Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts News

Hello Admirals,

There is ongoing work for the next major update, but we decided to offer an intermediate, very important update, which optimizes the stability and fps performance of the game. Please read:

*v1.6.1.5*

• Fixed memory leak issue which could cause severe fps drop, usually in campaign battles. This problem could happen when players were starting a battle and did not start the battle immediately but waited for some time in the preview window or made an alt+tab and moved their mouse, something very natural during long play sessions. Progressively memory consumption could reach unmanageable levels and cause huge fps drop.
  
• Fixed a bug causing allied minor nations to attack their allies to gain back their lands.
  
• Fixed a rare code exception which could cause a campaign’s turn to freeze, while moving vessels.
  
• Part collider optimizations, affecting also positively the auto-design part placement logic.
  
• Overall auto-design optimizations, resulting in even more effective ships made by the AI.
  
• Auto-resolve fine tuning, fixing a case where the winner could be wrongly overwhelming too much the opponent, with no losses.
  
• Other minor fixes.
  

Uploaded optimized build including:
- Further optimizations in fps performance.
- Further optimizations in auto-design.
- Optimization in Battle AI logic.
- Fixed issue which could cause a sold ship to a minor nation to not be fully transferred, so it would appear in player's fleet instead.
You must restart Steam to get the update fast.

Uploaded optimized build x2 including:
- When a minor nation attacks you, the special mission that creates a naval invasion is now happening immediately, without the need to previously have fleets in the area, as before. The government will ask you if you agree to attack and if you agree, you will need to send ships in the mission to invade the province that the minor nation uses as base of operations.
- Ships that previously were sent to be repaired randomly to other ports, when their supply port became unavailable, will now be sent to the next nearest port, in a more efficient route.
- Other fixes/optimizations.
You must restart Steam to get the update fast.

Uploaded optimized build x3 including:
- Minor nations will attack with less frequency when they want to take back their own lands. It should be more manageable now, but we need further feedback.
- Fixed border issues in territories near Canada which could create bugs in the land army distribution (e.g. too small army to defend. etc.).
- Fixed potential minor issue creating an empty AI task force for some turns (e.g. when all ships of the task forces got destroyed or were sent for repairs, they might have caused such a problem).
- Fixes in temporary issues of auto-design, which now should be much faster and effective.
- Fine tuning in ship flooding mechanics with the aim to sink faster ships with high structural damage.
You must restart Steam to get the update fast.

Uploaded optimized build x4 including:
- Various auto-design optimizations.
This is the last stable build before v1.7. You must restart Steam to get the update fast.

IMPORTANT NOTE
We added v1.6.1.5 Optx4 in the list of previous stable builds. It is advised to switch to it, if you do not want to miss any saved data before the release of v1.7 major update.

Hello again admirals,

Here is another update, prior to the upcoming major update. Please read what it includes.



*v1.6.1.4*

• Added a new difficulty level “Beginner” which should be ideal for those seeking to learn the game or just play in a more relaxed way. All the difficulty levels now affect the AI aggression and the tension dynamics. Your ongoing saves should not be affected drastically, at least for the “Normal” difficulty levels. Those who play harder difficulties should notice the increased aggression and tension dynamics which lead to a more challenging experience (in a manageable way). There are new parameters in config which can be used by modders.
  
• Fine tuning of shell ballistics.
  
• Overpenetration calculations improved, making it harder to over-penetrate an angled ship but if there is overpenetration the damage is even bigger, simulating the passing through of the shell inside multiple sections (this mechanic existed before but now is working better).
  
• Flooding mechanics improvement so that the flooding in the bow and aft of ship plays less role but flooding in the middle due to citadel penetration will result in even more heavy flooding of water.
  
• Fixed a very rare bug that could be caused when the player had for his division ships doing an auto-evade torpedo maneuver and at the same time he detached the ships and turned them with manual rudder. This action resulted in ships to lock their turning to the frontal direction.
  
