Core Patch 1.0 News *The upcoming changelog*

[Nick Thomadis]

Hello everyone,

The work for the next major update continues. We would like to offer you the changelog that mentions all the new features of the upcoming Core Patch. The campaign version of the game has been remade from scratch, replacing fully the test version which was partially working internally for some time. Despite working almost solely for the campaign, the game has been improved further with new very important features and has been polished in several aspects. You can read below everything that has been readied so far.

*==============================*
*Core Patch 1*
*==============================*

The very first version of the Campaign
The following information describes in a few words the first playable campaign. It may have a limited functionality, but it should be fully playable and enjoyable. It presents the following main aspects:

• The campaign involves only two Major Nations: *Britain* and *Germany*. You can select and play both of them in different starting years spanning from 1890 to 1940 which you unlock as you win campaigns (in the first build you will be allowed to unlock years up to 1910). The different starting years do not feature different historical map conditions but only represent the respective technology era, in which you can quickly jump in. 
   
• There is currently no peacetime and no diplomacy & alliance mechanics. Your goal is to survive and beat your opponent in an endless brawl against the rival nation.
   
• The economy is working at a minimum level due to the limited nature of the first campaign version. So, for example, economic growth or other related financial factors are not yet simulated. There are, though, various decisions which you have to take regarding the shipyard development, crew training, technology funds and transport capacity, which are detrimental for financing and continuing the war.
   
• The technology mechanics are not finalized but they work sufficiently for the most important aspects. The technology advancements would matter more during peacetime while you prepare for war, so now they are gained in a rather fast manner, aiding more distinctively the nation which chooses to invest funds for gaining a  technological advantage.
   
• The Map is limited graphically and in functionality, while the ship movement mechanics are disabled. However, a mission generation system will assess various strategic aspects, data from your active ships and their sea control orders, and will automatically create battles in the various sea regions. Some battles can be avoided, for example defending a small convoy against enemy ships and this would only cost you the loss of some transports - if you choose to not risk your valuable ships. But some key battles will require you to take a mandatory action.

This first version of the campaign is provided as a stable test version for you, while we continue to develop it. We will very much appreciate your feedback and suggestions not only for the current working state of the campaign but for the future features you would like to see. Most work for this patch was allocated for the special functions of the campaign, but there are several new improvements which you can read below.

9x NEW HULLS

• The Japanese “Mogami-class Heavy Cruiser" is the new detailed ship model of the game. You can find the new hull for Japan after 1930 with a displacement between 10,400 tons and 16,600 tons with the name “Heavy Cruiser III”.
• New Japanese “Heavy Cruiser IV” especially suited for torpedo armament that is available after 1930 and has a displacement between 13,400 and 18,600 tons.
• New Japanese “Modern Light Cruiser II” available after 1930 with a displacement between 10,200 and 13,600 tons.
• New Japanese “Scout Cruiser”, a light cruiser which is especially stealthy and fast, available after 1930 with a displacement between 9,000 and 11,600 tons.
• New Japanese “Heavy Scout Cruiser”, a heavy cruiser which is particularly effective in distant fighting is available after 1930 and has a displacement between 10,600 and 13,600 tons. 
• New Japanese “Experimental Cruiser” which is essentially a small battlecruiser with a displacement between 24,000 and 27,600 tons that is exceptionally stealthy and fast. This hull is available after 1935.
• New German “Modern Battleship I” which is a smaller variant of the Bismarck-class having a displacement between 42,500 and 54,500 tons and is available after 1927.
• New USA “Modernized Dreadnought” based on the famous California-class that was rebuilt in the 1940s. It has a displacement spanning from 34,500 and 38,500 tons and is available after 1927.
• New French “Experimental Battleship” a hull that is better suited for a fast battleship is available after 1929 and has a displacement between 45,500 and 67,500 tons.

*Additionally:*  Many new ship parts became available in previous hulls, following the new progression system of the campaign.

