Two new updates from 1C Game Studios coming in over the last couple of days with a new IL-2 Korea update focused on the Yak-9P with pre-rendered shots of that cockpit fully textured up. We also have Brief Room Episode 34 which is focused on the maps of Siege and Liberation. Both Odessa and Finish Gulf maps have been in development for a very long period of time but are coming together now for this release. They also talk about the release date so that’s something. Let’s go!
Talking maps for Great Battles
The format for this episode is different as they are doing an online chat rather than an in-person one. It also features Yura aka Zeus, a well known community member and map maker, who has done work for the series before including the Velikiye Luki map.
The interview details Zeus’ time working on various maps and his on-again, off-again efforts on the Odessa map over the last decade. The map as it is now features 700 settlements, custom layouts, and more details than were possible in the map’s earliest days. When it was first worked on, three dimensional wave technology hadn’t been added yet so it’s benefited from the work done during all the way back to Battle of Kuban.
Reportedly the map will get some improvements post official launch. More on that is going to come later on.
The interview then turns to Kartta Komppania, a group of primarily Finnish developers, working on what is known as the Finnish Gulf map. This section breaks down that team’s 8+ year effort to develop the resources and materials to detail this map. The Finnish section of the map was coming along but apparently the development of the Russian section of the map (around Leningrad and along the southern part of the gulf) became a joint effort. This is when the map became part of a module. The two teams have worked together to make it all work including unique 3D models all across the map.
In both cases, it sounds like the battles that took place on these locations over 70-years ago are very much determining how these maps are setup. It’ll be interesting to see how it comes together in the career. They say that the Finish Gulf map will come by the winter but that both maps, and all seasons, plus the complete 1941 and 1944 careers will arrive by the summer of 2026.
Yak-9P for Korea
Korea developer diary 51 is here with some pre-rendered shots of the Yak-9P. Another aircraft that the series is slowly finalizing. The aircraft represents one of the last models of the piston-powered Yak fighter series but it is quite similar to the earlier models that we have in Great Battles so you can see some of the detail differences already – and yep, we’re still waiting to see them start to migrate and appear in the sim engine itself.
Stormbirds 
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