UBOAT News

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added a new gameplay setting to determine, if dates in the game should be displayed in U.S. or British date format. This setting is present only when the game is running in English.
- Fix: Improved formatting of dates in all languages.
- Fix: Mouse wheel no longer zooms in or out the view, when mouse is over any scroll list or outside of game's window.
- Fix: Double clicking a portrait of any officer was entering into FPP mode of that officer in all cases with the exception of a radioman working in the radio room. It was changed to work consistently in his case too.
- Fix: Character role dropdown was scrolled very slowly when a mouse wheel was used for that.
- Fix: When a radioman was asking for resupply, the button for cancelling that request was flickering when hovered with a cursor and was hard to click.
- Fix: Changed the associated sound effect to a better fitting one when a bow decoration or torpedo paint is swapped.
- Fix: Resolution change confirmation popup background wasn't covering the entire screen in case of high resolutions and wasn't capturing clicks.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix: On Type IID, rain could remain visible on a part of the deck in the side view after U-boat had submerged.
- Fix: Conning tower of the U-boat could sometimes appear too bright and washed out after loading a game state, in which there were NPC U-boats nearby that had the same emblem.
- Fix: Occlusion culling wasn't working correctly in Brest submarine pens. It was affecting performance a bit and there were errors in the game's log.
- Fix: Improved the look of a highlight on a diesel compressor on Type VII U-boats, previously it had an irregular shape that wasn't looking well.
- Fix: Diesel compressor internal elements, visible in the section view, were too bright.
- Fix: Foam spray behind dinghy departing from the U-boat was looking a bit wrong.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- From now on, when an officer leaves the U-boat during an external interaction, his helpers are unassigned from him and it's also no longer possible to assign any new helpers when he is not on the ship.
- Fix: After diving below periscope depth, sometimes one of the sailors was moving around the boat, starting various actions and stopping them right away without a clear reason.

[h3]Simulation:[/h3]
- Fix: It was too easy to sink ships with a 20 mm gun.
- Fix: On Type IIA and Type IID, the crew wasn't suffocating when air quality was dropping to zero. Also, water wasn't accumulating in the bilges as it should when realistic bilges were toggled on.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: Quick mission completion button was requiring too much fuel to return to port.
- Fix: Mission with detonating a railway wasn't possible to complete in Czech.

[h3]Achievements:[/h3]
- Fix: "Fresh air..." achievement could be received by loading a saved game state file from another player who completed it at any point in the loaded playthrough.

[h3]Modding:[/h3]
- Fix: Modifiers to a DamageProtection parameter on ships weren't applied when they were defined in the sheets.
- Fix: Changes to equipment and entity modifiers in the data sheets are now updated in the loaded game states (although only to new instances of that equipment / entity).

[h3]World:[/h3]
- Added better defences to Thames.
- Fix: Aesthetical fixes to Kiel.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Voice language is now set to English by default, when the game is launched for the first time and the game's language is English.
- Fix: When an automatic route was plotted from Kiel to areas north of Britain, the route was entering and leaving Kiel canal without need. It was also indirectly affecting tutorial #4, if it was started in Kiel.
- Fix: Certain hotkeys were accessible on a character customization screen and could cause various issues when used (for example, a hotkey for journal).
- Fix: Side view camera was sometimes positioning itself incorrectly, when it was simultaneously zoomed in or out and switched between the deck view and interior view.
- Fix: Fixes to several errors spotted in logs attached to bug reports.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- German localization update by Ruby.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Sailors promoted to officers now always start with energy at 100%.
- Fix: There was a timeout after ordering a dive, during which it wasn't possible to assign an engineer to manage diving planes station.
- Fix: Sometimes sailors could become stuck in an idle animation, while performing an order on the valves and were blocking other crew members from accessing them.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to order flooding the tanks on valves without selecting any officer first, even though all other orders present there were accessible in such a way.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix: There was a bright pixelating outline around periscope lenses when any upscaling was in use (DLSS or FSR).
- Fix: Decreased flickering due to aliasing on the gangway between the U-boat and the ports.
- Fix: Volumetric lighting was sometimes much more intense than intended during sunsets and sunrises, for example in Kiel.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Gibraltar crossing assignment now grants the Mediterranean flotillas emblem (a donkey).
- Fix: In tutorial #4, if the game was running in a low enough resolution to not fit all portraits in the map view, it was possible for radioman's portrait to temporarily disappear during the mission.
- Fix: A rare issue in mine planting assignments where mines were not being loaded despite freeing up space for them.
- Fix: Corrected flotilla change assignments initiated on demand. These assignments were previously awarding budget and reputation upon completion, even though that wasn't intended and there were no rewards listed in their description.

[h3]Technical:[/h3]
- Optimizations to rendering on CPU and GPU side.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Added imports and exports to ports that didn't had them defined.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to dock in Copenhagen.
- Fix: Aesthetical fixes to Rotterdam.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Fix: After unlocking Eagle's Nest, the access to it was lost after reloading a game state.
- Fix: Fixes to several errors spotted in logs attached to bug reports.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- German localization update by Ruby.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: It wasn't possible to start an escort duty assignment associated with Mediterranean Operations campaign objective, if the game was running in s. chinese, japanese, korean, russian or ukrainian.

