There was no IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte dev diary this week but we do have some new insights on a few difference pieces of news so I thought I would go through the updates that we’ve got over the last several days.

Slow updates but promising ones coming soon

The 1CGS team continues to work away at content for IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte. One of the reasons for the slower updates is likely because Lead Producer and our primary update source, Jason Williams, is currently moving house. He hasn’t even had a chance to try the new Spitfire IX if that gives you an indication of how busy he is right now.

Still, in the background there is much progress being made,

But as you can see BOBP is trucking along nicely and Tank Crew and Flying Circus are making progress with more news about them coming soon.

No updates now but I suspect as the summer progresses we’ll start to get more regular updates. Both because Jason is established in his new place and because there will be much more to talk about as development progresses.

Remember the Odessa map

There was a third party team working on an Odessa map as recently as last year, however, all updates have since gone cold. The last time I wrote about new developments was April 24 of 2017.

Originally, the third party team was said to be waiting on the new wave/ocean technology from the Kuban map before pressing forward, but we’ve heard little since then. Black Six answered a question about that map telling us what he knew about the project:

I don’t know anything about the progress of that map.

It’s news in that there is no news which leads me to suspect that progress may have been stopped. Some old screenshots show at least some of the work that was being done. I still hope to see this someday.

Speaking of maps

Since we had our first look at the Bodenplatte map featuring a good chunk of Western Europe, people have been curious when we’d see this map get into our hands. These maps take considerable time and effort to build and the Bodenplatte map stretches the team in new directions being the biggest they have ever built.

Black Six had this to say about that:

This is the biggest our map we’ve ever made. Don’t wait for it very soon.

Give it some time before we see it arrive on the scene. The Kuban map came many months into development (6-8 months I’d guess) and this one may take a bit longer than that.

Of tanks and airplanes

In Jason’s update, we learned a few interesting items.

The first tank with its interior modeled is apparently ready for internal testing which is an exciting landmark moment.  We don’t know which tank but I would guess its the Pz. III that they have made significant progress on.

We’ve already seen the interior in prior updates.

The first Flying Circus aircraft is also apparently ready for engine evaluation which will also be a landmark moment. We’ll wait and see which aircraft they do first.

If all goes according to plan, the first pre-orders for Tank Crew and Flying Circus are expected to begin during the summer sometime so we may start to hear a lot more about both of these titles soon.

Updated info on P-38 version

The initial information from IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte listed the P-38L as the P-38 version we were getting as a Collector Plane. We didn’t know which sub-version of the famous twin tailed aircraft we were getting and now we have a little more info.

We’re not getting a P-38L at all. Instead, after doing research, the team decided that they would be building a late series P-38J. Community speculation suggests it will probably be a P-38J-25-LO. Before you get your pitchforks out, wait for a second. We have a brief update from Black Six on why they chose to use this version instead of the L:

After a historical study, it was decided to do a late series of P-38J.

The P-38J-25-LO was the last 210 models of the P-38J produced and aside from a slightly lower critical altitude, features essentially the same features as the L. It will still have the boosted ailerons, the dive brakes, and potentially even the HVAR rocket trees that I’m looking forward to seeing. The J model was also lighter.

Revamping Steam integration

I’ve already detailed that the 1CGS team has to revamp Steam store integration because of some changes that Valve introduced to their store. We don’t know what all of the details are but Jason sounds fairly upbeat about it, saying:

We’ll also have a re-vamp of our STEAM integration coming in June that will require every IL-2 STEAM customer’s attention and participation and patience, but it will be worth it.

More details surely to follow.

That’s all for now

These are fairly small updates on the whole but they do contribute to our overall understanding of where the team is at and what they are doing. Progress sounds to be good and we should be hearing about the next aircraft to be added to the series soon.

We’ve heard that the team is busy doing research on the Tempest Mark V and some 3D work on the P-47. Will these two types come next or will they be doing the Bf109K-4 and FW190A-8 purely because they can modify earlier aircraft to create these.

We don’t know yet but I’m sure that we will and in only couple of weeks time.

More as I hear about it!