Project galba

[Blackdog_kt]

Just posting here to answer the question about Battle of Moscow. I can't provide specific references and links as it will take too long to find them and i'm in a bit of a hurry at the moment, but i clearly remember this has been explained and discussed at length in the recent threads about the Igromir expo. For anyone who wants to refresh their memory, feel free to browse that thread.

To make it short, Battle of Moscow is not about the competition (although there was a national IL2 competition held during the expo in a separate part of the booth). It's not a 3rd party add-on either.

It's actually an add-on/expansion for SoW, it's done by the Maddox team and it was advertised side by side with BoB during the expo, so it's as official as it gets. At least that's the information we got in the thread about the expo, as i clearly remember mr Oleg Maddox mentioning that mr Roman Denikin, his lead systems designer/programmer, has done a lot of work for the Moscow add-on.

It seems that these are actually the 2 officialy confirmed titles, BoB and Moscow. Korea is on hold until BoB is done, but i guess you could say it's semi-official.

As for the N. Africa theater, it has been discussed very heavily both by developers and by us the fans, but there's nothing official about it yet. Maybe it's because a lot of the planes would be similar, so it would be easier/faster to make (ie, it would mostly need map work and most of the map is featureless desert anyway). Actually, the similarity in planesets is probably the main reason the developers are interested, since they will be able to produce an expansion in a very small amount of time compared to other theaters.

Apart from BoB however, Battle of Moscow is still the only installment to have ever been officially advertised.

My personal speculation? I think it will not be an "all-in-one" eastern front campaign like the original IL-2.
Oleg's comments about Roman Denikin being highly involved (i think he said "you can't imagine how many complex stuff our guy Roman has managed to model for the moscow add-on", or something to that effect, when people were discussing the amount of key-bindings visible in the screenshots from the options screen) leads me to believe it will be a case study of the operating procedures and ground controlled interceptions that were standard doctrine of the Soviet air forces. I guess it will be more about flying barrier CAPs and intercepting He111s at 5000m in a Mig3 than weaving amid the trees and hills in an IL2.

[IceFire]

Thanks Blackdog! Interesting and not what I expected...

I hope this Battle for Moscow is a good simulation. I'm still hoping that it's a proper flight sim then... Ground control doesn't sound too interesting to me but flying Yaks and 109s against each other does sound good. Moscow is a pretty substantial battle and there will be a lot of content that will need to be put together. I wish them luck!

As for North Africa... depending on the timeline yes a lot of aircraft will be the same but they will also have a whole bunch of new ones. Updated Spitfires are probably an easy thing but then you have things like the Boston/Havoc, Baltimore, Wildcat (I guess that could be skipped), large numbers of P-40 variants, Macchis, Re2000 and more...weird thought... who wants a flyable Me323?

[Chivas]

I'm finding it hard to believe that the Battle of Moscow is being built by Olegs team. It would be counter productive to delay the release of the Battle of Britain because a section of your development team is working on a different addon. It doesn't smell right unless they've picked up more monies for development considering the financial pressure Oleg has been under to release BOB.

[PilotError]

Hi,

I was reading Blackdogs recent post and it is quite different to the situation that I believed was taking place.

My understanding is that Maddox Games are producing the core game of SoW:BoB or whatever it is going to be called (I think we can all agree on that point).

If I have picked up all the nods, winks and hints correctly then Maddox Games will then move onto the Med/Africa theatre.

The Battle for Moscow is being developed by a third party (with some help from the Maddox team) and should be released shortly after BoB.

Project Galba (Korea) is currently on hold as that team are assisting in BoB.

The problem is that we have to rely on a hint here or a nod there for much of this information, so it is no surprise that people will come to different conclusions.
I'm not saying I am right and Blackdog is wrong, but just that I have came to a different conclusion as to what is happening with the limited information that is available.

It would be nice if we could get some official clarification.

[=69.GIAP=TOOZ]

This was my impression as well that the Battle for Moscow is a 3rd party production with support from Oleg's team.

[4H_V-man]

I was really hoping to see Maddox go back to at least the Battle of Poland, if not to the Spanish Civil War, then progress chronologically from there with add-ons covering the entire scope of the war.

There are tons of aircraft I've never seen in a good combat flight sim that could be made available with this approach. Lots of Polish, French, Czech, Romanian aircraft. One of the things that has always interested me about WW II aviation is the fact that most of the countries basically started the war with little more than WW I tech and by the end of the war aircraft were nearing Mach 1.

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by 4H_V-man

I was really hoping to see Maddox go back to at least the Battle of Poland, if not to the Spanish Civil War, then progress chronologically from there with add-ons covering the entire scope of the war.

There are tons of aircraft I've never seen in a good combat flight sim that could be made available with this approach. Lots of Polish, French, Czech, Romanian aircraft. One of the things that has always interested me about WW II aviation is the fact that most of the countries basically started the war with little more than WW I tech and by the end of the war aircraft were nearing Mach 1.

I am definitely one of those who would love to have pretty much all of those types present in a sim. That said... how interesting would the Battle of Poland be? A several day scenario where Poland is soundly defeated militarily and scrambles to get it's troops out of the country so they can reform elsewhere. The air battles, although intriguing would be desperate and ultimately I'm not sure how interesting that would be to play even if it is historically.

I like the approach they are taking and glad to get on to some very interesting areas of the war.

[Blackdog_kt]

First of all, thanks for the feedback.

Originally Posted by Chivas

I'm finding it hard to believe that the Battle of Moscow is being built by Olegs team. It would be counter productive to delay the release of the Battle of Britain because a section of your development team is working on a different addon. It doesn't smell right unless they've picked up more monies for development considering the financial pressure Oleg has been under to release BOB.

What you say makes perfect sense...

Originally Posted by PilotError

Hi,

I was reading Blackdogs recent post and it is quite different to the situation that I believed was taking place.

My understanding is that Maddox Games are producing the core game of SoW:BoB or whatever it is going to be called (I think we can all agree on that point).

If I have picked up all the nods, winks and hints correctly then Maddox Games will then move onto the Med/Africa theatre.

The Battle for Moscow is being developed by a third party (with some help from the Maddox team) and should be released shortly after BoB.

Project Galba (Korea) is currently on hold as that team are assisting in BoB.

The problem is that we have to rely on a hint here or a nod there for much of this information, so it is no surprise that people will come to different conclusions.
I'm not saying I am right and Blackdog is wrong, but just that I have came to a different conclusion as to what is happening with the limited information that is available.

It would be nice if we could get some official clarification.

...and you say is also a very plausible direction that things could go.

The only reason i'm drawing different conclusions is the involvement of mr Denikin (mentioned by the boss no less), who is the lead systems modelling designer for SoW. After all this time we do know that systems modelling is going to a big aspect of the new simulator engine, which leads me to believe that this guy is one of the top assets of the team.

The way it clicked in my head was "why would one of their top guys be involved if it wasn't their project?", but of course you are both right in your observations as well. Who knows, maybe the guy is on "loan" to a different studio, developing the functions specific to the Moscow add on. Also, let's not forget the importance such a scenario will have for 1c's customers in their home market