The latest patch in the IL-2: Great Battles Series is out and at 2.5GB it introduces a fair bit of new content. This patch is focused on the Flying Circus and Tank Crew parts of the Great Battles Series with the release of the Halberstadt CL.II, Bristol Fighter F.2B for Flying Circus and Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G for Tank Crew. If you were hoping for the Mustang, well, let’s also talk about that too!

The last two aircraft for Flying Circus

Redeveloping aircraft for Flying Circus Vol 1 bring them from Rise of Flight into the future of the series and the simulation has seemingly gone well with Flying Circus’ aircraft list now complete as of today. Both Halberstadt CL.II, Bristol Fighter F.2B are two seat aircraft with a pilot and a gunner and both are the first two types in the series that have more attack/strike capabilities than the typical aircraft released for Flying Circus so far.

In-fact that’s the first thing I did with both aircraft when I downloaded the patch and hopped in for a few quick flights.

Both types are also competent dogfighters and while they don’t have quite the same level of agility as some of the other scouts, they do have a rear gunner that gives them quite a bit of flexibility on the defense and offense. Both types also come with two engine options with the Bristol F.2B coming with the Falcon II (195 hp) and Falcon III (275 hp) engine and the Halberstadt CL.II coming with a standard 160 hp engine as well as 200 hp option

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A new tank as well

The Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf.G is a medium tank and one of the most commonly used tanks during the Kursk Tank battle. It’s combination and mix of powerful weaponry with comparatively light armor makes it an interesting tank to drive. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet but I’m looking forward to driving it.

Delete your update folder

A lot of people are having trouble with the update (myself included). If you are then the simple fix is to delete the contents of your update folder. Here’s the suggestion from IL-2 developer Sneaksie:

If you have ‘failed to update’ message in the launcher, please close it, navigate to the installation folder of the game and delete the folder called ‘updates’ and backup data/startup.cfg file (it contains your settings) and data/luascripts/snapviews folder if you altered the default camera positions for yourself. Then run the laucher again. Sorry for inconvenience!

Sneaksie

Once done everything should be back up and working normally.

How about that Mustang?

And now on to the thing that is concerning many today. Where is the Mustang?

Several months ago Jason gave us an indication of which aircraft were going to come next. The hope at the time was that the Mustang would come in June or July. As is always the case with these kinds of comments, things change and development can speed up and slow down across different sections of the project. Things that are contingent on one thing being finished mean another thing may be a little delayed.

Though we don’t know exactly where the Mustang is in development right now, Jason did take to the forums with some encouraging words:

Guys – P-51, P-38 and Tempest are looking good. I am in Moscow this week and I have checked on all of them in person. You have nothing to worry about. Coming in not too far future.

Jason Williams on the IL-2 forums

Of course there’s always a few that think that any delay is cause for major concern but I feel that is largely unfounded. There’s also the concern that 1CGS is spread too thin, however, I think that’s forgetting the fact that there are two external developer studios working on the Tank Crew and Flying Circus content.

Replying to comments on the IL-2 Sturmovik official Facebook page the page owner (I assume Jason Williams) had this to say (shortened for brevity):

Sales have never been stronger and our user base continues to grow. I know exactly what we are working on and all personnel in our office are working exclusively on BOBP.

Everyone is clearly excited to see the P-51D Mustang return to the series and many of you are also awaiting the release of the Tempest V and the P-38J-25. There’s lots to still be excited about before Bodenplatte releases but a little patience is required.

We’re getting there! The home stretch over the next several months should be a great time for the series.