Dear friends,
Around a month has passed since the previous humongous update and we have another right here. Its changelist is not as so hideously long (it is still too long, however - more than 80 items), but some of them are quite important. First of all, two new Collector Planes are released, Yak-9 and Yak-9T. It was the most mass-produced Soviet WWII aircraft, the real victory weapon. They had very good flight characteristics, bubble canopy with armored glass on the front and back, good manufacturability. The modification Yak-9T armed with powerful 37mm gun NS-37 was designed for bomber intercepts but was also widely used against ground targets. Yak-9s were used in the Battle of Kuban, so you can use it in the Career mode at this theater of war as well as in QMB and multiplayer.
For Tank Crew customers this update adds a long-awaited Zveroboy ("Beast Slayer") - self-propelled heavy howitzer (assault gun) SU-152 based on KV-1s chassis and armed with a very powerful 152mm gun-howitzer ML-20S. While these assault guns were designed primarily for knocking out heavy defenses, at the Kursk Battle it was probably the only Soviet armored vehicle capable of killing Tigers and Panthers at far distances. Its 152mm APHE round weighed nearly 49 kg and its hit was lethal for a Tiger up to 2 km distance. Panther's thick and sloped frontal armor and 200mm frontal armor of Ferdinand tank destroyers could withstand it, but a HE shell hit at a Panther turret guaranteed to breach the thin hull roof near the hit area and APHE hit at a Panther side could knock it out easily. Being very powerful, SU-152 wasn't an absolute weapon of course. Limited armor and gun traverse angles, low ammo reserve and slow rate of fire demanded the combat skills from the crew and interaction of a group of these machines to reach its combat potential fully. Nevertheless, it was the first dangerous adversary for the newest German cats of prey.
This update also includes three new Scripted Campaigns – Kaiserschlacht, Spring Offensive and Lightning Strikes.
Kaiserschlacht and Spring Offensive are two campaigns developed by our friends at The Syndicate which tells about the same events from different sides of the front line of the spring of 1918. Although previously released to the public, these campaigns have been enlarged to include new unreleased missions. These are the first official campaigns for Flying Circus, allowing you to more fully evaluate the full potential and atmosphere of this great product. These two campaigns will be available free of charge to those who have already purchased Flying Circus: Volume One. There is an accompanying skin-pack for this campaign. It is available in the forum.
And for those who own the P-38J-25 Collector Plane and Battle of Bodenplatte, we also have a cool new Scripted Campaign for you - Lightning Strikes! This campaign was developed by our friend and talented mission maker Jaegermeister and it portrays P-38 combat missions in the skies of Europe from October to the end of December 1944. The campaign includes an outstanding number of missions, 25 of them, the last of which tells about the notorious events of January 1, 1945. This campaign is included free of charge to everyone who owns the P-8J-25 and Battle of Bodenplatte. There is also an accompanying skin-pack for this campaign and is available in the forum as well.
While new aircraft, tanks and campaigns are the lead stars of our sim, the most important change in this update is the release of the new graphics rendering engine based on Deferred Shading. This is the base for a new powerful shoot forward in the visual part of the project. It's impossible to unlock all this potential at once, but in this update, we already added a number of improvements based on this fundamental change. More natural-looking aircraft exterior, cockpit and instrument reflections, better-looking water surfaces - this is just a start.
Thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney we have the external textures of 4 more existing aircraft in 4K quality: two bombers He 111 H-6 (BoM) and He 111 H-16 (BoS) and two Collectors Planes, La-5 series 8 and La-5FN series 2. The new textures push the visuals of these planes to a new level.
These huge additions aren't all - the update 4.006 brings many others which are also important. Aircraft FM and DM were updated basing on your feedback, Soviet fighter pilots have new visual model, there is a lot of changes for ground and naval units as well as for player controllable Tank Crew war machines. Multiplayer functionality has been also addressed. All this serves one purpose - constant improvement of the quality of gameplay and accuracy of the simulation. IL-2 Sturmovik team hopes that you'll enjoy all these changes.
