Alpha-12 en route!

[ThatZenoGuy]

26 minutes ago, Nick Thomadis said:

Regarding the latest positive news and the new collaboration with Stillfront, it is only going to affect the company positively and it will not change anyhow the main concept of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts, as you already know it.

In an ideal world this statement would bring much satisfaction and relief. However lately (ya know...Within 20 years at least) a strange tactic called "Lying through the teeth" was invented. 

This tactic is remarkably simple yet effective, simply say one thing, but actually do another. Worked for Cyberpunk, and that was the biggest game ever pretty much.

Let us hope this is not the case.

[Aceituna]

2 hours ago, Nick Thomadis said:

Guys, we would like to clarify, once again, that our game "Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts" is still under heavy development, the team is growing further and delivers patches constantly. The game is stable and playable because we try to address all major issues that you report and will be finalized with a fully featured campaign, as we have promised. 

We will provide the  intermediate patch “Alpha-12” with improvements not because we are far from releasing a campaign but because we do not want you to wait for longer with nothing new added in the game. It is something we believe most of you - if not all - will appreciate.

In the meantime, The team is making good progress and is working hard on the campaign. The Mission generator and map travel is currently being coded.

Regarding the latest positive news and the new collaboration with Stillfront, it is only going to affect the company positively and it will not change anyhow the main concept of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts, as you already know it.

Nice to hear some news. There is nothing new in the first two paragrafs but the latter two are rather interesting.

The last/fourth one is very calming (as there was some concern about the purchase of Game-Labs affecting the ,,routing'' of the game's decelopment). I really hope that this particular promise will be held.

But the most interesting is the third paragrapf. This part, specifically: The Mission generator and map travel is currently being coded.

I really don't remember reading this specific comment regarding development. This is what we (at least I think most of us) want to hear - specific news (altough some words refarding time/dates would be also much appreciated).

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Aceituna

[Cptbarney]

@Nick Thomadis A few Q's, is there any plans to go for a more total war style movement system and battle system? Or is that too much for you guys to do both?

Also do you have plans for ships between 1875-1915? especially with cruisers as we have very few hulls in that era atm, and we also lack some modern light and heavy cruiser hulls for some missions.

[Nick Thomadis]

43 minutes ago, Cptbarney said:

@Nick Thomadis A few Q's, is there any plans to go for a more total war style movement system and battle system? Or is that too much for you guys to do both?

Also do you have plans for ships between 1875-1915? especially with cruisers as we have very few hulls in that era atm, and we also lack some modern light and heavy cruiser hulls for some missions.

The mission generator uses a new pathfinding system which allows to move ships across the globe manually in much more detail, than it was working in our previous internal beta.

New hulls, of earlier pre-dreadnought and dreadnought technology years are scheduled.

[Cptbarney]

13 minutes ago, Nick Thomadis said:

The mission generator uses a new pathfinding system which allows to move ships across the globe manually in much more detail, than it was working in our previous internal beta.

New hulls, of earlier pre-dreadnought and dreadnought technology years are scheduled.

Ahh, very nice too hear. Starting to shape up nicely now it seems.

[Cptbarney]

Oh and also from the official discord.

"Currently you cant even fit 127mm turrets on the stations you could fit 203mm turrets on before." 

"I think the problem is that secondary turrets are slightly angled to the side now by default so they intersect with the superstructure, but if it went back to how it was before where turrets faced straight forward there wouldn't be any issue."

I wonder if anyone else can verify this, if so probs minor fix for this or next update.

[1MajorKoenig]

1 hour ago, Nick Thomadis said:

The mission generator uses a new pathfinding system which allows to move ships across the globe manually in much more detail, than it was working in our previous internal beta.

This sounds actually good. I hope to see some player control over we’re your ships are deployed and therefore pulled into battles. 
 

Much rather than having a random pool puling in ships for battles randomly. Because actually most of the times you want your ships to be deployed according to their purpose 

[Cpt.Hissy]

A reply, yay.
I try not to be rude.

le point 1: "game "Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts" is still under heavy development, the team is growing further and delivers patches" internally?
Things do obviously improve, but only by some aspects of whatever was in earliest versions working better, project didn't really develop. Since i first time saw the game nearly nothing *functional* has changed, and of what did nothing was really needed. Only hulls and small number tweaking. And yep, what we have (and supposedly will get in final) is still inferior to what we are promised by current adverts.
Time isn't an issue, my concern is that for now all development was going like current state of the project's core is meant to be it's final form.
I may be wrong, but this is how it looks from random customer point of view.

Le point 2: "The game is stable and playable because we" said so apparently, as it's not really. Formation logic is still broken an tends to hang up, most parts have something broken regarding their placement, there's occasional random script deaths, etc.
Unexpected achievement though, somehow you made this game to be a good CPU overclock stability check, it reveals any issues quicker than special software.

