IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad Discussion

[JudgeDredd]

ah...two people from the dark side!  >:(

[Skoop]

I sprung for the IL2 BOS premium edition and have been flying it pretty regularly, definitely have gotten my money's worth as far as hours spent. 

The recent announcement about the SP campaign caused quite a stir in their forums, really goes to show how important SP is to flight simmers.  The SP they stated does sound kind of stale like the DCS SP content.

The up side is that the community is already working on content for BOS using the ROF editor (supposedly the 2 are exactly the same).  There's a group already testing a persistent battlefield type of mission that runs on a MP server, sounds pretty cool.

Another slight bit of controversy is the lack of a Full mission builder.  777 stated that BOS uses the same insanely complicated ROF editor that no one can use, so the plan is to release the FMB after release when it can be totally revamped to a more user friendly state like the original IL2 or ARMA.

777 / 1C stated that they are leaning heavily on the community to run with the development of SP content, and that they will offer full support to anyone willing to put forth the effort.  Though Pat Wilson has stated that he has no plans for IL2 BOS, he stated that he will offer up his campaign generator to anyone willing to do the leg work of converting it to BOS.

So with that I guessing that things will evolve with this new version of IL2.

In the Mean time, I'm having a blast in the dogfight servers in MP.  If I get shot down too many times in a fighter, I like to switch to a PE2 and fly over the op airfield on a carpet bombing run.  Always nice to catch a few airquakers on the ground trying to take off in their bf109s.

[MengJiao]

I sprung for the IL2 BOS premium edition and have been flying it pretty regularly, definitely have gotten my money's worth as far as hours spent. 

  Sounds great.  Some things to bear in mind about simulation games like BoS are:

1) only the community can put in the hours it takes to get a niche sim up to community standards
2) RoF didn't make enough money compared to the work put in on it
3) WOFF with its big single player aspect was eventually built after the sims it was based on was abandoned
4) CLOD is only really playable in a community-built set of mods and campaigns
5) So feeling bad about BoS not having a good single-player campaign is somewhat premature and anachronistic: only the community can fix up these games because the audience is so limited and cranky.

[Nefaro]

So it's another sim that will rely heavily on modders to fix up the single-player?

That's disappointing.  Sounds like I may as well wait for a couple years before checking back.  Is it just focused on multi-player?   :-\

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

As of right now, mostly.  You can set up quick missions similarly to how you could in ROF.  There's not currently any method of keeping track of pilot stats or anything like that though.

MP is basically AirQuake at this point.  Big furballs on a relatively small section of the map.  That'll expand over time.  The guys who run the Syndicate servers have already stated that they're working on BOS stuff so if online's your thing, it sounds promising that there'll be lots on offer.

[Nefaro]

As of right now, mostly.  You can set up quick missions similarly to how you could in ROF.  There's not currently any method of keeping track of pilot stats or anything like that though.

MP is basically AirQuake at this point.  Big furballs on a relatively small section of the map.  That'll expand over time.  The guys who run the Syndicate servers have already stated that they're working on BOS stuff so if online's your thing, it sounds promising that there'll be lots on offer.

So even the ideal multi-player stuff will be custom user-created stuff from the people who host the games?   

This is sounding worse all the time.  Perhaps it will be a great sim but it sounds as if the developers are just making a kit of sorts and not shipping with much content.  :(

[MengJiao]

As of right now, mostly.  You can set up quick missions similarly to how you could in ROF.  There's not currently any method of keeping track of pilot stats or anything like that though.

MP is basically AirQuake at this point.  Big furballs on a relatively small section of the map.  That'll expand over time.  The guys who run the Syndicate servers have already stated that they're working on BOS stuff so if online's your thing, it sounds promising that there'll be lots on offer.

So even the ideal multi-player stuff will be custom user-created stuff from the people who host the games?   

This is sounding worse all the time.  Perhaps it will be a great sim but it sounds as if the developers are just making a kit of sorts and not shipping with much content.  :(

  For me very often the kit is the game.  For example, in ARMAIII, I just play in the editor using clutz-based keystroke algorithm.

