UBOAT News

Hello Sailors!

After silent running with blue lights on for two weeks and working on the next update, we are finally ready to share this version publicly. We try to be as open as possible about the production, but during major work, there is often not that much point in sharing what we have even on the unstable branch as that would be just a pure frustration for you and us :)

Let's move on and talk about the update B121 which is now being released on the "Unstable" branch. If you like to test it, change to it in the game properties from the Steam Library, but keep in mind that this is still a work in progress.


With this version, we overhauled the travel system in the game. The most visible change is that the fast travel mode is gone. We didn't like it, you didn't like it, nobody liked it seems, so we finally got rid of it.

Instead, there is a new time compression available that is 5x as strong as the base one. It allows you to leave areas in a decent time, similarly to the old "fast travel" mode, but it works in a much more cleaner fashion. It can be used at any point in the game without restrictions, while no cheating is involved and all laws of physics are respected. It was a major technical challenge, as physics tend to break easily on such fast time scales and we had to perform many optimizations, fixes and ensure proper handling of edge cases.

Another major change is that long distance travels on the map work differently than they used to. There were many technical changes which translate more or less to such end effects:

• Movement on the map is much slower without time compression. There is much more time to plan an attack on the nearby groups, if you prefer to play real-time without using the active pause.
  
• On the other hand, travel on the map is much faster than before, if the new time compression is used, so this change may satisfy both the patient and impatient players.
  
• All small cheats here and there were removed that translate to more realistic navigation.
  
• U-boat's range is set to real-life values.
  

Those changes address some of the suggestions we were getting from the community since the release. We hope you will like them.


Before this update, there wasn't any decent mechanism that would make it possible to play through the whole war in a reasonable time. We had one solution during the Kickstarter backer beta, namely skipping calendar dates, but it was a confusing solution. We removed it and planned a new system. Finally, we had time to implement that new system. Let's talk about the details.

• Resupplying your u-boat at the port is no longer instant and takes some time to be done. Your u-boat will be moved off-duty until all ordered equipment is loaded inside. You can skip the wait with a click of the button and continue normally. We didn't add any animations for the port workers so far, but we have such plans.
  
• Crew gets fatigued over time and needs a vacation from time to time. We found historical sources about places where u-boat crews were resting and added them into the game. You can send your guys to simply rest in the port city you are currently in or spend some budget and let them relax in a French Chateau or Eagle's Nest.
  
• New travel system ensures that patrols last much longer when it comes to passing in-game hours and days (it's also closer to real-life historical data).
  

These changes ensure that time will progress much faster and potentially allow the player to play through the whole World War II which was always our intention for UBOAT.

We balanced the game accordingly to match these changes. All HQ tasks take much more time to be researched and officers get fatigued much more slowly, which was also a commonly requested change.




To implement the delayed resupply of the ship at ports we had to improve the user interface for storages to make such information readable. It was an unexpected work that lead us to a major change how the storages are used and delayed this update by a week.

Starting with this version it's possible to open storages and plan all logistics without having any officer selected. All transport tasks are later completed by officers with certain roles and sailors under their command.

It's also possible to plan ahead the torpedo loadout and don't let your officer choose it automatically.

All ongoing transport tasks are clearly presented in the storage's user interface.

Another change, is that it's now possible to purchase ammunition directly into a gun's storage.




With this version, we worked on some tougher technical matters that needed some time to be done. The game should generally run more smoothly, with better performance and lower RAM / VRAM usage.

Have you ever noticed lags appearing before and after each rain in the game or after adding new sailors to the crew? They were caused by rebuilding geometry for the characters. Considering that the u-boat is pretty densely packed with unique characters we are displaying them in a very optimized way which has this downside that some CPU work is needed to get it going after each change of the clothing like equipping a raincoat. Starting with this version, it's a fully asynchronous process and those lags won't bother you anymore.


Starting with this version rewards for assignments are received only after talking with the leading officer in the port rather than clicking a button on the open sea. This change keeps the mission open until that point. It allows you to report all sunk ships and other events normally after completing the main objective of your assignment. It was a small oversight in the design that we didn't manage to fix for the initial Early Access version.


You're truly amazing. Thank you for all the conversations we have. We listen to each and every one of you. Your voice is heard and we take it all into consideration. Please play the new patch and let us know what you think.

Yours,
Deep Water Studio

Fellow Kriegsmarine Crewmembers,

we're happy to announce that update B120 is already available for everyone after an intense testing period. Thanks to everyone who helped us tweak it and made some important fixes - your support is greatly appreciated!

Here's what you can expect after downloading our new patch:

Improvements:

• Added bug reporting tool accessed by pressing F11.
  

Fixes:

• Lowered memory usage when the game state is being saved.
  
• Decreased lag when ships are spawned in the scene.
  
