GrogHeads Forum

Digital Gaming => Computer Gaming => Topic started by: Destraex on July 19, 2018, 08:25:27 PM

Title: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on July 19, 2018, 08:25:27 PM
Gentlemen and women. errm, and others!

Here is a game I have been following for some time. I may or may not have posted on it before. It's in development and is by the Darthmod guy who did ultimate general gettysburg and civil war. They seem to be progressing well and the below was posted 15 hours ago. I should explain that not much is known about the game. But here is what we do know;

Posted September 16, 2017 by Admin (before we knew who was developing the game at game labs.. who also did Naval Action and ultimate general)
"This is a topic for work in progress shots and stories about the game we have been tinkering with for the last 3-4 months

These are very very early WIP on the images that are generated for the ship recognition books from the 3d ship designer, that will give players full control over the ship design and visualize it all in 3d.

Player will be able to place main turrets, secondary turrets, casemate turrets, superstructures, masts, funnels, and decide on the shape of the hull, armor, barbette placement... All having historical constraints naturally limiting the players from creating strange and impossible monsters. All affecting ship performance in combat and movement.

If we are able to achieve even 50% of what we want this will be a revolution in battleship games.

Hope you enjoy it. Sorry for lower quality of the recognition book drafts but we can't show the rest. "

Posted February 21 by Nick Thomadis (darthmod) Game Labs Team in answer to some questions by a forum poster
"  On 2/9/2018 at 8:56 AM, Sento de Benimaclet said:
Beautiful ship!!!!!!. I imagine a battle with these ships in the North Sea, Coronel or Falklands waters ...... A dream come true. o7

Yes, it would be possible to fight at those waters and more!

  On 2/10/2018 at 7:44 PM, Mirrec said:
make this openworld like Naval Action and have biiig suces (i hope :-P )

There is going to be a campaign with much freedom to do various actions.

  On 2/19/2018 at 12:54 PM, Alex Connor said:


Based on the Cressy and Drake classes? Very nice model and I love how you are using variations of similar ships to build more visual variety.

Indeed. Cressy and Drake classes ;)

  On 2/20/2018 at 8:38 PM, Sento de Benimaclet said:
Precisely the beautiful naval action is to move around the map to your free will. If you do not do the same with this project, then as you say it stays in a world of warships, and we would not be interested. What would be amazing is to be able to go from naval base to naval base, loading coal for the ship, supplies, ammunition, getting as close as possible to the reality of those ships. An excellent book that I recommend to know how everything worked is "The Tzar's Last Armada". (Constantine Pleshakov).

It is too early to say exactly what we are making but it is safe to announce that we are not making a World of Warships style of gameplay, in which you only fight vs enemy ships. There is going to be a much more involved gameplay with tactical and strategic factors"

Posted April 12 by Nick Thomadis (darthmod) Game Labs Team
"It is a completely different project entity, not having any similarity to the previous Ultimate General games which were about land combat. It is a bold project that we finally decided to make, after years of interest on this time period and the corresponding naval genre."


Posted June 10 by Nick Thomadis (darthmod) Game Labs Team

"yes, the battles focus on realism. The damage model is very much detailed to simulate almost every aspect of naval warfare. For example, in WoW the ships can receive devastating damage and still sail on maximum speed. In our game you will notice a serious impact on ship performance because of damage and many other realism factors.

Our internal dev teams from time to time can join forces for helping in parallel projects, but at the moment is not needed."

Posted June 11 by Nick Thomadis (darthmod) Game Labs Team

"It is going to be an RTS game, you will control multiple ships, that you design them and bring them to combat. A naval arms race begins from 1890 and you aim to create the most powerful fleet in the world. It is a game that I will personally enjoy very much to play for ages when it becomes complete :) Thank you for the wishes and I hope we can deliver the project in early access within this year."

After I mentioned games like SES jutland NWS steam and iron
"The problem with all those games that you are referencing is that they are too complex to play, even for very hard core players. We cannot share something yet more specific but it is safe to say that our main idea is to offer a unique game that will please all naval warfare fans with deep gameplay on strategic and tactical level and without so much micromanagement."

16hrs ago by Nick Thomadis (darthmod) Game Labs Team:
"Hello again all,

I would like to mention the progress we have so far with Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. The game is mostly finalized in its innovative ship design mechanics and more features will make it deeper the coming months. The Ship Designer will allow players to construct and customize their own ships and will influence greatly the outcome of battles. During the campaign you will feel the tension of the Naval Arms race in a continuous struggle to construct the most powerful ships against major nations. The combat model is about 60% ready and needs more technology effects to become even more interesting, and this where we will focus in the next 1-2 months. We shall finalize all possible technologies related with ship designer and polish all the tech mechanics in the interface.

After all that, we will concentrate our efforts in the campaign map were players must have many interesting choices, blended with numerous historical events and what ifs. To answer the question of @JagEngland, the player so far does not have the option to move his fleet freely on the map, but we plan to implement a wide battle map interface where tactically he will have large freedom to maneuver during a tactical battle.

As we add more and more features to the game, 3D modelling progresses steadily. Here are two more art teasers, showing two Pre-Dreadnought Models that are a work in progress."

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1768/42801719564_fb55a204a7_z.jpg)

(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/918/42801719334_3514907798_z.jpg)

(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/833/42801719044_61d67b25c6_z.jpg)

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1824/42801718804_fd167be494_z.jpg)

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1762/42801718254_619c35b25d_z.jpg)

(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/833/42801717434_a0f18fd74a_z.jpg)

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1782/42801717064_c689a04e28_z.jpg)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Staggerwing on July 19, 2018, 08:48:16 PM
Ooh... shiny!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on July 19, 2018, 09:00:22 PM
HOLY DOGSHIT
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on July 19, 2018, 09:05:03 PM
My loins are so moist those ships would be able to navigate them.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: WallysWorld on July 19, 2018, 09:30:50 PM
This has definitely got my attention.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Steelgrave on July 19, 2018, 09:40:54 PM
Oh my!   :bd: :bd: :bd:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on July 19, 2018, 09:53:00 PM
I think I'm in love.  :smitten:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on July 19, 2018, 09:53:33 PM
Quote from: Gusington on July 19, 2018, 09:00:22 PM
HOLY DOGSHIT

I choose to interpret this as positive. I am very excited.
I still enjoy WOWs sometimes and have invested in war thunder ships. But this game could indeed be the golden chalice we have been waiting for.
A good cross between playability and realism without the BS balance factors.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: em2nought on July 19, 2018, 09:57:38 PM
Want!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: FlickJax on July 20, 2018, 02:14:09 AM
looking good :)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on July 20, 2018, 06:40:21 AM
Is there a website for this yet?

ME WANTS IT

ME NEEDS IT
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: bbmike on July 20, 2018, 07:33:24 AM
It is going to be an RTS game...  :(
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Rayfer on July 20, 2018, 09:53:24 AM
Quote from: bbmike on July 20, 2018, 07:33:24 AM
It is going to be an RTS game...  :(

Ultimate General: Civil War with boats and oceans instead of brigades and land?  Not necessarily a bad thing but not necessarily good.  ???
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: em2nought on July 20, 2018, 12:09:56 PM
The turrets look like an upgrade?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Cyrano on July 20, 2018, 12:20:46 PM
Whom is it that I must kill for an AoS game?

The guy who did the DARTHMOD is doing a dread game?  A fella can't win some days...

Still, he's got a rep for actually completing games, and good ones at that.  Good news for the hobby if not my particular interests.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on July 20, 2018, 02:51:43 PM
Quote from: em2nought on July 20, 2018, 12:09:56 PM
The turrets look like an upgrade?

  They look a bit generic and odd.  OF course most ships got all kinds of "upgrades" during and after construction and refits.  I can't believe it takes so long to get good games about naval development especially since all space games are based on one planet's naval evolution.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CJReich46 on July 21, 2018, 12:53:19 AM
Purty ships. Me like.

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 23, 2018, 03:23:42 PM
It's going into a 'testing stage':

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/27538-ultimate-admiral-dreadnoughts-enters-testing-phase/

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 23, 2018, 03:28:59 PM
Quote from: Gusington on November 23, 2018, 03:23:42 PM
It's going into a 'testing stage':

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/27538-ultimate-admiral-dreadnoughts-enters-testing-phase/

Looks good!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: bob48 on November 23, 2018, 03:42:26 PM
One to watch.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 23, 2018, 03:58:06 PM
I wish it was more specific as to what kind of testing the game was going in to...alpha, beta, etc.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: JasonPratt on November 23, 2018, 04:35:20 PM
I'm sure we'll hear about when it reaches dongle stage.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on November 23, 2018, 05:07:59 PM
Quote from: Gusington on November 23, 2018, 03:23:42 PM
It's going into a 'testing stage':

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/27538-ultimate-admiral-dreadnoughts-enters-testing-phase/

Yep. I signed up so to speak.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 23, 2018, 06:58:41 PM
If you can disclose any details please let us know!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on May 31, 2019, 04:31:20 PM
UAD has a website now.  Not too much on it, but its there...or rather here (https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/).
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on May 31, 2019, 04:44:09 PM
Saw this the other day...neglected to post here. My bad. IIRC they are in a beta stage...not sure.

Oh and SQUEEEEEEE! Can't wait for this.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Steelgrave on June 01, 2019, 02:31:31 PM
I'm SQUEEEEEING right there next to ya, brother Gus   :bd:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 01, 2019, 04:26:01 PM
^Tis the only way to squee.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: FlickJax on June 03, 2019, 03:19:42 AM
Quote from: Gusington on May 31, 2019, 04:44:09 PM
Saw this the other day...neglected to post here. My bad. IIRC they are in a beta stage...not sure.

Oh and SQUEEEEEEE! Can't wait for this.

I am with you on this.... ship to ship slug fests oh yeah

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 08:03:07 AM
On the new site I can see that there are a nice number of nations to play as, including China and Japan - which I was not expecting.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 09:32:18 AM
Quote from: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 08:03:07 AM
On the new site I can see that there are a nice number of nations to play as, including China and Japan - which I was not expecting.

For pre-dreadnought, armored cruiser battles, the major contenders were Greece, Turkey, Russia, Japan and China -- in some cases using British or French constructed ships.  On remote stations, the RN and the German Empire clashed, but of course any battlecruiser could shut that down quickly (as in the Falklands in 1914).
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: em2nought on June 03, 2019, 09:50:25 AM
Oh boy!  :bd:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 12:25:26 PM
Playing as China in the 1890s SIno Japanese War would be epic.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 12:51:50 PM
Quote from: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 12:25:26 PM
Playing as China in the 1890s SIno Japanese War would be epic.

   And allthmoreso if your French cruisers turned up instead of disappearing mysteriously on the high seas.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 02:46:44 PM
'Mysteriously'
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 04:17:08 PM
Quote from: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 02:46:44 PM
'Mysteriously'

Actually, it was a French cruiser that the Japanese bought in the 1880s that disapeared without a trace -- I think.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 04:52:08 PM
Do you know the name?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: besilarius on June 03, 2019, 06:19:55 PM
There is a new book out on armored cruisers in the period before Dreadnaught.
Think it is published by Naval Institute Press.  Will see if I can find it again, and if so will post the information.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 07:32:38 PM
Quote from: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 04:52:08 PM
Do you know the name?

  Protected Cruiser Unebi.  Launched (1886) Le Havre.  Purchased by Japan, but vanished on the way to Japan.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 07:36:04 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 07:32:38 PM
Quote from: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 04:52:08 PM
Do you know the name?

  Protected Cruiser Unebi.  Launched (1886) Le Havre.  Purchased by Japan, but vanished on the way to Japan.

  ル・アーヴル港を出港する日本巡洋艦「畝傍」
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 07:37:01 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 07:36:04 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 07:32:38 PM
Quote from: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 04:52:08 PM
Do you know the name?

  Protected Cruiser Unebi.  Launched (1886) Le Havre.  Purchased by Japan, but vanished on the way to Japan.

  ル・アーヴル港を出港する日本巡洋艦「畝傍」


   

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 07:44:23 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on June 03, 2019, 07:37:01 PM





Apparently Emil Bertin designed and built (he was in Japan 1886-1890) most of the Japanese fleet that won the 1894 war with China.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 03, 2019, 09:08:22 PM
 :notworthy:

-awesome knowledge you have there-
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on June 03, 2019, 11:18:33 PM
Fascinating stuff.  History I didn't know, and I taught the subject for 20 years.  I love it when I learn something new and I thank you for it.
 

It of course must've been aliens.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 04, 2019, 05:12:50 AM
Quote from: SirAndrewD on June 03, 2019, 11:18:33 PM
Fascinating stuff.  History I didn't know, and I taught the subject for 20 years.  I love it when I learn something new and I thank you for it.
 

It of course must've been aliens.

  I blame the Chinese.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on June 04, 2019, 10:07:41 AM
I hope the Japanese didn't pay too much for that cruiser. Or had REALLY good insurance. At first I thought you were talking about the 2 Chinese BB's that Japan acquired after their war with China, can't remember their names but they were bought from France also I think I remember and they were very old and slow as hell but were well protected as I recall. I'm sure somebody here knows the ships I'm thinking of.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 04, 2019, 11:21:56 AM
Quote from: Sir Slash on June 04, 2019, 10:07:41 AM
I hope the Japanese didn't pay too much for that cruiser. Or had REALLY good insurance. At first I thought you were talking about the 2 Chinese BB's that Japan acquired after their war with China, can't remember their names but they were bought from France also I think I remember and they were very old and slow as hell but were well protected as I recall. I'm sure somebody here knows the ships I'm thinking of.

It seems they were German (from Wikipedia):


Name (pinyin)   Name (Wade Giles)   Characters   Type   Construction   Specifications
Dingyuan   Ting-yuen   定遠   steel battleship   1882, Vulcan, Stettin   7,430 tons, 14.5 knots, four 12-in guns, two 5.9-in guns, three 14-in torpedo tubes
Zhenyuan   Chen-yuen   鎮遠   steel battleship   1882, Vulcan, Stettin   7,430 tons, 14.5 knots, four 12-in guns, two 5.9-in guns, three 14-in torpedo tubes
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 04, 2019, 12:10:17 PM
I remember reading about those ships a few years ago in a history of the Sino Japanese war (1894-95). Love this stuff. I hope the campaign in Dreadnoughts can match my imagination.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on June 04, 2019, 02:13:35 PM
That's them. Thanks Meng.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CJReich46 on June 04, 2019, 05:50:33 PM
I am just intrigued by this era.

