Dev Blog #374: Flying Circus Development Update

[LukeFF]

Dear aviators,

 

Today, we are happy to report that our joint development with Ugra Media of a major Flying Circus-themed update is nearing completion. In mid-November, we plan to release this update, which will significantly expand and diversify the virtual world of World War I in our simulator. You can read all about it here: https://il2sturmovik.com/news/898/dev-blog-374/

[T24_Martin]

It is simply fantastic, that you keep improving this part of Great Battles! 

 

Thank you!

[MDzmitry]

Even if I'm not the biggest WW1 fan, I now have FC modules on my bucket list to go sightseeing in Western Europe, lol

[Blitzen]

Brilliant!

[BlitzPig_EL]

Looking forward to this.

[fergal69]

Great looking work - thanks for the work that continues to be put into GB.

 

Will it be possible to land on the Zepplin?

[BigMotor]

Great news.  Salute to the developers.

[sevenless]

Very nice to see the game(s) still improving. Great news!

 

— there will be additional important news before the end of the year. Please stay tuned and stay in touch!

Edited Friday at 05:20 PM by sevenless

[Avimimus]

1 hour ago, MDzmitry said:

Even if I'm not the biggest WW1 fan, I now have FC modules on my bucket list to go sightseeing in Western Europe, lol

 

Yeah. I find that the WWI aircraft (especially the early ones), tend to be quite quirky and peculiar to fly - which makes it quite entertaining to use them for sight-seeing.

 

  

13 minutes ago, fergal69 said:

Will it be possible to land on the Zepplin?

 

I'm pretty sure it will be possibly to try. The top of the Zeppelin isn't that flat, and it is a moving object... so the results will likely be quite entertaining.

[Flashy]

Super excited for this! So great to see so many of the important Belgian cities being added as well - Mons, Charleroi  and Brussels! Very cool! Hopefully we can get Liege too at some point (it will be the only big city missing in that area after the others are added). Cant wait to watch the zeppelin flying over them all! 

Edited Friday at 06:01 PM by Flashy

[JG4_Moltke1871]

Thanks for this update.

Nice to see the rear is more populated. See Aachen on the map is a dream 😍

At all it allows deep strikes, against the Zeppelin bases and beyond.

 

I hope to see a lot of it, especially in career mode 🙏🏻
 

[Trooper117]

59 minutes ago, sevenless said:

there will be additional important news before the end of the year. Please stay tuned and stay in touch!

 

I'm more interested in that sentence above... As good as the Zep looks, it would be way down the list of my priorities, as there are so many other much needed aeroplanes that are 'really' required to flesh out the plane set.

No, I'm not trying to rain on any ones parade as I know there are many fans of the Zeppelin and they are really looking forward to it... I just have different priorities.

Edited Friday at 06:16 PM by Trooper117

[Flashy]

17 minutes ago, Trooper117 said:

 

I'm more interested in that sentence above... As good as the Zep looks, it would be way down the list of my priorities, as there are so many other much needed aeroplanes that are 'really' required to flesh out the plane set.

No, I'm not trying to rain on any ones parade as I know there are many fans of the Zeppelin and they are really looking forward to it... I just have different priorities.

I completely agree with you, there are many of us in the community who have been banging on since the RoF days for the desperately needed early war 2 seaters, but for whatever reason they are not considered important enough to devote resources to by 1C. I am really glad to finally see a Zeppelin in the skies again in a modern sim - brings back good memories from the Red Baron 1 days 😄. It would have been even more amazing if we had a Channel map to use it on, but we take what we can get.. Its a free addition anyway, so I wont look a gift horse in the mouth..

[Kubert]

1 hour ago, fergal69 said:

Will it be possible to land on the Zepplin?

 

1 hour ago, Avimimus said:

I'm pretty sure it will be possibly to try. The top of the Zeppelin isn't that flat, and it is a moving object... so the results will likely be quite entertaining.

 

If you are able to land on the moving Zeppelin, you are ready for Korea Carrier DLC.  

[BladeMeister]

Looks Spectacular! I also am very keen to know what the ...

1 hour ago, sevenless said:

important news before the end of the year.

Is?

