UBOAT News

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- German localization update by Ruby.
- Updated Korean font.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Continuation of texture work for Type VII interiors. These new changes should improve performance on systems that experience lags due to a texture streaming feature.
- Fix: Various improvements to the bottom part of Type II engine room overall look and resolved various issues with volumetric fog that could appear there.
- Fix: Minor graphical issues with one of the cargo hold scenes on merchant ships.
- Fix (regression): Incorrect texture on an external hatch on Type VII U-boats. Also fixed an incorrect texture on antenna on preview models of several U-boats and incorrect texture on starboard wooden panels on Type VIIB conning tower.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added a hint to a manual mode of all devices that pressing ALT will show UI, while TAB will open the quick orders menu (it's the same hint that was used earlier exclusively in regular FPP). This hint may be disabled in the settings.
- Aesthetical improvements to Crew Specializations screen.
- Fix: Loading free items onto the ship is no longer mentioned in the budget log.
- Fix: Updated miniatures of U-764 and U-995 to have submarine pens in the background.
- Fix: In some cases, after clicking on a new message notification, while radioman was walking to his station, nothing was happening.
- Fix: Uboatopedia and Credits buttons in the main menu were remaining in the clicked state after use.

[h3]Audio:[/h3]
- Fix: Radio music could sometimes desynchronize between individual speakers on the ship and have some echo.
- Fix: Radio music was remaining audible during map cutscenes, but it usually didn't fit there.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: Terrain issue near Narvik.
- Fix: Some warehouses didn't had a visible roof from the inside.

[h3]Mission:[/h3]
- Fix: Reworked initial objectives for the rendezvous with a Japanese submarine assignment. There were several issues with the previous objectives.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Using a mouse wheel to zoom out from a manual mode of a device now always switches the view to the section view of the U-boat (when playing with normal perspective selected in the settings). Previously, it was dependent on the previous views and sometimes confusing.
- Fix: Fixed several errors spotted in the logs sent with the use of the in-game bug reporting tool.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to completely disable periscope stabilization by editing game sheets.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Spanish localization update by Miguel Haakon.
- English localization update by Steve.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- Portuguese localization update by AlexShuma.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- Chinese localization update by Alex Zheng, JM-LeiDao, 36 D, Xenon_Tennessee, 人生多忐忑, 肚子困脑袋饿, Parrot with Carrot.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Czech localization update by Spid3rCZ.
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Korean localization update.
- German localization update by Ruby.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added a possibility to hide contact tooltips on map by pressing ALT, to make it easier to use map tools.
- Added a warning in the torpedo launchers UI, that the periscope was manually rotated along with a button to reset that rotation. This was a common reason of unusual salvos reported using F11 bug reporting tool. This warning appears only when salvo visualization is enabled in the settings.
- Added a bearing display in a ship selection panel and reworked the overall layout of this panel.
- Fix: After hovering a control that displays a number of working sailors and switching view mode using any keyboard shortcut, the tooltip from that control would remain on the screen and not disappear.
- Fix: Values of various parameters displayed in the tooltips that were calculated from the modifier trees were sometimes incorrect. This problem was affecting only values displayed in the UI, while the actual values used in the simulation were unaffected.
- Fix: UI was entering into an invalid state, when any HQ-related notification was clicked in an interaction view (for example in the radio menu).
- Fix: It was possible to set "Any" as a sailor group schedule entry using a right mouse button, even though it wasn't intended and couldn't be set with a left mouse button.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- New & updated textures for Type VII interiors for a more efficient memory use. These updates should improve the apparent texture resolution within the same texture budget.
- New textures for binoculars, buckets, footbridge and several other objects.
- Fix: U-boats displayed in the U-boat selector were very blurry, if a low UI scale was set in the settings.
- Fix: Fixed various texture issues in several scenes that appear during external interactions, for example during a meeting with another U-boat.
- Fix: Resolved various issues with behaviour of lines between masts on Liberty ships after they took damage.
- Fix: Rendering distance in FPP was sometimes too low during a foggy weather and was clipping objects at distances at which they were still clearly visible.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: It was possible to spot merchant ships occluded by buildings in the southern part of the port of Wilhelmshaven, while departing on a default route.
- Fix: Improved the default undock route in Marseille and La Spezia.
- Fix: Large gap near Sydney.
- Fix: NPC ships weren't correctly avoiding coasts near Cardiff, if the tide was low.

