UBOAT submarine simulator UBOOT

[Asid]

Update: B129 Preview 30
Thu, September 2, 2021


Dear skippers,

Update B129 Preview 30 is now complete and ready to download on the public testing branch. Please take a look at the changelog below, if you would like to find out more!

Changelog

Graphics:
- Map skin now defaults to paper-like after updating from an older version of the game.
- Fix: Some map elements were slightly blurring in the direction of movement when the camera was in motion and the temporal anti-aliasing was enabled in the settings.
- Fix: Objects that fade out under various conditions, including certain bunks and chests placed by sailors to access damage located at a high elevation, were sometimes loaded in a wrong visibility state from the game state.

Missions:
- Fix: In tutorial #4 the sailor that panicked was sometimes calming down on his own without requiring player's intervention (continuation).

Localization:
- German localization update by Ruby.
- Turkish localization update by tokyo.

General:
- Regression fix: Dialogue with the leading officer was sometimes becoming stuck since the previous preview version.
- Fixes to the most common errors appearing in the logs.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update: B129 Preview 31
Fri, September 3, 2021


Dear skippers,

Update B129 Preview 31 is now complete and ready to download on the public testing branch.

This version brings a few important memory usage optimizations and with it we are now almost ready to publish B129 as the new stable version. Keep your fingers crossed!

Changelog

Graphics:
- Major optimizations to the memory usage of the game.
- Fix: If game was running at the lowest settings, shadows were missing on the skipper customization screen.
- Fix: Tweaks to camera placement for a dialogue with the recruitment officer at La Spezia, Kiel and Bergen.
- Fix: Improved alignment of the enemy ports to match the new terrain in B129.
- Fix: Brightness mismatch between segments of certain large ports like Bergen.

Modding:
- Fix: Modding tools were exporting mod manifests in a deprecated format.

Localization:
- Spanish localization update by Tordo.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

A large update: B129 is ready!


Dear skippers,

Version B129 is now the new stable version of UBOAT. It's the largest update to the game that we made thus far and hope that you will enjoy it!

The list of changes is very long. We prepared a quick summary below and invite you to take a look. It's not a complete list, but some of the top highlights.

Campaign
The largest addition in this update is a campaign that adds a much needed variety to the usual u-boat's service of performing patrols.



During the campaign, your u-boat will have to travel all around the world and engage in special activities.

Read on....



Most of the missions in the campaign are based on well documented operations that actually happened during World War II, some are based on stories and rumors that we found intriguing and one is a result of artistic liberty although it's also strictly rooted in history.



Prize rules and newspaper stories
From now on, your u-boat may sink all shipping that is headed towards the blockaded enemy ports. Also, some enemy ships are now flying a false flag as a deception. If you suspect that either of these things may be true, you can send your team to inspect a neutral ship and find out the truth.



Such less obvious targets are more likely to carry a very valuable cargo. If you manage to sink them, you may get an additional reward and maybe even appear in a newspaper.



Languages
This update brings a Portuguese and Czech translations into the game. They are a result of dedication and work done by Roliçonho (Portuguese) and Spid3rCZ (Czech) from the community.



There also were major updates to all of the existing languages:

    Russian by Hard.
    Spanish by Tordo.
    Chinese by SparrowSHEN (Q:173678441).
    Turkish by tokyo.
    Italian by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
    French by FvJ and Placebo.
    ...and of course German by Ruby.


Warm thanks guys!

Supply ships
Submersible supply ships of Type XIV also called "milk cows" are now part of the game. You can receive them as a reward for various campaign missions. They are an invaluable help, while performing missions near the American coast!



Bogue-class aircraft carriers
These carriers are used by U.S. Navy and Royal Navy and complement the existing Illustrious-class already present in the game.



New navies
This update adds Spanish, Portuguese, Argentine and Swiss navies with hundreds of historically correct ships.

We also added hundreds more ships to existing U.S. and British navies.

Quality of life improvements
Removed loading splash screens
The paused loading screens whenever u-boat enters a coastal area are now gone. Everything happens in the background instead.



Reworked radio
Radio was reworked from the previous list interface into a separate screen that is much more immersive and feels more appropriate.



New time compression level
Newly added 140x time compression level dramatically improves the flow of gameplay. You will be unable to live without this one once you get used to it.

Reworked campaign setup
Each update so far was adding new realism settings to the campaign setup. We felt that this screen needed an update to make it more pleasant and easier to use for the new players.