NEW FEATURES

• New AI personalities: Adopting the new campaign mechanics, the AI opponent fleets now behave differently according to the nation. Some nations are very aggressive, others are balanced, and others especially cautious. All the AI personalities are now using a more effective system to decide when, how and at which distance to attack, due to the new AI which received an overall improvement.
• New After-Battle Statistics: Now you are able to examine detailed battle statistics for any ship that participated in a battle.
• New Steering gear component: You are now able to choose between various different steering options which affect the ship maneuverability. 
• More engine components enriching the available technology tree: Multiple Expansion Steam Engine II, Turbo Electric Drive, Gas Turbines are the new engine types. Due to having now the option of a Turbo Electric Drive system, the respective previous Aux systems were rebalanced and renamed.
• New improved weight/offset mechanics: The new system allows the design of ships with cross deck guns and no side weight offset (previously it was impossible to have cross deck guns without instability problems). Another noticeable improvement is that you can find a perfect weight balance, if you use the CTRL while moving ship objects (previously this could be achieved much harder and sometimes it was impossible). 

BALANCES & GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Various ship weight balances, especially in armor and engine aspects, allowing to make more realistic ship designs.
• Ship rotation mechanics are adjusted so that ships have realistic turning rates at all situations. You should notice ships to turn more naturally according to their weight and length.
• Smoke interference became more significant in earlier technology years and depended more on fuel type and engines.
• Overpenetration mechanics adjustments cause now more frequent overpens on small or lightly armored  ships.
• Rescaled some small guns of the Pre-Dreadnought, Dreadnought era. They now match better to their caliber size.
• Initial deployment of ships became improved so that BB and BC types are always placed into battle lines that cannot merge with each other (previously some battle lines could be too close to each other creating inevitable ship collisions.
• Ships no longer automatically lose speed according to formation spread. This was helping them to maintain the formation but players usually removed the ships from formation to achieve the top speed. Now the ships will still be effective overall in keeping the formation but you will have to adjust their speed if they lose cohesion.
• Added in Battle Statistics damage details for ramming.
• Increased Naval Academy funds by about +15% as compensation for the money needs of the latest components and features.

AI

• The AI, as mentioned already, has received a significant improvement. You will notice AI to become more aggressive when it clearly has the advantage. For example, if the AI notices that your Destroyers are out of torpedoes, then it will stop behaving defensively and will close in to destroy them. Another noticeable improvement is that it generally keeps a more effective firing distance and maneuvers more sharply and promptly, trying to adapt to player actions.
• Optimized the Auto-Design system. Ships of the AI should be generated in much less time and be much more effective according to their technology generation.
• Division AI logic improved in general, to be more responsive and help to maintain the formation.

BUGS & OTHER FIXES

• Fixed various minor issues of the Graphical Interface.
• Fixed collider issues of some Russian guns, which made them overlap with other guns.
• Fixed bug that caused the showing of wrong information of min/max armor value in ship details info.
• Fixed issue with a few funnels not fitting in some hulls.
• Fixed issues with the shell dispersion mechanics which could make shell shots fall at much wider range than they should at close distances. Now you will notice much more realistic shell trajectories at all ranges.
• Various small fixes to some hulls.

GRAPHICS & OPTIONS

• The Ship Designer interface became improved by organizing the various parts into scrollable windows. Previously the excessive number of parts could overload the interface or become very small due to downscaling.
• Battle FPS performance became improved due to the AI code optimization.
• Fixed some issues that could cause lag in the design interface. 

Note: Due to all the new changes and improvements, your saved designs in Naval Academy will not work.

The patch is almost ready to release. We are narrowing down the last bug fixes and finishing the progression of the many new ship parts (various Towers and Funnels) which will be all available in Custom Battles and Naval Academy but will gradually unlock in campaign as new technologies are researched. Within the week we will inform you again about when we are going to release the patch.

Thank you for reading!

The Game-Labs Team

PS. Since a lot of players ask us, we are working constantly for new ship 3D models and more ships of the pre-dreadnought era. The next main models will be based on French battleships and cruisers of the 1890s and 1900s.

