Update 1.0.11 (3rd June 2024) - Susan Ruth
This patch contains major fighter and AI changes
Major Fixes
- Fix for aircraft targeting overflow causing bullets not to impact fighters after a while
- Chin, Cheek, Ball, Left Waist and Right waist guns now fire and hit targets
Minor Fixes
- Damage is more sensibly applied to physics components, damage to control surfaces will now effect control
- When an aircraft is hit with bullets, we mark is as damaged by bullets so that when/if it crashes into the ground we'll count it as shot down instead of 'accidental'
- Fix for UV crawling on terrain
- Binding a joystick axis no longer blocks keys
- Fix for time skip failing due to bombardier after bombing target
- Windows Icon
Features
- Different enemy fighter squadrons now have tuneable skill levels. The skill level of enemy fighters at the moment random on Mission levels, but will steadily ramp up in 'Attack of the Axis'
- All B17 Gunners are now hitting with significantly more accuracy
B17 42-31499 'Susan Ruth' was one of 20 B17s from the 306th bombardment group to bomb the Frankfurt rail yards on 8th February 1944. It was damaged by flak over the target, but remained flyable, however the bomber was targeted by two German fighters over France, killing the radio operator and the ball turret gunner, and forcing the rest of the crew to bail out of the mortally wounded aircraft.
Scattered over the countryside, 5 of the surviving crew managed to evade capture for a while with the help of Belgian and French resistance, but 3 were eventually captured and executed by Nazi partisans. Too injured to make the arduous journey over the Pyrenees to Spain and allied Gibraltar, the pilot, Howard J Snyder, joined the 'The Maquis', a local resistance group, and continued to fight the Nazi regime from the ground until liberated by US troops months later.
Update 1.0.9b (21st March 2024) - 'Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby'
This patch updates gameplay and UI with some other minor fixes, tweaks the fighter behavior and new time bar and fixes a very serious CTD mid-mission.
Gameplay
- Reworked fighter attack
- Fighters now attack in multiple waves of squadrons (2 waves of 4 aircraft instead of 3 waves of 6) per airbase, instead of single squadrons.
- Fighters are now a little more aggressive and will pull out of attacks later.
UI Features
- Time can now be controlled from a new UI at the bottom of the screen
- Bombardier search/rate toggle now has an icon/button at the bottom of the bombardier action screen
- Compartments and stations are disabled when viewing fighters
Major fixes
- Fix for crash to desktop related to fighters in historical missions
- Fix for crash to desktop when swapping to a fighter and selecting a B17 compartment
- Fix for crash to desktop when too many airbases are attacking the squadron
Minor fixes
- Scroll Bar now ties to mouse wheel for menus
- Training mission typos
- Fix for inability to quit pilot training mission
- Time bar no longer off the edge of the screen
- Select time to reset to normal speed
- No longer able to change speed while paused
- Icon bar help no longer shows if icons are invisible
B-17 serial 42-32076 was accepted into service in January 1944 arriving in Great Britain on the 2nd of March. It was flown from RAF Bassingbourn by the 401st bombardment squadron of the 91st bombardment group. Dubbed 'Shoo Shoo Baby' by its crew after a popular song by the Andrews Sisters, it flew 24 successful missions, before mechanical problems deep in enemy territory forced the crew to land the Aircraft in neutral Sweden where it was interned. A deal was struck between the US and Sweden to gift several B17's to Sweden for civilian purposes including the (renamed) 'Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby', in return for repatriation of air crew.
Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby is one of a handful of surviving B17's today.
Update 1.0.8 (11th March 2024) - Stormy Weather
This patch fixes a Crash and Start Mission Issue.
Serious
- Fixed instant return to debriefing room when starting missions
- Fixed crash to desktop on Opportunity for the Axis mission start
- Removed 4 pass limit on fighter attacks
Update 1.0.7 (11th March 2024) - Winged Victory
This patch fixes several AI issues and includes some Quick Mission and Front End enhancements.
Bomber Formation AI
- Catastrophic collisions should be significantly reduced when formations are turning
- Bombers will leave formation if they cannot maintain cruise speed
Note: Flak damage severely impacts the aircraft control surfaces, which impacts the bomber's ability to maintain formation positioning currently. We're aware of this and are continuing to work on improvements to this.
Fighter Attack AI
- Fighter->B17 collisions should be significantly reduced
- Fighter AI will avoid bomber formation airspace
- Fighters will abort and head home after 4 passes (instead of 15 minutes), absent damage, fuel low, out of ammo
- When breaking off an attack, fighters will maintain break off posture until clear of the target
- When intercepting the target, fighters will abort if they get too close if that have failed to begin Attacking
- Gunners will only announce fighters if the fighter is directly attacking
Attack of the Axis
- More squadrons, more fighters
- Attack wave squadrons are staggered
Front End
- Controls can be reset with right click (on the control window on the right)
- Text windows in the front end will page up/down with mouse wheel
Please keep the feedback coming and follow the game on social and on the major gaming platforms for the latest updates.
Update 1.0.6 (21st February 2024) - Duffy's Tavern
This fix patches several 'quality of life' issues
- Fix for nose geometry
- Navigator Map recenters on plane on entry
- Radio operator can use book without going to manual
- Compartment and station icon bars are accessible externally
- Drift adjustment no longer needs the user to depress 'N' in bomb sight
- Gun geometry update
Please keep the feedback coming and follow the game on social and on the major gaming platforms for the latest updates.
Update 1.0.5 (16th February 2024) - Hellzapoppin
This is a hot fix for a crash bug when accessing a station with a missing crewman
Serious Issue Fixes
- Fix for crash when accessing a station with a missing crew member
Minor Issue Fixes
- Fix for maps not able to be dragged at high zooms
- Fix for Aircraft status wrap after accessing bombardier screens
Update 1.0.4 (14th February 2024)
This week we have focused on issues with AI and physics timing, as well as some quality of life improvements to the bombing
Timing and Stability
- Landscape tile generation has been temporarily dropped back to original game rate as it was causing frame spikes, causing integration issues for Physics and AI. The process of tile generation will be reworked to not impact on frame time
- Time acceleration has been capped to 8x as higher rates were also causing integration issues
- Event Scheduler has had extra guards added
- Possible heap corruption fix
- Fix for occasional crash when accessing fighter formations via the icon bar
Bombing
- Bomb sight terrain window has been adjusted
- Bomb sight screens now has drift visible as part of the Aircraft info
Misc
- Graphics updated for the radio operators table
Please keep the feedback coming and follow the game on social and on the major gaming platforms for the latest updates.
