Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts News

Alpha-5 offers 30+ ships and revamped ballistics

Dear Admirals,

We present our latest game update that will surely enhance your gameplay experience. First of all, we have upgraded the damage model with improved ballistics and damage probability calculations that reflect more realistically the various aspects of naval combat.

We added multiple gun visualizations that will make your designs special-looking according to which nation your ship belongs. Many different hulls enriched the data base of the ship design system, including new modern cruisers, modern battleships and some older cruisers of the dreadnought era. All these hulls are distributed to the various nations, making the custom battle editor more complete in every time period you wish to play.

The British gain a special hull "N3/G3 class" that offers much design freedom

We also implemented ramming damage when hitting enemy ships (we will add for friendlies too, when we optimize the evasion mechanics). Several balances and many other improvements are included in this update which you can read about them below.

[h2]Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Alpha-5[/h2]
[h3]SPECIAL NEW FEATURES[/h3]

Major improvements in ballistics: Repaired issues that made shells to travel at unusual wide arcs or at inconsistent speeds. Shells now can hit other vessels except the ship you target, making cluttered ship formations more vulnerable to shell fire. Friendly fire can happen if ships fire too close to each other.

Previous ballistic system had some omissions that were needed to save game performance. After latest game optimizations we added more calculations into the model addressing the following:
- Shells fly-through other ships: Completely fixed. Please report inconsistencies if you face them in battle.
- Unusual wide arcs from guns of the same turret: Not completely fixed, but it should be barely noticeable now and very rare.
- Shells that seem to follow targets during evasive maneuvers: It should be completely fixed and more improvements will follow to address any related issue.
- Even more detailed calculations for effective armor thickness, based on heel/trim motions, hull sections, belt wideness etc: Improved but still work in progress.
The new Italian Battleship in action
Improved damage system: Damage is now using a more natural probabilistic model, causing less random and more consistent damage to ships according to the damage power of shells and torpedoes. This new system will simulate better the rare critical hits that happened in history.
Gun visual variance: Guns differ in appearance,depending on gun technology, nation and class of the ships. Britain, USA, Germany, Austria, Italy and Japan have currently the more diverse visualization. As we add more 3D model assets, more special visual characteristics for each nation will become available. (Note: All previously saved designs will be incompatible due to this new feature and it is advised to clean them up. Nation flag will be saved for any newly created design in Naval Academy.)
Ramming damage: Finally, ships receive damage when they collide with each other. There is not a special visual effect yet but you will hear a distinctive sound effect after the collision. Known issues of inconsistent ramming damage will be addressed in a next update. (Note: Damage will happen against hostile ships only).

German light cruiser based on "SMS Emden"
Influx of new ship models: Many new ship types are now available in the custom battle system and Naval Academy, covering a wide range of cruisers of the World War I and later era, as well as several new modern battleships and battlecruisers. In particular the following are added:
- Detailed model of the Italian Heavy cruiser “Trento” of the 1920s.
- Detailed model of the British Armored cruiser “Warrior”.
- 2 new light cruisers of the dreadnought era, special for Germany, based on the Light Cruiser “Emden”.
- 7 new heavy cruisers distributed for all nations.
- 5 new modern light cruisers distributed for all nations.
- 1 French super battleship.
- 1 French modern battleship.
- 1 new USA Battleship hull type: a smaller version of modern BB that can represent South Carolina and South Dakota battleships.
- 1 new Italian Modern Battleship hull type.
- 1 new UK Battleship hull type: It can represent a variant of HMS Nelson and generally the N3/G3 class.
- 6 new Battlecruisers designated as "Large Cruisers" distributed for all nations except Britain.
- Improved a late UK Battleship with modern towers (The model that appears in mission “German Pride”).
- 1 new Russian modernized Battleship.
- 1 new generic modernized Battleship.

