Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts News

Hello all,

We are very glad to announce a new update with very important fixes and improvements. Please read:

*Hotfix Update v1.3.2 Repaired x2*
- Fixed some old and major problems of the formations. The ships should maintain a line much more coherently and efficiently and not zig zag.
- Improved the weather system visuals in all aspects.
- Weather and Daytime can now properly be stored in saved battles.
- Shell ballistics adjustments and improvements.
- Now the Home Population of conquered provinces will not join the conqueror (this was actually an inconsistency which was now fixed). This fix will greatly affect the campaign balance as major offensives will no longer become so overpowered when a Major Nation conquers some large provinces.
- Fixed more issues of the shipbuilding interface, resulting in false positive errors (overweights, invalid barbettes etc.).
- Various other minor fixes and improvements.

Enjoy!

The Game-Labs Team

Updated Repaired version with the following:
- Weather system further improvements.
- Fixed a remaining issue of formations (when a ship had to re-order it did not try to evade effectively enough).
- Battle AI adjustments.
- Targeting adjustments.
- Auto-Design optimizations. Fixed also potential unbuildable transport ships which could make a campaign battle unloadable.
- Fixed issue that made Campaign AI to scrap ships before they were built.
- Fixed some guns of the new USA cruiser towers which prevented small guns from being mounted on them.

Updated Repaired x2 version with the following:
- Fixed old bug that could delete ships of player and destroy the campaign due to bugs created.
- Fixed crew losses not applied after battle to show in the battle result window.
- Formation logic minor fixes/adjustments.
- Improved Battle AI further into maintaining an effective firing line.

Please restart Steam to download the update fast.

Hello Admirals,

We just deployed a hotfix patch with a significant set of fixes following up the major update v1.3. Please read below:

*Hotfix Update v1.3.1*
- Fixed bug that could cause ship parts that weren’t cleaned up from a previously deleted design to stick in the interface and not allow to make a new design. This bug could happen quite often depending on player actions or even for AI causing it to save empty hulls. Please let us know if it happens again.
- Fixed issue that could make a ship overweight after being saved.
- Fixed rare barbette bug that could cause misplacements and fixed dual barbettes issue that prevented them from rotating consistently.
- Fixed diplomacy bug making dissolved nations to wrongly participate in some events.
- Fixed ports of minor nations not showing if they have ships inside.
- Fixed inconsistent ship damage applied in campaign (a ship could have some structural damage but get saved with extra damage from module hits).
- Fixed rare crash issues that could be caused by weather mechanics.
- Fixed some inconsistencies on weather and slightly improved the visuals and lighting.
- Fixed a rare bug exception that could be caused by sections on fire.
- Fixed a campaign bug that could cause a turn to stall.
- Fixed some minor text and interface errors.
- Fixed a formation issue which could cause rear ships to not follow the leader consistently.
- Some minor hull improvements/fixes.
- Adjusted instability mechanics so that some ships are not having incurable weight offsets.

Furthermore, there is a beta development poll appearing when you launch this patch asking you if you would like to have mines and submarines as optional.

Thank you for reading, enjoy!

The Game-Labs Team

14/5/2023
Repaired Build uploaded including the following:
- Provinces have +30% income to balance the campaign's economy.
- Ship acceleration at low speed enhanced (It could create issues in formations or stalled ships).
- Balanced out several Naval Academy mission funds because the ship costs have increased significantly.

Please restart Steam to get this update fast.

Dear Admirals,

We are very happy to announce the next major update of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts, an update which aims to polish the game in all levels of gameplay and improve it in various aspects that players requested.

The new map is improved in all aspects

The new weather system not only offers more immersive battles but makes the designing of your ships even more demanding and engaging. The map became enhanced with more content and a better graphical display, highlighting the conquered provinces according to who controls them. There are also many new hulls to explore, as we have focused on enriching the USA ship roster with new battleships, cruisers and destroyers. Please read below everything you need to know about the patch that will make playing Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts an even better experience.



The modernized New York class battleships can be recreated the way you want



MAJOR FEATURES

• Detailed map province borders: Previously the map borders were showing up incomplete and were not including many provinces that the game used. Now all the map provinces not only have their visual borders but also become highlighted when you hover the mouse cursor on them, with a color according to their controller.
  
• New detailed weather system: Previously the visual weather system was a predefined set and the accuracy modifiers were independently randomized without proper correlation to the actual visuals. Now the weather is fully implemented. The 3D battles can occur in a realistic sea environment that has different daylight, wind, waves visualization and effects according to time of day and weather conditions. Night battles, dusk, late evening battle landscapes, rain, storms, and many other dynamic weather factors enrich the battle immersion and also seriously affect the accuracy with various modifiers.
  
