>>>Beta v1.1 Feedback<<< [RC 6]

[Nick Thomadis]

Hello everyone, the first beta version of the next major update is now available for you to play!

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

- Find the game on your Steam Game Library and right click on it:

- Click on properties...

- ... and on the opened window, select from the list the "BETAS" option. On the appearing list, select the "beta branch" to switch to the latest beta version of the game.

- If you want to switch back to the stable live version, repeat the procedure and select from the Beta list "None".

The final v1.1 will include the following:

========================================

–== Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts v1.1 Major Update ==--

MAJOR NEW FEATURES

• Shared Designs: This is a feature we wanted to make from the start, but because it would break many times during the development process, we decided to postpone it until now. You can now design ships in the special “Shared Designs” interface which you can find in the main menu. Those designs are then available for the AI auto-design in campaigns or as shareable ships  in Custom Battles.
  
  With this new system you can create very effective ship designs that the AI opponents may use randomly or always and this can greatly speed up the campaign fleet  generation. The default option is “Selective” which makes the AI use those designs when it fails to produce a valid ship within a few tries. “Always” makes the AI choose those designs in priority. You can also select to not use at all those designs. 
  
  This new feature also allows you to share the designs you make with your friends as each ship is stored in a separate file which you can copy/paste in the “Shared Designs” folder.
   
• Improved Fire Control: Now the ships can effectively target multiple targets from both sides of the ship with the same weapon group. Previously each weapon group, for example secondary guns of 3-inch caliber, could only lock into one target and so if another target was approaching from the other side, the 3-inch guns would switch to this target and stop firing at the previous one, creating a very abusive situation against battleships which could not utilize fully their multiple secondary guns against destroyers that surrounded them. With this new feature, which was one of the oldest and most requested from the players, the fire control should be much more effective and realistic.
   
• Task Force limit: The Task Forces can now have a specific number of ships depending on the commanding level that is researched in campaign. The commanding level increases the maximum crew that can be commanded in a Task Force and is researchable in “Naval Communications”. Basically this new feature does what it was requested for several months, it brings a realistic balance on the amount of ships that can consist of a fleet, preventing the AI and player to mass all ships into a single task force. Additionally it does not allow to create a group of dozens of large battleships and win every AI fleet that comes near. The new limit simulates a realistic aspect of naval warfare that makes a naval task force able to cover a specific area with a limit of ships and the nearby area with another group.

MAJOR CAMPAIGN FEATURES

• New Provinces and different initial settings: The map has been enriched with several new provinces. Additionally, the initial controllers of those provinces are different according to the year you start the campaign, based on historical facts. Austria-Hungary remains as a major nation after 1920 supposing that it was not dissolved fully but it functioned as a buffer state against Italy which was very dissatisfied from her World War I gains. Unrest levels and economy are also varying according to the starting year of the campaign as well as the government.
   
• Government mechanics: Now each nation has a different government depending on historical facts. The base governments are “Absolute Monarchy”, “Constitutional Monarchy” and “Democracy”. Constitutional Monarchy and Democracy have a parliament, elections and five different parties: Nationalists, Right Wing, Center, Left Wing, Communists.
  
  According to the government that rules the nation, different modifiers apply affecting the GDP growth, province income, naval funds, land army power and unrest.  The flags of the Major Nations change depending on their governments, for example, when Nationalists win the elections in Germany, the Nazi flag is used. 
  
  Constitutional Monarchy is a special type of government which filters out the effects of the different parties that win the election every 4 years. Both types of Monarchy are abolished when there is a revolution and democracy becomes established.
   
• New diplomacy options: The player can now interact with the other major nations more by using five different options: Improve Relations, Increase Tension, Cancel Alliance, Peace Treaty, Naval Invasion. Each option becomes available according to the situation. “Improve Relations” and “Increase Tension” appear  for a nation that is not at war with you. “Cancel Alliance” may appear when the nation is allied for more than a year and the alliance is not involved in a war. “Peace Treaty” appears when during war a peace treaty event triggers but negotiations fail. The “Naval Invasion” appears when you place a fleet of more than 100,000 tons in a sea region of an enemy major nation..
  
  All those options except “Naval Invasion” have a chance to succeed as you do not take the decision  but try to influence the government for the respective action and the AI can also use them against you or other nations.
   
• Land Conquering: When a war starts then if the enemies border each other, there is a chance that the strongest nation in the military (According to the size of army, naval force and economy) chooses to initiate a major offensive. You see on the map the attack direction towards the neighboring province and each turn battles occur which may increase the advance for the attacker by a proportion. If the attacker advances 100% towards the defender’s province, the province is immediately conquered. If the advance stalls below 25% for many turns, the defender repels the attacker and the offensive stops. If a peace treaty is signed the value of the province is reduced according to the advance of the attacker and so it can be gained as a war reparation more easily.
   
• Naval Invasions against major nations: As mentioned above, players can fully control when they want to make a naval invasion against a major enemy. All they have to do is mass a large number of Naval Task Forces in the sea region and choose the action “Naval Invasion” in the Politics. In the next turn a “Naval Invasion” mission instance is created where you must place ships inside in order to support the naval invasion. The naval invasion triggers land battles each turn if you have some ships to transfer troops. Eventually, after some turns, the invasion may end in a failure or succeed and the province becomes yours. Naval Invasion can be ordered similarly by AI opponents.
   
• Land Battles and Logistics: Land battles generate losses for any involved side which are reducing the home population. Allied nations (Major or small) will participate in the battles depending on their distance from the battle and their naval power. As battles happen in the defender’s province, the economy of this province becomes damaged accordingly. The Logistics factor greatly affects the efficiency of the armies and is dependent on the transport capacity and naval power of the nation. When a nation loses its naval power, then its land armies become significantly weaker.
   
