Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

That's more or less what I've been trying but the AI will just turn and run if I start landing hits and I'm unable to keep pace with them so they just run out the clock.  Patch 1.03 makes them much more likely to bugger off it seems.

[tanqtonic]

To get them in closer and keep them closer, you have to buff up your deck armor.  Thicker deck armor == closer they maintain distance.

iirc, they dont fully retreat in this scenario -- so the trick is to upgrade the deck armor enough to keep the BCs in range.

[Rayfer]

That's more or less what I've been trying but the AI will just turn and run if I start landing hits and I'm unable to keep pace with them so they just run out the clock.  Patch 1.03 makes them much more likely to bugger off it seems.

Sadly, this is my experience on many of the tutorial scenarios.

[tanqtonic]

That's more or less what I've been trying but the AI will just turn and run if I start landing hits and I'm unable to keep pace with them so they just run out the clock.  Patch 1.03 makes them much more likely to bugger off it seems.

Sadly, this is my experience on many of the tutorial scenarios.

I had that same experience, but when you learn what thicker armor does in term of forcing a closer conflict, that really that for me.

Guy named BrotherMunro doing the scenario.   He really buffs the bejesus out of his deck *and* belt armor.   The AI responds by really pulling the opponents in closer.   Here, he designs for 16 inch guns from the opponent, and the BCs have 13 inch.   The range of the battle gets horribly close in both his failed first attempt (he didnt put enough into the crew) and his second (when he trades displacement and a knot of speed for better crew).

I think I made the connection between armor and how far in opponents got when I got really frustrated in the 2nd? scenario, where you have a crawly slow Alabama ironclad and the opponent has a monitor that literally runs circles around you.   I saw one guy explicitly say in a walkthrough that he was going to up-armor the holy smokes out of the Alabama to force the monitor to stay in a decent range.  I used that to win that scenario.

Now, anytime I have the issue of faster opponents popping in and out of range, increasing armor is the stock answer to bring the ranges down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCkKzkVWPOU&ab_channel=BrotherMunro

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I got by the Alabama one by ramming the monitor and sinking it.

[ArizonaTank]

I was wondering why no patch activity lately. Then I found out that Game-labs is a Ukranian company out of Kyiv.

Hope they are all OK.

[Gusington]

^Crap, you're right...I haven't checked Game Labs forums in some time, I wonder if there is an update of any kind over there.

[Destraex]

Main dev is Greek though I believe. No idea where Darthmods team is located though. I think you boys are probably right about it being in the vicinity of the Ukraine.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yeah, there's a bit of discussion about it on the game's Steam page.  Sounds like a fair number of the team live in Ukraine.  Be content with the 1.05 beta patch and hope for a quick end to hostilities I guess. 

[Gusington]

^Better news than what could have possibly been reported.

[Wburn]

Just to let you all know it's the same with Graviteam Tactics, they were in Kharkiv but managed to evacuate with their families. If anyone hasn't bought one of their games or some of their DLC now might be a good time to get one.

[ArizonaTank]

Just to let you all know it's the same with Graviteam Tactics, they were in Kharkiv but managed to evacuate with their families. If anyone hasn't bought one of their games or some of their DLC now might be a good time to get one.

:bd:

[Skoop]

The naval action devs are having the same problem.  They had to turn off port battles and the RVR flag planting mechanic on the war server while the Ukraine war is under way.   The open world is still up and playable, just can't take ports.  It was funny cause the pirate faction was about to wipe the russian faction from the game when the war kicked off.  The running joke was that putin was a naval action russia player and attacked Ukraine to stop the pirates in naval action....lol.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

One of the devs (dartis) posted that a patch should be dropping this week. 

