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Missions and Challenges - Community Feedback


Nick Thomadis

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Mission 1 BB + my DD VS 2 CA + 10 TB is an impassable difficult task, I’ve been trying to complete it for more than a month, it doesn’t work, I decided to look at the correct option - even your designer and automatic control can’t cope with it.

What does it mean? All previous tasks were completed either immediately or after thoughtful reflection, but this is just a piece of garbage.

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I'd like you guys to focus on a mission editor really. I like the Modern Battleship the most because it has the most variety of weapons to choose from although it does lack the hull variations. Second run would be convoy attack missions (please let us add transport ships in mission editor if it is coming) because it is different than run of the mill snipe fest between 2 BB or whatever.

IMO, I don't hate any of the missions but I HATE the timer. Remove it! Please! Any mission is possible but with the timer, it is just... It makes some mission not fun to play to say the least. You have realistic representation of ships. You have somewhat realistic representation of ship combat (although there are many flaws but it is getting there). But the timer DOES NOT reflect any of these design choices. It is working against what you guys have developed.

About new missions, I'd like to see more missions where a specific target(s) is needed to be destroy not the entire enemy fleet. Why? Because it gives the player more choice and give them the liberty to approach the mission in many different ways. Like the mission attack an armed convoy. I like it because I can try to play a little defensive and only go for the transport ships or I can damage the enemy CAs and then go for the transport. OR I can go aggressive and sink most of the CA before having the transports for dinner. Each of these styles would require me to use different type of ships, again make more ship hulls available for each missions. Generally, what I see about the other testers is that they don't like many of the restrictions you guys have put on to the system in ship designs, gameplay, mission design, etc. Please consider this. Thanks!

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It could be fun, but the primary function it would serve now in the development phase is for us to find bug and balancing issues more quickly with newly added features. Sure you can pop into a premade mission but maybe the bug would only happen if a specific set of ship is presence or whatsoever. Or maybe a new ship hull is bugged somewhere and we can test exactly how it is bugged (maybe just against heavy shell that it is bugged or whatnot). This would allow us to give them feedback much more quickly and more precise. The added benefit is that we can have much more fun while doing so :)

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Mission that would simulate campaign behavior.
Design a DD, CL, CA, BC, BB in campaign manner with massive fund pool.
So you can balance out modern BBs and not so modern CA,CL and DDs or go with balanced so on and so fort. (i have no clue how you need to balance your funds in the campaign when building ships)

Something that would prepare the player for the campaign and have the player use the created fleet against enemy fleet with random composition of DD,CL,CA,BC,BB

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When it comes to Battleship scenarios, I've found the naval academy satisfying for the most part. More missions are always welcome, especially something that fills the gap between WWI and the Modern Battleship. But for the other ship classes, I found the academy lacking. So here are some ideas:

1. King of the Cruisers:

Design the best cruiser you can envision. Possible options would be technology (radar, reload technology, fire control) vs gun size.

The engagement would be your ship vs a squadron of smaller cruisers, similar to the Battle of the River Plate. You could replicate the Graf Spee if you went with gun size or build a proto Des Moines. Depending on the strength of the enemy, this could be relatively easy or very difficult.

2. Treaty Cruiser:

Design a small fleet of cruisers limited to 10,000 tons displacement and 8 inch guns. 

The enemy would have a slightly smaller force of more modern cruisers, forcing you to squeeze the most of the limited displacement you are given. Depending on the balance chosen, this could be a very difficult mission.

3. Destroyer Skirmish:

Design a flotilla of destroyers. Choose between better guns, better torpedoes, better hull/engine techonology and better FCS and detection equipment.

You would fight a roughly equal opponent where you would be forced to play to the strenghts of your design. Fight at range with superior accuracy, rush in guns blazing or spam torpedoes.

4. Unexpected Strike:

A revamp of an existing mission, attack a large enemy fleet with a few destoryers.

You get superior technology (radar, better torps). If detected, the fleet should be able to sink you easily, so you have to use the enviroment (awful weather or night time) to stay hidden while you launch your attack. Getting close means safer hits but also risks being spotted. This one should be time-gated with an objective to sink 50-70% of the enemy within 30 minutes or something like that.

5. The Value of Armour:

A reverse of an existing mission, this time you are the prey and have to design a ship which can take a beating.

The objective would be to survive for a certain amount of time against a superior force which spawned within sight of you. This would be a mission where you can try to recreate HMS Warspite or SMS Seydlitz at Jutland.