If they allow different navies to duke it out like Russia Vs Germany or Britain vs France..etc.. or US vs Japan I am definitely keeping my eyes on this one.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 04, 2019, 05:53:04 PM
The game descriptions so far have been bare bones but I am pretty sure what you describe above is part of the plan.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: besilarius on June 04, 2019, 06:10:00 PM
This recent book may have a lot of information on the cruisers of the era:

Before the Battlecruiser
by Aidan Dobson

Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2018. Pp. 304+. Illus., plans, diagr., tables, graphics, appends., notes, biblio., index. $57.95. ISBN: 1682473759

A History of the Armored Cruiser

Naval historian and author of numerous books, including the recent The Kaiser's Battlefleet, Dodson, has produced a comprehensive account of the class of warships that came to be known variously as "armored cruisers".

Originating in the era when warships were in transition from wooden to iron, these ships were designed to defend or raid commerce, to scout for the battle fleet, and as flagships for squadrons on distant seas, roles earlier performed by heavy frigates or 50- and 60-gun ships-of-the-line. Armored cruisers were often bigger, faster, and costlier than contemporary battleships, but they were also more lightly armed and armored, and at times found themselves in the battleline with their more robust cousins, such as during the Spanish-American or Russo-Japanese Wars.

Dodson examines these vessels in two ways. He devotes about half the book to an overview history of the evolution and operations of the type, from its origins through the Second World War, in which some aged survivors actually played a role. In the second half, Dodson gives us a technical and historical profile of each navy's fleet of armored cruisers. This covers technical details, design changes, and operational experience of individual ships and classes, and includes vessels that were projected but never built.

Well-illustrated, with photographs, diagrams, and even full color images of some original plans, Before the Battlecruiser is a valuable reference for anyone interested in the evolution of the modern warship.



---///---

Reviewer: A. A. Nofi, Review Editor   

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Fv8Q6Xx-L._SL160_.jpg
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 04, 2019, 06:39:59 PM
^I will be picking this up.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on June 04, 2019, 07:17:21 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on June 04, 2019, 05:12:50 AM
Quote from: SirAndrewD on June 03, 2019, 11:18:33 PM
Fascinating stuff.  History I didn't know, and I taught the subject for 20 years.  I love it when I learn something new and I thank you for it.
 

It of course must've been aliens.

  I blame the Chinese.

Of course!  Chinese Aliens.  Should've suspected.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 04, 2019, 07:53:29 PM
Quote from: Gusington on June 04, 2019, 06:39:59 PM
^I will be picking this up.

  Me too!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on June 04, 2019, 08:16:01 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on June 04, 2019, 07:53:29 PM
Quote from: Gusington on June 04, 2019, 06:39:59 PM
^I will be picking this up.

  Me too!

Me three.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CJReich46 on June 06, 2019, 02:56:53 PM
Quote from: Gusington on June 04, 2019, 05:53:04 PM
The game descriptions so far have been bare bones but I am pretty sure what you describe above is part of the plan.

Sweet. I am in.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 07, 2019, 01:23:40 PM
Quote from: besilarius on June 04, 2019, 06:10:00 PM
This recent book may have a lot of information on the cruisers of the era:

Before the Battlecruiser
by Aidan Dobson


   Interestingly, the author is an Egyptologist by profession and training.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: JasonPratt on June 07, 2019, 09:06:57 PM
Quote from: SirAndrewD on June 03, 2019, 11:18:33 PM
Fascinating stuff.  History I didn't know, and I taught the subject for 20 years.  I love it when I learn something new and I thank you for it.
 

It of course must've been aliens.

There is definitely an anime in this story somewhere...!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Thomasew on October 04, 2019, 12:50:07 AM

Hi,

Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts is now available for Pre-Order and Access to the Alpha build ..  :)

https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/post/pre-order-and-play?fbclid=IwAR1DJ4_MDK-xhzXjtzLcAgIuC1Zag1UFNZ8DJgJHBIIK_2ioJV9r25kHN30


Cheers
Tom
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: FlickJax on October 04, 2019, 03:15:58 AM
Excellent pricing Thomas
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Grim.Reaper on October 04, 2019, 04:42:07 AM
Not sure about this one yet, hopefully those that jump in can share some thoughts....
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: The_Admiral on October 04, 2019, 05:16:22 AM
Pretty sure it's gonna be solid, one can see that from the looks alone (and the well documented habits of that one good studio to deliver and be true to its word...!).

At any rate, Darth and his team have been an inspiration all along, and I wouldn't be making the game I am making today if it hadn't been for people like them to lead the way (and prove it could be done).

Future limited edition user here, starting tonight once I get home from work.  ;)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Grim.Reaper on October 04, 2019, 05:25:27 AM
Quote from: The_Admiral on October 04, 2019, 05:16:22 AM
Pretty sure it's gonna be solid, one can see that from the looks alone (and the well documented habits of that one good studio to deliver and be true to its word...!).

At any rate, Darth and his team have been an inspiration all along, and I wouldn't be making the game I am making today if it hadn't been for people like them to lead the way (and prove it could be done).

Future limited edition user here, starting tonight once I get home from work.  ;)

Hope so...saw one post refer to it as an arcade version of rule the waves...could be an early over reaction since it just came out.  Although I prefer more sim than arcade, RTW can be too deep for me so maybe a "lighter" version isn't so bad.  Probably too early to draw conclusions anyway:)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 04, 2019, 08:24:33 AM
The game is (now my gag order is lifted) mainly about constructing ships for the job you intend to carry out.
You choose components and technology as well as lengthening and shortening the hull size and boiler (speed) size. Your ship has a budget and can be overweight for the hull as well. You put gunnery towers and armaments all over the hull. you can determine the thickness of armour almost everywhere. Then take the things out and see how they go.

Firing ranges can be insane and staying out of torpedo range is part of the game. Although I like to get in close and watch the fireworks.


Here are some shots from me mucking around with a few basic 1 on 1 scenarios.
(https://i.imgur.com/8ZA23NX.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/SX5cjWt.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/FUWqATa.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/TsEZpOm.png)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on October 04, 2019, 08:29:19 AM
^Worth getting now, in your view?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: mbar on October 04, 2019, 08:43:28 AM
Very tempted but for now my laptop is just above the minimum specs. I'll need to upgrade.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 04, 2019, 08:58:27 AM
I think it is worth getting. Because I really love mucking around with warship builds. The game just has the tutorials at the moment, but they are many and the later ones are pretty much full blown scenarios.
The tutorials are amazing fun, there are 21 of them and they go from building ships to chase down enemy DDs, destroying battleships with only a few DDs all the way up to battles with about 15 or so ships per side. It's a relaxing game.
Of course it is alpha pre-release with release being some time next year iirc. No campaign or other scenarios as of yet.

It's a game of what ifs with ship hulls from the end of sail up until the Yamato. No aircraft in sight either. It's gun vs gun. So don't expect historical accuracy per sae. It's a game first and foremost. By the creator of Ultimate General. The gents here will be happy to know that it is only single player as far as I am aware.

(https://i.imgur.com/uGZP9i9.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/UBTFyAI.png)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Grim.Reaper on October 04, 2019, 09:03:20 AM
My biggest fear with this game is I simply don't know enough about ships and how to build them.  What kind of tools or things included that would help someone like me?  Or simply is this a game I should pass on?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 04, 2019, 09:25:14 AM
Grim, It's as simple as it gets. Point and click to click\snap things onto ships like lego. Everything can be hovered over for detailed explanation tooltips as per my screenshot above.
The game tells you say, when your boilers are too big for your hull etc. I think this is a very accessible game. I doubt you will be fighting the interface instead of playing the game. But you do have to work out how to manage fitting everything you want on the ship onto the hull! Always compromising.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 04, 2019, 09:27:15 AM
The naval gaming gods have answered my prayers!!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Grim.Reaper on October 04, 2019, 09:27:30 AM
Quote from: Destraex on October 04, 2019, 09:25:14 AM
Grim, It's as simple as it gets. Point and click to click\snap things onto ships like lego. Everything can be hovered over for detailed explanation tooltips as per my screenshot above.
The game tells you say, when your boilers are too big for your hull etc. I think this is a very accessibly game. I doubt you will be fighting the interface instead of playing the game. But you do have to work out how to manage fitting everything you want on the ship onto the hull! Always compromising.

Thanks, I do think I would have no issue with the tools, was more concerned about knowing how to configure a ship (hulls, turrets, etc.)...I have no idea what would make a good ship:)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 04, 2019, 09:37:30 AM
Yes. That is where the fun lies. Finding out what makes a good ship and where ship designers had trouble.
Just be aware that this is a fairly light wargame rather than a hard core CAD ship designer with every historical detail. You are restricted by the HULL forms in the game that are the basis of your ship. Although you can stretch any of the hulls, or for that matter shorten them.

It's not trying to be any other wargame. It's just a bit of what if fun.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: trek on October 04, 2019, 09:41:28 AM
Longtime dream come true for me too! Funny how timing in life works. I recently purchased several books on the subject: One on Naval Warfare 1914-1918 from Amber Books UK as part of their multi-volume series on WWI and also one of the Osprey Duel Series books: British Dreadnoughts vs German Deadnoughts. Talk about learn as you read/go!

Destraex, thanks for the detailed info in you're posts as I've just purchased UAD and I'm just getting into the academy and building my first ship. How would you rate the naval battles with your gameplay experience so far? I guess I'm interested in ship movement and strategy. Last WWI naval game I played was Jutland. so I'm very excited to hear more details.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 04, 2019, 09:42:50 AM
How much, if any, of the campaign is available with this alpha?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 04, 2019, 09:43:31 AM
Zero Gus. No campaign to speak of at the moment. The 21 Tutorials are all you get currently.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 04, 2019, 09:54:24 AM
Quote from: trek on October 04, 2019, 09:41:28 AM
Longtime dream come true for me too! Funny how timing in life works. I recently purchased several books on the subject: One on Naval Warfare 1914-1918 from Amber Books UK as part of their multi-volume series on WWI and also one of the Osprey Duel Series books: British Dreadnoughts vs German Deadnoughts. Talk about learn as you read/go!

Destraex, thanks for the detailed info in you're posts as I've just purchased UAD and I'm just getting into the academy and building my first ship. How would you rate the naval battles with your gameplay experience so far? I guess I'm interested in ship movement and strategy. Last WWI naval game I played was Jutland. so I'm very excited to hear more details.

The damage model is more of a health bar style model, I mean the way it shows the ship state. But perhaps not the ship damage model itself. Ricochets, armour penalties etc are in. You can flood compartments and knock out specific parts of a ship.

The movement is a system that allows you to choose a few basic formations for your line. Line abreast and single file are ones I know are in game. You click where you want the first ship to try to get to and the game will draw a trajectory line to the destination. Their is a point at which you can be too slow to shoot effectively due to roll etc, you can also be too fast to be a stable gun platform. So those are things to watch for to make your guns more accurate.

As for strategy. Long range battles can sometimes mean I just run out of ammo plugging away at the enemy. But you can choose to take extra ammo, higher yield powder and shells etc. Get too close though and torpedoes can be a major issue. See the dotted line way in the distance in the pic below? I think that is the main gun max range for the CL in the pic, you can also just see the outermost range ring. To give you an idea of scale. The bottom screenshot has the innermost ring as the torp range and the outer as the gun max range. Obviously DDs have very small guns. I think I took the smallest for this scenario in order to fit more torps on deck.

(https://i.imgur.com/r4pqxTH.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/YqQ83aq.png)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: trek on October 04, 2019, 10:14:18 AM
Impressive! I like the depth of the gameplay already. How long did it take you to complete your first ship build? I seem to be repeatedly going over the ship weight limit as I'm trying to build my first ship. Any tips you've discovered?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 04, 2019, 10:38:54 AM
Thanks Des - dare I say that, like Trek mentions, the tutorials look fun. Can this be?? I must be dreaming.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: trek on October 04, 2019, 12:05:53 PM
So, got my first ship built and put to sea whereupon I lost my first battle. Going to do a retry soon. Really enjoying the entire aspect of this game. The naval combat is spot-on and the ship construction is intuitive and fun. Can't wait to experience the development process going forward. And yes, like Des said it's also very relaxing to play.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: trek on October 04, 2019, 12:36:23 PM
Just noticed on the ship-building page the "light-bulb" icon at the top of the page. Clicking on that gives you an "auto-build ship" so you can go quickly into battle without doing-it-yourself. I need to spend more time on the details of this game! This is true love!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 04, 2019, 01:55:43 PM
 :D
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: JasonPratt on October 04, 2019, 02:39:24 PM
SQUEEE!

---EEEEK!


uh, I mean, "squeak" as in the sound of.... ..... of... of naval sounds!  :D
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 04, 2019, 08:34:36 PM
I would liken this to Battletech due to the fact that my Destroyed blew up a minute into a battle. That lucky shot destroyed 50% of my force at long range in the first 60 seconds. Now this is the first time it has happened for me. But it shows that it is possible. The range was 3km and the enemy was a BB. So it is certainly possible.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 04, 2019, 08:35:42 PM
Please don't compare it to Battletech...
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 04, 2019, 09:20:59 PM
 :peace:Well like battletech their are a tonne of things that affect your chance to hit. But I guess you probably think I mean that you can get so many bonuses as to make a headshot a sure thing. If you got that impression I am sorry. I did not mean that. These are just small bonuses. They do add up but especially at range it's still hard to hit.

Here is a pic of a DD I made to destroy a battleship. Note that I could spend a lot more money and make it a helluva lot better. Why did I not do that? Because you will notice if I keep the price below half, I get two!!

(https://i.imgur.com/z0mJp09.png)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Skoop on October 05, 2019, 04:35:11 PM
Looks great, I may have to jump in rather than wait for steam release.  The age of sail one looks great too, I'll probably get em both.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 05, 2019, 07:05:24 PM
^Agreed, and I thought Dreadnoughts was much further out because of the Age of Sail game. Will be getting both.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 06, 2019, 02:11:01 AM
Scratch that.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on October 07, 2019, 11:31:41 AM
Quote from: Skoop on October 05, 2019, 04:35:11 PM
Looks great, I may have to jump in rather than wait for steam release.  The age of sail one looks great too, I'll probably get em both.

  I'm enjoying it.  Here HMS Agamemnon (a late pre-dreadnought sort of...) tries to close with two Imperial German Superdreadnoughts, hoping to use the 7-inch casement guns (30-seconds later she was blown to bits):

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: mbar on October 07, 2019, 12:14:06 PM
I bought it. The purchasing process was new to me but I got it. Build your own ships and watch them fight. Good stuff. Runs great.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 07, 2019, 04:24:53 PM
Buying it later tonight, hopefully. It calls my name.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on October 07, 2019, 09:12:41 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 07, 2019, 11:31:41 AM
Quote from: Skoop on October 05, 2019, 04:35:11 PM
Looks great, I may have to jump in rather than wait for steam release.  The age of sail one looks great too, I'll probably get em both.

