Sea Power Black Friday Update

Black Friday Update

Hello from the Triassic Games team! Sea Power is now discounted as part of the Steam Black Friday Sale, running through Sunday, November 30th.

Alongside the sale, we are launching a major update with improvements and new content. This update continues our ongoing work to refine the game's core systems, expand the game's roster of units and scenarios, and support both the mission-making and modding communities with enhancements.

Major Overhaul of Flight Deck Mechanics

This update includes a major rework of how Flight Decks function. This change applies to aircraft carriers, airbases, and all ships with hangars.

• Aircraft Prep & Servicing: All aircraft now have individual prep times before launch and cooldown/servicing times after recovery.

• Ground Crews & Deck Park Limits:

  • Flight decks now use a limited number of Ground Crews for fueling and arming; once all crews are busy, additional prep orders must wait.

  • Deck Park space limits how many prepped aircraft can queue for launch; once full, aircraft must launch to free space.

  • Prep/cooldown timers appear in the Flight Deck UI; Ground Crew and Deck Park usage are shown via gauges that fill up as space is used.

• Rally Points: Players can now set rally points and altitudes for aircraft launched from an airbase or carrier.

  • Right-click the airbase/carrier → Flight Deck > Rally Points.

  • Rally points can be set separately for fixed-wing, VTOL aircraft, and helicopters.

  • Place a rally point by selecting the aircraft type and right-clicking on the map; rally points appear when the base/carrier is selected and can be dragged to reposition.

• Limited Ordnance Stores: Flight Decks now track limited ammunition, especially advanced weapons like Phoenix and Harpoon missiles.

• Mission Editor Updates: Mission creators can now configure prepped aircraft and assign airbase/carrier ammunition stores.

• New Timing Options: A Flight Deck Timings setting has been added to the Options menu, allowing players to adjust simulation depth. Realistic, Casual, and Arcade modify prep and cooldown durations, while Cheat mode disables the system entirely.

Native Support for Loading of 3rd Party Models

Loading of 3rd party models (OBJ format) is now supported natively in-game! This greatly simplifies use of mods with custom models, as chain loader tools are no longer required.

This change means that any Workshop mods that previously required Anchor Chain and Sea Lifter can be loaded without the manual install steps needed for these dependencies.

We greatly appreciate the work the modding community did to enable 3rd party model loading with these tools during Early Access, and we are excited to incorporate a change that removes a barrier for the average user who wants to play with mods.

New Units and Scenarios

This update includes a range of new units for various factions, including both brand new units and new liveries for existing units. Three new scenarios are also included.

• New units and liveries:

  • F-1 strike aircraft and T-2 trainer jet for Japan

  • SH-5 maritime patrol flying boat and HY-3 shore-based anti-ship missile for China

  • F-5A and F-5E Freedom Fighter (Norway, Netherlands, Greece, Philippines, South Vietnam, Turkey)

  • Delfin class submarines for Spain

  • Daphne class submarines for South Africa

  • Cuba liveries for MiG-17, MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-27, MiG-28, and A-5

  • Pakistan livery for A-5 (fictional)

• New scenarios:

  • The Better Part of Valor (1988) - NATO

  • Arctic Intercept (1985) - NATO

  • Operation Polar Fury (1985) - Warsaw Pact

Mission Editor Improvements

Continuous improvement of the Mission Editor is a high priority for our team. With each update, we are bringing new refinements to it as we work through a backlog of requested features from the community. Most of the changes in this update are to support the Flight Deck overhaul, but several requested features have been added as well:

• Ability to define randomized spawn area for units

• Controls for all new Flight Deck mechanics from within the Mission Editor

• Ability to pre-plan aircraft preparation, making aircraft available immediately in the mission for player and/or AI

• Ability to customize Flight Deck ammunition stores

• New trigger actions for weather changes and reactivation of triggers

• New waypoints for sonobuoy deployment, including "drop in line" and buoy depth

• Checkboxes to disable airbase AI, and new trigger action to enable or disable it (allowing mission-makers to delay AI launching aircraft)

• Removed unused Stores and Damage dropdowns; these will be added back once functional in the future

Core AI Enhancements

This release brings together a set of AI changes that have been developed over the past few updates. Some of these improvements were introduced earlier, but all of the behaviors listed below are now included in the current build and serve as the baseline for AI performance going forward:

• The AI commander can now classify player ship and aircraft formations based on shared characteristics such as heading, speed, and grouping.

• AI airbases and carriers will automatically launch AEW&C aircraft.

• AI airbases will deploy and maintain CAP fighters.

• AI will launch interceptors when an inbound strike is detected.

• AI will dispatch attack aircraft with jammer support when appropriate to engage detected player land or sea units, and strike composition will vary based on the type of target identified.

• AI aircraft will prioritize attacks on detected targets more appropriately, and defend themselves against CAP effectively.