• Conquering of smaller nations: During peacetime, special events can trigger missions against other smaller nations where your land armies attack automatically or you have to send a fleet to begin a naval invasion with the mechanics described above.
   
• Rebellions: When unrest rises a lot for a major nation then provinces may revolt especially the distant colonies. Your fleet may support the defense in special missions where you must send a fleet in the highlighted radius. Similar rebellions happen for the non-playable nations, for example the Ottoman Empire may lose a lot of her provinces due to rebellions.
   
• Alliance & Ship trade with smaller nations: The smaller nations may sign a special alliance agreement with Major nations which positively affects the economy of the major nation, and allows the trade of warships. The major nation can sell warships to the smaller nations upon their requests. When you accept a sales order then the requested ships are automatically added to the building queue with a payment in advance and the rest of the profit is received when they are completed. 
  
  The sold ships can be ceased if needed during their construction but this can negatively affect the relations with the small nation which may result in the alliance ending. The sold ships are added to the fleet of the small nation and during war they can aid their allies in their vicinity. For example, you or the AI can sell ships to Greece and Greece’s ships will participate in naval battles for her allies.
   
• Shipbuilding capacity: The port capacity of the home provinces affects the size of domestic shipyards and their capability to support the construction of warships. The larger the home port capacity the larger is the shipbuilding capacity of a nation. When the shipbuilding capacity becomes exceeded due to simultaneous building of many ships, then the construction rate decreases resulting in severe production delays and increased construction costs. 
  
  In that case, it is advised to at least suspend the construction of some ships to speed up the building of the rest of the warships.
  
  In a few words, you will no longer be able to build infinite ships of a certain limited tonnage but the production capability will be dependent on the port capacity of your home provinces in a given maximum tonnage. If the port capacity becomes damaged during a war, then you will notice a major deterioration in the shipbuilding capability for your nation for the following years.
   
• Oil resources: The game now simulates the importance of oil resources as they gradually become discovered in the 20th century based on historical facts and random situations. Oil resources boost the economy of the nation that has them in various ways and also affect the fuel dependency of the fleets. If a nation has not a direct access to oil resources then ships with oil fuel are significantly more expensive to maintain and the fuel takes longer to replenish. On the contrary, nations with oil resources that are at a high level depending on the population needs, will notice a significant boost in fuel replenishment rate and the ability of their fleets to operate in distant waters becomes increased.
  
  Oil discovery events notify where oil is found and on the map there is a special icon which highlights the oil production provinces. Barren provinces of the middle east will become very rich and important when oil becomes discovered in their soil. 
   
• (WIP) Canals/Channels finalization: In the previous update we introduced the Kiel canal and its limited functionality. Now all the  major canals and strategic straits are available and will allow passage only to allies. For example, the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits belonging to the Ottoman Empire will not allow trespassing of enemies of a major nation that is allied with. Other major nations may order a naval invasion simulating the Gallipoli campaign in order to seize those straits.

16x NEW HULLS
The famous American Ship “USS Maine” whose destruction was one of the major reasons that caused the Spanish-American war of 1898 is now offered as a detailed model in the game. It is available for the USA as a “Coastal Defense Ship”  from 1890 till 1898 with a displacement between 6,100 and 8,500 tons. In addition, the following new variant hulls of early technology are now available:

• “Turret Ship” for China from 1890 till 1905 with a displacement between 5,500 and 7,500 tons, a ship which resembles the ironclad battleships of the Beiyang Fleet.
• “Experimental Turret Ship” for China from 1890 till 1905 with a displacement between 5,750 and 8,200 tons, a ship which supports many turret guns but is very vulnerable and slow.
• “Coastal Defense Ship” for China from 1890 till 1894 with a displacement between 3,200 and 4,200 tons.
• “Coastal Defense Ship” for Germany and Austria from 1890 till 1894 with a displacement between 3,500 and 4,500 tons.
• “Armored Cruiser II” for Austria from 1890 till 1907 with a displacement between 3,500 and 10,500 tons.
• “Armored Cruiser III” for Austria from 1890 till 1897 with a displacement between 5,000 and 7,500 tons.
• “Turret Cruiser” for Russia and Spain from 1890 till 1907 with a displacement between 5,000 and 7,500 tons.
• “Armored Cruiser II” for Spain from 1890 till 1907 with a displacement between 7,500 and 11,000 tons.
• “Medium Cruiser” for China  from 1896 till 1921 with a displacement between 7,500 and 9,500 tons.
• “Small Torpedo Cruiser” for France and Russia  from 1890 till 1893 with a displacement between 850 and 1,500 tons.
• “Torpedo Cruiser” for Germany, France and Russia  from 1890 till 1893 with a displacement between 1,000 and 2,000 tons.
• “Torpedo Cruiser” for the USA, Britain, Japan, Spain, China and Italy from 1890 till 1893 with a displacement between 1,000 and 2,000 tons.
• “Gunboat” for the USA, Russia and Spain from 1890 till 1893 with a displacement between 1,000 and 2,000 tons.
• “Small Semi-Dreadnought” for China and Spain from 1905 till 1916 with a displacement between 9,500 and 11,500 tons.
• “Small Semi-Dreadnought” for Italy from 1899 till 1908 with a displacement between 12,500 and 15,500 tons.

NEW GUNS
The following different looking guns are added:

• New Mark-1 guns for calibers 2-inch up to 13-inch for the USA.
• New Mark-2 and Mark-3 guns for calibers 2-inch up to 9-inch for the USA.
• New Mark-1 guns for calibers 2-inch up to 13-inch for China.
• New Mark-2 guns for calibers 2-inch up to 9-inch for China.

NEW NAVAL ACADEMY MISSION

• “A different fate”: Design a ship similar to USS Maine and defend against a force of more modern Spanish warships.