 

S!Blade<><

[ST_Catchov]

Finally, a blog worth digesting Luke m'boy. Good lad. 🙂 Just one thing but. Should there be sparks? Or is that a limitation of the GB engine?

 

Nonetheless, November's looking good.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[BlitzPig_EL]

[sevenless]

6 hours ago, Trooper117 said:

 

... as there are so many other much needed aeroplanes that are 'really' required to flesh out the plane set.

 

I guess everyone feels like that. Always too less of your personal hobby horse. I´m completely with you, still so many gaps to fill, but I'm also happy that FC and GB are not completely dead yet.

[AcesDarthBubu]

9 hours ago, sevenless said:

 

— there will be additional important news before the end of the year. Please stay tuned and stay in touch!

The tease...

 

With the Zeppelin and additional cities on existing map for WW1. Dev has definitely hyped the latter tease to another level of hype and anticipation for sure. 

 

Western heavy bombers or full roster of Finnish air force or late war Eastern front? So much to look forward to.

 

[TP_Jacko]

Will the Zepp be available in MP missions

[ZPA_Malan]

This looks like something unique! I might be more likely to pick up an FC module than the new eastern front one at this point. Any idea what "the early period of the Pilot Career mode" means for corresponding modules? volume II and I think IV have the earliest planes, right?

[ACG_Bussard]

According to the screenshots, we might be supposed to attack the Zeppelin with the rockets we already have. It's a pity we won't be getting any darts or mini-bombs.

 

So here we go, here's a documented tactic for rocket attacks:

[Jackfraser24]

2 hours ago, AcesDarthBubu said:

The tease...

 

Western heavy bombers or full roster of Finnish air force or late war Eastern front? So much to look forward to.

 

I think the most likely course of action will be aircraft of the Finnish Air Force. Though I would really like to see a late war Eastern Front. Maybe that is why they have reserved the Bf-109 G-10 and Fw-190 A-9, for somewhere like Poland 1944-45. But I think what we are more likely to see is a plane pack for Finland and the USSR to go with the Karelia map, which makes sense because that partially recreates the IL-2 1946 Continuation War servers, which from what I have gathered was really popular back in the 2000s. And since they hinted that there will be "more winged engines than usual" (forgive me if I got that quote wrong but it went something like that) that could mean aircraft like the Tupolev TB-3, which has four engines so that will be a new experience for the Great Battles platform. 

Edited Saturday at 06:13 AM by Jackfraser24

[Spitfir3]

2 hours ago, ACG_Bussard said:

According to the screenshots, we might be supposed to attack the Zeppelin with the rockets we already have. It's a pity we won't be getting any darts or mini-bombs.

 

So here we go, here's a documented tactic for rocket attacks:

We dont know that just yet 😅

[Kubert]

3 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

I think the most likely course of action will be aircraft of the Finnish Air Force.

If this will be the case, they could reconsider addition of Finnish voice communication. After I read there won't be, in that moment I decided to play Leningrad only as Soviet or German pilot. Flying, let's say B-239, with German radio communication is serious immersion breaker for me and therefore it has no point to own this plane for pure singleplayer. It's like buying Spitfire XIV and flying as RAF with Russian radio comms. Maybe it sound arrogant from my side, but Finland won't be just one foreign plane as MC.202 or IAR, but full scale faction. Finnish voice communication should be planned from the beginning.

Edited Saturday at 09:33 AM by Kubert

[ACG_Bussard]

1 hour ago, Spitfir3 said:

We dont know that just yet 😅

I'll get back to you in mid-November and will listen what you have to say then 

[ITAF_Rani]

Hope the agreement with Ugra Media could  bring to IL2 GB new stuff for WW2 scenarios...

Maybe end of November will knew something?

Best

 

 

 

[Avimimus]

16 hours ago, Trooper117 said:

 

I'm more interested in that sentence above... As good as the Zep looks, it would be way down the list of my priorities, as there are so many other much needed aeroplanes that are 'really' required to flesh out the plane set.

No, I'm not trying to rain on any ones parade as I know there are many fans of the Zeppelin and they are really looking forward to it... I just have different priorities.

 

To be honest, that was my initial reaction too.

