Developer Diary #21

Steam post image Dear friends, today marks the beginning of a new era in which we duplicate our Developer Diaries on Steam. There's a lot to tell you!

Meet the new Community Manager

We have appointed a new Community Manager, Frits Mosselman. With 25 years of flight simming and sim content producing under his belt, decades of experience in project management and being involved in successfully launching the WW2 RTS game “Call to Arms: Gates of Hell”, Frits has been named project manager and community manager. Some of you may know him as “Herr Flick”, or FTC_Snafu. He will be coordinating the team effort in what is now a joint responsibility with the leadership of the Entropy.Aero team. As mentioned before, our roadmap remains exactly the way our team has always intended and we are happy to announce that a lot of highly anticipated content and features are in the works.

Departure of Jason

After Executive Producer Jason Williams announced his departure from the Combat Pilot team on April 2nd, questions were asked as to whether this will change the direction or the roadmap of the project. It will not. Jason and the team never had any differences about where we all wanted to take Combat Pilot. After Jason’ s departure and succession, we will keep the project on the exact same course. Our goals have always been - and always will be - the same. That means we continue to go full speed ahead while the current roadmap remains unchanged. And thus, the project continues as planned - so allow us to showcase current progress.

SBD-3 Dauntless

Fondly nicknamed “Slow But Deadly” by its crews, the SBD Dauntless was one of those planes that gained legendary status during the war. The Battle of Midway was just one of many in which it was to earn a formidable reputation. Designed by Ed Heinemann, it was the successor of the Northrop BT-1 and BT-2 attack aircraft. When the Northrop company was taken over by Douglas in 1937, the BT-2 was developed into the SBD. The SBD entered service in 1940. It was highly maneuverable, pleasant to fly and its perforated dive brakes gave it excellent diving characteristics. Its long range made it very useful as a scout as well. At the battle of Midway, 47 SBDs from VS-6, VB-6, and VB-3 attacked the Japanese carriers simultaneously from 2 directions. This happened as the Japanese fighter cover had dived on the low- flying TBDs that arrived a bit earlier in the same attack wave, allowing the high- flying SBDs to attack unchallenged. The result was that three Japanese carriers were fatally damaged in the span of just 6 minutes (Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū), while Hiryū was sunk later that day. The Kidō Butai, as the Japanese strike force at Midway was called, suffered a defeat that proved to be decisive. The SBD continued to serve until the end of the war, even though it was succeeded by other, more powerful aircraft over time. We’ve begun work on the Dauntless’ exterior model. We’ve been working on the FM as well. Below you can see the current state of this legendary bird: Steam post image

TBD Devastator

We can announce that we’ve once again partnered up with the amazing Digitalforms team to bring you one of the unsung heroes of the battle of Midway: The TBD-1. The XTBD Devastator flew for the first time in 1935. It was the first American carrier-based monoplane to be operated in numbers and the first with an enclosed cockpit. Another innovation were the power-actuated folding wings. It carried a crew of three. During a bombing run, the bombardier would lay prone under the pilot to sight through a window at the bottom of the fuselage, using the Norden bombsight. The Devastator could carry a Mk.13 torpedo or several bomb loadouts. Although its initial operations had some success, such as sinking the Japanese carrier Shōhō during the battle of the Coral Sea, its weaknesses were clear. It wasn’t very maneuverable, it was slow, lightly armored and therefore quite vulnerable. At the battle of Midway, 41 Devastators were launched against the Japanese strike force. Only 6 returned from the attack. While their attacks did not do damage to the Japanese, it forced Admiral Nagumo to cancel the preparations to counterattack on the US carriers, which turned out to be a decisive factor in the battle. All of the remaining 39 navy Devastators were withdrawn from frontline service after the battle of Midway. This is a highly complex model, as it comprises 4 cockpit areas. Documentation on this plane is scarce, however we have what we believe is everything that’s available. We’ve completed the research stage and begun work to bring you the most detailed depiction of the TBD ever done for a flight simulator. Steam post image TBDs on the flight deck of USS Enterprise during the battle of Midway

B-17

Work on the B-17E continues on multiple fronts. While the external 3D model and textures are nearly complete, we are now working to ensure that the first playable station — the cockpit — is as authentic to its real-life counterpart as possible. Of course the Fortress must not only look the part, it must fly. A great deal of work has been undertaken over the past few months to prepare the Fortress for its maiden flight in Combat Pilot. We have been modeling turbocharging into the EntropyFM physics engine. We’ve also added support for multiple engines per aircraft, with all the UI and gameplay implications it brings. There are areas that require further development, and we will very soon import the B-17E in the sim to begin testing the flight and systems modeling. Steam post image Steam post image The early-war B-17s are nowhere near as well documented as the F and G variants that came later, and the aircraft itself is extraordinarily complex. We simply wouldn't be able to do this without the excellent documentation and expert consultation provided by Hangar Thirteen — in particular, Mr. Gerad Blume. Steam post image Folks at https://hangarthirteen.org/ are currently rebuilding a B-17F named Lucky Thirteen, which (once complete) will be the only surviving aircraft to have taken part in the pivotal campaigns against Schweinfurt in the counter-air campaign in the summer of 1943. This ambitious project is aiming to achieve the highest accuracy standard of any B-17 ever attempted. As a result, it’s a long and costly process — not unlike building the real thing. Please consider contributing to their effort to bring this beautiful machine back to life. Link to the fundraiser: https://hangarthirteen.org/donate/ On behalf of the Hangar Thirteen and its team - thank you for your support!

Pilot Models

We have completed the USN and IJN pilot models that will be featured soon inside the aircraft in the game. They represent fighter pilot outfits period-correct for the battle of Midway. Today we’d like to showcase the Japanese fighter pilot model, next Developer Diary we will talk about the American pilots. They have been modeled to a high degree of detail, including firearms. We have several variations of the pilots, which we will need to decide what to do with. Pilot customization? Random variations? You tell us. We’ll consider your requests. Steam post image Steam post image

IJN Hiryū

The Hiryū’s external mesh is nearing completion. Soon, it will be textured. We’re very excited to get the ship into the game, it will be the second carrier out of four that we need to complete the Kido Butai, the mobile taskforce of the Japanese Imperial Navy. Click to enlarge

EntropyFM

Work on our physics engine continues at full swing. Besides the aforementioned turbocharging systems for the B17, we’ve been working on improving the thermodynamic model of piston-engined aircraft as a whole. We’ve also begun work on the buoyancy system, for more realistic splashdowns and interactions with the water. The fuel systems have been modeled to a much greater detail, including fuel priming and electric fuel pumps. The clickable cockpits will now have these added functionalities, which will also be featured in the ‘auto start’. We’ve reworked the ‘auto start’ of your aircraft to sequentially perform all the checklist actions to start the engines in a progressive way, as opposed to instantaneously. We have made further tweaks to the non-linear (stall) response and ground handling. You can see the "Progressive Autostart" feature in this video: View store page

Upcoming news

In the near future, we will have several more exciting announcements to make. Among others, we’ll be presenting 2 new aircraft that we’ve been working on. These are already nearing the texturing stage. We will also shed light on a variety of game features that we are working on at the moment. Last but not least, we’d like to invite you to join our Discord server: