Darth Khyron

I am currently enjoying some of the new hulls and game features in a japanese campaign. The sluggish research is now gone, land battles seem more balanced and sea battles are more challenging and pop up frequently. Good job, thank you There is one issue, however, that I find really, really annoying. I am losing many ships to torpedoes. So what, you say, learn to evade. Yeah, that's what I thought at first. Buuut...they are my own torpedoes. Ships equipped with those happily blast away with them once an enemy is in range, regardless if my own vessels are in the way. I have recently lost a complete escort line of four modern destroyers due to being torpedoed by my own ships. The destroyers were not maneuvering and the weapons were set on "save". That happens with annoying frequency and even the enemy is not immune to that. In a recent battle, Germany lost a heavy cruiser to their own torpedoes.

Puh, I can only second the notion regarding enemy torpedo cruisers. Enemy warships, especially in late game, are usually faster than my vessels (best was a chinese 49 knot light cruiser) and pack lots and lots and lots of torpedo tubes. Result: Either accept a battle where the enemy is running away (and they run away most of the time, even with comparable or slightly superior task forces) and you waste your time and game fun with another fruitless chase. Or you auto-resolve. BUUUUT I suspect that results are heavily balanced in favor of the number and types of torpedo tubes so a single enemy light cruiser regulary demolishes an entire battlegroup. Not necessarily sinking them, but heaviliy damaging a BB, two cruisers and up to four destroyers. Also, I noted that torpedo spreads regularily "cheat". Now, i know it is not cheating, but it is odd nonetheless. Enemy fires a spread. I notice the warning sign. I see "Well, not a problem. Far enough and the direction is not good. So, the trail ends of my formatiom (for example) do the "evade torpedoes" thing. Some minutes later : BAM! BAAAAM! DD sinks. Light cruiser sinks. Light cruiser heavily damaged. So I am trailing new spreads manually. And I see that the torpedo with the warning sign goes one direction, the rest of the spread is going into a different. Also, torpedoes with the warning sign that misfire cause the warning sign to dissapear, the rest of the torpedoes continue unnoticed. As I said, I know this is not intended as a cheat, but it is a bit frustrating.

Uh...some strange issue(s) here : German campain, now being the year 1962. I have some old modern battleship I vessels, the lead ship named "Fürst Bismarck". Before the final showdown with the powerful french fleet, I wanted a least refit. One of my lastest ships are a class of 130000 tons superbattleships, which are named "Bismarck". The refit was done in four months. When ready, the refitted ships sported now eight 20 inch guns, sixteen eight inch and several smaller weapons, exactly like the big battleships. They now have the same superstructure, but crammed on the smaller hull, with a slight gab between the deck and the superstructure. They work, but they should not. Also, battleships in formations now are prone again to veer off to one side, then the other and so on, zigzagging as if to avoid torpedoes. uh...also, the opponent now runs away again. All engagements result in the french running away, even with superior fleets.

Thanks for that, Nick. That truely helps. Subs are definitely not weak, but no one-shot superbattleship killers anymore