   Anyway, BoS just added the Focke-Wulfie 190 (A3 with the original BMW 650A engine!).  I think the game will be pretty interesting eventually and it will be fun to get in at the first completed iteration and see it evolve.

[Father Ted]

This is the danger for developers who sell alpha- and beta-releases: people talk about those products as if they are the finished game.  The MP available at the moment is only intended  as a try-out for those who want MP and the SP missions are just show-cases for the planes.  Looking at early-access features and saying, "There's not much of a game here!" seems a little harsh to me.

FWIW RoF was aimed more at the MP market and suffered a bit, so I believe the devs have put more effort into the SP experience for BoS.

[Nefaro]

This is the danger for developers who sell alpha- and beta-releases: people talk about those products as if they are the finished game.  The MP available at the moment is only intended  as a try-out for those who want MP and the SP missions are just show-cases for the planes.  Looking at early-access features and saying, "There's not much of a game here!" seems a little harsh to me.

FWIW RoF was aimed more at the MP market and suffered a bit, so I believe the devs have put more effort into the SP experience for BoS.

I would prefer not to give final judgement until it's been officially released and 'finished' for awhile.  But the developer statements (some mentioned earlier in this thread) makes me think it will not be receiving much, if any, attention regarding a facet I highly value - the campaign environment.

[Skoop]

1.101 update has been released along with the BOM early access which makes the I-16 Rata available for use in BOS.  Fun little plane, comical flying it in pvp online.

list of changes :

1. I-16 fighter is now available to pilots who preordered Battle of Moscow. Players who don't have it will be able to fight with it;
2. HDR can be turned off;
3. SSAO can be turned off;
4. Terrain Texture Draw distance can now be increased with a dedicated setting option;
5. New Choose plane screen added to Quick Mission builder;
6. F11 free camera is now available;
7. Your plane's camera should be shaking because of explosions nearby in external view with Cinematic Camera turned on;
8. Improved sun visuals on dusk and dawn;
9. More precise (realistic) calculation of the earth's curvature;
10. Max number of players per server increased to 64;
11. An automated chat warning about insufficient server performance capabilities added;
12. Variations of bomb aerodynamics added for more realistic bomb spread;
13. Bombs can now ricochet if dropped at a low angle;
14. Snap view settings can now be reset with the Reset user settings option;
15. Bombing tips added to the bombsight mode, press "?" to show them;
16. Ammo counter for the hand signal pistol added to GUI;
17. The following rules are now applied to server names:
first 3 letters of the name must be latin;
first 3 letters cannot be a single letter repeated 3 times;
names that include text from the config file are prohibited;
names that consist of latin letters, numbers, spaces and ( ) - / . , : = only are allowed;
a letter cannot be repeated more than 3 times in a row (aaa - okay, aaaa - not okay);
names can be not longer than 128 symbols;
symbols (not letters or numbers) can be repeated 2 times in a row max (== - okay, === - not okay)
18. Added cameras attachable to objects:
call in the currently selected object - LAlt + F2;
customisable configs are available here: <game_folder>\data\LuaScripts\WorldObjects\fixcameras
19. Watching game recordings should no longer cause game crashes;
20. Abrupt lightning changes at sunset time were fixed;
21. The issue with the camera jumping to a map corner instead of showing the player's plane when crashed was fixed;
22. Wind correction setting for bombsights was changes. Now, when all settings are correct the target should not move in the sight when the wind is blowing;
23. The issue with bomb falling through the ground with no explosion fixed;
24. Heavy AA guns will be using contact fuses when shooting ground targets with HE rounds;
25. Pilots gestures in MP fixed;
26. Pilot's heavy breathing should no longer be heard on the external cameras;
27. Incorrect drag caused by bomb holders on Fw 190 was fixed (thanks to the report submitted by Ze_Hairy);
28. Config files responsible for weather settings was changed (they are now divided adequately to different seasons. Missions that were made before this update must be reconfigured using the new weather config structure;
29. Airfield choice should no longer be instantly reset with a click on the map in Campaign;
30. Server list will not shake when scrolling it;
31. A rare issue with text lines in the list of scenarios only showing when under the mouse cursor was fixed;
32. The issue with the Start button unavailable for some time after entering an MP match as a gunner was fixed;
33. The gunner icon was fixed in MP;
34. The distance controlling element of the He 111 bombsight was fixed (it doesn't jump anymore);
35. The bubble is moving smoother now in the Pe-2 bombsight;
36. Spontaneous bomb release in Auto and Scope bombsight modes on He 11 fixed;
37. The issue with NaN values shown on the dashboard right after a start in MP fixed;
38. The bug with chat message colors in MP fixed;
39. The 3d marker showing the center of an attack zone was fixed (swords instead of a yellow border);
40. The exploit of avoiding navigation markers with a map on/off trick in MP was fixed;
41. Resetting control settings should also reset inverted axis;
42. Several bugs related to inverting axis (including those bound to mouse) were fixed;
43. Scroll bars in the GUI are now working in a more traditional way;
44. Pe-2 wings could appear randomly broken (fixed);
45. Fw 190 additional guns status lamps are added to start and stop sequences (so they are turned off on parking);
46. Fw 190 flight stick texture error fixed;
47. Bf 109 F-4 и 109 G-2: Z-fighting on seat back and canopy fixed;
48. Enemy AAA should no longer appear close to player airifield in quick missions.

