Cover art for Flying Circus Vol. II, sourced from the developer's store page.
First, a bit of backstory...
The world of WW1 flight simulators has been a lonely - albeit fascinating - world in recent years. Since this niche genre is overshadowed by the more popular appeal of WW2 flight simulators, WW1 aviation fanatics like myself have been left with few options to choose between. 11 years ago, Rise of Flight came onto the scene and wowed sim pilots with its amazing graphics and damage modeling. Around that same time, Wings over Flanders Fields also emerged. Initially a mod to Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 3, Wings over Flanders Fields blossomed into a robust singleplayer experience unrivaled by any other WW1 simulator.
However, both of these games have problems.
Rise of Flight was amazing for its time and has demonstrated an excellent streak of longevity. But, at 11 years old, the simulator has steadily been showing its age as its graphics fall more and more out of date and the online community continues to shrink.
Wings over Flanders Fields, despite running on what is essentially an 18 year old engine, boasts an immersive singleplayer experience. But, it is totally lacking in the multiplayer department. And while I haven't personally flown it (yet), the feedback I've heard from those that have is that the flight modeling is less "real-feeling" than Rise of Flight's.
Flying Circus Vol. I
In 2018, I was ecstatic to hear of 1CGS's announcement that they would be bringing some of Rise of Flight's content to their vastly superior Digital Warfare engine (the same engine powering the latest iteration of Il-2 Sturmovik simulators.)
This effort (christened Flying Circus Vol. I) started small with 10 aircraft, a map of the Arras sector, and no singleplayer career mode. Despite its nondescript size, the series had vast latent potential and packed quite the punch in virtual reality - a first for the WW1 flight sim genre!
Sadly, in early 2020, a damage model update to the entire Sturmovik series had unforeseen consequences which hurt the Flying Circus community. While beneficial for the WW2 side of the simulator, the update rendered several of the 10 Flying Circus aircraft nearly unflyable due to an unusually high number of wing failures after suffering even minor combat damage. This issue thinned the ranks of the multiplayer community considerably.
Understandably, 1CGS had their hands full. They had closed out 2019 with a year of unprecedented development, finishing off their releases of Flying Circus and Battle of Bodenplatte, while continuing work on Tank Crew. Nonetheless, as 2020 passed by with scant mention of Flying Circus, many in the community (myself included) began to assume the project had failed to produce enough revenue to justify further production and we slowly started to fade back into the shadows.
The world of WW1 flight simulators has been quite lonely as of late. However, that world just got much brighter with a recent announcement!
Flying Circus Vol. II is a reality!
After teasing Vol. II's release in early December, on December 15, 1CGS announced the full scope of Volume II. To say that the details are amazing would certainly be an understatement. Not only did the developers announce their roadmap for Vol. II, but they also shared that the chances of a Vol. III arriving later are "very high."
So, what's included?
Flying Circus Vol. II will follow 1CGS's protocol of including 10 aircraft per title. The aircraft they have selected to bring over from Rise of Flight are as follows:
Spad 7.C1 (150 hp and 180 hp versions)
Airco DH.4
Sopwith Triplane
Nieuport 28.C1
Breguet 14.B2
Handley Page 0-400
Pfalz D.XII
Fokker D.VIII
DFW C.V.
Gotha G.V.
These aircraft will do an excellent job filling out the 1918 focus of Vol. I while also providing a nice segue into 1917 for future volumes. The continuity Vol. II's plane set will bring to the existing set from Vol. I will also be a wonderful thing for the upcoming...
Career mode!
As of the December 15 announcement, 1CGS has confirmed that they will be bringing a full scale career mode to the Flying Circus series. This is huge news, especially since arguably 2/3 of Flying Circus users favor singleplayer over multiplayer. For those of you who are curious, this career mode will be available across all volumes of Flying Circus - including the original Volume I. Purchasing each new volume will unlock more aircraft types and allow players to start their careers further back in the Great War's timeline with older aircraft.
Due to the intense amount of work to implement this, career mode will probably take a while to develop. 1CGS has indicated that until the Battle of Normandy career mode is finished, they will not have the time to tackle this large project. In my opinion, this is completely understandable. The good news is that in the meantime, Pat Wilson's excellent Campaign Generator will be updated to work with subsequent volumes of Flying Circus, along with SYN_Vander's Easy Mission Generator. In short, singleplayer lovers are going to find themselves with many excellent options both now and in the future.
New planes??
No, you didn't read that wrong; 1CGS has announced plans to bring entirely new aircraft into the fold. These new aircraft are currently unnamed and will be sold as collector planes, most likely to the tune of $20 apiece. Naturally, conjectures are running wild as to what they might be. I personally would not be surprised if either the Sopwith Snipe or Siemens-Schuckert D.III / D.IV made an appearance. Regardless of what these mystery birds turn out to be, any new aircraft in the Flying Circus series will be an absolutely welcome addition!
