UBOAT News

Dear skippers,

A second hotfix for B130 is now ready for download. It brings new bug fixes and general improvements to this release.

This update doesn't affect saved game states in any way.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Localisation:[/h3]
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Chinese localization update by SparrowSHEN (Q:173678441).
- German localization update by Ruby.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: Diving steers station was becoming unmanned after a shift change (the game was still considering it to be manned though - this problem didn't had gameplay implications).

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: After opening a customisation screen of any sailor during tutorial #5, the tutorial popup would remain on the screen.

[h3]User interface:[/h3]
- Fix: It's no longer possible to open other views by clicking on the notifications during the team selection in an external interaction. The selection needs to be completed or cancelled first.
- Regression fix: Changes to some of the gameplay settings in the main menu (like the autosave) weren't applied since the B130 release.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Improved journal entries about performed inspections to include the target ship's name and coordinates. Also removed the assumption that the ship is neutral from the message.
- Fix: Value of some types of messages wasn't decreasing with the passage of time.
- Fix: Allied ships no longer accept player's ship surrender, if they are intentionally attacked after 8th May 1945.
- Fix: Radio transmissions were active for too short time, if dynamic travel system was enabled in the campaign settings.

Yours,
DWS

Dear skippers,

We prepared the first hotfix for B130. It fixes just one blocker bug. We wanted to publish it, before moving on to other fixes.

This update doesn't affect saved game states in any way.


[h2]General:[/h2]
- Regression fix: After using the hydrophone in manual mode at least once, cursor was permanently staying on the screen, making FPP mode unusable.

Have a nice day ːsteamthumbsupː

Yours,
DWS

Dear skippers,

Today we are ready to release the next major update to UBOAT - B130. This time there won't be unstable version testing and the update shouldn't affect your existing saved game states. Our intention is to keep things this way moving forward as we get closer to leaving the Early Access.

To keep your expectations on a correct level, while this update adds a respectable amount of new content, it doesn't add new ports and submarine pens - we are working on them for quite a long time and plan to publish them in version B131.

Having that said, let's move on and discuss the additions of this update!

[h2]The war is over[/h2]
We completely overhauled how the end of war looks like in the game. With this update, you will encounter historically-based messages from the high command during that time like the Rainbow Order (Regenbogen-Befehl) and surrender instructions on 8th May 1945.

Since you will receive conflicting orders, you will have a choice, if you want to scuttle and leave your u-boat or surrender to the enemy. Technically, nothing will stop you from ending things Rambo-style though.

When you leave your ship, you will now see a nice summary of your u-boat's entire service.



[h2]Fast mission completion[/h2]
We decided to cut some travel time from the game and from now on, you will be able to finish your mission right after completing the main objective. The return trip will happen automatically with an immersive return cutscene.

If you prefer to live through everything in the game, you can disable this option in the settings, but we encourage you to give it a try. It makes the gameplay much more dynamic.



[h2]AOB tool[/h2]
This update introduces AOB tool to the game. It's possible to switch between the regular course tool and AOB at any time and the angles will be converted accordingly! Both tools are now also updated in realtime to reflect bearing changes of your current target.



[h2]Reporting changes[/h2]
We felt that there wasn't enough benefit from taking the risk and sending your reports on the sea. We wanted to fix that problem in this update. Right now your reports will loose some of their original value as the time goes on, since they become less relevant to the command with the passage of time.

There were also other related changes:
- When you dock in a port, all reports are handed in automatically without use of the radio.
- Regular sailors no longer can send radio messages. Radioman officer is required for such a task.

[h2]Damage model improvements[/h2]
We reworked the damage model used for NPC ships to on average make torpedoes with magnetic setting (MZ) more effective than with the impact setting (AZ).

We listened to your feedback and did detailed testing, which confirmed that torpedoes with MZ setting were less effective than AZ ones, while it should be the other way around.

Our testing on medium GRT merchant ships indicated that MZ torpedo had a 65% chance to completely disable a ship, while AZ torpedoes had a 85% chance to achieve that. After this rework MZ torpedoes have a 95% chance to completely disable a medium GRT merchant ship, while AZ torpedoes have 70% chance, which should be much closer to reality.



