With this release, Waves of Steel is now officially in the endgame! 2/3rds of the story campaign is now playable. That's 22 out of 33 missions, not counting the bonus missions. Strap in, folks, because the end of this campaign is going places.
Thank you to everyone who has played the game, especially those of you who have written reviews and sent in feedback! It's thanks to all of you that Waves of Steel has improved so much since that first release in July of 2021! I look forward to seeing your reactions as we move towards the final missions.
The complete release notes for version 0.43 are below.
Gameplay changes:
Add a Ukrainian flag and associated emblem
Much of the UI has been polished and should hopefully look a lot nicer now
Cruisers and battleships are more generous with their max displacements now
Main guns are generally heavier and slower-firing, but deal more damage per shot
Change the allocations of many techs to be in different missions
Add several more treasures
New bonus mission: "Score Attack (Cruiser)"
All cruisers in the game can now be unlocked for use in the ship designer
Removed the simplified ship designer mode from the game
Planes have tweaked maneuverability and speed
Added several new weapons, most of them silly
Most destroyed buildings now remain on the map in a "wrecked" form
The target lock-on system now prefers to lock onto mission targets
Anti-projectile point defense works differently now
The armor menu in the ship designer now shows your total HP as well as the armor bonus
The "Akagi" and "Enterprise" carriers have 50% more HP
The Ratatosk 1 has a simplified model, to help differentiate it from the Ratatosk 2
Mission "Shadowy Waters" has fog
Aircraft bombs are visually a bit bigger
New assist: enemy camera. Lets you see the game from the enemy's point of view, while still controlling your own ship!Bugfixes:
Tweaked target info display in combat
The "North Carolina" battleship has a correct name in combat
Fix binoculars overlay drawing over the top of some HUD elements
Fix spotlights drawing their firing arcs when you get a "DEAD ANGLE" flash
Fix issue with the pause menu's radar circles drawing at inappropriate times
Fix an issue causing the player to consistently miss when firing at ships that are running away from it
Fix autofire guns sometimes firing at the center of the map
Fix flak cannons (like the 5" heavy AA gun) not working
Fix bug causing the countdown in mission "Pillars of Heracles" to continue after the mission is won
Fix the ocean looking strange if time-of-day changes during combat
Fix doubled quotation marks in loading screen tips
If the player is not using their gamepad, it will not rumble
Fix over-long objective description in mission "The Cat's Away"
Fix an outdated reference to armor penetration mechanics that no longer exist
Fix an issue with the collider on the Vulcan
The "Faster" prompt in the mission summary now changes description when the summary is done filling in
Fix a bug that could cause the ship designer to softlock
Fix enemy healthbars wandering all over the place when the game is paused
Fix ships moving weirdly immediately after unpausing the game
Fix projectiles dying immediately if fired from inside an opponent's shield
Fix bug causing destroyed ships to sometimes still have collision and fail to sink
Submarines have a proper above-water material if they ever end up surfaced
Fog no longer follows the player around
Fix Nichols being drawn alongside tutorial elements in "The Center Cannot Hold"
When the mission script calls for the camera to be moved, it now does so at a consistent speed, instead of a consistent duration
Fix the player being able to interact with the intermission menu when a popup (e.g. "you unlocked new bonus missions") is active
Fix flag strands button being clickable during ship designer tutorials
Fix garbage flag strand style
Fix popup prompting the player to overwrite their ship that they just saved for the first time
Fix bug causing the mouse to not work with the main menu until the player uses the keyboard or gamepad
Fix issue causing combat camera's speed to depend on the size of the player's ship
Fix some building collider issues
Fix some bugs if the player's ship gets chopped in half on death
Restore George's umlaut; various other minor dialog tweaks
The "TREASURE" text on the mission summary should be easier to read
The rocket engine SFX in the Apotamkin intro cinematic should be less loud
Light pillars marking allied/enemy ships now get destroyed when the ship is sunk
Objective status updates should draw in a more sensible order
Fix bug causing mines to be harmless
Fix bug causing the target preview in the top-left to be tiny
Removed two lighthouses from mission "Quetzalcoatl", to keep a certain pilot from getting stuck on them
Change the color of the firing arc visualization in combat
Fix HUD overlap if the player's ship has a lot of weapons
Fix a bug causing background fades to not always complete
Fix numerous bugs around mission "Storm Descendant"
Fix AI anti-aircraft guns not working
Fix non-ASW autofire guns shooting at submerged targets
Fix a model bug with the Oerlikon x2 gunModding:
Fix hitscan weapons not obeying friendly-fire settings
The game now prevents ships from having negative drag