• New binary save system improving game performance: Previously the saves were using a text mode system which could create very large files, over 150 MB for campaigns, and this caused huge loading delays. We have improved the save system to store files in binary mode, making files extremely much smaller and loading times much faster, thus improving the game experience significantly.
  

The internal tool can help you clean up old files or mod campaign saves

==================================================================================
***IMPORTANT***
There is now an in-game tool (In the menu top right corner). Via the tool’s minimal interface you can convert .bin and .json files from one type to another. The game can read only the .bin format.

Furthermore, with this tool you will be able to clean up all your old shared designs and campaign saves (Please be sure to back up if needed).
==================================================================================

Many new US battleship hulls are offered from the early till late tech era

28x NEW HULLS

• New USA "Experimental Dreadnought I” with a displacement between 20,500 and 24,500 tons and available from 1905 to1915.
  
• New USA "Dreadnought II" based on the original and first made Texas Battleship with a displacement between 23,500 and 28,500 tons and available from 1908 to1918.
  
• New USA "Dreadnought III" with a displacement between 26,000 and 33,500 tons and available from 1910 to 1918.
  
• New USA "Dreadnought IV" with a displacement between 28,500 and 39,500 tons, as an enlarged variant of the New York class battleships, and is available from 1914 to 1926.
  
• New USA "Dreadnought V" with a displacement between 32,500 and 44,500 tons, available from 1919 to 1926.
  
• New USA "Modernized Dreadnought I" with a displacement between 25,750 and 32,500 tons, which can recreate the modernized New York-class battleships and is available from 1927.
  
• New USA "Modernized Dreadnought III" with a displacement between 41,500 and 49,500 tons, available from 1927.
  
• New USA "Modern Battleship I" with a displacement between 44,500 and 52,500 tons, available from 1929.
  
• New USA "Fast Battleship" with a displacement between 47,000 and 62,500 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New Chinese "Modernized Dreadnought I" with a displacement between 28,750 and 34,500 tons, available from 1927.
  
• New Spanish "Modernized Dreadnought I" with a displacement between 28,950 and 34,900 tons, available from 1927.
  
• New "Modernized Dreadnought I" for France and Italy with a displacement between 34,000 and 44,000 tons, available from 1927.
  
• New USA "Fast Scout Cruiser" which can recreate the Atlanta-class cruiser with a displacement between 5,750 and 7,500 tons and is available from 1930.
  
• New Chinese "Gun Cruiser" with a displacement between 7,750 and 9,500 tons which is available from 1930.
  
• New Spanish "Advanced Escort Cruiser" with a displacement between 9,750 and 12,500 tons which is available from 1930.
  
• New British "Advanced Escort Cruiser" with a displacement between 12,750 and 15,500 tons which is available from 1930.
  
• New French "Advanced Escort Cruiser" with a displacement between 12,750 and 15,500 tons which is available from 1930.
  
• New USA "Advanced Destroyer (Compact)" with a displacement between 2,200 and 3,000 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New USA "Advanced Destroyer (Large)" with a displacement between 3,200 and 4,500 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New British "Advanced Destroyer (Compact)" with a displacement between 2,550 and 3,250 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New British "Advanced Destroyer (Large)" with a displacement between 3,450 and 4,350 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New "Hybrid Destroyer" for Germany and Austria with a displacement between 4,450 and 5,850 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New French "Advanced Destroyer" with a displacement between 3,500 and 4,350 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New Russian "Advanced Destroyer" with a displacement between 3,690 and 4,600 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New "Advanced Destroyer (Compact)" for Spain and China with a displacement between 2,750 and 3,400 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New "Advanced Destroyer (Large)" for Spain and China with a displacement between 3,750 and 4,750 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New USA “Super Heavy Cruiser I” with a displacement between 14,750 and 18,750 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New USA “Super Heavy Cruiser II” with a displacement between 16,775 and 19,750 tons, available from 1935.
  
• New advanced main towers for late tech destroyers.
  
• Many new USA cage masts.
  
• Various new towers and part models for new and older ships.
  

The Atlanta-class cruisers can now be recreated

NEW GUNS

• New USA guns for calibers spanning from 6-inch to 20 inch across all Mark tech levels.
  
• New China guns for small/medium caliber guns for late tech levels.
  
• New models for German late tech guns of large caliber.
  
• New models for Austrian late tech guns of large caliber.
  
• New barbettes.
  
• A few fixes and improvements on scales for older guns.
  

H-class battleship travelling through a storm

A new USA modernized battleship during the evening

There is a variety of new flush deck destroyers

A new USA heavy cruiser


There is a rich variety of graphical battle environments simulating stormy seas, night battles and of course beautiful sunny days

BALANCES & FIXES

• Ship handling physics improved following the new weather system additions.
  