• Starting a new game was partially keeping research from the previous session.
  
• Blood pools from the previous session could stay in the scene after loading a game state.
  
• Ships could stop after loading a game state if they were in the middle of certain AI behaviors.
  
• A few sound effects were stopping to be handled correctly after loading a game state.
  
• Carry item orders were often ended prematurely if more than one person was working on it.
  
• U-boats operate on Atlantic in smaller numbers.
  
• Save system fixes.
  
• Hydrophone was working on the sea surface and had doubled range since B119 (this problem may persist in saved game state files).
  
• Flames on a few types of NPC ship decks weren't properly restored after loading a game state.
  
• Flag masts are now functioning correctly on Turm II and Turm IV.
  
• Discipline level could become corrupted if the whole crew was moved off the board.
  
• Improved performance in Axis ports.
  
• Game could become permanently paused after loading some game states.
  
• Hydrophone upgrades were working incorrectly.
  
• Port characters could be moved to player's ship due to an error.
  
• Right clicking on UI while the camera is in TPP view no longer releases the character from the station.
  
• Periscope's lock target is automatically cleared when the target is no longer seen.
  
• It's no longer possible to lock periscope on a port, aircraft, torpedo, mine or anti-submarine net.
  
• Map shortcut ("M") no longer can be used in the headquarters screen.
  
• Notifications no longer can be clicked when their effects would cause issues in the current state of the game (dialogues, HQ screen, etc.).
  
• Button for accepting rewards at HQ could become not interactable after certain steps were taken.
  
• Ammunition Production I rewards are no longer displayed with unreadable green color.
  
• Warehouses now have 20 torpedo slots instead of 12.
  
• Correct flags in Portsmouth.
  
• Discipline penalty applied by hunger was incorrectly displayed with green font.
  
• Food wasn't automatically replenished in the kitchen if food ran out in the storage and later was resupplied from the warehouse.
  
• Hunger notification wasn't restored after loading a game state.
  
• Turm IV gun projectiles weren't shot forward in the direction pointed by the crosshair in manual mode.
  
• Audio system fixes.
  
• Game states saved while time compression was enabled were loading in a partially incorrect state.
  
• Work stations in Battery Room no. 2 had too strict flooding intolerance levels.
  
• Character could become stuck and would no longer move in random cases.
  
• Fixed problem with "Saving..." notification remaining indefinitely on the screen.
  
• Game notifies player if saving game state was unsuccessful for some reason (running out of free space on HDD or game error).
  
• U-boats docked in ports were too easily moved by the waves and often ended up beached.
  
• Food consumption is no longer affected by time skipped by gameplay means or cheats.
  
• Sink ship missions could target ships stationing in ports.
  
• U-boat section view lighting fixes/improvements.
  
• Torpedoes were sometimes fired at a different target than expected by the player.
  
• Fixed few errors logged into reported logs.
  
• In-game console could, in some cases, use all available memory and freeze the game.
  
• Logger optimizations.
  
• Discovery of port/ship components (like AA guns) is now triggered in a more user-friendly way.
  
• It was possible to discover port/ship components with the opposite side of the periscope.
  
• After following a few steps map would be no longer possible to open.
  
• Fixes to a few errors that could loop and decrease performance.
  
• Ships could be launched into the sky after loading a game state.
  
• Cursor was missing on the defeat screen if the player was in FPP view.
  
• Carry item orders were usually failing, if there were a few copies of the item in the source storage.
  
• Fixed inappropriate behavior in the kitchen.
  
• Fix for entering land areas in the middle of the Atlantic.
  
• Improvements of contact precision could throw player back to travel mode.
  
• Decreased alarm discipline penalty.
  
• Sailors assigned to the officer could open storage instead of him if he drunk coffee before arriving at the storage.
  

As always, please leave any feedback you may have in the separate forum thread for patch B120: https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/1/1652171126120146895/

We are reading through all your comments and reviews and we're happy that we are getting so much support. We're going back to work on further improvements so stay tuned for more!

Yours,
Deep Water Studio

Hallo Mariners,

Wie geht's? We hope you're doing good. Either way, we have great things to announce!

Here's the changelog of patch B119. As you can see it's massive! The saves from B119 are compatible with B118, but some of the new things will be available only after starting a new game in B119. We are aware that it may be a pain, but we think it's worth it.

Improvements:

• Crew list now displays the personality of a sailor, if it was already revealed.
  
• Flags of some countries are now divided between the navy and the merchant fleets.
  
• Index of the torpedo launcher being loaded is now displayed on the portrait of the officer.
  
• Equipment produced through HQ (T3 torpedoes, advanced ammunition types and potassium absorbers) is instantly resupplied in all ports.
  
• It's now possible to abandon current assignment at a cost of reputation (translations for this feature may be inaccurate in some languages).
  

