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

[AndreiTomescu]

Some lines back a colleague virtual pilot was asking about troop suppression missions.

I can confirm now that with this 004b version there are dedicated troop (infantry) suppression missions in Career mode.

Did one now, we (Mustangs) had to travel deep inside KPA territory, and found a camp with troops and many rows of tents an the bottom of a hill, near a small city. 

Plenty of AAA, different calibre, fixed and truck mounted.

Nalpam is imho the most spectacular way to approach this.

To be noted:

- the burnt tents look very realistic

- the placement of the camp is very smart, due to topography the only approach brings you in the path of AAA. This was smart, not random

- during the hole place blowing up and burning, the fps got a disturbing drop, from 60 fps capped to 25-30, with stuttering but no CTD

- the leaving welcome party was composed of Migs, no props, our escort were also Mustangs, but it didn't go messy.

While doing an airfield attack (same career, different mission) there was an on duty flight composed of 2 Yak9s. Not seeing those upon their takeoff brought identification issues: hard to tell friend from foe in all that fur ball amidst strong flak.

[Jade_Monkey]

On 7/27/2026 at 12:11 PM, reidarpeidar said:

AI wingmen won't line up until you take-off on your own. They won't do so when you tell them to either.

This is also happening in SP scripted missions. They only start taxiing when you take off, which delays the whole process quite a bit. 

There is also a behavior where all planes are ordered to line up on the runway on a single file, and once they are all ready. Then they are ordered to split into two columns. Seems a bit of a waste of time 

There is some room for refinement for the ATC and taxiing management.

I do like that there are indicators of where to taxi and where in the runway to wait, that's a nice touch 👍🏻

Edited August 1 by Jade_Monkey

[pr0x]

17 minutes ago, Jade_Monkey said:

This is also happening in SP scripted missions. They only start taxiing when you take off, which delays the whole process quite a bit. 

There is also a behavior where all planes are ordered to line up on the runway on a single file, and once they are all ready. Then they are ordered to split into two columns. Seems a bit of a waste of time 

There is some room for refinement for the ATC and taxiing management.

I do like that there are indicators of where to taxi and where in the runway to wait, that's a nice touch 👍🏻

After I wrote that, and before all the recent updates, I have actually seen the AI taxi behind me on several occasions. One time I had 11 Yak wingmen lining up perfectly. It did take a while because of the formation thing you mentioned, and also because each plane holds short until the plane before it is in the final position, but I was impressed by how smoothly everything went from taxi to take-off to final formation in the air.

The AI in this game seems to be quite good when the intended behaviour kicks in, but there are too many occasions when that, for whatever reason, doesn't happen.

[Uther]

Currently flying a MiG 15 campaign, did the MiGs ever move closer to the front line during the war? They seem quite a long way back.

Edited August 1 by Uther

[brickcommander]

33 minutes ago, Uther said:

Currently flying a MiG 15 campaign, did the MiGs ever move closer to the front line during the war? They seem quite a long way back.

The MiGs always stayed in the North along the China border (what we call MiG Alley). This was to ensure tyey could not be downed in enemy territory, captured and studied.

 

In reality you shouldn't even be flying anywhere near the front lines in the MiG in a realistic scenario.

[AndreiTomescu]

Well, on 26 October 1950 the UN troops reached some areas of the N Korean/Chinese border, so then the frontline got closer to the Mig bases 🙂 , but the Migs were retreat further inland into China, also.

So, no, the Migs were never close to frontline, were never sent above S Korean/UN controlled territory, and were never-ever involved in ground attacks !

The Mig campaign i guess was designed to get the same content as other aircraft, but is not historical accurate.

[brickcommander]

3 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

Well, on 26 October 1950 the UN troops reached some areas of the N Korean/Chinese border, so then the frontline got closer to the Mig bases 🙂 , but the Migs were retreat further inland into China, also.

 

That is correct, but IL-2 doesn't model 1950. The career starts in 1951. By that time the front line returned to around the 38th parallel.

[Jegirs]

I spent some time playing Career Mode not as a pilot, but as the squadron commander, managing pilot assignments and other administrative tasks. I think I can offer some advice to those who haven't quite figured out how to send other pilots on missions as efficiently as possible, although this is purely based on my own observations.