*FIXES, BALANCES & MINOR ADDITIONS*

• Fixed several issues which could cause turn lags or crashes in the campaign.
• Fixed problems that could cause too much depletion of ammo / fuel in battles involving submarines.
• Fixed supply of ships being too scarce in large voyages away from ports.
• Fixed minefield damage being too much on some occasions. 
• Reworked tension mechanics to work more subtly.
• Fixed many longstanding issues of the ship formations.
• Fixed some ship targeting issues (mainly with the new Fire Control improvements).
• Overall improvement on Battle AI and Campaign AI.
•  Fixed ship stalling caused by problems of evasion and formation logic.
• Minor fixes on some hulls.
• Added more new parts: funnels/towers for several early tech ships.
• Various other minor fixes, improvements and optimizations. The fixes are in a very long list. Anyone interested can check the beta list of fixes here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/3/3732952742338691344/ 

============================== 

*** GLARING ISSUES***
[FIXED]- The left side guns of the ships are inefficient and often reset their targeting. This is nbr 1 priority bug to fix.
[FIXED] - The bow of some new hulls has corrupted textures.
[FIXED] [POSTPONED]- Canals do not work yet.
- Task Force and Minefield inconsistency may still happen (Sea groups may not interact in their path with other Task Forces or Minefields).
- Minor allies interaction with the fleets is not fully tested. We need to know if minor allies participate in naval battles consistently (they will participate in battles near to their ports)
[FIXED]- Some interface problems in Politics panel.

============================== 

Hotfix Update 1
- Fixed Naval Prestige diminishing without a reason.
- Fixed Crew Pool not growing.

Hotfix Update 2
- Fixed several bugs that created crashes/instability in the campaign.
- Fixed texture problems and other issues of some new hulls.
- Fixed resolution issues in the campaign interface.
- Fixed French Colony Reunion not having a port.
- Fixed Sweden's overloaded army conscription.
- Fixed UI issue not allowing you to select some ports due to sea region label obstruction.
- Finalized UI aid that helps you to find your ships on map (Double click Area/Port in Fleet/Submarines window to zoom into the map location).
- Fixed a ship maneuver logic which could make ships stall while turning.
- Disabled AI rebellion/conquest icons on map. These were temporarily active to help the debugging and they were never assigned wrongly to the human player.
- Partially fixed missions not expiring after a peace treaty with the enemy.

Please have a little patience for the targeting reset problems. As we had mentioned in the feedback thread, this is a known issue of the new fire control feature, and hopefully tomorrow we will have its solution.

Hotfix Update 3
- Repaired Target reset issues and now left side guns can fire efficiently. Manual aiming has been restored. (Fps lag when selecting own ships will be fixed).
- Balances and improvements on the Land Battle mechanics.
- Fixes and improvements on ship movement mechanics.
- Changed some aspects of the World Map (Tibet and Xinjiang will have historical ownership according to campaign start year plus others). A few more changes will follow but later because those changes will break your ongoing saves.
- Replaced Nazi flag with the Weimar flag.
- Fixed bug that did not allow ships to retreat.
- Fixed fully battles not ending after a peace treaty.
- Fixed recurring elections bug.
- Fixed remaining resolution issues of the campaign map UI. (Please report if you find anything more).
- Fixed selection problems in the campaign map when icons where too close to each other.
- Various other minor fixes and improvements.

*Hotfix Update 4*
- Fixed excessive losses in land battles and made them more dynamic. Advance in offensive missions should be changing back and forth according to monthly battle outcomes.
- Fixed bugs that were caused by land battles and could create campaign instability and crashes.
- Slowed down army conscription increase during wartime.
- Balanced further the  oil resources of Russia according to historical facts.
- Fixed manual aiming not being able to reset after destroying a target or losing it in sight.
- Your manual aiming can now be reset with the combination of keys Ctrl + Space (It is also written in the targeting tooltip).
- Fixed some remaining selection issues in the campaign map.
- Fixed further ship movement issues.
- Fixed speed penalty due to low fuel not applying if speed was not adjusted.
- Fixed NAN bugs in the campaign which could make it become unstable and unplayable. Campaigns that got this bug cannot be repaired, they have to be restarted.
- Fixed old error allowing naval academy or custom battles to load without the necessary auto-designed ships, if some of them failed to be auto-designed.
- The dissolved Major Nations can now properly re-emerge if they have at least one controlled province. (Some remaining issues remain under investigation).
- Fixed smaller nations ordering ships without proper constraints according to their port capacity.

Known remaining issues:
- Targeting of ships can still be inefficient, resetting more often than it should.
- Some of the new hulls cannot be hit by torpedoes due to a bug.
- Emerging Major Nations may emerge and dissolve at the same turn and a portion of their previous fleets may be unmanageable for them.

*Update 5*
- Added in the campaign map many new provinces/ports based on historical facts including the enabling  of the Arctic ocean in the gameplay.
- Added important channels and straits in the campaign and finalized their mechanics. Now enemies will not be able to pass through them.
- Fixed remaining large issues with targeting reset. Please check if all is fine now.
- Battle Ai adjustments following the targeting fixes, because the AI was affected negatively from the previous buggy state.
- Further improvements in ship movements and formation mechanics.
- Fixed bugs that caused no advance and many losses in Major Offensives and fine tuned the Land Battle mechanics.
- Fixed war reparations issue which made previously conquered provinces to appear in the list (Needs testing).
- Fixed fully the smaller allies ordering more ships that they can support.
- Various other minor.

***Warning***
Campaign Saves had to be reset due to the new content. Old saves will not work in any way.

*Hotfix Update 6*
- Fixed critical bug which did not allow to play the campaign.
- Improved further the targeting code, and now all should work much better.  

*Hotfix Update 7* 
- Fixed buggy manual rudder.
- Fixed inconsistent saving of ships (Saved ships could become overweight or underweight or invalid). 

*Quickfix Update 8*
- Major offensive mechanics rebalance so that the attackers have more chances to advance.