[h3]Achievements:[/h3]
- Fix: If saved game states from various playthroughs were loaded in a certain sequence, it was possible to not get The Long Haul or Ace of the Depths achievements after completing a campaign that was eligible to have them.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added a dropdown for switching between the section view and the external view to the upgrade screen.
- Added notifications when major resources become completely depleted. Previously, there were notifications only about them reaching a low level. Additionally, when such notifications appear, time compression is being stopped.
- Fix: When a new assignment was being selected and new choices were requested at a cost of reputation, it was possible that a patrol area of previously selected patrol was becoming stuck on the map. This issue was happening only in some languages.
- Fix: Updated icons of Turm I, Turm II and Turm IV research on the HQ map. They were still using the previous naming convention for T1, T2 and T4.
- Fix: Improved description of improved conning towers research to specify that these conning towers are meant specifically for Type VIIC and Type VIIC/41. Previously, this description mentioned Type VII generally, but that wasn't true for Type VIIB.
- Fix: Improved behaviour of dropdowns that expand automatically when cursor hovers over them. Sometimes they weren't expanding, if they were hovered back quickly after unhovering.
- Fix: If loading of cargo from a wreckage was ordered and then the wait screen was left, then after coming back to it, the wait time was going below zero.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix: Partial and full submarine pens in La Rochelle had outdated lightmaps and occlusion culling data and had minor artifacts.
- Fix: Resolved artifacts due to a parallax effect on some port surfaces that were appearing when camera was getting close to them.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: Snow was missing during winter on a fragment of Port of Arkhangelsk.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- From now on, realism percentages are computed using only settings that were present in the game at the time the campaign was being started. This means that a game started with realism at 90% or higher will remain eligible for Ace of the Depths achievement despite new realism settings being introduced to the game later on in future versions.
- Time compression is now disabled after reaching the end of a plotted route.
- Fix: Periscope was remaining locked on a target when a chronometer tool was opened, making it impossible to measure target's speed when "Enabled (partial)" option was selected for periscope stabilization when a campaign was being started.
- Fix: Improvements to leaving U-boat in FPP through the gangway on Type VII U-boats.
- Fix: A rare issue where a contact could become "stuck" and be constantly displayed at the same direction despite U-boat moving.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: An issue where the cook or cleaner could be missing when expanded crew management was disabled. This fix also improves crew shift management, ensuring the correct number of sailors are assigned to each shift even if some crew members become unavailable while they're active.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Troopship convoys generated in escort duty assignments are no longer affected by the convoy size realism setting. They shouldn't be larger than they were by default. It was also making these assignments impossible to loose, since enemies weren't able to sink as many ships.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Fix (regression of Patch 7): Repaired an issue with cyrillic characters in the main menu while setting up a new campaign.
- Fix: When playing a game without any periscope stabilization (such option was introduced in Patch 7), it's no longer a requirement to hold a hotkey for half a second to select a target. Instead, it's now enough to press it.

[h3]Simulation:[/h3]
- Fix: Binoculars weren't stabilized, if they were opened by pressing a shortcut button on an officer's portrait.

[h3]Ports:[/h3]
- Fix: Improved the default undock route in Marseille.
- Fix: It was possible for two merchant ships to spawn in each other in Bergen.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Fix: Repaired one problem that could make it impossible to save a game state.

Yours,
DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.

[h3]Simulation:[/h3]
- Added a new realism setting that specifies the desired type of periscope stabilization in the game. There are three choices:

• Enabled: This is the previous default behavior with stabilized periscopes and UZO.
  
• Enabled (partial): This setting is similar to the previous one, but there is no additional stabilization when a chronometer tool for velocity estimation is open in the periscope or UZO view.
  
• Disabled: All forms of periscope and UZO stabilization are disabled.

- Fix: Hydrophone contacts are no longer possible to appear through lands.

[h3]Crew:[/h3]
- Fix: It's no longer possible to simultaneously load several torpedo tubes or perform maintenance on torpedoes inside them, if those tasks would require the same space to complete.
- Fix: Sunglasses were never appearing on randomly generated people due to using a wrong ID for them. There was only an error present in the log whenever they were meant to appear.

[h3]Achievements:[/h3]
- Fix: "Convoy? What Convoy?" achievement wasn't possible to obtain.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix (regression since Patch 6): Spy, war correspondent and a demolition team leader could no longer be welcomed until they arrived at the deck.

[h3]UI:[/h3]
- Added color-coding for positive and negative budget changes in the tooltip (they are now green and red respectively).

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Hand binoculars are now stabilized, since officer can move them freely with hands. Their stabilization is unaffected by the newly added realism setting described above.
- Time compression is now disabled when entering a view with external interaction or when entering a radioman's menu.
- Improved the loading time of terrain near Brest.

Yours,
DWS