Each pilot has three trainable skills: Skills, Discipline, and Courage. For a long time, I thought the bonus they provided was based directly on the pilot's own skill level. For example, if a pilot had an Airmanship level of 2, I assumed they gave everyone else a +2 bonus to Airmanship.

However, it turns out that's not how it works. The bonus for each skill is determined by the purple arrow shown to the right of that skill, not by the pilot's personal skill level. At first I thought the purple arrow represented something like the pilot's potential, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I still haven't figured out exactly how to increase that bonus. I've only managed to do it once. Before it happened, I had raised all of another pilot's skills to level 4, and then their next award or promotion increased that pilot's bonus.

[AndreiTomescu]

Guys, guys! 

Today I've managed to shoot , to actually HIT a goddamm tank with a single rocket! 

It went BOOM! ....along with one of my fuel tanks. Dunno why, afterall this armed reconnaissance was  mission failed. Also my trusted wingman, the best in the squad, with 1 Mig and 9 ground victories (we are Mustangs, remember) got shot and killed.

But all that goes into oblivion compared to this: I hit my first tank with a rocket!!! 

Man, what life is......

[Uther]

5 minutes ago, AndreiTomescu said:

Guys, guys! 

Today I've managed to shoot , to actually HIT a goddamm tank with a single rocket! 

It went BOOM! ....along with one of my fuel tanks. Dunno why, afterall this armed reconnaissance was  mission failed. Also my trusted wingman, the best in the squad, with 1 Mig and 9 ground victories (we are Mustangs, remember) got shot and killed.

But all that goes into oblivion compared to this: I hit my first tank with a rocket!!! 

Man, what life is......

One of my MiG pilots has 6 aircraft kills, and I'm literally too scared to send him out on another mission! 😁

[AndreiTomescu]

23 minutes ago, Uther said:

MiG pilots has 6 aircraft kills

Don't!!!!   Save his life! He's much more valuable as an instructor! And he might have family and stuff....

Man, this career commander game is really catchy.....

[Jegirs]

While recently flying an F-51 deep into enemy territory on a mission without a specific objective, I had a thought: missions like these would be much more enjoyable if there were a small random chance that, while already in the air, air traffic control would redirect the player's flight to a new target. That chance could increase during periods of heavy fighting at the front and decrease during quieter periods.

For example, the message could be that friendly infantry units have radioed in requesting immediate air support to repel an attack in their sector, suppress enemy artillery in a specific area, and so on.

In my opinion, this would add much more variety to these kinds of missions while also making the game world feel much more alive.

The target assignment could be given without placing a marker on the map. Instead, a large on-screen message could display the target grid reference, or, if possible, it could be delivered as a spoken radio message from the controller.

[Voxman]

4 hours ago, Jegirs said:

I spent some time playing Career Mode not as a pilot, but as the squadron commander, managing pilot assignments and other administrative tasks. I think I can offer some advice to those who haven't quite figured out how to send other pilots on missions as efficiently as possible, although this is purely based on my own observations.

Each pilot has three trainable skills: Skills, Discipline, and Courage. For a long time, I thought the bonus they provided was based directly on the pilot's own skill level. For example, if a pilot had an Airmanship level of 2, I assumed they gave everyone else a +2 bonus to Airmanship.

However, it turns out that's not how it works. The bonus for each skill is determined by the purple arrow shown to the right of that skill, not by the pilot's personal skill level. At first I thought the purple arrow represented something like the pilot's potential, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I still haven't figured out exactly how to increase that bonus. I've only managed to do it once. Before it happened, I had raised all of another pilot's skills to level 4, and then their next award or promotion increased that pilot's bonus.

Good post. I’ve been doing both missions and directing.

I’m doing a MiG 15 career and have set up the three squadrons as air, ground and mixed strength.  The only problem is that I haven’t been able to raise any of the pilots skill beyond 1. I’m still trying to figure out the logic  

rookie pilots seem to be the hardest to address and I usually put them in tail end Charlie slots  Not sure if that’s wise   

 

[AndreiTomescu]

From what I've read rookies were assigned:

- either wingman to an experienced pilot (and that put him into danger, but not for ground attacks)

- either tail section cell/element, with lead cell composed of experienced pilots

[Jegirs]

3 часа назад, AndreiTomescu сказал:

либо ведомый опытного пилота (что подвергало его опасности, но не при атаках наземных целей).