*Hotfix Update 9*
- Fixed bug that could cause auto-design and campaign instability (crashes, button inactivity. empty opponents in naval academy and custom battles).
- Fixed bug that could cause freeze at the start of a battle due to aiming errors.
- Improved aiming mechanics after the bug fixes.
- Shell dispersion improved so that not so many shells land short of the target but also over it.
- Improved various known formation issues. It remains to improve the way that rear ships follow, because now they can delay and cause formation errors when they rearrange.

*Update 10*
- Fixed many bugs of the campaign that could make it unplayable for various reasons, especially when major nations dissolved and broke into smaller territories. It is advised to start a new campaign to test if a new one is completely free of such issues.
- Fixed Major Offensive bug that prevented losses caused by allies to be calculated.
- Major Offensives can now end promptly if losses are overwhelming for the attacker.
- Fixed bugs of aiming that made aiming to not grow correctly, especially for guns of the left side.
- Fixed various issues that could cause auto-design delays or errors.
- Improved further the shell dispersion mechanics.
- Improved the citadel weight distribution based on recent feedback. Your saved designs may need re-adjustments.
- Fixed probably the last of the crucial formation bugs, causing division speed stalling when a ship got damaged or delay to turns for following ships of the division.

The build should be now close to be a release candidate. Some small updates may come without notes. We hope now the most important bugs have been squashed and the build can be enjoyable for most of you.

*Update 11*
- Fixed reported bugs that caused campaign instability/crashes. Please continue to report to fix the rest.
- Fixed re-emerging nations bugs.
- Fixed naval invasion radius not being always visible.
- Fixed bugs related to naval invasion.
- Improved naval invasion losses mechanics so that it has more chances to succeed.
- Fixed bug that did not allow to calculate correctly the VP after conquering a province. This can help to stop wars sooner. Needs testing.
- Changed the German Nationalists flag to the German Naval War ensign of the 1930s.
- Disabled the Manual rudder because it could cause various formation bugs (we will add back only when we find time to fix those bugs).
- Improved overall the formation system by fixing various known problems. Needs testing. Please understand that you cannot expect to play in fast forward, change the movement direction of all ships at once and always get a consistent result. This cannot be achieved even in reality.
- Fixed ship overturning by fixing some old bugs and updating the ship physics model. which was the main cause of the problem in light and fast ships.
- Repairs in the ship movement arrow which should now work much more smoothly even in fast forward speeds.

*Update 12*
- Continuous fixes on the formation movement lines. The jitter you previously noticed, which was an old bug, should be now fixed, even in fast forward game speed.
- Various campaign bug fixes.
- Fixed bug of shared designs which did not allow consistently all hulls to be built according to year.
- Balanced the maximum army conscription of Major Nations.
- Map pathfinding issues fixed.
- Fixed old bug not calculating in UI correctly the monthly costs for submarines and ships.
- Fixed too large shipyard limit for Italy.
- Various other fixes.

Fixed ships disappearing in campaign map. We are sorry for this very serious bug which temporarily got into the build.

*Update 13*
- Fixed more bugs of the campaign that were reported. If you anticipate a bug when accepting a dialogue ("yes" button) please make an in-game report.
- Fixed pathfinding errors of the campaign. Please notify us if you cannot move ships from one port to another.
- Fixed bugs in war results and VP calculations.
- Fixed bug of army distribution that made it not work accurately.
- Made further improvements in formations and evasion logic.

*Hotfix Update 14*
- Hotfix for formations. Following ships should not cluster. Still it needs work.

*Update 15*
- Fixed more bugs that were reported for the campaign. Please start a new campaign if any of the problems you noticed persist.
- Fixed case of Major Offensives not ending after a peace treaty.
- Fixed issue that could cause auto-design errors when mounting guns in funnel parts.
- Fixed overlapping tooltips in the campaign map.
- Shell dispersion improvements, fixing shells which hit to not be so isolated from the rest.
- Fixed bug that caused technologies to lock priorities assigned to them if everything was researched.
- Slight formations fixes. We will try to fix the most crucial bugs in large formations for this patch.

*Hotfix Update 16*
- Fixed potential bug that could cause ships to stall at zero speed. Please report if you get this bug again, but make sure you receive this update first.
- Campaign AI adjustments to follow all the new mechanics of the map. The Campaign AI should manage finances more effectively and train the crew more consistently.
- Fixed the issue that caused too much offset to the dispersion of shells when the target had a large angular velocity.

*Update 17*
- Several campaign optimizations and bug fixes. Campaign should run smoother. More improvements will follow.
- Fixed  max.shipyard development that was not progressively increasing in output according to technology year.
- Fixed several bugs of governments that caused errors in party percentage calculations and thus not correct governments to win the elections.
- Shell dispersion optimizations.
- Battle AI optimizations.
- Formation optimizations. More work will follow from tomorrow, with a final fix at initial formations.

*Update 18*
- Probably the definite fix for formations, at least for this patch. The ships should keep their distances more effectively overall. We need feedback to understand what more there is needed to fix.
- Fixed old bug that caused division speed to become reduced when a ship detached or became sunk.
- Fixed bug that made low fuel penalty to not apply consistently.
- Fixed saved battles not working. All saved battles have to be deleted, reset.
- Fixed bug that made ships on refit to wrongly participate in battles.
- Fixed problems that caused premature dissolve of Major Nations after losing some provinces. This needs test on a new campaign.
- Fixed Battle AI wanting to retreat too often.
- Fixed "Nome" port appearing at a wrong place on map.
- Further optimizations in targeting and shell dispersion.
- Other minor fixes and improvements.

*Hotfix Update 19*
- Fixed errors that could cause income and army bugged numbers for re-emerging nations. There is a remaining problem to solve, with fleets not properly disbanded when a major nation becomes dissolved.
- Other minor fixes.