• Minor improvements on shell ballistics.
  
• Battle fps performance optimizations.
  
• Added back the manual rudder control. Players will still have to steer carefully because in large formations a full rudder could cause unwanted circular movements for all ships.
  
• Disabled the common alliance mechanic, which caused too frequent world wars.
  
• Fixed issue which could cause guns to get jammed and not rotate.
  
• Fixed bug that caused empty hulls to be saved as valid designs, when you exited the ship design interface.
  
• Fixed bug that could cause an empty hull to be loaded upon the hull you were designing (this needs testing if it can happen again).
  
• Balances on the ship’s costs, which primarily affect campaign upkeep costs and Naval Academy funds. Additionally, this change determines more accurately the actual battle value of a ship, thus the Battle AI priorities should work more effectively.
  
• Auto-Design optimization.
  
• Warning on spotted torpedoes now will never expire, helping players to detect them during gameplay.
  
• Campaign balances in the economy.
  
• Ungoverned territories can now be attacked by Major Nations.
  
• Fixed issues with repairing in the campaign and now allied ports should effectively offer their support.
  
• Various bug fixes and many improvements in game performance, loading times.
  
• Battle Sound effects enhancement.
  

LOCALIZATION
The first supported languages are: English, German, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian. More languages will follow soon.

==================================================================================
We hope you will enjoy this update. Your feedback, as always, will be much appreciated:
Official Forum Steam Forum

Note:
The v1.3 major update has a lot of new content and features which make older saves incompatible. Please read how you can clean up these saves yourself:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/2/3832043983170771555/

Hello Admirals,

With this beta update we finalized the planned content and added many new hulls. As a difference from the previous patch you will find many new special cruisers and destroyers of the late tech era, adding up to the full amount of 28 new different hull variants for this patch. You will also notice an optimized auto-design behavior, a better weather randomization with less cloud chance, some fixes on the campaign , new gun models and parts and various fixes, rescales on previous gun models for France, Britain and Spain.

Furthermore, you will find in the main menu the Bin converter tool which will help those who want to mod the save files of the game. Please read below the full list of changes for the major patch v1.3 which will become finalized very soon, as soon as we fix some remaining small issues.

MAJOR FEATURES
- Detailed map province borders: Previously the map borders were showing up incomplete and were not including many provinces that the game used. Now all the map provinces not only have their visual borders but also become highlighted when you hover the mouse cursor on them, with a color according to their controller.
- New detailed weather system: Previously the visual weather system was a predefined set and the accuracy modifiers were independently randomized without proper correlation to the actual visuals. Now the weather is fully implemented. The 3D battles can occur in a realistic sea environment that has different daylight, wind, waves visualization and effects according to time of day and weather conditions. Night battles, dusk, late evening battle landscapes, rain, storms, and many other dynamic weather factors enrich the battle immersion and also seriously affect the accuracy with various modifiers.
- New binary save system improving game performance: Previously the saves were using a text mode system which could create very large files, over 150 MB for campaigns, and this caused huge loading delays. We have improved the save system to store files in binary mode, making files extremely much smaller and loading times much faster, thus improving the game experience significantly.

*IMPORTANT* *There is now an in-game tool (In the menu top right corner). Via the tool’s minimal interface you can convert .bin and .json files from one type to another. The game can read only the .bin format.*

