Nick Thomadis

Hello everyone, We hope you are all fine, healthy, strong and enjoy whatever makes you happy. We would like to share the content of the upcoming next update of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. Here is all the info: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Alpha-6 SPECIAL NEW FEATURES Flash Fires: If the main guns (or the sections below them containing the magazines) are penetrated then uncontrollable flash fires may swiftly spread, ignite the propellant containers and cause catastrophic explosions, blowing away one or more turrets of the ship with a spectacular new visual effect. So, now detonations will not only occur after a direct penetrating hit reaching to the ammo storage but also due to the impact of flash fires, just as it happened for the British Battlecruisers in the Battle of Jutland. In consequence, you must now be extra careful when you design your ships, especially your battleships and battlecruisers which carry heavy armament, because if they lack the necessary armor protection or other safety measures, they will be very vulnerable to flash fires that can blow them apart. Detailed Combat Statistics: Now you can evaluate with precision the combat effectiveness of your ships by monitoring their hit percentage, damage and penetration power against the enemy ships. By selecting your own ships you have access to their detailed logs of damage, either in summary or per gun type. When your targets are identified, you can also select them to view their combat stats, while the fleet damage statistics are accessible as previously at the top right corner with increased information when you hover on each icon. Epic Combat Music: Many new music soundtracks enrich the combat experience during or after a battle. Immerse yourself by hearing the new atmospheric music that switches according to the tension of combat. Note: YouTubers must read the terms of using the game’s music in their videos. If you have any issue, please turn off the music while recording. 33x New Destroyers: Complete revamp of the Destroyer hulls. OId models have been optimized. Many new models have been added for all nations. Here is the list of changes: - 4x Japanese special looking Destroyer models, available till the 1920s, making the Destroyers of Japan unique compared to other nations, having lighter, longer hulls that make them stealthier, faster, deadlier. - 4x Modern Japanese Destroyer models available after the 1920s, following the unique design concepts of Japan, favouring speed and torpedo armament. These models are based on the detailed hull of the “Akizuki” Destroyer and several variants that can reproduce faithfully all late Destroyers of the Japanese Fleet, including the experimental design of “Shimakaze”. - 13x Modern Destroyer models distributed to all nations with a selection of “Standard” and “Leader” type of destroyers. These destroyers are rather unique for each nation. For example, you are able to design and build very fast and powerful Destroyers similar to the French “Le Fantasque” and “Mogador” classes with role to overwhelm enemy Destroyers. - 12x hull variants of Destroyers distributed for all nations from the 1900s till the 1920s. Most of those early ships are slight modifications with different hull size ratios, guns, funnels etc. 4x Modern Cruisers: Some special cruisers have been added for Spain and Japan. These are: - 1x Japanese Light Cruiser, inspired by the “Kuma-class” cruiser, a typical type of cruiser that serviced Japan from the 1920s till the 2nd World War. - 1x Japanese Light Cruiser, inspired by the “Yubari-class” cruiser, a unique hybrid design that featured aspects of a Destroyer and a Cruiser. - 2x Spanish Cruisers, inspired by the “Navarra” and “Canarias” classes, ships of the 1920s with a long active service till the Spanish Civil War. ==All the existing, hundreds of hull variants accompanied by the new destroyers should be more than enough to cover the needs of the upcoming first campaign version, but we will continue to add more models in our next updates.== NEW MISSIONS Near Jutland: The British and Germans are concentrating their forces in the vicinity of Jutland and prepare for a major battle. Your task force led by two British battlecruisers has spotted three German capital ships heading to the location and plans to ambush them using the destroyers as spearhead of the attack. Modern vs Old Destroyers: Design modern destroyers and combat versus numerous, less advanced rivals. The enemy force is commanded by an advanced ship, a type of “Destroyer Leader” which is particularly effective against smaller destroyers. Torpedo Banzai: Feel the power of Japanese destroyers by leading an all-out torpedo attack against a large USA fleet. Your possible destroyer designs include a wide range of hull types and two specials: An experimental destroyer, which can achieve very high speeds and an experimental cruiser, which combines the benefits of a destroyer at a size of a cruiser. Mission Impossible: A powerful Japanese battleship and its escorts attacks one of your convoys. The only defense are your destroyers. The most sensible action would be to escape while you can. But the High Command decided that you should stand and find an opportunity to sink the enemy battleship with your torpedoes. Only