hm...so, another campaign finished. It was very frustrating. Yes, the enemy is now acting much more intelligent, that is mostly a plus. I have the feeling that they phase in and out of existence (I see them, they vanish at once. Another is seen, vanishes. Another is seen, vanishes, even at short range, but that may be me). The AI still uses speedboats and it is not a rare occassion that you will face enemy battlecruisers with 42+ knots. Ah, yes...the torpedo spammers are back. Often, battles devolve into a wild zigzagging, because the AI again prefers torpedo dancers. There are heavy cruisers with six single six-inch guns and 42 torpedo tubes. Why dancers? Because they fire their starboard torpedoes, turn to fire their underwater starbord torpedes, turn to fire their front torpedoes, turn to fire their port torpedoes, turn to fire their port unterwater torpedoes, turn to fire their rear torpedoes. I wanted to prevent this by building shared designs. But I have yet to face a single one of them, even after a dozen campaigns. But these battles are not common. In the beginning, yes, battlelines (if you can afford them) will slug it out against each other. But once submarines become a thing, the AI will produce more and more of these. Why? Because they are the most effctive weapon in the game, especially for smaller nations. Also...friendly fire is still very much a thing. I cannot count the times my ships have been torpedoed and often sunk by my own destroyers, especially those on "escort" orders or on "AI". So, most "battles" that pop up are submarine battles, which are auto-resolved. ASW ships before 1930 are somewhat effective, but the best counter against enemy submarines are...submarines. I have found that my submarine cruisers and fleet submarines are much more effective against other submarines, especially after 1930ish. ASW escorts are still neccessary, if only as shield to be sunk instead of a capital ship...of which I ceased to produce any after a while. I kept upgrading my existing ones, but I only built heavy and light cruisers (the former only for invasion pusposes, as they are the largest ship to carry depth-charges) and destroyers...and lots and lots of submarines to flood the oceans with. When an enemy battleship does pop up, I send swarms of subs against it until it is sunk. The "Shinano"-moments are occuring far too often. "Yes, finally my 100+ kton superbattleship is active and will wreak havoc. So, I shall escort her with 2 heavy and 6 light cruisers and umpteen destroyers, so surely...BAM! Well...okay. Now...hm...her sistership is also ready. And now I have more escorts for her, so surely...BAM! oh...well...two other are under construction...they will make...uh...a good fleet in being." Since the game seems to prefer "balanced" battles (which I find to be nonsense, why do I produce big ships anyway?), surface battles are mostly convoy defense against raiders, the occassional light cruiser against light cruiser and sometimes even heavy cruiser against heavy cruisers. The only battle where I face enemy battlecruisers or battleships is when I raid enemy convoys. Two of my light cruisers against a BB or BC. Very balanced indeed (and yes, I have CAs close by, but these are not generated). So...with capital ships mostly rendered obsolete, perhaps reconsider the effectiveness of submarines? And...yes, I am ranting. I do, because I like the game still. Otherwise I would not play it anymore. But I want to play a game that is fun and not frustrating in the end.

Uhm...can anyone explain this? I was invading central russia via the baltic sea and used four battlegroups to do so, covered by two additional submarine groups narby and an antisubmarine force further away. During the invasion, a russian battleship along with two destroyers sailed from St.Petersburg and slipped through all of my task groups. I managed to capture Central Russia while the enemy was virtually in the center of my groups. The next turn, they are outside in the baltic and block all groups, including the submarines, from leaving. Okay, I am having trouble comprehending why one BB and two DDs can block 12 BBs, 6 BCs, 12 CA, 12 CL and 36 DDs from escaping, but, well...surely we can sink them in the next round. Buuuut...no battle pops up. Not with the fast ASW group, not with a battle group and not with the submarines. Why is that? It seems the only way to escape is to make peace?

Puh. Forget the promise of progress and peace, for in the grim darkness of the wide oceans, there is only war. Now played several campaigns. In the beginning, all is fine, but around 1910-1915, everyone is at war with everyone. You ally with a nation, often giving money to do so. Some months later, their admiral influences their government to cancel the alliance. Then, after some more months, you are at war. Why? Because tension is rising everywhere, in the labrador sea, in the arctic ocean, everywehre randomly, it seems. No one has assets there, not an ally of an enemy, not me, no one. But tension rises regardless. These wars, of course, often result in land battles. So, my forces are attacking a country with overwhelming force. Since I have some naval assets there, my ground troops are pushing forward. Yeah, breakthrough. The enemy lines collapse. Almost there. 75%. my government asks me, if we should make peace after I destroyed an enemy battleship. No. Push onwards to prevent another war happening in the near future. 83%. The enemy admiral tries to make peace. 93%. Almost there. BAM! The enemy admiral succeeds. Peace is made. Okay I want X and Y provinces. I get none, just money. Six months later, we are at war again. My forces attack. Enemy lines collapse...you get my point. Building large battleships in the later stages also seems pointless anymore because of the submarine's newfound power. More often than not, a single submarine infiltrates an escort consisting of twenty modern destroyers, four light cruisers and two heavy cruisers, all equipped with the latest ASW. Whoosh...my newest battleship lies at the bottom of the sea and the sub escapes. Okay, that happens. Next turn, the sub strikes again and heavily damages the second large battleship, forcing it to return to the port. The battlegroup is now mostly pointless. Enemy capital ships now seem to prefer high-speed vessels with dozens of smaller guns, around 11-12 inch main cannons. The best was a british 38.8 knot battleship with seven triple 11 inch(ish) cannons that are able to shower you in a hail of fire while waving and zigzagging around. At the beginning, battles are possible, pitting your battle lines against those of other countries. Once submarines become a thing, this is mostly gone. The enemy now seems to prefer to run away again. Often, the enemy surprises one of my convoys with a heavy cruiser and or/some smaller vessels. My escort often is one light cruiser and one or two destroyers. They are detected. They turn around and run at full speed. I pursue. They run away. I turn around to re-establish the escort of the convoy, hopefully ending the battle. They turn and drive at full speed towards the convoy. I turn to intercept. They run away at full speed. The new hull are awesome and all, I like the flexibility you can now achive. But all in all, campaign games are mostly very frustrating now in my opinion.

