UBOAT News

Dear captains,

We're thrilled to announce that UBOAT has officially left Early Access and the 2024.1 Full Release update is now available for download on Steam!

After an incredible journey of development and collaboration with our amazing community, we've reached this significant milestone. We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the players who have supported us throughout Early Access. Your feedback, suggestions, and patience have been invaluable in shaping UBOAT into the game it is today.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The 2024.1 update brings a host of improvements, new features, and polished content to enhance your submarine warfare experience. We encourage all players to download the update and dive into the full release version of UBOAT.

But this is just the beginning! We remain committed to expanding and refining UBOAT. More updates are already in the works, and we can't wait to share them with you in the coming months.

Once again, thank you for being part of this amazing voyage. Now, it's time to dive and enjoy the fruits of our collective efforts!

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- English localization update by Steve.
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- Korean localization update.
- Portuguese localization update by AlexShuma.
- German localization update by Ruby.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: In tutorial #3, if player has assigned sailors to officers up to the limit, it wasn't later possible to assign sailors to the officer when tutorial asked for that, without freeing them first from the other officers.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Fix: There was still one tooltip left, where torpedo gyro angle could be displayed outside of 0 to 360 degrees range.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to use Czech characters while naming a point on the map.
- Fix: It wasn't explained in the description of Turm I, II and IV HQ tasks, that those conning towers are meant for Type VII U-boats.
- Fix: "Course to view" button now also works correctly in the other camera modes than a periscope.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- DLSS updated to version 3.7.20 from version 2.2.
- Fix: With some graphic settings, snow was visible through walls.

[h3]Uboatopedia:[/h3]
- Added a Japanese version of Uboatopedia.
- Updated English, German and Polish versions.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: While departing from Kiel and plotting a route to a destination somewhere on the Baltic Sea or north of Denmark, the automatic route was going through the lock of Kiel canal without a reason.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: One of the officers on U-47 didn't had an assigned role by default.

[h3]Modding:[/h3]
- It's now possible to define crew customization options in Crew.xlsx / Customization. This allows for adding new clothes etc. with mods.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- From now on, after changing U-boat to another type, all stored items are moved to the new unit.
- Increased the time it takes for the officers to consider torpedo a miss.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Czech localization update by Spid3rCZ.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- German localization update by Ruby.
- Korean localization update.

[h3]Type VII:[/h3]
- Stern gyro angle receiver is now implemented for manual use on Type VII U-boats. Warning: There may be minor issues present with it in old game states until changing the boat at least once to a different type.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Updates to Type VII textures.
- Fix: DLSS, FSR, TAA and motion blur effects weren't working correctly on the sky. This had various side effects, for example, it could blur the stars on the sky.
- Fix: Dido-class cruisers didn't had a correctly rendered ambient on them and looked somewhat off.
- Fix: Labels on the map could intensively flicker during cutscenes, if FSR or DLSS were used.
- Fix: Smoke could sometimes appear for a short time in the middle of the sea with no ships nearby.
- Fix (regression): Wrong texture was appearing on the table in battery room no. 2 after it was folded out.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Fix: Targeting symbols on a contact list weren't disappearing outside scroll range.
- Fix: Gyro angle displayed in the tooltips on a gyro angle receiver, was sometimes outside of the range used on the physical dials (0 to 360 degrees).
- Fix: When there were any orders listed in the bottom left part of the screen, they were clipping with buttons used to switch the map modes.

[h3]Uboatopedia:[/h3]
- Fix: When Uboatopedia was opened, there was a pause sound effect played in the background.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: Some areas were a bit too shallow near Brest and it was hard to leave the port during a low tide.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: Improved alignment of several crew animations related to torpedo loading in the stern torpedo room and animations used near engines on Type VIIs.

[h3]Technical:[/h3]
- Optimizations to memory usage and overall performance.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Fix: U-boat was moving considerably slower than it should with its current speed, on the two highest time compression levels.
- Fix: Shot down aircraft floating on the sea could explode after being rammed by an U-boat.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- German localization update by Ruby.
- Updated Korean font.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Continuation of texture work for Type VII interiors. These new changes should improve performance on systems that experience lags due to a texture streaming feature.
- Fix: Various improvements to the bottom part of Type II engine room overall look and resolved various issues with volumetric fog that could appear there.
- Fix: Minor graphical issues with one of the cargo hold scenes on merchant ships.
- Fix (regression): Incorrect texture on an external hatch on Type VII U-boats. Also fixed an incorrect texture on antenna on preview models of several U-boats and incorrect texture on starboard wooden panels on Type VIIB conning tower.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added a hint to a manual mode of all devices that pressing ALT will show UI, while TAB will open the quick orders menu (it's the same hint that was used earlier exclusively in regular FPP). This hint may be disabled in the settings.
- Aesthetical improvements to Crew Specializations screen.
- Fix: Loading free items onto the ship is no longer mentioned in the budget log.
- Fix: Updated miniatures of U-764 and U-995 to have submarine pens in the background.
- Fix: In some cases, after clicking on a new message notification, while radioman was walking to his station, nothing was happening.
- Fix: Uboatopedia and Credits buttons in the main menu were remaining in the clicked state after use.