[Tycondero]

Great news Nick Thomadis! Really looking out for testing the campaign and thank you for informing us about it.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Tycondero

[Cptbarney]

Mandatory people calling:

@Stormnet @Aceituna @CapnAvont1015 @1MajorKoenig @Skeksis @DougToss @Airzerg @Bluishdoor76 @HusariuS @Marshall99 @Steeltrap @Commander Reed @Redletter45 @Cpt.Hissy @AdmER @Davy_Jones @Gangut @IronKaputt @Koogus @T_the_ferret @BuckleUpBones @o Barão @Schirüno 

Also soz if i forget anyone, but im not sure whos even still going to the forum at this point so eh.

Also noice too see this, peeps were and myself going mad in the forums as you probs have noticed lol.

cheers! 'w'/

[Cptbarney]

@ShikiSaw the japanese boags and thought of you.

[T_the_ferret]

Is that... is that all? Is this a joke? 

This is what we waited a year for? A barebone campaign? Two nations, no diplomacy, no peacetime, barebone economics, non-final technology system and basically no ship movement with a limited map? 

No excuses, no info on future content, no info on the other core patches, and this update isn't even a complete one? 

How can you call this the core update with definitive content if you keep mentioning its all in early stage with most of it disabled/incomplete/not integrated?

You can't even tell us when you'll release it too? 

I'm sorry but this is basically a slap to the face. I know people will say "we got what we wanted" but no, this is nowhere near what we wanted. This isn't communication, this isn't talking, its just a statement of how they didn't even deliver the first core patch fully. 

I was so excited seeing we got the core patch news, i thought we'd get a team statement about the future and how it'll look, what will happen next and how they'll move forward. But this is just... the exact same thing, and in a month we'll have the exact same result we had ten minutes ago before this announcement was posted

I really am sorry, but you didn't learn anything from what we kept talking about on the forums. This is disappointing

[Tycondero]

@T_the_ferret Stay calm Ferret. At least he has posted info on this. You are very concerned about this project, so am I. Effectively we should have been at this stage like half a year ago. However, game development is sometimes a slow process, especially when it is sort of live. 

[T_the_ferret]

I know its a slow process, i have absolutely no problem with this. What i have a problem with is communication being null, and even moreso the devs outright ignoring us specifically and giving us nothing. Of course he's posted info in this, this was planned. Nothing we said matter, because it was planned to be shown today, with nothing being given concerning the other core patches or the lack of communication.

I don't even ask for much. I ask for the smallest sliver of info from the devs in a post once a week, or once a month, or whenever how many time in a month. I just ask that the community managers and marketing people do their job

[Nick Thomadis]

On 11/14/2021 at 4:37 PM, T_the_ferret said:

I know its a slow process, i have absolutely no problem with this. What i have a problem with is communication being null, and even moreso the devs outright ignoring us specifically and giving us nothing. Of course he's posted info in this, this was planned. Nothing we said matter, because it was planned to be shown today, with nothing being given concerning the other core patches or the lack of communication.

I don't even ask for much. I ask for the smallest sliver of info from the devs in a post once a week, or once a month, or whenever how many time in a month. I just ask that the community managers and marketing people do their job

It might have been a neglected process from our side to update the plan which we have announced here:

But if you notice what we promised and what is going to be given within the year is literally 3 core patches into one. If we had delivered Core Patch 1 in September/October it would be having unwanted bugs and you would all argue about the game's stability and quality. Instead, we decided to give a large update with Custom Battles Saves and a whole lot of new features so that you have a good working game, until we finalize the campaign with as many features as possible and without the stress of providing patch after patch to fix all the minor bugs.

I suggest you and others calm down and keep your strength for any future criticism until we release the patch. Then you can review what we will give and maybe aid us with your critique to improve further. 

[T_the_ferret]

Ah, we are so honored and blessed for you, Administrator, to forgive us for our misdeeds and errand ways.

We have already given you plenty criticism, but it doesn't address specifically what you want us to address, so you dismiss it out of hand as we are simply "toxic and aggressive forum members". 

This is what you nurtured, whether you like it or not. Earning forgiveness from us is extremely easy, we simply ask for the team to communicate more. Hell, everyone i've talked to here has stated multiple time all we need is a very small weekly/monthly update, including Stealth17.

But you know what, the occasional lack of professionalism, communication and respect of some team members, including you now, is forgiven, because it is a thing nowaday for studios to ignore their playerbase.