• Fixed a rare bug that caused a crash when the player ordered the first ship of a follow formation to follow the last ship of the formation.
  
• Various map border fixes thanks to the help of modder "the Baron" (o Barão).
  
• Further Battle AI optimizations.
  

Uploaded optimized build including:
- Fine tunings in the damage model and new overpen mechanics. The overpenetration's damage will be even larger when the shell passes through the bow of the ship and less when it passes perpendicularly to the ship plus other improvements.
- Fixed error that prevented major nations from consistently fighting the minor nations' fleets which were dispatched to defend their provinces.
- Improved Minor Nations logic to scrap obsolete ships so their fleets are more competitive.
- Fixed map issue not allowing nations to pass from their own channels.
- Auto-Resolve improvement to be consistent with the actual value of ships in normal combat mode.
- Fixed some old issues of formations that made the division leader to lock its turning while auto-evasion was on and retreat was enabled.
- Fixed some minor issues in hulls and parts that were reported.
- Fixed some minor issues in the UI.
- Other minor fixes.
You need to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimized build x2 including:
- Hotfix addressing turn freeze when moving minor nations vessels.
You need to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimized build x3 including:
- Improved further the auto-resolve to be more consistent according to the combat value of ships.
- Removed "Delete Design" button from the refit constructor environment. It should not be there, it could cause bugs when players used it. Fixed "Delete Design" inconsistency not applying the delete when you deleted designs from the constructor environment, until you passed the next turn. Those fixes can prevent issues which could be caused when designs were not deleted on the current turn and players kept using them, only to disappear in the next turn.
- Fixed "Shared Designs" not being usable for human player in Custom Battles.
- Minor nations will now scrap their ships more efficiently.
- Fixed very rare issue where mission radius could not be generated resulting in being created in the center of the map.
- Minor UI improvement to show the mark of weapons in the Ship Design info panel.
You need to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimized build x4 including:
- Slight battle Fps performance improvement.
- Shell ballistics fine tuning.
- Fix of LOD for British Style quad guns (was a temp error due to ongoing work for new parts).
- Other minor fixes and improvements.
You need to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimized build x5 including:
- Fixed issue which could cause ship designs and their related ships to become deleted. It was a rather rare incident that could be caused when you have saved a design and on the same turn you tried to make a refit and exited without saving. Other issues some players report: ships disappearing from task forces, or not appearing on map are not bugs. Ships may leave task forces to get repairs (and will return if the Task Force is active) or they may not be visible due to low visibility and poor tower spotting.
- Fixed a minor issue that could not allow a design to become valid if the tonnage was absolutely equal with the technology limit of tonnage for a ship type.
- Auto-Design further optimization: Auto-design will build, on average, even more effective ships with less frequent the spamming of too many secondary guns.
You need to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimized build x6 including:
- Further battle fps optimizations. You should notice a better frame rate overall.
- Land Army mechanics improved. The army will support the borders more effectively. Minor nations will not be able to expand as much as before, because their army will be strictly dependent on their home population. The minor nations which lose their home territory will now attempt to retaliate and take it back (previously they would not respond unless they were allied with a major nation). Many other fixes and optimizations on the system make the land army interaction much more consistent.
- Fixed some other, rare issues which could result in components' reset on refitted ships. Hopefully no other fix on this will be needed.
- Fixed issue which could make AI task forces get stuck on map.
- Increased desirability of minor nations to trade older/obsolete ships when mothballed and not scrap them too soon.
- Other minor fixes and improvements.
You need to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimized build x7 including:
- Final fix for components, guns, techs resetting due to a refit error. This bug came with v1.6 and was happening often when players made consecutive refits of refits on the same turn.
- Fixed an old bug of ship constructor which caused a "mount 2" error of part placement.
- Battle AI optimization. The battle AI should be more human, opportunistic, try for the maximum gain with minimal losses, and retain a more effective firing distance.
- Fixed minor allies attacking their own major allies when they owned any of their homelands (temporary issue of previous update).
- Other minor fixes.
You need to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimized build x8 including:
- Now you can enforce a special mission to defend against a minor nation that attacks you. You must have a strong fleet in the area to trigger this mission.
- Fixed issue which could cause zero army to some minor nations.
- Other minor fixes.
You need to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded hotfix build x9 including:
-Fixed issue which could cause turn freeze during building ships in campaign. If you have again such a problem, please make an in-game report as you did.
You need to restart Steam to get this update fast