[h2]Polishing[/h2]
Since we are getting closer to the stable release of the game, our main focus was to polish the existing content and repair problems. Some of such changes include:

- There is now an intro movie played before a new campaign is started.
- New loading hints and backgrounds.
- Crewman's hair now appears under a cap in a fitting way instead of disappearing. There is a model adjustment prepared for each cap-hair pair.
- Many changes to the content added into the journal to improve its readability and organization.
- Balance pass of experience points and Iron Cross points gained for various tasks.
- Added an integration with rich presence feature in Discord.
- Fixed a problem that the music played through the radio wasn't detectable to the enemy hydrophones.
- And much more!

[h2]Full changelog[/h2]

You can read the full changelog of this update here: FULL CHANGELOG.

Yours,
DWS

Get the bundle!

We are also happy to announce that we have joined forces with other titles in the Underwater Prison bundle.
Our special bundle is available to you at a lower and convenient discount - 10% on both of the games!

The bundle includes number awesome and exciting titles:

- Prison Simulator
- UBOAT

Prison Simulator - Get a taste of Prison Life! Become the Prison Guard and deal with dangerous convicts. Prison management, lots of daily activities. Will you become the best Guard in history? Or maybe you'll turn into the worst scumbag this Prison has ever seen?

UBOAT - A simulator of a submarine from WWII era. It is a survival sandbox with crew management mechanics while its primary theme is life of German sailors. The boat is their home, but it can become their grave at any time.

Dear skippers,

A fourth hotfix for B129 is now ready for download. It brings new bug fixes and general improvements to UBOAT.

This update doesn't affect saved game states in any way. If you would like to find out more, please take a look at the changelog below!

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Korean localization update by Zaswedx.
- Turkish localization update by tokyo.
- Chinese localization update by SparrowSHEN (Q:173678441).
- Spanish localization update by Tordo.
- German localization update by Ruby.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix: Damages on the conning tower weren't restored after loading a game state.
- Fix: Improved alignment of various elements on Illustrious-class and Bogue-class aircraft carriers.
- Fix: Highlight that appears after moving a cursor over a distant ship was appearing noticeably above the ship, if realistic Earth curvature rendering was enabled in the settings.
- Fix: C3 merchant ships contained a white element without a texture after being damaged.
- Fix: After loading a game state with a smoker on the conning tower from the main menu and then again in-game, the cigarette would turn pink.

[h3]Physics:[/h3]
- Improved physics behaviour consistency between time compression scales. This change fixes the issue with u-boat's velocity changing considerably after enabling a time compression.

[h3]Simulation:[/h3]
- Fix: G7a torpedoes range now depends on the selected speed setting (5 km for the fastest, 7.5 km for the medium and 12 km for the slow).

[h3]World:[/h3]
- Fix: A small fraction of the merchant ships was trying to trade goods from source to target port that didn't match the export list of the source port and their cargo holds were empty as a result. Example: a food transport from GB to CA.

