UBOAT News

Dear captains,

We are excited to announce that the 2024.1 beta version of UBOAT has been updated with support for Steam Achievements. This new feature adds an extra layer of challenge and recognition for your accomplishments in the depths of the Atlantic.

Achievements in the beta version are not permanent and they will be reset once the full release of the game is shipped.


We are introducing them now to gather your feedback and ensure that they are all achievable in a correct manner.

Please note, that if you use console commands, no more achievements will be awarded during that campaign.

We look forward to your feedback on this feature!

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Portuguese localization update by AlexShuma.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- Czech localization update by Spid3rCZ.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Korean localization update.
- German localization update by Ruby.
- Fix: Resolved various issues with fonts used for S. Chinese version of the game.

[h3]Achievements:[/h3]
- Added achievements to the game. Their addition is intended as a beta test of achievements. All achievements gained during beta test will be reset at the time of a full release.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- When crew members are drowning inside flooded compartments, they no longer speak that it's hard to breath, but make a more suitable drowning noises.
- Cook now stops to work when a silent run is ordered.
- Fix: Officers could still perform a panic animation in some cases despite a previous change to that in Preview 18.
- Fix: Improvements to passing through obstacles by the crew inside the U-boat, for example when encountering a cleaning sailor on Type II near the radio room.
- Fix: Echosounder reading order was not working when there was some water inside the compartment.
- Fix: Various issues after changing the boat and promoting one of the officers to be a new skipper.
- Fix: If a quick return to port was initiated, while having exhaused officers, the officers were speaking one after the other that they are rested and ready to work during the return cutscene.
- Fix: Officers were sometimes speaking with a low-pitched voice, if they were sent on an external mission and a pause was enabled.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added information who sent the message in the new radio message reading view.
- Added an option to delete crew task presets.
- Lock icons in the periscope were reworked and now appear on the top bearing scale.
- Fix: If a new message notification was clicked when a radioman was walking to his station, there was no reaction to the clicks.
- Fix: Improved reliability of selecting units by clicks on the map.
- Fix: If torpedo launchers UI was open, at least one launcher was flooded, but all launchers were un-ticked, there was information present that the gyro angle is being synchronized, while in fact it's not synchronized in such a case.

[h3]Torpedo fire systems:[/h3]
- Fix: After moving a cursor above a salvo spread angle indicator, the displayed tooltip was displaying a value indicated by the inner pointer, while it makes more sense from the user's standpoint to display the value of the outer one.
- Fix: Schnellgang lights on gyro angle receivers were sometimes pointing a wrong synchronization direction.

[h3]Modding:[/h3]
- Fix: Compilation errors for mods using Cysharp.Text namespace in the code.

[h3]Uboatopedia:[/h3]
- Added a possibility to open Uboatopedia from the in-game escape menu.
- Updated Uboatopedia in English, German and Polish.

[h3]Audio:[/h3]
- Changed a sound effect played when clicking on campaign objective photos on the map.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Added extra defence to Aruba.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to change flotilla from Marseille and Brest. These ports were also not appearing as a destination for flotilla changes. This fix may require a new campaign to work.
- Fix: If a quick return to port was requested when the U-boat was at a periscope depth, the boat was sometimes partially submerging during the return cutscene. In such cases, the skipper was also sometimes starting to run in the direction of a conning tower during the cutscene with an orchestra.
- Fix: Issues with moving onto the U-boat from La Rochelle with a bunker in FPP.