British Armored cruiser using the base of the "HMS Warrior" class

[h3]NEW NAVAL ACADEMY MISSIONS[/h3]

German Raiding Squadron: Your light cruisers must sink several cargo ships defended by a British armored cruiser. An enemy Battlecruiser approaches so you need to act fast.
Dreadnought vs Modern Cruisers: Powerful modern cruisers with state of the art fire control and devastating torpedoes should have no problem sinking a dreadnought of older technology. You can prove the opposite, either by enhancing your battleships with equipment of advanced technology, or investing more money for building more ships.
Wounded Beast: Your German battleship is damaged from a previous engagement and is hunted by the British fleet. Reinforcements are on their way to help you out.
Cruisers needed: An Italian Battleship is chased by a French Super-Battleship and your cruisers must rescue it.

The new French Super-Battleship found in mission "Cruisers needed"

[h3]SHIP DESIGNER IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]

Operational Range is locked in “Medium” for Naval Academy (it will work fully in campaign). The player will no longer exploit the system by setting it at minimum range and create overpowered ships versus the AI.
Several improvements/fixes in weights/costs of ship assets.
AI will design more effectively the ships allocating weights for guns and speed in a more balanced manner. AI will increase Turret armor over technology era and this will be a necessity for player too, for reducing the chance of ammo detonations and main gun destruction. (Note: in late era battles, the maximum armor setting will usually correspond to the turret armor now. We will improve UI to be more specific).

French Battleship with all-guns forward
Auto-Design (for player and AI) is now smarter, since it realizes which technologies are better to use according to year. For example, you will no longer see ships auto-designed with full coal engines in the 1920s or with weak torpedoes. PS.The initial technologies will be set up according to tech era, so that player designs the ship from scratch with less micromanagement.
Various improvements/fixes to hulls according to player reports.
Deceleration of ship is now properly affected from various ship design decisions. (Previously it was only affected by ship’s size and weight).
Turbo Electric Drive auxiliary engines now offer a significant boost to acceleration/deceleration, making them really effective for initiating sharp maneuvers and dodging torpedoes. One more upgrade (Turbo Electric Drive II) is available with stronger effects.
Light Cruisers’ maximum gun size is now 7-inches (from 8-inches) so that we reflect better the class distinction between Light and Heavy Cruisers.

An Italian Heavy Cruiser derived from the "Trento-class"

[h3]BALANCES/COMBAT IMPROVEMENT[/h3]

Damage fine tuning according to the new ballistics/damage model.
Smoke from funnels obstructs directionally the gun aiming. Accuracy penalty is received if the smoke emitted from the ship’s funnels interferes with the target at some angle.
Reduced target signature of guns. It is now more balanced the effect of ship size and targeting, while player should no longer be able to exploit Naval Academy battles by over-reducing the target signature with less secondary guns.
Torpedoes can now cause ammo detonation, if they penetrate the hull. Torpedoes of large diameter will be extremely dangerous, even to large and well protected battleships.
White powder shells rebalanced (removed shell weight loss, because it made shells too ineffective with bad ballistics at medium range).
Lyddite I shells penetration penalty reduced (They could become too weak).

A new "Large Cruiser" type for Japan with special-looking guns

[h3]BUG FIXES[/h3]

Fixed a rare crash issue after exiting battle.
Fixed a sound bug (it caused only a console report during battle).
Fixed bug not allowing to set up target for individual ship of a division.
Fixed an issue that could cause lag after exiting a custom battle.
Fixed bug that could desync damage of gun & barbette, making them become destroyed independently.

[h3]OTHER[/h3]

Transport ships became available in custom battles. You can now set up convoy missions as you please (Note: Transports will still be uncontrollable).
Improved ship floatation motions. Ships should not pitch/roll so much as before, especially the heavier ships.

[Update] Forthcoming patch information: Alpha 5

Hello Admirals,

We would like to share information about the upcoming major update of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. Here is what is included:

[h2]Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Alpha-5[/h2]
[h3]SPECIAL NEW FEATURES[/h3]

Major improvements in ballistics: Repaired issues that made shells to travel at unusual wide arcs or at inconsistent speeds. Shells now can hit other vessels except the ship you target, making cluttered ship formations more vulnerable to shell fire. Friendly fire can happen if ships fire too close to each other.

