Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts News

Hello admirals,

We have deployed a small patch with important improvements. This is the last small patch prior to our next large content update for the game. Please take a look what it includes:

*Patch v99* (14/12/2021)
- Significant AI improvement to be more aggressive and responsive.
- Flooding chance increases further at heavily damaged ships (aids to sink crippled ships faster).
- Shell dispersion improvement to be not so high at close range shots.
- Fixed a collider issue which affected fire arc calculations, created overlaps and auto-design errors.
- Fixed issue of auto-design producing ships with excessive funnels.
- Fixed bug that made Operational Range to become maximum for new designs in Naval Academy and consequently make hull weight too large (In Naval Academy the range cannot be edited).
- Some UI fixes.
- Battle Sound improvement for several impact hits. 

EDIT:
The following small update fixes some problems found. Please update your game clients to receive it.
*Hotfix* (15/12/2021)
- Fixed some hull & funnel errors.
- Removed Maintenance modifiers related with Hull Form, which would create cost imbalance.
- Fixed problem that caused too wide formations. 

Dear admirals, friends, players of our other games,

We are very happy to announce that “Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts” is finally available to buy on the Steam store!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1069660/Ultimate_Admiral_Dreadnoughts/
Thanks to the aid of our backers during the Alpha build development, the game has successfully reached the Core 1.0 version, and now it has significant content which is stable, highly playable and enjoyable.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts includes over 56 Naval Academy missions (we continuously add more) and a custom battle mode to enjoy battles using your designed ships. The revolutionary ship design system -which we also expand in every update- utilizes over 251 hull variants that use over 1155 different ship parts and thousands of different weapons in various sizes and tech levels.

The campaign is currently under development, but it already offers many hours of gameplay. The campaign is going to have 10 playable nations (now it has 2), the map will be expanded to cover the whole world, and all gameplay mechanics related with the campaign will be completed during the Steam Early Access phase. While the game is available in Steam Early Access, we will add more functionalities for the core game, expanding the ship design options and the battle gameplay.

All players may participate with their ideas and feedback so Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts becomes the naval game you always wanted! We deeply thank everyone who has supported us and welcome everyone who is interested in naval warfare to play our game and have real fun with it.

Thank you a lot for following our project!

The Game-Labs Team

PS. The backers of the Alpha-Build (owners of the "Limited Edition" & "Standard Edition") will start receiving their Steam keys from this day and onwards. Please read the related news here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/0/3191360735171280249/

Greetings Admirals,

The next major patch for Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts has just become available! This large update is the precursor of the first campaign version of the game. We decided to release not together with the campaign since it has many new features which owe to be tested solely.

Among the various improvements you have requested and we implemented, there is a whole new Hull line for the Italian Navy, many new ships for the Russian Navy and all the playable nations received the capability to build their own super battleships (Britain, Austro-Hungary, China and Spain now have a special super battleship hull). Additionally, two new detailed base models can reproduce the Littorio-class Battleship for Italy and the Russian Battleship project “Sovetsky Soyuz”.

A Littorio-class variant that you can now build in the game

The new crew mechanics are the next major feature we introduce to the game which will greatly affect the ships’ performance in battle while in campaign they will be a crucial resource for maintaining your fleet in a functional state (Crew is a very important factor for the campaign and will need your extensive testing in the current patch, so that we optimize it).

Other new features include the long anticipated save system for custom battles and Naval Academy and the various new armor zones which will greatly add to the detail and uniqueness of your ship designs.

A Sovetsky-Soyuz variant that is available for the Russian Navy

Please read below about all the improvements we have prepared for you for this patch:

[h2]Core Patch 0.5[/h2]

[h3]NEW FEATURES[/h3]

• New Crew Mechanics: Ships now have crew which you can manage not only in campaign but also in Naval Academy and Custom Battles, affecting your ship design decisions significantly. Crew losses during combat will affect several aspects of ships’ functions, making battles more realistic.
  
• Ship Design Saves: Finally, you can now save your favourite designs in Custom Battles! The system works similarly as for the Naval Academy. You will be able to save and reuse your designs depending on the technology year and the ship types used for the battle.
  
• Battles Saves: You can now save your custom battles or Naval Academy missions at any time during battle gameplay! Load them at your next play session from the special “Load” button found in Custom Battles and Naval Academy.
  
• Design Custom Battle AI: Now you can design not only one type but all the participating ship types for your fleet in Custom Battles. A new interface helps you to browse all available ship types that you want to design prior to the battle.
  
• New “Propellant/Shell Charge” components: The old “Explosives” component which included, temporarily, options both for Propellant and Shell Charge has become split into two new categories named “Propellant” and “Shell Charge”. The new vital characteristics for the shells used in your ship will play a very important role for your designs.
  