Everyone who's pre-ordered (or will pre-order) Premium edition of BOM gets access to the first game's plane - I-16 type 24. The release plan for 4 more aircraft is as follows:

August - MC.202 Series VIII
September - P-40 E-1
October - Bf 109 E-7
November - Bf 110 E-2

Owners of Standard edition pre-order will get access to the early game builds of BOM later in October 2015.

[Skoop]

Latest Patch info, and release of the P-40E1.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad
Announcement
Version 1.103
Posted Today, 02:50

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/18456-game-version-1103-discussion-p-40e-1-early-access/?p=289635

Version 1.103


Dear customers of IL-2: Sturmovik!



Today we complete another stage of Battle of Moscow development and present you another milestone aircraft - P-40E-1 fighter. Those who pre-ordered Battle of Moscow premium edition and have Battle of Stalingrad can fly it right away (other BoS players can fight against it in Quick missions).

P-40 vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCTyOjXiqtM

In addition to P-40 fighter this update also brings numerous improvements for joint BoS and BoM platform. Complete list of them can be found below.



P-40E-1 has some unique features available for the first time in our project:

1. Ultra-violet lighting of cockpit gauges, information plates, needles and labels

2. Tail wheel steering controlled by rudder pedals via sping-loaded "soft" rods with special mechanism of "steer control cut" when wheel is declined more than 30°

3. Six M2 Browning .50 cal machine guns have 5% more combined 1 second burst energy than Fw 190 A-3 with gun pods. This makes P-40 the new leader among the fighters in our project in terms of firepower.

4. Green sun filter on gun sight :-)



Changelist of version 1.103:



1. P-40E fighter is availble for those who pre-purchased premium edition of Battle of Moscow, other players will be able to see it as an enemy.

2. DServer and overall multiplayer stability improved, found memory leaks fixed.

3. High-G effects are working again.

4. AI pilots correctly use rockets against ground targets.

5. AI pilots behavior tuned for higher skill levels, aces are now more aggressive.

6. AI pilots pursue and attack fleeing air targets better.

7. AI pilots better attack targets flying at low level.

8. AI avoid a fleeing target better (previously it could crash into it after attacking).

9. AI should no longer 'stuck' and fly into the ground during low level dogfight (was a random issue).

10. Ju-87 AI flight members better assign targets between them.

11. Bombers and transport planes don't make evasive maneuvers in high priority flight mode.

12. AI pilots now return to base after spending all ammo.

13. A high level AI takes into account only enemy fighters while making decision to attack (previously they could cease an attack against a large group of any enemy planes).

14. AI pilots now correctly drop their bombs with a player after being ordered 'do like me'.


15. AI pilots now drop all smaller bombs or launch all smaller rockets at once while engaging a single target to reduce the time being under fire.