Previous ballistic system had some omissions that were needed to save game performance. After latest game optimizations we added more calculations into the model addressing the following:
- Shells fly-through other ships: Completely fixed. Please report inconsistencies if you face them in battle.
- Unusual wide arcs from guns of the same turret: Not completely fixed, but it should be barely noticeable now and very rare.
- Shells that seem to follow targets during evasive maneuvers: It should be completely fixed and more improvements will follow to address any related issue.
- Even more detailed calculations for effective armor thickness, based on heel/trim motions, hull sections, belt wideness etc: Improved but still work in progress.
Improved damage system: Damage is now using a more natural probabilistic model, causing less random and more consistent damage to ships according to the damage power of shells and torpedoes. This new system will simulate better the rare critical hits that happened in history.
Gun visual variance: Guns differ in appearance,depending on gun technology, nation and class of the ships. Britain, USA, Germany, Austria, Italy and Japan have currently the more diverse visualization. As we add more 3D model assets, more special visual characteristics for each nation will become available. (Note: All previously saved designs will be incompatible due to this new feature and it is advised to clean them up. Nation flag will be saved for any newly created design in Naval Academy.)
Ramming damage: Finally, ships receive damage when they collide with each other. There is not a special visual effect yet but you will hear a distinctive sound effect after the collision. Known issues of inconsistent ramming damage will be addressed in a next update. (Note: Damage will happen against hostile ships only).
Influx of new ship models: Many new ship types are now available in the custom battle system and Naval Academy, covering a wide range of cruisers of the World War I and later era, as well as several new modern battleships and battlecruisers. In particular the following are added:
- Detailed model of the Italian Heavy cruiser “Trento” of the 1920s.
- Detailed model of the British Armored cruiser “Warrior”.
- 2 new light cruisers of the dreadnought era, special for Germany, based on the Light Cruiser “Emden”.
- 7 new heavy cruisers distributed for all nations.
- 5 new modern light cruisers distributed for all nations.
- 1 French super battleship.
- 1 French modern battleship.
- 1 new USA Battleship hull type: a smaller version of modern BB that can represent South Carolina and South Dakota battleships.
- 1 new Italian Modern Battleship hull type.
- 1 new UK Battleship hull type: It can represent a variant of HMS Nelson and generally the N3/G3 class.
- 6 new Battlecruisers designated as "Large Cruisers" distributed for all nations except Britain.
- Improved a late UK Battleship with modern towers (The model that appears in mission “German Pride”).
- 1 new Russian modernized Battleship.
- 1 new generic modernized Battleship.

Italian Heavy Cruiser belonging to "Trento-class"

[h3]NEW NAVAL ACADEMY MISSIONS[/h3]

German Raiding Squadron: Your light cruisers must sink several cargo ships defended by a British armored cruiser. An enemy Battlecruiser approaches so you need to act fast.
Dreadnought vs Modern Cruisers: Powerful modern cruisers with state of the art fire control and devastating torpedoes should have no problem sinking a dreadnought of older technology. You can prove the opposite, either by enhancing your battleships with equipment of advanced technology, or investing more money for building more ships.
Wounded Beast: Your German battleship is damaged from a previous engagement and is hunted by the British fleet. Reinforcements are on their way to help you out.
Cruisers needed: An Italian Battleship is chased by a French Super-Battleship and your cruisers must rescue it.

[h3]SHIP DESIGNER IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]

Operational Range is locked in “Medium” for Naval Academy (it will work fully in campaign). The player will no longer exploit the system by setting it at minimum range and create overpowered ships versus the AI.
Several improvements/fixes in weights/costs of ship assets.
AI will design more effectively the ships allocating weights for guns and speed in a more balanced manner. AI will increase Turret armor over technology era and this will be a necessity for player too, for reducing the chance of ammo detonations and main gun destruction. (Note: in late era battles, the maximum armor setting will usually correspond to the turret armor now. We will improve UI to be more specific).
Auto-Design (for player and AI) is now smarter, since it realizes which technologies are better to use according to year. For example, you will no longer see ships auto-designed with full coal engines in the 1920s or with weak torpedoes. PS.The initial technologies will be set up according to tech era, so that player designs the ship from scratch with less micromanagement.
Various improvements/fixes to hulls according to player reports.
Deceleration of ship is now properly affected from various ship design decisions. (Previously it was only affected by ship’s size and weight).
Turbo Electric Drive auxiliary engines now offer a significant boost to acceleration/deceleration, making them really effective for initiating sharp maneuvers and dodging torpedoes. One more upgrade (Turbo Electric Drive II) is available with stronger effects.
Light Cruisers’ maximum gun size is now 7-inches (from 8-inches) so that we reflect better the class distinction between Light and Heavy Cruisers.