Optimizations
Despite adding a lot of new content, this version due to added optimizations is most likely going to have higher FPS and less stutter than any previous release. Enjoy!

Crew management
Immersive damage control
Sailors now autonomously react to leaks on board and try to block them on their own before an engineer arrives to make the final repairs. Everyone involved in the damage control now places various utilities around and stacks boxes to access a highly elevated damage.

These changes together make the damage control much more immersive and life-like in our opinion!



Discipline rework
Discipline was reworked in this update into a new system. From now on, discipline usually changes over long periods of time, while newly added stress may rise and fall much more quickly during the combat and spread panic on the ship.

These two mechanics are interlinked together, so if the discipline is high on your ship, you will likely not have to deal with stress effects in most battles.



Sailors working at the radio
Since this update, regular sailors work at the radio station when there is no officer present. This way, you will get notified whenever an incoming radio transmission appears and don't have to keep your radiomans at work 24/7.

Skill system overhaul
The skill system was completely overhauled. Many existing skills were reworked and there are numerous new ones added.

New leader skills:
Navigator, Gunner, Personal skills, Supporter.
New engineer skills:
Pyrotechnic, Engine specialist, Handyman, Torpedo Mechanic.
New radioman skills:
Propeller recognition, Radio usage practice.
New language skills:
English speaker, French speaker, Spanish speaker, Portuguese speaker and Linguist.
New personal skills:
Merchant, Thrifty, Runner, Thorough, Tough.



Simulation
Long-range hydrophone detection
Previously, due to technical limitations, only nearby propellers in the range of up to 15 km could be heard when hydrophone was used manually. This update has reworked many underlying systems to allow you to hear them from any distance from which hydrophone was historically able to pick them up.



Funnel smoke above horizon
Funnel smoke is now visible from a much higher distance than before, even when the ship emitting it is hidden behind the horizon.



Hydrophones dead zone
Previously, dead zone was present only when player was using hydrophone manually on the u-boat. This update ensured that AI is affected by it in the same manner.

Balance pass for device noise levels
Noise levels of all devices on board were reworked to make them more realistic and provide a more balanced gameplay.



Food management
Food management in the game is now optional. You can disable this module, while preparing a new campaign.



Graphical improvements
Crews on NPC ships
This update adds NPC crews on all ships and aircraft. They are looking much better than before, walk around the decks and do various work.



Volumetric lighting effect
Volumetric lighting is a fog-like effect that is most intense near the light sources as they light up particulate matter in the air. It's a quite mood building addition in our opinion.



Subsurface scattering effect
Subsurface scattering is a subtle effect that makes people appear more life-like by propagating the light through skin.

We first added this effect a long time ago, but certain rendering upgrades made it incompatible and we had to remove it before the first release of the game. This time we added a new, lightweight implementation that shouldn't have a noticeable effect on the performance.



Diesel exhaust effect



Torpedo overhaul
Animated torpedo launches
Torpedoes no longer appear in front of the launcher, but instead the torpedo launch sequence is now fully animated



FAT and LUT torpedo programs
Torpedoes now exist in FAT and LUT variants that have a built in program which in case of a miss start to steer the torpedo into a special zig-zagging pattern that increases a chance to hit another random target inside the convoy.



Magnetic and impact detonators
Before launching a torpedo, you will now have a possibility to determine, if you want to use an impact or magnetic detonator. They both have their strong and weak points, so choose wisely!



Reworked torpedo detonation effect
Torpedo detonations were completely reworked and are much more satisfying than before!







Map improvements
Paper-like skin
A new map skin was added that looks more paper-like than the others. It's now the default look of the map.



Spoiler-less markings
We removed all spoilers from the map markings and from other parts of UI. You will no longer know ahead what you are dealing with and experience that thrill of meeting the unknown vessels in the middle of ocean.



Miscellaneous
New items
This update introduces various new items for the purpose of simulating a more realistic shipping in the game. These items include:
- Iron ore.
- Coal.
- Tea.
- Tobacco.
- Grains.
- Rubber.
- Tire.
- Gold.
- Valuables.
- Lumber.
- Money.
- Karabiner 98k.



Prisoners of war
It's now possible to rescue survivors from sunk ships and shot down aircraft and carry them back to port for a reward. You will be especially rewarded for bringing back captains, first engineers and pilots.



Full changelog
If you would like to read the whole changelog, please follow this link: Full changelog.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update: B130 arrives!
Sun, 21 November 2021




Dear skippers,

Today we are ready to release the next major update to UBOAT - B130. This time there won't be unstable version testing and the update shouldn't affect your existing saved game states. Our intention is to keep things this way moving forward as we get closer to leaving the Early Access.