I suggest you and others take a moment to reflect on all this until we play this patch and provide feedback. Then you can review your plans and maybe aid us by talking with us so we can both improve further

Edited November 14, 2021 by T_the_ferret

[Airzerg]

Are you kidding me?! Again, not a single ship hull for 1890-1920 ???😡

[Cpt.Hissy]

Umm... well.
Am looking at it optimistically, and what i see is the team works at it in the order they've chosen, slowly but steadily. While completely ignoring any important feedback.
They don't care what we players want this game to be. They decided at what it will be and only want us to bug test the concrete implementations.
And this "patch" is desperate attempt to apply duck tape to a ship that's burning and sinking after being nuked. aka shut those toxic idiots up.

Some more superbattleships and modern hulls, that clearly were part of already planned batch. Piece of the campaign mechanics that happens to be ready by this moment. Some traditional number shuffling. Some improvements here and there.
Nothing on making ship designer worth having. Nothing about just outright broken formationkeeping logic. Still supporting the arcadey mechanic of all-knowing strategic AI. Nothing even to address that stupid issue with floating UI elements going offscreen in all places.
I perfectly understand that most of these things are not easy to do, but the moment you sell something, you take responsibility of delivering it regardless of how hard it is. At least supposed to in normal world.

Optimistic part in this, they are working and we will get a completed game eventually, and it perhaps will be decent one.
Won't be what we paid for though. What we have done in game currently, is what will stay, it may only be tweaked but not rebuilt. Sad.
And there still will be zero communication going forward.

Let's wait and see where it goes. They can do good games it seems (haven't played them though)
Thanks for ping Barney.

[Gangut]

Cheers @Cptbarney for tagging me.

This looks at least promising given I've been away for a while, busy with college and other stuff. Though last week I lurked through forum to see what drama I missed. In terms of features for future patches I think an overhaul of the naval academy is required as from what I remember it tends to focus on building specific ships for specific tasks i.e the super battleships to take on an entire fleet type, which in the campaign just wouldn't happen unless you really really have the resources for it. In effect I see the naval acadmy in the same way as the ksp tutorial, in that it should teach the player the scenarios you would encounter in the main game. After playing Sprocket and seeing how the ai builds ships in this game I think having a generic blueprint to work off of, such as Mikasa, Dreadnought, etc would solve some of the weird designs, or atleast having the option to enable the feature would help in a historical campaign mode.

[Zuikaku]

Hey, @Nick Thomadis but why did you choose to do Germany vs. Britain campaign for start? Seems that you somewhat overstretched yourself by doing this. Wouldn't be much more easier if you did Italy vs. Austro-Hungary campaign limited to just Adriatic without the need to do the whole world map? 

And hope you won't forgot torpedo boats. I mean the late ones like Elcos, MAS or Schnellboats.

[Commander Reed]

Wow! I'm surprised! It's about time!

[SonicB]

1 hour ago, Nick Thomadis said:

For example, if the AI notices that your Destroyers are out of torpedoes, then it will stop behaving defensively and will close in to destroy them.

Okay, so in general, these patch notes look great (especially designer tweaks) BUT... this seems pretty meta-gamey to me. There is about as much reason for the AI to magically know your destroyers' ammo state as for us to know theirs, especially if we are carrying persistent ammo stocks between engagements in campaign mode.

(Of course, it makes much MORE sense if the vast majority of ships had no in-combat torpedo reloading, as per real life. Just saying.)

[SPANISH_AVENGER]

Oh, hello there!

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one, in the right time. Nice!!!

EDIT: I just read the whole post, all I can say is I am looking forward to it and so glad to hear from you and the game's development at last!

Edited November 14, 2021 by SPANISH_AVENGER

[Commander Reed]

Reading through it, I'm a bit surprised it can be considered core patch 1 considering it's supposed to be unfinished. Perhaps those .5 increments will be a thing? Hell, maybe even .1 or .2 who knows.

Anyhow, I'm very excited for this patch, it's about time we got the campaign, Custom Battles are fun, but the naval academy was kinda meh. Looking forward to it!