the best designed destroyers can succeed in such a mission.... with a bit of luck. Battle of Destroyers: You will command a squadron of French destroyers against a Japanese destroyer squadron. The enemy force is led by a flotilla leader, a fast cruiser with many small guns and heavy torpedo armament that you should not try to confront at close range. Contest in the Black Sea: The German naval forces in the Black Sea are scarce and do not include any battleships. The Russians possess more and heavier ships. Two of the remaining German cruisers need the support of your destroyers to attack and destroy the commanding Russian ships in the area, a refitted dreadnought and a modern battlecruiser. COMBAT BALANCES Further improvements in ballistic trajectories. Shells follow a steeper, more realistic curve. Additionally, wave motion now affects the distribution of hits between deck and belt. Horizontal penetration over very long distances is reduced. Previously, in certain circumstances, it could become overpowered against any deck armor, especially when using 18-inch Lyddite shells. Lyddite and Cordite shells cause slightly more damage. Due to the new Flash Fire mechanics, these shells are even more risky to use but if your ship has adequate protection they will offer a distinct advantage. Torpedoes will not cause so frequent ammo detonations, as previously, versus well protected ships. However, Flash fires may be ignited by an underwater fire caused by a torpedo hit. AI is much more effective in aiming and keeping distance against its targets. Maneuvering is now playing more dynamic role in targeting. You cannot make swift turns without significant loss of aim. Ships that make zig zags are more effective in avoiding shots. Ranging shots is easier against static or very slow targets. SHIP DESIGN Weight limitations of all ship types rebalanced, so that ship speeds are more realistic according to technology era. You may still make an overly fast ship but it would be very weak in protection and armament. All ship saves are affected due to this change. Turbine engine horse power is more pronounced according to type, so that early dreadnoughts and battlecruisers are not so fast compared to more advanced ships. Diesel engines rebalanced to reflect better their bonuses. Diesel engines will be more important in campaign, but now can be useful in missions too, offering more reliable and cost-effective power plants. New Hull Variant that can replicate accurately the HMS Invincible. It is a British Battlecruiser found in Custom battles between 1907-1917. Optimized a Battlecruiser variant that is available for Britain, USA, France, in the period of 1912-1919. Various hull fixes/improvements based on player reports. Light Cruisers’ maximum belt armor is now 6 inches. New visuals for the Japanese 3'', 4'', 5'' inch Mark 4/5 guns, found on their Destroyers and Light Cruisers. New visuals for the USA/British 3'', 4'', 5'' inch Mark 4/5 guns, found on their Destroyers. New visuals for Mark 4/5 8'' guns for British Battleships and Battlecruisers. SOUND EFFECTS Major improvement in sound mechanics. Issues of sound interruptions when there were many guns firing should not occur at all or can happen very rarely. Various combat sound enhancements. Impacts should be heard louder and clearer. Partial penetration sounds improved, trails better synchronized and many other. BUG FIXES Fixed an error of calculating Course Change Time, showing opposite effect (for example when you added auxiliary engines, the Rudder could steer more slowly). Now ships will steer even more realistically. Fixed serious errors with gun rotations and overlapping of ship objects, that created unbuildable ships with the known error “Some parts are badly placed” or made guns not rotating during battle. Fixed bug that -sometimes- stopped torpedo tubes from firing, although they were fully reloaded. Fixed issue that caused torpedoes to hit your own ship. Fixed bug that made -sometimes- Radar Generation 2 to not function during battle. Fixed bug that did not update UI information about accuracy when we selected different rangefinders and other related components. Fixed bug that made the secondary tower of a modern French Battleship to hang in the air, behind the stern. Fixed issue that made big guns of smaller caliber to be grouped with secondary guns when player selected targets manually. OTHER Memory optimizations: The error “Too many threads” should now be fixed or happen very rarely. You are now able to observe the penetration power of enemies vs your ship. Select an identified enemy ship and hover the cursor over one of your own ships to open up the penetration tooltip. Subtle new visual effect for over penetrations: The shell passes through the ship from the other side. Battle UI improved by providing more information for the selected ship in a more compact window. When you hover on the respective icons you can see useful ship details, such as the armor zone protection scheme, components installed and various other. Now you can click on any recent battle log report (bottom left corner) to zoom in to the affected ship. The test build is already in closed testing. The release is scheduled for next week, on Monday, if all is well. Update: Update will come when ready. Thank you all for the ongoing feedback!