[h3]BALANCES/COMBAT IMPROVEMENT[/h3]

Damage fine tuning according to the new ballistics/damage model.
Smoke from funnels obstructs directionally the gun aiming. Accuracy penalty is received if the smoke emitted from the ship’s funnels interferes with the target at some angle.
Reduced target signature of guns. It is now more balanced the effect of ship size and targeting, while player should no longer be able to exploit Naval Academy battles by over-reducing the target signature with less secondary guns.
Torpedoes can now cause ammo detonation, if they penetrate the hull. Torpedoes of large diameter will be extremely dangerous, even to large and well protected battleships.
White powder shells rebalanced (removed shell weight loss, because it made shells too ineffective with bad ballistics at medium range).
Lyddite I shells penetration penalty reduced (They could become too weak).

[h3]BUG FIXES[/h3]

Fixed a rare crash issue after exiting battle.
Fixed a sound bug (it caused only a console report during battle).
Fixed bug not allowing to set up target for individual ship of a division.
Fixed an issue that could cause lag after exiting a custom battle.
Fixed bug that could desync damage of gun & barbette, making them become destroyed independently.

[h3]OTHER[/h3]

Transport ships became available in custom battles. You can now set up convoy missions as you please (Note: Transports will still be uncontrollable).
Improved ship floatation motions. Ships should not pitch/roll so much as before, especially the heavier ships.

Today, we will make the internal test version, and if all is fine, we will release on Monday. We shall keep you updated!

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Alpha 4 v68 HotFix

Dear Admirals,

We would like to inform you that we have just deployed a hotfix, addressing issues related with the damage model, and including various other fixes. Here are all the changes.

[h3]Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Alpha 4 v68 HotFix[/h3]

Increased damage of main guns. The whole damage model should feel now much more realistic, as intended for the main update.
Reduced base accuracy for secondary guns. On average their accuracy is inferior compared to main guns but they will aim progress more effectively when targeting fast vessels.
Flooding should happen more often when guns hit underwater sections. - Flooding will not be repaired so fast, so it will have a noticeable impact on large capital ships.
Increased slightly the damage of torpedoes.
Torpedo protection effect reduced slightly so that late battleships do not become immune to torpedoes.
Increased base speed of torpedoes about +2 knots. They could become unhistorically too slow at their maximum range settings, creating targeting issues (Ships not firing torps at long range, firing at too wide arcs and hitting themselves etc.).
Decrease speed penalty of electric torpedoes from -30% to -25%.
Weight issues making ships, especially battlecruisers, too fast for their size have been resolved. A ship may still be designed to exceed the 40 knots but with much greater sacrifices in armament and protection.
Fixed an issue with German Battlecruisers (They were unavailable for a small time period between 1924-1929 in custom battles).
Fixed issues that made Torpedo Boats (TB) either too slow or too vulnerable to gun fire.
Fixed a problem with a British BB of the 1920s that made its hull too long. - Allocated more funds to mission "Hurry Up" to allow strong ships of higher speed.
AI & Gun Targeting Improvement.
Other minor fixes.

As always, your feedback will be much appreciated in our forums:
Official Forum Steam Forum

Alpha-4 with Bismarck and Hood!

Dear admirals and fans of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. We are pleased to announce the next update which offers many new ship design variants and several improvements based on your feedback.

In particular, the detailed base hulls of the famous ships "Bismarck" and "HMS Nelson" are available for you, not only to recreate them as they were in history but also to change them as you want with countless different design options.

Design your own HMS Hood, as in this example, possessing triple 15-inch guns

You will be able to design many other new ship types, including modernized dreadnoughts for Japan, Austro-Hungary and China, new modern heavy cruisers and battlecruisers as well as battleships, all available for various nations after the 1920s. Six new Naval Academy missions include some of the new hulls. The rest of them can be explored in the custom battle system.