*Update 20*
- Fixed aiming bug of the new fire control that made it impossible for auto-targeting to fire with more than one gun group if there were multiple targets. Previously a torpedo boat could approach your ship and only the main guns would target it, while the secondary guns would prefer to fire at distant enemies.
- Overall polish to the targeting mechanics and Battle AI.
- Further formation bug fixes. This version is considered the best we can offer for the upcoming patch, but we will value any report that shows specific remaining problems.
- Fixed issues that caused part placement errors and as a result delays and problems in the auto-design processes. The AI designs should now be in their best shape than all previous versions of the game.
- Fixed some UI problems that were reported.
- Fixed more bugs of the campaign that were reported. A few more are needed to make the campaign stable enough for the release of the patch.

*RC 1*
- Finalized new formation code and fixed all major bugs.
- Targeting / Fire Control further optimizations.
- Auto-Design further optimizations.
- Battle performance optimizations.
- Various campaign UI fixes / optimizations.
- Various campaign bug fixes.
- Campaign calcs optimizations, turns should pass faster.
- Fixed issues that could cause allied ports to not supply the allied fleets.
- Improved Transport Capacity mechanics so that transport capacity upkeep becomes much cheaper when it reaches its limit while it grows faster when it reaches its minimum. In this way nations who invest in transport capacity have real gains after a number of turns (because transport capacity does not cost so much as before)  while there is a better chance to overcome the transport destruction during war(simulating a larger effort to grow the transport fleet in an emergency situation). This change also aids the AI economics in such a way to not cause the AI to collapse economically so easily as before.

The campaigns are advised to be restarted. All shared designs should pass an inspection for inconsistencies or just delete them all (they can cause errors in campaigns if they are invalid).

This build is considered a release candidate. Some minor fixes will follow according to your urgent feedback.

*RC 2*
- Aiming formulas update, so that overall the aiming progress, ladder aiming and accuracy are working as realistically as possible.
- Shell dispersion mechanics optimization, affecting the above.
- False Overweight bug that did not allow designed ships to be used is fixed.
- A few more bug fixes and optimizations.

Reverted new code about overweight ships, which caused problems.

***It is highly advised to stop using old saves as you may report bugs of corrupted saves that cause bugs that are not reproducible in new campaigns.***

*RC 3*
- Fixed bug causing ships to be sent in random ports after a battle.
- Fixed bug happened when you started a new campaign that caused options to change when you pressed the 'settings' button.
- Fixed bug resetting Transport Capacity slider when it was maximized at 200%.
- Other minor issues fixed.
- Increased the importance of ASW in the defense against submarines.
- Initial auto-generated fleets are better balanced according to the campaign's start year.

Please note: There is a very important bug that we need to fix for the campaign which exists also in v1.09.3 version. Ships are not stored accurately in weights, so they can cause invalid designs. We will try to fix this tomorrow.

*RC4*
- Fixed major old bug that corrupted saved designs weight calculations.
- Fixed Naval invasion not altering victory points correctly.
- Fixed crash bug caused when we copied/cloned ship designs.

This can be a release. We will address more reported issues after the release of the patch.

*RC5*
- Addressed error in penetration calculations that made guns of large penetration to deal smaller damage than they should due to not applying the proper mechanics. Needs testing, any more important fixes can come after the release of the patch.

*RC6*
- Fine tuned the dependence of the hull size and overpenetration thresholds (so that large unarmored hulls do not get so often partial pens).
- Fixed an old problem of shell dispersion causing too wide shots at close distance. (Problem solved to a large extent but not fully).
- Fine tuned hull resistance statistic.
- Fixed a hull availability issue for the Italian "Small Semi-Dreadnought".

PLEASE RESTART STEAM TO DOWNLOAD

Please note that when you switch to beta and launch the game, all your previous saves will be reset as they cannot be compatible. Please do not try to use them and report bugs that you will create. Your kind feedback will be appreciated.

[Andvarus]

Testing time

[Werwaz]

1 hour ago, Nick Thomadis said:

Hello everyone, the first beta version of the next major update is now available for you to play!

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

- Find the game on your Steam Game Library and right click on it:

- Click on properties...

- ... and on the opened window, select from the list the "BETAS" option. On the appearing list, select the "beta branch" to switch to the latest beta version of the game.

- If you want to switch back to the stable live version, repeat the procedure and select from the Beta list "None".

The final v1.1 will include the following:

========================================

–== Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts v1.1 Major Update ==--

MAJOR NEW FEATURES

• Shared Designs: This is a feature we wanted to make from the start, but because it would break many times during the development process, we decided to postpone it until now. You can now design ships in the special “Shared Designs” interface which you can find in the main menu. Those designs are then available for the AI auto-design in campaigns or as shareable ships  in Custom Battles.
  
  With this new system you can create very effective ship designs that the AI opponents may use randomly or always and this can greatly speed up the campaign fleet  generation. The default option is “Selective” which makes the AI use those designs when it fails to produce a valid ship within a few tries. “Always” makes the AI choose those designs in priority. You can also select to not use at all those designs. 
  
  This new feature also allows you to share the designs you make with your friends as each ship is stored in a separate file which you can copy/paste in the “Shared Designs” folder.
   
• Improved Fire Control: Now the ships can effectively target multiple targets from both sides of the ship with the same weapon group. Previously each weapon group, for example secondary guns of 3-inch caliber, could only lock into one target and so if another target was approaching from the other side, the 3-inch guns would switch to this target and stop firing at the previous one, creating a very abusive situation against battleships which could not utilize fully their multiple secondary guns against destroyers that surrounded them. With this new feature, which was one of the oldest and most requested from the players, the fire control should be much more effective and realistic.
   
