It has become something of a holy grail for PC combat flight sim enthusiasts. An authentic and highly detailed recreation of the air battles fought in the Pacific during World War II. Not since Pacific Fighters, the popular add-on pack for the IL-2 Sturmovik series which came out in October of 2004, have we seen a product dedicated to that kind of experience. Things are set to change nearly two decades after the release of that last title if experienced flight sim Executive Producer, Jason Williams and developer Barbedwire Studios and their subsidiary Entropy.Aero have anything to say about it.
Jason has done a few Q&A sessions with me over the years mostly in relation to the IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles Series where he was an Executive Producer for many years. He’s back on the flight sim scene with a new team, a new plan, and some very exciting prospects for the future of WWII combat flight sims. I asked Jason a series of questions that help us learn as much as he and his new team can tell us right now in these early days.
Read the questions and his responses together with concept art and renders in this Stormbirds.blog exclusive!
Q&A with Jason about Combat Pilot
Stormbirds: Welcome Jason! Nearly all of my readers will already know the answer to this question but let’s do it anyway for anyone new. Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your history with flight-sims and tell us where you’re at right now.
Jason Williams: As usual, it’s great to be here Colin. Although I have been involved with several companies and projects related to this genre over the years, I am most known for being the former CEO of 777 Studios which made the Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War series and I am the former Executive Producer of the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles franchise by 1C Game Studios. While at 1CGS I produced several new expansions, dozens of new aircraft and tanks, and oversaw hundreds of improvements over a 10-year span. I also planned and green-lit most of the new content still rolling out for that franchise even in 2023. And I played a role in helping the Cliffs of Dover series find a new commercial life with Team Fusion. I parted ways with 1CGS in late 2022 and set off on a new adventure. Now, my company Skystreak Productions is partnered up with Barbedwire Studios and their new subsidiary Entropy.Aero to make a new PTO themed combat flight simulator called Combat Pilot.
CFS2 vibes!
What is Combat Pilot all about? Is it a hardcore PC combat flight sim or something else?
Combat Pilot is the first hardcore CFS set in the PTO in a looong time, just about 20 years! This is especially rare for an IP originating from a Western studio. I’m talking completely new, from scratch, not a mod, not an add-on, not a redux and not something that vaguely qualifies as a sim. Crazy to think about that fact.
We hope to bring all the important features virtual aces want, such as great visuals, realistic physics, complex systems, and detailed damage modeling. The initial Combat Pilot title will be set in the Pacific Theater during 1942 in and around the Battle of Midway and probably other early Pacific battles such as Coral Sea and Wake Island. Maybe even Pearl Harbor at some point if we’re lucky! We plan to cover as much of the Pacific air war as possible in time. If all goes to plan this will be a comprehensive series built and improved over many, many years. Oh and of course, single-player and multiplayer support is planned.
For this new project, you are working with Barbedwire Studios. Have they released any other titles?
Barbedwire Studios (BWS) is the developer behind the Call to Arms: Gates of Hell tactical real-time-strategy game. Which, I must say, is very well done. If you are a fan of WWII games such as Company of Heroes or Men of War, but you have an even deeper interest in realism and historical accuracy go check out Gates of Hell, you will be impressed!
Barbedwire has a strong interest in all things WWII along with a desire to make products with high levels of realism and great gameplay. Their executive team also has a deep passion for combat flight-sims it turns out. This made our working together a natural fit.
To manage this new project, Barbedwire has formed a new subsidiary called Entropy.Aero, which will work on Combat Pilot independently of their very busy development schedule for Gates of Hell.
Carlos Flors, the CEO of BWS, is an aerospace engineer by trade and pilot in real life and has a real love for flight-sims on the PC. Thanks to his aerospace connections, Entropy.Aero has assembled a very talented engineering team with industry experience at Airbus and Saab among others. You can expect the aero engineering in Combat Pilot to be quite good. You’ll be hearing more from Carlos and others on the team as things progress, but I’ll be leading the charge and managing the overall development as I have done with previous projects.
For the initial offering, what are you planning to do? What’s the big picture long term goal for the product?
So, without getting ahead of ourselves, right now we believe we have a great vision and we are working to finish our initial prototype. We’re building all the tools and the foundation we will need to take this product to market in as reasonable a timeframe as possible. Not gonna lie, our main competition has a huge 15-20+ year head start on us, so please don’t expect us to catch up overnight! LOL We are very clear-eyed about the challenges we face. However, I promise to be, just as I have always been, up front and honest about our progress and the hurdles we need to overcome. The level of communication between myself and the community about what we are doing will remain high. To me, this is the way. The only exception would be revealing things we consider a trade secret.
