Kuban-Crimea-Feodossija-Area-Mod-Test1

[kraut1]

Early Test Version

Kuban-Krim-Feodossija-Area-Mod is intended to be used to simulate the combat in the eastern part of the Crimea from November 1941 to January 1942 and in May42.
Some historical maps:

Spoiler

27.12.41

29.12.41:

01.03.42:

To simulate these actions at least some German bases  / airfields are required west of the Kuban map limit.
As a basis I combined 2 existing Mods and modified them:

-Kuban_FreeFlight.exe by @EffeDB: published by him:
-17th April: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/91056-request-free-flight-mod-for-kuban/
-5th June 2025: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/52852-effedb-mod-moscow-free-flight-break-the-no-fly-zone/
in this mod the Kuban Map is extended to south east as far as far as I understood. For the Crimea to west extension I changed the Z coordinate limit from 35000 to 0 (35km to west) and made some further small adjustments. (Maybe there was another mod to extend Kuban to west some time ago but I can't remember exactly and I did not fount it, sorry)

-[MOD] Winter Kuban Map by @LuftManu. This mod is based additionally on the work of @may-bug

Thanks very much for your work, EffeDB, Luftmanu and may-bug!

After merging the mods there was the strange situation that in Winter (December) it was all the day more or less dark.
As a makeshift solution I changed the latitude coordinates of the autumn(winter)map step by step to south to have from ca. 9:00...9:30 to 16:00...16:30 daylight

This is the current status of the mod. It is a map mod

Still to do:
-some towns / villages to be created (If I do this they will be very simple)
-1 or 2 Airfields to be created, either by copying the surfaces of existing airfields or just by creating a smooth invisible surface.
-for mission design I will try to adapt EMG by Vander, the special thing is that the new airfields are outside of the map limits of the GUI map...

Map extension:

  

Here the current JSGME compatible map mod:
Download (Outdated / Old, will be updated soon)
https://www.mediafire.com/file/3sm9qoskp9sg9oq/Kuban-Crimea-Feodossija-Area-Mod-Test1.zip/file

I have tested today all seasons with quick missions, but one or two further confirmations that the map extension works would be helpful.

Many thanks in advance!
 

Edited December 12, 2025 by kraut1

[sandmarken]

18 hours ago, kraut1 said:

Early Test Version

Kuban-Krim-Feodossija-Area-Mod is intended to be used to simulate the combat in the eastern part of the Crimea from November 1941 to January 1942 and in May42.
Some historical maps:

  Hide contents

27.12.41

29.12.41:

01.03.42:

To simulate these actions at least some German bases  / airfields are required west of the Kuban map limit.
As a basis I combined 2 existing Mods and modified them:

-Kuban_FreeFlight.exe by @EffeDB: published by him 5th June 2025: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/52852-effedb-mod-moscow-free-flight-break-the-no-fly-zone/
in this mod the Kuban Map is extended to south east as far as far as I understood. For the Crimea to west extension I changed the Z coordinate limit from 35000 to 0 (35km to west) and made some further small adjustments. (Maybe there was another mod to extend Kuban to west some time ago but I can't remember exactly and I did not fount it, sorry)

-[MOD] Winter Kuban Map by @LuftManu. This mod is based additionally on the work of @may-bug

Thanks very much for your work, EffeDB, Luftmanu and may-bug!

After merging the mods there was the strange situation that in Winter (December) it was all the day more or less dark.
As a makeshift solution I changed the latitude coordinates of the autumn(winter)map step by step to south to have from ca. 9:00...9:30 to 16:00...16:30 daylight

This is the current status of the mod. It is a map mod

Still to do:
-some towns / villages to be created (If I do this they will be very simple)
-1 or 2 Airfields to be created, either by copying the surfaces of existing airfields or just by creating a smooth invisible surface.
-for mission design I will try to adapt EMG by Vander, the special thing is that the new airfields are outside of the map limits of the GUI map...

Map extension:

  

Here the current JSGME compatible map mod:
Download
https://www.mediafire.com/file/3sm9qoskp9sg9oq/Kuban-Crimea-Feodossija-Area-Mod-Test1.zip/file

I have tested today all seasons with quick missions, but one or two further confirmations that the map extension works would be helpful.

Many thanks in advance!
 