 

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1. Armed convoy attack .Very entertaining and a decent challenge of one super BC vs two or three alright BC, or even CA mobs. Felt very gratifying to split my BCs and have them go on either side of a BB escort and shred it.

 

2. The WIP Design a Dreadnought. Hoo boy... This one has borderline sent me into a rage after far too many attempts using every angle I can think of. Fast with big guns? Nope, get my engines shot out at 12 km while the CL close in and torpedo launch. Big guns miss full broadsides even at point blank and at cruising speed agaisnt slowed targets(6 attempts with this thinking). Slow with big guns and heavy armor? Nope. Get my towers knocked out in quick succession followed by the funnels and finally conning tower. (About 20 separate designs and attempts here).

 

The closest I've gotten here is with a relatively light main battery, decent speed and RIDICULOUS amounts of armor, aiming to just burn everyrhing in sight rather than watch another Super heavy 14" AP shell ricochet off a CL. I've gotten down to having just one mauled CL remaining, sitting at 4% structure and about 10% flotation and it somehow ABSROBED first an AP salvo of 6 13" at about 3km (over penned likely and fine I understand that) and then TWO HE salvos taking no further structural or flooding, or fires (using lydite 2 here ftr). And then the clock ran out. Maybe I'm just terrible, but to me it feels unbalanced. Too many targets or not enough tech & funding for the ship at base. I admit I'm not good at the game, but I feel like I'm beating my head against a wall here.

 

/rant over

 

3. Definitely something Jutland like, two large battlefleets and either no or limited escorts. Or maybe more advanced time and tech wise like the battle of the Surigao Strait.

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I think earlier calls for a mission editor could have some incredible value if some basic data reporting is inherent to the design. That way the devs could see what the preferred gun calibers, armor values, techs, etc. are.

As for missions, we need one or two more AC/CL/CA versus missions to test the viability of said ships against themselves.

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Alright, so having finally beat all of the Naval Academy missions, the one that I had the most trouble with was the "Destroy a full Fleet" mission. You are given a decent chunk of money to build a single type of ship and fight an enemy fleet. This fleet will have 8 ships, of which you need to sink 6 before they retreat or your own ship or ships are sunk.

From what I noticed, playing this mission 4-5 times before I got a working design nailed down was that at the start of the mission, the enemy ships either have vision of your ship(s) or are about to come in to contact, which I believe is due to one of the enemies having a radar equipped. As a direct consequence, your squadron will pretty much always sustain anywhere from 10-20 minutes of fire from the enemy fleet before you are able to start landing hits, which gives them a considerable leg up.

 

Next, we get to the enemy fleet. Now in pretty much all of my playthroughs the enemy fleet would have 4 light ships, usually 2 destroyers that were fast and had a lot of torpedos, an armored destroyer, a light cruiser, a heavy cruiser, and 3 capitol ships: one with weaker guns but very thick belt armor, one BC with very little armor but a high top speed, and another ship with decent armor and very heavy calibre guns. This fleet has great synergy and will always be able to exploit a weakness in any flawed design that you make; the fast destroyers will be able to rout or cripple any slower capitol ship designs, the high calibre BB will tear holes in any lightly armored vessels, and the high armor BB is unsinkable to ships with lower caliber guns and will be a real nuisance to anybody that tries to play with cruisers and destroyers.

 

So now we reach the interesting part: because the enemy ships will retreat if they have sustained damage, you have to design a high speed ship that can track them down before they get away, because of the radar and the high calibre gun BB you have to design a ship that is either very hard to hit or has a lot of armor, and because of the time constraint of the mission you have to design a ship with high enough firepower to dispatch 6 enemy ships before the time runs out.

 

Now I won't say how I finally beat it because I don't want to ruin the fun for anyone else, but I think because of the radar and the fact that the enemy ships will retreat that there definitely is a "right way" to design and play this mission, and because of that I would recommend either giving the player access to radar or removing it from the enemy ships, just so it is easier to track and target your opponents.

 

Big thanks again to the team at game labs for allowing us to play and enjoy UA:Dreadnoughts in the alpha! It has been a real treat being able to build my own ships and fight them for the first time in over a decade of playing video games. You guys are the best!