Also: NEW COMPONENTS! LOVE IT!

[madham82]

First off, thank you Nick and team for the hard work that has been done. There's a lot in this update, and not just campaign which I am glad to see.

I do have a serious question, how exactly is a hull "stealthy"? More specifically how are ships stealthy in this timeframe? Today that term is only used for ships that have design elements that reduce radar or infrared cross section. Of course that doesn't apply to this time period because ships were primarily sighted due to pumping out huge rising plumes of coal or fuel smoke that is visible well before the actual ship can be sighted on the horizon. So help me understand what you are implying here, and what it is trying to replicate in terms of realism. 

 

9 minutes ago, SonicB said:

Okay, so in general, these patch notes look great (especially designer tweaks) BUT... this seems pretty meta-gamey to me. There is about as much reason for the AI to magically know your destroyers' ammo state as for us to know theirs, especially if we are carrying persistent ammo stocks between engagements in campaign mode.

(Of course, it makes much MORE sense if the vast majority of ships had no in-combat torpedo reloading, as per real life. Just saying.)

I'm with you here. When I read that I immediately thought of a counter, keep my ships from firing all their torpedoes. This shouldn't exist and needs to be yanked along with the ability to see the AI's ammo counts, or at least make it part of the realism/difficulty settings. 

Alternately we could have the AI react to the lack of torpedoes spotted over X timeframe (despite being in range) to change tactics. 

[Werwaz]

UPDATE.EXE FOUND

'tis about time 

thanks for the update

[Werwaz]

2 hours ago, Nick Thomadis said:

Hello everyone,

The work for the next major update continues. We would like to offer you the changelog that mentions all the new features of the upcoming Core Patch. The campaign version of the game has been remade from scratch, replacing fully the test version which was partially working internally for some time. Despite working almost solely for the campaign, the game has been improved further with new very important features and has been polished in several aspects. You can read below everything that has been readied so far.

*==============================*
*Core Patch 1*
*==============================*

The very first version of the Campaign
The following information describes in a few words the first playable campaign. It may have a limited functionality, but it should be fully playable and enjoyable. It presents the following main aspects:

• The campaign involves only two Major Nations: *Britain* and *Germany*. You can select and play both of them in different starting years spanning from 1890 to 1940 which you unlock as you win campaigns. The different starting years do not feature different historical map conditions but only represent the respective technology era, in which you can quickly jump in. 
   
• There is currently no peacetime and no diplomacy & alliance mechanics. Your goal is to survive and beat your opponent in an endless brawl against the rival nation.
   
• The economy is working at a minimum level due to the limited nature of the first campaign version. So, for example, economic growth or other related financial factors are not yet simulated. There are, though, various decisions which you have to take regarding the shipyard development, crew training, technology funds and transport capacity, which are detrimental for financing and continuing the war.
   
• The technology mechanics are not finalized but they work sufficiently for the most important aspects. The technology advancements would matter more during peacetime while you prepare for war, so now they are gained in a rather fast manner, aiding more distinctively the nation which chooses to invest funds for gaining a  technological advantage.
   
• The Map is limited graphically and in functionality, while the ship movement mechanics are disabled. However, a mission generation system will assess various strategic aspects, data from your active ships and their sea control orders, and will automatically create battles in the various sea regions. Some battles can be avoided, for example defending a small convoy against enemy ships and this would only cost you the loss of some transports - if you choose to not risk your valuable ships. But some key battles will require you to take a mandatory action.

This first version of the campaign is provided as a stable test version for you, while we continue to develop it. We will very much appreciate your feedback and suggestions not only for the current working state of the campaign but for the future features you would like to see. Most work for this patch was allocated for the special functions of the campaign, but there are several new improvements which you can read below.