Very cool! For the Little Brother campaigns, I made a simple version of Feodosia. It was only meant to be seen from a distance, but you can use it for the mod if you want. I can't remember how detailed I made it.. 😁

[kraut1]

1 hour ago, sandmarken said:

Very cool! For the Little Brother campaigns, I made a simple version of Feodosia. It was only meant to be seen from a distance, but you can use it for the mod if you want. I can't remember how detailed I made it.. 😁

Yes, this would be very helpful. I have already downloaded your Campaign and imported your Feodosia.
So it looks from short distance with the mod installed:

In general it is already detailed and looks quite good!
I think I will try to change some house to more russian style.
The mod could have some benefit for your campaign too: 35km more space for flying westward.
Thanks very much!

Just a small Question: does the Mod with the map extension to west work on your computer too?
 
 

Edited November 26, 2025 by kraut1

[sandmarken]

9 minutes ago, kraut1 said:

Yes, this would be very helpful. I have already downloaded your Campaign and imported your Feodosia.
So it looks from short distance with the mod installed:

In general it is already detailed and looks quite good!
I think I will try to change some house to more russian style.
The mod could have some benefit for your campaign too: 35km more space for flying westward.
Thanks very much!

Just a small Question: does the Mod with the map extension to west work on your computer too?
 
 

Il test when i get the chanse at the computer. But no promis when that woud be, i am writing this as i try to get a sick kid to sleep and i have another one also 😅

And yes it woud be interesting because it woud allow to better show how the romanians really operated their iar80s at that time (flying patrols jumping airfields) and Feodosia was one of the airfields they used. I do have another project in the works for now so maybe after that 😄

[kraut1]

9 minutes ago, sandmarken said:

Il test when i get the chanse at the computer. But no promis when that woud be, i am writing this as i try to get a sick kid to sleep and i have another one also 😅

And yes it woud be interesting because it woud allow to better show how the romanians really operated their iar80s at that time (flying patrols jumping airfields) and Feodosia was one of the airfields they used. I do have another project in the works for now so maybe after that 😄

We not I hurry! Before the these eastern Crimea Missions I have to complete the late Battle of Britain and after that the July-August the advance to Balti, Kishniev and Odessa...

Get well soon to your child!

[kraut1]

-2 Airfields are already working in EMG, the EMG GUI map has to be extended too.
-the extended GUI MAp / mapstiles have to be drawn.
-And I am learning to build some simple villages with some surfaces under the houses...

@CzechTexan

[kraut1]

The GUI map of Easy Mission Generator is working, 30km extended to west:

[CzechTexan]

This is a genius creative way to improve this map!  Thanks for doing this.

I always failed whenever I tried to make new airfields.  They were smoothed for myself but not for others who downloaded.  Same goes for the textures I changed.

For a city and port like Feodosija, I would copy/paste from other Russian ports/cities.  Historically, I'm not sure how big that port was.  

I'll keep an eye on this Mod!

[kraut1]

19 hours ago, CzechTexan said:

This is a genius creative way to improve this map!  Thanks for doing this.

I always failed whenever I tried to make new airfields.  They were smoothed for myself but not for others who downloaded.  Same goes for the textures I changed.

For a city and port like Feodosija, I would copy/paste from other Russian ports/cities.  Historically, I'm not sure how big that port was.  

I'll keep an eye on this Mod!

Hi @CzechTexan,

Thanks very much for your positive comments!

Just for your information:
An example for a pure Map mod:

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/92449-early-normandy-1940-map-mod-v03a/
 

In this mod I have
-deleted "late" 1942 to 1944 constructed airfields (surfaces and mapstiles (GUI map) changed)
-changed the some of the existing airfields by removing the surfaces of the tarmac runways to have "grass airfields"
-and the huge late war Manston replaced deleting the Manston surfaces and replaced by a copy of a small french grass airfield"
(the advantage of the Normandy D-Day map is that we have only one season. for maps with many seasons (Summer. Autumn,...) the surface changes have to be done for all seasons.) 

How to do exact the same changes to different seasons of a map:
-if you want to add maybe only one or two surface to the different seasons: select on the surfaces and export selection:

Open the map of the next season and import the surfaces:

If you have defined textures you have to select them from new for each season (copy the name, there is an automatic filter function for Browse)

 

I you want to copy the multiple complex surfaces of a whole airfield in the same way for different seasons I define a reference point by placing a MCU icon at specific point:

This reference point I export / import as a group to the other season's map. And after this is done I copy and move the airfields surfaces to the same location of the reference point.