Fixes:

• Fixed growth of save files each time after a game state was loaded through the main menu and saved again, to a point when they were stopping to load.
  
• Confirmed fix for a problem that was causing around 60% of crashes reported to our system.
  
• Fixes for few confirmed memory leaks and decreased memory usage.
  
• Decreased memory usage spikes related to a generation of character meshes and textures.
  
• Major memory optimizations related to terrain generation.
  
• Terrain segments are now generated in smaller batches to save memory.
  
• Application is cleaning memory more often during loading tasks.
  
• Errors logged after upgrading conning tower were fixed.
  
• Characters, especially the cleaner, could become trapped between the wall and the torpedo being loaded in the stern torpedo room.
  
• Animation of loading stern torpedo launcher is now correctly aligned with the handle.
  
• Correct flag files for a few countries.
  
• Officers could sometimes panic after discipline fell to zero.
  
• UI scale slider was moved from "Control" to "Video" settings.
  
• Character name changes are now correctly reflected on the UI above character heads.
  
• Germany produces much more AP ammo at the start of the game.
  
• All ammunition types are much cheaper. Ports store ammunition in much larger quantities.
  
• Combat helmets and rebreathers are cheaper.
  
• Wilhelm Wolff is correctly recognized as a crew member.
  
• Port in which player's u-boat is docked is being periodically restocked like all other ports.
  
• Hydrophone bearing was incorrectly aligned by outdated code. It worked properly only if the ship was oriented directly at the north.
  
• Rudder's drag force was pointed in a wrong direction when the ship was moving backward, causing very odd behavior in case of large rudders.
  
• Few fixes to ship's combat AI.
  
• Upgrades of certain equipment were making radio room or listening room unusable.
  
• Carry item orders could get stuck.
  
• Characters were unequipping raincoats after stepping into the port, even if it was raining.
  
• Mouse pointer could disappear after upgrading the ship.
  
• It's no longer possible to save during a dialogue.
  
• Ships could enter land areas if they were returning back to port on low fuel.
  
• OG and BB convoys had mistaken waypoints on their path.
  
• Identification book was stopping to be functional after loading a game state (this problem is carried over in save files).
  
• Few types of ships had an incorrect setup of propellers and rudders. The most common side effect was the ability to hear their propellers above water from large distances.
  
• Unread messages notification could be visible, even if zero unread messages were present after loading a game state.
  
• Fixed bug that could occasionally cause infinite loading screen.
  
• Exploration mode speeds up sandbox time more than before.
  
• Food is much cheaper.
  
• Fixed not clickable listening room problem.
  
• Characters could play incorrect animations after loading a game state and they could appear in wrong places.
  
• In-progress torpedo loading animation was off after loading a game state.
  
• Officer that was playing cards could get interrupted by sailors eating a meal.
  
• Characters are faded in and out when they start or stop animation that doesn't have specified transition.
  
• Optimization to interiors rendering.
  
• Characters could be lit by the sky ambient and stay that way if a game state was loaded with them sleeping on starboard upper beds (they had a blue tint).
  
• Stored torpedoes no longer can be damaged.
  
• Lowered memory usage and improved performance while loading game states.
  
• Ships in the scene weren't receiving any visual damage and weren't wetted by the sea after loading a game state.
  
• Fixed problem with freezing viewport after using periscope in manual mode.
  
• Aircraft sent from the carrier over long distances wasn't initialized correctly and were causing occasional problems.
  
• Hotkeys for selecting officers were working only for the first 6 officers.
  
• Certain sound effects could become permanently muted after hydrophone was used in manual mode.
  
• Characters could start running in one place when u-boat started to sink.
  
• Cranes in La Rochelle could become invisible after loading a game state.
  
• Crew was much less willing to eat food after the first alarm was over.
  
• Ports and other groups could not load, if a player entered, left and entered their area again in a short time.
  
• Game could freeze during terrain generation.
  
• Increased error durability of the save system. Saved game state files without major structural problems should load normally when smaller problems are encountered.
  
• Fixes to some of the most common auto-reported errors.
  

Did you think that's big? How about we tell you we already launching a new patch B120 for the branch Unstable? So for those of you, who want more from life, we prepared another changelog.

Fixes:

• Lowered memory usage when the game state is being saved.
  
• Decreased lag when ships are spawned in the scene.
  
• Starting a new game was partially keeping research from the previous session.
  
• Blood pools from the previous session could stay in the scene after loading a game state.
  
• Ships could stop after loading a game state if they were in the middle of certain AI behaviors.
  
• A few sound effects were stopping to be handled correctly after loading a game state.
  
• Carry item orders were often ended prematurely if more than one person was working on it.
  
• U-boats operate on Atlantic in smaller numbers.
  
• Save system fixes.
  

