UBOAT News

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Localization:
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.

Crew:
- Added new orders that allow to carry a wounded sailor to specific bunks. These orders appear after clicking with a right mouse button on a wounded sailor. They’re useful for situations such as unblocking a torpedo tube when a wounded sailor’s bunk is preventing its operation.

UI:
- Added a sound effect in the UI after refuelling the U-Boat.
- In FPP mode, activator icons now disappear at a closer range to reduce clutter. They also fade in and out smoothly instead of appearing or vanishing instantly.
- Transactions with a cost of zero no longer appear in the budget summary tooltip.
- Fix: A lengthy report was appearing on a send report button after completing the mine-laying assignment, rather than a short summary as in all other cases.

Simulation:
- Fix: Ping effect on the U-Boat's hull was sometimes audible, when there was no possibility to be pinged by ASDIC of the nearby ships, for example due to angle constraints. This issue affected only the associated sound effect; AI wasn't able to actually detect U-Boat with ASDIC in these cases.

AI:
- Ships temporarily stop to perform torpedo avoidance maneuvers, while avoiding a collision with another ship to do a better job at avoiding the collision.
- Fix: Ships now consistently steer clear of partially sunk wrecks; previously, they sometimes ignored them.
- Fix: Ships were performing torpedo avoidance maneuvers less effectively when the game was running for a long time without quitting and time compression was in heavy use.

Graphics:
- Fix: Resolved an issue where rain particles could sometimes fall all at once instead of uniformly.
- Fix (regression of 2025.1 Patch 8): Issue with transparency or purple texture appearing on sailors since Patch 8.

U-Boats:
- Added more detailed colliders to battery room no. 2 on Type VII U-Boats.
- Increased the threshold above which bunks are considered to be unusable due to water in a compartment for the officer bunks on Type VII U-Boats.
- Fix: Toilet doors could close back without a reason, when player was opening them in FPP.

General:
- Adjusted the order of campaigns available for selection when starting a new game, to keep the campaigns appropriate for new players near the top.
- Fix: Visual indirect contacts sometimes didn't had a visualization displayed on the map and it wasn't clear where they were spotted.
- Fix: Visual indirect contacts in dark weather are now being referred to as "movement in the dark". Other contact names usually weren't fitting the situation.
- Fix: The icon for the port warehouse worker was misplaced on the floor in FPP mode.
- Fix: If a reputation upgrade that increases a number of missions for selection was purchased, and the campaign was started with 2 or 3 mission selections, and all campaign objectives in the current port were completed, it was possible to get 3 mission selections rather than the expected number (4 or 5).

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Localization:
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- 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.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- German localization update by Ruby.

UI:
- Added a notification indicating when the boat is operating in silent running mode.
- Fix: Interface scale affected the new overview screens inconsistently across screen resolutions, sometimes in an odd way.

Missions:
- The "Routine" and "Semi-routine" mission type settings (selectable during campaign setup) now also reduce the frequency of side missions during patrols. Also, when they do appear, they tend to be more routine in nature.
- When Operation Weserubung campaign is active, there is a guarantee to have missions belonging to that campaign available for selection each time a new mission is being selected.

Simulation:
- Lowered the reliability of active sonar on enemy ships on Easy and Medium AI difficulties. Its range remains the same, but detection chances are reduced.
- Rough weather now negatively affects passive hydrophones and active sonars. This effect can be inspected in the tooltip of the detection notification.
- Refined the formulas for active sonar detection. Previously, a small saturation issue meant that countermeasures made no difference until a certain threshold was exceeded.

Damage model:
- Fix: Repairs performed by the crew on NPC ships were sometimes not being triggered, even when there was a repairable damage on the ship.

Graphics:
- The U-Boat is now cleaned of all visual damage after docking at any port.
- Updated DLSS libraries to the newest version.
- Fix: A model issue with one of the bunks on Type II U-boats.

Crew:
- Fix: Fixed a few instances where officers confirmed orders verbally, even though they didn't receive a direct order from the player and were changing stations for different reasons.
- Fix: Fixed instances of crew falling off board due to minor collisions.

General:
- It's now possible to use time compression in FPP.
- Fix: If HQ screen was opened while using a periscope in a manual mode and then left, the camera was entering into an invalid state and wasn't reacting to user inputs.
- Fix: The abandoned U-Boat in the side mission now has a German flag on the contacts list rather than neutral.
- Fix: Fixed several of the most common errors in the logs.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Localization:
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Russian localization update by Hard.