  I'm enjoying it.  Here HMS Agamemnon (a late pre-dreadnought sort of...) tries to close with two Imperial German Superdreadnoughts, hoping to use the 7-inch casement guns (30-seconds later she was blown to bits):

  This Italian armored cruiser was a more successful design..though with 6 11-inch guns and advanced fire-control III -- how can you miss.  She and her sisters inflicted a sort of little Tsushima  on the Russians.  Yes, it being a pretty Russian game those 1905-ish monsters are very much in the game:

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 08, 2019, 08:21:15 AM
Bought it last night, will set it up in the next few days. So far the descriptions here are quite loin moistening.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on October 08, 2019, 09:42:09 AM
I smell a, 'What's Gus Playing' coming.  \m/
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 08, 2019, 11:50:02 AM
It might just be this for the next 1000 installments.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Tripoli on October 08, 2019, 12:58:35 PM
I'm curious about this one. I have "Rule the Waves" and "Rule the Waves II".  It sounds similar , but with better graphics.  Has anyone played both?  If so, what is your verdict on the two games?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Skoop on October 08, 2019, 02:42:54 PM
I have neither, but I can guess that the Admiral game doesn't have the depth of rule the waves.  The Admiral game looks way more fun to play though.  If you own RTW, you must like the era so why not own both. 
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: em2nought on October 08, 2019, 03:28:40 PM
Quote from: Skoop on October 08, 2019, 02:42:54 PM
If you own RTW, you must like the era so why not own both.

I can see them being kind of complementary.   Get different things you're after from each. 


Shoot, now I'm kind of jonesing to take my computer out of the hands it's temporarily been placed into.  :dreamer:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 08, 2019, 05:30:17 PM
Installing now  <:-)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on October 08, 2019, 06:17:24 PM
Can you name your ships you build? Because that could result in some  :hide: moments.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on October 08, 2019, 07:27:59 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on October 08, 2019, 06:17:24 PM
Can you name your ships you build? Because that could result in some  :hide: moments.

Well -- its very alpha -- which can be fun of course but:

1) you can't name your ships
2) you don't even know what country you will be or who your enemies are until you launch.  The Italians crushing a Tsushima style Russian force was pretty unexpected!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Grim.Reaper on October 08, 2019, 07:33:34 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 08, 2019, 07:27:59 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on October 08, 2019, 06:17:24 PM
Can you name your ships you build? Because that could result in some  :hide: moments.

Well -- its very alpha -- which can be fun of course but:

1) you can't name your ships
2) you don't even know what country you will be or who your enemies are until you launch.  The Italians crushing a Tsushima style Russian force was pretty unexpected!

Can you elaborate on #2....you don't start the game as a specific country building ships for it?  How does the game assign you a country then?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: al_infierno on October 08, 2019, 08:30:13 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on October 08, 2019, 07:33:34 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 08, 2019, 07:27:59 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on October 08, 2019, 06:17:24 PM
Can you name your ships you build? Because that could result in some  :hide: moments.

Well -- its very alpha -- which can be fun of course but:

1) you can't name your ships
2) you don't even know what country you will be or who your enemies are until you launch.  The Italians crushing a Tsushima style Russian force was pretty unexpected!

Can you elaborate on #2....you don't start the game as a specific country building ships for it?  How does the game assign you a country then?

Right now there's no campaign mode implemented, just a series of pre-built scenarios designed to teach you the game.  The scenario descriptions don't tell you who you are or who you're facing, it just explains the objective and scenario details and drops you into the ship designer.

EDIT:  I spoke too soon, you can see the national flag sailing on your ship during the designer.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: DennisS on October 08, 2019, 10:54:28 PM
Quote from: Tripoli on October 08, 2019, 12:58:35 PM
I'm curious about this one. I have "Rule the Waves" and "Rule the Waves II".  It sounds similar , but with better graphics.  Has anyone played both?  If so, what is your verdict on the two games?

I have both, and love both. Personally, RTW II is superior, as it adds naval aviation.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Tripoli on October 09, 2019, 10:17:47 AM
Quote from: DennisS on October 08, 2019, 10:54:28 PM
Quote from: Tripoli on October 08, 2019, 12:58:35 PM
I'm curious about this one. I have "Rule the Waves" and "Rule the Waves II".  It sounds similar , but with better graphics.  Has anyone played both?  If so, what is your verdict on the two games?

I have both, and love both. Personally, RTW II is superior, as it adds naval aviation.

Leaving aside the aviation aspect, how does the realism compare between the RTW  and Ultimate Admiral? Is the shipbuilding and combat more realistic in one as opposed to the other?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on October 09, 2019, 11:05:21 AM
This game looks a lot like that 3D Naval Battle game, was it, "War at Sea"? The one with a Russo-Japanese version and a later WWI version. You know, the one the company walked away from and never would update. We talked about it here recently. I think it was Norm Kroger's baby. That's NOT a bad thing if it is cause I loved that game.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 09, 2019, 01:24:23 PM
Jutland and Distant Guns.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on October 09, 2019, 02:20:26 PM
That's it, Distant Guns is the one I couldn't think of. Anybody else see the resemblance?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 09, 2019, 02:21:48 PM
Definitely. This appears a little more user friendly and accessible.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on October 10, 2019, 08:55:30 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 08, 2019, 07:27:59 PM


This Imperial Chinese Superdreadnought was one of my more successful designs -- not very fast, but with 11 15-inch guns and plenty of 5-inch secondaries -- how can you go wrong?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on October 10, 2019, 09:13:40 AM
Very Nice! I'd take her home to meet Momma.  :bd:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 10, 2019, 09:29:36 AM
I saw her first!!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on October 10, 2019, 06:35:04 PM
She only likes Nice Guys.  L:-)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 10, 2019, 08:06:53 PM
Your mom thinks I'm cool.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on October 10, 2019, 10:19:54 PM
Huh! That ain't saying much, my Mom thinks I'M cool.  :o
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: FlickJax on October 11, 2019, 03:58:17 AM
LOL :)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on October 11, 2019, 06:24:18 AM
 :2funny:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: FlickJax on October 11, 2019, 06:29:46 AM
So any more on current gameplay guys, worth investing to get in the beta?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: mbar on October 11, 2019, 08:24:43 AM
21 Naval Academy mission scenarios to play.

Design your ship or auto build it.

No save blue print function yet. Probably because the game will be updated frequently and would break saves anyway.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 11, 2019, 05:57:49 PM
No save blueprint. However if you lose and have to restart without leaving the game it rememebers until you exit the mission entirely.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: em2nought on October 11, 2019, 07:58:41 PM
There are a few in game videos posted in the Naval forum at simhq
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on October 16, 2019, 11:38:02 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 10, 2019, 08:55:30 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 08, 2019, 07:27:59 PM


This Imperial Chinese Superdreadnought was one of my more successful designs -- not very fast, but with 11 15-inch guns and plenty of 5-inch secondaries -- how can you go wrong?

  This design turned out to be a bit light even for a small battlecruiser despite its 6 13-inch guns:

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on October 16, 2019, 09:39:50 PM
I am having trouble with the torp/dd vs a battleship mission. After I take it down to 50-60% at long range the thing just runs. At close range I don't stand a chance.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on October 17, 2019, 12:55:27 PM
Quote from: Destraex on October 16, 2019, 09:39:50 PM
I am having trouble with the torp/dd vs a battleship mission. After I take it down to 50-60% at long range the thing just runs. At close range I don't stand a chance.

   I can't do much with torpedoes either.  They don't seem to do a lot of damage.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Speedy on October 17, 2019, 04:03:57 PM
It might depend on what size torpedo you are using or the BB's may have a torpedo belt.

I've experienced both extremes with once seeing an enemy battleship go down after being hit with a single salvo of about 4 torps and another time having a single enemy battleship hit by over 10 torpedoes and still cruising along with over 60% float and holding steady with the flooding.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: JasonPratt on October 29, 2019, 03:23:10 PM
Are torps supposed to be all that effective during this time period anyway?  ???
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on October 29, 2019, 05:19:34 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on October 29, 2019, 03:23:10 PM
Are torps supposed to be all that effective during this time period anyway?  ???

Basically no, but the SMS Pommern blew up spectacularly at Jutland after one torp hit.  Not likely at all in the current state of this game.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: besilarius on October 29, 2019, 08:10:36 PM
Jon Parshall, of the book Shattered Sword, did a study of torpedo attacks by the Japanese navy with the superb Type 93 Long Lance torpedo.  He figured that the hit percentage turned out to just over 6%.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Rayfer on October 30, 2019, 07:48:47 AM
Quote from: besilarius on October 29, 2019, 08:10:36 PM
Jon Parshall, of the book Shattered Sword, did a study of torpedo attacks by the Japanese navy with the superb Type 93 Long Lance torpedo.  He figured that the hit percentage turned out to just over 6%.

Shattered Sword was one heck of a great book...!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: besilarius on October 30, 2019, 08:12:27 AM
My mistake.  The study I was thinking of was at the Navweps site by Joe Czarnicki.

http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-067.php
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: JasonPratt on October 30, 2019, 08:19:29 AM
Out of that 6%, what was the detonation rate; and from that percentage of percentage the damage effect?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: besilarius on October 30, 2019, 09:01:25 AM
There wasnt enough information to determine the rate of hits that were duds.  So it was 6.71% hits that exploded. 
Total number of hits was probably higher.
Damage from a Long Lance was usually catastrophic.  The article gives some descriptions.

Here is another look.     https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-008/h-008-3.html
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 01, 2019, 09:53:14 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 16, 2019, 11:38:02 AM



   There's a new update out.  Heavier guns are relatively more effective at long range now so my armored cruiser with an 11-inch gun did not do well against a semi-dreadnought.  Here's my hopeful armored cruiser:

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 02, 2019, 02:13:12 PM
How is the new update pushed to players? Do I have to go get it or is it automatic somehow?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Grim.Reaper on November 02, 2019, 02:36:36 PM
When you start the client, big update button is shown, just have to choose that
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 02, 2019, 03:20:00 PM
Sweet. Kinda hard to miss that big blue button. Haven't had a chance to fire it up since I got it.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: mbar on November 02, 2019, 04:47:16 PM
The launcher will update the game.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 07, 2019, 02:40:29 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on November 01, 2019, 09:53:14 PM


Here's a moderately successful US Battlecruiser -- named (wierdly enough) USS Saratoga:

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on July 22, 2021, 07:54:12 AM
This one seems to be in trouble.

At the beginning of the year, the roadmap for 2021 included four core updates and patches:

    Core patch 1 - Core of campaign including Custom Battle saves

    Core patch 2 - Crew and officers

    Core patch 3 - R&D and Tech Progression

    Core patch 4 - New nations and map expansion

They never promised specific dates for any of the patches, but indicated that they would flow throughout the year.

Here we are almost in August and the first core patch is yet to be released. Furthermore, there have been no development updates regarding the roadmap and no word from the developers since May, when a small patch was released.

Some news from the top would be nice. The natives in the official forums are starting to get restless.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Pete Dero on July 22, 2021, 08:29:09 AM
^ Is there a (rumored) relation with the Game Labs acquisition by the Stillfront Group ?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on July 22, 2021, 08:43:39 AM
Quote from: Pete Dero on July 22, 2021, 08:29:09 AM
^ Is there a (rumored) relation with the Game Labs acquisition by the Stillfront Group ?

Nothing official and I haven't really even read any speculation on this in the forums, but it is hard for me to not draw a correlation. Although, the acquisition is pretty recent and I would say they were already pretty behind on the roadmap at the time they got acquired.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on July 22, 2021, 08:46:52 AM
Shit, this sucks...I am holding out hope that we will see a full campaign eventually. But the silence is deafening. IF completed this would be my go to game for years. I have had fun with it in just the mission mode and even started developing some decent skills :/
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on July 22, 2021, 09:45:32 AM
I picked this one up last year, but put it aside to let it grow a bit more.  Its been awhile since I even checked their website/blog.

I did just go look at the Steam forums and a dev responded just yesterday about Development Status, so looks like things are not dead.  O0

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/0/5183064363549285914/
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on July 22, 2021, 09:59:43 AM
 :'(
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on July 22, 2021, 11:08:00 AM
Quote from: steve58 on July 22, 2021, 09:45:32 AM
I picked this one up last year, but put it aside to let it grow a bit more.  Its been awhile since I even checked their website/blog.

I did just go look at the Steam forums and a dev responded just yesterday about Development Status, so looks like things are not dead.  O0

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/0/5183064363549285914/

That is good to hear.  I am waiting for this one.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on July 22, 2021, 03:33:47 PM
Thank you Steve - excellent news.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Dammit Carl! on July 23, 2021, 07:18:40 AM
Nice.  This is one of those games I enjoy watching on YouTube - particularly when it's one of those "what if," designs.

Certainly need to pick this one up at some point.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CJReich46 on July 23, 2021, 11:42:02 AM
Me too.  I would love to get this but I was waiting for it to land on Steam.

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on July 23, 2021, 11:54:55 AM
Quote from: CJReich46 on July 23, 2021, 11:42:02 AM
Me too.  I would love to get this but I was waiting for it to land on Steam.

It's not supposed to land on steam until after the 4th core update has been released, so you could be waiting awhile.

That being said, who knows what they'll end up doing.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on August 18, 2021, 04:11:33 PM
"Core patch 1: Arriving" (https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/38970-core-patch-1-arriving/)...soonTM update.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on August 18, 2021, 04:23:53 PM
Awesome news! Even if the campaign is in a 'very early state.' I was beginning to lose hope. Thanks Steve.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on August 18, 2021, 09:36:24 PM
Quote from: steve58 on August 18, 2021, 04:11:33 PM
"Core patch 1: Arriving" (https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/38970-core-patch-1-arriving/)...soonTM update.

Sounds pretty good...this game might even replace "Rule the Waves 2" on my hard drive.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: The_Admiral on August 20, 2021, 07:49:40 AM
Quote from: ArizonaTank on August 18, 2021, 09:36:24 PM
Quote from: steve58 on August 18, 2021, 04:11:33 PM
"Core patch 1: Arriving" (https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/38970-core-patch-1-arriving/)...soonTM update.

Sounds pretty good...this game might even replace "Rule the Waves 2" on my hard drive.

That I don't know, there are some unholy acts I might never even attempt, some of us have come as far as having dreams about RtW2 at night I must say :arr:

But sure thing though, the progress as announced is very encouraging - and by that I mean exciting indeed! :smitten:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on August 20, 2021, 06:54:13 PM
RTW2 - shivers. Unholy union of modern mega trendoid gaming corporate marketing machine and an old classic. Your point is made perfectly in my eyes.  :peace:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on August 20, 2021, 08:02:06 PM
Quote from: Destraex on August 20, 2021, 06:54:13 PM
RTW2 - shivers. Unholy union of modern mega trendoid gaming corporate marketing machine and an old classic. Your point is made perfectly in my eyes.  :peace:

WTF are you talking about?  Rule the Waves 2 is mega trendoid?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: al_infierno on August 20, 2021, 08:20:13 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on August 20, 2021, 08:02:06 PM
Quote from: Destraex on August 20, 2021, 06:54:13 PM
RTW2 - shivers. Unholy union of modern mega trendoid gaming corporate marketing machine and an old classic. Your point is made perfectly in my eyes.  :peace:

WTF are you talking about?  Rule the Waves 2 is mega trendoid?

