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[Nick Thomadis]

A new major game update has just become available! Read the full content in our blog:
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Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Alpha-5

SPECIAL NEW FEATURES

• Major improvements in ballistics: Repaired issues that made shells to travel at unusual wide arcs or at inconsistent speeds. Shells now can hit other vessels except the ship you target, making cluttered ship formations more vulnerable to shell fire. Friendly fire can happen if ships fire too close to each other.
  
  Previous ballistic system  had some omissions that were needed to save game performance. After latest game optimizations we added more calculations into the model addressing the following:
  
  - Shells fly-through other ships: Completely fixed. Please report inconsistencies if you face them in battle.
  - Unusual wide arcs from guns of the same turret: Not completely fixed, but it should be barely noticeable now and very rare.
  - Shells that seem to follow targets during evasive maneuvers: It should be completely fixed and more improvements will follow to address any related issue.
  - Even more detailed calculations for effective armor thickness, based on heel/trim motions, hull sections, belt wideness etc:  Improved but still work in progress.
   
• Improved damage system: Damage is now using a more natural probabilistic model, causing less random and more consistent damage to ships according to the damage power of shells and torpedoes. This new system will simulate better the rare critical hits that happened in history. 
• Gun visual variance: Guns differ in appearance,depending on gun technology, nation and class of the ships. Britain, USA, Germany, Austria, Italy and Japan have currently the more diverse visualization. As we add more 3D model assets, more special visual characteristics for each nation will become available. (Note: All previously saved designs will be incompatible due to this new feature and it is advised to clean them up. Nation flag will be saved for any newly created design in Naval Academy.)
• Ramming damage: Finally, ships receive damage when they collide with each other. There is not a special visual effect yet but you will hear a distinctive sound effect after the collision. Known issues of inconsistent ramming damage will be addressed in a next update. (Note: Damage will happen against hostile ships only).
• Influx of new ship models: Many new ship types are now available in the custom battle system and Naval Academy, covering a wide range of cruisers of the World War I and later era, as well as several new modern battleships and battlecruisers. In particular the following are added:
  
  - Detailed model of the Italian Heavy cruiser “Trento” of the 1920s. 
  - Detailed model of the British Armored cruiser “Warrior”.
  - 2 new light cruisers of the dreadnought era, special for Germany, based on the Light Cruiser “Emden”.
  - 7 new heavy cruisers distributed for all nations.
  - 5 new modern light cruisers distributed for all nations.
  - 1 French super battleship.
  - 1 French modern battleship. 
  - 1 new USA Battleship hull type: a smaller version of modern BB that can represent South Carolina and South Dakota battleships.
  - 1 new Italian Modern Battleship hull type.
  - 1 new UK Battleship hull type: It can represent a variant of HMS Nelson and generally the N3/G3 class.
  - 6 new Battlecruisers designated as "Large Cruisers" distributed for all nations except Britain. 
  - Improved a late UK Battleship with modern towers (The model that appears in mission “German Pride”).
  - 1 new Russian modernized Battleship. 
  - 1 new generic modernized Battleship. 

NEW NAVAL ACADEMY MISSIONS

• German Raiding Squadron: Your light cruisers must sink several cargo ships defended by a British armored cruiser. An enemy Battlecruiser approaches so you need to act fast.
• Dreadnought vs Modern Cruisers: Powerful modern cruisers with state of the art fire control and devastating torpedoes should have no problem sinking a dreadnought of older technology. You can prove the opposite, either by enhancing your battleships with equipment of advanced technology, or investing more money for building more ships.
• Wounded Beast: Your German battleship is damaged from a previous engagement and is hunted by the British fleet. Reinforcements are on their way to help you out.
• Cruisers needed: An Italian Battleship is chased by a French Super-Battleship and your cruisers must rescue it.