Hello everyone,

Here is another essential update for the game, offering fixes and gameplay enhancements. Read below:

*v1.6.1.3*
- Fixed bug that caused ships to get deleted from the campaign.
- Fixed bugs that could cause issues in fleet management window, or refit components to become reset.
- Shell ballistics adjustments (affects range, accuracy and final penetration power). Secondary gun ranges are increased.
- Battle AI adjustments to find a better optimal range, based on shell ballistics.
- Ship acceleration mechanics optimizations, addressing cases where ships could often stall and not accelerate fast enough and also increasing the fps performance as the calculations are less.
- Major nations will attack smaller nations with more probability if they are their enemies and have adjacent territories.
- The effective army force will now become reduced gradually if the army budget becomes too large compared to the GDP. This should create a realistic result of the effective armies becoming smaller in extended wars and nations will eventually stop doing endless major offensives that they cannot afford. Army costs have been balanced accordingly.
- Fix of a minor issue in crew calculations creating a wrong difference of one crew.
- Fixed shared designs not being available for the AI enemy in custom battles.
- Other minor fixes.

Uploaded optimized version including the following:
- Major nations can now directly order naval invasions against minor nations that are allied with enemy major nations.
- Fix of some old pathfinding issues in the map, happening often near Kamchatka area.
- Fixed errors reported related with refit and war reparation designs.
- Fixed minor inconsistency in tonnage calculations when too many task forces entered the mission zone.
- Fixed issues reported for formations, improving now how ships catch up with the formation or automatically avoid torpedoes and other obstacles.
- Fine tuned new ship acceleration mechanics.
- Fine tuned armor penetration threshold after the latest shell ballistic changes. Armor should be more durable now.
You have to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimizedx2 version including the following:
- Further balances on the damage model, following the shell ballistics changes. Overall you should notice the armored ships to be much more durable, while even small ships with adequate protection can survive for longer.
- Fixed issues causing sometimes zero armies to provinces.
- Ship acceleration further fine tunings, addressing cases where acceleration could be too low. Players must though not anticipate making ships with 50+ knots speed and zero engine efficiency to accelerate as before.
- Improved further the click sensitivity when ordering task forces to enter ports.
- Fixed a minor issue causing ships to be added in mission events while being a little out of the radius.
- Fixed issue causing recoil to not dissipate when all weapons got disabled.
- Fixed minor UI issue for submarine movement window.
- Other minor.
You have to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimizedx3 version including the following:
- Fine tunings in ship acceleration and shell ballistics, finalizing the systems to a good balance.
- Tension slight tone down as per latest feedback.
- Formation optimizations.
- Fixed case where a naval invasion could be ordered by human or AI player while another special event invasion was active in the same province.
- Fixed some tonnage issues reported in mission events.
- Fixed minor sorting issues in fleet management.
- Other minor.
You have to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimizedx4 version including the following:
- Further optimizations in the damage and armor model of the game. The fixes are major, since they cure old issues which could cause either the accuracy to not be consistent (hits were calculated but they did not register) or some angles of shots were not calculated so partial pens could cause too much damage especially against heavily armored turrets. Another issue could be some shots failed to be materialized, so a shell could not find a solution to be sent against a tower or other part of the ship. The whole system is in its best shape, and it will actually fix conditions where smaller ships had much lower accuracy against bigger ships, since their hits could not be executed and so the shots resulted in misses. That problem could make the AI and player to be at a disadvantage and very big and armored ships to be at an overpowered state, depending on various circumstances.
- There is now a dissipation effect for hull resistance. As the hull gets larger it requires more hull resistance to be durable. This addresses the case where very large ships, such as the German Super Battleships could become almost immune to shell fire.
- Fire chance is now more properly modeled, and is also dependent on the damage output. This new mechanic was needed, since now a lot of shells will consistently find the target according to the accuracy and so ships would very easily become overwhelmed by fires.
- Various small fixes for the mission events, based on player reports.
- Tension effects reduced for diplomatic actions. This change should help to keep peace for a longer time.
- Other minor.
You have to restart Steam to get this update fast

