Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts News

Admirals,

This is not an April's fool joke. We just deployed a new update which improves several features and fixes issues that you requested. Check the info. Restart your game client to start playing!

[h2]HotFix v84 (1/4/2021)[/h2]

• Optimization in Auto-Design code: Fixed issues that could cause either problematic designs or too much delay while building an AI fleet. “Too many threads” error and game freeze during battle loading should now be completely fixed.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause AI to place guns at fully obstructed sections (e.g. in early battleship’s middle sections).
  
• Fixed old bug that made guns to become wrongly “red” (badly placed) after pressing “Rebuild” in a battle.
  
• Added steel covering on unused casemates for the remainder of hulls.
  
• Various minor hull improvements/fixes.
  
• AI improved to be generally more aggressive and decisive on maneuvering.
  
• Torpedo maximum loads reduced. Now the torpedo tubes can have from 1 to 3 loads (previously was 2 to 4).
  
• Increased Partial Penetrations/Overpens damage and tuned their mechanics in order to have a more realistic effect. HE penetration slightly reduced. As a result, small guns will become more effective, especially at close ranges and HE will be ideal for destroying a ship's superstructure and incapacitating its parts, but not as useful for sinking it.
  
• More realistic shell dispersion according to shell types, at all ranges.
  
• Improvement in ship collision detection. Formations should be overall more effective with less accidental collisions due to ship maneuvering. Remaining issues shall be fixed in a next update.

With hotfix v84 the following errors should not appear again:
- Auto-design of a fleet in a custom battle or Naval Academy battle may delay too long and hang the game.
- The "Too many threads" crash error.

The new update offers more freedom in ship design and many new ships.

Read everything about it in our blog:

https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/post/alpha-11-arrived

We have released the following two hotfixes which further improve the game:

HotFix v82 (10/3/2021)

• Japanese late tech 4/5-inch guns of large capital ships got their proper model (for making Yamato looking secondaries).
  
• Various repairs in Auto-Design. (Addressing some potential overlapping issues between guns and superstructure).
  
• Fixed bug that could cause AI to build ships with underwater guns or player to create floating guns. Please report if you anticipate this bug again.
  
• Fixed "empty barbette" warning on new British towers, caused by unoccupied side gun placements.
  
• Fixed "Mount 2" error that could make parts to not mount as they should.
  
• Fixed bug that caused turret barrels to overlap with superstructure when rotating during battle.
  
• Fixed a rare bug that caused the critical exception "Too many threads".
  
• Various tower and ship part fixes/improvements as reported.
  
• Reduced further the distance in which AI scout and independent ships operate away from the main fleet.
  
• AI should save ammo with more efficiency, it should fire at medium ranges with low ammo.- Penetration improvements as per players' suggestions. Deck penetration power is not so much pronounced compared to side hit penetration.

HotFix v83 (15/3/2021)

• Fixed issue that could cause the bug warning "Too many barrels".
  
• Fixed issues that could make auto-design to fail at some cases, after many tries.
  
• Improved boats and other ship decor so that they are appearing on ships as they should, without disappearing due to interference with other objects.
  
• British Super Battlecruiser can now mount up to 20-inch guns (from previously 18-inch guns).
  
• A few minor fixes to hull parts.
  
• Bonus Feature: Unused casemate gun doors will now be auto-sealed with steel plates.

With hotfix v83 the following errors might not appear again:
- Sometimes the auto-design of a fleet in a custom battle or Naval Academy battle may delay too long and hang the game.
- The "Too many threads" crash error.

Dear Admirals,

Our progress on the campaign and the first core patch is steady. Our team is also growing and is able to work faster and more effectively. Until we deliver our planned major patch, we wanted to update the game for you with more content and various improvements that you have asked for.

We offer a new base hull with which you can design and build the British battleship "King George V" and many other hull variants. Additionally, we added new gun models and repaired various hull issues that you reported.

One of the most requested features was to offer more flexibility in using mounts for all the various ship parts, and we did it at a great extent, compared to previous design functionality. Overall, the Ship Design aspect of the game received many new improvements and balances which you are surely going to enjoy.

Please read below about all the new features and improvements of the new game update of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts.

[h2]Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Alpha-11 update[/h2]
You can now build a battleship similar to "HMS King George V"

NEW HULLS & MODELS

• New hull which allows to recreate the King George V-class battleship for the British Empire. You can find this hull with the name “Modern Battleship I” in custom battles after the year 1929.
  
• New British Modern Battleship II variant with displacement between 55,500 and 75,500 tons, available after 1936, which can reproduce ships similar to HMS Vanguard or larger speculative designs.
  
• New British Modernized Dreadnought variant with displacement between 32,000 and 39,000 tons, available after 1927, which can produce ships similar to HMS Warspite.
  
• New British Modernized Battlecruiser variant with displacement between 40,000 and 53,000 tons, available after 1935, which can produce speculative improved versions of HMS Hood.
  