One other important change is the improved damage decals. You will notice the much more detailed damage holes inflicted on ships and the realistic darkening of the hull at the area being on flames. Further improvements will follow on next patches, with more detailed visualization for destroyed weapons, funnels, towers.

The Bismarck-class can be re-created with minor changes compared to the original...

... or you can try out gigantic variants, similar to the plans of H-class

The Ship Designer System is improved not only with increased flexibility on placing the various objects but also with new secondary gun barbettes that will make your ships to look even more realistic and powerful.

Lastly, we responded to your latest feedback by fixing several bugs, and improving the damage model, with goal to make battles even more spectacular and realistic.

You can read in more detail what is offered in the below changelog.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts "Alpha-4"

SPECIAL NEW FEATURES

Two new 3D Base Models ships: the legendary battleship "Bismarck" and the mighty battlecruiser "HMS Hood": Bismarck and Hood hulls are available in new Naval Academy missions and Custom Battles (after year 1927).
Improved Damage Decals: The damage is more detailed, according to where it actually happened and the ship now becomes more realistically darkened. Soon, all Towers, Funnels, weapons will have a detailed special appearance when destroyed.
New secondary gun barbettes: You can now create special looking and realistic ships by using a combination of barbettes for your secondary guns, on the centerline or at the sides. These barbette mounts appear when mounting main gun or special towers. If the hull is not wide or enough, you might not be able to use them all efficiently.

The damage decals are now much more realistic

NEW NAVAL ACADEMY MISSIONS

German Pride: Design a powerful German battleship and attack the English fleet, in a similar way as it happened in the historical battle of the Denmark straits.
Prove your Might: Your British battlecruiser must defend a valuable convoy against a German Battleship and a heavy cruiser. Can your ship do better than HMS Hood?
Modern Battleship vs Destroyers: Your battleship must survive the attack of multiple Destroyers.
The US Super Battleship: A group of large dreadnoughts that have been modernized by the Japanese Navy is sailing back for refueling. You have the opportunity to attack and sink them with your much more powerful super-battleship, before strong reinforcements arrive.
Design your own H-class: Create the continuation of the legendary Bismarck-class and defeat a US Fleet.
Hurry Up: A German raiding squadron is approaching your lightly protected military convoy while you are far away. Build the naval force that will be capable to travel fast and repel the enemy.

Modernized Japanese Battleships that you will confront in a new mission

OLD MISSION IMPROVEMENTS

Mission: "Heavy Duty" has now objective to only kill the super battleship. Previously it could be also won if all cruisers were sank, ending the battle prematurely.
Mission: "Search & Destroy" has been improved. You need to destroy the two BB before strong enemy reinforcements arrive and make your task harder.
Mission: "Torpedo Basics" has more available money, so that more torpedo boats can be built (The mission could become very hard against a much more powerful battleship, due to the new settings).
New hulls have been added to missions “Rise of the Heavy Cruiser”, “The Modern Battleship”, Sink "The Cruiser Killer", “Heavy Duty”.

VISUAL & SHIPS

Several new gun models added. Please note that the rescales and improvement of guns as well as the general improvements of ship designer could make your saved designs non functional.
Various hull fixes for better looking ship designs at all technology eras.
Three more super-battleships based on Bismarck and Iowa hulls. You can find those ships in new Naval Academy missions and in Custom Battles (after year 1929)
More hull variants of late tech, mostly based on the new 3D models: 6xBB (Britain, Russia, Japan, Austro-Hungary, China), 2 x BC (Germany, Russia), 3x CA (Germany, Austro-Hungary, USA). These ships are also distributed to the other nations so that custom battles after year 1927 include more late technology ships for all countries.

New secondary barbettes that can be placed on the centerline or at the sides, are available in several late hulls

CONTROLS

You can now set specific targets for main guns, secondary guns and torpedoes as follows:
- All weapons: Right Click
- Torpedoes: Shift + Right Click
- Secondaries: Alt + Right Click
- Main Guns: Shift + Alt + Right Click
Note: Due to the new targeting changes, your selected ship will no longer follow the target when right clicking on it. The targeting system should work more effectively, overall.
Weapon Fire Mode (ammo control) is now working per division, not per ship.

