Developer Diary 59 is out and this one is talking about awards and how they work for the upcoming Korea IL-2 Series release. The most interesting thing is perhaps not that they exist (we’ve seen this before in Rise of Flight and Great Battles) but that they may have an impact on your squadrons morale. Interesting. Let’s have a look.

Unit morale and awards

I have to admit, awards and scores for pilots in a sim like IL-2 Sturmovik or DCS World don’t really motivate me. I’m there for the flying and kill counts, missions flown, and awards granted are kind of transitory for me. But they are historically part of the wartime experience and so I think it’s great that awards are making a return for the career/campaign experience in Korea.

There are some changes, however, as the awards are not just granted but you can actively award them to your fellow squadron-mates. Korea is leaning into the squadron management side of things more, its something they’ve mentioned previously, and this looks to be another part of that experience.

In Korea, we had to change this approach — now that you control a unit, personnel awards should not be automatic; you have to decide which of your subordinates to award. Moreover, the awards will somewhat affect gameplay itself: the timeliness and fairness of award nominations will affect your subordinates’ morale, so you will need to keep an eye on this.

I can see some furrowed brows and skepticism creeping in already from some corners of the community, however, I think this is an interesting gameplay experience potential. Until I get to check it out for myself, I’m not sure how negatively or positively it might affect the experience. It might be fun, it might get boring or redundant quickly, I don’t know. But at the same time, I do like that they are trying something a little different.

Read the full Dev Blog here!