Yet i still really hope to end up being unreasonably rude asshole here, eventually.

[Adrian]

Nick Thomadis can you say something about the Ultimate General Americian Revolution? when will be? 

[Werwaz]

On 5/5/2021 at 11:55 AM, Nick Thomadis said:

Hello Admirals,

We hope you had splendid Easter Holidays and you still enjoy Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. The work on the campaign is in progress but it needs more time to become public in our planned “Core Patch 1”. Therefore, we decided to offer a new major update with stable features you are surely going to like. Here is what we confirm so far for the next patch.

*==============================*
ALPHA-12
*==============================*

NEW HULLS & MODELS
18 new hulls offer countless different new designs. In particular, the new hulls are the following:

• New model that can recreate the German “Deutschland-class” cruisers such as the “Graf Spee”. In-game it can be used with the name “Advanced Armored Cruiser Ι” after year 1921, as a hull between 14,900 and 18,900 tons with special hull resistance characteristics making it especially durable even against battleships.
• New model that can recreate the Japanese battleship “Fuso” after its reconstruction. The new hull is available after the year 1924 with a displacement between 36,000 and 69,000 tons and code name “Modernized Dreadnought III”.
• New Japanese “Dreadnought IV” variant available between the years 1914 and 1927 and with displacement of 26,000 - 46,000 tons.
• New Italian “Dreadnought I” variant available between the years 1906 and 1918 and with displacement of 18,000 - 26,000 tons.
• New German “Advanced Armored Cruiser II” variant which is a speculative continuation of the Deutschland-class and can be found in years after 1927. Its displacement is between 17,900 and 22,900 tons.
• New Japanese “Heavy Cruiser II” variant with a displacement of 13,400-15,600 tons that can be found after the year 1922. It has a flat light hull and a selection of towers that can make it good at firing from long distances.
• New Japanese “Experimental Heavy Cruiser” variant with a displacement of 15,900-22,100 tons that can replicate ships similar to the Japanese “Tone-class” and can host a large amount of torpedo tubes. It is available after the year 1934.
• New “Fast Battleship” variant a special Battlecruiser hull available for Russia, Spain, Italy, Austro-Hungary, China after the year 1935. It has a displacement between 45,000 and 75,000 tons and can be a good compromise between firepower and protection.
• New Austro-Hungarian ”Modern Battleship” variant with displacement between 51,000 and 81,000 tons available after the year 1929.
• New Chinese “Experimental Battleship” variant available after 1929. It is a hull of 42,500 - 55,000 tons which can offer unusual battleship designs with all-forward gun mounts.
• New Chinese “Modern Battleship I” variant available after 1936 and with displacement between 50,500 and 60,500 tons.
• New Spanish “Modern Battleship II” variant with displacement between 61,500 and 71,500 tons available after 1929.
• New Italian “Modern Battleship II” variant with displacement between 60,500 and 70,500 tons available after 1929.
• New Japanese “Experimental Battleship” variant available after 1929 with displacement between 47,000 and 72,000 tons. This hull can produce designs resembling early unofficial Japanese battleship designs that had all the main guns forward.
• New Russian “Modern Battleship II” variant which is available after 1936 and has displacement between 65,000 and 79,000, offers a very robust hull especially optimized for protection.
• New Russian “Super Battleship” variant available after 1936 and with displacement between 75,000 and 99,000 is an enlarged version of the new Russian battleship line and is a hull of very thick and robust construction.
• New Russian “Modern Battlecruiser” variant available after 1929 with displacement between 33,000 and 47,000.
• New Russian “Large Cruiser” variant available after 1929 with displacement between 28,000 and 39,000.

NEW GUNS

• New special looking German guns available in middle-late technology levels spanning between Mark 3 and Mark 5 and covering calibers from 4-inch to 12-inch guns.
• New special looking Japanese guns covering the Mark-3 big guns from 9-inch to 16-inch caliber and the Mark-1 guns of 17-inch to 20-inch caliber.

SHIP DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS/FIXES

• All Ship components are now logically enabled: Previously there were various issues, such as Diesel engines working with coal fuel and boilers, or torpedo components increasing detonation chances and affecting weights in a ship that did not have any torpedoes. Now everything that is selected in the ship component list is affecting properly and fully the ship statistics. Diesel engines have been fully rebalanced to work with the new feature.
• Major improvement in Ship Design controls: Ship part selection is now more accurate and sharp. Previously the mouse cursor would highlight/select a very large area resulting in unwanted changes during ship design processes.
• Minimum Tonnage step reduced from 5 tons to 1 tons, so you can build ships with more precision.
• Various small fixes and improvements in many hulls. New towers and parts became available to older models.