This update, aims to be the last, unless it is absolutely needed to fix something crucial, before one more major update, which will include new hulls, estimated to arrive in December.

Uploaded optimizedx5 version including the following:
- Optimizations on the new damage/armor model of ships, fine tuning how partial penetrations or full penetrations occur, based on the angle of hit. More detailed calculations are added.
- Ricochet/Blocked floating info is now visible when hitting ships (as it was a long time ago). This indication should help understand when every hit happens and what is the outcome.
- Minor fix in Colombia borders. Thanks modder "the Baron" (o Barão) for the help. Others issues in borders will be fixed too.
You have to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimizedx6 version including the following:
- Transport capacity losses are now having improved mechanics, properly dissipating their effect. Furthermore the transport losses affect less the transport capacity percentage. Raiding of transports should still be a severe blow to the enemy but more manageable.
- Improved torpedo friendly fire to not trigger when the target is too close. This will address the problem of torpedoes not firing when you encircle an opponent. Torpedo friendly fire should be also overall more effective.
- Fixed some bugs of the save system which could cause components to reset for ships or some ships to become ineffectively cleaned up from memory.
- Fixed expenses in finances UI not showing all the info.
- Fixed rare issue which could cause NAN calculation in GDP and this could affect all things in the game, even showing max integer number as losses in battles.
- Minor increase in population growth to compensate for the losses of land battles.
- Battle fps optimizations.
- Further fine tuning in tension, for a more mild transition to war. Allies should also have a stronger will to enter war and help another ally.
- More fixes for map borders thanks to the help of modder "the Baron" (o Barão).
- Other minor improvements.
You have to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded hotfix repaired version:
- Expenses temporary issue resolved. Issues was caused from the previous update, but it was quickly addressed. Also province income has been increased slightly to compensate for the expenses calculations that are now including everything (previously some data was not used consistently).
You have to restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded repaired version x7:
- Further economy fixes/improvements based on the recent feedback. Overall there should be a more manageable economy for both human player and AI.
You have to restart Steam to get this update fast

Hello Admirals,

A new update is now available, continuing to improve the campaign. Please read:

*v1.6.1.2*
- Army losses mechanics got further optimizations. Now the losses after combat will directly and heavily affect the participating armies in the province and the whole nation. It will take time to fully recover those losses, so now it will be possible to even completely wipe out an army from a province and force victory. Previously the losses applied only in the conscript pool, so the replacements would be instant and it would need tremendous casualties to have impact in large nations. This change will also affect how nations can withstand prolonged wars.
- Minor nations can dissolve similarly as the major nations, when their homelands are conquered. They will not be able to expand without restrictions as before, as they will have to protect their home regions in order to survive.
- Further optimizations and fixes on the mission event mechanics, giving more consistent results for the win chance. There is also a new indication in the UI showing the losses for the Attacker and Defender.
- Fine tuning in tension, to be overall not very harsh but also provide opportunities for going to war.
- Toned down the minor nation's aggressiveness and the interaction of major nations with smaller nations which previously created too many wars against them, resulting in a chain reaction of negative events and subsequent wars.
- Fixed bugs related to the fleet management window and the ship erase system making the game to crash.
- Fixed some rare issues of the refit mode.
- Research logic got a refactoring on how it is affected by the GDP. A new parameter is added (info for modders) called “research_budget_mod_max”.
- A further improvement on how campaign AI manages its research logic and its funds. It will be needed to notice the changes, as the AI should now prioritize heavily on important techs, for example the techs that lead to the Dreadnought era, and so it will be able to construct more powerful ships.
- Increased crew pool re-generation as per player feedback. Players will still have to manage this resource as it can become depleted after too many crew losses in battles or by the construction of too many large warships.
- Minor adjustments to economy to compensate for the research/army cost changes.
- Other minor fixes.