Enlarged maps
Another thing announced was that the Arras Map was going to be enlarged, giving pilots more room to fly. But that's not all! 1CGS (in partnership with Ugra Media) will be designing several more maps: Verdun and Reims. When completed, these three maps will be merged together to form a single, huge map that spans a significant swath of the Western Front. Plans have also been announced to offer their maps in multiple seasonal colors - broadening the variety of scenarios.
But what about the damage model?
The damage model continues to be a sore spot to the series. However, 1CGS did make mention of the issue in a post on the forums:
"I am aware some of you are not totally satisfied with the current damage model as it pertains to WWI. We recently overhauled our entire damage model for the engine and making further changes to it for WWI will also affect WWII. This requires some thinking and more study, but at this moment I cannot make further changes to just WWI. I see this as a long-term project to somehow change only WWI damage modeling. Even so, there are mixed opinions on this issue. Just because there are some vocal critics out there, does not make the loudest voice correct. As usual, we would need to study the issue further before any more changes are made."
From this post, we can gather that the issue is indeed on their radar, which is a positive note in itself. They have also indicated that they will be looking at addressing it. While many players (including myself) would prefer a quicker solution to address what we see as a glaring issue, it is wise to remember that there are only so many issues the developers can tackle at once. There is also a certain amount of wisdom in what 1CGS is saying here; in our zeal to have the issue fixed, it might actually be possible to move too quickly and risk breaking other elements in the Il-2 series. After all, the damage models for WW1 and WW2 are tied and tweaking one affects the other.
With several more years of development now guaranteed, I personally see the chances of this getting fixed somewhere along the line as highly likely. Naturally, I hope for this sooner rather than later, but honestly the chances of it never getting addressed seem very slim given the developers' words. Which is an encouraging thought!
Key takeaways
With this exciting news, I feel there are several key points to observe:
Volume II will feature six Entente aircraft and four Central aircraft. This is somewhat of an oddity, as usually new modules feature 5 aircraft per side. However, this is actually a very positive move in my opinion. As things stand, there are no shortage of Central multiplayer squadrons, since most of these can fly any of the available Central scouts. Giving more scout and bomber options to the Entente forces will spark a healthy growth in Entente multiplayer squadrons to balance out the playerbase. With Vol. II, I can easily foresee new factions such as the French Escadrilles and the RNAS forming, while other existing factions such as the USAS and RFC are bolstered by the new types as well.
Five of the new aircraft will not be fighters. Again, this is a fantastic move on the part of 1CGS. Flying Circus Vol. I featured a predominantly fighter-centric planeset, leaving only two options for players who preferred ground pounding to dogfighting. Bombers and two seaters were the backbone of the WW1 air war, so their sparse presence in Vol. I made creating accurate Great War scenarios fairly difficult. Vol. II is set to change all that with not only three more two seaters, but two heavy bombers added on as well! With this move, varied two seater/bomber missions are suddenly a reality, breathing new life into the community. Hopefully, accurate implementation of WW1 missions such as artillery spotting and photo reconnaissance in the Flying Circus engine will eventually follow.
Entirely new aircraft are coming our way! If the previous point was a fantastic move from 1CGS, this next one was nothing less than a stroke of brilliance. One issue that Flying Circus has struggled with from the beginning has been emerging from Rise of Flight's venerable shadow. This next step will be a key piece in helping Flying Circus take the torch from Rise of Flight and carry it on to a new generation. Not only will this firmly establish Flying Circus as its own product, but it will also provide 1CGS with another good source of revenue from enthusiasts who purchase these collector aircraft. And from a practical standpoint, it probably will increase gift-giving within the community, as more people will be willing to purchase a collector plane to gift someone than to purchase a full module. Finally, it probably will be the push a lot of new pilots need to try the series. They very well could purchase a single collector plane, fall in love with the series, and then buy the rest of modules. All in all, only good can come from this move.
The verdict?
To quote flight sim blogger ShamrockOneFive, "Volume 1 was a test to see if the concept would work and be financially successful enough to get to the point where a Volume 2 and beyond would be viable. This is exactly what happened..."
Flying Circus Vol. II is the massive shot in the arm that the series desperately needed. The announcements of December 15 also firmly put to rest any doubts as to whether or not the product has a future. With a Vol. III extremely likely and even a Vol. IV hinted at, one thing is for sure: Flying Circus is here to stay.
Early on in Vol. I's development, I encouraged people to buy into it because of the potential it had. Thanks to the support of the community, that potential is now starting to be realized. Given that we have so much to look forward to, I definitely would encourage sim pilots to buy into the series. Especially now that 1CGS is offering an unprecedented $20 off the preorder and a 66% discount on Flying Circus Vol. I until January 15, 2021, there truly has never been a better time to dive in! You can purchase both volumes at their online store here.
(Disclaimer: I do not receive any money from the sale of Flying Circus modules; I only recommend them because I personally love them and feel my readers would also enjoy them.)