Dear friends,

We just released the new update 3.012. Only two weeks have passed since the previous update so the changelist isn't that long, but this time our customers will get FIVE new pieces of content for all three our current projects at once.

First, this is a new Collector's Plane for Bodenplatte - Fw 190 D-9 "Dora", one of the legendary late war Luftwaffe planes with very good speed and armament. Its main difference compared to previous models is Jumo-213 A1 water cooled engine equipped with MW 50 water-methanol injection system that can be used to increase the power output even more for up to 10 minutes. Another improvement of this plane is the automatic engine governor MBG and an effective engine cooling. This is also the first aircraft in our project to receive EZ 42 gyro gunsight. "Dora" could carry up to 500 kg bombs and R4M Orkan rockets (the new weapon in our project as well) which later served as a base for many post-war unguided rocket designs.

Second, we released the Prokhorovka map for Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka project. This map is an important step in our map technologies because the polygonal net of the landscape is 16 times more detailed than on previous maps. In addition, the detailed zone for ground warfare (20 km to the South and the West of Prokhorovka) contains new high detailed buildings with new damage visualization. It should be noted that this more detailed environment, of course, demands more from the graphics subsystem, but reasonable graphics settings can give you good performance even on middle range video cards. You may ask "Why don't you make all the new maps at this level of detail?", but the answer is that increasing the level of detail reduces the overall size of the map. A good map for the joint tank and air battles (100 x 100 km in case of Prokhorovka) would be not enough for a full-blown, 'air campaign' map that should be 200 x 250 km minimum. Therefore, Prokhorovka map is a fine balance of several things. It allows making interesting tank campaigns, having interesting joint tank and aircraft multiplayer, keeping the performance impact 30% or less at reasonable graphics settings, and having improved visual quality at the ground level required for the ground battles.

Third, Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka customers get two new toys: M4A2 and PzKpfw.III Ausf.M. Both tanks were interesting machines and they are recreated painstakingly and with passion. It should be noted that M4A2 could stand its own even against the heavier German adversaries thanks to its maneuverability, good turret traverse speed and sufficient armor penetration ability of its solid AP round. The medium tank PzKpfw.III Ausf.M also had a good chance against medium Soviet tanks - APCR rounds could penetrate their armor while its frontal protection was relatively good thanks to the spaced 50 and 20 mm armor plates. It also had a low visible profile, good maneuverability and high rate of fire.

Fourth, Flying Circus customers get Fokker D.VIIF. it was one of the best, if not the best, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte fighter of WWI. The new and powerful for its time BMW IIIa engine gave the plane high speed and maneuverability at high altitudes while the oxygen supply enabled a pilot to fight up there effectively. Its armament is standard for German fighters of that time - two 7.92 mm LMG 08/15 "Spandau" (650 rounds per minute each).

1. Fw 190 D-9 "Dora" fighter is available to Battle of Bodenplatte Premium Edition owners;
2. Prokhorovka map (Southern part of the Kursk salient) is available to Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka owners;
3. M4A2 tank is available to Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka owners;
4. PzKpfw.III Ausf.M  tank is available to Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka owners;
5. Fokker D.VIIF fighter is available to Flying Circus - Volume I owners;
6. Locomotive tenders are destroyable once again;
7. The oxygen system capacity corrected (increased) on Fokker D.VII;
8. The sound of a damaged engine made more pronounced on all aircraft;
9. KV-1s, Pz.VI-H1, M4A2, and Pz.III-M have night gunsight illumination;
10. KV-1s and Pz.VI-H1 turrets bend their antennas when rotating;
11. Rocket exhaust flame corrected - it cuts immediately when the engine of a rocket stops and its smoke trail disappears faster;
12. A game freeze (when a statistics screen was visible on top of the other menus) has been fixed.