UBOAT News

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Decreased the wind speed threshold at which the crew closes the external hatch when external hatch management is enabled. Previously, there was a range of weather conditions where seawater could easily enter the boat, yet the crew would still open the hatch for ventilation.
- Improved the simulation of water inflow through the external hatch. Previously, water could sometimes enter even when waves should have been deflected by the conning tower walls.
- It is now possible to order officers to perform certain tasks, such as blowing the ballast tanks or switching the power state of devices, even when they are choking due to unbreathable air in the compartment.
- General improvements to the behavior of characters choking due to unbreathable air in the compartment. Time compression is now always disabled when crew members begin to choke.
- Fix: When any of the central compartments on a Type VII U-Boat were evacuated, some idle sailors could sometimes behave erratically or attempt to pass through the evacuated compartments to reach a bunk on the other side of the boat.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: In the "Southern Routes" campaign objective, the number of performed ship inspections could sometimes continue to be registered even after reaching the gold level, causing the progress bar to display values such as: 16 / 15.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Fix: The camera was getting too close to the attack periscope at the second zoom level, causing some UI elements to occlude the bearing.
- Fix: After opening the breech door and interacting with the stern tube on Type VII U-Boats, the ordnance management screen for the bow torpedo tubes was opening instead of the one for the stern.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- German localization update by Ruby.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- The tutorial missions can now be replayed multiple times.
- Fix: Resolved an issue that could prevent tutorial no. 4 from detecting when the player ordered the pump to be enabled, causing the tutorial to not progress.

[h3]U-Boat:[/h3]
- It is now possible to manually open/close, flood/drain, and launch torpedoes from tube V on Type VII U-Boats.
- The "Fresh air" modifier for air quality has been split into two separate modifiers: ventilation through the air intake on the bridge and ventilation through the external hatch. Additionally, it now takes significantly longer to fully ventilate the boat.
- Active ventilation is now much more effective on the surface than under the water, as it actively brings fresh air into the boat (rather than only circulating it).
- Improved movement through the hatch from battery room no. 1 to the control room in FPP mode on Type VII U-Boats. Previously, the movement through the hatch sometimes wasn't being triggered.
- The searchlight is now automatically turned off when the crew hides into the U-Boat during a dive.
- Navigation lights are now being enabled only when the U-Boat is near a friendly port or if friendly units are actually spotted.
- After starting a new game, the stern gyro angle receiver on Type VII now starts with a 180 degrees gyro angle set instead of 0 degrees. For the stern tubes, this angle means shooting straight ahead, making it a more appropriate starting value.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Added a new mechanic with standing orders for the crew, allowing automation of certain tasks. These orders can be toggled on and off in the "Crew" screen under the "Boat" tab. Currently, there are three available standing orders:
---- Air compressor management: When active, the crew will power on the air compressors whenever the reserves are not full.
---- Lighting management: The crew switches to red lights at night, blue lights during a silent run, and normal lights in all other cases.
---- Main exterior hatch management: The crew closes the hatch during rain and rough seas and opens it in all other conditions to improve ventilation.
- Fix: Crew members could sometimes forget their movement path and stop executing their assigned orders when passing through a bulkhead that the player had ordered to be kept closed. When this issue was occurring, it could cause various side effects, such as the gyrocompass not being disabled after ordering a silent run or sonar decoys not being launched after player's order.
- Fix: The skipper would sometimes say, "Join the watch crew" without reason when a leader officer switched between the UZO and binoculars.
- Fix: If two crew members were ordered to open the same hatch, one would open it, but the second would close it again.
- Fix: Sailors would disappear from the conning tower and reappear on the deck after closing an external hatch following a direct order on certain U-Boat types.
- Fix: Sailors would sometimes close the external hatch from the wrong side. For example, a sailor on the bridge would sometimes descend into the conning tower instead of closing it directly from the bridge.
- Fix: If the player attempted to move a wounded sailor to bunks occupied by crew members playing cards, the warning message displayed did not accurately reflect the situation.
- Fix: Resolved a few minor issues with the sailor watching over the valves. After flooding the tanks, he was often leaving the station without a reason for a few seconds before coming back. Also, when an order was performed by him, an order bar was appearing in the global order queue in the corner of the screen, but it wasn't disappearing later on until a view was changed to a different one.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- A warning is now displayed under the dive schedule if it is currently inactive, along with an explanation of how to activate it.
- Fix: The map can now be moved by clicking and dragging while selecting a destination square for a supply ship in the HQ.
- Fix: The rudder indicator in the upper-right part of the screen would sometimes rapidly switch between 0 and 1 degrees when the U-Boat was docked.
- Fix: After starting a dialogue with a lead officer, opening the reputation purchases menu, and then closing it, some UI elements would incorrectly appear during the dialogue, allowing unintended interactions that could break the UI.
- Fix: Resolved an issue where a damage notification would not disappear after all repairs were completed.
- Fix (regression of 2025.1): The "days later" label during quick travel was fading out along with everything else instead of remaining visible on the screen.

[h3]Technical:[/h3]
- Improved performance in the section view, with more noticeable improvements at higher texture quality settings.
- It is now possible to rebind the interaction hotkey from "E" to any other key.
- Removed a few memory allocations that could be avoided.
- Fix: Resolved one issue that could interfere with saving the game state.

[h3]AI:[/h3]
- Fix: Aircraft could, in rare cases, stop attacking the U-Boat without a clear reason.

[h3]Simulation:[/h3]
- Fix: Removed a discontinuity in TDC calculations that could make the parallax correction dial flicker between two values. It was happening in edge cases, such as when attempting to compute a solution for the forward tubes and a target behind the U-Boat.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix (regression of 2025.1 Patch 8): The U-Boat's hull could become completely black after docking and having the external damages repaired.
- Fix: Explosion effects could in some cases not have a shader loaded and appear partially or fully purple.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Time compression and pause are now automatically disabled when entering an officer’s FPP mode (they can be toggled back).
- Fix: If the game was saved in an officer’s FPP mode (other than the skipper), it would often load in the skipper's FPP mode instead.
- Fix: If the game was saved in FPP mode, then after loading it and opening the TAB menu, officer portraits could be missing from the menu. They would only appear later after switching views.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

UI:
- Fix: Issue with not being able to move a milk cow to another square in HQ.

Missions:
- Fix (regression of 2025.1 Patch 9): Warning shots above the huts in Hopen Island mission weren't detected by the game.

Yours,
DWS

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