9x NEW HULLS

• The Japanese “Mogami-class Heavy Cruiser is the new detailed ship model of the game. You can find the new hull for Japan after 1930 with a displacement between 10,400 tons and 16,600 tons with the name “Heavy Cruiser III”.
• New Japanese “Heavy Cruiser IV” especially suited for torpedo armament that is available after 1930 and has a displacement between 13,400 and 18,600 tons.
• New Japanese “Modern Light Cruiser II” available after 1930 with a displacement between 10,200 and 13,600 tons.
• New Japanese “Scout Cruiser”, a light cruiser which is especially stealthy and fast, available after 1930 with a displacement between 9,000 and 11,600 tons.
• New Japanese “Heavy Scout Cruiser”, a heavy cruiser which is particularly effective in distant fighting is available after 1930 and has a displacement between 10,600 and 13,600 tons. 
• New Japanese “Experimental Cruiser” which is essentially a small battlecruiser with a displacement between 24,000 and 27,600 tons that is exceptionally stealthy and fast. This hull is available after 1935.
• New German “Modern Battleship I” which is a smaller variant of the Bismarck-class having a displacement between 42,500 and 54,500 tons and is available after 1927.
• New USA “Modernized Dreadnought” based on the famous California-class that was rebuilt in the 1940s. It has a displacement spanning from 34,500 and 38,500 tons and is available after 1927.
• New French “Experimental Battleship” a hull that is better suited for a fast battleship is available after 1929 and has a displacement between 45,500 and 67,500 tons.

*Additionally:*  Many new ship parts became available in previous hulls, following the new progression system of the campaign.

NEW FEATURES

• New AI personalities: Adopting the new campaign mechanics, the AI opponent fleets now behave differently according to the nation. Some nations are very aggressive, others are balanced, and others especially cautious. All the AI personalities are now using a more effective system to decide when, how and at which distance to attack, due to the new AI which received an overall improvement.
• New After-Battle Statistics: Now you are able to examine detailed battle statistics for any ship that participated in a battle.
• New Steering gear component: You are now able to choose between various different steering options which affect the ship maneuverability. 
• More engine components enriching the available technology tree: Multiple Expansion Steam Engine II, Turbo Electric Drive, Gas Turbines are the new engine types. Due to having now the option of a Turbo Electric Drive system, the respective previous Aux systems were rebalanced and renamed.
• New improved weight/offset mechanics: The new system allows the design of ships with cross deck guns and no side weight offset (previously it was impossible to have cross deck guns without instability problems). Another noticeable improvement is that you can find a perfect weight balance, if you use the CTRL while moving ship objects (previously this could be achieved much harder and sometimes it was impossible). 

BALANCES & GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Various ship weight balances, especially in armor and engine aspects, allowing to make more realistic ship designs.
• Ship rotation mechanics adjusted so that ships have realistic turning rates at all situations. You should notice ships to turn more naturally according to their weight and length.
• Smoke interference became more significant in earlier technology years and depended more on fuel type and engines.
• Overpenetration mechanics adjustments cause now more frequent overpens on small or lightly armored  ships.
• Rescaled some small guns of the Pre-Dreadnought, Dreadnought era. They now match better to their caliber size.
• Initial deployment of ships became improved so that BB and BC types are always placed into battle lines that cannot merge with each other (previously some battle lines could be too close to each other creating inevitable ship collisions.
• Ships no longer automatically lose speed according to formation spread. This was helping them to maintain the formation but players usually removed the ships from formation to achieve the top speed. Now the ships will still be effective overall in keeping the formation but you will have to adjust their speed if they lose cohesion.
• Added in Battle Statistics damage details for ramming.

AI

• The AI, as mentioned already, has received a significant improvement. You will notice AI to become more aggressive when it clearly has the advantage. For example, if the AI notices that your Destroyers are out of torpedoes, then it will stop behaving defensively and will close in to destroy them. Another noticeable improvement is that it generally keeps a more effective firing distance and maneuvers more sharply and promptly, trying to adapt to player actions.
• Optimized the Auto-Design system. Ships of the AI should be generated in much less time and be much more effective according to their technology generation.
• Division AI logic improved in general, to be more responsive and help to maintain the formation.

BUGS & OTHER FIXES

• Fixed various minor issues of the Graphical Interface.
• Fixed collider issues of some Russian guns, which made them overlap with other guns.
• Fixed bug that caused the showing of wrong information of min/max armor value in ship details info.
• Fixed issue with a few funnels not fitting in some hulls.
• Fixed issues with the shell dispersion mechanics which could make shell shots fall at much wider range than they should at close distances. Now you will notice much more realistic shell trajectories at all ranges.
• Various small fixes to some hulls.