AI IMPROVEMENT

• The AI opponent has been significantly improved to be more aggressive and approach nearer to the player when it has the advantage.
• AI controlled ships in screen/scout/follow formation should now interact nearer to threats.
• AI ship evasion has been improved further.
• AI auto-design became more effective overall.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed bug that was caused when duplicating a ship design in Naval Academy.
• Fixed bug that could cause guns to become badly placed when mounting submerged torpedoes.
• Fixed bug that caused extreme delay to auto-design AI ships in mission “Pre-Dreadnought conflict”. This mission has also received new hulls available for design.

BALANCES

• Fire damage has been balanced to affect more significantly all ship types. In addition, the fire damage is added into statistics (you can now observe what is the sustained damage for friendly and enemy ships). This new statistic should help players to understand why their ship may have less structural integrity with less hits than the AI opponent, because now the received fire damage can be measured as well.

OTHER

• All the game's text has been reviewed/proofed for minor errors.
• Flash fire effect is more properly scaled (It could become too large for big ships, or too small for small ships).
• Obsolete Dreadnought hulls no longer available in late techs (we have now many new hulls to replace them).

The patch is not yet finalized and will receive further improvements such as the following:
- At least 4 new Naval Academy missions.
- Major Improvements in weight offset/Stability calculations so that you can build perfectly working ships with cross-deck guns.
- Major torpedo tubes overhaul, allowing different torpedo visuals according to torpedo size and technology.

We will soon let you know when the patch is going to be released. Thank you for reading!

The Game Labs Team

 

Is there a release date out for this patch yet?

[DerRichtigeArzt]

On 5/11/2021 at 4:41 PM, Nick Thomadis said:

The mission generator uses a new pathfinding system which allows to move ships across the globe manually in much more detail, than it was working in our previous internal beta.

New hulls, of earlier pre-dreadnought and dreadnought technology years are scheduled.

see this is what we want, just tell us whats happening every once in a while. its not rocket surgery to just tell us "aw ye we have modelled 2 new hulls and fixed 1 bug, this week, you might expect them beeing added in alpha-x which btw is beeing delayed because a core feature we want for that alpha is acting up, see ya in two weeks"

[Cdodders]

On 5/11/2021 at 3:41 PM, Nick Thomadis said:

The mission generator uses a new pathfinding system which allows to move ships across the globe manually in much more detail, than it was working in our previous internal beta.

New hulls, of earlier pre-dreadnought and dreadnought technology years are scheduled.

Would it be possible to have the older hulls such as Pre-Dreadnought hulls available much later? To simulate refits and such?

[Marshall99]

50 minutes ago, Cdodders said:

Would it be possible to have the older hulls such as Pre-Dreadnought hulls available much later? To simulate refits and such?

Good idea! I would love to test some things with pre-dreads. Because if we will get the campaign, I won't scrap them. They will be coastal battleships or I will use them for crew training. 

Also in custom battles I defeated some dreadnoughts with my pre-dread designes, but I hope that we can refit them in the future, because modernization is not a bad thing.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Marshall99

[SPANISH_AVENGER]

4 minutes ago, Marshall99 said:

Good idea! I would love to test some things with pre-dreads. Because if we will get the campaign, I won't scrap them. They will be coastal battleships or I will use them for crew training. 

Also in custom battles I defeated some dreadnoughts with my pre-dread designes, but I hope that we can refit them in the future, because modernization is not a bad thing.

 

Exactly!

I mean look at USS Texas. It served from 1914 to 1948, all through refits!

I would really like to be able to refit a 1915 hull with 1940 upgrades in UA:D too.

[SPANISH_AVENGER]

Also, it would be cool if "all-or-nothing" was actually a thing. Currently, you still have to armor the extended parts of the hull in an "all-or-nothing" ship, when said armor scheme was designed specifically to eb able to leave the non-vital parts of the ship entirely unarmored.

[Cptbarney]

12 minutes ago, SPANISH_AVENGER said:

 

Exactly!

I mean look at USS Texas. It served from 1914 to 1948, all through refits!

I would really like to be able to refit a 1915 hull with 1940 upgrades in UA:D too.

California and her sisters being another good example, plus warspite and queen lizzy getting their retrofits. I would love to have retrofitting in this game too be fair.

[madham82]

Think we need to split Refits into two categories: 

1. The actual ability to refits ships post launch (campaign only). 

2. Refitted hulls (i.e. outdated hulls that have some values improved over their originals that can be used at later time periods). This one is for Custom/Naval Academy specifically. These hulls shouldn't be available in the campaign since no one would "build" a refit hull. 

Another thing to consider is currently Torpedo Protection is not "limited" or prevented on hulls designed before such protection existed. This was the major factor behind modernization refits of older hulls. So we really need Torpedo Protection levels locked to research and hulls are either limited or prevented from using it unless they were refitted. 