SHIP DESIGNER IMPROVEMENTS

• Operational Range is locked in “Medium” for Naval Academy (it will work fully in campaign). The player will no longer exploit the system by setting it at minimum range and create overpowered ships versus the AI.
• Several improvements/fixes in weights/costs of ship assets.
• AI will design more effectively the ships allocating weights for guns and speed in a more balanced manner. AI will increase Turret armor over technology era and this will be a necessity for player too, for reducing the chance of ammo detonations and main gun destruction. (Note: in late era battles, the maximum armor setting will usually correspond to the turret armor now. We will improve UI to be more specific).
• Auto-Design (for player and AI) is now smarter, since it realizes which technologies are better to use according to year. For example, you will no longer see ships auto-designed with full coal engines in the 1920s or with weak torpedoes. PS.The initial technologies will be set up according to tech era, so that player designs the ship from scratch with less micromanagement.
• Various improvements/fixes to hulls according to player reports.
• Deceleration of ship is now properly affected from various ship design decisions. (Previously it was only affected by ship’s size and weight).
• Turbo Electric Drive auxiliary engines now offer a significant boost to acceleration/deceleration, making them really effective for initiating sharp maneuvers and dodging torpedoes. One more upgrade (Turbo Electric Drive II) is available with stronger effects.
• Light Cruisers’ maximum gun size is now 7-inches (from 8-inches) so that we reflect better the class distinction between Light and Heavy Cruisers.

BALANCES/COMBAT IMPROVEMENT

• Damage fine tuning according to the new ballistics/damage model.
• Smoke from funnels obstructs directionally the gun aiming. Accuracy penalty is received if the smoke emitted from the ship’s funnels interferes with the target at some angle.
• Reduced target signature of guns. It is now more balanced the effect of ship size and targeting, while player should no longer be able to exploit Naval Academy battles by over-reducing the target signature with less secondary guns.
• Torpedoes can now cause ammo detonation, if they penetrate the hull. Torpedoes of large diameter will be extremely dangerous, even to large and well protected battleships.
• White powder shells rebalanced (removed shell weight loss, because it made shells too ineffective with bad ballistics at medium range).
• Lyddite I shells penetration penalty reduced (They could become too weak).

BUG FIXES

• Fixed a rare crash issue after exiting battle.
• Fixed a sound bug (it caused only a console report during battle).
• Fixed bug not allowing to set up target for individual ship of a division.
• Fixed an issue that could cause lag after exiting a custom battle.
• Fixed bug that could desync damage of gun & barbette, making them become destroyed independently. 

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Hotfixes:

1st April Update v71
- Two extra missions featuring two of the world's first ironclads: "USS Monitor" and "CSS Virginia".
- Penetration slight improvement (You will notice more partial penetrations).
- 8-inch guns sound improvement.
- Various small bug fixes.

HotFix v70
- Fixed problems with (Mark 5) 7-inch guns of USA/Britain ships.
- Fixed a german funnel that had no name text.
- Fixed hull issue of new Italian Battleship that did not had enough space for some secondary towers.
- Repaired hull issues of Italian Heavy Cruiser III.
- Battlecruisers hull limitations tuned so that they cannot exceed easily the 40 knots speed.
- Minor costs rebalance (fixes some issues in several missions of too few funds, making auto-design to not find enough funds to add necessary guns or speed).
- Resize of some early small guns to fit better on battleship hulls (according to feedback).
- Auto-Design should build more powerful ships often, with multiple and heavier guns.
- Fixed bug when choosing to start custom battle only with transports.
 

[Shaftoe]

FINALLY!

That's my initial feedback.

[Cptbarney]

Ayyy @HusariuS @Fuems its ere ladz!

[Marshall99]

Thank you for the update!

 

 

[Fishyfish]

I'm at work, though this gig might get paused soon. Anyone want to help me scratch an itch and post some SS of the HMS warrior and possibly some of the Heavy Cruisers/anything that looks predreadnought/early dreadnought? I just need a lil hit to get me till I get home. 

[Cptbarney]

@KiltedKey @Koogus typing on my ipad is difficult while playing wows lol.