• AI submarines will make use of wake homing torpedoes more effectively by firing at closer range and targeting ship wakes.

Changes to the base game AI that are in currently in progress or planned include:

• AI reconnaissance using available assets to search for the player.

• Expanding AI airstrike capability beyond bomb attacks only.

• Implementing a Morale based system for AI behavior and reactions.

• Improved anti-submarine warfare tactics when hunting player submarines.

• Improving AI use of munitions with proper engagement envelopes for missiles.

• ... and much more!

Full Changelist

Aircraft

Fixes

• Loadout availability was not updated if there were no planes of this type ready to fly on the FlightDeck

• Flight Deck: Fixed an issue where hitting Prioritise on Flight Deck would cause CTD in some cases

• Flight Deck: Add a timeout to awaiting full power on takeoff to avoid blocking runway with turboprop aircraft

• CAP planes attack own missiles

• Planes currently on RTB become uncontrollable after loading save

• Typo in EA-6B Prowler speeds in ini that made it instantly spend all fuel on Max speed setting

• No pilot spawn for F-15 and F-15C

• B-52 phases through ground and Turboprops accelerate wayyyyy too fast

• B-52 serial visible on a damage model without the tail

• Wingman could block formation RTB if sent to act independently

• Additional ready helicopter on loading game save

• Ka-25 had too high negative boyancy for its dipping sonar, changed to be in line with other helicopters

Additions/Improvements

• WIP on AI: Aircraft behaviour improvement. Aircraft will try to engage closest target by priority.

• Helicopter now automatically cancels unreachable waypoint if it has more waypoints

• Limit retarget ability for aircraft AI

• Tweak Flight Deck UI for new prep/cooldown, ground crews, and deck park mechanics

• IRIAF F-5E refactored to USAF F-5E

• Helicopters do dipping sonar instead of sonobuoys now

• Ability to add Supply System ammo to aircraft which will unload to Flight Deck ammunition stores once landed (experimental)

• P-3C squadron callsigns

• Added F-4EJ reference for AN/APQ-120 radar entry

• Add prep and cooldown time to Flight Deck, with options for Arcade, Casual and Realistic modes

• Prep and cooldown values to all aircraft and helicopters

• Added Loadout times to all aircraft and helicopters

• Ability to preset FlightDeck preparation task for aircraft

• Ability to set Rally Point for aircraft, VTOL, and helicopters with waypoint and altitude from FlightDecks

• WIP on airstrike: ability to have different plane types in one airstrike

• Ability to limit AI aircraft to certain usages only

• Implement Deck Park spots in Flight Deck

• Flight Deck magazines basic setup; aircraft now cannot be launched if there is not enough ammunition

• Added F-5A Freedom Fighter (Norway, Netherlands, Greece, Philippines, South Vietnam, Turkey)

• Added F-1 strike aircraft for JASDF

• Added T-2 trainer jet for JASDF

• Added SH-5 flying boat for PLAN

• Added AGM-65 capability to F-5E

• Flight Deck: "Cheat" mode added which now disables ALL new Flight Deck mechanics; Arcade mode retained at a 10x reduction in timings

• Flight Deck: Rally Points are now shown on the map; Rally Points can be moved using the map

• AI: WIP on AI ASW: Dipping sonar duration can be specified in waypoints

• Added ASW depth bomb capability - added depth charges for Il-38, Ka-25, Ka-27 - US depth bombs coming soon

• Updated aircraft flight model to allow easier sonobuoy and bomb drops by adjusting bank demand angles - new curve added to INI file for aircraft

• Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria (Cuba) MiG liveries

• A-5 Fantan livery for Pakistan

Vessels

Fixes

• Newport class LST Barnstable County flown flag of Netherlands by default

• Bayandor CIWS crew not disappearing when ship is sinking

• Typo in Kitty Hawk ini file

• Inconsistencies in FFG Baleares vessel file

Additions/Improvements

• Player ships will have 1 ASW helicopter ready to launch on mission start

Submarines

Fixes

• Submarines went to surface on attack waypoint execute

• Submarine stuck in AI state after being transferred to player by trigger

• Wrong torpedo on Shershen class

• Wuhan tubes 5 and 6 animation

• Kilo had a 6-barrel boomstick

• Fixed clipping on Albacora SSK hull numbers

Additions/Improvements

• Submarine emergency surface rework

• Increased damage with depth

• Subs can deflood to MIN state

• Soviet subs crush depths

• Corrected size and shape of propellers on JMSDF subs

• WIP: Sinking improvements, Submarines no longer have huge velocity jump at the start of sinking

• Removed anachronistic names from Oscar class SSGNs

• Default status text for submarines

• South African Navy Daphne class submarines

• Pennant numbers for Hangor class submarines

• Spanish Delfin class submarines (variant of Daphne)