==v1.05 Update==

CAMPAIGN
Map Expansion: Expanded the map to include the Mediterranean Sea and a larger portion of Europe.
New Nations: Italy, France and Austria-Hungary are added to the major nations. The nations form two rival alliances and fight with each other for total victory (this is a temporary functionality until we offer the prolonged campaign system).
Task Forces: Previously you were able to move ships only between ports. You can now also form Task Forces, by grouping ships and sending them to any sea point on the map. In this way you block strategic passages and generate missions according to the ships in the vicinity.
Refit Mode: Now you can refit your ships, from changing a few components to radically replacing weapons, funnels, towers with modern variations. This new and essential feature will allow you to utilize all the latest technology advancements for your current ships without the need to scrap them and build new ones.
New Sea Roles: New sea roles added to the previous "In Being" and "Sea Control", special for the Task Forces, offer more options for controlling strategically your ships.
Interface improvements: There is a new tab "Politics" where you will later manage some diplomacy aspects. Now you are able to overview the relations and power of all nations. Additionally we added an " Economy Growth" to the GDP which will be dependent later from various conditions. You will be warned when you want to end the turn with danger of going bankrupt. When you hover at a sea region a tooltip shows statistical information for the included fleets. Many other minor changes to support the new functionalities.
Balances: Maintenance cost is balanced so that it is not so high now that ships will spend more time at sea with all the various and expensive sea roles. Tech research is balanced to be overall faster and tech priorities will give a more distinctive advantage when chosen. Various other balances were made to support the new campaign expansion

NEW GUNS
Germany and Austria-Hungary receive new visuals for the following:
4-inch up to 16-inch Mark 2 guns
9-inch up to 14-inch Mark 3 guns.

41+ NEW HULLS
A new base model for one of the most famous German Battlecruisers of World War I is added along with many new variants. Many new towers and parts are added or improved for previous hulls and the technology tree has changed to include the following new ships:
The "Battlecruiser SMS Von der Tann" can now be faithfully recreated in the game. You can find it in the new German Hull "Battlecruiser I" with a displacement between 19,200 and 24,200 tons in the years 1907-1919.
New German "Large Armored Cruiser" variant with a displacement between 13,500 and 17,500 tons that is available in the years 1907-1920.
New Japanese/Spanish/Chinese "Large Cruiser" variant  with a displacement between 14,500 and 18,500 tons that is available in the years 1907-1920.
New "Large Cruiser" variant for Spain, China, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Japan with a displacement between 13,000 and 16,500 tons that is available in the years 1907-1920.
New Russian "Large Armored Cruiser" variant with a displacement between 13,500 and 16,800 tons that is available in the years 1907-1920.
New "Italian "Armored Cruiser V" variant with a displacement between 11,000 and 12,800 tons that is available in the years 1907-1920.
New French "Armored Cruiser IV" variant with a displacement between 11,800 and 15,500 tons that is available in the years 1900-1920.
New "Light Cruiser III" variant for Britain, Spain, China with a displacement between 3500 and 8,500 tons that is available in the years 1905-1920.
New "Light Cruiser III" variant for Japan with a displacement between 3500 and 8,500 tons that is available in the years 1905-1920.
New US "Light Cruiser III" variant with a displacement between 8500 and 10,500 tons that is available in the years 1915-1930.
New US "Heavy Cruiser I"[/b variant with a displacement between 10500 and 12750 tons that is available after the year 1919.
New German "Battlecruiser II" variant with a displacement between 23,000 and 28,000 tons that is available in the years 1907-1920.
New German "Battlecruiser III" variant with a displacement between 26,000 and 31,000 tons that is available in the years 1913-1928.
New German "Battlecruiser IV" variant with a displacement between 27,400 and 34,000 tons that is available in the years 1913-1928.
New German "Battlecruiser V" variant with a displacement between 35,500 and 44,500 tons that is available in the years 1916-1928.
New British "Battlecruiser IV" variant with a displacement between 29,500 and 34,000 tons that is available in the years 1916-1928.
New British "Battlecruiser V" variant with a displacement between 23,500 and 37,500 tons that is available in the years 1919-1928.
New Austro-Hungarian "Battleship I" variant with a displacement between 8,000 and 11,500 tons that is available in the years 1890-1905.
New Austro-Hungarian "Small Dreadnought I" variant with a displacement between 14,500 and 18,500 tons that is available in the years 1905-1915.
New Spanish/Chinese "Small Dreadnought I" variant with a displacement between 15,500 and 17,700 tons that is available in the years 1905-1915.
New German "Dreadnought I" variant with a displacement between 19,500 and 22,500 tons that is available in the years 1905-1915.
New German "Dreadnought I" variant with a displacement between 19,500 and 22,500 tons that is available in the years 1905-1915.
New Japanese "Dreadnought I" variant with a displacement between 18,500 and 25,000 tons that is available in the years 1905-1915.
New British "Dreadnought II" variant with a displacement between 19,500 and 27,500 tons that is available in the years 1908-1915.
New French "Dreadnought II" variant with a displacement between 20,800 and 29,500 tons that is available in the years 1908-1915.
NewItalian "Dreadnought II" variant with a displacement between 20,500 and 25,000 tons that is available in the years 1908-1915.
New German "Dreadnought II" variant with a displacement between 23,500 and 27,500 tons that is available in the years 1908-1915.
New French "Dreadnought III" variant with a displacement between 22,500 and 28,000 tons that is available in the years 1908-1915.
New British "Dreadnought III" variant with a displacement between 21,000 and 29,500 tons that is available in the years 1910-1915.
New German "Dreadnought III" variant with a displacement between 27,000 and 34,000 tons that is available in the years 1910-1926.
New British "Dreadnought IV" variant with a displacement between 23,600 and 32,500 tons that is available in the years 1912-1915.
New Italian "Dreadnought IV" variant with a displacement between 29,000 and 35,000 tons that is available in the years 1912-1915.
New French "Dreadnought IV" variant with a displacement between 24,000 and 31,000 tons that is available in the years 1914-1926.
New French "Dreadnought V" variant with a displacement between 32,000 and 39,500 tons that is available in the years 1916-1926.
New British "Dreadnought V" variant with a displacement between 25,500 and 35,500 tons that is available in the years 1914-1926.
New Russian/Spanish Chinese "Experimental Dreadnought" variant with a displacement between 25,500 and 30,500 tons that is available in the years 1914-1926.
New British "Dreadnought VI" variant with a displacement between 33,000 and 45,000 tons that is available in the years 1916-1926.
New German "Dreadnought IV" variant with a displacement between 44,000 and 57,000 tons that is available in the years 1919-1926.
New German "Dreadnought V" variant with a displacement between 47,000 and 61,000 tons that is available in the years 1919-1926.
New French "Dreadnought VI" variant with a displacement between 44,000 and 66,000 tons that is available in the years 1916-1926
New Italian "Dreadnought V" variant with a displacement between 38,000 and 56,000 tons that is available in the years 1919-1926.
The game now includes over 290 Hull Variants of which 33 are highly detailed base models. All the ships of the game use over 1306 different ship parts and thousands of different weapons in various sizes and tech levels.

MAJOR NEW FEATURES
Customization of Beam / Draught: You can now adjust the width and height of the hull in the design options. These adjustments will greatly affect the hull characteristics and the performance of your designed ships.
New Components for AP/HE rounds ratio: Choose the distribution of AP and HE rounds between different settings for your main and secondary guns. You will no longer have indefinitely any type of AP or HE round but both will have their separate limit.
New Components for AP/HE shell types: The type of the HE or AP shell can be now customized depending on technology.

The different HE shells span between the options:
HEI - High Explosive Incendiary Shell
HCHE - High Capacity High Explosive Shell
CNF - Nose Fuze Shell
CP - Base Fuze Shell
CPC - Common Pointed Capped
CPBC - Common Pointed Ballistic Capped

The varying AP shells are:
SAP - Semi Armor Piercing Shell
SAPBC - Semi Armor Piercing Ballistic Cap Shell
AP - Armor Piercing Shell
APC - Armor Piercing Capped Shell
APBC - Armor Piercing Ballistic Capped Shell
Improved APBC - Armor Piercing Ballistic Capped Shell

New Battle Control Option "Avoid Ship": By default it is enabled and allows the ships to automatically avoid other ships to prevent collision. You can now override this behavior individually for any of your ships, either for improving your swift maneuvers or for ramming the enemy...
New Battle Control Option "Ammo for Secondary Guns": You can now choose what type of ammo is used for your Secondary Guns, Auto, AP or HE.
Improved Shell Ballistics and Gun Aiming Mechanics: Following the various new options for AP and HE shells the shell ballistics now follow a much more characteristic trajectory depending on all their different physics variables. Additionally, the guns aim in a more realistic manner, firing salvoes depending on the target's speed and angular velocity. For example, previously you would see shell salvoes to be mostly random in relation to the center of the target, but now salvoes are en mass fired forward, aft, in front or behind the target until the range is found and hits start to be achieved. This automatic procedure affects the base accuracy and now makes the firing more natural and expected depending on target distance.
Improved Ship Motion at Sea: Ship buoyancy mechanics are enriched to support the new Beam/Draught options. The interaction of ships with waves is now more characteristic depending on the weight offset, pitch/roll, beam/draught options chosen for their design.
Exponential speed limit for hulls: As ships reach a maximum speed barrier depending on the hull technology, then the engine weight needed to achieve a higher speed increases exponentially. Thus it will be much harder to design unrealistically fast ships with old hulls, something that a lot of players abused to make much faster ships than the AI to overwhelm it.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS
Over penetration mechanics improvement: Overpenetration will now happen with more accurate conditions. Previously the unarmored ships would mostly overpenetrate, or the heavily armored almost never became overpenetrated.
Flooding mechanics improvement: Flooding from direct hits will now spread not only to adjacent sections but further beyond, depending on the height of water inside the flooded sections. This new feature addresses the previous unnatural survivability for smaller ships (especially the torpedo boats) which would become unsinkable until more sections were flooded from a direct hit. With this new feature, the torpedo and flooding protection schemes in the design options will be more than essential.
AP/HE different stats: When you hover on guns to see their info tooltip you will now see detailed and different statistics for AP/HE shell weights, damage, range, muzzle velocity, penetration and accuracy tables.
Crew scales with hull size and displacement: As you change displacement, beam/ draught the hull crew number will change accordingly. Previously the "Control Station" crew was not scaling.
Added instability/beam/draught values in battle UI: These are important design aspects, useful to know for any ship that participates in a battle.
Save file system improved: When a new game version requires it, obsolete save files will be discarded and new will be generated automatically. This will stop the confusion of players when the game would become broken due to incompatible saves (invalid designs, exceptions, floating guns etc.)
Ship weight/cost balances: Balanced the weight and cost for various parts and components, as it was needed for all the latest new features.
Other balances: The "Dunnite" explosive charge is available in late tech years, new Radar Rangefinder III is now available and other minor improvements or balances for the ship design options.
Minor Visual Effects Improvement: You will notice a little better visual effects overall.
Graphical Interface Improvement: We have changed the graphical interface in various aspects of the game, in the campaign, battle stats, shipyard, menu etc. to be more pleasing to the eye.

NEW MISSIONS
One new mission (To be announced).

BATTLE AI
The Battle AI is further improved to make decisions more promptly and effectively by using more algorithms. The result is an AI that will know better when to attack and defend and at which distance, always depending on the nation's personality.
Auto Targeting is influenced by the new AI algorithms and is more effective. Some older issues should become resolved, for example the over-prioritization of Transports.
Improved the AI decision making on switching shell type. You will notice that the ships will more successfully switch ammo depending on the armor and angle of the target.
AI auto-design algorithms enriched to support all the new features for Beam/Draught, new components. The ships created will be balanced in protection and firepower and thus more potent adversaries.

BUG FIXES
Several division movement bugs were fixed: Ships will not confuse so much as before in dense formations. Further fixes will come after feedback.
Fixed issue that caused the division ship leader to instantly switch position when receiving little damage, causing confusion to the formation.
Fixed bug that would cause ships of screen formation to immediately try to switch position at the start of battle, creating big confusion in the formation.
Fixed bugs that would cause the showing of inaccurate statistical data after battle.
Fixed some issues with barbettes that were not available in mount positions, while they should. This bug would cause issues in the auto-design which made it very difficult to find a proper barbette to place a gun.
Fixed old issue of inconsistent reverse engine damage.
Minor text fixes.
*==============================*

The war in Ukraine has affected our development team, but the majority is able to continue to work on the game. Some of our teammates cannot participate at the moment and we wish they will be strong and safe, to continue later when the situation allows it. Stay tuned, as we plan to offer the next major update within this week.

[Gusington]

 :o wow