IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946: Rebirth of Honor

Rebirth of Honor is based on a novel- like story which the player becomes a part of. The story is told by the `Lageberichte (situational reports) in the briefing texts and by the InGameVideos.

The two sites `Story and `Campaign will give you a more detailed insight into the story- related themes.

When you watch the screenshots you will see that I implemented a great number of ground objects for the airfields and the ground targets. I made many tests to find out how the performance of the game is influenced by these objects.

Surprisingly, the game performance wasnt influenced very much by the number of ground objects. The cities and big forest areas have a much greater influence on the game performance. So, if you are standing on an airfield and find a reduction in FPS while using zoom view, the implimented ground objects are probably not responsible but a city or a forest in the view direction could be. If you are on an unmodified Berlin airfield you will recognize a much greater reduction in FPS than standing on a fully modified airfield somewhere on land. All the items which improve the immersion of the campaign are used to a degree which shouldn't influence your computers performance too much.

The dummy- planes you find at the airfields have a greater influence on the FPS- performance than the ground objects. I kept their number at a level where no disturbing effects on gameplay should occur. If you ever played my old Pik-As- Campaign without problems, you should be able to play `Rebirth of Honor with the same performance.

In `Rebirth of Honor i tried to load all flights at the start of the mission. Although this couldnt always be done, most flights are loaded before the mission starts. This has an influence on the time the missions take to load. Sometimes the game freezes for a few seconds as you fly the mission because a flight of planes is loaded during that flight I wanted to avoid this effect so I load as many flights as possible before the mission begins. However, loading nearly all flights before the mission starts means that the loading time of the mission is increased. You only feel this effect before missions which contain many planes. I think its better to wait some extra seconds before the mission begins rather than have the game freeze when you are at someboys six.

Generally, you wont find a difference compared to missions you know from other campaigns, but if you encounter such a loading issue you should know why.

from www.pluswave.de - 2022 Web page gone

Rebirth of Honor is a campaign for IL-2 Sturmovik `Forgotten Battles.

Campaign' means that you play through the carreer of a fighter pilot with 333 connected missions.

All missions in Rebirth of Honor are new. Not one mission was ever previously released.

To build a good campaign its not enough to just connect a series of dogfight and ground support missions.

A good campaign should try to draw the player into a fictional `world and give him the feeling of `living in it.

I think a good campaign should be like a good book: eventful,dramatic and surprising. I dont like a campaign in which I have to repeatedly fly many missions because I get shot down too often. Alternately, I hate a campaign that is too easy and in which I become a hero after only a few missions.

In reality most pilots, including the aces, firstly tried to survive and only then tried to achieve kills. With this rule in mind, the player should be able to `stay alive.

The player takes the role of a former test pilot.

After some time he gets the opportunity to try out captured enemy planes or he has to accomplish rescue missions with the He-111. Crossing the front at night, flying behind the enemy lines, landing at a hidden place and bringing back an important character. In one mission he has to fly with a captured plane over the enemy lines to take some photos. How should this be done? With the Balkenkreuz under the wings or with red stars? Will he be recognized? Will the enemy Flak stay quiet, when he is flying circles at low altitude over the front? Will the agent be waiting for him when he lands behind the front, or will it be the Russians?

How often will luck be with him? The following screenshot shows an example of a rescue mission:

During real war, relatively quiet times are interspersed with hours of terror.

When a major operation took place the soldiers world was ruled by rush, fear, danger, chaos, day and night. Then, the war would seem to sleep. The soldiers life was spent with sitting around, waiting, marching, waiting, boredom, waiting, waiting waiting. The briefing texts reflect these changes. During quiet times the player gets something to read. The (fictional) political and historical events are then described.

When major operations take place the briefings are hurried. I wanted the player to feel the war at these times. Texts are short and the player often has to fly more than one mission a day. The enemy is close and time is short

Rebirth of Honor is a story.

A story about history, how it never was but perhaps could have been. ROH is a story about someone who slowly learns the truth. This role is the players role.

I believe that most players of IL- Sturmovik `Forgotten Battles have a good knowledge about the history of World War II. Playing through the real history with IL-2FB is no problem today. For example the really great `Operation Barbarossa- campaign has been out there for some time.

With `Rebirth of Honor I wanted to go another way.

Everybody knows that on July 20th 1944 an attempt was made on Hitlers life. In Germany this attempt often is referred to as an `Aufstand des Gewissens (Uprising of Conscience), when courageous men tried to liberate Germany and Europe from Adolf Hitler. This story interested and fascinated me ever since I learned of it. Besides these men many others had tried before.

Unfortunately nobody succeeded in killing Hitler and creating a better order in Germany. In the end Germany was defeated and it was Germanys greatest luck that the victors were gracious. This is the story we all know.

But what might have happened if Hitler hadn't ruled as long as he did?

What might have happened had Germany gotten rid of the tyrant in mid 1942?

Would there have been a way to avoid the decline? Would there have been a realistic way to get rid of, together with Hitler, all the Nazi leaders? Would there have been a chance for peace with all the other powers? I dont want to tell the story here, but two things in advance: I dont believe that another government could have ended the war very easily in 1942. I dont believe either that Germany could have defeated the Soviet Union in the 1940s. The story of the campaign is not about a Germany which gets rid of Hitler, avoids all his major mistakes and wins the war. The story of `ROH is far more complicated

Until mid 1942, the campaign keeps strictly to the real history. I own an extensive library about general and military history , including titles specifically about World War II, and the 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the books are very rare copies of US- American post war analysis.

With the `Kriegstagebuch des OKW (war diary of the German high command) I was able to investigate many incidents from the fronts of that time. As close as possible, I tried to recreate the missions around real events with real weather on the actual dates. I extensively used maps which unfortunately show only situations at specific times rather than the events that occured.

From mid 1942 on, after Hitlers death, the fictional story starts. Politics, strategy and the war economies take a different path from the one we know. It continues up to the end of the campaign, until the player gets an insight into the true events.

Alex Hakkenberg