Weapons

Fixes

• Mk25 default reload time

• SA-N-3 ghost AO imprint texture fix

• 050 BMG description

• At certain cases weapons could not lock at target

• Missile objects were not removed after dropping submunitions

• AGM-12b setup

• Allowed SARH missiles to track and hit bombs

Additions/Improvements

• E-15 torpedo sensor/noise tweaks

• Added LAU-117 Maverick rail

• Added AGM-12B Bullpup ASM

• PLA HY-3 missile and shore-based launcher

• Wakehoming torpedoes now aim to the 1/4th of the wake length behind the target vessel

• AI will fire wakehoming torpedoes to targets on 45% of max range, usual torpedoes on 80% of range (except air-dropped ones)

Sensors

Fixes

• Nuclearstonk's fixes for Shanghai 2B and Type 010 sensors

• VID order breaks waypoint execution for units

• Fine tuning of towed systems, now they are able to keep the set depth reliably on any time compression setting

Additions/Improvements

• Increased AN/SQR-18A sink rate to get to correct depth faster

• Increased default wakebubble lifetime up to 1160 seconds (part of overall rework of wake homing torpedoes)

• UK sensors from nuclearstonk for future RN expansion

• Jammers are now detectable by ESM, identifying the jammer

Mission Editor

Fixes

• Some cloud coverage states were not correctly loaded from mission file

• The FlightDeck_AutocalculateAmmo flag didn't load inside Mission Editor

• Typo in loading aircraft in ready state in Mission Editor

• Fixed an issue where squadrons were not properly readied in Flight Deck from Mission Editor

• Fixed an issue where inserting waypoints in middle of existing waypoint line caused errors with ETA time calculation

• Fixed improper reading of mission Objective status for end of mission state

• No ETA time/distance were displayed for waypoints when a mission was loaded from a file

• Disabled unit status was not applied to all aircraft units in a group except the group leader

• Incorrect Objectives completion/failed status in mission ini files

Additions/Improvements

• Removed "None" values from enums, replaced with local string arrays to display correct lists in the Change Weather trigger action

• Removed Stores and Damage dropdowns until these are implemented later on

• New trigger actions for weather changes

• Checkbox for Unit to disable Flight Deck AI in missions

• Trigger action to activate/deactivate Flight Deck AI

• Reactivate Trigger action; Proper disposal of deleted Triggers from lists

• Sonobuoy drop waypoints and drop in line capability

• Ammunition Stores on the Flight Deck window as new tab

• Random unit spawn UI

• New Condition type "NoIncomingWeapons" (experimental)

Missions

Fixes

• Morvarid map labeling updated

• Other scenarios folder naming conventions fix

• Scenario: PLAN 03 Op Silent Spear enemy SAG waypoints

• Typos in Tutorial 05

Additions/Improvements

• Scenario: updated campaign missions 04A/04B, 05A/05B with new airbase ammunition and aircraft ready states to retain original balance

• Edited Tutorial missions to reflect new Carrier Ready Times; corrected stated carrier launch speed from 30 knots to 20 knots (including localizations)

• Scenario: PLAN 04 Escape from the Sulu Sea - Vietnamese MiG-27 replaced with proper Philippine F-5A

• The Better Part of Valor (1988) - NATO

• Arctic Intercept (1985) - NATO

• Operation Polar Fury (1985) - Warsaw Pact

Environment

Fixes

• Faulty terrain at 18.1/118.3 lat/long

• Fixed black pixel under sun caused by overflow in the cloud shader

• Cirrus cloud fog was disabled

• Autogen objects missing and other terrain visual inconsistencies

• Land base culling for Autogen

• Wrong material in emergency blow effect, so it was invisible underwater

Additions/Improvements

• Terrain shaders

Misc

Fixes

• Null refs

• Resolve potential for undefined Enums to be returned in IniHandler

• Civilian routes not functioning with new FlightDeck AI

• Save/Load: Towed system trail renderer segments positions were saved in Unity coordinates that caused incorrect cable positioning in the 3d world on load from a savegame; changed to Geopositions

• Different paths in file checker and actual ini

• RandomTurns provide one more waypoint

• Temp FIX that we will definitely not regret in about two years: Allow up to 4096 unit types

• Objectives in missions are now properly saved/loaded - Intel will be fixed next

• Weapons could not be loaded from save file

Additions/Improvements

• Updated translations

• New loading screens (thanks Cosmo!)

• Allow variant index to be saved in profile images

• UNITY_DOTS_DEBUG flag to project to enable safety checks for burst compiled code and allow for better tracability of potential crashes

• Model loading: Add ability to disable caching for object files, textures and material files. For debug purposes only for mod makers.

• Runtime OBJ Mesh Loading - native support for OBJ file loading for modders

• EXPERIMENTAL: AI decisionmaking delay based on crew proficiency level

• Added new wake bubble visualization to the map for debugging, available from F10 > Tools

• South African civilian and naval ensigns