To keep your expectations on a correct level, while this update adds a respectable amount of new content, it doesn't add new ports and submarine pens - we are working on them for quite a long time and plan to publish them in version B131.

Having that said, let's move on and discuss the additions of this update!

The war is over
We completely overhauled how the end of war looks like in the game. With this update, you will encounter historically-based messages from the high command during that time like the Rainbow Order (Regenbogen-Befehl
) and surrender instructions on 8th May 1945.

Since you will receive conflicting orders, you will have a choice, if you want to scuttle and leave your u-boat or surrender to the enemy. Technically, nothing will stop you from ending things Rambo-style though.

When you leave your ship, you will now see a nice summary of your u-boat's entire service.



Fast mission completion
We decided to cut some travel time from the game and from now on, you will be able to finish your mission right after completing the main objective. The return trip will happen automatically with an immersive return cutscene.

If you prefer to live through everything in the game, you can disable this option in the settings, but we encourage you to give it a try. It makes the gameplay much more dynamic.



AOB tool
This update introduces AOB tool to the game. It's possible to switch between the regular course tool and AOB at any time and the angles will be converted accordingly! Both tools are now also updated in realtime to reflect bearing changes of your current target.



Reporting changes
We felt that there wasn't enough benefit from taking the risk and sending your reports on the sea. We wanted to fix that problem in this update. Right now your reports will loose some of their original value as the time goes on, since they become less relevant to the command with the passage of time.

There were also other related changes:
- When you dock in a port, all reports are handed in automatically without use of the radio.
- Regular sailors no longer can send radio messages. Radioman officer is required for such a task.

Damage model improvements
We reworked the damage model used for NPC ships to on average make torpedoes with magnetic setting (MZ) more effective than with the impact setting (AZ).

We listened to your feedback and did detailed testing, which confirmed that torpedoes with MZ setting were less effective than AZ ones, while it should be the other way around.

Our testing on medium GRT merchant ships indicated that MZ torpedo had a 65% chance to completely disable a ship, while AZ torpedoes had a 85% chance to achieve that. After this rework MZ torpedoes have a 95% chance to completely disable a medium GRT merchant ship, while AZ torpedoes have 70% chance, which should be much closer to reality.



Polishing
Since we are getting closer to the stable release of the game, our main focus was to polish the existing content and repair problems. Some of such changes include:

- There is now an intro movie played before a new campaign is started.
- New loading hints and backgrounds.
- Crewman's hair now appears under a cap in a fitting way instead of disappearing. There is a model adjustment prepared for each cap-hair pair.
- Many changes to the content added into the journal to improve its readability and organization.
- Balance pass of experience points and Iron Cross points gained for various tasks.
- Added an integration with rich presence feature in Discord.
- Fixed a problem that the music played through the radio wasn't detectable to the enemy hydrophones.
- And much more!

Full changelog

Localization:
- English localization update by Steve.
- Turkish localization update by tokyo.
- Chinese localization update by SparrowSHEN (Q:173678441).
- Spanish localization update by Tordo.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- German localization update by Ruby.

Major changes:
- Added content for the end of war: messages from BdU, cease of hostilities, territory changes and possibility to either scuttle or surrender the ship after which a summary of an entire career is presented.
- Mission reports now loose value over time to incentivize sending them on the sea, when they are still relevant for the command. All reports are now turned in automatically after docking in any port.
- New campaign setting: Automatic mission completion. It's a new mechanic that speeds up the gameplay by allowing for a quick return back to the port after completing the main objectives of an assignment. It's enabled by default in pre-existing game states, it's also possible to adjust it during playthrough in the old game states without starting a new game.
- Rework of the damage model used for NPC ship hulls to on average make torpedoes with magnetic setting (MZ) more powerful than with the impact setting (AZ). Motivation: our testing on medium GRT merchant ships indicated that MZ torpedo had a 65% chance to completely disable a ship, while AZ torpedoes had a 85% chance to achieve that. Counter-intuitively they had the highest chance to achieve this when hitting the waterline as that increased a chance for fire on the target ship's deck. After this rework MZ torpedoes have a 95% chance to completely disable a medium GRT merchant ship, while AZ torpedoes have 70% chance, which should be much closer to reality.
- The course tool in the periscope now supports two modes: relative course and angle on bow (AOB). It's possible to switch between them at any time and angles will be converted accordingly! They are also updated in realtime to reflect bearing changes of a current target.
- Observation data (distance, speed, course) is now preserved, if player manages to observe the ship again in 5 minutes after loosing the contact.
- New campaign difficulty setting: Morale management difficulty. The easiest setting is how it worked in B129. Higher levels are harder and may require roster adjustments like in the previous versions of the game to compose a crew of veterans.
- New campaign difficulty setting: Damage difficulty. The hard setting corresponds to the difficulty from B129 and earlier versions. This setting determines how hard to manage are potential leaks on your ship. The lower this difficulty level is set, the smaller the simulated hull breaches will be on average after receiving damage.
- Added an intro movie that is played when a new campaign is started.