[h3]Uboatopedia:[/h3]
- Updated Uboatopedia in English and German.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: Cleaning sailor could sometimes clip with a torpedo in the stern torpedo room on Type VII U-boats.
- Fix: Sailors could break limbs due to a heart attack.
- Fix: Crewmen could sometimes perform certain actions indefinitely, like trying to carry a wounded sailor to safety, if something has interrupted the animation.
- Fix: Extend periscope button wasn't having any effect for a long time after moving periscope manually.
- Fix: Sailor rescued in the Enigma assignment was lacking a background story.
- Fix: Fixed several mismatched voice clips in the German voice no. 4.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix (regression): In tutorial #4, the "Set destination" objective was duplicated and one of the copies was remaining active for the entire duration of the mission.

[h3]Technical:[/h3]
- Reorganized and decreased dependencies between game's asset packs to decrease memory use, especially during long playthroughs.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Fix: After saving and reloading the game many times, it was possible for the wave splash effects on the bow and conning tower to move away from their correct locations.
- Fix: During view mode transitions in the captain only mode, for a fraction of a second, water and an incorrect fog could be visible inside the U-boat.
- Fix: After zooming out from the radio menu using a mouse wheel, the camera could sometimes switch to an unexpected mode for example FPP mode of another officer.
- Fix: Officer assigned to AA gun on Type IIA and Type IID could accidentally hit sailors on the conning tower.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Portuguese localization update by AlexShuma.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- German localization update by Ruby.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added an option in the control settings to disable a confirmation popup that appears when attempting to swap between diesel and electric engines.
- Added an explanation on a crew list why a sailor was hospitalized, in case that he was hospitalized long-term with an unknown duration (currently it's the case only with tuberculosis).
- Fix: The cooldown for alarm and silent run in the TAB menu was counted only when the TAB menu was open.
- Fix: Item names weren't translated, when they were appearing as a requirement to select one of the options during an external interaction.
- Fix: Skill names that appear as a requirement to select one of the options during an external interaction, now have a suffix telling specifically that they are skills to avoid misunderstandings.
- Fix: Headquarters task details window wasn't always reliably disappearing after a click on the background.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix (regression of Preview 22): The cook could stop to work in the game states saved in previous versions of the game. For game states already affected by this problem, please turn on/off the alarm or a silent run to make it work.
- Fix: If a sailor assigned to radioman with a Medical Coordinator skill has treated a wounded crew member and he had wounds requiring hospitalization, there were several issues present afterwards - the exclamation above the sailor's head wasn't disappearing and he was moving away instead of sitting on the wounded crew member's bunk.
- Fix: Lock marker was appearing in a wrong position, if a periscope view was zoomed in using a control key.
- Fix: During a high time compression, wounded sailors could fall out of the boat's interior and drown.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: After reaching a patrol target area and sinking at least a one ship, the GRT displayed among the objectives was having counted in all ships sunk before reaching the destination.

[h3]Type II:[/h3]
- Fix: It wasn't possible to open/close the hatch between the control room and the conning tower from FPP, while being in the control room.

[h3]Achievements:[/h3]
- Fix: Argentinian Escape achievement was impossible to obtain.

[h3]Uboatopedia:[/h3]
- Added a possibility to open Uboatopedia from the main menu (currently it's only partial, full document will be added before the full release).

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: Citizens could still walk on water in Bergen.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix: The view was stopping to be updated and there were render pipeline errors present in the log, when looking from a certain spot in the bow torpedo room on Type VII U-boat towards the stern of the boat.
- Fix: Volumetric lighting emitted by flars could have some artifacts when observed in FPP or in a gun manual mode view.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Fix: It was possible to undock from a port, even when there were goods loaded onto the U-boat, after switching to electric engines on the surface.
- Fix: On a first use under the water after starting a new campaign, the ventilation system wasn't refreshing the air. This issue may persist for one use in older game states.
- Fix: After loading a saved game state, it was possible to start in a FPP mode of a different character than the one which was being controlled when the game state was saved.
- Fix: If a periscope was fully extended at a periscope depth and then officer who was using it, was unassigned from it, the periscope visibility penalty was stopping to be updated and the periscope could be spotted even when the U-boat was deep under the water.
- Fix: Enemy aircraft could indefinitely circle around the port after an air raid. There was a similar fix in Preview 14, but it was happening in different circumstances.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

We are thrilled to announce that UBOAT will be leaving Early Access and launching its Full Release on August 2nd, 2024. This marks a significant milestone in our journey, and we couldn't be more excited to share the complete experience with you.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Since entering Early Access, UBOAT has evolved tremendously thanks to your invaluable feedback and support. We've refined gameplay mechanics, expanded features, and polished every aspect of the submarine warfare simulation you've come to enjoy.

We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has been part of this voyage. Your passion and dedication have been the driving force behind UBOAT's development.



Mark your calendars for August 2nd, and get ready to command your fully-equipped U-boat during World War II.

Stay tuned for more details about the full release.

Yours,
DWS