Pretty sure he's referring to Game-Labs getting acquired by a huge mega corporation.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on August 20, 2021, 09:17:07 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on August 20, 2021, 08:02:06 PM
Quote from: Destraex on August 20, 2021, 06:54:13 PM
RTW2 - shivers. Unholy union of modern mega trendoid gaming corporate marketing machine and an old classic. Your point is made perfectly in my eyes.  :peace:

WTF are you talking about?  Rule the Waves 2 is mega trendoid?

I mistook RTW2 for Rome Total War 2 sorry. Acronyms are a crowded vehicle of convenience that is often more confusing than not these days. There is no substitute for proper and thorough articulation. However I admit that in the context of this thread and the earlier mentioning of Rule the Waves 2, I should have realised RTW2 was Rule the Waves 2.  O0
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: al_infierno on August 21, 2021, 12:22:30 AM
That actually makes a lot more sense.   :2funny:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on August 21, 2021, 08:57:20 AM
Does Rule The Waves 2 ever go on sale??
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on August 21, 2021, 09:32:13 AM
Quote from: steve58 on August 21, 2021, 08:57:20 AM
Does Rule The Waves 2 ever go on sale??

No.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on August 21, 2021, 04:15:03 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 21, 2021, 09:32:13 AM
Quote from: steve58 on August 21, 2021, 08:57:20 AM
Does Rule The Waves 2 ever go on sale??

No.

:(
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on August 21, 2021, 06:15:25 PM
Quote from: steve58 on August 21, 2021, 04:15:03 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 21, 2021, 09:32:13 AM
Quote from: steve58 on August 21, 2021, 08:57:20 AM
Does Rule The Waves 2 ever go on sale??

No.

:(

There is a new module in the works that will bring the game into the jet and missile age. I will probably get it then.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on August 22, 2021, 01:43:42 PM
:timeout: That new expansion might be just enough to push my wallet into the line of battle.  Time to give the RTW2 demo a re-look...
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on September 07, 2021, 03:56:31 PM
Forthcoming Patch Announcement (https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/39028-forthcoming-patch-announcement/)

If you are the tldr-type, the very last line is "The patch is scheduled to arrive this week."  O0
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on September 07, 2021, 04:37:25 PM
 :notworthy:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on September 07, 2021, 04:39:29 PM
New 'crew' system. Intriguing...
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on September 07, 2021, 05:07:25 PM
Quote from: Gusington on September 07, 2021, 04:39:29 PM
New 'crew' system. Intriguing...

True, but now looks like crew before campaign.  Kinda thought this patch was going to have the campaign.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Skoop on September 07, 2021, 06:13:44 PM
I'd rather they release it EA on steam, not sure what they are waiting for.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on September 07, 2021, 07:24:22 PM
I read that the new patch would launch the early version of the campaign too...did I read it wrong?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Grim.Reaper on September 07, 2021, 07:28:41 PM
Quote from: Gusington on September 07, 2021, 07:24:22 PM
I read that the new patch would launch the early version of the campaign too...did I read it wrong?

According to this, not in the initial version but not far way

Crew is a very important factor for the campaign and will need your extensive testing. So we decided to give out a pre-patch, which includes all the new features but without a playable campaign yet.

We are going to improve the campaign version while you enjoy all the new features offered by the patch. Your impressions and ideas on the new crew system, will be utilized to optimize the final campaign patch, which will be available in the coming days.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on September 07, 2021, 07:43:25 PM
Ah. I used to have much better reading comprehension. Getting old(e).
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on September 10, 2021, 11:59:56 AM
A (hopefully) short delay on the patch.

Quote
The patch is in closed testing procedure.

If all is good, we will release on Monday.

Everyone, have a great weekend!


https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/39028-forthcoming-patch-announcement/?do=findComment&comment=753932
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on September 10, 2021, 12:18:31 PM
 <:-)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on September 13, 2021, 12:11:06 PM
...and another short delay...until tomorrow. 

Quote
Hello all,

We were ready to release, as we fixed and optimized all majors aspects, but we found a potential crash problem that could be caused if you clicked mouse button while waiting for AI fleet design in the loading window.

We cannot release without this bug fixed, so please wait until tomorrow.

PS.
We are sorry for the anxiety and anticipation caused so far, but we want you to play the game with the best quality and stability possible.


https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/39028-forthcoming-patch-announcement/?do=findComment&comment=754100
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on September 13, 2021, 12:25:02 PM
I can live with that.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on September 14, 2021, 12:04:43 PM
Core Patch 0.5 has been released. (https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/39058-core-patch-05-feedback/)  :D

https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/post/core-patch-0-5-released
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on September 14, 2021, 01:21:06 PM
 :notworthy:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on September 14, 2021, 01:50:57 PM
It better not suck or else they are screwed.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on September 14, 2021, 08:55:20 PM
So it sounds like the campaign is still not in there...  I will wait some more.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on November 23, 2021, 09:12:12 PM
Looks like the  first version of the Campaign may be released in the next few days....

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/39231-core-patch-10-news-the-upcoming-changelog/
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 23, 2021, 09:40:14 PM
Nice!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: DetCord on November 24, 2021, 01:29:37 AM
Work-in-Progress.

(https://i.imgur.com/tMGoOUb.png)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on November 24, 2021, 11:12:09 AM
 :clap:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on November 24, 2021, 07:17:52 PM
The first version of the campaign is out

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/39283-core-patch-10-feedback/

(https://i.imgur.com/CWu1KED.png)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on November 24, 2021, 07:30:12 PM
Quote from: Destraex on November 24, 2021, 07:17:52 PM
The first version of the campaign is out

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/39283-core-patch-10-feedback/

I see you're given honorable mention in the patch notes. Good job!

What is your opinion of the current state of the game?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on November 24, 2021, 07:36:38 PM
Oh you are right. I had no idea.  :)
This is the first version of the campaign map. A little ways to go yet. I really love playing the game.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 24, 2021, 08:29:35 PM
I have to fire this up at some point over this holiday weekend!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: apoll on November 25, 2021, 12:41:42 AM
How, for the love of smeg, did you get past "Win three naval academy battles" to get to the campaign??! And in Naval Battles Academy, hitting the Start button does nothing.

That is a really irritating design choice to make you jump through hoops to get at the campaign. Makes me want to delete it from my hard drive; too many other good games out there.

Any ideas?

Apoll
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: FlickJax on November 25, 2021, 05:23:21 AM
probably need to wait for release and a sale here
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on November 25, 2021, 05:39:02 AM
Quote from: apoll on November 25, 2021, 12:41:42 AM
How, for the love of smeg, did you get past "Win three naval academy battles" to get to the campaign??! And in Naval Battles Academy, hitting the Start button does nothing.

That is a really irritating design choice to make you jump through hoops to get at the campaign. Makes me want to delete it from my hard drive; too many other good games out there.

Any ideas?

Apoll

I just played the speed and a few gunnery missions. I find the ironclad ones hard. From the forums:

"  17 hours ago, Commander Reed said:
3 of them. After the reset, I couldn't be bothered to re-do them because they're fairly luck based. And I don't have the time to play missions for hours on end hoping to win because of random chance that I penetrate the ship and it starts flooding enough to sink.

Nick Thomadis
Game Labs Team

This should not happen normally. There was no preference from our side to reset mission progress. None of our testers reported such an issue either. Did you have a long time to play/unlock missions?"

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/39283-core-patch-10-feedback/
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 25, 2021, 07:47:23 AM
Quote from: Destraex on November 25, 2021, 05:39:02 AM
Quote from: apoll on November 25, 2021, 12:41:42 AM
How, for the love of smeg, did you get past "Win three naval academy battles" to get to the campaign??! And in Naval Battles Academy, hitting the Start button does nothing.

That is a really irritating design choice to make you jump through hoops to get at the campaign. Makes me want to delete it from my hard drive; too many other good games out there.

Any ideas?

Apoll

I just played the speed and a few gunnery missions. I find the ironclad ones hard. From the forums:

"  17 hours ago, Commander Reed said:
3 of them. After the reset, I couldn't be bothered to re-do them because they're fairly luck based. And I don't have the time to play missions for hours on end hoping to win because of random chance that I penetrate the ship and it starts flooding enough to sink.

Nick Thomadis
Game Labs Team

This should not happen normally. There was no preference from our side to reset mission progress. None of our testers reported such an issue either. Did you have a long time to play/unlock missions?"

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/39283-core-patch-10-feedback/

  Generally in the Ironclad battles, ramming works pretty well.  Put most of your construction points into speed and armor and boom!  Here the San Antonio sinks the Delware:

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 25, 2021, 01:33:29 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on November 25, 2021, 07:47:23 AM

  Generally in the Ironclad battles, ramming works pretty well.  Put most of your construction points into speed and armor and boom!  Here the San Antonio sinks the Delware:

  So that was 1865 or so...Here is the game's version of 1890 (which would be closer to the design date than the in-service date in this case) a French horror (tumblehome and all) struggling with the Austro-hungarians in gametime 1890, but more like 1900-1910 or so:

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Toonces on November 25, 2021, 01:44:35 PM
Just so I understand, this game isn't available yet, correct?  I don't see a buy option on Steam, yet some of you are playing it...   8)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Grim.Reaper on November 25, 2021, 01:52:08 PM
Quote from: Toonces on November 25, 2021, 01:44:35 PM
Just so I understand, this game isn't available yet, correct?  I don't see a buy option on Steam, yet some of you are playing it...   8)

Direct from developer

https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/order
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Toonces on November 25, 2021, 01:54:08 PM
What's up with the 'internet connection required at start?'
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 25, 2021, 02:00:26 PM
Quote from: Toonces on November 25, 2021, 01:54:08 PM
What's up with the 'internet connection required at start?'

I think they have some kind of quasi-sophisticated validation thing.  It hated me for a while, but now it knows who I am, I think.  Or it thinks that I think that, probably.  Anyway, now I feel validated.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 25, 2021, 10:24:51 PM
I never had an issue with the client...smooth like buttah.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 26, 2021, 11:31:36 AM
Quote from: Gusington on November 25, 2021, 10:24:51 PM
I never had an issue with the client...smooth like buttah.

  It seems okay now and it does download patches and such pretty often so that's another reason for the internet connection.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on November 26, 2021, 05:41:01 PM
News that a basic campaign is now included got me off my duff on this one. 

Fired it up for the first time today.

Overall, like what I see...  Love the detailed shot by shot info and detailed damage reports... something I felt was missing from the Totem Ironclad series.

But still early days in my experience with it. 
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on November 26, 2021, 08:07:01 PM
How do you get it?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on November 26, 2021, 08:25:59 PM
The campaign?  If you already own the game, just fire it up and click on Update.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CaptainKoloth on November 26, 2021, 10:08:46 PM
Quote from: Gusington on November 25, 2021, 10:24:51 PM
I never had an issue with the client...smooth like buttah.

I too have only had good experience with this client. Which is pretty unusual for me among all the various non-Steam or GOG clients I've used. It always works and updates quick. Never gives me trouble about launching offline either.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on November 26, 2021, 11:30:28 PM
How do you get the game?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Old TImer on November 27, 2021, 12:26:50 AM
Quote from: solops on November 26, 2021, 11:30:28 PM
How do you get the game?

https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Toonces on November 27, 2021, 01:34:06 AM
I reckon, given all I've now read, that I'll await the Steam release.  No real incentive here; I can wait.

It does look like it's going to be a must buy when it releases.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: DetCord on November 27, 2021, 11:44:35 PM
Quote from: Toonces on November 27, 2021, 01:34:06 AM
I reckon, given all I've now read, that I'll await the Steam release.  No real incentive here; I can wait.

It does look like it's going to be a must buy when it releases.

This is excellent advice.

I've been with it since launch and the progress has been abysmally slow over the past several years. The dynamic campaign, the one singular thing everyone has been waiting for, has a long, long, long way to go before it is even remotely enjoyable and properly fleshed out.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 28, 2021, 12:11:32 PM
All true but to be fair the team is tiny.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on November 28, 2021, 03:55:19 PM
Quote from: DetCord on November 27, 2021, 11:44:35 PM

....

...  The dynamic campaign, the one singular thing everyone has been waiting for, has a long, long, long way to go before it is even remotely enjoyable and properly fleshed out.

I am a newcomer to the game, but I think that is a rather harsh view of the current campaign. Clearly it has far to go...but I am still enjoying the campaign as a battle generator. I think even in its current state the campaign does add something valuable to the package.

Overall, there are plenty of things in the game that still need polishing, but I still think it is fun to play.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 28, 2021, 05:11:52 PM
^I agree - there are 50+ pre-fabricated missions available now to play now and a skirmish mode that covers Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, British, French, Russian, Italian, Austro-Hungarian and American navies from 1890-1940.

The campaign is what we have been waiting on for literally years, but GameLabs is not a big operation. I am willing to be patient, mostly because what I have played so far has been high-quality and lovingly assembled.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Rayfer on December 10, 2021, 02:24:54 PM
I see this is now on Steam as early access...$31.49.  Tempting.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 10, 2021, 02:55:56 PM
Well worth it at that price, and the skeleton of the campaign is now available. There are also 50+ playable missions and a good mission builder.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on December 10, 2021, 02:58:51 PM
For those that have been playing the beta...  here is word from the devs on distribution of Steam Keys... for me this raised more questions than answered:



12/6/2021

Dear Admirals,

We would like to share information about the distribution of Steam Keys of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts to all pre-order backers who purchased the game via Xsolla store on our website.

There are two new changes on Steam rules which we must follow. The first one is that the keys can only be distributed to you only after the game goes live and is playable on Steam. The second change is that we can no longer order a full batch of keys in one go and have to order the keys in smaller batches that are delivered after the game goes live, as mentioned.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts is planned to be released on Steam this week and so we estimate that we need about 4 weeks to distribute all the keys to you gradually. We have already received the first large batch of keys from Steam and are waiting for 3 more batches to be delivered (Steam delivers 1 batch a week).

We want to assure you that your Steam keys will be granted as promised and while we are delivering them the Xsolla launcher version will be FULLY supported with all the new content and have the same version as on Steam until all keys are distributed.

Thank you again for all the support, feedback and patience.

On behalf of Game Labs,

Nick Thomadis
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 10, 2021, 03:05:41 PM
Hmm do backers have to do anything or are they being sent to everyone who backed?

It also sounds like the Xsolla version may eventually go away...?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Old TImer on December 10, 2021, 05:54:13 PM
Quote from: Gusington on December 10, 2021, 03:05:41 PM
Hmm do backers have to do anything or are they being sent to everyone who backed?

It also sounds like the Xsolla version may eventually go away...?