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I'm enjoying most of the missions as there is good variety and the replay value is incredible however I do have one complaint, there are a couple missions where you have to engage a technologically and numerically superior enemy fleet where due to the displacement and monetary limitations I can't gain any advantage and end up just getting pummeled every time I try to beat those. Are the AI ships limited by the same constraints? Often I'm being effectively engaged from extreme range so I have to try and close on a numerically superior fleet and get shot to pieces. I will say though, the game is beautiful and even when I'm being sunk left and right I'm still enjoying it 😂

I'm not a fan of the timer, it seems arbitrary to me, multiple times now I have been winning a battle and may have a shot or two left to sink an enemy vessel who is dead in the water, engines destroyed, funnel destroyed, etc... and then time runs out and he somehow gets away? As long as you're afloat and have ammunition you should be able to continue the fight.

Also are there any plans to add a custom battle mode to the EA? Would love to be able to design an entire fleet with no cost limitations as well as design my enemy's fleet or just have them auto generated to roughly match the size and tech of my fleet.

Edited by Xakriin
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Academy Missions you like the most and why? What would you change to make it more interesting for you:

  1. Destroy a Full Fleet - Let's you test things and stuff.
  2. Modern battleship - Big guns quite good accuracy, pretty much showcase of how good your ships can be at some point It also highlights impact of technological differences.
  3. Battlecruiser vs Dreadnought - Nice mission that requires you to develop interesting tactics.
  4. Superdreadnought or Battlecruiser  - Let's you test few different approaches to similar problem. I like this mission. It crashes a lot though.

Academy missions you hate the most and why? What is causing frustration?

  1. Torpedo the Dreadnought - This mission is broken by pure design. First of all, if you have to face enemy that can devastate your ship with a single blow, the best you can hope for to achieve as realistic goal is to scare him off/force him to retreat. So mission objective should be to force the BB to retreat from the battlefield and or cause serious damage that will put that vessel out of commission for several months.
  2. Destroyers vs. Torpedo Boats - smal caliber gun accuracy is so annoying! Other than that it's a nice and even doable mission.

Please propose new missions or challenges (historical or fictional), share your ideas for missions you would enjoy playing, by describing the situations and the difficulties you want to face. Maybe your suggestion can be the next mission you will play in Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts!

  1. Sandbox mission where you just design your fleet of ships and face  random AI composition of similar price/tech level. 
  2. Shoreline bombardment missions.
  3. Landing support missions.
  4. Cripple/force to retreat missions.
  5. More Cruiser oriented missions ie. screening for Battleship fleet, or escort battleship where loosing condition is based on damage that fleet/vessel we're escorting takes. 
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On 10/21/2019 at 9:02 PM, Invictus said:

The one I disliked the most was BB vs TBs.  I dont think that would be very realistic as there would be screening ships.  Plus its a pain to sink them.

Pretty much THIS.  In a campaign setting if I had a BB caught out by a force of PTs / E-boats I'd be happy with survival; I really don't care if I sink any or not.  Winning this mission pretty much requires me to play the Battleship WAY more aggressively than I otherwise would in this situation.

The all-or-nothing victory conditions kind of bother me in some of these scenarios.  The victory conditions in Destroyers vs Torpedo Boats is really broken.  A more realistic condition would revolved around the BB vs CA conflict with the DD vs PT conflict being in support of that; maybe changing the conditions to "'Destroy both CAs' and 'The Battleship must survive'" would be more realistic.

My favorite scenario is either 'Armed Convoy Attack' or 'Destroyer Convoy Attack' since both require creative thinking and realistic sailing in order to accomplish.

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So sandbox missions.

Missions to defend islands, bases, areas and locations.

Missions against set waves and endless waves.

Escort missions.

Multi tiered missions so for example you have to search and destroy a ship but find out its already made contact with a nearby fleet and you must either flee the area to a designated location and/or defeat a certain amount and report back. These missions include multiple objectives but each one is only active after certain states and requirements are met.

Bombardment missions like in RTW's.

Ambush missions.

Invasions.

Thats what i had originally and what everyone else has come up with.

 

should be gud enuff eh?

'w'

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Just finished Numbers don't matter: 

I have to admit I managed to finish this mission on a knife edge xD Both of my initial 2 BB's were below 5% at the end of a mission. I won because enemy ran out of high caliber ammunition xD.

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I have to admit it was one tough battle. Nice mission.

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So... found this gem:
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Replayed the new mission, and the A.I. did this. (Made it extremely easy)

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It went from 77-100% accuracy at 18km with 457mm to around 20% with 356mm.  Yikes.

Edited by Jetu
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New Mission: Defeat the Semi-Dreadnought.