• New “Rudder Type” component: Rudders are categorized in three generic settings, “Balanced”, “Semi-Balanced”, “Unbalanced” affecting the maneuverability of your ships.
  
• New Operational Range functionality: Operational Range is now properly measured in Km and is affected by ship design.
  
• New Conning Tower armor: Now the Conning Tower armor is properly depended according to the weight of the main tower. Previously it was only a crude multiplier of weight and thus it was very light in large warships causing excessive free tonnage.
  
• New Superstructure armor: The new armor zone is properly protecting the Towers and Funnels and its weight is included in ship design evaluations (previously the armor for Towers and Funnels was much simpler).
  
• New Belt & Deck armor: The extended Belt/Deck armor zones are split into the corresponding Bow/Stern sections, so that you can edit different armor settings for the front and rear armor protection of the ship.
  
• New detailed Gun armor: Each gun type can now be armored with side and top armor according to its caliber and type. Previously the gun armor system was much more limited, layered differently according to two only different zones for main guns and secondary guns.
  
• Keyboard input values for Displacement and Speed: Now you can alternatively type the desired values instead of using the slider.

New options for the crew became available

The Battle Stations are operated by crew
[h3]18x NEW HULLS[/h3]

• The Italian “Littorio-class Battleship” can now be recreated in a hull base between 45,000 and 75,000 tons for Italy after 1936.
  
• The Russian battleship “Sovetsky Soyuz” that was never completed can now be built with a displacement between 63,000 and 83,000 tons after 1936.
  
• New Italian “Super Battleship” available after 1936 with a displacement between 76,500 and 92,500 tons.
  
• New Russian “Experimental Battlecruiser” which resembles the Stalingrad Battlecruiser. It is available after 1935 and has a displacement between 41,000 and 51,000 tons.
  
• New Italian “Modern Battlecruiser II” available after 1935 with a displacement between 39,500 and 54,500 tons.
  
• New Italian “Large Cruiser II” available after 1929 with a displacement between 32,500 and 42,500 tons.
  
• New Russian “Super Cruiser” available after 1934 with a displacement between 19,000 and 23,000 tons.
  
• New Russian “Heavy Cruiser III” available after 1925 with a displacement between 14,700 and 17,500 tons.
  
• New Italian “Heavy Cruiser ΙΙ” available after 1934 with a displacement between 16,500 and 19,500 tons.
  
• New Italian “Modern Light Cruiser II” available after 1930 with a displacement between 8,000 and 11,000 tons.
  
• New Italian “Compact Light Cruiser” available after 1930 with a displacement between 6,700 and 8,000 tons.
  
• New Italian “Hybrid Destroyer” available after 1936 with a displacement between 3,500 and 4,500 tons.
  
• New Chinese “Super Battleship” available after 1936 with a displacement between 74,500 and 82,500 tons.
  
• New Spanish “Super Battleship” available after 1936 with a displacement between 75,500 and 87,500 tons.
  
• New British “Super Battleship” available after 1936 with a displacement between 80,500 and 92,500 tons.
  
• New Austro-Hungarian “Super Battleship” available after 1936 with a displacement between 89,500 and 101,500 tons.
  
• New Russian “Super Battleship II” available after 1936 with a displacement between 86,000 and 117,000 tons.
  
• New "Small Dreadnought" available between 1906 and 1918 for Germany and Austro-Hungary with a displacement spanning from 18,000 to 20,500 tons.
  
• Additionally: Various new ship parts became available in previous hulls.

The armor became enriched with new options

[h3]NEW GUNS[/h3]

• New Special Italian Guns for 3-inch up to 8-inch caliber ranging from Mark 3 to Mark 5.
  
• New Special Italian Guns for 12-inch up to 20-inch ranging from Mark 1 to Mark 5.
  
• New Special Russian guns for 2-inch up to 8-inch ranging from Mark 3 to Mark 5.
  
• New Special Russian Guns for 9-inch up to 20-inch ranging from Mark 1 to Mark 5.

[h3]BALANCES[/h3]

• Shell Ballistics/Weights/Costs have been rebalanced to support the new Propellant/Shell Charge components.
  
• Belt Armor weight has been increased by about 10% (it could become rather light in the late technology era).
  
• Torpedo Protection now contributes slightly to the Hull Resistance, making it useful not only against torpedoes.
  
• Overpenetration mechanics improved. You should not get excessive overpens against torpedo boats, destroyers and generally unarmored ships.
  
• Fires are extinguished less easily, so they can have more impact on ships.
  
• Various others minor.

Italian Battleship fighting on sea

[h3]AI[/h3]

• Friendly AI division commander has been reworked.
  
• Improved further the AI design system.
  
• Improved further the opponent AI.

[h3]BUGS & OTHER FIXES[/h3]

• Fixed guns that could not rotate during battle. The problem was caused by errors in colliders which allowed guns to be placed very near to the superstructure which blocked their rotation.
  
• Fixed rotation of guns that were mounted on turrets.
  
• Fixed bug that was related with Attach/Detach of divisions.
  
• Repairs in the LOD of the new torpedo models. They could cause, very rarely, the “Too many threads'' error in low-end systems.
  
• Fixed bug that could make early torpedo boats to have 12 inches belt armor in Custom Battles.
  
• Fixes on the availability of German/Italian/Austro-Hungarian cruisers of the 1900s.
  
• Fixed bugs that could cause great delays during the Auto-Design processes.
  
• Fixed a Battle UI issue that showed inactive components still active on the list.
  
• Fixed issue with 17-inch guns of mark 3 that could be researched slower than they should.
  
• Various hull and gun fixes as per feedback.

Custom Battles now allow to design all friendly AI ships

[h3]GRAPHICS & OPTIONS[/h3]

• New settings with more available details for configuring the optimal graphics settings for your system.

We are going to continue improving the campaign version while you enjoy all the new features. Your impressions and ideas on the new crew system, will be utilized to optimize the final campaign patch, which will become available in the coming days.


Thank you for reading! Please share your valuable feedback in our forums:

• Official Forum
• Steam Forum

The Game-Labs Team

[h3]Note[/h3]
There is a known bug of freeze if you click mouse button while waiting to load a battle. If you choose to not terminate but wait for the program to respond, the battle should load successfully. We delayed the patch in order to make this freeze not critical. We will fix fully as soon as possible.

[h3]*Hotfix v88* (19/9/2021 UPDATE)[/h3]
- Fixed major bug of gun armor resetting for saved designs, when trying to apply new gun armor settings.
- Fixed major bug of armor penetration, incorrectly evaluating the armor thickness of guns and causing too many detonations and flash fires.
- Fixed issue with part selection in ship design, that could become overly big and inaccurate.
- Fixed bug that caused keyboard edit of gun armor to use only inches measurement.
- Fixed bugs of Auto-Design which could cause building delays, overweight or overcost ships.
- Reduced about -5% Belt/Deck armor and about 10% the superstructure armor. Designs should now be more consistent with historical values.
- Increased crew damage from penetrating hits +10%.
- Various inconsistencies for hulls and stats fixed according to your feedback.

[h3]*Hotfix v89* (20/9/2021 UPDATE)[/h3]
- Fixed various bugs of auto-design, which were also responsible for freezes while loading battles.
- Fixed gun collider issues. You should be able to mount guns with more flexibility, especially in towers.
- Fixed bug in gun selection when it was placed on a tower.
- Fixes on other minors you reported.

[h3]*Hotfix v90* (30/9/2021 UPDATE)[/h3]
- Refactoring of the Auto-Design code, addressing various issues that could cause errors and delays in the process. Most, if not all, problems regarding freezes, delays, unbuildable ships, should be fixed.
- Improved the overpen mechanics, so now you will be able to see full penetrations on the smallest craft such as the Torpedo Boats.
- Increased the torpedo damage (due to latest changes in ship section density, damage could be small in large warships).
- Fixed bug that caused operational range to become reset when loading a custom battle saved design.
- Fixed bug of custom battle saves which included Transport ships, making them disappear when loaded.
- Fixed some other bugs related to battle saves.
- Some minor UI issues with overlapping buttons in 16:10 resolution have been resolved.
- Fixed bug of Bug reporter not allowing to use the Enter key.
- Fixed bug making graphical settings to reset. This could have been a source of graphical bugs, depending on player’s system.
- Fixed bug on smoke screen becoming available to BB, BC, CA if they were on the same division with DD or CL.
- Minor fixes in some hulls.

Hello all,

A hotfix update has just been deployed. The update improves several aspects of the game according to your feedback. Here is what it includes:

[h3]v86 Hotfix[/h3]

• AI targeting improved further (It could not always switch to targets of higher priority).
  
• AI aggressiveness balance (AI should adapt more rapidly to situations).
  
• Targeting sensitivity adjusted better. This should fix issues of guns that could not acquire a target for a large period of time.
  
• Fixed metric system indications which could not become rounded.
  
• Fire damage slightly increased (it could still be rather low in very big ships).
  
• Flooding protection slightly rebalanced (Small ships could sink too fast, due to latest weight balances, even with max. bulkheads).
  
• Armor weights adjustment (In some cases the armor weight could be too low).
  
• Fixes of various reported bugs related to hulls and guns.
  