The initial product will probably be pretty modest in scale and scope. The bigger picture and long-term goal for our product is, of course, to usher in a new hardcore combat flight-sim series and give the market an additional choice besides the existing and future options I know are coming. As great as they are, there is room for new thinking and new products to vie for virtual pilots’ attention. There is a long road ahead and a lot of hard work yet to do and no guarantee that we won’t fail. However, we are going to give it our best shot. We hope the community will come along for the ride and wish us well. Right now, we are mainly asking for your encouragement and well wishes.
What are your goals in the near term for graphics, damage models, and flight models?
For the near term we are focused on the fundamentals – tools, flight-modeling, physics, aircraft systems and basic scenery and technology to flesh out the geospatial aspect. We are also building the Zeke and Wildcat of 1942 vintage along with a couple aircraft carriers to be our proving ground. Midway Island is also being built to a certain level now and we will super detail it later. We are just a couple months into our first 12-month dev cycle. Lots and lots to do.
What’s your design philosophy with Combat Pilot?
I’ve spent a great deal of time studying what combat simmers like and want over the years. They are a very diverse group. What I can say now is that our design philosophy will be rooted in realism, fun, flexibility and pleasing our customers. I hope to take the best of what has come before and then innovate beyond that without upsetting what the community has come to expect and what dreams they have. Communication will play a big role in explaining our vision for the series. I have a dream CFS in my head too, just like you guys do, and I would very much like to fly it one day. I got close before, and I haven’t lost my drive even with all the challenges that entailed. I will use my previous experience, both successes and failures (Grr… drop tanks), to inform future decisions. As we solve technical hurdles we will speak more about the details of our design. It’s just too early to get too specific.
Do you want to work with third parties and content makers?
Absolutely. We will be looking for modelers and other creators and programmers to either hire or contract as we progress. If you have professional or semi-professional experience making things or researching things like aircraft, vehicles, ships, scenery, tools, apps, artwork, videos etc. for any of the other flight-sim products out there let us know you’re interested.
There were challenges in the past with obtaining references for Japanese aircraft in particular. Have you solved this problem? Are there creative solutions that you’ve been able to find?
There is no magical solution to this issue unfortunately. There are still challenges to finding super detailed info on Japanese subjects, but we have decided that there is enough to build the better-known aircraft and make them flyable and plenty to fill the sky with NPC aircraft where needed. We will use our tools, best practices, and creativity to fill in any missing gaps. We’re sure you’ll have a great combat experience in Japanese equipment in the end. I will also continue to ask the community for help locating stuff we may be missing. The community is always helpful in that regard, but we also do our own research as well.
Do you guys have the necessary funding to reach your goals?
For lack of a better term, we are “partially” funded at this point in time. We have Entropy.Aero, and another investor on board, plus a few pennies from me footing the bill for the initial phase. I’m confident if we hit our technical marks over the next 12 months, we’ll have no problem with future funding. I know what kind of money a quality CFS can make once the fundamental challenges are overcome.
However, if you would like to give us an early boost, go check out Gates of Hell and kick Barbedwire Studios a couple dollars for taking on Combat Pilot. We’ll also accept whatever your local currency is as well as gold bullion and plates of Beskar! They are a great group of hard working people.
Why not do some crowdfunding?
We may do something at some point, but I really don’t like selling things I don’t actually have or 95% confident will get done. We have some ideas, but we’ll see how things develop over the next year..
So enough about the business side of things for a minute, let’s talk about PTO airplanes and ships. What is your favorite plane from that theater or Battle of Midway?
That’s an easy one, the TBD-1 Devastator. Ahead of its time before the war, and dangerously outclassed by the Battle of Midway. However, many overlook its versatility and actual war record. The TBD was not quite the failure people claim.. Not only could it drop torpedoes, but it could also level bomb and had a cool bombardier position in the belly where a Norden bombsight was fitted. A real interesting design, but basically underpowered and plagued by unreliable torpedoes in battle. The Devastator paid a very heavy price at Midway, but then again so did the first TBF Avengers that fought there. Was a brutal battle all around.
I have some personal history making a TBD for a flight sim. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but myself along with my old friends Simon and Ed made the TBD-1 that you can find in later versions of IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 as an A.I. bird. Although the modders who added her re-painted her the wrong colors!! I can guarantee you, there will be no such problem in Combat Pilot. Making a flyable one to a next-gen standard will be a good challenge for us.
I’ve personally researched the TBD more than any other plane I think. The only examples known to exist these days are on the bottom of the ocean including a few that sank with the USS Lexington. I’ve seen pics from when they were found by a deep sea submersible and they are in quite good shape all things considered. I wish they’d raise one to put in a museum. It is a crime that not a single TBD was kept intact by war’s end and preserved.