Graphics:
- Each character's hair now appears under a cap in a fitting way instead of disappearing. There is a model adjustment prepared for each cap-hair pair.
- Upgrades to Type VIIC 3D models: new elements in the bow torpedo room, while diesel engines and 88mm gun models are more high poly than they used to be.
- The bearing display in the periscope is now smoothed out and looks better.
- Improvements to borders of Poland, Soviet Union, Romania, Yugoslavia and Germany at the late stages of the war. Added more detailed information about major late-war battles and campaigns on the map.
- Fix: If enough time has passed in-game, diesel engine's animation was becoming increasingly jittery and eventually it was stopping altogether. This problem was affecting the starboard engine more quickly than the port engine.
- Fix: Improved transitions between view modes, for example from the map to the interior section view. There were redundant brightness changes or slight directional blurring for one frame during some of them.
- Fix: Purple barrel in one of the wreck scenes.
- Fix: NPC Type VIIC u-boats had missing torpedo doors.
- Fix: Some map labels were pulsating, if they were intersecting with a coast near a port.
- Fix: Smoke from a cigarette after loading a saved game state, could appear purple for about 2 seconds.
- Fix: A green outline around a patrol area was incorrect in case of some patrol areas, for example AB8 - AF2.
- Fix: Officer's car and various other objects weren't casting shadows near port lights used at night.
- Fix: Improved a look of the last displayed frame before exiting to menu or quitting the game.
- Fix: Map elements are now included in the vignette effect, they were too bright at the screen edges.
- Regression fix: Beards were sometimes having a motion blur-like effect on them.
- Regression fix: Squares and rectangles on the terrain in the weather station scenes.
- Regression fix: Breda guns on Turm I weren't being hidden into the containers after use until a game state was reloaded.
- Regression fix: Beards weren't correctly animated during speaking.


User interface:
- Added a notification about running low on spare parts.
- New loading hints and backgrounds.
- Game is now asking, if player is sure about disabling tutorial on the campaign setup screen.
- Added a button for completing the mission back in the port.
- Increased a size of a new campaign setup window as long as the current screen resolution allows for it.
- Campaign objectives list now mentions ports that need to be visited to start the unavailable campaign objectives.
- Improved readability of many journal subjects by adjusting used icons and titles for them.
- Added a red version of the notification that informs about low compressed air reserves that appears when compressed air is below 5%.
- Added a sound effect for swapping identification book pages.
- A new typewriter font.
- Fix: Parts of the hydrophone manual mode UI were remaining on the screen after moving to HQ screen.
- Fix: If player entered HQ screen through a dialogue with the leading officer, returning back from that screen goes back to the dialogue instead of leaving it.
- Fix: "Buy" button is now greyed out, if player selects a ship upgrade that costs more than the actual budget.
- Fix: "+0 XP" notifications now don't appear in any case above the officers after completing a mission.
- Fix: Notifications about mission progress at the top part of the screen were missing, after a game state was loaded in which the mission was already in progress.
- Fix: If player quickly clicked through all cutscenes that present new campaign objectives, camera was initially centered at wrong spot when a mission selection was opened.
- Fix: If player recruited one of the sailors in the recruitment UI, the next sailor on the list was automatically highlighted, but no details about him were appearing.
- Fix: After completing a free roam assignment, notifications about a new mission were appearing under the panels present in HQ user interface.
- Fix: Tutorial popup could appear behind other UI elements on some screen resolutions during tutorial #7.
- Fix: If a popup for selection of number of items to transfer was opened in the storage UI, escape was pressed and the storage UI was opened back again, the popup was remaining on the screen.
- Fix: There was always a price of buying displayed in the popup used to determine a number of items to transfer in the warehouse, even if player was trying to sell.
- Fix: In the mission summary, a total distance passed by the u-boat in its service was displayed instead of the distance passed during the latest assignment.
- Fix: Shot down aircraft were described as being sunk in the journal.
- Fix: Suggested names for new game states weren't localized in many cases and were appearing in English.
- Fix: Order icon above the character's head was missing right after loading a saved game state until that character has started performing another order than the initial one.
- Fix: Keyboard shortcuts were still working during the mission summary animation and it was possible to slightly break it, by changing the view mode or enabling a time compression, while it was running.
- Fix: Sight range displayed in the tooltip of UZO and periscopes didn't had weather factors accounted in and was usually larger than the actual values.
- Fix: Tutorial popup was appearing below the HQ task description on some screen resolutions in tutorial #7.
- Fix: Interaction for sunk merchant ship wrecks was duplicated (there were two entries for them in the dropdown).
- Fix: Radio messages in the radioman UI weren't appearing on the list, if they entered the range when this UI was already open.
- Fix: Crew portraits could be empty, if any kind of crew list was opened when periscope or UZO manual mode was active.
- Fix: A count of captives on board wasn't being updated in realtime, when player was selecting survivors from a shot down aircraft.
- Fix: Pressing escape during time skipping procedure was causing some issues with the UI.
- Fix: If escape was pressed, while player initiated a keyboard shortcut configuration in-game, it would close the whole UI instead of cancelling the setup as pointed by the tip.
- Fix: It was possible to select wounded characters for participation in the external interactions (for example: inspections).
- Fix: A tooltip of notification about a resupply ship being sunk now includes coordinates of the event.
- Fix: Pulsating glow around a dot that indicates a mission objective was sometimes appearing somewhere near instead of directly on it.
- Regression fix: Notification about resupply ship being sunk by the enemy was appearing each time after another game state was loaded from an ongoing game, where player had at least one active resupply ship.