Thanks again! We will never be able to thank you enough for all your valuable feedback and reports. You're the best Seemänner in the whole wide world! Talk to you soon.

You can report the bugs here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/0/2530372519560243154/

Yours,
Deep Water Studio

Hallo Seeleute,

We are still testing the B119 before release. It should be ready for all in 2-3 days. If you want to try it already, just change your branch in the game Steam properties to Unstable. So just to give you some heads up, here are some changes coming.

• This version fixes the most common problem with the saves.
  
• Crew list now displays the personality of a sailor, if it was already revealed.
  
• Flags of some countries are now divided between the navy and the merchant fleets.
  
• Index of the torpedo launcher being loaded is now displayed on the portrait of the officer.
  
• Many memory (RAM) fixes and optimization.
  
• Errors logged after upgrading conning tower were fixed.
  
• Characters won’t be stuck in the stern torpedo room.
  
• Animation of loading stern torpedo launcher is now correctly aligned with the handle.
  
• Correct flag files for a few countries.
  
• Officers could sometimes panic after discipline fell to zero.
  
• UI scale slider was moved from "Control" to "Video" settings.
  
• Character name changes are now correctly reflected on the UI above character heads.
  
• Equipment produced through HQ (T3 torpedoes, advanced ammunition types and potassium absorbers) is instantly resupplied in all ports.
  
• Germany produces much more AP ammo at the start of the game.
  
• All ammunition types are much cheaper. Ports store ammunition in much larger quantities.
  
• Combat helmets and rebreathers are cheaper.
  
• Wilhelm Wolff is correctly recognized as a crew member.
  
• Port in which player's U-boat is docked is being periodically restocked like all other ports.
  
• Researched equipment is now instantly restocked without additional conditions.
  
• It's now possible to abandon current assignment at the cost of reputation.
  
• Hydrophone bearing was incorrectly aligned by outdated code. It worked properly only if the ship was oriented directly at the north.
  
• Rudder's drag force was pointed in a wrong direction when the ship was moving backward, causing very odd behavior in case of large rudders.
  
• Upgrades to radio and listening room.
  
• Carry item orders fix.
  
• Food is much cheaper.
  
• Many, many more minor fixes.
  

Thank you for all your reports. We couldn't have done it without you! We welcome all new players wanted to see the patch and hopefully, we will release it soon to all and start working on the next one.

Yours,
Deep Water Studio

Achtung! Patch B118 has arrived!

As we promised, we're committed to making UBOAT better. Again, thanks to your feedback, we were able to prepare a new patch as quickly as it was possible.

Important notice: Game saves from previous versions will not work with B118 version. If you want to continue your game from old save, change the game version to B117 after the patch is downloaded. And do not worry - it won't be like this after every major update. We will do what we can to make sure new patches can read saves from previous builds.

Fixes:

• Research is now fully restored from the saved game states.
  
• Reputation purchases were impossible after the game state was loaded.
  
• Reverse engine gears work correctly again.
  
• Blowing ballast was sometimes impossible when control room was flooded.
  
• Character that was stopping to use UZO could rotate during the animation.
  
• Periscope's engine was making noise when the periscope was stationary instead of when it was rotated.
  
• Launched torpedoes were stopped after the game state was loaded.
  
• Torpedo icons on a map from now on have a direction arrow attached to them just like the ships and aircraft.
  
• Cursor is becoming visible when ALT is pressed during the use of a gun in manual mode.
  
• Certain sound effects could become muted after loading a game state.
  
• Gun was randomly becoming locked after firing in a manual mode.
  
• Fuel is now always correctly restocked at ports.
  
• Sailor could take place of an officer during execution of a task in certain cases.
  
• Reputation points label wasn't refreshed after loading a game state.
  
• Sandbox could launch in the middle of the Atlantic if certain steps were taken before starting the game.
  
• Characters playing certain animations could appear in a wrong place after loading a game state.
  
• Food was sometimes not consumed anymore after loading a game state.
  
• Becoming lost directly after loading a game state.
  
• AA gun ammunition storage now has specified capacity.
  
• Unspecified characters were appearing on nearby units and ports after loading a game state.
  
• Scratch sound played when a song was interrupted is now much quieter.
  
• Staying at periscope depth doesn't apply any depth-related discipline penalties from now on.
  
• Minor optimizations to memory usage during loading.
  
• Main menu improvements.
  
• UI fixes for widescreen resolutions.
  
• General UI fixes.
  
• Translation fixes.
  

We are really thankful for your support and an overwhelming need to help us make UBOAT better. We are reading every single discussion here on Steam - and of course every review. It's great to have such an amazing community!

For anything related to patch B118, we've created a new thread right here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/1/1649917420749140844/

We're going back to work! Thanks again and stay tuned.

Yours,
Deep Water Studio