Hello everybody,

 

The New Year is almost here, and our office is very busy. As Jason announced earlier, BoK release is planned for the last third of the winter and we have a lot to make in time for it. The final part of the work on the Career mode turned out to be a lot more difficult than anticipated - those improvements that we planned to combine the best from RoF and BoS worlds require an astonishing amount of work. The overall work is tripled by the fact that we create the Career mode for three war theatres at once - not only new BoK, but also for previously released Battle of Moscow and Battle of Stalingrad. The amount of squadron histories research, work on preparing the map data for the generator were tripled; this also significantly increased the time needed for unique theatre settings. On the other hand, the final result we expect to get should make up for this hard work and release delay. It is important to note, that last two times (in RoF and BoS) Viktor =FB=VikS Sechnoy developed the generator templates that were significantly limited, this time he makes it as he sees right. Our producer Jason gave Viks the freedom that he asked for. Everything will be changed - mission tasks, mission success conditions, mission progress conditions, the placement of various objects near the front line. For instance, to complete a ground attack mission you can destroy various different enemy targets in the designated area, not necessarily the main target listed in the briefing. There are many other things that should make the new gameplay more diverse and interesting compared to earlier BoS campaign or RoF career.

 

The new Coop multiplayer mode is almost done. This game mode is much like RoF Coop, but IL-2 Coop will have several improvements compared to RoF one thanks to our GUI programmer Vitaly Tolmachev. It will be possible to form player groups using a dialog window and assign a different route to each. There will be also an option to fly a gunner like in Dogfight.

 

 

 

Thanks to Coop development, we're also improving the game statistics system, which will benefit all the game modes. First of all, stats will become more informative. After making necessary improvements that stats parser tool was designed to support from the start, in the future we plan to further expand and improve the statistics system. Moreover, the entire MP points assignment system will be revised. Difficulty modifier will be gone - on all difficulty settings, players will receive the same amount of points. We do this because it turned out that setting strict rules for set groups of users is not needed for the community, and most MP servers use custom difficulty settings where points are not counted at all. We also won't set the player points to zero if he is killed or captured. Instead, we're adding additional player states the community asked us for some time:

 

Airplanes:

Successful Landing at airfield : x 2.5

Emergency Landing at airfield : x 2.0

Forced Landing outside the base : x 2.0

Ditched : x 1.5

Bailed Out : x 1.0

Flight Canceled : x 0.5

Captured : x 0.5

Killed : x 0.5

Friendly Fire : x 0.0

 

Vehicles:

In Service : x 1.5

Broken : x 1.0

Killed : x 0.5

Friendly Fire : x 0.0

 

 

Statistics system isn't the only thing that is changed by adding Coop mode - you'll be able to host a server not only from a separate DServer tool using a different account, but from within a game. You will be able to specify all the required parameters in the game itself and participate in the mission he is hosting together with other players. Such servers will be visible in the servers list just like DServer ones. You'll be able to host both Dogfight and Coop servers this way.

 

 

Another chunk of news today is that we started Bf 109 G-6 flight model development since its 3D model is ready. This aircraft is going to be interesting, here's its cockpit screenshot:

 

 

Speaking of aircraft, we finished the raindrops visual effect on the canopy and restored the old RoF feature with raindrops on pilot's goggles. They both kick in when they should, creating a new level of immersion during rain. When you're on the ground and the canopy is opened, the raindrops will land on your goggles. While taking off, the front glass will protect you from the rain, unless you move your virtual head outside. While the movement of raindrops on the canopy surface and on the pilot's goggles is simplified, it is physics based and changes depending on airspeed and flight direction. Even if there is no rain, the raindrops will appear when you fly through a cumulus cloud or very low above the water. This 5-minute gameplay video showcases this feature:

 

 
 

Now let's show you something more grounded. Since the graphics improvements for BoK are nearly complete, we started the work on tech required for new projects. The research on Bodenplatte map and scenery has started and we'll tell you about it a bit later, but today we can give you more info on another project - Tank Crew. All tanks will have the detailed exterior and interior (WIP screenshots are coming soon). Right now here's the screenshot of the current Pz. III tank model you already have in the game that shows the new visor tech - prismatic optical instruments and triplex armored glass:

 

 

 

Our partners are making the tank models while we make the necessary new tech for them to look best, for instance, the new tech to make the tank tracks look as real ones as possible. This tech is different to what two most popular tank games are using and is more modern and perspective. It is not heavy on polycount, performance optimized, looks good at different distances, including close up views, and is also convenient for 3D modelers to work with. Our lead programmer Sergey Vorsin not only made all that but also made sure the tracks move in a physically correct way at different speeds.

 

 

 

In addition, Sergey has made it possible to topple trees on the edges of woods, in the wood lines and single standing trees. This option is optimal for game performance (it doesn't adversely affect the performance of the entire game and doesn't clog the bandwidth in the multiplayer) and is also realistic because a tank crew couldn't expect to move right through a forest. Although physics of tree-toppling is very simplified due to the insane amount of trees in the game, it still looks better than in many other projects.

 

We plan to improve many other technologies for Tank Crew project. In particular, we plan to make landscape mesh 16 times more detailed for smaller, 100x100 km tank maps. This will allow creating the fully-featured multiplayer missions with tanks and aircraft acting simultaneously in one mission (10000 sq.km. are more than enough for fighters and ground attack planes). In the same time, tank players will have very good landscape visuals on such maps.

 

However, as they say, it is better to see once than to hear many times. So here is 3-minute gameplay video which showcases two new tank features - new tracks and tree-toppling: