Dev update - a surprise for some?

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/168-developer-diary/page-5#entry515596

Quite a lot of work going into the campaign side of things -

Hello everybody,

In general, the work is proceeding as planned. All three remaining Battle of Kuban planes (Yak-7b, P-39L and A-20B) are in Engineers department now. P-39L and A-20B 3D cockpits are being made and textured, while the 3D model of Yak-7b is finished. In the meantime, the new Career mode is being filled with a lot of content:

  • It includes all the three battles depicted in our project: Battle of Moscow, Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kuban:
  • Battle of Moscow consists of 200 days starting from October 2nd, 1941, when the German offensive began at large, and ending on April 20th, 1942, when the Russian counteroffensive stopped at Rzhev;
  • Battle of Stalingrad is 163 days long, from August 23rd, 1942 (the first massed bombing of Stalingrad and German 6th Army crossing the river Don) till February 2nd, 1943 (when its remains surrendered in what was left of the city);
  • Battle of Kuban goes for 176 days from the German attempt to crush the Soviet bridgehead at Mysjako near Novorossiysk on April 17th, 1943 till October 9th, 1943, when the remaining German troops were evacuated from Taman peninsula to Crimea.
    -145 squadrons total, each one of them having historically correct aircraft and airfields;
  • 98 of these squadrons a player can join, so they have squadron histories. While being brief, these histories are 40 000 words combined;
  • All German squadrons have unique insignias and Soviet ones have regimental banners;
  • 83 newspapers you’ll be receiving while playing Career have 61 000 words;
  • Around 550 historical photos add more life to the new mode;
  • Each pilot will not only have a name, rank, and credentials like in Rise of Flight, but also a photo thanks to the new photo generator. 24 unique pilot biographies (12 per side) add more flavor to the game;
  • There are 38 mission types planned, way more that we have had before (Rise of Flight career and the current BoX campaign have 22 mission types);
  • AI controlled objects in missions will be more numerous thanks to the performance optimizations we conducted earlier. For example, player flight will include up to 9 aircraft (there are up to 5 in Rise of Flight and the current BoX campaign);
  • The Career will offer a number of options to suit anyone’s playstyle, skill, PC performance;
  • Around 70 different awards can be earned by a player in this mode. Each one of them will be supplemented by a brief description and have unique conditions to be awarded. Here are a few examples:

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Aaand to finish today’s Dev Blog, we want to begin, how should we call it, ‘the month of surprises’. We don’t tell you early about everything, and there are reasons for this. But when we do, we hope that you’ll be pleasantly surprised. So, here goes the first one - we’re making a new Collectors Plane, Bf 109 G-6, for a month already. This is a highly anticipated aircraft and since it fits into the Battle of Kuban timeframe, it’s possible for us to make it. The exterior 3D model is being built right now, so we can show you several WIP screenshots of it:

  • LA5FN anyone??

Jason mentioned La5FN few DD’s ago that will fit into Kuban timeframe, we may get it early in 2018.

Guessing that’s not going to be a premium aircraft? The Bf109G-6 is an extra. Not sure I see the point I buying it as it was when things really went downhill for the 109.

G-6 and La5FN will be collector planes, i think!
Same like with macchi, italian crew likes it!
109 lovers will buy g6, me as well to support developmet even i don’t fly much axis planes.
Me personally i hope some day we get yak-3!

The list of Blue pilots is very long and I am sure there will be customers for it.
But I concur.
The 109F-4 was the last model that had fine handling qualities.
The 109G-2 was a compromise and from there on it just went down.

I have the 109K in DCS and it is very tirering to fly and in the old IL-2 1946 the late 109 where the same.

The swing on take off is meant to be worse, the handling deteriorates and it piles on weight. It can carry all the gunpods and two anti-aircraft rockets, but they have no value on the Eastern Front - unless we get B-17s!
I’d get the La-5FN, I thought that was a cracking aircraft in 1946, I sometimes prefered it over the La-7.

I liked the 109G-2 the best of all german planes in 1946.
The La-5 I have in BoX isn’t up to the 5FN we had in -46, but I haven’t flown it enough to say much beyond that.