Good questions that I too would like answers to.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CJReich46 on December 10, 2021, 05:59:10 PM
It's on STEAM!   :o and 31.49... VERY TEMPTING.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 10, 2021, 06:08:18 PM
Client issues aside, the game is ambitious and fascinating and fun now. 31.49 is a no brainer for anyone interested in naval combat, dreadnoughts, the era (1890-1940) or any combo of those.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on December 10, 2021, 06:55:06 PM
Quote from: Gusington on December 10, 2021, 06:08:18 PM
Client issues aside, the game is ambitious and fascinating and fun now. 31.49 is a no brainer for anyone interested in naval combat, dreadnoughts, the era (1890-1940) or any combo of those.

+1 agree
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on December 10, 2021, 07:46:57 PM
Quote from: Gusington on December 10, 2021, 06:08:18 PM
Client issues aside, the game is ambitious and fascinating and fun now. 31.49 is a no brainer for anyone interested in naval combat, dreadnoughts, the era (1890-1940) or any combo of those.

::sigh::  Sold......I mean I was going to buy it anyway so....might as well.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 10, 2021, 08:04:54 PM
 8)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on December 10, 2021, 11:29:22 PM
Got it this morning. Curious to see how it compares to Rule the Waves.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Toonces on December 10, 2021, 11:33:03 PM
Please post impressions.  This is on my short list.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on December 11, 2021, 06:18:17 AM
Quote from: solops on December 10, 2021, 11:29:22 PM
Got it this morning. Curious to see how it compares to Rule the Waves.

I am curious as well as I have not played much rule the waves since the demo years ago.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Rayfer on December 11, 2021, 07:52:24 AM
Quote from: Destraex on December 11, 2021, 06:18:17 AM
Quote from: solops on December 10, 2021, 11:29:22 PM
Got it this morning. Curious to see how it compares to Rule the Waves.

I am curious as well as I have not played much rule the waves since the demo years ago.

Yes solops...please, I've been on the fence for a long time regarding Rule the Waves. Enquiring minds want to know!  ???
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on December 11, 2021, 10:52:02 AM
Bad news. I am deep into Shadow Empire and it will be a while before I get to Dreadnoughts.  I did boot it up and it is very pretty.   Options are for tutorials, the new campaign function and custom battles. Cannot say much past that.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Skoop on December 11, 2021, 12:24:07 PM
Got it, played one battle so far.  There is a fair amount of detail shown in the interface.  Not much micro managing, you simply point and click to shoot or move.  Graphics are pretty good, I bet the non micro control will be fine for large battles.  Could be frustrating for people who want more control.  Battleships seem very tanky as they should be.  The battle I played, I couldn't sink the enemy battle ships, but sunk everything else which made them flee.  Pretty detailed damage system and graphics.  Torpedoes are quite effective and might be op, but they also make light ships more useful.

My 9 year old loves it for the ship builder, he spent and hour making Frankenstein ship creations, then testing them out.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 11, 2021, 08:23:00 PM
Had to refund it as you can't rebind commands from WASD.  That's a no-go for me.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Pete Dero on December 12, 2021, 05:13:10 AM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 11, 2021, 08:23:00 PM
Had to refund it as you can't rebind commands from WASD.  That's a no-go for me.

Most is done by mouse and for the WASD keys (I have an Azerty keyboard) I use Autohotkey (https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Remap.htm) (https://www.autohotkey.com/).
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 12, 2021, 10:23:37 PM
Yeah, I have AutoHotKey installed but I never use it.  It's mostly on principle that I refund games that don't offer the ability to remap controls...well...it's partially on principle and partly because I'm lazy. 


OK, I'm just too lazy to set up AutoHotKey but in theory, there's also the principle of the thing.

If they implement rebinding, I'll pick it up.  If not, I'll just stick to Rule the Waves.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 12, 2021, 11:54:02 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 12, 2021, 10:23:37 PM
Yeah, I have AutoHotKey installed but I never use it.  It's mostly on principle that I refund games that don't offer the ability to remap controls...well...it's partially on principle and partly because I'm lazy. 


OK, I'm just too lazy to set up AutoHotKey but in theory, there's also the principle of the thing.

If they implement rebinding, I'll pick it up.  If not, I'll just stick to Rule the Waves.

It's still early access. Hopefully this is something that will eventually be addressed.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Pete Dero on December 13, 2021, 03:56:33 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 12, 2021, 11:54:02 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 12, 2021, 10:23:37 PM
Yeah, I have AutoHotKey installed but I never use it.  It's mostly on principle that I refund games that don't offer the ability to remap controls...well...it's partially on principle and partly because I'm lazy. 


OK, I'm just too lazy to set up AutoHotKey but in theory, there's also the principle of the thing.

If they implement rebinding, I'll pick it up.  If not, I'll just stick to Rule the Waves.

It's still early access. Hopefully this is something that will eventually be addressed.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/0/1637549649110545143/

at the moment the key binding option is not available, but it will be added at later stage of development.

But ... this was posted November 2019.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 13, 2021, 11:00:06 AM
They clearly want to make SDR work for his key binding option.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 13, 2021, 07:15:43 PM
The seas are safe from the scourge of the Left-Handed Navy for a little while longer.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: DetCord on December 14, 2021, 12:23:18 AM
As someone that's been with the game since it first launched in EA two years ago I'm somewhat torn.

Pros-Median-Concerns:

• You can design ships, sort of.

• It's easy to use but hard to master thanks to a tendency for information overload.

• The visuals are passable to decent. It has AA issues, the various skyboxes are dated looking PNG files, visual damage can render oddly at times.

• They designed a projectile simulation before they even started on the engine itself. The game simulates kinetic munitions and the ridiculous computational mathematics behind them at an absurd level. Think Steel Beasts or VBS4 level.

Cons:

• It has lots of bugs.

• The AI gunnery seems to cheat more often than not.

• The GUI is finicky at times and honestly looks like it was designed by a first-year game-dev school graduate. It also tends to function like one as well.

• The dynamic campaign (core aspect) is an unrealized mess.
   
       ◘ You can't form Fleets or Task Forces.
       ◘ You can only moves ships between ports. They don't group when engaged.
       ◘ You can't direct ships or your nonexistent Fleets or Task Force to missions. Meaning you can't manually move them, assign patrols, routes, interdictions, etc.
       ◘ Encounters and missions and the like are completely randomized, as are the vessels that engage in them. Proximity of ships in port to a mission area have no impact upon the makeup of said battle.
 
Screens:

(https://i.imgur.com/eME2BBr.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/KeLLiqT.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/uHHcgn2.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/T8FlfHb.png)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: FlickJax on December 14, 2021, 07:03:01 AM
Guess I will hold off for a bit, pity
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Rayfer on December 14, 2021, 07:45:59 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on December 14, 2021, 07:03:01 AM
Guess I will hold off for a bit, pity

My thoughts exactly.  Thanks to DC for the summary.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 14, 2021, 08:20:53 AM
I still have a ton of fun with it and barely notice the more technical complaints above. And given the show of support that GameLabs has shown, plus the lack of anything really similar on the market plus the roughly 30.00 dollar price, it is still well worth it.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on December 14, 2021, 09:38:43 AM
Quote from: Gusington on December 14, 2021, 08:20:53 AM
I still have a ton of fun with it and barely notice the more technical complaints above. And given the show of support that GameLabs has shown, plus the lack of anything really similar on the market plus the roughly 30.00 dollar price, it is still well worth it.

I'm +1 here. The game has rough edges...but I think it is fun to play.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 14, 2021, 07:04:30 PM
Looks like key remapping will be included in the next patch.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 14, 2021, 07:17:25 PM
So what will you do?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 14, 2021, 07:22:01 PM
Suck and get sunk a lot, I suspect.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 14, 2021, 08:10:17 PM
Like the majority of us. Carry on.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CaptainKoloth on December 15, 2021, 12:32:40 AM
Quote from: Gusington on December 14, 2021, 08:20:53 AM
I still have a ton of fun with it and barely notice the more technical complaints above. And given the show of support that GameLabs has shown, plus the lack of anything really similar on the market plus the roughly 30.00 dollar price, it is still well worth it.

That's exactly how I feel about it. There's an unbelievable amount of negativity on the GL forums but I'm having a blast. I'm sure there are lots of balance issues I haven't noticed but I'm enjoying my blissful ignorance of those issues immensely.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: GDS_Starfury on December 15, 2021, 12:50:58 AM
going to a games forum is a lot like watching the news.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 15, 2021, 07:03:43 AM
Yeah I've seen the change in mood at the GameLabs forums too. It's a shame to see fans that were so excited for something turn on Nick for some perceived slight or because he's not working fast enough or because a feature is still missing.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Skoop on December 15, 2021, 06:36:59 PM
I'm used to it with gamelabs.  Everybody trashes them in naval action but there's no game out there like it so we live with it.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 15, 2021, 09:05:43 PM
^Yup. I'm sure it is similar to other situations with a quiet majority who are (mostly) satisfied. Until a studio builds a better dreadnought game or GameLabs does something outright wrong, I'll be loyal.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on December 17, 2021, 05:21:52 PM
Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 10, 2021, 02:58:51 PM
For those that have been playing the beta...  here is word from the devs on distribution of Steam Keys... for me this raised more questions than answered:



12/6/2021

Dear Admirals,

We would like to share information about the distribution of Steam Keys of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts to all pre-order backers who purchased the game via Xsolla store on our website.

There are two new changes on Steam rules which we must follow. The first one is that the keys can only be distributed to you only after the game goes live and is playable on Steam. The second change is that we can no longer order a full batch of keys in one go and have to order the keys in smaller batches that are delivered after the game goes live, as mentioned.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts is planned to be released on Steam this week and so we estimate that we need about 4 weeks to distribute all the keys to you gradually. We have already received the first large batch of keys from Steam and are waiting for 3 more batches to be delivered (Steam delivers 1 batch a week).

We want to assure you that your Steam keys will be granted as promised and while we are delivering them the Xsolla launcher version will be FULLY supported with all the new content and have the same version as on Steam until all keys are distributed.

Thank you again for all the support, feedback and patience.

On behalf of Game Labs,

Nick Thomadis


...got my Steam key in an email a few minutes ago.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 17, 2021, 05:27:54 PM
I got a cryptic Xsolla email that says 'here is your key to the limited edition...'

...so I guess I got my Steam key too? It doesn't mention Steam anywhere in the email :/
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: steve58 on December 17, 2021, 07:37:49 PM
Yup, that be your Steam key.  My key worked just fine on Steam  O0
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 17, 2021, 09:10:01 PM
So you got rid of the other installation first and then got it through Steam?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Pete Dero on December 18, 2021, 03:55:24 AM
Quote from: Gusington on December 17, 2021, 09:10:01 PM
So you got rid of the other installation first and then got it through Steam?

That is what I did and it worked.

In the mail you received you should see a button 'activate'.  That takes you to the Steam game activation.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 18, 2021, 09:00:49 AM
Gotcha
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: DetCord on December 22, 2021, 01:08:15 AM
Quote from: Gusington on December 15, 2021, 09:05:43 PM
^Yup. I'm sure it is similar to other situations with a quiet majority who are (mostly) satisfied. Until a studio builds a better dreadnought game or GameLabs does something outright wrong, I'll be loyal.

GL isn't GL anymore. They're a Stillfront property, and this was discussed ad-nauseam when it was announced back in August. So by all means be loyal...

Still can't get over them spelling hobby wrong...

(https://content.invisioncic.com/r237714/monthly_2021_05/triangle.jpg.142b4dcdfc5acefda8a2491c8e4969ee.jpg)

I was actually contacted by the site admin after making this post to stop addressing it. That alone should speak volumes.

https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/38710-game-labs-got-bought/?do=findComment&comment=753210 (https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/38710-game-labs-got-bought/?do=findComment&comment=753210)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 22, 2021, 09:35:57 AM
It's a business. Do you expect them to try and not make money? You don't want to deal with them, that's your right.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on December 22, 2021, 05:02:40 PM
Quote from: DetCord on December 22, 2021, 01:08:15 AM
Quote from: Gusington on December 15, 2021, 09:05:43 PM
^Yup. I'm sure it is similar to other situations with a quiet majority who are (mostly) satisfied. Until a studio builds a better dreadnought game or GameLabs does something outright wrong, I'll be loyal.

GL isn't GL anymore. They're a Stillfront property, and this was discussed ad-nauseam when it was announced back in August. So by all means be loyal...

......


Ultimately this is the issue with "early access". The buyer takes the risk that the dev will continue work until its done. Having worked in a small dev house (albeit not gaming software), I know that there a ton of things that can happen to interrupt, delay or even cancel development...even if the devs work in good faith. Getting acquired and having the new management change direction is one of them.

In some ways we, the gaming audience have brought these types of issues upon ourselves.

It used to be that we didn't need to care too much what happened to the dev house post-purchase.

In those days of yore, we roasted any development house that released an incomplete product (Stardock and "Elemental: War of Magic" in 2010 comes to mind). In those days (wow, only 11 years ago), we got more or less complete products with our initial purchase (usually there was some patching, but mostly tweaking). We even got a physical copy of the game to make us feel good. If the dev house went under or was acquired...that was sad, but we still had our game.

But there is no way to put the "early access" genie back in the bottle (and we wouldn't really want to).

So now I think the only thing we can do on a personal level is to just be careful about the early access games we buy into. Personally, I won't buy into a game unless it has a minimum level of functionality and is already highly playable. I also look for devs / publishers who give the buyers a price break for "taking the risk" of buying incomplete games. Also, I will only usually buy "early access" through Steam...only because if the game is really incoherent, I can get a refund.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 29, 2021, 09:03:38 AM
FYI - Rebind command keys option added in the latest v1.01 build.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 29, 2021, 09:52:21 AM
SDR!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on December 29, 2021, 10:22:49 AM
Yes boss.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CaptainKoloth on December 29, 2021, 11:26:29 AM
There was actually a ton of new stuff in their latest update. I remain really impressed with the level of support on the game and how much fun it is to play already.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Rayfer on December 29, 2021, 03:25:34 PM
I've been on the fence with this one and you guys aren't making it any easier.  I need you to write up some bad stuff about it.   :-[
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CaptainKoloth on December 29, 2021, 04:13:19 PM
Quote from: Rayfer on December 29, 2021, 03:25:34 PM
I've been on the fence with this one and you guys aren't making it any easier.  I need you to write up some bad stuff about it.   :-[

It doesn't have nuclear weapons. That's always a downside in my book.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Old TImer on December 29, 2021, 04:54:45 PM
I'm less certain about these developers.  I purchased the early version of the game directly from the publisher.
Had a great time with it.  No regrets.  But trying to get a Steam key out of them has proven to be, shall we say,
challenging.  I ask for my Steam key.....they reply with a "this has been addressed, do you want to keep this
case open."  Hmmm, I say, nothing has been addressed......yes, keep the case open.  2 weeks later, "this has
been addressed etc etc.  Frustrating to say the least.  Would it make me less likely to support an early
access product from these publishers in the future?  Absolutely.  No way.  Their communication skills are
under-developed.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CaptainKoloth on December 29, 2021, 05:19:42 PM
Odd. I got my Steam key with no hassle whatsoever.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on December 29, 2021, 05:27:33 PM
That is odd. I got my Steam key a few weeks ago without asking as well. Must be an error in their system somewhere compounded by a mild language gap.