[h3]Audio:[/h3]
- Fix: Radio music could sometimes desynchronize between individual speakers on the ship and have some echo.
- Fix: Radio music was remaining audible during map cutscenes, but it usually didn't fit there.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: Terrain issue near Narvik.
- Fix: Some warehouses didn't had a visible roof from the inside.

[h3]Mission:[/h3]
- Fix: Reworked initial objectives for the rendezvous with a Japanese submarine assignment. There were several issues with the previous objectives.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Using a mouse wheel to zoom out from a manual mode of a device now always switches the view to the section view of the U-boat (when playing with normal perspective selected in the settings). Previously, it was dependent on the previous views and sometimes confusing.
- Fix: Fixed several errors spotted in the logs sent with the use of the in-game bug reporting tool.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to completely disable periscope stabilization by editing game sheets.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Spanish localization update by Miguel Haakon.
- English localization update by Steve.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- Portuguese localization update by AlexShuma.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- 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.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Czech localization update by Spid3rCZ.
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Korean localization update.
- German localization update by Ruby.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added a possibility to hide contact tooltips on map by pressing ALT, to make it easier to use map tools.
- Added a warning in the torpedo launchers UI, that the periscope was manually rotated along with a button to reset that rotation. This was a common reason of unusual salvos reported using F11 bug reporting tool. This warning appears only when salvo visualization is enabled in the settings.
- Added a bearing display in a ship selection panel and reworked the overall layout of this panel.
- Fix: After hovering a control that displays a number of working sailors and switching view mode using any keyboard shortcut, the tooltip from that control would remain on the screen and not disappear.
- Fix: Values of various parameters displayed in the tooltips that were calculated from the modifier trees were sometimes incorrect. This problem was affecting only values displayed in the UI, while the actual values used in the simulation were unaffected.
- Fix: UI was entering into an invalid state, when any HQ-related notification was clicked in an interaction view (for example in the radio menu).
- Fix: It was possible to set "Any" as a sailor group schedule entry using a right mouse button, even though it wasn't intended and couldn't be set with a left mouse button.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- New & updated textures for Type VII interiors for a more efficient memory use. These updates should improve the apparent texture resolution within the same texture budget.
- New textures for binoculars, buckets, footbridge and several other objects.
- Fix: U-boats displayed in the U-boat selector were very blurry, if a low UI scale was set in the settings.
- Fix: Fixed various texture issues in several scenes that appear during external interactions, for example during a meeting with another U-boat.
- Fix: Resolved various issues with behaviour of lines between masts on Liberty ships after they took damage.
- Fix: Rendering distance in FPP was sometimes too low during a foggy weather and was clipping objects at distances at which they were still clearly visible.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: It was possible to spot merchant ships occluded by buildings in the southern part of the port of Wilhelmshaven, while departing on a default route.
- Fix: Improved the default undock route in Marseille and La Spezia.
- Fix: Large gap near Sydney.
- Fix: NPC ships weren't correctly avoiding coasts near Cardiff, if the tide was low.

[h3]Uboatopedia:[/h3]
- Updated Uboatopedia in English and German.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: Cleaning sailor could sometimes clip with a torpedo in the stern torpedo room on Type VII U-boats.
- Fix: Sailors could break limbs due to a heart attack.
- Fix: Crewmen could sometimes perform certain actions indefinitely, like trying to carry a wounded sailor to safety, if something has interrupted the animation.
- Fix: Extend periscope button wasn't having any effect for a long time after moving periscope manually.
- Fix: Sailor rescued in the Enigma assignment was lacking a background story.
- Fix: Fixed several mismatched voice clips in the German voice no. 4.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix (regression): In tutorial #4, the "Set destination" objective was duplicated and one of the copies was remaining active for the entire duration of the mission.

[h3]Technical:[/h3]
- Reorganized and decreased dependencies between game's asset packs to decrease memory use, especially during long playthroughs.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Fix: After saving and reloading the game many times, it was possible for the wave splash effects on the bow and conning tower to move away from their correct locations.
- Fix: During view mode transitions in the captain only mode, for a fraction of a second, water and an incorrect fog could be visible inside the U-boat.
- Fix: After zooming out from the radio menu using a mouse wheel, the camera could sometimes switch to an unexpected mode for example FPP mode of another officer.
- Fix: Officer assigned to AA gun on Type IIA and Type IID could accidentally hit sailors on the conning tower.

Yours,
DWS