Nick Thomadis Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Hello again Admirals, The next update is very close to completion and we would like to mention its current (not final) state. Here is all we have completed so far: ====================== NEW SPECIAL FEATURES Custom Battles: You can now choose to fight randomly during years 1890-1930 selecting the nation, fleet composition and year for both you and opponent. The available ship designs will be based on the upcoming campaign tech tree , so errors/warnings may occur, for example ships might not be available for a nation in a specific year. We are going to improve further the functionality in next updates. Damage decals: You will notice much more detailed damage effects on ship hulls due to shell or torpedo impacts and realize where each hull penetration took place. Improved Combat Penetration Info: Detailed “Penetration Estimator” shows up when you hover your mouse over an identified target, including information about sections that you can penetrate, your total pen power over the enemy armor, ricochet angles and side/deck hit chances. This feature should help players to understand what is the best distance and angle to attack versus heavily armored warships. Save and name your designs: You can now save your ship design, for the respective missions. and also give custom names to your creations. NEW MISSIONS Sink the Raiders: Use your Semi-Dreadnought or other ships to defend your transports from three dangerous cruisers. Meet the US Battleships: Try to defeat two very large and experimental battleships of US Design. There can be only one: A speculative Iowa vs Yamato scenario! The ships of course are not identical but their designs are based on the historical hulls. Sink “The Cruiser Killer”: Fight versus an experimental and deadly Battlecruiser. Heavy Duty: Design modern warships and fight versus a super battleship and its escorts. NAVAL ACADEMY BALANCES Increased armor of targeting ship in mission "Targeting Practice" and reduced available time to increase the difficulty. Added +1 opponent torpedo boat in mission "Battleship vs Torpedo Boats" to keep things interesting with the new balance. "Search and Destroy" mission rebalanced in initial distance between ships and also two light cruisers escort the enemy BB. In the “Modern Battleship” mission, the AI fleet has one extra BB, to make it a tougher challenge, due to the new balance. Re-allocated mission "Pre-Dreadnought conflict" in the mission row, since it is now easier than initially. Additionally, the enemy will not retreat, so that the mission can be not lost because of some enemy light ships running away. Reduced the time for mission "Raid an undefended convoy" due to new balances. Further rebalances as per feedback for several other missions. “Defeat the Semi-Dreadnought” allows one extra BB hull plus technology bonuses are more appropriate versus the opponent’s tech. “Destroyers vs Torpedo Boats“ mission gives to player ships less technology difference vs the opponent, so that AI ships are not overpowered on average and various more. COMBAT GAMEPLAY Improved Secondary Guns' Penetration & Accuracy. Torpedo Boats less resilient against gun fire. Penetration rebalance for more effective medium/long range encounters. HE shells should not be as overpowered as previously. Fixed issue with hull damage that made severely damaged ships and torpedo boats too hard to sink. Reduced ladder aiming penalty of initial salvo shot, from -75% to -50% because it caused too low accuracy at close range. Cordite, Tube Powder, TNT explosives rebalanced to reflect better their special characteristics. Cordite offers more explosive power but is unsafe, Tube Powder is the safest explosive and more effective in penetrating armor, TNT is very expensive but overall the best compromise. Fixed issue of Radar towers, increasing too much the surface visibility of ships that carry them. New Oxygen fueled torpedoes. New 23-inch and 24-inch torpedoes. Late tech torpedoes have even more intensified damage so they are useful against heavily protected battleships. Torpedo protection now also increases floatability but reduces acceleration and turning speed making a ship slightly less maneuverable, yet, it will be vital for your capital ships in order to survive against the stronger torpedo threat. Citadel armor schemes increase the armor quality, but are more expensive. Citadel is a feature not yet finalized, but this new functionality simulates better its influence in armor schemes and vitals protection. Ship steering/acceleration slight rebalance for more realistic maneuvering. This balance addressed additionally the over-effectiveness in evading torpedoes and the unnaturally very tight turning circles of small ships, which causes also issues in formation and evasion logic. Coal engines produce more smoke obstruction from funnels. Oil fuel engines will significantly reduce this penalty. Engines hp efficiency and other related balances for improved ship maneuverability with the proper design and vice versa. VISUAL Guns smoothly elevate to fire at target and depress to reload. Water displacement effects (better waves, ship splashes and interaction with water). Sinking mechanic improved so that ships do not “jump” to a default sinking state as previously. Ships will gradually sink according to their last floating state. Fixed issues with USA battleship hull type. Now mission “Design a Dreadnought” includes a properly looking and scaled model based on BB South Carolina. Cage mast towers are available to a series of hulls belonging to USA. New modern battleship assets based on BB Musashi. New modern battleship towers and hull types, based on BB Missouri/Iowa New Heavy Cruiser hull types based on Italian Cruiser Pola. Several other hull types unlocked to become playable. Several new visualizations for guns according to technology. Fixed also some issues with scale for some guns. BATTLE AI Slight fix of AI related with formations. AI should keep formation and respond to screen orders at better distances. The fix is not final. AI is going to be optimized on this aspect in next updates. Fixed issues of AI related to engage mechanics. AI ships should approach more gradually and fire broadside salvos at more effective angle and distance. BATTLE MECHANICS Targeting became more dynamic and affected more smoothly due to maneuvering. Ladder aiming may be acquired faster but aiming can be lost very soon, due to evasive maneuvers. This new feature will make much more effective your evasive actions