Greetings Captain,
Welcome to another diary. Last week, we talked about the improvements to your crew. This week, we'll be talking mainly about the improvements to your squadron boats, or if you can take things far enough, squadron ships. Let's get right down to it.
First of all, the squadron boats selection will be greatly expanded, split into four pages with 6 options each, for a total of 24 options.
On the first page, you'll have certain presets on offer, with one being available for each playable boat. The second page will have the exact same boats with the exact same weapons, except with the addition of torpedoes.
That's right, your squadron boats will be able to use torpedoes on the next patch! Unlike normal PT boat ammunition, these torpedoes are limited, and must be reloaded at a base or a tender, and they consume supplies for doing so.
In order to avoid inconveniencing you and causing confusion, the whole squadron will re-arm without problem as long as the base or tender has non-zero supplies. Supply value will go to negative in this case, with the base acting as though it has zero supply until this shortfall is accounted for. Tenders will offload the supply burden on the next base they visit. This mechanic will be in play within the coming weeks, as the map supply distribution system will also be reworked, until then the experimental builds will allow repeated use of squadron torpedoes without rearming.
The third page has boats that are much better equipped with the cost to match, and they will have a better torpedo payload as well. The fourth page will have non-playable ships, including Tenders and up to as heavy as the Fletcher, as highly expensive purchasable options for your squadron. It goes without saying that this is for the absolute end game so don't expect fair prices. It's only for those among you with a few tens of thousands of RP burning holes in their pockets!
Pages 2, 3 and 4 will have to be unlocked by progressing throughout the Resourcefulness tree by the stable version, but for the duration of the Experimental, they will be unlocked, so have fun experimenting!
A common feedback we have received is how the range system can feel artificial at times, particularly when the Captain is put next to squadron boats that outrange them. It has gotten a rework, with all units being unified to the fire control system initially meant for larger ships, and range now being simplified to a function of a detectability parameter.
What this means is that you'll be able to target further, and the enemy will be able to do so as well, as long as you are spotted. So expect enemy land defenses to be much better at counterbattery fire; no more firing mortars from outside of their range without fear of retaliation.
A night time accuracy penalty is also installed, which applies to everyone. In your case, it can be reduced through Gunnery Score; you will find that an expert crew is much better at night fighting than a novice one.
Through sheer luck, we stumbled upon an almost three year old, difficult to detect bug that caused dive bombers to not attack if the player in any other mode than the passive mode, such as Targeting Mode or Torpedo Mode.
Airplanes actually make use of torpedo launchers since bombs are implemented as torpedoes, meanwhile torpedo inputs are only supposed to work within the mode. Aircraft did not have this mode set to anything particular but the mode check was there in code applying to them, only allowing them to know torpedoes were ready when player was in passive mode, this was only eventually revealed while debugging the squadron torpedo AI ːsteamfacepalmː.
Considering you would most likely be in one of those two modes during a pitched battle, this made your dive bombers a lot worse and a lot more inconsistent than they should be.
That will now change, and you should notice a marked improvement in dive bomber consistency now.
Last but not least, we also added some often requested features: the ability to rename your crew members, the ability to cycle crew roles in the crew selection screen and also the ability to prioritize guns for your gunners to man.
We're hoping these additions and quality of life changes will be to your liking when you check them out tomorrow at the Experimental Branch.
That's all for now,
Captain,
T.T.