BATTLE INTERFACE

Improved damage float up info, showing more clearly the damage inflicted on ships, and fixing issues that caused game performance drop.

BALANCES/INCONSISTENCY FIXES

Damage/Penetration of guns is balanced according to feedback of players. Capital ships should be more durable. Secondary guns will still be useful but not overpowered.
Improvement in accuracy mechanics. Big Guns will not have so much accuracy difference with smaller guns. Aiming will be more dynamic, so that maneuvers or steady course will affect aiming accordingly.
AI Design of Battlecruisers will prefer to use armor more, and not make weakly protected ships.
AI Design of Destroyers will be more effective and will focus more on speed and maneuverability. Additionally, the minimum speed of Destroyers is 26 knots.
Fixed issue of not updating torpedo stats according to techs/components used. Now torpedoes should be more properly effective depending on their technology level.
Fixed issue of accuracy that could make AI not to fire vs very small torpedo boats or Destroyers at a range that they should.
Minor rebalance of reload penalty/bonus according to shell type. Light shells should be quite more effective for short range. Heavier shells reload slightly slower.
Minor rebalance of Lyddite shells, so that they continue to be effective after the new damage changes.
Tube Powder shells gain a further slight bonus in penetration and reload.

BUG FIXES

Several issues of buggy gun rotations have been addressed.
Fixed issue of interrupting smoke screen emission for ships becoming detached.
Fixed various reported problems that caused gun overlapping with towers.
Other minor bug fixes reported by players.

OTHER

Various performance optimizations.
AI in custom battles will never retreat. It is a temporary fix and later we will add this as an option.

We hope you will enjoy the new update! See you in our forums:
Official Forum Steam Forum

[Update] Forthcoming patch information: Alpha 4

Hello Admirals,

Thank you very much for your ongoing feedback and your fantastic participation in the forum, where you share so many interesting ideas and historical knowledge with us. We would like to inform you about the planned improvements of the next patch.

SPECIAL NEW FEATURES

Two new 3D Base Models ships: the legendary battleship "Bismarck" and the mighty battlecruiser "HMS Hood": Bismarck and Hood hulls are available in new Naval Academy missions and Custom Battles (after year 1927).
Improved Damage Decals: The damage is more detailed, according to where it actually happened and the ship now becomes more realistically darkened. Soon, all Towers, Funnels, weapons will have a detailed special appearance when destroyed.
New secondary gun barbettes: You can now create special looking and realistic ships by using a combination of barbettes for your secondary guns, on the centerline or at the sides. These barbette mounts appear when mounting main gun or special towers. If the hull is not wide or enough, you might not be able to use them all efficiently.

NEW NAVAL ACADEMY MISSIONS

German Pride: Design a powerful German battleship and attack the English fleet, in a similar way as it happened in the historical battle of the Denmark straits.
Prove your Might: Your British battlecruiser must defend a valuable convoy against a German Battleship and a heavy cruiser. Can your ship do better than HMS Hood?
Modern Battleship vs Destroyers: Your battleship must survive the attack of multiple Destroyers.
The US Super Battleship: A group of large dreadnoughts that have been modernized by the Japanese Navy is sailing back for refueling. You have the opportunity to attack and sink them with your much more powerful super-battleship, before strong reinforcements arrive.
Design your own H-class: Create the continuation of the legendary Bismarck-class and defeat a US Fleet.
Hurry Up: A German raiding squadron is approaching your lightly protected military convoy while you are far away. Build the naval force that will be capable to travel fast and repel the enemy.

OLD MISSION IMPROVEMENTS

Mission: "Heavy Duty" has now objective to only kill the super battleship. Previously it could be also won if all cruisers were sank, ending the battle prematurely.
Mission: "Search & Destroy" has been improved. You need to destroy the two BB before strong enemy reinforcements arrive and make your task harder.
Mission: "Torpedo Basics" has more available money, so that more torpedo boats can be built (The mission could become very hard against a much more powerful battleship, due to the new settings).
New hulls have been added to missions “Rise of the Heavy Cruiser”, “The Modern Battleship”, Sink "The Cruiser Killer", “Heavy Duty”.