Commander Career has arrived in Korea. IL-2 Series!

[Leifr]

The campaign details look neat, but frankly I'm not interested in managing an entire squadron from top to bottom - there would be staff available for that. I'd like to 'just' be a pilot please, and that's about it.

[gord]

1 hour ago, Leifr said:

The campaign details look neat, but frankly I'm not interested in managing an entire squadron from top to bottom - there would be staff available for that. I'd like to 'just' be a pilot please, and that's about it.

There really isn’t that much to manage. And obviously you have staff as all the info is delivered to you without you having to seek it out. And when you ask for supplies, aircraft and pilots, someone obviously is taking care of that. The ‘we would have staff for that’ comment is odd. 
 

[DeafBee]

I can already see so much potential for this Commander Career mode in a future Pacific expansion with carrier operations.

I've played other games that have tried to create this kind of dynamic career experience, but none of them capture it the way IL-2 Korea does.

Very impressive. I really hope you continue to build on this system in future theaters.

[Viking1]

On 7/22/2026 at 2:54 AM, MajorMagee said:

No commander runs a unit like this without a staff making the details happen for them.

I'd like to see the ground crew added as a Resource. If you dont rest your technicians often enough or some are killed.. trouble! This would also mean damaged aircraft have a standard repair rate depending on severity of damage. Maybe something like this, an additional mission debrief screen when we first return.

 

Edited July 23 by Viking1

[Gunfreak]

I can't move my jet out of parking. It's running and I've turned off parking breaks 

 

[Jaegermeister]

47 minutes ago, Gunfreak said:

I can't move my jet out of parking. It's running and I've turned off parking breaks 

 

Make sure your throttle is calibrated correctly.

[Gunfreak]

20 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

Make sure your throttle is calibrated correctly.

It is, it's working on runway start 

I also got a message that replay was full at 200mb, I though it had been increased from 500 to 1000mb, not decreased to 200

[Hotdognz]

I tried the Career mode last night, really awesome work, there has been a lot of love and care put into it by the devs and it beats anything I have seen in DCS or IL2 GB

Unfortunately with the bad VR experience I have in IL2 Korea (noted elsewhere) I wont explore much more as really I cant get the game to look like a 2026 developed game, and I cant get past that when I play MSFS2024 and DCS which have a clean and detailed look in the Pimax Crystal Ultrawide.

Ill revisit as more patches are rolled out

[Big-Al]

So far I really enjoyed the commander career. I like the options provided with the micromanagement of spare parts/pilots & crew. The following things are just my observations and while they are negative, please don't mistake it as dumping on your achievements. I have a really fun time with the career mode and want to play a lot more and hope that those observations help to make it even better.

- Aircraft skin selection: Really neat that you can give numbers and skins to the aircraft. Overall it's awesome to give e.g. your different flights different camos with it. Sadly in the current state emblems are not saved. Which is a shame and is hopefully added/fixed. It would be also neat to be able to give skins on a larger scale than one aircraft. Like equipping first squadron with skin x and the second squadron with skin y. 

- Kill claims: In the current state it's somewhat strange when kills are credited. It's especially noticeable when flying against heavier aircraft like the B-29. Unless I kill the pilots or saw of wings/stabilizers - resulting in an immediate crash - the kills are simply ignored. Like setting the wing tanks on fire and seeing the plane go down a few minutes later gives nobody the kill. Also in the official kill counts of the squadron roster is not a single shot down B-29 despite having multiple pilots (myself included) with "confirmed" kills. The individual air victories are counted. At this state I'm unsure if any of the dedicated AI aircraft are listed (like C-47/Li-2/B-29) I need to verify that. I also wrote a report on the DC about this matter. 

- Airfield scramble mission: The idea of a duty flight being combat ready to protect the airfield, thus limiting your available aircraft is a really nice feature. The thing that, at least in the mission I flew, was a bit unlucky was a) that from the 2 pairs selected only one of each + myself were spawned to intercept a swarm of F-84s and b) we only had a load of 150L of fuel loaded. I could understand that there is no fuel because we were caught by "surprise" while not having anyone on duty. But since those guys were officially combat-ready it does not make sense to me that they had no fuel. Besides that both crashed, which resulted in two temporary losses from aircraft and pilot alike. 