That's exactly what I do, but only in my F-51 career. I also noticed that new replacement pilots often have higher boosters than the pilots who were originally in the squadron. I guess it's about time I started paying attention not only to the boosters, but also to each pilot's individual attributes.

[Jegirs]

One of my MiG-15 pilots has also scored 31 (!!!) victories, which is even more than I have (I barely flew myself, and I was killed in one of my most recent sorties...).

By the way, I really liked the option to create a new commander. However, I remember reading something in one of the career development diaries along the lines of "train your replacement." I'm curious whether I simply didn't have enough time to "train" one, or if that feature isn't available yet.

One thing that makes me think it is planned is the fact that, as far as I can tell, your commander's backstory can't be viewed anywhere after character creation except on the creation screen itself. Or maybe I just didn't look hard enough.

[Uther]

I put the new guys in the wingman positions, with a more experienced pilot leading. Seems like that's what would happen irl but no idea if it helps in game. Once I have 3 full flights they each do one mission a day.
I'm certainly getting a lot of wounded pilots in my il-10 career, some of those ground attack missions are brutal. Only lost two pilots in that one up to now though.

[Jegirs]

One of my pilots was wounded once. He was a flight leader, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I skipped five days, and he was still wounded. I skipped another three days, and nothing had changed. Then I opened his profile...

In hospital. Time remaining: 46 days.

[Uther]

25 minutes ago, Jegirs said:

One of my pilots was wounded once. He was a flight leader, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I skipped five days, and he was still wounded. I skipped another three days, and nothing had changed. Then I opened his profile...

In hospital. Time remaining: 46 days.

Yes my best ground attack pilot is currently in hospital for 46 days. I have another pilot that seems to get wounded almost every time he flies, I can only assume he hurts himself climbing into the cockpit! 😁

[Aapje]

2 hours ago, Uther said:

Yes my best ground attack pilot is currently in hospital for 46 days. I have another pilot that seems to get wounded almost every time he flies, I can only assume he hurts himself climbing into the cockpit! 😁

He cussed out the maintenance crew and now for some mysterious reason he keeps finding these in his seat:

 

[Jegirs]

After the release, the decals on the aircraft are now being saved properly. My helmet customization has also been preserved, although I haven't checked the helmets of the other pilots yet.

I just noticed that a new mission type has appeared on the map: bridge bombing. So now there are missions for bombing bridges, dams, and supply depots.

Edited August 5 by Jegirs

[AndreiTomescu]

8 hours ago, Jegirs said:

I just noticed that a new mission type has appeared on the map: bridge bombing

Nice! Have been waiting for that! Good catch, @Jegirs! Thx!

[Sticks_n_Rudder]

On 8/4/2026 at 5:05 AM, Uther said:

Yes my best ground attack pilot is currently in hospital for 46 days. I have another pilot that seems to get wounded almost every time he flies, I can only assume he hurts himself climbing into the cockpit! 😁

46 days!?! Was he waiting on a new liver? I hope you had enough points to get this man a PH! It would actually be cool to assign these guys a check ride when returning from the hospital or when new butters come in. Assign them a check ride to make sure they are really 100% and manage their proficiencies. So if someone sucks at bombing, you can assign them a bomb training run to get them more proficient. 

I have a pilot who has been on 11 combat flights, mostly all ground attack, and not 1 piece hit. He really sucks. If I didnt need pilots I would fire him. 

Edited August 5 by Sticks_n_Rudder
change

[Jegirs]

I literally just promoted one of my pilots to the rank of Captain and chose Skills as the skill to improve. As a result, his Skills booster increased.

It seems that boosters are increased through promotions, and the player gets to choose which booster is upgraded.

[Jegirs]

I just sent eight of my pilots on a close air support mission. Previously the limit was 12 pilots, but now it's 8. Bomber interception missions are still limited to 12, and armed reconnaissance/interdiction missions are also still limited to 12.

About 15 minutes after takeoff, they reported that they didn't have enough fuel to complete the mission and returned to base. The mission was still marked as completed.

I then opened the aircraft loadout screen before my next sortie and noticed that, on the F-84 with full internal fuel and two external drop tanks, the combat radius was shown as 0 miles. 😀