Nope. No one has bases or ships there. I am at war with england, who has bases at Falkland islands. The only one who has bases in the northern half of south america are the US. But even if this is intended, this is insane, it completely wreaks havoc on economies and since everyone blasts every transport in the war zones, your budget is completely down, research is down and new ships also.

I am getting extreme tension increases during the campaign where no one has assets. For example, the US and Germany are getting -15 relations in the south atlantic. None of these nations have ships or bases there. This is all over the place and currently, everyone is at war with everyone. I make peace with one nation, the other attcks. Peace with that, the next attacks. And so on. Also, my army always attacks where the enemy has the tenfold amount of army forces, always being repulsed. But instead of chosing a different, softer target, no, they attack again. And are repulsed. And again. And are repulsed. And again...until the enemy makes peace (for two or three months).

Is it just me or are torpedoes back with a vengeance? In the updates before, enemy ships seemed to be balanced, now the massive torpedo batteries are back. Not just that, but I have now lost several very large battleships, all with high torpedo protection and barbettes, to a single 19 or 20 inch torpedo. At one point, it is no longer possible to evade the flood and one hits your capital ships....BOOOOM! Ammunition explosion, flash fire, 90000 tons sink to the bottom of the sea within a minute. I had also some battles in which some of my ships were heavily damaged, but not sunk. When the battle was over, they were. Is that intended?

Thanks for the answers, everyone. But at this point, I cannot continue playing. I have not the weakest of machines here and every other game effordlessly works fine. But UA:D is now reduced to a slow-motion picture. I was beginning to enjoy it again with the new additions, but now, sorry...

On the subject of invasions : They work quite well. You have to put your task forces on "Invade", move at least 100000 tons near the intended assault area and go to the "Politics" screen. Seek out the nation you want to invade. In the actions section (where you can increase tension and the like), you will see a button called "Naval Invasion". Press this and survive 3-5 rounds of everything the enemy throws at you. Your attack may be repelled, but it works just fine. What is a real pain are the severe lags. Previous the game worked smoothly, even larger battles were not THAT much of a pain. But now it is much, much worse. A normal battle feels like a stop-motion movie and don't even try to mouse-over an enemy vessel. What's new that it is so much worse than before?

Something curious occured several times now. I am producing light cruisers for several allies. None of these have switched sides or cancelled an alliance so far. My opponent is, among others, allied with Denmark, to whom I have never sold said light cruisers. In several battles now, I went against exactly these light cruisers on the enemy's side, flagged as danish vessels. Allied ships of the opponent's side should also use names of the producing enemy nation, but these used the names I gave them.

Uh, I have lost a fleet consisting of a BB, two CAs, two CLs and four DDs in the North Sea. Well, not really. The ships are still in my fleet list, located in the North Sea. But they do not show up on the map, nor can I move them or scrap them. I think this is new.

Ah, it seems the rudder steering field button is no longer there, so just pointing on the map now?