Besides the lack of nuclear weapons the fact that they are a small team makes their progress less than speedy. That's the worst thing I can think of at the moment, Rayfer, sorry.

And as the Captain mentions above I just had a chance to read the newest patch notes on Steam and there has been a ton of other tweaks and updates besides the key rebinding option, specifically implemented for SDR.



Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Tripoli on December 29, 2021, 09:23:58 PM
Quote from: Gusington on December 29, 2021, 05:27:33 PM
That is odd. I got my Steam key a few weeks ago without asking as well. Must be an error in their system somewhere compounded by a mild language gap.

Besides the lack of nuclear weapons the fact that they are a small team makes their progress less than speedy. That's the worst thing I can think of at the moment, Rayfer, sorry.

And as the Captain mentions above I just had a chance to read the newest patch notes on Steam and there has been a ton of other tweaks and updates besides the key rebinding option, specifically implemented for SDR.

My experience is like Gus'.  I ordered from the developer, and received my Steam key within days of them going live on Steam with no problem.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on December 31, 2021, 01:13:04 AM
Quote from: Tripoli on December 29, 2021, 09:23:58 PM
Quote from: Gusington on December 29, 2021, 05:27:33 PM
That is odd. I got my Steam key a few weeks ago without asking as well. Must be an error in their system somewhere compounded by a mild language gap.

Besides the lack of nuclear weapons the fact that they are a small team makes their progress less than speedy. That's the worst thing I can think of at the moment, Rayfer, sorry.

And as the Captain mentions above I just had a chance to read the newest patch notes on Steam and there has been a ton of other tweaks and updates besides the key rebinding option, specifically implemented for SDR.

My experience is like Gus'.  I ordered from the developer, and received my Steam key within days of them going live on Steam with no problem.

Same here, no issues with getting key. It came by email.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 24, 2022, 05:03:20 PM
Has anyone been able to beat Mission #30 (Dreadnought vs Modern Cruisers)?  I've tried more than a dozen times with various builds but can't even get close to winning.  Best I've managed to do is sink 2 out of 4 of the enemy.  They either burn me down with superior long range gunfire and torpedoes if I design bare bones Dreadnoughts or they just use their speed to outpace me and run the clock out if I build fast battleships.

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on January 24, 2022, 05:13:10 PM
It's been a while so I don't remember if it was that specific mission but I have had the AI run the clock out on me.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: tanqtonic on January 25, 2022, 01:10:45 AM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 24, 2022, 05:03:20 PM
Has anyone been able to beat Mission #30 (Dreadnought vs Modern Cruisers)?  I've tried more than a dozen times with various builds but can't even get close to winning.  Best I've managed to do is sink 2 out of 4 of the enemy.  They either burn me down with superior long range gunfire and torpedoes if I design bare bones Dreadnoughts or they just use their speed to outpace me and run the clock out if I build fast battleships.

I used the advanced tech option.   Get the most accurate longer range guns --- sometimes the diameters one or two bore widths smaller than the max have much, much, much better accuracy.   Since you are dealing with 2 BC, up armor your decks to make sure they have to come in a little closer than they would usually.

Your guns should be able to out duel the BCs at this range with accuracy.

Try and take out at least one BC at range, and the CAs will try to have to close to torpedo range.   When the CAs come in for torp shots, use your secondaries on them ----  your larger secondaries should be able to tag them.   If they get to torp range, always make a quick evasive turn or two to throw off a long range torp shot, and use that closed distance to take them out with full focus.

The key is getting the range accuracy advantage over the BCs, and when you wound them you slow them down.   Once you slow them to your speed, they are all yours since their main advantage has been negated.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 25, 2022, 03:09:58 AM
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.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: tanqtonic on January 25, 2022, 03:22:37 AM
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.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Rayfer on January 25, 2022, 10:12:25 AM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 25, 2022, 03:09:58 AM
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.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: tanqtonic on January 25, 2022, 10:39:15 AM
Quote from: Rayfer on January 25, 2022, 10:12:25 AM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 25, 2022, 03:09:58 AM
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
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 25, 2022, 10:13:23 PM
I got by the Alabama one by ramming the monitor and sinking it.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on March 14, 2022, 12:45:51 PM
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.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on March 14, 2022, 01:03:14 PM
^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.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on March 18, 2022, 06:48:28 AM
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.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on March 18, 2022, 09:22:58 AM
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. 
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on March 18, 2022, 09:59:59 AM
^Better news than what could have possibly been reported.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Wburn on March 19, 2022, 12:27:31 AM
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.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on March 19, 2022, 02:37:30 PM
Quote from: Wburn on March 19, 2022, 12:27:31 AM
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:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Skoop on March 19, 2022, 04:33:35 PM
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.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on March 20, 2022, 09:20:47 PM
One of the devs (dartis) posted that a patch should be dropping this week. 

Quote==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.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on March 21, 2022, 08:57:43 AM
 :o wow
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on April 12, 2022, 05:45:30 PM
Patch has dropped  :D

...and it is huge...I attempted to paste the details here and it exceeded the text limit  :notworthy:

...so here you go:

https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/post/major-update-v1-05

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on April 13, 2022, 03:59:14 PM
Quote from: Gusington on April 12, 2022, 05:45:30 PM
Patch has dropped  :D

...and it is huge...I attempted to paste the details here and it exceeded the text limit  :notworthy:

...so here you go:

https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/post/major-update-v1-05

The game is shaping up very nicely. Can still use a bit more work IMHO, but is very playable. The new patch really opens up the strategic game.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on April 13, 2022, 07:51:55 PM
^Yep, and I'm happy to see continued progress after worrying that the war may have affected it. Doesn't appear so now.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on June 30, 2022, 04:38:32 PM
Quote from: Gusington on April 13, 2022, 07:51:55 PM
^Yep, and I'm happy to see continued progress after worrying that the war may have affected it. Doesn't appear so now.

   Magazine Explosion on a RN armored cruiser:

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on June 30, 2022, 08:53:25 PM
^Was that your ship or did you score that hit?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on July 06, 2022, 08:30:11 PM
v1.06 patch now out:

TEXT HEAVY!

https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/post/major-update-v1-06
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on July 06, 2022, 09:40:41 PM
Quote from: Gusington on July 06, 2022, 08:30:11 PM
v1.06 patch now out:

TEXT HEAVY!

https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/post/major-update-v1-06

Wow, all I can say is...amazing.  Considering the dev shop is Ukrainian. These guys could have put the game aside during hostilities and I would have been fine with that.

Three cheers for Game-Labs!!!!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on July 06, 2022, 09:54:26 PM
Yes - I wonder if they relocated?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Grim.Reaper on July 06, 2022, 09:58:57 PM
Selfishly hoping they find a way to release their rumored revolutionary war game as would love to play it:)
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on July 07, 2022, 08:30:08 AM
^Me too.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on November 01, 2022, 02:45:12 PM
Major new update hit today...

Among many other things, the game now includes the full global map and all playable major nations for the campaign. The campaign has been enriched with many new features, including submarines, minefields, the finalization of the main technology tree. A lot of other major updates too. I'd say the game is coming together nicely now.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 01, 2022, 02:56:54 PM
 :D
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 05, 2022, 05:48:52 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on November 01, 2022, 02:45:12 PM
Major new update hit today...

Among many other things, the game now includes the full global map and all playable major nations for the campaign. The campaign has been enriched with many new features, including submarines, minefields, the finalization of the main technology tree. A lot of other major updates too. I'd say the game is coming together nicely now.

  Yep.  I've been playing it a lot lately.  Pretty good stuff!
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 05, 2022, 10:48:16 AM
^Campaign?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 05, 2022, 04:17:03 PM
Quote from: Gusington on November 05, 2022, 10:48:16 AM
^Campaign?

  Yep, Normal British Empire from 1890.  Not hard but instructive.  I've built all my own stuff while keeping the GDP up and the unrest down.  I've lost one battle against Russia and won about a dozen versus China and Russia in two different wars between 1890 and 1896.  Spain collapsed and the USA looks kinda dangerous.  I think I'm allied with everyone else.

  The enemy in trouble (I specialize in torpedos, mines and rangefinders, on fast ships):



Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on November 05, 2022, 11:24:02 PM
Meng I have to ask. Are they adding carriers? Because BBs seemed to be fairly late variants.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 06, 2022, 01:13:42 PM
Sounds great - like the game is in a really good point in development now.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 06, 2022, 01:42:13 PM
Quote from: Destraex on November 05, 2022, 11:24:02 PM
Meng I have to ask. Are they adding carriers? Because BBs seemed to be fairly late variants.

  I haven't seen any carriers...its really more of a naval race to WWI and then a what-if no washington treaty kind of thing, I think.  There are no carriers and not even any floatplanes or planes on cruisers or recon from land.  I'll probably quit soon once I build a few dreadnoughts.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on November 06, 2022, 07:32:25 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on November 06, 2022, 01:42:13 PM
Quote from: Destraex on November 05, 2022, 11:24:02 PM
Meng I have to ask. Are they adding carriers? Because BBs seemed to be fairly late variants.

  I haven't seen any carriers...its really more of a naval race to WWI and then a what-if no washington treaty kind of thing, I think.  There are no carriers and not even any floatplanes or planes on cruisers or recon from land.  I'll probably quit soon once I build a few dreadnoughts.

I confirm, no naval aviation.

The sweet spot of the game is pretty much 1890 to the end of WWI. Campaigns start at 1890, 1900, or 1910.

Although it does let you play campaigns starting in 1920, 1930 or 1940...these are just gunnery games (subs and mines do show up in the strategic game however)

Strangely there is an ironclad era tutorial scenario (a small group of ironclads trading shots) that I found quite interesting, but the game will not let you generate battles before 1890. I would love to see them develop ironclads a bit more...but perhaps because it would open up wooden ships they have decided to leave it be.

The campaigns are only historical in a general sense. They are really just a reason to pit the players carefully crafted guns against the AI's.

The game is pretty much following the path set out by NWS's Rule the Waves I. In fact, many of the campaign elements seem like they come right out of Rule the Waves I. The big difference is that UA:D is 3D, while Rule the Waves is mostly a spreadsheet game.

Rule the Waves II had a pretty good implementation of naval aviation, so lets hope UA:D goes there as well. I'd happily pay for it as DLC.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on November 06, 2022, 08:48:43 PM
Hmmm. I could have sworn I saw some Yamato action there.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on November 06, 2022, 09:10:39 PM
Quote from: Destraex on November 06, 2022, 08:48:43 PM
Hmmm. I could have sworn I saw some Yamato action there.

Yes, you can build super battleships
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 07, 2022, 08:30:07 AM
Quote from: ArizonaTank on November 06, 2022, 09:10:39 PM
Quote from: Destraex on November 06, 2022, 08:48:43 PM
Hmmm. I could have sworn I saw some Yamato action there.

Yes, you can build super battleships

  However, in the campaign, it looks like the basic model for a war is the French theory of the guerre de course .  Basically you build fast cruisers and sink all the other side's fast
cruisers and move on to sinking all their merchant ships.  Anyway, as the British Empire in 1890-1900 you have a huge number of advantages as long as you protect your merchant shipping
by building a lot of good light cruisers.  So I've lost a few battleships occasionally when outnumbered by enemy battleships, but by building fewer better, faster battleships and plenty of light
cruisers, I can beat larger enemy fleets most of the time while also wiping out their trade and protecting my trade.
  For the British...well you have to have the French as allies since they could raid you horribly...but with Hong Kong and Singapore Alexandria Gibraltar and Karachi in British hands, China and Russia are doomed against you...oh...in the historical scenario mind you.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 07, 2022, 08:56:20 AM
How engaging/fun is the campaign side of the game?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 07, 2022, 10:56:39 AM
Quote from: Gusington on November 07, 2022, 08:56:20 AM
How engaging/fun is the campaign side of the game?

  If you are the British, it's all about building ships and the GDP.  The battles are interesting since you have to learn to make sure you have balanced forces everywhere.
Battleships by themselves don't do very well.  So you learn to have packs of torpedo boats and cruisers everywhere.  The Torpedo boats kill the enemy torpedo boats and sometimes some larger
prey while the light cruisers take on everything, the heavy cruisers draw fire and the battleships sometimes are helpful.

  I'd say its moderately engaging for a week or two., but really only covers 1890-1910 or so and I'm at 1901 so I'll be quitting soon.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Jarhead0331 on November 07, 2022, 11:09:35 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on November 07, 2022, 10:56:39 AM
Quote from: Gusington on November 07, 2022, 08:56:20 AM
How engaging/fun is the campaign side of the game?

  If you are the British, it's all about building ships and the GDP.  The battles are interesting since you have to learn to make sure you have balanced forces everywhere.
Battleships by themselves don't do very well.  So you learn to have packs of torpedo boats and cruisers everywhere.  The Torpedo boats kill the enemy torpedo boats and sometimes some larger
prey while the light cruisers take on everything, the heavy cruisers draw fire and the battleships sometimes are helpful.

  I'd say its moderately engaging for a week or two., but really only covers 1890-1910 or so and I'm at 1901 so I'll be quitting soon.

It seems like the game may have deeper issues than its relatively brief timeline. I mean, an engaging game could be highly worth replaying, even if it only covers 20 years of naval warfare, or so.

Did you ever play Rule the Waves? If so, what are your thoughts on it? It's obviously a very different game in many respects, but I'm curious if it has held your interest over time.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 07, 2022, 11:34:16 AM
Thanks Meng...I have been waiting for a game like UA:D for what feels like 100 years, especially a good campaign.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 07, 2022, 01:09:31 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on November 07, 2022, 11:09:35 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on November 07, 2022, 10:56:39 AM
Quote from: Gusington on November 07, 2022, 08:56:20 AM
How engaging/fun is the campaign side of the game?

  If you are the British, it's all about building ships and the GDP.  The battles are interesting since you have to learn to make sure you have balanced forces everywhere.
Battleships by themselves don't do very well.  So you learn to have packs of torpedo boats and cruisers everywhere.  The Torpedo boats kill the enemy torpedo boats and sometimes some larger
prey while the light cruisers take on everything, the heavy cruisers draw fire and the battleships sometimes are helpful.

  I'd say its moderately engaging for a week or two., but really only covers 1890-1910 or so and I'm at 1901 so I'll be quitting soon.

It seems like the game may have deeper issues than its relatively brief timeline. I mean, an engaging game could be highly worth replaying, even if it only covers 20 years of naval warfare, or so.