GRAPHICS & OPTIONS

• The Ship Designer interface became improved by organizing the various parts into scrollable windows. Previously the excessive number of parts could overload the interface or become very small due to downscaling.
• Battle FPS performance became improved due to the AI code optimization.
• Fixed some issues that could cause lag in the design interface. 

Note: Due to all the new changes and improvements, your saved designs in Naval Academy will not work.

The patch is almost ready to release. We are narrowing down the last bug fixes and finishing the progression of the many new ship parts (various Towers and Funnels) which will be all available in Custom Battles and Naval Academy but will gradually unlock in campaign as new technologies are researched. Within the week we will inform you again about when we are going to release the patch.

Thank you for reading!

The Game-Labs Team

PS. Since a lot of players ask us, we are working constantly for new ship 3D models and more ships of the pre-dreadnought era. The next main models will be based on French battleships and cruisers of the 1890s and 1900s.

I was hoping for a Tillman...

but the modernized dreadnought is appreciated, though it could be substantially bigger (up to maybe 65k tons?)

[Cptbarney]

23 minutes ago, madham82 said:

First off, thank you Nick and team for the hard work that has been done. There's a lot in this update, and not just campaign which I am glad to see.

I do have a serious question, how exactly is a hull "stealthy"? More specifically how are ships stealthy in this timeframe? Today that term is only used for ships that have design elements that reduce radar or infrared cross section. Of course that doesn't apply to this time period because ships were primarily sighted due to pumping out huge rising plumes of coal or fuel smoke that is visible well before the actual ship can be sighted on the horizon. So help me understand what you are implying here, and what it is trying to replicate in terms of realism. 

 

I'm with you here. When I read that I immediately thought of a counter, keep my ships from firing all their torpedoes. This shouldn't exist and needs to be yanked along with the ability to see the AI's ammo counts, or at least make it part of the realism/difficulty settings. 

Alternately we could have the AI react to the lack of torpedoes spotted over X timeframe (despite being in range) to change tactics. 

Could have a time bracket between 2 values so that the AI will randomly pick anything between those values each time making it more inconsistent or consistent. I guess you could have upgrades that make them react faster and more consistently too.

[HistoricalAccuracyMan]

I for one am actually kinda happy that the "preliminary campaign" will be centered on Britain and Germany, not too many games about Naval Combat focus or mention those two navies since the Pacific War is much better known/more famous. Either way...I'm very happy and excited to at least try out the campaign and see how it plays!

[Cptbarney]

Also nice too see miss California finally make an appearance.

 

[CapnAvont1015]

3 hours ago, Nick Thomadis said:

The Japanese “Mogami-class Heavy Cruiser 

It's funny I attempted to build this ship two hours ago and couldn't do it. So I was think I really wish this ship was in the game. My prayers have been answered.

[Skeksis]

3 hours ago, Nick Thomadis said:

AI

• The AI, as mentioned already, has received a significant improvement. You will notice AI to become more aggressive when it clearly has the advantage. For example, if the AI notices that your Destroyers are out of torpedoes, then it will stop behaving defensively and will close in to destroy them. Another noticeable improvement is that it generally keeps a more effective firing distance and maneuvers more sharply and promptly, trying to adapt to player actions.

I especially like how the AI emulates admirals, very humanlike e.g. maintaining optimal range, fighting in formation, retreating when it thinks it’s done for. 

^^ This is another one of those humanlike AIs, since this is what players actually do, wait for the enemy to expend all their torp’s, then move in for the kill.

But I would suggest making the AI active on 5-15% remaining torps, fleet-wide. Even randomize this figure between 1-15%, or set to national trait.

This might have the following effects:

• Player won’t know exactly when the enemy will attack, general unpredictability.
• Negate unused torps sitting on ships in the rear or retreating ships, etc.
• To emulate mistakes, the admiral (AI) thought his opponent had no torps and mistakenly attacked.   

Edited November 14, 2021 by Skeksis