- Pilot experience: I understand that each of the pilots has different strengths to start with, but I failed to comprehend which of the 3 areas is for which aspect. Besides that I didn't notice any big differences. 

- AI: I know this is being worked on, and I like how the ground to air control works and see a lot of potential. However, like in GB, my wingmen seem to fail to follow clear orders. When, for example, intercepting bombers I gave the whole flight the direct order to focus on the B-29s. When checking on them, I found that most of them were turning and cruising - not even engaged by the F-80 escorts who were likewise useless. Even with repeated commands this did not change, and after I emptied my ammo I noticed that my whole group decided to fly home with me - despite ordering them continue the attack. I'm still unsure if it would be better to let the AI do its thing or try to interfere with commands. 

- Squadrons: In GB or PWCG it was possible to transfer to other Squadrons during your campaign - without the unit being redeployed elsewhere. I would be neat to have that option too, in order to switch aircraft from time to time. Sure you can make simply a new career, but it would be nice for role play and variety. 

 

 

[Axolotl]

I guess, there is no way to change the pilot portrait in the career? I really don't want to complain. The portraits looks much better than GB, but it would be cool to personalize.  Does anyone know in wich folder i can find those files?

[Akira]

1.Is this career mode like a dynamic campaign, does every mission and scale of it's success affects frontline which tranferes to the following mission or does it just reflects historical events like in GB making players contribution minimal or non existent when it comes to war/frontline resolve?

2.Will il2 korea have aircraft carriers and what are dlc aircrafts, any bomber in sight?

Not quite interested in jets and Korea but if career mode having dynamic campaign features and carriers in sight i'm tempted to buy it.

(P.s. is PTO still planned as next expansion?)

[Avimimus]

53 minutes ago, Akira said:

1.Is this career mode like a dynamic campaign, does every mission and scale of it's success affects frontline which tranferes to the following mission or does it just reflects historical events like in GB making players contribution minimal or non existent when it comes to war/frontline resolve?

2.Will il2 korea have aircraft carriers and what are dlc aircrafts, any bomber in sight?

Not quite interested in jets and Korea but if career mode having dynamic campaign features and carriers in sight i'm tempted to buy it.

(P.s. is PTO still planned as next expansion?)

A couple of thoughts here:

1. Career mode:

- The commander career allows strategizing over local objectives (and achieving them) and will eventually include persistent damage (e.g. a bridge which is destroyed in one mission will be destroyed in the next, and then gradually rebuilt over subsequent missions).

- The U.N. intervention forces flew 1,040,708 sorties. The total number of combatants exceeded 7,100,000 people (over 4,000,000 on the DPRK side). So, it is possible for a single unit, or even a single pilot, to influence one part of the front or one objective - but changing the course of the entire war would be unrealistic for a single unit (and especially for a single pilot).

2. The DLC has not been announced. However, we know from past announcements that the F4U and F9F are being developed for the simulation, they've tested carrier technology, and they've shown screenshots with an Essex class carrier. Regarding bombers, the developers have said that they will consider how well the bombers sell for Great Battles and how big the audience is for Korea before making a final decision.

3. PTO is something they've done work towards, but nothing is certain at this point.

[Akira]

7 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

A couple of thoughts here:

1. Career mode:

- The commander career allows strategizing over local objectives (and achieving them) and will eventually include persistent damage (e.g. a bridge which is destroyed in one mission will be destroyed in the next, and then gradually rebuilt over subsequent missions).

- The U.N. intervention forces flew 1,040,708 sorties. The total number of combatants exceeded 7,100,000 people (over 4,000,000 on the DPRK side). So, it is possible for a single unit, or even a single pilot, to influence one part of the front or one objective - but changing the course of the entire war would be unrealistic for a single unit (and especially for a single pilot).

2. The DLC has not been announced. However, we know from past announcements that the F4U and F9F are being developed for the simulation, they've tested carrier technology, and they've shown screenshots with an Essex class carrier. Regarding bombers, the developers have said that they will consider how well the bombers sell for Great Battles and how big the audience is for Korea before making a final decision.

3. PTO is something they've done work towards, but nothing is certain at this point.

Thnx for reply!

I assumed changing course of war is off the table but somewhat affecting player designated frontline shape as u said on local level is possible right? Something to make me grind and feel fruits of it :), semi-dynamic campaign.

[Avimimus]

15 minutes ago, Akira said:

Thnx for reply!