Main Features
1. Yak-9 series 1 Collector Plane is available;
2. Yak-9T series 1 Collector Plane is available;
3. SU-152 heavy assault gun is available for all Tank Crew customers;
4. La-5 series 8 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
5. La-5FN Collectors Plane exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
6. He-111 H-6 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
7. He-111 H-16 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
8. Two scenario campaigns, Kaiserschlacht and Spring offensive, are available for all Flying Circus Vol.1 customers for free;
9. A huge (25 missions!) scenario campaign Lightning Strikes is available for all Bodenplatte Premium customers (you can also play it if you have purchased Bodenplatte Standard Edition and P-38J-25 Collector Plane separately);
10. The graphics engine of the sim now uses Deferred Shading technology;
Graphics Improvements
11. FXAA or MSAA can be selected in the game options;
12. New option - cockpit reflections;
13. Metallic and lacquered aircraft surfaces reflect the light softer and more naturally;
14. There are canopy and instrument reflections in the cockpit;
15. The aircraft visual image won't suddenly darken when zooming out or at a distance;
16. Damage textures won't light up too much when zooming out or at a distance;
17. Rivers and lakes water visuals improved;
18. Clouds reflections in water bodies improved;
19. Excessive brightness of the high detail buildings on the Prokhorovka map has been reduced;
20. Shell casings won't become transparent when too close to a camera;
Crew Models
21. There is a new pilot model on all Soviet fighters and on A-20 (pilot and navigator);
22. This new pilot model has three uniform variations depending on the mission date (before April 1942, April 1942 - May 1943, late war);
23. The new pilot model has a sidearm (press RCtrl+4 when the cockpit is open). Pilots of the other aircraft will receive it when their models are updated;
24. Battle of Bodenplatte aircraft which have been also lend-leased to USSR (Spitfire-IX, B-25D, P-47D) can have Soviet crews if their country in a mission file is set to the USSR;
25. P-40E (BoM), Spitfire-Vb (BoK) and Spitfire-IXe (BoBp) have American pilots if their country in a mission file is set to the USA;
26. P-40E (BoM), Spitfire-Vb (BoK) and P-51D (BoBp) have British pilots if their country in a mission file is set to the UK;
Player-controllable Tanks
27. New quick missions for tanks - Tank Duel and Tank Skirmish;
28. All player controllable tanks have the transmission from forward-backward and left-right user controls to the simulated tank controls corrected, which improved their turnability at high speeds and reduced the tendency to enter a skid;
29. The commanders of the indirect fire capable self-propelled guns (SU-122 and SU-152 at the moment) can order the AI gunner(s) of their tank or tank platoon to fire at a set distance and direction;
30. T-34UVZ-43 got two new modifications - additional all-steel internally sprung wheels;
31. SU-122 OF-462 HE shell ballistics corrected;
32. Death of a radioman correctly affects the radio functioning on player controllable tanks;
33. When the turret ventilation system is off, you can see from the outside the smoke coming off the crew hatch;
34. The smoke can be seen escaping the engine compartment of KV-1s and M4A2 after a shot;
35. All Soviet tanks have animated oil pumping in the engine start procedure;
36. Т-34UVZ and SU-122 have correctly looking headlights at a medium distance (without a block dot);
37. Older Pz.III.Ausf.L and T-34-76-STZ-42 tanks have correctly damageable suspension and armament;
38. All 45mm and bigger shells don't have tracers anymore if a real shell didn't have it (HE shells mostly and 122mm HEAT). This is true for AI units as well;
39. All 45mm and bigger shells without tracers have a generic visual model (HE shells mostly and 122mm HEAT). This is true for AI units as well;
Aircraft Physics, Systems and Visuals
40. The maximum airspeed at which the pilot is able to bail out now depends on the vertical G-load acting on the pilot: the smaller positive G-load, or the greater negative G-load, the easier it is for the pilot to leave the plane;
41. A G-load indicator is added to the HUD. When simplified instruments are switched off, G-load is indicated without a fractional part;
42. A message about turret ammo replenishing and turret repair has been added to the technochat;
43. A message about servicing the engine oil system or cooling system in the repair area is added to the technochat. The service is performed if the engine oil or coolant have cooled down significantly during the aircraft stop (previously in these cases the player periodically received information about the repairing of the corresponding system, which wasn't really clear);
44. SPAD 13.C1: the roll oscillation of an AI-controlled airplane at a speed of about 200 km/h has been fixed;
45. Yak-7B polar curve has been corrected (the critical angle of attack was reduced, the inductive drag at large angles of attack was increased, the turn rate was reduced, the maximum speed and climb rate remained the same);
46. Yak-7B: the engine heat balance has been adjusted (the engine won't overheat as quickly as before);
47. Yak-7B, Yak-1 (ser. 69, 127): the ailerons hinge moment and ailerons effectiveness at high airspeed were corrected (the roll rate is increased);
48. Bf-110 (G2, E2): the airplane polar curve was corrected (aerodynamic drag was increased), the turn rate, maximum speed and climb rate are corrected to be as close to the values specified in the airplane in-game specification as possible;
49. Bf-110 (G2, E2): aerodynamic characteristics corrected at supercritical angles of attack (the effectiveness of slats was improved, the drag was increased, and the nature of the stall was adjusted);
50. P-38J25 landing gear doors are visibly opened in the hangar;
51. Bf-109 G14 emergency engine power has been fixed (increased);
52. An aircraft won't appear underground when a season is set incorrectly or undefined in the mission file;
53. Sopwith Camel: when the option “Simplified Controls” is enabled in the difficulty settings, the automatic helper better stabilizes the plane along the roll axis at a high angle of attack;
54. Spitfire Mk IX: excess struts on the pylons were removed;
Aircraft Damage Model
55. The piston engines' combat survivability has been adjusted - the protection from the engine casings has been reduced, bullets and shells cause more damage to the crank gear, while shell fragments cause less damage to the engine.
