhaps I should qualify my thought as a Western Front Allied bomber.  Though an IL4 would be good too.  The Pe3 is more a heavy fighter than a true medium bomber, and wouldn't be enough different from the Pe2.   The Fw 189 would be cool too, but the Allied side really needs a flyable medium, or light bomber appropriate for the maps we have.

B25

B26

A26

A20G

All of which could be used by different countries, except the B26.

[=621=Samikatz]

Seeing as the new Il-2's model is complete, is there any information on how much that will differ from the 1943 model we already have? I know the new wings are supposed to give it better handling. Will we get any new weapons?

[Kubert]

I am also interested about new IL-2. In summer part of Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kuban, both older mods of IL-2 (42 and 43) have problem with climb. When temeperatures are above certain value they seems to fight with decision if they should climb, or cool engine first which ends up in weird nose-up, slow, low level fligh for an eternity. I think this issue should be fixed for all IL-2 versions in the game, especially now, when new version is on the way. Weirdly...in campaign Sea Dragons I didn't encounter any problems with that, so it is probably career specific thing. In the past I reported this as bug, with mission file added but it ended up without any solution as "not a bug". But it is not OK. When player can climb and AIs can follow him if he is a leader. Also AIs in campaign can climb, but in career, if AI is a leader they have a problem for some reason.

Edited August 28 by Kubert

[Enceladus828]

On 8/27/2025 at 11:57 AM, 357th_KW said:

The reason people keep asking for the B-17/B-24 is because they played an ENORMOUS role in the air war on the western front during 1944/45.  Entire battles were fought around them.  Some of the aircraft and modifications we have in the game were designed and built specifically for these campaigns.  By comparison the B-25/B-26 almost never encountered German fighters.  To give an example of this, Luftflotte 3 (the German fighter organization covering France during the Normandy period) filed around 35 claims during daylight against 4 engined bombers (B-17/B-24/Lanc) from June 6th through the end of July 1944.  Over the same period there were 4 claims against Allied light and medium bombers (A-20/B-25/B-26). 

Agree, a B-17 or B-24 in the game would better justify adding the Bf-109G-6A/S and Ta-152. I'm not saying that these planes should never have been added it's just we can only use the Ta-152 for a month in the Pilot Career and the Bf-109 at this point has been done to death so without these bombers it makes their inclusion somewhat unneeded when there are other aircraft variants like the Bf-110F-2 and Pe-3 that saw use in many places in the game, would require a similar amount of work to make, and would fill in some gaps.

 

Anyway, a flyable B-25 with just the cockpit modelled or an AI B-17 or B-24 and I'm happy 🙂

[ITAF_Rani]

Comon Luke..give us these heavies !! 

[Plants]

I am quite looking forward to having 2(?) extra eastern front careers added, that will be nice. While I love the addition of the Western front, this game does Eastern front so well. 

[sevenless]

6 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

A20G

 

Yep! Could be used on east and westfront. Would make a lot of sense.

[YoYo]

B-26 I suppose or IL-4.

Edited August 29 by YoYo

[Jackfraser24]

10 hours ago, sevenless said:

 

Yep! Could be used on east and westfront. Would make a lot of sense.

Agreed. The A-20G would make a lot of sense to be among the Great Battles list of allied planes. The reason why I say this is because the A-20G would fit perfectly in all 1943-45 pilot careers on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. The USAAF, RAF and VVS used them extensively on various offensive multirole missions such as tactical bombing, ground attack, close air support and anti-shipping roles. I believe it would also be a very popular heavy aircraft to use in Great Battles AQMB and on multiplayer servers. 

 

Edited August 29 by Jackfraser24

[354thFG_Leifr]

On 8/27/2025 at 10:22 PM, Kubert said:

I said everything I wanted and I promise to not dissect this anymore. We can go back to the topic. Let's think what this "winged engines" could be. I suppose it could be something with an aviation...but I am not really sure. 

 

Luke has previously commented that any new collector aircraft forthcoming after the completion of the Odessa module will be based on existing airframes already in game, presumably to help cut down on some development time. He's also mentioned that there will be some airframes that will be very well received by a greater part of the community. Personally, I am hoping for an A20G, the B26 and a P47M.

[BrotKasting]

3 minutes ago, 354thFG_Leifr said:

"... also mentioned that there will be some airframes that will be very well received by a greater part of the community."

Does this mean, we finally get another 109? 😉

[Jackfraser24]

7 minutes ago, 354thFG_Leifr said:

 

Luke has previously commented that any new collector aircraft forthcoming after the completion of the Odessa module will be based on existing airframes already in game, presumably to help cut down on some development time. He's also mentioned that there will be some airframes that will be very well received by a greater part of the community. Personally, I am hoping for an A20G, the B26 and a P47M.

Whatever the news will be I predict we will find out by November 21st 2025.

Edited August 29 by Jackfraser24

[Trooper117]

Oh god, not bombers... oh, alright then, if I have to, it has to be the A-20G...

[LukeFF]

6 hours ago, 354thFG_Leifr said:

Luke has previously commented that any new collector aircraft forthcoming after the completion of the Odessa module will be based on existing airframes already in game, presumably to help cut down on some development time.

 

Well, not entirely. 🙂 For Odessa and Leningrad, yes, existing models have been heavily leveraged. But, as the I-153 shows, that doesn't entirely preclude new models being built.

[Blitzen]

1 hour ago, LukeFF said:

 

Well, not entirely. 🙂 For Odessa and Leningrad, yes, existing models have been heavily leveraged. But, as the I-153 shows, that doesn't entirely preclude new models being built.

A new Ju-87 variant with 20 mm canons and Bf-109E -3correct? Others I've forgotten?

[Koenigstiger]

Hello,

 

when please is the release of the Leningrad map ?

Best greetings

[sevenless]

6 minutes ago, Koenigstiger said:

Hello,

 

when please is the release of the Leningrad map ?

Best greetings

 

https://il2sturmovik.com/news/883/dev-blog-370/

 

Quote

Winter
Official release including the Gulf of Finland map, pilot career mode, the La-7 series 1, and the IL-2 mod. 1944 aircraft.

 

[Alexmarine]

11 hours ago, Blitzen said:

A new Ju-87 variant with 20 mm canons and Bf-109E -3correct? Others I've forgotten?

Should be the Bf-109 E-4

 

10 hours ago, sevenless said:

 

https://il2sturmovik.com/news/883/dev-blog-370/

 

 

 

Note that the Careers release will be staggered and will go into 2026 before they are completely released. We will get 2 out of 4 careers in December and the last two next year. Probably we will see Odessa 41 and 44 first

Edited August 30 by Alexmarine

[354thFG_Leifr]

14 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

Well, not entirely. 🙂 For Odessa and Leningrad, yes, existing models have been heavily leveraged. But, as the I-153 shows, that doesn't entirely preclude new models being built.

 

The announcement can't come soon enough. 😍

[sevenless]

4 hours ago, 354thFG_Leifr said:

 

The announcement can't come soon enough. 😍

 

Yep. Lets hope they manage to release the full list of the five FAF planes: