Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts News

Hello fellow admirals,

On December 10 2021 we entered the Steam Early Access. Up to now the development period was both exciting and engaging for us developers and all the players who follow our project. At first the campaign was very limited, featuring only two playable nations and a small map.

During 2022 we did not only focus on enriching the campaign but developed dozens of features that you, the players, requested, making Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnought a very unique game, currently the only one with a so in-depth 3D ship design system, offering a diverse experience, each time you play a campaign or a custom battle.

We had announced on Steam our plans to fully release within about 12 months, and despite all the difficulties we faced as a development studio with several of our members being affected by the war in Ukraine, we managed to accomplish our goal to finalize the main features of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts within the scheduled time frame.

We are finally very glad to announce the next and biggest update so far for Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. The v1.1 update aims to be the base for the full release of the game as we finalized the main content of the campaign, and developed all those we have promised and many more according to the valuable feedback of the players.

The formation system has been revamped and large fleets are much more easily manageable

Now the campaign is fully fleshed with all the necessary components to allow a simulation of historical playout and challenges on different and many gameplay levels. During the beta procedure we managed to fix several bugs, new and very old, so that v1.1 can be truly an upgrade compared to the previous public version. Please read in more detail what the new major update includes.

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.
  
  "Shared Designs are accessed from the main menu
  
  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. 
  
  The "Shared Designs" interface allows to design ships for all nations and technology years, that can be shared in the Campaign and in Custom Battles for AI generated fleets but also to work as templates for Custom Battles
  
  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.
  
  The ship files can be found in the game's save folder and can be shared with friends
  
  
• 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.
  
  The new fire control allows gun groups to target different targets from both sides of the ship
  
  
• 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.
  
  Many new provinces, sea regions and map mechanics are added
  
  
• 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.
  
  The Politics panel became enriched with diplomacy options and various statistical details
  
  
• 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.
  
  Land battles are now happening in various scenarios and army logistics are depended on fleet power
  
  
• 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.
  
  When the total shipbuilding capacity is exceeded the ships under construction/repair/refit have delays
  
  
• 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.
  
   
  The straits/canal mechanics do not allow passage to enemies during war
  
  
• 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.
  

A variant of the new detailed hull model based on USS Maine

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.
  

BALANCES & FIXES

• 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/
  

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By reading the above you may have noticed the sheer amount of new content, therefore, it is expected the game to have a few unresolved minor issues or unrefined details, arguably fewer than other games in full release status but we must address them before fully releasing Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. This is why we cannot yet announce the release date, as we will need some days to polish the game.

After the full release, Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts will continue to be supported for at least 6 months, as we will keep adding even more features, ships, and any necessary fixes. We hope you will enjoy the new update and continue to share with us your valuable feedback and criticism, which so far has helped us enormously in developing this game.

Thank you all for your continuous support! Please keep sharing your feedback in our forums:
Official Forum Steam Forum

The Game-Labs Team

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

Hotfix Update v1.1.1 24/1/2023
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1069660/view/3653016388848313472

Hello all,
Please read what our latest hotfix includes.

*Hotfix v1.09.3*
- Fixed inflated VP numbers caused by various issues.
- Fixed inconsistent 250 VP given sometimes wrongly because of a blockade logic error.
- Fixed bug that caused previously damaged ships to have most or even all engines damaged in next battles.
- Blockades now have a larger impact on economy.
- Improved shell ballistics (previously muzzle velocities could become too low, creating issues in gun elevation and gun range calculations).
- Battle AI improvement in the way it keeps the formation coherence.
- Fix of formation problems which could cause ships to spin or get infinite speed.
- Improved AI friendly fire calculations for torpedoes.
- Improved scale of ship icons on the map.

Enjoy!

The Game Labs Team

Hello all,
We just deployed a new important update. Here is what it includes.

*Hotfix v1.09.2*
- Fixed a critical bug of the campaign, related to submarines, which caused infinite (NAN) Victory Points calculations and permanently damaged them. Please note that old saves which had this problem cannot be cured, so you will have to restart the campaign.
- Fixed other campaign bugs which could freeze the campaign.
- Fixed an old formation problem which was caused when the player multi-detached a lot of ships into separate divisions. In that case the ship orders were corrupted and the ships stalled, creating many problems in formations with many ships.
- Fixed a rare problem which could cause AI to try to move with a speed higher than the max.
- Fixed old campaign problem causing issues of using DD Designs between 850 and 1100 tons.
- Quick addressing of campaign AI being unable to split its very large fleets, as they could not return to ports and form smaller fleets. A full improvement will come in the next major update.
- Balanced aspects of the shell types so that heavier shells are not overpowered. The cost of heavier shells is significantly increasing the gun costs, simulating the increased barrel wear and more complex mechanism to support a bigger shell and a larger charge.
- Shell dispersion adjustments.
- Battle AI adjustments.

Enjoy!

The Game-Labs Team

Hello Admirals,
We managed to push this update sooner than we expected due to latest electricity problems in Kiev. Please note what it includes.

*Hotfix v1.09.1*
- Fixed some major issues that made submarines not interact properly with ports and fleets and not generate missions.
- Fixed issues which caused freezes in the campaign.
- Flaws become further reduced when researching Construction technologies. So in late tech years it should be expected to notice much fewer flaws.
- Battle & Campaign AI balances. The Battle AI should be a more resilient opponent and keep fighting at effective distances, not too far. The Campaign AI should be more efficient in spending its money.
- Formation bug fixes.
- Other minor fixes.

We hope that the most serious problems that you noticed are resolved and you will keep enjoying the game!

The Game-Labs Team

Hello Admirals,
We are very happy to announce the next large patch for Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. The game now includes the full global map and all playable major nations for the campaign. The campaign has been enriched with many new features, including submarines, minefields, the finalization of the main technology tree, and various new aspects which aim to make the gameplay deeper and more realistic. Please read below in detail what v1.09 has to offer.

The new global map covers all regions of earth (Province Borders are not complete)

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MAJOR CAMPAIGN FEATURES

• Full Global Map: The map is expanded in its maximum size scale and it includes the whole world. You will be able to travel with your fleets everywhere and now the strategic importance of Task Forces and other new technologies become a necessity.
  
  
• All Major Nations added: All 10x major Nations become available to play. The previous nations were:
  
  - British Empire
  - French Empire
  - German Empire
  - Italian Empire
  - Austro-Hungarian Empire
  
  and the new are:
  
  - United States
  - Russian Empire
  - Empire of Japan
  - Spanish Empire
  - Chinese Empire
  
  Note: For starters, their initial starting provinces will not differ according to the start year of the campaign.
  
  Various regions of the new map
  
  
• All necessary technology aspects become available: All previous not functional “To-Do” which you were seeing in the technology tree will be now fully operational, and many more. The most important to mention are the following:
  
  Submarines & ASW: The technology tree is enriched with the submarines which you can fully use in the campaign map. ASW new techs will help in the countermeasures against submarines. Fleets with no ASW and light ship escorts will be very vulnerable against submarines.The submarines will only be playable on the campaign map and will execute autoresolved missions against convoys and enemy fleets.Special mine submarines could sink enemies with their mines without engaging them.
  
  Mines: The technology tree includes a full set of mines and minefield options which can be used in the campaign map. DD and CL will have the ability to deploy mines with special components around the ports. Fleets will be able to clean them up faster if they have DD or TB with dedicated minesweeping equipment. Ports that are protected by mines can heavily damage enemies that attempt to close in for Port Strike missions.
  
  Ship Construction Flaws: Only for the campaign, the ships may have various minor or major defects when building them which you can overcome if you invest in construction technologies. Some complex components may increase the chance of defects, so overpowering your ship with the latest technology may result in defective ships if you haven’t invested sufficiently in the ship construction technologies. The “Overweight” and “Underweight” type of defects are permanent, while the extra “Hull Defects”, “Weapon Defects” can be gradually repaired with refits.
  
  New “Recon” rating for ships: The
• Recon* rating represents the reconnaissance capability of the ship, its ability to report enemy movements without being detected, and greatly improves the strategic power of the fleet to gain initiative on offensive missions or get away from trouble before the enemy comes too close. “Recon” is affected mainly by the respective technology as well as spotting, detectability and speed attributes of the ship.
  
  Large and slow ships such as battleships are expected to have a smaller “Recon” rating than small cruisers and destroyers. Radio and Radar equipment greatly increase the reconnaissance capability surpassing inherited disadvantages of larger ships.
  
  Various strategic technologies: Technologies that speed up the crew training, raise the maximum training level without combat, enhance the power projection/invade/protect capabilities or even reinforce transports with more armament (and torpedoes). All in all, the technology aspects have been rebalanced and enriched so that they matter significantly and require careful planning on which one to focus on.
  

The submarines can be built and upgraded but will not participate in 3D battles

Ships of the same class can contain flaws which can be repaired with consecutive refits

EXTRA MAJOR FEATURES

• Updated Shipyard graphics: New graphical improvements for the shipyard, according to the size of the designed ships. These shipyards will fit all ships, even the largest super battleships.
  
  
• Campaign Ammunition: Spending ammunition in combat is no longer free, but has a cost which is added in the fleet maintenance. Ships will gradually regain ammo according to the weight of their requited ammo, the free port capacity and their distance from it. So ships that are in Task Forces must not waste ammunition, especially if they are far away from a large friendly port, as they will be in danger of ammunition shortages.
  
  
• Detailed ship map movement and fuel: Ships travel at sea according to their cruising speed which is dependent from the designed top speed and the engine type (for example, Diesel Engines provide a higher cruising speed). According to their operational range, they spend fuel, in map or during combat (maximizing consumption at full speed).
  
  If they reach a “Low Fuel” state their maintenance becomes more expensive (simulating the necessity to refuel with supply convoys), they slow down the fleet with their lower cruising speed and in combat they cannot use the full engine throttle, so they are severely more vulnerable.
  
  Ships will gradually refuel according to their distance from a friendly port and its free capacity and the refueling cost will be dependent from the designed operational range and its cost. So now, chasing for hours withdrawing enemies may result in excessive fuel costs and shortages which will negatively affect your fleet in the next turns.
  
  Among the various new realistic modifiers, the smoke now affects properly the gun accuracy, according to its source and direction
  
  
• New “Defend” Role: During wartime players can switch to “Defend Port'' when they wish their ships to not participate in any other mission than port strike defense. This was many times asked by players as a way to manage the economy without trying to exploit the mothball options.
  
  
• New “Commission Time”: When ships are constructed or are removed from mothball status, they need some time to become fully operational. Note: This new essential feature replaces the temporary very large “Repair” time when ships returned from mothball status.
  
  
• New “Repair Priority” for ports:Previously all ships in ports received immediate repairs even for minor damages. Additionally, if you moved damaged ships from a task force to a port they would not be repaired unless they participated in a battle and survived. These problems are now addressed by having a “Repair Priority” button which appears when you click to a port which works similarly as for the Task Forces.
  
  
• Detailed Refit Time: After popular player request, the refit time became more detailed, utilizing the amount of objects and tonnage changed on the ship. The refit time shows up during the refit design, so the player is well informed of his design actions.
  Undo Action in Ship Design process: Players can undo a certain number of previous actions if they make a mistake. This new feature is a work in progress and may not be fully working.
  
  New components: Mines, Mine Sweeping Kit, Depth Charges
  
  
• Undo Action in Ship Design process: Players can undo a certain number of previous actions if they make a mistake. This new feature is a work in progress and may not be fully working.
  
  
• Multiple Saves for campaign: A simple way of having different campaign save slots. We will try to include save capability during campaign battles.
  
  
• Engine Vibrations: According to engine type or technologies, the ship may have excessive engine vibrations which negatively affect the ship’s accuracy. By lowering the ship’s throttle, the vibrations become reduced.
  
  
• Shell Splashes accuracy effect: When firing at a target and other guns of your own or friendlies also fire at the target, there is a temporary accuracy penalty, simulating the difficulty to distinguish different splashes of multiple gun calibers. Rangefinders (especially the Radar) and some new techs lessen this negative effect. This new feature also enhances the ships of uniform gun caliber because shell splashes from minor secondaries is very small.
  
  
• Gun recoil accuracy effect: You will now notice a realistic recoil accuracy effect when firing guns which will be significant if your hull is too small for those guns. This effect will dissipate over a short time but can greatly affect ships which are equipped with super velocity guns, too large for the displacement of the hull.
  
  
• Updated ship physics: Ships interact with the waves more realistically. You will notice the acceleration to increase not linearly according to the size of the waves.
  
  
• Engine efficiency is more important: The engine efficiency benefits are enhanced, since the engine efficiency level can increase further to 100%. Ships with low engine efficiency will be drastically slower at sea and have less operational range, making them strategically less important.
  
  
• “Funnel smoke” and “smoke screen” new functionality: Smoke obstruction from funnels no longer causes a permanent accuracy penalty but this penalty is applied according to the direction of the smoke in relation to the target. Furthermore, this smoke obstruction affects other ships which will target with accuracy penalty when their targets are obstructed by the funnel smoke. The same functionality enriches the smoke screen which will now reduce the accuracy for targets that reside behind the smoke screen (not only inside the smoke, as before).
  
  
• Armor plate damage affects shell penetration: As armor plates become damaged their resistance against incoming shells becomes reduced. So you will notice that even the most heavily armored ship can gain weaknesses after a prolonged combat and the hazard of a catastrophic detonation increases significantly when the ship is almost a wreck.
  
  
• Flooding increases according to section damage: Various ship design aspects, crew and amount of damage received affect the flooding effects. Now the ship’s structure integrity affects them further. As a result, ships with increased damage have much difficulty to control flooding and so ships with maximum bulkheads will not feel “invulnerable” and so hard to sink as before.
  
  
• Gun length settings depended on technology: The maximum gun length caliber is now researchable in “Turret Mechanisms” (and can be increased a little further than before), simulating the needed metallurgy developments to allow durable large caliber naval rifles which previously were unrealistically available too early in the technology era.
  
  
• (POSTPONED for the next update) - New hulls: The USS Maine (1889) and several ship variants of early technology will enrich the roster of available hulls.
  

The expanded dockyard graphics can fit the largest super battleship

BALANCES / FIXES

• Battle AI improvements to follow the new changes.
  
• Auto-Design improvements to follow the new features. It should also now not produce ships with zero superstructure armor (unless it produces a very special rare armor layout).
  
• Various balances in ship weights.
  
• HE armor penetration capacity is reduced. Overpowered large caliber HE shells should not exist anymore.
  
• Shell ballistics improvements affecting penetration mechanics. Shell dispersion should be noticeably improved.
  
• Various balances in many components and techs.
  
• Fixes of various campaign bugs (too many to mention).
  
• Fixed the turret rotation stalling when angle is not sufficient (WIP).
  
• Various minor hull improvements.
  
• Fixed issue of overpowered player technology when he started a campaign with “Own Fleet”. Previously the AI ships would be behind at least 3 or 4 years while the player would have ships of the present start year (for example 1910 instead of 1906 ships). This fix addresses one of the main reasons that AI was weaker in battles because it always started with lower tech ships than the player.
  

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We kindly thank everyone who participated in the beta procedure of update v1.09 with reports in forums or within the game interface. The update now became available for everyone but we will continue to check your feedback and bug reports to deploy a quick hotfix, if needed.

Thank you all for your continuous support! Please keep sharing your feedback in our forums:
Official Forum Steam Forum

The Game-Labs Team

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