We already have this mechanic, and for a few parts (e.g Brandenburg ship) there is visual difference. But we have to gradually model all of them to have a special damage appearance, at least the most important. This will take some time. Until then, we show destroyed parts with burned out effect.

We cannot share any specifics yet, but what you wrote is definitely going to be simulated in the campaign.

You can hover on the icon of the image to find all the important hotkeys. In next patch, we are going to offer improvements on the hull to allow a better adjustment for the ship design you had, but scale of guns seems different, so unfortunately it might not be possible to fit them fully in the 14-inch caliber (In later patch there were too many gun scale fixes to just revert something back).

Deck penetration could become too high over very large ranges, where the 18-inch guns had the maximum penetration power and could cause the issue reported. This will be balanced better in next update, so thank you a lot for all the help in this thread.

Thank you, we will see what we can do. Until then, try using the CTRL button when you place guns, to make fine adjustments.

Excellent images and story. What is exactly the problem of the design you are phasing? Can you provide an image with the barbette mount you are missing, so we can add in the next update?

We will check and fix if necessary, thank you!

Yes, true, thanks for noticing. This minor bug is known (for french BB) and will be addressed, hopefully, in the next update.

AI surely, if you want to believe me, does not cheat. I hate AI cheating myself and do not want it in any game I am part of. So please, do not say that again (10x times is enough in this forum), because it becomes personal. And when I say "Cheating" I mean some kind of bonus to the AI for the same stat. AI might be more efficient in building a better ship than an average player, but that is not a cheat. If player has issues with his accuracy, he can try the auto-design feature and see if the ship accuracy is improved. If there is any related bug, we will investigate and fix, but as we know there is none on this matter. The only advantage/disadvantage right now is that the AI does not have a stable restriction to operational range (as the player) for Custom Battles and Naval Academy. So sometimes, AI might have some extra weight to use for gunnery/speed. Sometimes it might have full operational range and have less available weight. This is a known and temporary issue, that -we have told- we are going to address in next updates, and will be solved permanently when we introduce the campaign, so the balance must work there logically for all cases, for player and AI. We keep this "issue" because otherwise we could have unbuildable or very weak AI ships, which would be a much bigger problem.

In next update, new destroyer hulls will be added.

It is a known issue. It happens when many gun sounds are heard. We will address it as soon as possible.

If you, players, like them of course they can stay 🙂

We will certainly try to include some ships to cover the early campaign period.

Ramming will not work unfortunately due to current evasion logic interference and very slow speed of those ships. We will improve ramming in next updates.

We have just updated the game offering various small hotfixes for the main game, and in addition we present two special missions that include two of the earliest and most famous ironclads, the "USS Monitor" and "CSS Virginia". Read the details in our blog: https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/post/1st-april-update-battle-of-the-ironclads

XSolla service is aware of the issue and will resolve the problem as soon as possible. We will notify you when all is ok.

Dear Admirals, If you have ever encountered the "Too many threads" error message/crash during your play, we need your help for tracing the issue. Please write about your experience by replying in as many questions as possible in the following thread:

Dear Admirals, If you have ever encountered the "Too many threads" error message/crash during your play, we need your help for tracing the issue. Please write about your experience by replying in as many questions as possible: In which mission it happened? How much time passed since start of mission? How many other missions were played before crashing? How many ships were engaged for you and enemy (Many/Few/A specific nbr. if you remember)? What was the distance between engaging ships (close/medium/long range)? Which speed boost you used? Were there a lot of gun shootings, or few (e.g all main guns firing plus secondaries)? Have you ever experienced this error-message outside of a mission? If yes, where (Main Menu, Custom Battle etc.)? Thank you a lot for your time!

The main reason we do not have yet Hydrophones/Sonars in large capital ships, is that usually they were not fitted with them, because of the noise of their engines and thickness of their hulls, their results would be not accurate. Maybe we can allow some hulls to get this as a special option, but we need more opinions on this matter.

@Fishyfish It is, I think, very obvious that we take into consideration all feedback, negative and positive. This is why we make feedback threads, and ask all players to give their impressions about the game, because we respect their opinion, we want to please them, and make a better game, for them. This is why we make constant updates/hotfixes based on this feedback. Critique about the game is constantly fed in this forum. Usually people post about something negative, some kind of suggestion, something that is not yet in game, in polite, constructive way. When someone comes repeatedly with irony, negativity and intention to just throw vitriol (as you said) it is not only unpleasant, but not useful for us. We encourage sincere feedback of any kind, but constant negativity and nitpicking, usually not explained enough except defining something as boring or not boring, making further presumptions that are not true, is not useful, for me personally, and thus my sincere answer. It is a fact that the game is still in development, arguably many enjoy it a lot at the moment, we hope we manage to please you more in our next updates. Let's keep the incoming critique but in a more gentle manner, shall we?

@FishyfishYou know what, your feedback is boring too, MOST of your comments so far have been boring, negative, offensive, ironic. Some time later, we must all realize as humans that if we do not have anything interesting to say, better not say anything, than spread negativity to forums, like a virus. Gentle manners, proper behaviors must, some day, become a habit for all of us, and not think that if we give a few euro to buy something, we are entitled to insult, press developers, press other people to do what we want.

Of course we will add more older ships. We just had to make the custom battle experience more complete, for all nations and eras. We are going to add plenty of new hulls for pre-dreadnought times.

Normal Front/Rear tower...

You can hover on guns, in ship designer, and see the damage for each gun. Values of course differ according to the technologies and ship components used, but you can see the difference there.