against long range guns, that previously could lock on you and progressively destroy you without a real chance to do something to avoid them. Barbette damage now causes damage to its attached gun and vice versa. You will no longer see barbettes becoming individually damaged without any effect to the attached gun. Detected torpedoes are now indicated by a visual warning for a short period of time. Improved shell ballistic mechanics, addressing cases where shells could go too wide at short ranges. SHIP DESIGN Minor interface fixes. Some stats were not properly updated. More fixes will follow on next updates. Improved AI ship design (with proper focusing on armor for Battleships). Some minor bug fixes reported by players, related with ship assets. Slight more flexibility in mounting guns/towers/barbettes/funnels. More fixes will follow in next updates. BATTLE UI Gun ranges now show with better visuals and are optimized for better performance. You can toggle them to fade out after some time or not, from the in-battle settings. Gun stats show what is their propellant. Added notification when battle time runs out. BUG FIXES Fixed error-message/bug caused by gun aiming calculations. Fixed crash related with amount of torpedoes fired. Fixed timer not reverting to maximum speed, even tough enemy was completely unseen. Fixed error of log report that could make it completely invisible for player. Fixed bug that could make invisible AI ships traceable by using the mouse pointer. Fixed crash that could be caused in Ship Designer interface when pressing a hotkey for a disabled category. Fixed issues of flags that could become white at a certain angle. Fixed a bug related with the scrolling of Help window. Fixed issue with operational range not altering weight, in some late ship designs. Fixed distorted damage info window for ships that disappear from LOS. OTHER Some game performance optimizations, increase the FPS for all pc systems. Minor improvement on gun fire, shell trails and impact sounds. In-game music reverted back to full functionality. Removed possibility to enable developer debug options on build. Much faster loading of Ship Designer interface. Added graphics quality slider in settings. ====================== This week, the patch enters the testing phase. We will keep you posted when the final release comes. First post became updated with latest info. -=Cheat Menu - Update=- Regarding the hidden debug options that we are going to disable, we do so because most of them cause errors, bugs, exceptions that you also report to us. These options work stably only for development purposes and can make the game to malfunction in various ways, making hard for us to find real problems and repair them. However, we understand that you have fun using those options, so we are going to keep two, that can work without major issues. These are the "Unlock all parts" and "Ship give all techs". Use them at your discretion. Enjoy! 41 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellstrike Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Honestly, these patch notes sound even better than what has been mentioned here before. Thanks a lot for the hard work you're putting into this game. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiWi Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 very nice... the custom battles will keep one entertain till the campaign comes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teckelmaster Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Hello, i did all the missions in regular mode and some were a pain in the .. foot .. but AFTER i did them all, i found the debug menu and i LOVE THAT ONE! PLEASE leave it in, as it brings a lot of fun to the game mode, as it gives you the liberty to replay the unwanted missions (yes i talk about 2 very specific missions!) and do it differently. To me this is a bonus i would really miss, as i consider this a singleplayerexperience and i prefer to cheat a bit here and there. e.g. i lost my progress after i tried the "reset" thing accidentally, but my frustration was absolutely limited as i didnt have to do those speific missions the hard way again. I learned a lot about this game by using that console and swapping BBs for CAs or BCs for OldBBs and stuff, i even like to do some things the hard way. And, of course, i love to go overkill in the last mission, by having ALL THE MONEY and ALL THE TECHS, is a great thing to do before i go to sleep. Otherwise give us a "easy mode" option for missions that are ugly to do, as i find missions im forced to do for my progress (and my personal neurotic disorder alone) and that hurt my feelings completely frustrating. PLS let an old boy cheat a bit! I love this game and i love the debug option! Thank you for a game that is the ultimate incarnation of my dreams in any case! Teckelmaster out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral_Alpha Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 14 minutes ago, Nick Thomadis said: NEW SPECIAL FEATURES Custom Battles: You can now choose to fight randomly during years 1890-1930 selecting the nation, fleet composition and year for both you and opponent. The feature is linked to the upcoming campaign progression, so errors/warnings may occur, for example ships might not be available for a nation in a specific year. We are going to improve further the functionality in next updates. Removed possibility to enable developer debug options on build. At first I was happy but the more I read the more dissapointed and pissed I am. You really have to ruin all the fun do you? Linking custom battles to our campaign progression? Is this a joke? I was happy that we finally get an offline version of naval games that are mostly online grinding p2w BS and then you do the same thing to the singleplayer game? What if I get tired of the old ships in the first hours of the campaign? Why shouldnt I be able to build whatever ship I want in the CUSTOM battles right away? On top of that you turn off the debug menu. We are really just playing a glorified demo no different from EA "alpha" and "beta" versions of their games. This is a typical "AAA nanying" because god forbid a dev would left a few cheats around for players who want them, not to mention for the current players who are supposed to be "alpha testers". Maybe there is something just missing about CBs in changelog and I got it wrong (I hope), but the debug menu decision is stupid as hell, double that in alpha version. There should be more options, not none... give players some