16. AI pilots maneuver for attack runs almost two times quicker than before.

17. AI wingmen take off on their own if flight leader (player) took off without following take off procedure.

18. A signal flare is correctly visible to multiplayer clients.

19. AI should no longer continuously turn engine boost on and off (happened in some combat situations).

20. AI correctly turns engine boost off after disengaging.

21. Default trimming for airplanes with manually controlled stabilizer has been changed from trimming by stabilizer to trimming by trimming tabs.

22. Default trimming for all airplanes is set to standard atmosphere, 3000 m altitude, horizontal flight at maximum unlimited engine mode.

23. Trimming reset command now resets rudder and aileron trimmers to neutral position (instead of cruise flight position as it was before).

24. Altimeters now indicate negative altitude if a plane altitude is lower than airfield altitude and altimeter is set to airfield altitude.

25. Air speed indicator delay reduced.

26. MC.202 engine could be damaged by exceeding 2450 RPM and keeping boost in continuous mode.

27. MC.202 targeting reticle adjusted.

28. Bomb air fuse is now animated, it rotates and disappears after a correct amount of rotations, arming a bomb.

29. Bomb fuses reworked, air fuses and electromagnetic fuses implemented.

30. Graphical interface optimized to reduce memory footprint and fragmentation (this should improve overall application stability).

31. Plane marker in F2 camera mode should no longer blink at a certain distance.

32. Your last position in Scenarios menu subfolders is correctly stored.

33. Additional logging added to find a source of incorrect colors in multiplayer chat and ladder. If you see an incorrect color (enemy instead of friendly for example) please make a screenshot, close the game and send <game_folder>\data\_gui.log file to us (via forum or support).

34. User interface should no longer hang in case of lost connection with a master server.

35. FPS should no longer severely drop during opening a topographic map using O button.

36. If an object is inside an area of forward observer, its marker will no longer turn grey at larger distances.

37. Time should be displayed correctly during track replay.

38. It's now possible to tune a color of lines and zones on the mission map for custom missions (10,0,0 - enemy color, 0,0,10 - friendly color).

39. Issued commands will no longer 'stuck' during track replay.

40. Now you can use the mouse to look around an object (without the need to turn the interface off using H button) in track replay mode.

41. Camera no longer switches to external view after a failed bail out attempt (because of too low of an altitude).

42. Engine sound of destroyed ground vehicles is removed correctly now.

43. Destroyed rail wagons can't 'teleport' to a nearby railway any longer (a rare issue).

44. DShK fire effect now works correctly.

45. Effects work correctly in MP game (previously an intact vehicle could emanate smoke like a damaged one).

46. Multiple instances of bomb impact effects.

47. Flight leader now correctly addresses a forward observer when entering its area.

48. Check Zone and Proximity triggers now work in multiplayer.


49. Waypoints in campaign are placed further away from enemy airfields.

50. Tactics overlay (frontline) in campaign is shown not only during mission selection, but in mission briefing and on flight map as well.

[Skoop]

News on upcoming patch at the end of the month.


IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad
Announcement
Dev blog #109
Hello everyone!

I'm glad to inform you that Autumn has came! :) The development of autumn and summer Stalingrad maps is almost complete and we need to finish only "Battle of Stalingrad, part 1" campaign. This new campaign includes several new cool features like new mission types "Attack river ships", "Cover river ships", "Attack river crossing" and new story missions at the beginning of each campaign chapter.

In addition, the development of Bf 109 E-7 fighter is close to finish, the only tasks that remain are flight model fine tuning and teaching AI how to fly it.
All these features are planned to be included in 1.104 update that is scheduled for end of October. We hope that we will complete this objective :)

Stay tuned!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=BMHrGvCn9c0
YouTube™ Video: IL-2: BoS - Fw 190 A-3 top-mast bombing on summer Stalingrad map
Views: 7,738
Focke-Wulf 190 performing a top-mast bombing against cargo ship on Volga river near Stalingrad in summer season. Test pilot: Han

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=Ns9GnN0eJww
YouTube™ Video: IL-2: Sturmovik - Bf 109 E-7 first flight
Views: 5,600
Coming soon in the end of October 2015. First take off. Pilot: Han

[Skoop]

Il2 BOS News:


Update 1.104


Today we reach a major milestone in IL-2 Sturmovik project and we sincerely hope you'll enjoy the new stuff.