• Task Force limit: The Task Forces can now have a specific number of ships depending on the commanding level that is researched in campaign. The commanding level increases the maximum crew that can be commanded in a Task Force and is researchable in “Naval Communications”. Basically this new feature does what it was requested for several months, it brings a realistic balance on the amount of ships that can consist of a fleet, preventing the AI and player to mass all ships into a single task force. Additionally it does not allow to create a group of dozens of large battleships and win every AI fleet that comes near. The new limit simulates a realistic aspect of naval warfare that makes a naval task force able to cover a specific area with a limit of ships and the nearby area with another group.

MAJOR CAMPAIGN FEATURES

• New Provinces and different initial settings: The map has been enriched with several new provinces. Additionally, the initial controllers of those provinces are different according to the year you start the campaign, based on historical facts. Austria-Hungary remains as a major nation after 1920 supposing that it was not dissolved fully but it functioned as a buffer state against Italy which was very dissatisfied from her World War I gains. Unrest levels and economy are also varying according to the starting year of the campaign as well as the government.
   
• Government mechanics: Now each nation has a different government depending on historical facts. The base governments are “Absolute Monarchy”, “Constitutional Monarchy” and “Democracy”. Constitutional Monarchy and Democracy have a parliament, elections and five different parties: Nationalists, Right Wing, Center, Left Wing, Communists.
  
  According to the government that rules the nation, different modifiers apply affecting the GDP growth, province income, naval funds, land army power and unrest.  The flags of the Major Nations change depending on their governments, for example, when Nationalists win the elections in Germany, the Nazi flag is used. 
  
  Constitutional Monarchy is a special type of government which filters out the effects of the different parties that win the election every 4 years. Both types of Monarchy are abolished when there is a revolution and democracy becomes established.
   
• New diplomacy options: The player can now interact with the other major nations more by using five different options: Improve Relations, Increase Tension, Cancel Alliance, Peace Treaty, Naval Invasion. Each option becomes available according to the situation. “Improve Relations” and “Increase Tension” appear  for a nation that is not at war with you. “Cancel Alliance” may appear when the nation is allied for more than a year and the alliance is not involved in a war. “Peace Treaty” appears when during war a peace treaty event triggers but negotiations fail. The “Naval Invasion” appears when you place a fleet of more than 100,000 tons in a sea region of an enemy major nation..
  
  All those options except “Naval Invasion” have a chance to succeed as you do not take the decision  but try to influence the government for the respective action and the AI can also use them against you or other nations.
   
• Land Conquering: When a war starts then if the enemies border each other, there is a chance that the strongest nation in the military (According to the size of army, naval force and economy) chooses to initiate a major offensive. You see on the map the attack direction towards the neighboring province and each turn battles occur which may increase the advance for the attacker by a proportion. If the attacker advances 100% towards the defender’s province, the province is immediately conquered. If the advance stalls below 25% for many turns, the defender repels the attacker and the offensive stops. If a peace treaty is signed the value of the province is reduced according to the advance of the attacker and so it can be gained as a war reparation more easily.
   
• Naval Invasions against major nations: As mentioned above, players can fully control when they want to make a naval invasion against a major enemy. All they have to do is mass a large number of Naval Task Forces in the sea region and choose the action “Naval Invasion” in the Politics. In the next turn a “Naval Invasion” mission instance is created where you must place ships inside in order to support the naval invasion. The naval invasion triggers land battles each turn if you have some ships to transfer troops. Eventually, after some turns, the invasion may end in a failure or succeed and the province becomes yours. Naval Invasion can be ordered similarly by AI opponents.
   
• Land Battles and Logistics: Land battles generate losses for any involved side which are reducing the home population. Allied nations (Major or small) will participate in the battles depending on their distance from the battle and their naval power. As battles happen in the defender’s province, the economy of this province becomes damaged accordingly. The Logistics factor greatly affects the efficiency of the armies and is dependent on the transport capacity and naval power of the nation. When a nation loses its naval power, then its land armies become significantly weaker.
   
• Conquering of smaller nations: During peacetime, special events can trigger missions against other smaller nations where your land armies attack automatically or you have to send a fleet to begin a naval invasion with the mechanics described above.
   
• Rebellions: When unrest rises a lot for a major nation then provinces may revolt especially the distant colonies. Your fleet may support the defense in special missions where you must send a fleet in the highlighted radius. Similar rebellions happen for the non-playable nations, for example the Ottoman Empire may lose a lot of her provinces due to rebellions.
   
• Alliance & Ship trade with smaller nations: The smaller nations may sign a special alliance agreement with Major nations which positively affects the economy of the major nation, and allows the trade of warships. The major nation can sell warships to the smaller nations upon their requests. When you accept a sales order then the requested ships are automatically added to the building queue with a payment in advance and the rest of the profit is received when they are completed. 
  
  The sold ships can be ceased if needed during their construction but this can negatively affect the relations with the small nation which may result in the alliance ending. The sold ships are added to the fleet of the small nation and during war they can aid their allies in their vicinity. For example, you or the AI can sell ships to Greece and Greece’s ships will participate in naval battles for her allies.
   
• Shipbuilding capacity: The port capacity of the home provinces affects the size of domestic shipyards and their capability to support the construction of warships. The larger the home port capacity the larger is the shipbuilding capacity of a nation. When the shipbuilding capacity becomes exceeded due to simultaneous building of many ships, then the construction rate decreases resulting in severe production delays and increased construction costs. 
  
  In that case, it is advised to at least suspend the construction of some ships to speed up the building of the rest of the warships.
  
  In a few words, you will no longer be able to build infinite ships of a certain limited tonnage but the production capability will be dependent on the port capacity of your home provinces in a given maximum tonnage. If the port capacity becomes damaged during a war, then you will notice a major deterioration in the shipbuilding capability for your nation for the following years.
   