[h3]User interface:[/h3]
- Added possibility to assign the same outfit to all sailors.
- After entering customization screen from the crew list and then leaving that screen, the game is now returning back to the crew list instead of closing all views.
- Fix: Added explanation to the tooltips that appear after moving a cursor over orders present in the queue that right-clicking removes them from the queue.
- Fix: Improved consistency of the selected gun mode after leaving the gun and assigning the officer back again to it.
- Fix: Wounded and panicking sailor notifications were not present after loading a game state with wounded or panicking crew members.
- Fix: Fixed problem with displaying additional panels (management, journal) when opening them while camera was centered on an npc ship.
- Fix: After opening the task management view with officers for the first time, there was a "new shift" button present, but it shouldn't be there.
- Fix: After creating a new shift, a tooltip associated with it was wrong until the interface was closed and opened back again.
- Fix: If the entire fuel was bought from a port the fuel tank bar of the u-boat was showing zero fuel, until this interface was re-opened.
- Fix: Ensured that the game is going back to the same view that was active before certain fullscreen views were opened after they are closed. For example: entering and leaving the HQ or the radio manual mode.
- Fix: Manual mode button was missing after using the radio from the FPP view unless player switched to another officer and then back to the radioman.
- Fix: After a game state with a changed color filter in the periscope was loaded, the button in the UI was incorrectly displaying the default filter as the active one.
- Fix: Device manual mode was stopping to function correctly, if player pressed ALT while using it, then entered the Management view, entered a customization screen of any crew member and then went back.
- Fix: GRT indication was missing on the ship selection panel (as opposed to the panel that appears in the periscope's manual mode).
- Fix: GRT abbreviation in the periscope's manual mode panel wasn't translated to the local language.
- Fix: Portraits were appearing in the periscope's manual mode view, if player pressed ALT, entered HQ and went back.
- Fix: Ship's buoyancy bar wasn't updated in the periscope UI when any of the tools was open.
- Fix: Notification about resupply ship being sunk by the enemy, was not appearing in the majority of the cases.
- Fix: Course estimation tool in the periscope's manual mode was disabled, if player selected the target outside of the periscope UI and then entered the manual mode.
- Fix: After selecting a target for computing a torpedo course, saving the game state, quitting the game, starting the game, loading back the game state and changing the target, the target mark would remain on the previous target icon on the map in addition to the new one.
- Fix: Sailor status wasn't updated on the list after adding/removing him from the crew until the list was re-opened.
- Fix: Units of measurement weren't translated to the local language.
- Regression fix: Tooltips in the main menu weren't working since Hotfix 3.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: Officers with a first aid in their schedule were not helping some of the wounded sailors.
- Fix: Officers having the "Medical Coordinator" skill, at least one helper and first aid in the schedule, could sometimes swap between two wounded characters in a loop.
- Fix: Medic moving towards a wounded sailor wasn't able to open doors on his way, if there was an order to keep them closed after passing.

[h3]AI:[/h3]
- Fix: Resupply ships (milk cows) no longer try to fight nearby ships in any circumstances and prefer to escape whenever possible.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: It was possible in rare cases to get punished by the command for sinking a ship that was a target in the side mission.
- Fix: Enigma and gold recovery missions now require from the player to free space for the diving suit in the storage before leaving the port, if it's missing.
- Fix: Map contact in the lost u-boat mission was sometimes moving in circles, if visibility was very low due to the weather.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to complete tutorial #1, if player bought the entire fuel from the port before starting it.
- Fix: If a game state was saved during tutorial #4 right after the friendly sub was sunk by the plane and then reloaded, the tutorial wouldn't progress correctly.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Steam Rich presence statuses are now localized into the end user's language. This change may take some time to propagate to all language versions of the game.
- Ship representations are now loaded into scene at a larger distance to make the experience more coherent.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to start a tutorial mission when there are survivors on board.
- Fix: Turm II and Turm IV description was slightly wrong. This change may take some time to propagate to all language versions of the game.
- Fix: LST ships were not being loaded and convoys with such ships were sometimes stopping in place (this class of ships starts to appear late in 1944).
- Fix: "Milk cow" supply ships were sometimes not able to reach the selected destination, if the path to it was complicated and were becoming stuck near the coast.
- Fix: Units were loosing an ability to drop depth charges and bombs, if they dropped them at least once and then a game state was saved and reloaded.
- Fix: Empire ships were not correctly identified by the crew. This problem wasn't affecting their torpedo solutions, but could be problematic, if player used their identification as a base for making a custom solution.
- Fix: After moving torpedo from one launcher to another, it wasn't possible to launch it.
- Fix: Time compression was sometimes stopped without a clear need during storms or if there was a friendly u-boat nearby.
- Fix: Increased precision of computing a total passed distance that is displayed during the mission summary.
- Regression fix: Fuel wasn't consumed in real-time, but only if the time compression was enabled (this problem wasn't affecting other resources).

Yours,
DWS