Changes in the GUI map (the mapstiles in the /data/swf/...) can be done with Gimp.
This is very time consuming because we have 3 detail levels.
If I have to do many changes I simplify this by using only one detail level:
existing example:
https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/89214-kurland-kurzeme-194445-mod-v06-released-12102025/

The same I am currently doing in the Feodosija mod:

At first I delete the mapstiles of the highest and th lowest detail level:

and I rename the 02 folder to 01

info.txt changed to 1 detail level:

(for Kuban for example there are 10 tiles (width) x 7 tiles (height) on the medium detail level)

Note: I am not an expert in respect of surface editing, maybe there are much more effective functions available...

Edited December 3, 2025 by kraut1

[CzechTexan]

I think I'll leave all that up to you and other brave map-modders and I'll stick to mission-making.

If you ever want to mod another map, I request Velikie Luki map.  It would be just a small airfield addition in the southeast section of the map.  Below is a conversation about it...

Posted November 30, 2024 (edited)

  On 6/30/2023 at 12:14 AM, Juri_JS said:

  On 11/30/2024 at 3:47 AM, Juri_JS said:

It's probably too late for such infos, but the main German fighter unit in August 1941 in the Velikie Luki area was III./JG 53 equipped with Bf-109 F-2s. The unit was based at a small forward airfield called Maklok, located near Il'ino. Unfortunately we don't have it on the map, but with the available map tools I guess it would be possible to build it.

During July 1941 III./JG 27 was the most active German fighter unit in the Velikie Luki area. In August and September 1941 III./JG 53 was active. Apparently the unit was flying from a small forward airfield from 11.8.41 - 6.9.41 called Maklok that we don't have in the game. According to my research it was near Il'ino in map sector 1014. One of the main tasks of III./JG 53 was flying escort missions for the Stukas of StG 1.

No idea if the Bf-110 equipped SKG210 also flew missions in the area, but there were some missions by II./ZG 26 in late July.

Expand  

Juri_JS, I went back to that old forum thread from last year and quoted your post above about Maklok airfield.

I also wish the airfield could be placed on the map.  A few months ago, I did an experiment with adding an airfield to the Kuban map so I might experiment with this Maklok.

 

From the Luftwaffe Airfields PDF:

Maklok (RUSS) (no ZNr. listed) (c. 55 ?? N – 31 ?? E) General: primative landing ground (Landeplatz) in W Russia 60 km S of Toropets near the villages of Dudkino and Frolovo. Not listed in Luftwaffe airfield directories. History: used by Luftwaffe fighters for several weeks during the late summer 1941 advance into Russia. Surface and Dimensions: natural surface of unstated dimensions. Infrastructure: no mention of any. Dispersal: no organized dispersal facilities.

Edited November 30, 2024 by CzechTexan

[kraut1]

Hi @sandmarken,

I found an interesting source for old maps:

https://retromap.ru/14193027_z15_45.029346,35.386469

The location of your port is already very good.

I will place some russian town blocks / houses and maybe I will find some suitable surfaces for the ground of the the town.

 

[sandmarken]

33 minutes ago, kraut1 said:

Hi @sandmarken,

I found an interesting source for old maps:

https://retromap.ru/14193027_z15_45.029346,35.386469

The location of your port is already very good.

I will place some russian town blocks / houses and maybe I will find some suitable surfaces for the ground of the the town.

 

Thats cool! I used google maps and used todays port as reference if i remember correctly! 

I will take a look at this mod very soon. 😁

[kraut1]

Extension of the GUI mapstiles:

The southern part fits already well, the northern part has to be streched a bit to north...

Edited December 5, 2025 by kraut1

[kraut1]

All mapstiles upscaled to 4k to avoid the huge symbols / texts when using only 1 detail level:

OLD:

NEW:

Edited later: In general 4k for the mapstiles seems to work very well in respect of the text / symbol size but there seem to be 1 disadvantage: when creating quick missions (not so importent in this new map area) the first display of the map in the Quick Mission builder takes 20...30seconds because by default the whole map is displayed from the beginning (80x 21MB 4k mapstiles).

 

 

Added 24.12.2025:

 

So maybe I will change to 2k: only a quarter of the 4k file size but still at least much more smaller (half of the size) as with 1k (default).

Edited December 24, 2025 by kraut1

[kraut1]

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Merry Christmas. 🎄