28x NEW HULLS
- New USA "Experimental Dreadnought I” with a displacement between 20,500 and 24,500 tons and available from 1905 to1915.
- New USA "Dreadnought II" based on the original and *first made Texas Battleship* with a displacement between 23,500 and 28,500 tons and available from 1908 to1918.
- New USA "Dreadnought III" with a displacement between 26,000 and 33,500 tons and available from 1910 to 1918.
- New USA "Dreadnought IV" with a displacement between 28,500 and 39,500 tons, as an enlarged variant of the New York class battleships, and is available from 1914 to 1926.
- New USA "Dreadnought V" with a displacement between 32,500 and 44,500 tons, available from 1919 to 1926.
- New USA "Modernized Dreadnought I" with a displacement between 25,750 and 32,500 tons, which can recreate the *modernized New York-class battleships* and is available from 1927.
- New USA "Modernized Dreadnought III" with a displacement between 41,500 and 49,500 tons, available from 1927.
- New USA "Modern Battleship I" with a displacement between 44,500 and 52,500 tons, available from 1929.
- New USA "Fast Battleship" with a displacement between 47,000 and 62,500 tons, available from 1935.
- New Chinese "Modernized Dreadnought I" with a displacement between 28,750 and 34,500 tons, available from 1927.
- New Spanish "Modernized Dreadnought I" with a displacement between 28,950 and 34,900 tons, available from 1927.
- New "Modernized Dreadnought I" for France and Italy with a displacement between 34,000 and 44,000 tons, available from 1927.
- New USA "Fast Scout Cruiser" which can recreate the Atlanta-class cruiser with a displacement between 5,750 and 7,500 tons and is available from 1930.
- New Chinese "Gun Cruiser" with a displacement between 7,750 and 9,500 tons which is available from 1930.
- New Spanish "Advanced Escort Cruiser" with a displacement between 9,750 and 12,500 tons which is available from 1930.
- New British "Advanced Escort Cruiser" with a displacement between 12,750 and 15,500 tons which is available from 1930.
- New French "Advanced Escort Cruiser" with a displacement between 12,750 and 15,500 tons which is available from 1930.
- New USA "Advanced Destroyer (Compact)" with a displacement between 2,200 and 3,000 tons, available from 1935.
- New USA "Advanced Destroyer (Large)" with a displacement between 3,200 and 4,500 tons, available from 1935.
- New British "Advanced Destroyer (Compact)" with a displacement between 2,550 and 3,250 tons, available from 1935.
- New British "Advanced Destroyer (Large)" with a displacement between 3,450 and 4,350 tons, available from 1935.
- New "Hybrid Destroyer" for Germany and Austria with a displacement between 4,450 and 5,850 tons, available from 1935.
- New French "Advanced Destroyer" with a displacement between 3,500 and 4,350 tons, available from 1935.
- New Russian "Advanced Destroyer" with a displacement between 3,690 and 4,600 tons, available from 1935.
- New "Advanced Destroyer (Compact)" for Spain and China with a displacement between 2,750 and 3,400 tons, available from 1935.
- New "Advanced Destroyer (Large)" for Spain and China with a displacement between 3,750 and 4,750 tons, available from 1935.
- New USA “Super Heavy Cruiser I” with a displacement between 14,750 and 18,750 tons, available from 1935.
- New USA “Super Heavy Cruiser II” with a displacement between 16,775 and 19,750 tons, available from 1935.
- New advanced main towers for late tech destroyers.
- Many new USA cage masts.
- Various new towers and part models for new and older ships.

NEW GUNS
- New USA guns for calibers spanning from 6-inch to 20 inch across all Mark tech levels.
- New China guns for small/medium caliber guns for late tech levels.
- New models for German late tech guns of large caliber.
- New models for Austrian late tech guns of large caliber.
- New barbettes.
- A few fixes and improvements on scales for older guns.

BALANCES & FIXES
- Ship handling physics improved following the new weather system additions.
- Minor improvements on shell ballistics.
- Battle fps performance optimizations.
- Added back the manual rudder control. Players will still have to steer carefully because in large formations a full rudder could cause unwanted circular movements for all ships.
- Disabled the common alliance mechanic, which caused too frequent world wars.
- Fixed issue which could cause guns to get jammed and not rotate.
- Fixed bug that caused empty hulls to be saved as valid designs, when you exited the ship design interface.
- Fixed bug that could cause an empty hull to be loaded upon the hull you were designing (this needs testing if it can happen again).
- Balances on the ship’s costs, which primarily affect campaign upkeep costs and Naval Academy funds. Additionally, this change determines more accurately the actual battle value of a ship, thus the Battle AI priorities should work more effectively.
- Auto-Design optimization.
- Warning on spotted torpedoes now will never expire, helping players to detect them during gameplay.
- Campaign balances in the economy.
- Various bug fixes and many improvements in game performance, loading times.

It is strongly advised to clean up old designs and start a new campaign, in order to ensure a smooth and fast gameplay without inconsistencies and bugs.

We hope you liked the progress of the beta. Please keep posting your opinions and feedback so that we can improve more things till the final release.

Thank you for reading,

The Game-Labs Team

Note:
The beta includes a work in progress language localization. The included finalized languages are: English, German, Spanish, Russian.

Hello Admirals,

The beta procedure progresses and is scheduled to finish this week. We are currently adding new ship models into the game. Yesterday we finished with the battleships and next we will proceed with new cruisers and destroyers. Today we added the variant hull which can recreate the Atlanta-class cruiser. or similar cruisers such as in the header image.

Beta 12 includes the following:
- New USA "Fast Scout Cruiser" which can recreate the Atlanta-class cruiser with a displacement between 5,750 and 7,500 tons and is available from 1930.
- New USA "Advanced Destroyer (Compact)" with a displacement between 2,200 and 3,000 tons, available from 1935.
- New USA "Advanced Destroyer (Large)" with a displacement between 3,200 and 4,500 tons, available from 1935.
- New advanced main towers for late tech destroyers.
- Ship inertia improvements
- Further campaign economy adjustments.
- Other minor.

The full list of changes from all previous beta builds is included in the in-game news.

Enjoy!
The Game-Labs Team