• New British Super Battlecruiser variant with displacement between 67,500 and 82,500 tons, available after 1935. This hull can produce battlecruiser designs that never existed but will test the limits of the battlecruiser concept, offering very high speed, large firepower and protection.
  
• New British Large Cruiser variant with displacement between 30,500 and 36,000 tons, available after 1935, which can produce medium size capital ships with large firepower.
  
• New British Heavy Cruiser III variant with displacement between 16,500 and 19,500 tons, available after 1925. This type of hull has a low freeboard and can produce ships which combine speed, stealth and decent firepower.
  
• New British Heavy Cruiser II variant with displacement between 12,500 and 16,900 tons, available after 1925. This strong hull with high freeboard can offer cruiser designs with powerful armament at a reasonable cost.
  
• New Spanish Heavy Cruiser II variant with displacement between 18,500 and 21,500 tons, available after 1925. This type of hull is a hybrid between a modern battlecruiser and a heavy cruiser, so it can produce quite strong ships at an affordable cost.
  
• New Spanish Small Dreadnought variant with displacement between 15,500 and 17,500 tons, available after 1906 for Spain and also for China. This hull, which is similar to the Spanish Dreadnought Espana, offers the design of cheap, rather cumbersome ships which, though, can be quite powerful as gun platforms.
  
• New Armoured Cruiser variant with displacement between 8,500 and 10,500 tons, available after 1903 for Italy and China.
  
• Improvements in late Spanish cruisers with new parts and hull fixes.
  
• New towers and other parts for several older hull types.

A British battleship variant mounting six 20-inch guns

NEW GUNS & IMPROVEMENTS

• Various new gun models for the British late techs.
  
• Update of Spain’s late guns with new models.
  
• Quadruple 13-inch guns only available for the French.
  
• Quadruple secondary guns (2,3 and 4 inches) for the French.
  
• Gun scale fixes according to feedback.

There are several new hull types, such as this British Large Cruiser of about 30,000 tons

SHIP DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS/FIXES

• Fixed old bug which sometimes caused the AI to design ships with unoccupied barbettes or place very small guns on huge barbettes.
  
• New feature that stops you placing Secondary Towers or Funnels in front of Main Towers. Such designs will produce an error which you must fix. This new feature also repairs the bug of AI which could design unrealistic ships with funnels or secondary towers misplaced in front of a main tower.
  
• Increased the flexibility for all mount types. For every hull, you will notice much larger freedom in placing the various ship parts. Moreover, you can override the mount snap points by pressing the CTRL button so you can add the part (Towers, Funnels, Barbettes etc.) in a continuous area between the allowed space.
  
• Armor and Bulkheads weight rebalance. Heavily armored ships will have significant weight demands. Ships with maximum bulkheads will weigh more. Ships with minimum bulkheads will weigh slightly less, so the trade off between bulkhead protection and other ship assets will be more pronounced.
  
• The guns mounted in free mode are now placed in proper forward/rear alignment according to position, instead of facing always at the sides.
  
• Fixed various issues with boat decor (boats overlapping with other parts) and enriched the areas where boats can appear on deck or on ship parts.
  
• Various Auto-Design improvements aid the AI to build successful ship designs consistently.

You can now place the various ship parts with much more freedom

Funnels and Secondary Towers are automatically rejected if placed in front of Main Towers

AI IMPROVEMENT

• Further AI improvement makes AI ships to keep a more effective firing distance at all circumstances.
  
• Fixed issue which caused ships on scout/screen mode to fight at very large, extreme ranges, causing them to stall their movement too often.

NAVAL ACADEMY

New mission: “Enforce the British Rule”:
Germany has prevailed in World War II and has ultimately conquered Europe. France remains a client state and contributes with her naval facilities in the construction of a new, more powerful German Navy. Although weakened, Britain remains a potent naval force and aims to meet, engage and decisively defeat the growing German fleet. With scarce resources you are called to build the main force of your fleet, either focusing on battleships or by building more numerous advanced cruisers. Smaller cruisers and destroyers will supplement your attacking fleet.

Other

• Improved gun splash dispersion at close range. Shells that miss should not fly so wide against the target as before.
  
• Various text fixes for loading screens.
  
• Removed Naval Academy difficulty options, which were not working.
  
• Repaired graphics issues at lowest settings (Fast, Fastest) that made visuals completely broken and also caused torpedo trails to not be visible.

Note: Due to the many hull fixes and new mount mechanics, your previous saved designs for Naval Academy will become not functional.
Latest intel provides information about a new hull type... in next patch!

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

• Official Forum
• Steam Forum

Hello admirals,

Despite the difficulties of 2020, which have affected everyone’s life as well as the game’s development, we continued to provide several updates and significantly improved the game. We deeply hope that Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts has already become a game that you enjoy and thank you for your ongoing and precious feedback that we so much appreciate.