• Oil resources: The game now simulates the importance of oil resources as they gradually become discovered in the 20th century based on historical facts and random situations. Oil resources boost the economy of the nation that has them in various ways and also affect the fuel dependency of the fleets. If a nation has not a direct access to oil resources then ships with oil fuel are significantly more expensive to maintain and the fuel takes longer to replenish. On the contrary, nations with oil resources that are at a high level depending on the population needs, will notice a significant boost in fuel replenishment rate and the ability of their fleets to operate in distant waters becomes increased.
  
  Oil discovery events notify where oil is found and on the map there is a special icon which highlights the oil production provinces. Barren provinces of the middle east will become very rich and important when oil becomes discovered in their soil. 
   
• (WIP) Canals/Channels finalization: In the previous update we introduced the Kiel canal and its limited functionality. Now all the  major canals and strategic straits are available and will allow passage only to allies. For example, the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits belonging to the Ottoman Empire will not allow trespassing of enemies of a major nation that is allied with. Other major nations may order a naval invasion simulating the Gallipoli campaign in order to seize those straits.

16x NEW HULLS
The famous American Ship “USS Maine” whose destruction was one of the major reasons that caused the Spanish-American war of 1898 is now offered as a detailed model in the game. It is available for the USA as a “Coastal Defense Ship”  from 1890 till 1898 with a displacement between 6,100 and 8,500 tons. In addition, the following new variant hulls of early technology are now available:

• “Turret Ship” for China from 1890 till 1905 with a displacement between 5,500 and 7,500 tons, a ship which resembles the ironclad battleships of the Beiyang Fleet.
• “Experimental Turret Ship” for China from 1890 till 1905 with a displacement between 5,750 and 8,200 tons, a ship which supports many turret guns but is very vulnerable and slow.
• “Coastal Defense Ship” for China from 1890 till 1894 with a displacement between 3,200 and 4,200 tons.
• “Coastal Defense Ship” for Germany and Austria from 1890 till 1894 with a displacement between 3,500 and 4,500 tons.
• “Armored Cruiser II” for Austria from 1890 till 1907 with a displacement between 3,500 and 10,500 tons.
• “Armored Cruiser III” for Austria from 1890 till 1897 with a displacement between 5,000 and 7,500 tons.
• “Turret Cruiser” for Russia and Spain from 1890 till 1907 with a displacement between 5,000 and 7,500 tons.
• “Armored Cruiser II” for Spain from 1890 till 1907 with a displacement between 7,500 and 11,000 tons.
• “Medium Cruiser” for China  from 1896 till 1921 with a displacement between 7,500 and 9,500 tons.
• “Small Torpedo Cruiser” for France and Russia  from 1890 till 1893 with a displacement between 850 and 1,500 tons.
• “Torpedo Cruiser” for Germany, France and Russia  from 1890 till 1893 with a displacement between 1,000 and 2,000 tons.
• “Torpedo Cruiser” for the USA, Britain, Japan, Spain, China and Italy from 1890 till 1893 with a displacement between 1,000 and 2,000 tons.
• “Gunboat” for the USA, Russia and Spain from 1890 till 1893 with a displacement between 1,000 and 2,000 tons.
• “Small Semi-Dreadnought” for China and Spain from 1905 till 1916 with a displacement between 9,500 and 11,500 tons.
• “Small Semi-Dreadnought” for Italy from 1899 till 1908 with a displacement between 12,500 and 15,500 tons.

NEW GUNS
The following different looking guns are added:

• New Mark-1 guns for calibers 2-inch up to 13-inch for the USA.
• New Mark-2 and Mark-3 guns for calibers 2-inch up to 9-inch for the USA.
• New Mark-1 guns for calibers 2-inch up to 13-inch for China.
• New Mark-2 guns for calibers 2-inch up to 9-inch for China.

NEW NAVAL ACADEMY MISSION

• “A different fate”: Design a ship similar to USS Maine and defend against a force of more modern Spanish warships.

*FIXES, BALANCES & MINOR ADDITIONS*

• Fixed several issues which could cause turn lags or crashes in the campaign.
• Fixed problems that could cause too much depletion of ammo / fuel in battles involving submarines.
• Fixed supply of ships being too scarce in large voyages away from ports.
• Fixed minefield damage being too much on some occasions. 
• Reworked tension mechanics to work more subtly.
• Fixed some ship targeting issues (mainly with the new Fire Control improvements).
• Overall improvement on Battle AI and Campaign AI.
•  Fixed ship stalling caused by problems of evasion and formation logic.
• Minor fixes on some hulls.
• Added more new parts: funnels/towers for several early tech ships.
• Various other minor fixes, improvements and optimizations.

============================== 

*** GLARING ISSUES***
- The left side guns of the ships are inefficient and often reset their targeting. This is nbr 1 priority bug to fix.
- The bow of some new hulls has corrupted textures.
- Canals do not work yet.
- Task Force and Minefield inconsistency may still happen (Sea groups may not interact in their path with other Task Forces or Minefields).
- Minor allies interaction with the fleets is not fully tested. We need to know if minor allies participate in naval battles consistently (they will participate in battles near to their ports)
- Some interface problems in Politics panel.

============================== 

Please note that when you switch to beta and launch the game, all your previous saves will be reset as they cannot be compatible. Please do not try to use them and report bugs that you will create. Your kind feedback will be appreciated.

this should be fun

I would certainly like if saved designs were not constrained by campaign starting displacements though Nevermind I think I figured out how to get past that now

Edited December 22, 2022 by Werwaz

[UncleAi]

Should be v1.10, not V1.1🤔

[PainKiller]

For a quick test, 200mm guns having hard time firing constantly when 50mm guns are acive is still present. I'm gonna bet that this is going to be true for other combinations as well. 

Also, am i the only one whose ship has problem just sailing in a straigt line? My ship wants to go in a zig zag constantly. AI is not turned on for a start...... Also i use 1 ship here for testing, so it's not trying to avoid anything.....I'm not sure what i'm doing wrong here.