I assumed changing course of war is off the table but somewhat affecting player designated frontline shape as u said on local level is possible right? Something to make me grind and feel fruits of it :), semi-dynamic campaign.

That is my understanding - I gather they've put a lot of thought and work into giving that feeling: Persistent objectives between missions, persistent damage (planned this fall), and persistent need for repair and resupply of your squadron to keep it at strength - all geared towards giving a sense that every mission is potentially meaningful.

[Xtremist]

6 hours ago, Akira said:

Thnx for reply!

I assumed changing course of war is off the table but somewhat affecting player designated frontline shape as u said on local level is possible right? Something to make me grind and feel fruits of it :), semi-dynamic campaign.

Even the single most proficient combat pilot, Hans Ulrich Rudel couldn't do ----- about the frontline shape.. 

[Flashy]

I recently bit the bullet at got Korea, simply for the fact you can walk around after you eject 😄 But no seriously, also to support the devs etc. I think this new career mode is awesome and, while I havent explored it much yet, it does look really cool and a massive improvement over the previous one in GB

 

Having said that, I hope we will be given the option to not automatically start a career as a commander. This feels very much like "end game" career content, and something you should have to work your way through the ranks to unlock, not something which is the "default" beginning of all careers. I would much prefer to be able to start a career as a fresh-out-of-flight-school 2nd LT and be given no choice as to which squadron I am assigned to... or maybe even which plane I am flying.. etc and have to work my way up. I dont want to rain on anyone's parade who enjoys going straight to end game content, but I think we should at least have the option to work our way up to that point...

Edited July 23 by Flashy

[Avimimus]

2 minutes ago, Flashy said:

Having said that, I hope we will be given the option to not automatically start a career as a commander. This feels very much like "end game" career content, and something you should have to work your way through the ranks to unlock, not something which is the "default" beginning of all careers. 

I wonder if it'd make sense to view Great Battles as this? A lot of the Korean War pilots were WWII Veterans... so one could use a Great Battles campaign to produce a similar effect. Alternatively, one could have a scripted campaign.

[Flashy]

10 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

I wonder if it'd make sense to view Great Battles as this? A lot of the Korean War pilots were WWII Veterans... so one could use a Great Battles campaign to produce a similar effect. Alternatively, one could have a scripted campaign.

Sure, but still, only one of them could be the commander, right? the rest of the pilots (currently AI) were just considered as normal pilots.. I just want the option to be one of those normal pilots 😄 

[gord]

Is the Sabre career supposed to start so late in the war? I see Sabre's in 1951 when I am flying a F-80C as my escort but when I start a Sabre career it's 1953 and just a few months of war left.

note: someone just reminded me that was probably based on squadron being active in 1953, not the jet itself.

Edited July 23 by gord

[AndreiTomescu]

some units start with Mustangs/F80 and then switch to Sabre later on. Also, i think it depends on the choosen airfield. Have you found some airfield that starts earlier?

[gord]

Just now, AndreiTomescu said:

some units start with Mustangs/F80 and then switch to Sabre later on. Also, i think it depends on the choosen airfield. Have you found some airfield that starts earlier?

ya i just became aware of that. i probably picked an airfield and squadron that started with the Sabre in '53. at work now but I bet if i looked there is squadrons available earlier.

[Dash,Polder]

2 hours ago, Flashy said:

Sure, but still, only one of them could be the commander, right? the rest of the pilots (currently AI) were just considered as normal pilots.. I just want the option to be one of those normal pilots 😄 

No rest for you, you've been assigned as the operations officer with additional MWR/graves and registration duties, and your also in charge of the chow hall.  So get busy writing normal line pilot. 

[Viking1]

I click on PILOT FILE and then I attempt to AWARD or PROMOTE but I have no points. After 8 missions? How do these accrue I can't tell if this is a bug. Working for anyone else?

 

 

Edited July 23 by Viking1

[gord]

1 hour ago, Viking1 said:

I click on PILOT FILE and then I attempt to AWARD or PROMOTE but I have no points. After 8 missions? How do these accrue I can't tell if this is a bug. Working for anyone else?

 

 

You get award points after an operation finishes. So the amount of missions may vary depending on the operation.

[Viking1]

27 minutes ago, gord said:

You get award points after an operation finishes. So the amount of missions may vary depending on the operation.

thanks