Sinking credit:
- Added a new realism setting called "Sinking credit requirements", with three presets. It determines if it's a requirement to confirm sinking to get a credit for it. It also specifies, if there is a reward for damaging a ship or not. This setting currently has no effect on the overall realism percentages to avoid affecting ongoing playthroughs.
- From now on, it's possible to confirm sinking also by interacting with a previously sunk ship's remains on the sea or by having a hydrophone operator working at the station when the wreck is still making noise after sinking.
- Fix (regression of 2025.1 Patch 6): It was possible to deal insignificant damage to a merchant ship and then order its crew to evacuate to be able to report it as seriously damaged.
- Fix (regression of 2025.1 Patch 6): Sank merchant ship GRT could be not counted towards campaign objectives in some saved game states started before Patch 6. This problem was going away after a few weeks passed in the game.

UI:
- Fix: A wrong tooltip was appearing, after hovering the cursor above "Periscope magnification mode" setting in the in-game settings.
- Fix: It was sometimes possible to select an operation in the HQ slot that was meant to be automatically managed by the HQ.
- Fix: The launch date of the first U-Boat and the career start date of the first commander on the newly added summary screens were usually wrong.

Map:
- Improved torpedo salvo visualization on the map to more closely match the actual path that torpedoes take after launching them, when the gyro angle is high and they have to make a long turn.
- Fix: Map contacts were sometimes visible in map views that shouldn't have them displayed, for example assignment selection.

Crew:
- Fix: Stress on the ship is now zeroed after using a quick return to port or starting a vacation.

Ships:
- Fix: A propeller and a rudder of T2 tankers were remaining parented to a wrong half of the ship, once they've been broken in half.
- Fix: Corrections to propeller foam effect on Bogue-Class, Illustrious-Class, C3 and Isles-Class.
- Fix: "Money" item wasn't appearing in merchant ship cargo holds and wreckages that were meant to contain them.

Missions:
- Fix: Torpedo launchers UI is now automatically closed, if it was left open, whenever tutorial asks to select one of the officers.
- Fix: Devices that are used in the tutorials are now automatically repaired, if they are damaged, to avoid issues.
- Fix: Compartment evacuations ordered by the player are now cancelled during tutorials, when they affect a compartment with a device that needs to be used.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Localization:
- German localization update by Ruby.

Damage model:
- Starting with this version, once a ship’s crew is evacuating, the ship is credited and counted towards GRT statistics and objectives. In addition, the player can report having severely damaged the ship for 75% of the reward. If the ship is sunk afterwards, the reward increases to its full amount. Note: this change will work only for newly encountered ships in old game states.
- Some of the cargo carried on ships may break loose, once they rotate vertically and damage the compartments from the inside. Added sound effects indicating such events. This happens most often in cargo holds of merchant ships, but is not exclusive to them. It's a small damage buff that helps to sink ships in a vertical position.
- It's now easier to sink ships that were already evacuated.

Crew:
- Added a verbal report that the crew of a ship is evacuating.

Missions:
- Added new objectives in the overview in tutorial #4 to remind the current goal.
- Panic attack after a crash dive in tutorial #4 now starts much faster.
- Target patrol area in tutorial #4 is now ensured to be deep enough for the tutorial to work well.
- Fix (regression of 2025.1): Camera could intensively shake in tutorial #4, after getting close to the second U-Boat that was attacked by an aircraft.
- Fix: Once radioman detects transmission in tutorial #4, it's no longer possible to order him to stop working in the radio room in any way.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to sink the second merchant ship in tutorial #3 in any other way than using explosives as asked by the tutorial.

General:
- Time compression is automatically toggled off when a ship that is observed visually by the crew is breaking in half, to make it possible to see it.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Localization:
- Spanish localization update by Miguel Haakon.

Damage model:
- It's now easier to sink motor torpedo boats with guns.

Missions:
- A spare packet of mines in mine laying assignments is now optional. It's no longer obligatory to take it before departing, if player prefers to instead take more torpedoes.
- Salvo spread in tutorial #3 is now automatically set to at least 120 meters, to increase the likelihood of scoring a hit.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to send officers to the second ship without explosives in tutorial #3. Buttons that were making it possible to remove them are being blocked.

Optical gear:
- Speedup to optical gear rotation after pressing "shift" key is no longer instant, but instead grows over time. At maximum speed, it's much faster than it was before. This change is mainly aimed at binoculars and UZO, if game is played with realistic magnifications, as it makes it much easier to scan the horizon with them. Overall rotation speed of UZO was also increased.
- Fix (regression of 2025.1): There was a small measurement error present when a stadimeter was used to measure a distance.

General:
- Fix: E/F-class destroyers and MTBs could crash the game when they were breaking in half.
- Fix: Gameplay settings changed during playthrough are now correctly saved into the game state and preserved after reloading.

Yours,
DWS