[Cryadis]

Did a short test before nap time (Austria, 1890 normal difficulty start):

Lost the campain about 1 to 1.5 years in due low prestige. Thing is, i noticed i lost prestige each turn, but i could not figure out why and how (no war or anything).

Maybe a bug, maybe i need to check tomorrow when more awake, but leaving that here for now.

 

Oh and something else: CPu usage on worldmap seems to be rather high.

[Suribachi]

Could not help but notice the lack of Rising Sun flag for Japan

EDIT:  nevermind, just does not show in campaign selection screen

Edited December 22, 2022 by Suribachi

[PainKiller]

2 minutes ago, Suribachi said:

Could not help but notice the lack of Rising Sun flag for Japan

Interesting. I started a 1890 japaniese campign, and i had the rising sun flag there.

[Fun Police]

So far, the game seems to hang on the Update Mission phase of every turn. Saving, Exiting, and then Reloading works to progress it.  And like the poster above, I lost in about 3 years to low naval prestige without really doing anything as 1890 germany on the hard campaign.  

[SpardaSon21]

Cannot fit the 6" or 7" turrets on the bow mounts of the new US gunboat due to intersection with the central raised portion, even at maximum beam.  Russian and Spanish 6" and 7" turrets fit though.  The new US and Chinese 5" gun mounts cannot have dedicated barbette armor added until caliber is increased to 5.2".  The fact you don't appear to have coded that in by default for all new 5" guns frustrates me after my several bug reports on it.  The new US 6" and 7" Mark 1 and Mark 2 turrets prevent mounting on hull sides despite US light cruisers mounting 6" guns on the side decks.  The new coastal defense ship hull lacks amidships 6" casemate mounts unlike USS Maine.  For all nations, that hull and the new gunboat hull, and all other hulls that share their layout have their citadel machinery in the middle of the ship instead of below the waterline, causing extreme topweight.

 

Those are just the most glaring designer errors I've noticed so far.

Edited December 22, 2022 by SpardaSon21

[ZorinW]

1. Losing naval prestige every turn for no reason

2. After 23 months the campaign is stuck on "Next turn"

 

EDIT: 4 months later and I am at -100 prestige and the campaign is over

Edited December 22, 2022 by ZorinW

[Suribachi]

1. Main guns do not lock on to the targets I give them.  They defy orders and attack whichever they please.  Target is perfectly in range and in firing arcs.

2. Naval Prestige goes down almost every turn, possibly due to another Neutral nations ships in "home" waters.

3. Attack lines are not distinguished enough to know that they belong to different weapon systems.  May want to explore options for different lines such as default rectangles for main guns, triangles for turreted secondaries and circles for casemates.

4. Helmsman is drunk.  A single BB in a division will zig zag like the formations of 1.09.3.  At least the path he takes is visible in the course guide (green line)

[Fishyfish]

What's up with that Republic of China flag? It looks like a bad PLA Navy flag knock off. 

Other than that, I'm really excited to jump into this! Hulls I've been waiting for since I started playing!

Edited December 22, 2022 by Fishyfish

[Lima]

The total number of bugs is such that I spent 20 minutes on in-game reporting.

Bug in the designer with boilers fixed. Thanks.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Lima

[DieselPower]

Lost a German campaign after about 3 years due to low prestige. It dropped every turn no matter what I did. 

Difficult to improve it when not at war, even using most events to boost it.

[o Barão]

Quick report.

The new campaign features are amazing.

Sadly, the battles are atm unplayable.

Doom fleets are still a thing. Unless this is supposed to be normal.

- The left side guns of the ships are inefficient and often reset their targeting. This is nbr 1 priority bug to fix. This is a major issue. Good to know is the priority nbr1

Ships turning is also a problem.

The new ship models are amazing. Again, the 3D artist is to be congratulated. +1

Edited December 22, 2022 by o Barão

[Schmitty21]

Not playable due to mysterious prestige loss.

[Alnitak]

Always stuck on "Next turn".

[Lima]

As I feared, there are problems with oil in the game. For example, there is no oil in Romania (sad sounds of Austria-Hungary). Japan...yes🙃

So I started for the USSR in 1930, they definitely have a lot of oil. The first thing that caught my eye was an independent Ukraine, while Sakhalin belongs to the USSR (the Japanese are sad).

The second is that the communist "democracy" government is the least stonks.

Or the most stonks...It just works, comrade +11%

[Nick Thomadis]

Hotfix Update 1
- Fixed Naval Prestige diminishing without a reason.
- Fixed Crew Pool not growing.

PLEASE RESTART STEAM TO DOWNLOAD

[Stephensan]

3 minutes ago, Nick Thomadis said:

Hotfix Update 1
- Fixed Naval Prestige diminishing without a reason.
- Fixed Crew Pool not growing.

PLEASE RESTART STEAM TO DOWNLOAD

man you are hot on it.

[Lima]

Something is wrong with the population here

[admiralsnackbar]

"Updating missions" in between turns, never ends. I can fix by returning to main menu and reloading the campaign. 

You cannot reasonably expect the player to return to the main menu in between each turn, after about 4 years into the campaign it goes from like 10% chance of happening to 70% chance of happening. 

Edited December 22, 2022 by admiralsnackbar

[spinaker]

So far, the most important problem for me is the work of artillery. Weapons do not hold the target. The main caliber hits the DD, the medium caliber hits the CA. The fact that the ships behave like drunks - I hope this is a trick, and stability on the course depends on the experience of the crew. The overall impression is that the game has become more interesting, I'm waiting for further edits.

Edited December 22, 2022 by spinaker

[beepboop6]

Allowing the ai to use the ships created in shared ships is a very nice feature. Im presuming further down the line, your intentions would be to enable steam workshop support, enabling users to share and download ships from a wider userbase