[Cptbarney]

7 minutes ago, madham82 said:

Think we need to split Refits into two categories: 

1. The actual ability to refits ships post launch (campaign only). 

2. Refitted hulls (i.e. outdated hulls that have some values improved over their originals that can be used at later time periods). This one is for Custom/Naval Academy specifically. These hulls shouldn't be available in the campaign since no one would "build" a refit hull. 

Another thing to consider is currently Torpedo Protection is not "limited" or prevented on hulls designed before such protection existed. This was the major factor behind modernization refits of older hulls. So we really need Torpedo Protection levels locked to research and hulls are either limited or prevented from using it unless they were refitted. 

Yeah, those are great ideas. We could also get model changes if they take on things like torpedo nets and bulges too. Maybe more generic modern towers and superstructure designs allowing for greater customisation if needed.

[madham82]

1 minute ago, Cptbarney said:

Yeah, those are great ideas. We could also get model changes if they take on things like torpedo nets and bulges too. Maybe more generic modern towers and superstructure designs allowing for greater customisation if needed.

Yep, could be selecting TDS level triggers a hull model change to reflect bulges. The towers should be fine since they aren't locked to hulls, and so you could use whichever ones you have access to. 

[Skeksis]

3 hours ago, Cdodders said:

refits

Not sure refits are going to work in the campaign since we’ll probably have something called ‘Dock Size’, something that limits or increases construction tonnage of over time.  

And what happens is as the dock size increases it gets pointless to maintain low tonnage ships since they cannot add a level of technology/armor/etc, in tonnage, that will complete with those newer technologies and extra armor that can be applied via tonnage available from dock size increases.

Basically more weight = more good stuff and it’s just better to scrap old obsolete warships and design and deploy newer better ships.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Skeksis

[Marshall99]

1 hour ago, Skeksis said:

Not sure refits are going to work in the campaign since we’ll probably have something called ‘Dock Size’, something that limits or increases construction tonnage of over time.  

And what happens is as the dock size increases it gets pointless to maintain low tonnage ships since they cannot add a level of technology/armor/etc, in tonnage, that will complete with those newer technologies and extra armor that can be applied via tonnage available from dock size increases.

Basically more weight = more good stuff and it’s just better to scrap old obsolete warships and design and deploy newer better ships.

Well, I would use my obsolete ships as crew trainer or coastal defense ships. Or I would put them in "secondary class" so if something go wrong with my fleet, these obsolete ships will fight till the end. Of course these are only my opinion. 

[madham82]

1 hour ago, Skeksis said:

Not sure refits are going to work in the campaign since we’ll probably have something called ‘Dock Size’, something that limits or increases construction tonnage of over time.  

And what happens is as the dock size increases it gets pointless to maintain low tonnage ships since they cannot add a level of technology/armor/etc, in tonnage, that will complete with those newer technologies and extra armor that can be applied via tonnage available from dock size increases.

Basically more weight = more good stuff and it’s just better to scrap old obsolete warships and design and deploy newer better ships.

While I agree considerations will always be a factor into it being "worth" a refit, you are making too general of an assumption. 

For one, refits adding new equipment like Radar, sonar, changing torpedoes, and most obviously torpedo and armor protection all occurred. Dock size could definitely be a limiting factor (i.e. can't refit a ship with more tonnage than you can build new). Think that is what you are referring to here. 

This is where something will need updating with the designer or maybe just our philosophy with designs. One way might be to increase the available displacement of a design over what will be used at launch. This would allow that extra weight mentioned to be feasible for a refit. Of course that comes with drawbacks as well. 

Bottom line, think we need input from Nick as to how it might work or if it is even planned. 

Edited May 12, 2021 by madham82

[Skeksis]

1 hour ago, Marshall99 said:

Well, I would use my obsolete ships as crew trainer or coastal defense ships. Or I would put them in "secondary class" so if something go wrong with my fleet, these obsolete ships will fight till the end. Of course these are only my opinion. 

Yeah these things would happen in RL but crew training ships in the campaign not so much. We don’t know of cause but crews as whole bodies of men for transfers carrying their skills with them is unlikely, captains yes. It’s more likely crews would just be a type of supply item.

There is a budget and to keep the budget in the green it’s more likely you would scrap costly maintenance on obsoletes.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Skeksis

[madham82]

5 minutes ago, Skeksis said:

Yeah these things would happen in RL but crew training ships in the campaign not so much. We don’t know of cause but crews as whole bodies of men for transfers carrying their skills with them is unlikely, captains yes. It’s more likely crews would just be a type of supply item.

There’s is a budget and to keep the budget in the green it’s more likely you would scrap costly maintain on obsoletes.

Yep agreed. 

[Wowzery]

Lots of hulls to look at when the patch is finally released.  Some new things to build for the YT channel.