freedom, you dont have to move a finger for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomadis Posted November 26, 2019 Author Share Posted November 26, 2019 15 minutes ago, Admiral_Alpha said: At first I was happy but the more I read the more dissapointed and pissed I am. You really have to ruin all the fun do you? Linking custom battles to our campaign progression? Is this a joke? I was happy that we finally get an offline version of naval games that are mostly online grinding p2w BS and then you do the same thing to the singleplayer game? What if I get tired of the old ships in the first hours of the campaign? Why shouldnt I be able to build whatever ship I want in the CUSTOM battles right away? On top of that you turn off the debug menu. We are really just playing a glorified demo no different from EA "alpha" and "beta" versions of their games. This is a typical "AAA nanying" because god forbid a dev would left a few cheats around for players who want them, not to mention for the current players who are supposed to be "alpha testers". Maybe there is something just missing about CBs in changelog and I got it wrong (I hope), but the debug menu decision is stupid as hell, double that in alpha version. There should be more options, not none... give players some freedom, you dont have to move a finger for it. We just meant that the possible ships to build in custom battle are based on the campaign progression, which means that you cannot build a spaceship but only ships of the campaign technology tree between 1890-1930 and only as far as we have progressed our work on the campaign build tree. The possibilities are endless, since we do not use fixed models, as you already know. Regarding the cheat dev mode, it is just not for players, since it breaks, cannot follow our internal processes, understandable that some people enjoyed playing with it, when they discovered it, but many of those infest our bug report system with bugs created with this mode, so please understand and be more polite in your posts. The game is still in development and any future feature which will allow more freedom to players is always a possibility, in a proper, stable way. 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAMJB Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 10 minutes ago, Nick Thomadis said: We just meant ... That's a superb instance of incredible restraint, giving such a polite and measured answer to an incredibly poisonous rant post. Hats off. And double hats off, because that update list looks incredible! 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptMorg70 Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Will the custom fleet battle allow players to create multiple ships types in a battle? ie Can we do 1890 tech, build a pre-dreadnought and it’s destroyer escort? that would allow for a lot of testing/replay ability while waiting on campaign 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fundamentalist Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 38 minutes ago, Admiral_Alpha said: At first I was happy but the more I read the more dissapointed and pissed I am. You really have to ruin all the fun do you? Imagine the man-child that typed this one up. Cringe. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral_Alpha Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 11 minutes ago, Nick Thomadis said: We just meant that the possible ships to build in custom battle are based on the campaign progression, which means that you cannot build a spaceship but only ships of the campaign technology tree between 1890-1930 and only as far as we have progressed our work on the campaign build tree. The possibilities are endless, since we do not use fixed models, as you already know. Regarding the cheat dev mode, it is just not for players, since it breaks, cannot follow our internal processes, understandable that some people enjoyed playing with it, when they discovered it, but many of those infest our bug report system with bugs created with this mode, so please understand and be more polite in your posts. The game is still in development and any future feature which will allow more freedom to players is always a possibility, in a proper, stable way. Thank you for better explaining this to me, from the changelog it sounds like the CBs are linked to the player progression, meaning that you cant pick a ship hull or technology in cbs until you research it in campaign. Im really glad that this was just a misunderstanding. You are right about the dev mode, I didnt think that one through before answering and completely forgot that testing on this scale would mess with the report system, I apologize for the choice of words. Thanks again and good luck with the update! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matto Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Sounds great! Custom battles looks like nice improvement ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joryl Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 All I can say is thank you for all your hard work and bringing us such a promising game I am excitedly awaiting the patch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Thomadis Posted November 26, 2019 Author Share Posted November 26, 2019 52 minutes ago, CaptMorg70 said: Will the custom fleet battle allow players to create multiple ships types in a battle? ie Can we do 1890 tech, build a pre-dreadnought and it’s destroyer escort? that would allow for a lot of testing/replay ability while waiting on campaign Yes, you will choose all available ship types, in any combination you want up to the maximum amount of ships. But some ship types might be unavailable for a specific era, for example, the Battlecruiser design, will not be available in the 1890s. 33 minutes ago, Admiral_Alpha said: Thank you for better explaining this to me, from the changelog it sounds like the CBs are linked to the player progression, meaning that you cant pick a ship hull or technology in cbs until you research it in campaign. Im really glad that this was just a misunderstanding. You are right about the dev mode, I didnt think that one through before answering and completely forgot that testing on this scale would mess with the report system, I apologize for the choice of words. Thanks again and good luck with the update! No problem! All is fine, thank you. I even edited the post to clear it up better. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiltedKey Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 (edited) This absolutely exceeds my expectations with what kind of changes you are bringing, more so with the custom battles. That alone and the customizing of our ships and technology is just... this is magical. You’re magical. I guess there goes all my free time for the next... month. Oh well. I’d rather play this! Just take your time and make sure it’s stable! I can wait until the first week of December for this. Just as long as it’s before Christmas! Edited November 26, 2019 by KiltedKey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mycophobia Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Awesome to finally have custom battle, even if it may have some issues. Definitely didn't expect for this to come so soon. Thank you very much for the hard work! Most gameplay and balancing changes looks great and is heading towards the right direction as well! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColonelHenry Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 (edited) Although I would like to see the debug menu stay, if you guys decided it is an unnecessary/unintended part of the alpha builds then I respect the decision to remove it. Edited November 27, 2019 by ColonelHenry 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnishJager Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Will we one day get various assets to build our own superstructures/bridges instead of using a single full part? Only because say "Hey, I really like the look of the Iowa bridge, but wish I could add another deck somewhere because I love Pagodas too!" and build our superstructures "from the ground up"? (Kerbal Space Program's part lists and building come to mind, as well as Cities Skyline's asset editor) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wurstsalat Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 I can just continue to applaud for the care and straight forwardness of development so far. This is coming along nicely and im looking forward to play around in the custom battles to hunt them little bugs 😈. Keep up the good work and take all the time needed to do this one right! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wurstsalat Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 5 minutes ago, FinnishJager said: Will we one day get various assets to build our own superstructures/bridges instead of using a single full part? Only because say "Hey, I really like the look of the Iowa bridge, but wish I could add another deck somewhere because I love Pagodas too!" and build our superstructures "from the ground up"? (Kerbal Space Program's part lists and building come to mind, as well as Cities Skyline's asset editor) I believe this is outside of the scope and not planned yet. Dont get me wrong i love the idea. But it seems like a really complex system to implement (also regarding Ai designs), it may not be woth it focosing valuable dev time on that in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mycophobia Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Just now, Wurstsalat said: I believe this is outside of the scope and not planned yet. Dont get me wrong i love the idea. But it seems like a really complex system to implement (also regarding Ai designs), it may not be woth it focosing valuable dev time on that in the near future. I don't think this is needed at any point before the full release, but it should be something the dev can keep in mind in making the game. Making the game mod-friendly imo will be extremely helpful by allowing the player to create more assets and enriching the content of the game. This is not a function we need any time soon, but I think it is probably much easier to make the game keeping it in mind compared to trying to add that functionality in the end.(which might be impossible by that point) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnishJager Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 23 minutes ago, Wurstsalat said: I believe this is outside of the scope and not planned yet. I know I just want some design freedom! I like making ship-bucket type artwork so I want to be able to make ships in-game look as close to how I want too as possible. Hopefully this is something modders (if the game allows it) will take up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legioneod Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 (edited) Just got the game and really liking it, will post more as I play and come up with suggestions. One thing I'm happy to see is more US designs being added as it seems like most of the designs are European (at least the towers make them look that way. I'm not well versed in older ships so there may very well be US designs already in the game besides the South Carolina). Can't wait to see how this game develops and what gets added. Forgive me if this has been answered but what are the plans for campaign mode? Will is be linear/mission based similar to UG:CW? or will the player have a bit more freedom Edited November 27, 2019 by Legioneod 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marder Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 1 hour ago, Legioneod said: Just got the game and really liking it, will post more as I play and come up with suggestions. One thing I'm happy to see is more US designs being added as it seems like most of the designs are European (at least the towers make them look that way. I'm not well versed in older ships so there may very well be US designs already in the game besides the South Carolina). Can't wait to see how this game develops and what gets added. Forgive me if this has been answered but what are the plans for campaign mode? Will is be linear/mission based similar to UG:CW? or will the player have a bit more freedom I think I recognize you. Il-2 Maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cptbarney Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm really, REALLY liking this patch now. Especially considering this isn't even final as well, nice too see lots of changes, was surprised by the custom battles thing. Now we just need something liek Admirals college to be able to playout historical events and missions from 1880-1940/9. Either way very good and keep up the good effort! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legioneod Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 6 hours ago, Marder said: I think I recognize you. Il-2 Maybe? Probably Il2, I'm on those forums alot, name is the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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