[Marshall99]

5 minutes ago, Fishyfish said:

I'm at work, though this gig might get paused soon. Anyone want to help me scratch an itch and post some SS of the HMS warrior and possibly some of the Heavy Cruisers/anything that looks predreadnought/early dreadnought? I just need a lil hit to get me till I get home. 

She is a beauty HMS Warrior Armored cruiser

[Fishyfish]

40 minutes ago, Marshall99 said:

She is a beauty HMS Warrior Armored cruiser

Close..

 

But my meaning was screen shots of the new hulls in game as one is based off the HMS Warrior. Good try and thanks for the effort. You get the booby prize, one wet cigar. 

[HusariuS]

Bug in mission Wounded Beast.

A name of the second funnel doesn't show up.

I have used Superior Gun Tech and played on the second highest graphic quality.

[Cptbarney]

6 minutes ago, HusariuS said:

Bug in mission Wounded Beast.

A name of the second funnel doesn't show up.

I have used Superior Gun Tech and played on the second highest graphic quality.

Oh i thought that got fixed. *shrugs*. Might a test funnel, try it and see if it works lol.

[Dirlinger]

High speed still gives huge benefit-

OFC the players can exploit this too, but this makes for boring designs - how many 35 000 tons battleships did go this fast? Sure PT boats and like could do that but huge battleships?

Edited March 17, 2020 by Dirlinger

[Nick Thomadis]

15 minutes ago, Dirlinger said:

High speed still gives huge benefit-

OFC the players can exploit this too, but this makes for boring designs - how many 35 000 tons battleships did go this fast? Sure PT boats and like could do that but huge battleships?

When we make Operational Range "Medium" or higher for Battlecruisers in Custom Battle too, it will not be as easy to reach such speeds. In reality, Battlecruisers consumed a lot of tonnage for achieving a long operational range. This will be reflected in campaign but in free custom mode it is not, so it is possible to exploit as you do. Enjoy it while it lasts.

[madham82]

26 minutes ago, Dirlinger said:

High speed still gives huge benefit-

OFC the players can exploit this too, but this makes for boring designs - how many 35 000 tons battleships did go this fast? Sure PT boats and like could do that but huge battleships?

Disappointing. I see the AI still creates pure BS BC designs. Fastest cap ships I know of where the Iowas at 33kts. Guess the AI design enhancements did not address this. Hopefully next release. 

[Dirlinger]

6 minutes ago, Nick Thomadis said:

When we make Operational Range "Medium" or higher for Battlecruisers in Custom Battle too, it will not be as easy to reach such speeds. In reality, Battlecruisers consumed a lot of tonnage for achieving a long operational range. This will be reflected in campaign but in free custom mode it is not, so it is possible to exploit as you do. Enjoy it while it lasts.

This was from scenario - dreadnought vs modern cruisers. We (the players) are having already a limitation of "medium" in the scenario.

Hmm... I just realized that AI has no such limitations in its design. So if I tried to do same design as AI, the game prohibits me from doing this...

Ok, so here is another feedback : Make AI follow same rules as players are bound by.

[Nick Thomadis]

Indeed, the feature is not complete yet, but is scheduled.

[Cptbarney]

17 minutes ago, madham82 said:

Disappointing. I see the AI still creates pure BS BC designs. Fastest cap ships I know of where the Iowas at 33kts. Guess the AI design enhancements did not address this. Hopefully next release. 

Think iowa could reach 36knots if she really pulled her weight and taxed her engines for around 6hours or so.

but yeah Ai needs some limitations but it seems the campaign will prevent the AI from going aboslutely mental with ship designs in general.

[Bluishdoor76]

Having mixed feelings about this update, love that selecting a nation actually has a purpose. On the other hand I am quite disappointed at the new hull types, wasn't expecting a real French hull as it was not named, but I didn't expect it to just be a reused yamato hull with hardpoint changes. Definitely does not live up to the hype, but I guess it will do for now until an actual French hull design is added, not like a French design could even be created as quad gun turrets are still not in the game.