[h3]Type II:[/h3]
- The gauge at the stern of the boat between the officer bunks was changed to be a depth meter Papenberg gauge.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: In the side-mission where command asks to locate a lost U-boat, if the target U-boat is sunk, the mission is now cancelled, since it's no longer possible to investigate the target boat.
- Fix: In the weather station placement assignment, if the radio transmission was received, the crew sent on land was automatically returning back, even if the U-boat was submerged or out of range.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix: The view could freeze in certain cases when zooming map without an enabled upscaling during a snowy weather.
- Fix: Due to an error, in some cases, waves could be rendered at their full intensity in enclosed areas like submarine pens.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Added voiceover to the commands on the gyrocompass tool.
- Fix: Gyrocompass commands weren't working correctly, when they were used after plotting a route on a map.
- Fix: Messages with personal news sent from the flotilla and a message from the command that the enemy is aware of the mission performed by the U-boat, were having player's ship specified as the sender in the journal.
- Fix: After positioning the orbiting camera exactly at the bow of a moving U-boat and then opening and closing the map, the camera was passing right through the interior of the U-boat and some graphical issues were occurring during this process.
- Fix: After quitting to the main menu from an existing game and starting a new playthrough, blueprint points from the previous playthrough were carried over to the new one.
- Fix: Probable fix for two U-boats displayed on each other in a new U-boat selector screen. We will appreciate confirmation from the community, if this issue is resolved.
- Fix: Issues with air toxicity in Type II conning tower.
- Fix: Fixes to several errors spotted in the logs sent to us using the in-game bug reporting tool.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

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

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: If an U-boat was changed to a different type during a mission, some things could work incorrectly for its duration. Especially, if it was a flotilla change assignment, it wasn't possible to complete the assignment by talking with the officer at the target port.
- Fix: From now on, tutorial no. 7 appears for selection only when it's possible to perform HQ tasks (always in Default HQ mode, after increasing HQ influences in Mixed mode or never, while playing with Automatic HQ).
- Fix: After completing tutorial no. 7 and still having other unfinished tutorials, a popup asking to start the next tutorial mission was appearing too fast, before leaving HQ screen.

[h3]Technical:[/h3]
- Fix: Major optimizations to CPU usage by background threads aimed at decreasing temperatures on CPU cores.
- Fix: A relatively rare, but major problem in a save system, that could silently break data in a loaded game state in a specific way. It could have various symptoms, one of the reported and confirmed ones, was that after entering Kiel, Brunsbuttel was loaded in its place.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Fix: AOB displayed in the tooltip of AOB dial could be beyond -180 do 180 degrees range, while the pointer was dragged with a mouse.
- Fix: After releasing all survivors in a port, a wrong label would appear at the center of the list, saying that there are no officers delegated to HQ.
- Fix: Resolved various issues with Cyrillic characters in assignment selection screen.
- Fix: A sea depth was displayed after hovering a cursor above some land areas on the map.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to switch tabs in the storage UI with a right mouse button. It could also cause some issues, while dragging items.

[h3]Launcher:[/h3]
- Updated news feed to download data from a new hosting.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: The U-boat was slightly clipping with a wharf after docking in Dunkirk.
- Fix: Misplaced gun in Halifax.
- Fix: Missing colliders at some port wharfs in Helgoland.

[h3]Audio:[/h3]
- Fix: Improved the looping of a sound effect emitted by the bow of an U-boat, when its moving forward.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix: Steam powered torpedoes were continuing to leave a trail on the surface, even if they were a dud and started to sink with a disabled propeller.
- Fix: Additional lighting that is used during dialogues with port officers could remain enabled after a dialogue, for example if a new assignment was selected.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: Crew members could receive injuries requiring hospitalization on land in not fitting situations, for example after chocking due to a lack of air or overworking.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- If a Type IIA U-boat is still used after 10th of June 1940, the command now orders the player to upgrade it to a Type IID or later, since all Allied shipping routes are beyond its range at this point and it's not possible to send it on any patrol assignment.
- Fix: After entering into FPP mode of an officer that was doing a long lasting work, for example was looking for targets on the conning tower, and then FPP mode was left, for example by opening map, the officer would resume his previous work immediately without any timout, even if he had no assigned role.
- Fix: If more than one torpedo was ordered at the warehouse directly to the launchers on the boat, some of these torpedoes would be displayed as not loaded in the torpedo launchers tooltip and if a tutorial #3 was started while having such torpedoes, the tutorial wouldn't progress past the point where it asks for flooding the tubes.
- Fix: Aircraft crew could fall out of the aircraft cabin when it was taking damage.
- Fix: Fixes to several errors spotted in the logs sent to us using the in-game bug reporting tool.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Fix: Parallel course button on a gyrocompass tool is now being disabled, when there is no target.
- Fix: Rudder amidships button on a gyrocompass tool wasn't resetting an existing route.
- Fix: After selecting a hydrophone operator, the contacts list in the upper-left corner of the screen was containing radio contacts in addition to hydrophone contacts.
- Fix: Selecting radio operator, now displays a contact list with radio contacts.
- Fix: After switching to another tab on the Crew list screen and switching back to the crew list, hospitalized characters were no longer marked with red color and they were clickable.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to use some options in dropdowns displayed at the top of the screen in periscope manual mode, when notifications were on the screen. The options were appearing under those notifications.
- Fix: It's now possible to switch to observation periscope using the toolbar visible near the left edge of the screen on all stations related to torpedo attacks, if the attack periscope is unmanned.
- Fix: If a rename operation was started on a shift in the tasks UI and then a tab was changed to officer tasks, it was no longer possible to rename anything afterwards or create a new shift until the game was restarted or escaped to menu.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: It wasn't possible to leave boat and enter the port in FPP in Dunkirk during a low or high tide.
- Fix: Aesthetical fixes to Edinburgh.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: If a sailor was assigned by a name to one of the squads and then he was removed from the boat, that squad was stopping to work correctly, until his assignment to the team was manually removed.
- Fix: If an officer was wearing a combat helmet and was wounded, he could end up in an incorrect state, where he was wounded, but he was standing upright and it wasn't possible to help him.