 

There are a number of gaps: Gameplay for the 1916 fighters could be expanded substantially with a couple of early war two-seaters (even a slower variant of the F.E.2b would help, let along a Caudron G.IV or Albatros C.I)...  There are also other single aircraft expansions that would add diversity: A Rumpler C.IV would expand combat higher into the clouds... A Airco D.H.5 could let us experience the first fighter-bomber units, a Fokker D.II would more accurately represent the early fighter units... all without requiring new technology.

 

Even the release of the Zeppelin could be a perfect excuse for a paid expansion with either a B.E.2c/d or a Morane-Saulnier L!

 

However, I'm 90% sure that most of us who feel that way will change our minds the moment we get to fly against a Zeppelin.

 

Particularly one which is trying to hide in the clouds or at dawn... this thing will be magnificent.

[BlitzPig_EL]

9 hours ago, TP_Jacko said:

Will the Zepp be available in MP missions

 

It will in the ones that I have built, but I think it will struggle against cannon armed Tempests and Spitfires, and even have issues with .50 Browning armed US aircraft.

The 37mm on the P39 might prove interesting as well...

 

I wonder how Ptabs would work on it?

 

Edited Saturday at 01:49 PM by BlitzPig_EL

[JGr2-J5_Tabasco]

I am going to try and drop bombs on it 😊

[Koziolek]

1 hour ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

 

It will in the ones that I have built, but I think it will struggle against cannon armed Tempests and Spitfires, and even have issues with .50 Browning armed US aircraft.

The 37mm on the P39 might prove interesting as well...

 

I wonder how Ptabs would work on it?

 

I agree with Spitfire and Tempest but I'm afraid it will outmaneuver the P39

[FliegerAD]

Nice! I am a fan of Zeppelin aviation.

 

Will there be any possibility to fly it? I know it is a long shot...

[BlitzPig_EL]

AI only.

[Majick]

I'm looking forward to this. 

 

I do hope the general density of ground objects will be increased as well.  The map seems very empty considering how many troops are supposed to be down there, and computing power has increased massively since FC first appeared.

[Kubert]

Computing power increased, but engine is still the same. Too many objects can cause problems no matter on how modern PC the game will be played.

Edited Saturday at 07:33 PM by Kubert

[Majick]

10 minutes ago, Kubert said:

Computing power increased, but engine is still the same. Too many objects can cause problems no matter on how modern PC the game will be played.

Well thats a shame.  Maybe I need to pin my hopes on whatever follows from the Korea sim next year.  Or is that still on the same engine?

[BlitzPig_EL]

Korea is an updated and improved engine, go have a look at the developer posts about it.  It seems that many of the limitations of the current engine will be overcome.

[FlyToLive]

L'Arc vous attend, Monsieur Godefroy. 

[ST_Catchov]

8 hours ago, Avimimus said:

this thing will be magnificent.

 

Yes sir. And it's free. Along with WW1 map improvements. 

 

Maybe FC sales will increase from our buddies over there in WWII, whom as yet haven't had the epiphany.

 

And then we may get the Quirk and Parasol. 😀

 

I wanna fly thru the Arc de Triomphe in one of them things. 🙃

 

[Jackfraser24]

14 hours ago, Kubert said:

If this will be the case, they could reconsider addition of Finnish voice communication. After I read there won't be, in that moment I decided to play Leningrad only as Soviet or German pilot. Flying, let's say B-239, with German radio communication is serious immersion breaker for me and therefore it has no point to own this plane for pure singleplayer. It's like buying Spitfire XIV and flying as RAF with Russian radio comms. Maybe it sound arrogant from my side, but Finland won't be just one foreign plane as MC.202 or IAR, but full scale faction. Finnish voice communication should be planned from the beginning.

That’s a good point I didn’t think of. They would have to make Finnish voice overs for the Finnish faction, especially if they were going to make all these aircraft for the Great Battles platform like the B-239, D.XXI and the Hawk 81. And I remember on one of these forums that Finnish, Italian and Romanian voice communications will not be worked on. So, we will have to wait until they make that announcement in November or December of this year. 

20 hours ago, AcesDarthBubu said:

Western heavy bombers or full roster of Finnish air force or late war Eastern front? So much to look forward to.

 

You could be onto something actually.