The history books will always remember that it was their torpedo runs at Midway that dragged the Zekes down low and occupied the AAA gunners so the SBDs could attack from above and hit the Japanese flat-tops.
What’s your second favorite PTO plane?
Oh that’s a harder question, probably a tie between the P-39 and P-40. Unsung heroes of battles us Americans often forget. On the Japanese side, I must say I love how the Ki-61 ‘Tony’ looks. Just such a departure from most Japanese designs with its German inspired lines and inline engine. Imagine flying one over New Guinea or some other jungle island with today’s visuals! That gets me excited.
What about a favorite ship?
Before I answer this question, I want to say that we plan to have amazing looking capital ships and very diverse fleets roaming the Pacific. We hope to bring you a spectacle never before seen in a hardcore CFS before with not only amazing aerial combat, but also amazing surface ship combat.
Ok I’m a little biased on this one considering where I live, but the USS Nevada has a really great story to tell. From fighting at Pearl Harbor, to the Aleutians campaign, to the invasion of Normandy, to Okinawa where it was hit by a Kamikaze, to being nuked after the war as a target ship – the Nevada survived all that. Super cool history.
On the Japanese side I really like the Yamato class. I know that’s kinda lame because she’s so well-known, but the Yamato and her sister ship Musashi had the biggest guns of the war and are legendary icons which were only sunk with tremendous effort. Japanese subs are also really interesting to me.
I know I’m sounding very America-centric in my answers, but I cannot wait to put the IJN and IJAAF into action against the USN, USMC, USAAF and someday the RAF, RAAF and RNZAF. Will be a blast!
Will there be regular Developer Diaries posted for Combat Pilot?
Absolutely! Oh how I miss doing DDs! They were my favorite part of my old job. We will post them on our forum as often as we can, but they will be slow at first while we get our sea legs and build up. Please don’t hold me to every week in the beginning!
So, you have a new forum and a website?
Yes! Today with the release of this interview we have launched the official Combat Pilot website, discussion forum and also several social media properties including our nascent Discord. The links are all below. In the beginning most action will be on our forum where myself and the team can interact with the community and share info. Our website will grow and evolve as the project does. Right now, it’s pretty sparse and will remain so for a while as we ramp up. But I invite all virtual aces from all corners of the globe to come hang out in our forum and on our properties and help us build a new friendly place to relax and jabber about our favorite hobby!
Do you plan on a more formal announcement at some point with more details about content and features?
Yes, of course. I wish I could say more detailed things about Combat Pilot today, but it’s still too early to make concrete promises beyond the basics and our early efforts. This is what we consider to be a “soft launch” of Combat Pilot, but we think it’s best to be out there in the public eye instead of operating in the dark. I miss talking to members of the community and the sharing of dreams and wishes for our beloved flight-sims. I look forward to the year ahead.
Anything you want to add?
As usual. I just want to say that I appreciate Stormbirds giving us this opportunity. Coming out from the shadows and talking about what we are working on always feels good. We think Combat Pilot will develop into an amazing product, but as I keep saying, tons of work lies ahead. Please wish us luck!
We will certainly keep Stormbirds and the community informed of our progress! Come hang out with us and have some fun in the Pacific. Don’t forget your sunscreen and shark repellent!
Concept art and renders
In getting this interview together, Jason also provided me with a bunch of concept art, some renders, and work in progress models that the team are already busy creating.
First, let’s look at the concept art because I think these will tell you everything you need to know about what kind of experiences Jason and this new team are intending on creating.
Then, let’s have a look at some renders of some work in progress models.
Finally, some early images of Midway island as well as the surrounding water and even some clouds.
Concluding comments
Although these are early days for this product, the interview and information above together with my chats with Jason over the last few weeks has me excited by the prospects of returning to a Pacific-based World War II combat flight sim. The first in nearly 20 years!
I have a lot of nostalgia for this subject as one of my first early flight simulator experiences was 1991’s Aces of the Pacific by Dynamix. That cemented the Pacific theatre of WWII as a major interest. This new series has the potential to reinvigorate an area that many enthusiasts have been asking about for a long time now.
There’s an awful lot of possibilities that can stem off of this basic concept too and so this has the potential to grow. Time will tell how this plays out. As Jason points out, they are partially funded and they have a lot of catching up to do versus the competition. Nonetheless, I have great hopes that this will become a new product that gets added to the pantheon of flight sim titles. I wish Jason and his new team the best of luck in achieving that goal!
You can count on Stormbirds.blog to provide ongoing coverage of this as further news develops!
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