Popular flight simulator YouTuber Froogle has done a question and answer session with IL-2’s Lead Producer Jason Williams. The 42-minute interview covers the range of topics from the history of the series to what the team is working on now and hopes for the future. It’s worth listening in!

Watch the video

Let me first start with a link directly to the video on the Frooglesim YouTube channel. It’s worth listening in to, especially if you’re new to the IL-2 series and want a get a better handle on what is going on and what the team is currently working on.

Read the analysis

Unlike some Q&A sessions, I’m not going to do a full point by point analysis of what was said because a lot of the information here is not new to regular readers of this blog nor is much different from a lot of the subject matters that I’ve covered recently, however, there are some nuggets in there for us to talk about. So let’s talk about them!

Talking about Tank Crew

First, around the 19:00 minute mark, Froogle asks Jason about Tank Sim and some of the features around that title. Jason brings up some interesting nuggets here and I thought we should talk about them.

Tank Crew is set around the Eastern Front for now and it features a large environment tank battle at a much larger scale than something like War Thunder does. That much is fairly obvious but there’s some follow up discussion about what might be possible later on. Features like deformable terrain, not immediately on the roadmap, are under at least some level of consideration by Jason and the team. That’s immediately interesting for its implications across the entire product line.

Another is the consideration of future titles. Tank Crew is the beginning and its clear from listening to Jason that 1CGS is listening to the fans who are buying into Tank Crew now and gathering their feedback on new features and ways that the series can improve over time. Jason states that they are “just getting started with tanks” and with a little luck and some good sales, its quite possible that the series can expand.

Would a follow on Battle of the Bulge title interest people? I suspect it very well could and it would pair beautifully with the aircraft set created for the IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte title too.

Future flight sim titles

There was also talk about future titles for the flight sim series that people might find interesting. We’ve heard it before but the introduction of the Me262 and the technology to support that aircraft definitely leaves the door open to future jets as well. Jason talked briefly about going to Korea at some point and featuring aircraft like the F-86 Sabre, the MiG-15, and the F-80 Shooting Star.

Before Korea, however, the team is more focused on WWII related content and on WWI related content too. Jason talked about mining all of the materials created for Rise of Flight including the detailed and well researched WWI aircraft that it really sounds like he hopes to be able to bring back to the table into the new sim and into Flying Circus with follow up Volumes 2 through however many it takes to build that series back up.

A demo for IL-2? What about the Pacific?

Also briefly touched on is the Pacific which Jason still hopes to do and on the possibility of a demo for the series. A demo has been much talked about and debated and from Jason’s comments with Froogle today, it sounds like a demo has been pushed a little further off as the team has their hands full with everything else going on.

Does that mean no demo ever? I wouldn’t say ever and it may still happen, just not right away.

Go back and listen in

If you’ve read the analysis but haven’t had a chance to listen to the full Q&A, I do still recommend that and of course definitely check out the Frooglesim YouTube channel for plenty of news and information from Froogle on what’s happening in the world of flight sims. It’s a great channel and worth checking out!