This one has been teased a few times but today we’re seeing the full efforts of 1C Game Studios to bring an honest to goodness Zeppelin to the IL-2 Great Battles engine and the Flying Circus series specifically. Here’s the news.

Lighter than air

Zepplins played a sometimes significant role in the aerial battles of World War I. By the end of the war, they had largely become obsolete and technologies aimed at defeating them made them extremely vulnerable. But for a brief time, they were a significant threat and a revolutionary technology. World War I aerial sims have included these airborne fortresses before but for the Rise of Flight and follow-on Flying Circus series they’ve never been realized. Until now.

The 1C Game Studios team had many types to choose from but ultimately decided to do a Zeppelin Type R. It’s 1,500 kilometers range, 100 km/h top speed, seven 7.92 mm MG-08/15 Maxim machine guns, and large bomb-load should make for quite an imposing presence.

The dev diary reports that combat missions to raid airship bases, interception missions against Zepplin raids, and defensive cover missions will all be part of the experience.

The update also reports that the Flying Circus map is still receiving some updates. Cities, including Paris, are being refined and details are being added in the countryside.

Read the full report here.


17 responses to “Zepplin Type R is coming to Flying Circus”

  1. If we can’t land on the top of that, I’ll be really disappointed.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. IL-2’s engine has been pretty good at object collisions. It’ll be very interesting to see if you’ll be able to!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. It’s been on the wish list for a lot of people for a long time now (ROF days) so great to see it finally making it ways to a sim

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Absolutely! I remember seeing those wish lists ages ago!

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  3. This makes WWI well rounded finaly, is this what they hinted as mullti engine not so long ago , it has 6 ?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. There were a few folks saying that the Zepplin may have been the multi-engine that they were talking about. It does have 6 engines!

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    2. Hmmm… 🤔

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  4. “Overall, with the addition of this colossus, Flying Circus will gain all the charm that was originally intended.”

    Will it really gain all the charm it was originally intended/be better than RoF? Yes, FC2, airships and additional maps weren’t even planned back in 2018 because there’d be no use in teasing anything that wouldn’t come if FC1 wasn’t a success and if anything the latter two would come many years down the road. It’s just without the Channel Map, Galicia/Tarnopol Map, the remaining RoF aircraft — seaplanes, Albatross D.II Late, and Russian planes — and more than just 3 new aircraft like slower two-seaters it really leaves a hole in FC in that RoF did more than FC ever did.

    I enjoy FC but it really deserved just a bit more.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. As games advance players should expect to get less content then previous versions, its same for WW2 part. If they decide to make WW1 for 3rd time, it will have less airplanes then FC, thats just how it goes.

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      1. Yes, because FC is being done by a 3rd party but if they are not going to bring over the Channel Map then they could at least bring the Felixstowe over so we can fly it on the BoN map. Nobody will really care.

        Right, so we’re not getting any other maps but what about some long requested slower two-seaters for the DH.2 and Eindecker to catch up with (depicting the Fokker Scourge where Entente planes were mercilessly hunted down by the Eindeckers) and make up for that? We paid more for essentially a copy and paste of RoF and ended up fewer planes, some of which would very appealing to players. I also want to point out is that the reason stated by the devs was very incoherent: “We have no plans”. A better statement would be: “Ugra is getting neck deep in other projects for other games and doesn’t have the time to add the Channel Map” or “Ugra has decided to make new maps in the new engine, so even if they did bring the Channel Map over it would only end up in a presentable state, like the Western Front Map is currently but we plan to completely finish that one.”

        That reasoning is more coherent and they’re not throwing someone under the bus, plus they could have offered the task up to anyone with the skill.

        I will say that if we do get a WW1 series in the Korea engine then it will be a continuation and not a copy and paste of FC starting with either the 1915-Summer 1916 timeline on the Western Front or the Italian Front.

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    2. At one point I was really hoping that the Channel Map would make a return. I always thought that Rise of Flight experience was a little bit special.

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  5. I don’t mean to sound like a hopeless optimist, but I think that a Channel map would make a lot of sense as they could use the Normandy map terrain as a template. What they would have to do, however is make alterations to the suburban areas.

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  6. In one sense this is awesome (rewatched The Rocketeer a while back) but the less romantic part of me wonders at the point. As Novice-Flyer said, there is a bit of a hole in this game: The Be2c was in service until mid-1917 and as an utter masochist I would love to fly one. The German Aviatik or similar for the other side?

    A Channel map, seaplanes etc I feel would have been a better addition. Appreciate more difficult, but would have injected a little more life.

    But, it is what it is and I appreciate it.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I think that a Channel Map would be a good idea for Flying Circus to cover. It would be nice for the IL-2 dev team to offer something a little different to the Western Front map in terms of having a maritime and coastal environment, and being able to target Naval infrastructure and shipping, and submarines , and British submarines and German U-Boats as well.

      I envision that the map would cover much of Southeastern England, Northern France and Western Belgium, along with much of the Netherlands. I just like to imagine such things, so please take this with a grain of salt. But what do you (you – the reader) think about this? Would it be too big to do? Too time consuming? Or could it actually work?

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      1. We can ask minor bug fixes but you are talking about making a new map that doesn’t exist, make of course new ships and subs to fill this map and once here hydroplanes will be asked.

        With this zeppelin que development of FC is over and you are literaly asking a FC IV with no more flexibility than intercept air raids and make Gotha long range missions. I sadly think it will not work.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I like it. No need to shit on it because it wasn’t your pet favorite project. =-)

    Just because you get one thing in game doesn’t mean nothing else will ever come out. A zeppelin is a unique asset. Maybe a coastal map is coming (and thus seaplanes too, maybe ships) We don’t know.

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    1. No, FC won’t be getting anymore maps; the current map is it

      😦

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