[h3]Audio:[/h3]
- Fix: After switching to a hydrophone manual mode, all external sounds were louder than they should be for about a second.
- Fix: Fixes to environmental sounds heard in the hydrophone, some of them were played incorrectly.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Fix: If a rebreather was equipped by officer and then put back into the cabinet, its durability was decreasing as if it was being used.
- Fix: Rebreathers could have a negative durability.
- Fix: Several fixes to errors that could make it impossible to select items for officers departing on an external mission or could make storages work incorrectly.
- Fix: Fixes to several errors spotted in the logs sent to us using the in-game bug reporting tool.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

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

[h3]Torpedo fire systems:[/h3]
- Torpedoes now apply more damage upwards. This change increases effectiveness of magnetic detonators.
- Fix: Tube I on Type VIIs was having an internal rotation of 1 degree to the left. Torpedoes launched from this tube were also rotated by 1 degree to the left.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Patrol assignments for Type IIA and Type IID U-boats now require to travel a shorter distance to complete the assignment, considering their shorter range and lower speed.
- Fix: In agent landing assignments that were targeting Iceland, patrols near the coast were of wrong nationality.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix: If a game state was loaded, which was saved with a disabled FSR and DLSS, these effects weren't working even though they were enabled in the settings.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added several new commands to a gyrocompass tool in UI.
- Fix: Mission selections number option was missing from the in-game gameplay settings.
- Fix: If periscope was used manually and a mouse was clicked on a gyrocompass tool in UI, mouse movements were starting to move the camera in the background until next click somewhere outside that tool.
- Fix: Gyrocompass tool in UI could be dragged by clicking on functional parts on the inside.
- Fix: Assignment selection UI and recruitment UI were having cut off text in several languages.
- Fix: Contact list was sometimes displaying entries with only one letter.

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

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: One of the guns in Lyness naval base was misplaced.

[h3]Tutorials:[/h3]
- Fix: Tutorial #3 could break when the mission was asking to send an officer to an attack periscope.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: Following issue was fixed only for some cases in Preview 18, but not all: Various issues with crew schedules could happen, if there was an officer with ammunition reloading task on the ship and the ship was changed to a different type at the warehouse.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Fix: Aircraft starting from an aircraft carrier could instanly fall into the water, if high time compression was in use.
- Fix: Gyrocompass repeater dials on the U-boat could stop to work after loading a saved game state from the main menu.
- Fix: If the game was running with realistic bilges option and the U-boat was moving in reverse, the water seepage through shafts was working also in reverse, removing water from the boat rather than adding it.
- Fix: Built submarine pens could permanently disappear in certain cases.
- Fix: Camera could sometimes get stuck above submarine pen's roof in external view mode.
- Fix: Fixes to several common errors spotted in logs sent with bug reporting tool.

Yours,
DWS