[flaviohc16]

trying to do some test on the new hulls; some bugs or samewhat bad design and bad ancorage point dislacement

french super bb

Quote

the last turret, you have put the "waves protector" ( i don't know the real name, i'm not a native english speaker) at the back but the last turret you see in the picture is as far as we can place a turret,  so i would like that you either  allow us to place the turret more at the back or move forward the wave protector

italian modernized bb

Quote

we cannot mount either the best or the 2nd best 2ndary tower, we are relegated to the worst tower because the snap points are way  at the rear

2)

can we please move the barbette's snap point a bit further so we can accomodate the huge barbette?

3)

the barbettee who should be "historical" looks stupidly small with a 15" triple gun on top, and the fact that we cannot move the 2ndary tower more forward makes it looks even more stupid, we cannot wither rebuild a Roma lookalike bb and neither a bb that actually make sense

this is what i found right now

 

[HusariuS]

4 minutes ago, Cptbarney said:

Think iowa could reach 36knots if she really pulled her weight and taxed her engines for around 6hours or so.

but yeah Ai needs some limitations but it seems the campaign will prevent the AI from going aboslutely mental with ship designs in general.

New Jersey managed to do 35,2 knots but that was during a stress test of the engines.

[Cptbarney]

4 minutes ago, HusariuS said:

New Jersey managed to do 35,2 knots but that was during a stress test of the engines.

Ahh ok, i see. Must of been the KFC she was after XD

German mission, is pretty hard. not sure if thats reflecting on possible campaign events or situations.

@flaviohc16 ill flag that up with nick, there might be a hotfix sooner than we think lol.

[flaviohc16]

5 minutes ago, Cptbarney said:

Ahh ok, i see. Must of been the KFC she was after XD

German mission, is pretty hard. not sure if thats reflecting on possible campaign events or situations.

@flaviohc16 ill flag that up with nick, there might be a hotfix sooner than we think lol.

will you flag it for me or i need to do it myself?

 

@Nick Thomadis

i found other bugs, this time with 2ndary armament on british bbs with n3-g3 design ( but i didn't check the other bbs so it might be more widespread as well)

edit: it is for all the british bbs

Quote

we have 2 triple 7" guns

2)

8 inch secondaries are WAY smaller than 7 inch secondaries, it doesn't make sense ( the 2nd turret is the new 7" mk5)

 

edit 2: 4 and 5" secondaries turrets on japanese ships imho are too similar in size

Edited March 17, 2020 by flaviohc16

[HusariuS]

Mission "Cruisers needed" is pretty much... Dumb because the Battleship that we are supposed to protect is designed by the AI and because of this, sometimes its general survivability is lacking in every possible way.

For example now AI build a battleship with 18 knots top speed and without any armor or damage control protection, and i was supposed to protect it.

The problem was that this French battleship, by using it's own 432mm guns (or at least 406mm) destroyed my BB with a just first salvo, and that salvo destroyed his engines, steering and flood like half of compartments, and this French BB didn't even managed to fire the second salvo on my BB.

[Nick Thomadis]

7-inch guns for USA/Britain, have an issue, we received the report, we will fix thank you.
All other, noted.

[Cptbarney]

2 minutes ago, HusariuS said:

Mission "Cruisers needed" is pretty much... Dumb because the Battleship that we are supposed to protect is designed by the AI and because of this, sometimes its general survivability is lacking in every possible way.

For example now AI build a battleship with 18 knots top speed and without any armor or damage control protection, and i was supposed to protect it.

The problem was that this French battleship, by using it's own 432mm guns (or at least 406mm) destroyed my BB with a just first salvo, and that salvo destroyed his engines, steering and flood like half of compartments, and this French BB didn't even managed to fire the second salvo on my BB.

I think a multi ship design feature along with better customisation and also some other stuff like DD and CL hulls (modern) are needed for missions like that.

[Sideshow]

I noticed in custom battles the germans never get access to the Scharnhorst style gun turrets for 9" - 12" inch guns. instead they have italian guns. Also noticed that the hulls for Warrior and Emden have treaty tonnage limits.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Sideshow