Did you ever play Rule the Waves? If so, what are your thoughts on it? It's obviously a very different game in many respects, but I'm curious if it has held your interest over time.

  I played an early version of Rule the waves long ago.  I have to say the graphics and the combat in Ultimate Admiral are fantastic compared to whatever rule the waves had years ago.

  Even after I quit the campaign, I'm sure I'll fight some more custom battles in Ultimate Admiral.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 07, 2022, 01:11:35 PM
Quote from: Gusington on November 07, 2022, 11:34:16 AM
Thanks Meng...I have been waiting for a game like UA:D for what feels like 100 years, especially a good campaign.

  I like the campaign, but mind you, it is a very Jackie Fisher view of what a naval war should be like.  You won't see anything like Jutland in the campaign game if you are winning as
Great Britian.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 07, 2022, 01:52:09 PM
^That is so damned quotable. As the game evolves I'm hoping (as is everyone else) that the campaign can become more dynamic.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MengJiao on November 07, 2022, 03:09:25 PM
Quote from: Gusington on November 07, 2022, 01:52:09 PM
^That is so damned quotable. As the game evolves I'm hoping (as is everyone else) that the campaign can become more dynamic.

  Well, surviving the 1890s as the navy of Spain or China might be pretty dynamic.  The French, Russians or Austro-Hungarians might have some dynamic times
in the later parts of the period that the game covers well.  Japan and the USA seem to do okay in the historical campaign.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on November 07, 2022, 03:12:18 PM
Austria-Hungary, Spain and China sound amazing. I can't wait.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: JasonPratt on January 20, 2023, 02:53:32 PM
QuoteHello Admirals,
We are very happy to announce the next large patch for Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. The game now includes the full global map and all playable major nations for the campaign. The campaign has been enriched with many new features, including submarines, minefields, the finalization of the main technology tree, and various new aspects which aim to make the gameplay deeper and more realistic. Please read below in detail what v1.09 has to offer.


MAJOR CAMPAIGN FEATURES
Full Global Map: The map is expanded in its maximum size scale and it includes the whole world. You will be able to travel with your fleets everywhere and now the strategic importance of Task Forces and other new technologies become a necessity.

All Major Nations added: All 10x major Nations become available to play. The previous nations were:

- British Empire
- French Empire
- German Empire
- Italian Empire
- Austro-Hungarian Empire

and the new are:

- United States
- Russian Empire
- Empire of Japan
- Spanish Empire
- Chinese Empire

Note: For starters, their initial starting provinces will not differ according to the start year of the campaign.

All necessary technology aspects become available: All previous not functional "To-Do" which you were seeing in the technology tree will be now fully operational, and many more. The most important to mention are the following:

Submarines & ASW: The technology tree is enriched with the submarines which you can fully use in the campaign map. ASW new techs will help in the countermeasures against submarines. Fleets with no ASW and light ship escorts will be very vulnerable against submarines.The submarines will only be playable on the campaign map and will execute autoresolved missions against convoys and enemy fleets.Special mine submarines could sink enemies with their mines without engaging them.

Mines: The technology tree includes a full set of mines and minefield options which can be used in the campaign map. DD and CL will have the ability to deploy mines with special components around the ports. Fleets will be able to clean them up faster if they have DD or TB with dedicated minesweeping equipment. Ports that are protected by mines can heavily damage enemies that attempt to close in for Port Strike missions.

Ship Construction Flaws: Only for the campaign, the ships may have various minor or major defects when building them which you can overcome if you invest in construction technologies. Some complex components may increase the chance of defects, so overpowering your ship with the latest technology may result in defective ships if you haven't invested sufficiently in the ship construction technologies. The "Overweight" and "Underweight" type of defects are permanent, while the extra "Hull Defects", "Weapon Defects" can be gradually repaired with refits.

New "Recon" rating for ships: The *Recon* rating represents the reconnaissance capability of the ship, its ability to report enemy movements without being detected, and greatly improves the strategic power of the fleet to gain initiative on offensive missions or get away from trouble before the enemy comes too close. "Recon" is affected mainly by the respective technology as well as spotting, detectability and speed attributes of the ship.

Large and slow ships such as battleships are expected to have a smaller "Recon" rating than small cruisers and destroyers. Radio and Radar equipment greatly increase the reconnaissance capability surpassing inherited disadvantages of larger ships.

Various strategic technologies: Technologies that speed up the crew training, raise the maximum training level without combat, enhance the power projection/invade/protect capabilities or even reinforce transports with more armament (and torpedoes). All in all, the technology aspects have been rebalanced and enriched so that they matter significantly and require careful planning on which one to focus on.

EXTRA MAJOR FEATURES
Updated Shipyard graphics: New graphical improvements for the shipyard, according to the size of the designed ships. These shipyards will fit all ships, even the largest super battleships.

Campaign Ammunition: Spending ammunition in combat is no longer free, but has a cost which is added in the fleet maintenance. Ships will gradually regain ammo according to the weight of their requited ammo, the free port capacity and their distance from it. So ships that are in Task Forces must not waste ammunition, especially if they are far away from a large friendly port, as they will be in danger of ammunition shortages.

Detailed ship map movement and fuel: Ships travel at sea according to their cruising speed which is dependent from the designed top speed and the engine type (for example, Diesel Engines provide a higher cruising speed). According to their operational range, they spend fuel, in map or during combat (maximizing consumption at full speed).

If they reach a "Low Fuel" state their maintenance becomes more expensive (simulating the necessity to refuel with supply convoys), they slow down the fleet with their lower cruising speed and in combat they cannot use the full engine throttle, so they are severely more vulnerable.

Ships will gradually refuel according to their distance from a friendly port and its free capacity and the refueling cost will be dependent from the designed operational range and its cost. So now, chasing for hours withdrawing enemies may result in excessive fuel costs and shortages which will negatively affect your fleet in the next turns.

New "Defend" Role: During wartime players can switch to "Defend Port'' when they wish their ships to not participate in any other mission than port strike defense. This was many times asked by players as a way to manage the economy without trying to exploit the mothball options.

New "Commission Time": When ships are constructed or are removed from mothball status, they need some time to become fully operational. Note: This new essential feature replaces the temporary very large "Repair" time when ships returned from mothball status.

New "Repair Priority" for ports:Previously all ships in ports received immediate repairs even for minor damages. Additionally, if you moved damaged ships from a task force to a port they would not be repaired unless they participated in a battle and survived. These problems are now addressed by having a "Repair Priority" button which appears when you click to a port which works similarly as for the Task Forces.

Detailed Refit Time: After popular player request, the refit time became more detailed, utilizing the amount of objects and tonnage changed on the ship. The refit time shows up during the refit design, so the player is well informed of his design actions.

Undo Action in Ship Design process: Players can undo a certain number of previous actions if they make a mistake. This new feature is a work in progress and may not be fully working.

Undo Action in Ship Design process: Players can undo a certain number of previous actions if they make a mistake. This new feature is a work in progress and may not be fully working.

Multiple Saves for campaign: A simple way of having different campaign save slots. We will try to include save capability during campaign battles.

Engine Vibrations: According to engine type or technologies, the ship may have excessive engine vibrations which negatively affect the ship's accuracy. By lowering the ship's throttle, the vibrations become reduced.

Shell Splashes accuracy effect: When firing at a target and other guns of your own or friendlies also fire at the target, there is a temporary accuracy penalty, simulating the difficulty to distinguish different splashes of multiple gun calibers. Rangefinders (especially the Radar) and some new techs lessen this negative effect. This new feature also enhances the ships of uniform gun caliber because shell splashes from minor secondaries is very small.

Gun recoil accuracy effect: You will now notice a realistic recoil accuracy effect when firing guns which will be significant if your hull is too small for those guns. This effect will dissipate over a short time but can greatly affect ships which are equipped with super velocity guns, too large for the displacement of the hull.

Updated ship physics: Ships interact with the waves more realistically. You will notice the acceleration to increase not linearly according to the size of the waves.

Engine efficiency is more important: The engine efficiency benefits are enhanced, since the engine efficiency level can increase further to 100%. Ships with low engine efficiency will be drastically slower at sea and have less operational range, making them strategically less important.

"Funnel smoke" and "smoke screen" new functionality: Smoke obstruction from funnels no longer causes a permanent accuracy penalty but this penalty is applied according to the direction of the smoke in relation to the target. Furthermore, this smoke obstruction affects other ships which will target with accuracy penalty when their targets are obstructed by the funnel smoke. The same functionality enriches the smoke screen which will now reduce the accuracy for targets that reside behind the smoke screen (not only inside the smoke, as before).

Armor plate damage affects shell penetration: As armor plates become damaged their resistance against incoming shells becomes reduced. So you will notice that even the most heavily armored ship can gain weaknesses after a prolonged combat and the hazard of a catastrophic detonation increases significantly when the ship is almost a wreck.

Flooding increases according to section damage: Various ship design aspects, crew and amount of damage received affect the flooding effects. Now the ship's structure integrity affects them further. As a result, ships with increased damage have much difficulty to control flooding and so ships with maximum bulkheads will not feel "invulnerable" and so hard to sink as before.

Gun length settings depended on technology: The maximum gun length caliber is now researchable in "Turret Mechanisms" (and can be increased a little further than before), simulating the needed metallurgy developments to allow durable large caliber naval rifles which previously were unrealistically available too early in the technology era.

(POSTPONED for the next update) - New hulls: The USS Maine (1889) and several ship variants of early technology will enrich the roster of available hulls.

BALANCES / FIXES
Battle AI improvements to follow the new changes.
Auto-Design improvements to follow the new features. It should also now not produce ships with zero superstructure armor (unless it produces a very special rare armor layout).
Various balances in ship weights.
HE armor penetration capacity is reduced. Overpowered large caliber HE shells should not exist anymore.
Shell ballistics improvements affecting penetration mechanics. Shell dispersion should be noticeably improved.
Various balances in many components and techs.
Fixes of various campaign bugs (too many to mention).
Fixed the turret rotation stalling when angle is not sufficient (WIP).
Various minor hull improvements.
Fixed issue of overpowered player technology when he started a campaign with "Own Fleet". Previously the AI ships would be behind at least 3 or 4 years while the player would have ships of the present start year (for example 1910 instead of 1906 ships). This fix addresses one of the main reasons that AI was weaker in battles because it always started with lower tech ships than the player.


In other news, currently the "more" button for accessing the rest of the forum smilies (now restored after many years!) does not close again, even after posting one of its extra smilies. As it happens, the only one I can find which vaguely fits the aforementioned news is...

 :intrepidphasers:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on January 20, 2023, 03:10:56 PM
^ Nice! :submarine:

If you scroll down in that box you will see a 'close' button

 :facepalm_picard:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: JasonPratt on January 20, 2023, 05:01:20 PM
Oh! -- it's just under the Picard Facepalm meme!

Appropo.

 :facepalm_picard:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on January 20, 2023, 05:03:14 PM
 :afro:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Dammit Carl! on January 20, 2023, 09:31:53 PM
 :goodpost:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: FarAway Sooner on January 20, 2023, 10:03:59 PM
 :cannon:                 :m113:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MC on January 27, 2023, 12:54:22 PM
To my surprise, it is already out of early access. Can anybody who has it agree that it is good to go? The forums seem to indicate otherwise.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 27, 2023, 06:26:01 PM
I've only tinkered with it a little bit since the latest big patch bringing it up to the full release build. 

The one problem I noticed was that the game would slow to a crawl if I used the new feature that let you focus each of your turrets of the same calibre on different ships.  They released a hotfix that supposedly dealt with the FPS loss but I haven't tried it since the hotfix came out.

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 28, 2023, 06:47:37 PM
Another hotfix was released today that fixed a few more issues.

Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on January 28, 2023, 07:45:39 PM
It's on sale!

I have had this game for about six or eight months but never got past booting it up for a look. About five days ago I finally took a serious run at it and now I cannot stop playing it. This is the game that finally broke Shadow Empire's hold over me. I really like it. It DOES have some rough spots, both in the UI and combat, but they are easily overlooked because of the FUN factor. I hope the devs fix the rough spots as they have said they would. If they do, this will be on my play list for a looooong time.

Oversimplified Summary:  Basically, you design ships and then have them battle it out with rivals. A world wide campaign is included to provide excuses to have said battles and you have a big R&D tree to research for new goodies to choose during shipbuilding. A basic economy is provided to fund research, ship builds and maintenance. What's not to like?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CaptainKoloth on January 29, 2023, 02:50:53 PM
Quote from: MC on January 27, 2023, 12:54:22 PMTo my surprise, it is already out of early access. Can anybody who has it agree that it is good to go? The forums seem to indicate otherwise.

Reinforcing what solops said, every time I play this game I have an absolute blast. I haven't the foggiest notion what all the forum people are so upset about. I'm sure if I went and hunted for bugs I would find some, but I do think this is one of those cases where they have a bunch of rabid internet fans who won't be satisfied with anything they do.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on January 29, 2023, 03:44:08 PM
Quote from: CaptainKoloth on January 29, 2023, 02:50:53 PM
Quote from: MC on January 27, 2023, 12:54:22 PMTo my surprise, it is already out of early access. Can anybody who has it agree that it is good to go? The forums seem to indicate otherwise.

Reinforcing what solops said, every time I play this game I have an absolute blast. I haven't the foggiest notion what all the forum people are so upset about. I'm sure if I went and hunted for bugs I would find some, but I do think this is one of those cases where they have a bunch of rabid internet fans who won't be satisfied with anything they do.
From what I can gather, half of the rabid pack know nothing of naval combat and are upset that their ships do not behave exactly as instructed and that some of their shots miss. The other half seem to be upset because the game is not perfect. Go figure. Yeah, it has warts. Show me a game that doesn't. I do hope the devs polish it, because it can be improved, but all of the big elements are present and work, some better than others. I could pick a lot of nits if I chose to.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on January 29, 2023, 04:16:04 PM
+2 to Koloth and Solops, every time I played this game I enjoyed myself and that was on much earlier builds. I haven't had the time lately to get back in but can't wait once I do find the time.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on January 29, 2023, 09:37:39 PM
+4 What the other guys said. I always have a blast playing the game as well.

There are a few things I would like to see... No show stoppers.