Hello Admirals,

Here it is an update with more campaign improvements. Read below:

*v1.6.1.1*
- Minor Nations which are considered "Medium", those which can ally and interact and trade with the Major Nations, can now organize major offensives against their enemies in adjacent borders. They will also try to expand if they are not allied with a major nation or their major ally is not involved in a war. This feature was among the most desired from the community and will definitely spice up the campaign system.
- Naval Invasion tonnage threshold vs Major Nations reduced from 100,000 tons to 25,000 tons. Basically you can start a naval invasion wherever you have a decent naval force nearby. You will expect a much increased aggression from AI opponents due to this new change.
- Tension minor fixes and improvements. The overall system became more polished.
- The government of Major Nations will now consider more effectively which minor nations to attack, evaluating which other major nations may get negatively affected and want to intervene. This new feature will help to maintain good relations with major nations, and not cause random drops of relations which get out of control and cause continuous wars.
- Fixed some reported issues with rebellions not giving the provinces to the rebels when their attack succeeded.
- Various balances and improvements on the army kills/losses mechanics.
- Fixed a division issue causing one ship to go very far ahead of its main division formation.
- Fixed a minor and rare issue causing transport losses to be shown in the UI at the opposite side.
wars.
- Other minor fixes.

Uploaded optimized version including:
- Fixed potential problem, making it difficult to send Task Forces in port in some areas of the map. Please let us know if you still can anticipate an issue, and what is the resolution you choose to play the game.
- Improvement on the mechanics which are responsible for evaluating all army kills/losses in land battles and mission events. You will notice that Naval invasions will be more costly in soldier losses, and according to the magnitude of invasion needed, they will cost troops as many as major offensives do.
- Initial Relations between major nations are balanced so that there is time to avoid a war if it is wanted.
- Improved Campaign AI to ask for peace when it is becoming weak and try to prolong wars when it has an advantage.
- A minor UI improvement in combat, optimizing the floating UI of ships.
Please restart Steam to get this update fast

Uploaded optimized x2 version including:
- Further balances on the army kills/losses mechanics, to give more consistent results. You have to note that mission success is dependent on the losses so if you as an attacker have many more losses than the defender, this will negatively affect the win chance.
- Added tooltip to show the chance of your war reparation proposal to be accepted or not.
- Made text changes to the special events of alliance offers or war declarations your nation makes, clarifying that the effects are for the AI opponent.
- Minor UI improvements for the Task Force movement window, showing the total tonnage of ships that will move and the damage of each ship to appear in the tooltip.
- An improvement on Vsync setting, improving the total fps allowed.
- Various fixes on cases where a save could not be loaded.
- Minor changes in the minimum tonnage allowed for US Large Armored Cruiser and Russian Large Armored Cruiser II allowing them to be built immediately when they are researched.
- Fixed issue making naval invasions to continue to trigger battles, even when there is no longer a fleet in the mission radius.
- Fixed rare issue of major offensives to not conclude when the defender has no army left.
- Fixed issue which could cause ungoverned territories to have no army.
- Fixed Croatia flag to appear correctly.
- Other minor fixes.
Please restart Steam to get this update fast