Dear skippers,
Today we are ready to release the next major update to UBOAT - B130. This time there won't be unstable version testing and the update shouldn't affect your existing saved game states. Our intention is to keep things this way moving forward as we get closer to leaving the Early Access.
To keep your expectations on a correct level, while this update adds a respectable amount of new content, it doesn't add new ports and submarine pens - we are working on them for quite a long time and plan to publish them in version B131.
Having that said, let's move on and discuss the additions of this update!
The war is over
We completely overhauled how the end of war looks like in the game. With this update, you will encounter historically-based messages from the high command during that time like the Rainbow Order (Regenbogen-Befehl) and surrender instructions on 8th May 1945.
Since you will receive conflicting orders, you will have a choice, if you want to scuttle and leave your u-boat or surrender to the enemy. Technically, nothing will stop you from ending things Rambo-style though.
When you leave your ship, you will now see a nice summary of your u-boat's entire service.
Fast mission completion
We decided to cut some travel time from the game and from now on, you will be able to finish your mission right after completing the main objective. The return trip will happen automatically with an immersive return cutscene.
If you prefer to live through everything in the game, you can disable this option in the settings, but we encourage you to give it a try. It makes the gameplay much more dynamic.
AOB tool
This update introduces AOB tool to the game. It's possible to switch between the regular course tool and AOB at any time and the angles will be converted accordingly! Both tools are now also updated in realtime to reflect bearing changes of your current target.
Reporting changes
We felt that there wasn't enough benefit from taking the risk and sending your reports on the sea. We wanted to fix that problem in this update. Right now your reports will loose some of their original value as the time goes on, since they become less relevant to the command with the passage of time.
There were also other related changes:
- When you dock in a port, all reports are handed in automatically without use of the radio.
- Regular sailors no longer can send radio messages. Radioman officer is required for such a task.
Damage model improvements
We reworked the damage model used for NPC ships to on average make torpedoes with magnetic setting (MZ) more effective than with the impact setting (AZ).
We listened to your feedback and did detailed testing, which confirmed that torpedoes with MZ setting were less effective than AZ ones, while it should be the other way around.
Our testing on medium GRT merchant ships indicated that MZ torpedo had a 65% chance to completely disable a ship, while AZ torpedoes had a 85% chance to achieve that. After this rework MZ torpedoes have a 95% chance to completely disable a medium GRT merchant ship, while AZ torpedoes have 70% chance, which should be much closer to reality.
Polishing
Since we are getting closer to the stable release of the game, our main focus was to polish the existing content and repair problems. Some of such changes include:
- There is now an intro movie played before a new campaign is started.
- New loading hints and backgrounds.
- Crewman's hair now appears under a cap in a fitting way instead of disappearing. There is a model adjustment prepared for each cap-hair pair.
- Many changes to the content added into the journal to improve its readability and organization.
- Balance pass of experience points and Iron Cross points gained for various tasks.
- Added an integration with rich presence feature in Discord.
- Fixed a problem that the music played through the radio wasn't detectable to the enemy hydrophones.
- And much more!
Full changelog
You can read the full changelog of this update here: FULL CHANGELOG.
Yours,
DWS