I find the game to be fun.  If you like big gun naval combat, it is definitely worth it IMHO.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CaptainKoloth on January 30, 2023, 06:24:45 AM
You get a lot of these types in DCS too. Unquestionably that game has its bugs and so forth, but you do get this weird vicious subculture where they'll release a switch-for-switch accurate, lovingly crafted AH-64 (for example), and people immediately pop up on the forums saying "I COULDN'T SHOOT NUCLEAR WEAPONS AT B-52s WHILE IN A LEFT BARREL ROLL FIVE SECONDS AFTER BOOTING IT UP FOR THE FIRST TIME ALSO IT'S HARD DCS SUCKS 0/10" :shrug: Sigh.... internet.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on January 30, 2023, 09:43:03 AM
 :2funny:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on January 30, 2023, 09:55:14 AM
Still on sale for $27.99! Ends Feb 1.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Sir Slash on January 30, 2023, 11:02:04 AM
That is great Captain K. And accurate as well.  :Applause:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Destraex on January 31, 2023, 07:07:19 AM
Quote from: CaptainKoloth on January 30, 2023, 06:24:45 AMYou get a lot of these types in DCS too. Unquestionably that game has its bugs and so forth, but you do get this weird vicious subculture where they'll release a switch-for-switch accurate, lovingly crafted AH-64 (for example), and people immediately pop up on the forums saying "I COULDN'T SHOOT NUCLEAR WEAPONS AT B-52s WHILE IN A LEFT BARREL ROLL FIVE SECONDS AFTER BOOTING IT UP FOR THE FIRST TIME ALSO IT'S HARD DCS SUCKS 0/10" :shrug: Sigh.... internet.
Yeah, you do get these types. But then you actually also have the people who are passionate rivet counters that really care. These are often mistaken for toxic trolls in this day and age, previously they were just grogs ;)
Over the internet I guess it is hard to tell sometimes.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: JasonPratt on February 04, 2023, 09:54:31 AM
"Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts should be already playable, stable enough and enjoyable but we will continue polishing, so that we can safely move our development team into new game projects that you will surely like. Here is a brief list of the most important things we plan to offer till Summer 2023:"

Unfortunately, their list is an image (apparently???) instead of text, so I can't copy-paste it. I'll try to summarize.

1.) Synching the battle weather with the strategy weather, and adding more weather plus more sea reactions/forms from the weather. Also, daylight conditions in battle will be introduced to match with map conditions, including night battle possibilities.

2.) Spotting distance improvement and fog of war introduced. (Not to be confused with actual fog in the weather!) Ships will reveal their locations when firing, and allow return-targeting. (Currently a long-distance sniper can strike without being seen.)

3.) New York Class battleship; Atlanta Class cruiser; and C-Class generic cruiser to be added. Plus some updates to others if their main modder in Kiev can get around to it.

4.) Map graphic fixes. Plus looking into a visual 'looping' of the map horizontally, although that probably won't happen without introducing a lot of new bugs and broken game saves. (The map only looks flat, it's actually a globe and already plots that way; but a lot of players want to be able to scroll-loop left to right rather than have to shuffle the map-paper for tracing paths across the Pacific gap.)

5.) Map optimization will continue. It currently works much better than the original small map with only 2 nations, but improvements can still be made.

6.) General UI improvements.

7.) Language localizations.

8.) Bug fixes (at top priority), plus consideration of implementing new features (less of a priority, due to the developers being based in Kiev, for obvious reasons.)

"Thank you for reading and for the continued support. The game will continue to grow and become better with your help. We hope you really enjoy playing Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts. Please continue to share your thoughts and feedback."
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on February 04, 2023, 10:59:16 AM
Downloaded the above patch earlier this morning...Game Labs has been doing The Lord's work with this game over the last few weeks.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on February 04, 2023, 09:45:40 PM
One thing I would like to see, and would happily pay for in a DLC, would be historical ship designs and pre-built fleets. Not just the basic hull, but the entire design with proper armor, guns etc.

But very happy with the game.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on February 04, 2023, 10:19:49 PM
^One of the more recent patches includes historical ship hulls like the New York class. Not too much of a stretch to see entire ships included eventually.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CaptainKoloth on February 05, 2023, 10:56:27 AM
Quote from: Gusington on February 04, 2023, 10:59:16 AMDownloaded the above patch earlier this morning...Game Labs has been doing The Lord's work with this game over the last few weeks.

And that's another thing - you've got all these (I assume) US-based people whining while these guys are making the game uninterrupted IN UKRAINE.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on February 05, 2023, 03:03:37 PM
I have too many games...

Including this one now...
 :submarine:
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CJReich46 on February 05, 2023, 10:21:05 PM
I have been trying to understand the scenario in the Naval Academy - A Different Fate.

It's featuring the USS Maine. Except USS Maine is fighting a four Spanish ships, instead of her fate in Havana Harbor.

Here's what I struggle with. The USS Maine - is designed with the two guns on port and starboard. Plus trying to get the speed to outmaneuver the Spanish. I can sink one, but the others get me with a combo of gunfire and torpedoes. 


Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on February 05, 2023, 10:23:45 PM
Quote from: CJReich46 on February 05, 2023, 10:21:05 PMI have been trying to understand the scenario in the Naval Academy - A Different Fate.

It's featuring the USS Maine. Except USS Maine is fighting a four Spanish ships, instead of her fate in Havana Harbor.

Here's what I struggle with. The USS Maine - is designed with the two guns on port and starboard. Plus trying to get the speed to outmaneuver the Spanish. I can sink one, but the others get me with a combo of gunfire and torpedoes. 




Yeah, I've been having issues with that one as well. 

The gist is to keep the AI at range, but the accuracy of the AI and the starting range of the engagement means I'm taking catastrophic damage sometimes as early as the first salvo. 

Having the same issue with the Destroyer Attack scenario.

Do speed and laying smoke not effect gunnery?
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on February 06, 2023, 10:47:38 AM
Speed, yes. Speed effects pitch and roll (and maybe other things as well). You laying smoke, it depends on wind direction.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on February 06, 2023, 02:05:07 PM
Quote from: solops on February 06, 2023, 10:47:38 AMSpeed, yes. Speed effects pitch and roll (and maybe other things as well). You laying smoke, it depends on wind direction.

Checked the Steam forums for strategies and it looks like the accuracy for AI and player controlled ships got borked in a recent patch.  Under a lot of conditions AI is getting 100% shot accuracy at times, even if it's not reflected in the stats at the end. 

Knowing that I dropped the numbers/smoke/speed strategy on the Destroyer Attack Scenario and won it with 4 Heavy Destroyers built to survive long enough to attack the transports rather than 12 small fast ones that just got one shotted by the Crusier/Armed transports one by one.

Still can't beat the Maine scenario, but got close by building for pure armor/firepower rather than speed and distance. 


Having little problem with clearing the scenarios where I use heavier ships.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Silent Disapproval Robot on February 06, 2023, 02:10:22 PM
I'm glad that now that the game's out in full-access, they hopefully won't reset the tutorial progress yet again.  I think I've gone through them 4 times now.

I've actually been finding them easier this time around compared to previous iterations.  However, I am stuck on the pre-dreadnaughts vs battleships scenario.  The AI battleships have a top speed of 21kn and they just run and pepper me with 12.1" shells at long range.  My crap ships get picked apart before I can even get in range to fire back.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on February 06, 2023, 02:24:50 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on February 06, 2023, 02:10:22 PMI'm glad that now that the game's out in full-access, they hopefully won't reset the tutorial progress yet again.  I think I've gone through them 4 times now.

I've actually been finding them easier this time around compared to previous iterations.  However, I am stuck on the pre-dreadnaughts vs battleships scenario.  The AI battleships have a top speed of 21kn and they just run and pepper me with 12.1" shells at long range.  My crap ships get picked apart before I can even get in range to fire back.

I beat that one via sheer volume of fire.  I used smaller caliber main guns than the max available and went all out on training, spotting bonuses and reload speed. I went bare bones on everything else to assure that I had 3 BB's.

That made it 3 on 2 and although I got pasted on the first try, second I got a lucky flash fire on their lead Dreadnought in the early salvos that put her down enough to win with one BB surviving despite their hyper accurate gunnery.

Right now I don't find that speed is helping me avoid gunfire at all in the Academy.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: SirAndrewD on February 06, 2023, 03:51:59 PM
FYI Gamelabs just hotfixed the accuracy bug.

Apparently secondary guns on the AI were getting a huge bonus somewhere, so ships with light batteries were shooting lasers.  Makes sense now that 8 armed transports and one cruiser wiped a dozen destroyers in seconds. 

I'll try the missions I had issues with after work (Yes I'm actually having to actively work today   :censored:  )
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on February 06, 2023, 03:52:35 PM
I've pretty much stuck to playing the campaign. Overall, I am having fun with it.

I could make a long list of things I really like about the campaign.

But at the same time, I keep wishing the campaign was just a tad more polished. Particularly with some features that Rule the Waves had. For example:

1) The ability to gain more "intel" on rival navies and ships, particularly in peacetime. The UA:D campaign just gives you a generalized number of ships by class that each navy has. But in real life, navies had more intel on what the technology make-up of their rivals. Also, they would have had some rough sketches of key ship characteristics, size and number of of guns, armor estimates, speed estimate etc. I thought RtW did a pretty good job in this area.

2) The ability to scale size of navies. If you wanted a smaller game, you could select "small" fleets. I generally like a smaller, more intimate game. That way you can get to know each of your ships. But in UA:D you will have nearly 100 ships of all classes.



Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: DetCord on March 17, 2023, 12:26:43 AM
Came back after nearly a year and it's in even a worse state than before. Review below.


A consistently broken, haphazardly patched, buggy mess. Steer very well clear.


The Good:


Global scale.

• Dynamic events.

• Ability to build a navy from scratch.

• Interesting ship design aspect if not highly limited for certain nations.


The Bad and Ugly:


Weirdly partitioned map.

• The AI can't properly design a ship to save it's life.

• Easily one of the top-five worst GUI's I've ever seen in a game (strategy) like this. It's truly atrocious.

• The AI can't form proper Task Forces or delineate its assets in a cognitive manner while still engaging in doomstacking.

• Minor AI nations ally themselves with powers half a world away. Latvia making an alliance with a Republican China makes total sense. Ya know, for reasons...

• AI nations, after having been thoroughly defeated and depleted, will still seek to make war upon yourself and the AI even if their economies are on the verge of collapse and their fleets being nonexistent. Ya know, for reasons...

• The visuals have taken a complete dump. The AA has been reduced to nothing and the shadows are now so pixelated that you can actually count the tri's and vert's related to model casting. The ridiculously awful LOD decay is so bad that it now looks like someone crushed beer cans and tossed it on top of your ship in place of the guns.


The list goes on, it really does. Every patch breaks existing features or introduces new issues. During the previous Beta, the developers broke the maneuvering component of the ships. Instead of fixing it, restoring it to the previous build, they removed manual steering completely and shifted the steering from the rudder to the CoG. Which means they now maneuver from the center of the ship as opposed to the rudder, just like magic. This is why you'll see wacked out, weird, and unbelievable turns and the like from a variety of vessels.

Every patch, and I mean every single one, breaks previous gameplay components, aspects, and or features. This raises serious questions as to who is in charge and WTF they're doing. Following GL's acquisition by Stillfront, a much lambasted and hated super-consumer of studios, I have absolutely no faith this game will ever be ready for a proper release. It's also probably readily evident that it was pushed into a RC well before it should've been.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: MC on March 17, 2023, 11:43:48 AM
Quote from: DetCord on March 17, 2023, 12:26:43 AMCame back after nearly a year and it's in even a worse state than before. Review below.


A consistently broken, haphazardly patched, buggy mess. Steer very well clear.


The Good:


Global scale.

• Dynamic events.

• Ability to build a navy from scratch.

• Interesting ship design aspect if not highly limited for certain nations.


The Bad and Ugly:


Weirdly partitioned map.

• The AI can't properly design a ship to save it's life.

• Easily one of the top-five worst GUI's I've ever seen in a game (strategy) like this. It's truly atrocious.

• The AI can't form proper Task Forces or delineate its assets in a cognitive manner while still engaging in doomstacking.

• Minor AI nations ally themselves with powers half a world away. Latvia making an alliance with a Republican China makes total sense. Ya know, for reasons...

• AI nations, after having been thoroughly defeated and depleted, will still seek to make war upon yourself and the AI even if their economies are on the verge of collapse and their fleets being nonexistent. Ya know, for reasons...

• The visuals have taken a complete dump. The AA has been reduced to nothing and the shadows are now so pixelated that you can actually count the tri's and vert's related to model casting. The ridiculously awful LOD decay is so bad that it now looks like someone crushed beer cans and tossed it on top of your ship in place of the guns.


The list goes on, it really does. Every patch breaks existing features or introduces new issues. During the previous Beta, the developers broke the maneuvering component of the ships. Instead of fixing it, restoring it to the previous build, they removed manual steering completely and shifted the steering from the rudder to the CoG. Which means they now maneuver from the center of the ship as opposed to the rudder, just like magic. This is why you'll see wacked out, weird, and unbelievable turns and the like from a variety of vessels.

Every patch, and I mean every single one, breaks previous gameplay components, aspects, and or features. This raises serious questions as to who is in charge and WTF they're doing. Following GL's acquisition by Stillfront, a much lambasted and hated super-consumer of studios, I have absolutely no faith this game will ever be ready for a proper release. It's also probably readily evident that it was pushed into a RC well before it should've been.

This is exactly the feeling I get when reading the forums. It has turned into a dumpster fire. It will be a long time, if ever, that I'll think about purchasing it.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on March 17, 2023, 12:07:29 PM
I've owned it for years and enjoyed many of the missions. That said, I have not fired it up in some time...since the campaign has been implemented.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on March 17, 2023, 05:52:17 PM
Well, I have had a jolly good time with it every time I've played. I like it, warts and all, and have only seen it get better. I hope they keep improving it.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on March 17, 2023, 05:56:33 PM
^Me too. I do have to dive back in soon to see if the rumors are true.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: ArizonaTank on March 17, 2023, 06:12:08 PM
Quote from: Gusington on March 17, 2023, 12:07:29 PMI've owned it for years and enjoyed many of the missions. That said, I have not fired it up in some time...since the campaign has been implemented.

Quote from: solops on March 17, 2023, 05:52:17 PMWell, I have had a jolly good time with it every time I've played. I like it, warts and all, and have only seen it get better. I hope they keep improving it.

++1, been a few months since I spent any time with it. But I have enjoyed the game for a long time. So I guess I need to get back into it to check out Det's issues.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: Gusington on March 17, 2023, 06:12:53 PM
^So say we all.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: CaptainKoloth on March 17, 2023, 06:21:35 PM
Quote from: solops on March 17, 2023, 05:52:17 PMWell, I have had a jolly good time with it every time I've played. I like it, warts and all, and have only seen it get better. I hope they keep improving it.

I'm with solops. I just have an absolute blast with this every time I play it. I find it immensely enjoyable. I think if you approach any game -  ANY game - looking to find things wrong with it you can, but I have tons of fun with UA.
Title: Re: Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts work in progress.
Post by: solops on September 28, 2023, 09:22:20 AM
Big new 1.4 beta patch out today! Addresses loading times, game extension, new ship hulls, AI and lots of other stuff. The devs say they still have lots more to do. I am really looking forward to trying it out, as this is one of my top games this year. Unfortunately, Shadow Empires has sucked me in again...Just..can't...quit.......Help!