• Collision avoidance between friendly ships is further improved.
  
• Optimized further the AI Auto-Design.
  
• Fixed Armored Cruisers not being available for Germany and Austro-Hungary between years 1909-1911.

Thank you for reading,

The Game-Labs Team

Admirals,

The anticipated patch has been finalized and is ready for you to play! Explore the many new hulls, the Ship Design improvements and lots of interesting mechanics. The AI is also significantly improved and is more threatening as an opponent and more reliable as an ally. You can read below about all the new features of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts.

[h2]Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Alpha-12 update[/h2]


NEW HULLS & MODELS 22 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 tons, 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 tons 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 tons
  
• New Russian “Large Cruiser” variant available after 1929 with displacement between 28,000 and 39,000 tons.
  
• New Russian “Modern Light Cruiser” variant available after 1920 with displacement between 6,000 and 9,000 tons.
  
• New Russian Pre-Dreadnought “Battleship V” variant available between the years 1899 and 1906 with displacement between 14,000 and 19,000 tons.
  
• New Chinese Pre-Dreadnought “Battleship III” variant available between the years 1899 and 1906 with displacement between 13,500 and 16,500 tons.
  
• New Japanese Battleship hull variant which can more faithfully recreate the Yamato-class, due to its angled deck.

The Fuso-class battleship can be now recreated

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.

A more advanced variant of the Deutschland-class cruiser in action

SHIP DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS/FIXES

• Torpedo Tubes are now having different models and size according to technology and torpedo dimensions: Previously there was only one Torpedo Tube model for all technology eras. Now you will notice different Torpedo Tube visuals in different technology years and as you switch the “Torpedo Size” component.
  
• 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.
  
• Many New towers and parts became available to various models.

The Component logic is improved, for example the Diesel engines will switch off boilers automatically

AI IMPROVEMENT

• The AI opponent has been significantly improved to be more aggressive and approach nearer to the player when it has the advantage. The AI will still keep safe distance according to estimations of firepower and danger zones.
  
• 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.

Torpedoes now differ in size and model according to technology level

NAVAL ACADEMY
The following 4 missions are included in Naval Academy:

• The "Pocket Battleship": The defeat of the German Empire in World War I brought strict terms in her naval construction programs. The need of packing heavy firepower in smaller hulls resulted in the creation of an armored cruiser with very big guns for its size. The French were allowed by naval treaties to build much larger and heavier warships to match this threat. Your mission is to utilize your limited funds to construct an effective force of armored ships or “pocket battleships” as they are usually known and defeat a rival French battlecruiser which protects a convoy.
  
• Japanese Modernized Dreadnoughts: The Japanese Imperial Navy prolonged the active duty for almost all older dreadnoughts instead of scrapping them. On paper, those ships could be formidable opponents for the most modern battleships. Now you must design and build a force of such modernized dreadnoughts and defeat a much larger and extremely powerful US battleship. This battleship is escorted by a small flotilla of destroyers. Your more numerous fleet is also reinforced with a number of destroyers and cruisers so this fight might be in fact more favourable for our side… or maybe not?
  
• Russian fleet in dilemma: After the fall of the Russian Empire, the new regime had difficulties in raising a fleet powerful enough to correspond with the vast territories of the Russian nation. The Germans are seeking to meet you in the Baltic Sea with a strong fleet. Your current force in the area consists of one modernized dreadnought and a few old destroyers. Your restricted budget allows you to build either a handful of battleships or numerous smaller ships. Will you overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers or will you just create one super battleship which can sink them one by one?
  
• Payback Time: China has emerged from her ashes and now is able to have a potent naval force, not as powerful as Japan’s but enough to be a considerable threat. A squadron of two Japanese battleships and a few escort ships cause tension by violating your waters. The government decided to risk a war against Japan with a surprise attack that would serve as revenge for the defeats of the past. The weather conditions are perfect for an ambush. You can barely match the firepower of the Japanese battleships with your own battleships, so it would be wiser to have more smaller ships to overwhelm them by your numbers.

The new pagoda towers provide unique visuals for many Japanese ships

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.
  
• Fixed bug that could cause funnels to be not allowed in some towers, as being traced wrongly in forward position off the tower.

The new Japanese battleship variant with the angled deck

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.

Fire damage can be now indicated as summary for both sides or in sustained damage per ship

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 are no longer available in late techs (we have now many new hulls to replace them).

A new Chinese pre-dreadnought of unusual size and design

The next scheduled large update is going to include the first version of the campaign. Until then we may offer a small hotfix, but only if one or more game breaking issues are found. Thank you for reading! Please share your feedback in our forums:

• Official Forum
• Steam Forum

The Game-Labs Team