We want to assure you that we acknowledge all your concerns and suggestions and today we would like to inform you about what are our definite plans for the next patches that are going to be delivered within 2021.

We will continue to monitor your feedback and hotfix anything necessary that you report. The next major updates are organized as follows:

• Core patch 1 - Core of campaign including Custom Battle saves
  
• Core patch 2 - Crew and officers
  
• Core patch 3 - R&D and Tech Progression
  
• Core patch 4 - New nations and map expansion

The first short campaign version of the game will be playable for two nations (British Empire, German Empire) and will expand with content in every next core patch.

Patches 1-3 will be made based on a campaign map covering the North Sea and will feature the conflict between Great Britain and Germany. New ships, new game features will be offered as the game shapes up around this first playable campaign.

The Steam Early Access version of the game will become available upon the finalization and polish of Core Patch 3.

In Core Patch 4 and onwards we shall progressively add new playable nations and expand the map until we fully cover the campaign with everything needed.

We cannot promise a specific date of arrival for those next major updates but we confirm as above their flow of delivery within 2021. Furthermore, we confirm the allocation of another dedicated programmer who will focus solely on needed improvements for the ship design system.

Thank you all for reading. We will get back to you with specific information about the next big update of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts!

The Game-Labs Team

Hello Admirals,

First of all, we wish you a great time with your family and friends during these festive days. Today we are happy to announce our new update which offers crucial improvements on battle gameplay, especially regarding the formations and evasion system. In this patch we also introduce the ability to use the reverse engines of ships, an action that is very useful for evading torpedoes and maintaining formations. Various other improvements have been worked on, based on your recent feedback. You can read more information below.

[h2]Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Alpha-10[/h2]

SHIP EVASION IMPROVEMENT

The auto-evasion system has been fully reworked and optimized. Ships under AI control will be much more effective in evading other ships or torpedoes. Especially, the ship-to-ship evasion system is now more advanced and is based on ship size and rank, following the standard military navigation rules of the Royal Navy:

Priority of Passage Rules

1. Ship of higher tonnage has priority
   
2. Ship with Captain of higher rank has priority
   
3. For ships of the same rank and size, the ship on the starboard has priority.

The new system makes ships to keep formations with realistic and consistent maneuvers without doing unneeded circles.

The new "Reverse" button is found next to the speed slider.

SHIP REVERSE MOVEMENT

Ships are now able to use reverse engines. This is done automatically when ships have to auto-navigate for evading or keeping a formation. Additionally, the player can also use the reverse engines at his own will, by pressing the new "Reverse" button. In that manner, the ship can turn harder to avoid, for example, a torpedo or another ship. Moving backwards at will is possible but you will realize it has no tactical benefit in most battle situations, while it can harm your engines.

AI OPTIMIZATION

AI will keep an effective firing distance according to battle situation. Destroyers will approach in more deadly ranges according to their torpedo armament. Lightly protected ships will desire to keep a safer distance. This was especially needed for AI battlecruisers which now they desire to fight inside their immunity zone more often, but not too far away and becoming ineffective.

AI and player Formations are held with more consistency

OTHER

• Auto Design Fixes: Some important bug fixes regarding the auto-design system make AI ships to never have empty barbettes or have very large unoccupied gaps on the deck.
  
• Partial Penetration Damage Increase: Shells that partially penetrate the armor will now make more damage. Small gun damage will be more significant against Battleships as a consequence, but still not comparable to the impact of big guns.
  
• Weapon info improvement: The average damage estimation of guns and torpedoes will be closer to actual battle numbers (previously the numbers were just not accurate showing x100 more damage). Additionally, penetration ranges can expand up to 35 km (previously they were limited to 25 km).
  
• Weight balances for armor, bulkheads, guns: The new balance of weights for integral parts of the ships allows for more realistic constraints. Auto-Design is also affected positively because it makes wiser choices for building more durable and effective ships.
  
• Tonnage Minimum Step for Design reduced: Minimum step was 50 tons and now it is 25 tons. This change not only helps the player to utilize tonnage more effectively for designing ships but also helps auto-design to use almost all free tonnage (previously it could leave several tonnes unused making AI designs weaker than the player’s on average).
  
• Minimum Speed for BB, CA and CL slightly increased: For BB and CA now the minimum speed is 16 knots (from 15) and for CL is 17 knots (from 16). This was needed for allowing more realistic designs of those ship types and to help AI to not build impractical, very slow ships.
  
• Minor penetration balance for 8-inch and 9-inch guns: Those guns have slightly more penetration at their extreme ranges.
  
• Initial playable missions increased: Initially the unlocked missions are nine (instead of five), to help players progress. (Note: The ironclad missions should be not so tough, due to the partial penetration damage increase).
  
• Various minor hull fixes.

AI ship designs should be overall more effective and balanced

Warning:
The "Mission difficulty" setting is still a work in progress and currently has no effect.

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

• Official Forum
• Steam Forum

The Game-Labs Team