56. All Flying Circus airplanes: hitting at the central section of the top wing now also leads to breaking the top wing (its left or right part);
57. The geometry of wing spars of all Flying Circus airplanes has been checked and brought into strict compliance with known sources. In general, now it requires much more bullet hits to break the wings of World War I aircraft;
58. The absence of visual and hearing disorders under the high G-loads for gunners in the single-player mode was fixed;
59. A rare bug has been fixed, which caused the fragments not damaging the airframe sometimes;
60. Pe-2 (ser. 35, 87): fixed rudders 'wobbling' when their control wires are broken;
61. Pe-2 (ser. 35, 87): a bug has been fixed that caused the left rudder to react to the controls slightly when its control wires were actually broken;
62. All Bf-109 fighters except E7 can now lose the left or right side of the horizontal stabilizer when hit at its central part (Bf-109 E7 has a central part of the stabilizer which can be lost by itself);
63. P-38: fixed a bug due to which the oxygen system could erroneously take damage;
64. Ju-52: fixed rudder 'wobbling' when its control wires are broken;
65. Fixed a problem with repairing aircraft turrets;
66. Fixed the undamageable machine guns in a number of aircraft turrets;
Ground and Naval Units
67. Ships have a more advanced physical model - they can be damaged by collisions, run aground, lay on the shore (and not sink into it), and lay on the bottom when sank;
68. All naval guns and howitzers fire physically modeled projectiles (previously explosions were created in the target area), making their combat use much more realistic;
69. All naval guns and howitzers have AP ammo available (around 10% of ammo reserve);
70. AAA guns can fire at the ground area (if the mission trigger Attack Area is set on the ground level);
71. The issue that made the first several salvos of an artillery battery too accurate has been found and fixed;
72. The issue with AI aiming the guns of player controllable tanks has been fixed;
73. Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.F1 and Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G have their armor plates thickness corrected;
74. Groups and columns of AI-controlled ground vehicles can stop on shallow slopes (previously they couldn't);
75. Tank AI gunner no longer try to fire at flying targets;
76. Ground vehicle AIs can't spot targets through a dense enough forest (if at least 50m of the line of sight to a target travels through the forest area);
77. Field guns (AT and divisional ones) can fire at a maximum distance when given the Attack Area -> Ground command in the mission;
78. Aiming tables for several AA guns have been corrected;
Aircraft AI
79. The firing accuracy at air and ground targets depends on the AI pilot level;
80. View sectors have been corrected for Hs-129, Ju-52, A-20 and U-2 crews;
81. The minimal fuel reserve calculations have been corrected (previously they could cause AI pilots to RTB too early);
Multiplayer
82. The audibility of hits on the own plane has been corrected when the cockpit canopy is damaged;
83. New server-side option “Restrict tank AI gunners” blocks the ability of the tank commander to assign a dynamic object as a target for the AI gunner or order it to search for targets on its own;
84. Tech chat and handling tips are now governed by difficulty settings that can be enforced on a multiplayer server;
General Fixes
84. The recently introduced error in the armor penetration modeling has been corrected (it made the projectile speed - armor penetration function graduated and could cause an armor penetration in a case when it shouldn't occur);
85. Concussion won't cause the loss of hearing for too long;
86. UK and US careers (Bodenplatte) will work correctly with the Simplified Chinese language selected;
87. A rare error in scripted campaigns that could cause the progress to be lost after re-entering the game has been found and fixed.