I¨ve tried this twice now. First attempt was a slugfest with me going in to real close range! I had put a torpedo tube in the front slot of my ship and managed to hit it. Both me and the enemy were at about 15% remaining structure and float when I was torpedoed twice by the enemy light cruisers. My own cruisers... has no torpedoes???  What kind of light cruisers don't have any torpedoes?

Second attempt: This time I have brought four 12in guns and try to shoot it up from distance. Cruise speed to maximize my accuracy and the light cruisers are told to follow in line formation. A quick check reveals that this time they do have torpedoes. As the long range (sort of) battle ensues it becomes clear that my 12in guns are having the better of it , hitting them more often and harder than they hit me. 30 minutes later and I score a critical hit, sending that semi to the bottom of the ocean! Time to mop up, then! The first of the enemy light cruisers is made short work of and the other one... flees at top speed? None of my ships are able to catch up with it, so naother loss! 😢

Edited by Nereng
Bda spleling
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Trick to "Numbers don't matter" is make slow small heavily armored BB's with 6 18 inch guns.

Use Lyddite II and superheavy shells.

Max out accuracy as much as you can, radar II, etc.

You should have a small number of them, but they'll resist most gunfire and their rounds are like napalm cannons.

For even easier winning, replay until the enemy spawns with 14 inch guns.

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I would note something about the missions, when they say sink 70% of the ennemy, it should be in tonnage, not in number. Because this leads to easy exploits on one side, as you can easily destroy all the lighter units and claim the win aven though the ennemy capital ships are intact or, on the other side it can lead to silly situations where you can destroy the entire ennemy battle line and their cruisers and find yourself looking during an hour for a couple of DD or TB that managed to limp away and that you will never catch, denying you a deserved victory.

Edited by sarrumac
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24 minutes ago, sarrumac said:

I would note something about the missions, when they say sink 70% of the ennemy, it should be in tonnage, not in number. Because this leads to easy exploits on one side, as you can easily destroy all the lighter units and claim the win aven though the ennemy capital ships are intact or, on the other side it can lead to silly situations where you can destroy the entire ennemy battle line and their cruisers and find yourself looking during an hour for a couple of DD or TB that managed to limp away and that you will never catch, denying you a deserved victory.

They should just make mechanics that allows for a ship to surrender/retire from battle if it sustained too much damage and count it as destroyed/defeated enemy. 

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Mission I like the most:

Pre dreadnought conflict: the concept of a "real" fleet battle is good. Pathfinding is wonky, small guns can't damage sh*t. But all the ingredients for what I want in the campaign are there. Overpriced lump of metal firing at each other, with tin cans zooming between them, laying smoke and zoning out the enemy with torpedoes.

Destroyer vs Torpedo Boat is a fun concept too. Things like TB thoughness and (once again) small gun damage needs to be adressed at some point, but I like it.

Missions I dislike:

All the "puzzle" like things that make you design dumb things for equally dumb objectives.

I understand these naval academy are designed as individual missions with no intention to resemble the campaign but I have the feeling they focus too much on a single gimmick and less on what "could" be a naval engagement with limited assets at the player disposal. Like "torpedo the dreadnought" where you're basically forced to design long range stealth torpedo destroyers if you want to reliably hit the enemy, money and tech rulling out all other options. "The modern battleship" and all the other BB's duels are designed around dragged out and slow long range battle where you strip all secondary guns for more main armaments, the only thing changing between missions is the actual range of the guns. Special rewards for those who allow the creation of moving board of steel with no armor and only guns with directors.

Don't get me wrong, It's fun in a way, I'm not entirely a fan seeing these solutions be some of the most efficient way to "win" though. It feel limited and well.. Far away from what a "naval academy" would teach.

What I would like to see more:

Fleet/squadron battles with various composition. More fund/equal technology to the opposing faction, basically offer the player the opportunity to have fun with an actual naval battle, not with designing the most cheesiest design just for winning the next puzzle. I'm also fine with less missions if all of them offer something different than "Use a XX with slightly more range and sink a XX with slightly more firepower"

The way I see naval academy is an extensive tutorial and showcase of what the player can see when he dive into the campaign. I'm not entirely sold with these puzzle like missions.

Ex:

Crossing/Getting crossed the T with an enemy: get the better out of that kind of engagement with some BB's you designed and a screening DD/CL squadron. Bonus point if you allow the use of  Nelson/Richelieu hull in these one.

DD knife fight: using modern destroyer design, fight your way through an equally competent  enemy screen while some Big Boys are hurling explosive umbrellas at each others from across the map. Bonus point if you can land some fishes on the enemy Big Boys before the timer end.

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