Dear Skippers,
We know that you can't wait for the update 2022.1 to be finally released.
We have to inform you though that we have to move the release until mid October from the previous estimate of the late summer.
We will inform you about the exact release date by the end of September. We will also have many other big announcements (good ones) to share at the release day of the update.
To get a better impression and why this update is so long in coming, below is an overview of the features and content that will land in your hands soon. It's the largest update we've published for UBOAT thus far!
Please note that this overview is not a comprehensive list, since we want to leave you some nice surprises for the release day. There are some exciting things about this update that we haven't shared yet!
We will publish a complete list of changes made by the update 2022.1 at the day of its release.
Ports
The ports have undergone a total overhaul. The new ones are more detailed and historically correct. The ports reworked in 2022.1 include La Rochelle, La Spezia, Bergen and many more. There are also new ports added in.
We had to pass many technical challenges to ensure that these ports will work with an optimal performance and at the same time look well, since UBOAT is designed for playing on very vast areas represented in 1:1 scale. To put that into perspective, on average three ports collectively cover an area of 30 - 40 square kilometers that often equals to the entire world in many top RPG games.
The update 2022.1 will allow you to build submarine pens in ports that historically had them to protect the stationing u-boats.
The new ports feature functional locks that keep the water level inside the port at a stable level, independent from the tides on the sea.
Once you return to the port after a successful mission, you may be greeted by the welcoming committee.
Allies
Hedgehog launchers are now installed on Allied ships starting with late 1942. It is a new major threat that may lead your u-boat to a demise. The comforting part is that Hedgehog attacks look quite cool and you may find some enjoyment in the process.
Allies now sometimes start massive air raids at ports in which you are stationing. This is a new threat in this update, but along with it comes a way to permanently protect from it, namely the submarine pens mentioned previously. Once you build them, you can put your sunglasses on and relax in the pen.
Starting with 1944, CHANT tankers and by extension Empire F type coasters now appear in the coastal convoys. There will also be new destroyers added, but it's a top secret for now. Please burn the message once you read it.
Steam Deck compatibility
This release improves compatibility with
Steam Deck in many ways. The issues with disappearing cursor in the launcher were fixed and various quality of life improvements were added to make the game easier to use on this console.
Environment
There are now seasons in 2022.1 with snow in the winter and plant life reddening at the autumn.
Climate zones are now also part of the simulation with plant life variation depending on the region.
Tides are now simulated within the game. Their intensity varies from region to region. Most of the mainland European ports don't experience strong tides. The highest among them are in La Rochelle with up to 5 meter variation of the sea level. On the other hand, British islands have some of the highest in the world with Cardiff seeing even a 10 meter variation, which is more than enough to impact gameplay in a subsim game.
Sun now appears at a correct position for the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
It's common in UBOAT to see mainly the sea and the sky for most of the time. For this reason, we put work into that second part, by implementing volumetric cloud simulation, which makes the clouds much more pleasant to look at.
Civilian fishing boats now populate the seas close to the shores.
Crew management
We've seen your feedback that it doesn't feel right that some officers had to remain in a bed during battle, because all stations were occupied. To improve that, officers can now command the ship and coordinate damage control from the control room just like in the movies about submarines. By doing so, they can support others and provide various ship-wide benefits that correlate with their skills.
Alarm can be now controlled manually. Toggled alarm provides various bonuses, although also has some small drawbacks that make it unsustainable for long periods of time. It will allow you to keep your officers at work as long as it's active, even when their energy drops to zero, but keeping them in such a state for a long time may be dangerous for their health.
Crew now uses toilets. It's a small addition that adds to the overall immersion.
User interface
We've put a lot of work to make the user interface more user friendly, practical and better looking.
Torpedo solutions are now visualized on the map to help you decide, if the moment is right for launching a salvo. The game is also estimating an impact angle at the target and warns you, if it's too high for the impact detonators.
Also, the identification book used with the manual mode of the periscope and UZO is now organized into categories. This is a tremendous improvement for practicality.
We've improved TAB menu usability. Orders are now more organized and sorted in a practical way. The screen has also received some structure that makes it more pleasant to work with it.
Map drawings are now stored in the saved game states and restored after loading them back. This was a commonly requested feature that we managed to include in this release.
Bug fixes
The largest chunk of work are definitely bug fixes and small incremental improvements. If you are a long term player, you will quickly notice that practically everything in the game has received some small touches and many bugs have disappeared from existence.
Yours,
DWS