First of all, we added the long awaited summer and autumn seasons along with the new campaign that covers early stages of Stalingrad battle from last days of flaming August to the middle of November when first snowflakes started to fall on the ruins of the city. In the new campaign we've tried to implement some of your requests and it contains static scenarios in addition to regular dynamically generated ones. Each one of them is a short story of a Russian or German pilot, a small episode of the world war.



Second, a new plane appeared in the 'already released' list of Battle of Moscow aircraft - Bf 109 E-7. Now all customers of Battle of Moscow can fly it while those who have only Battle of Stalingrad can choose it as an enemy, as well as all other BoM planes.



Third, today is a happy day for those who pre-purchased standard edition of Battle of Moscow - now they can jump into pilot seats of I-16 type 24 and Bf 109 E-7 (only the owners of Premium version of Battle of Moscow could fly them earlier). MC.202 and P-40 E-1 planes are still exclusive to Battle of Moscow Premium version, they will be available for separate purchase later.



Just in case you haven't noticed, there is an active sale underway. Now you can add La-5 and Fw 190 A-3 to your account if you own standard version of Battle of Stalingrad at half the price. Standard and Premium (which already includes these two planes) editions of Battle of Stalingrad are also 50% off, so if your friend (or maybe even you) doesn't have BoS yet it would be a good opportunity to fix this. Please note that additional planes should be added on Steam for Steam version and in our store for non-Steam version.



See you in the sky, pilots! For a safe take-off don't forget that engine power is significantly lower at higher summer temperatures than during winter.



1.104 change list





1. Bf 109 E-7 fighter is now available to customers who pre-purchased standard version of Battle of Moscow. Anyone who own Battle of Stalingrad can set it as an enemy.

2. New maps added: Summer Stalingrad, Autumn Stalingrad, Summer Lapino and Autumn Lapino.

3. New campaign added: Battle of Stalingrad: part 1

4. New tactical overlay shows frontline and units locations on in-game campaign map

5. Interaction between an aircraft and ground has been improved to the next level of detail, you'll notice a distinct difference between concrete and dirt runways, fields, ice and other terrain types. In addition, they become more slippery during rain.

6. Additional optimization of the game and dedicated server added.

7. Maximal amount of players on one server increased to 84.

8. Problems found with AI taking off have been fixed.

9. AI plane control improved, this should decrease the probability of AI getting into uncontrollable spin (was especially profound on Fw 190).

10. AI ground attack routines improved, it now maintains a higher speed, resulting in higher survival rate.

11. AI landing routines improved, which should reduce risk of colliding with other planes or objects.

12. Setting bomb fuses to off will now properly stop them from exploding after drop.

14. Elevator controls now being damaged correctly, so it's impossible to have only half of elevator damaged.

15. Control rods can be damaged only by hitting parts of a plane where they are located.

16. Stabilizer damage resistance corrected for LaGG-3, La-5 and Bf 109 planes.

17. Playing back the record including P-40E-1 with 500 kg bomb will no longer cause an error (for tracks recorded in this version).

18. Minor improvements for mission creators (lines type 3..8 will render at different thickness).


Also plans in place to add crewable tanks into the sim.

If you own the game, fire it up. All kinds of new content, 50 % off steam sale running right now.

For you SP guys, a Community member has added the IL2 career generator app to add  career elements to the stock campaign.
Also Pat Wilson is in the process of converting his Career Generator from ROF to BOS, the second version of the beta is now available for use.  I plan to try it out sometime this week.

[Nefaro]

For you SP guys, a Community member has added the IL2 career generator app to add  career elements to the stock campaign.
Also Pat Wilson is in the process of converting his Career Generator from ROF to BOS, the second version of the beta is now available for use.  I plan to try it out sometime this week.

Innnnteresting.   ^-^

[sandman2575]

For you SP guys, a Community member has added the IL2 career generator app to add  career elements to the stock campaign.

Why 777 was so opposed to including real "career elements" in the first place is something I'll never understand.