Missions:
- It's no longer possible to click on activators other than the highlighted one during tutorials.
- Tutorial introduction now asks the player to start the first tutorial mission (with a button to opt-out from this).
- Added a summary message to the journal for each completed tutorial mission to avoid gaps in mission numbers.
- Added an intro message to the journal for each campaign mission (for the same reason as above).
- The tutorial dialogue option when talking with the leading officer now disappears after completing all tutorials.
- Officers now receive additional XP as well as Iron Cross points, if they played a vital part in some of the campaign missions.
- Report about reaching a patrol area is now worth 350 instead of 500, while a report about completing a patrol is now worth 250 instead of 0.
- Fix: In tutorial #4, in very rare cases, it was possible for the cook to burn the eggs and later be selected as the panicking sailor for crisis management practice. The punishment for burning the eggs was having a priority and it wasn't possible to perform steps asked by the tutorial.
- Fix: If player saved a game state after docking in La Spezia during Gibraltar crossing assignment and reloaded the game state, it wasn't possible to complete the mission by talking with the officer until player undocked and docked back again.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to order an officer to attack an empty u-boat with the deck gun in the side-mission.
- Fix: Officer that welcomes a spy or war correspondent was sometimes missing. He was also appearing a bit too close to the spy.
- Fix: It was possible to pass through the destination in tutorial #3.
- Fix: A wrong warehouse tab was highlighted during tutorial #1, if food management was disabled in the campaign settings.
- Fix: Skipper was often not receiving decorations, which he should receive, during the decoration cutscene.
- Fix: In tutorial #2, when camera was tracking movements of a sailor that was going to turn on the ventilation, camera movements were slightly jittery and were reacting to user inputs.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to leave storage UI during tutorial #1 until all objectives are completed.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to complete tutorial #4, if player interrupted treatment of the leader by a medic. The tutorial was later asking the player to order him to calm down a panicking sailor, but he was lying wounded in a bed.
- Fix: Some of the tanks in Aruba were indestructible.
- Fix: Camera could switch to another view mode after answering a war correspondent's question.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to leave dialogues that are part of the tutorial by pressing an escape.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to complete tutorial #4, if player didn't had any replacement parts before starting the mission.
- Fix: In the weather station placement assignments, a dot on the map that points where a team may be sent to land, no longer disappears after the initial stage in case if player would have to recall the team and send it again later.
- Fix: Campaign objective that asks to perform merchant ship inspections was counting inspections towards the progress even if they were cancelled in progress.
- Regression fix: It was possible to run out of fuel during tutorial in B129.


Crew:
- Regular sailors no longer can send radio messages. Radioman officer is required for such a task.
- Balance pass of experience points gained for various tasks. Leaders now progress slightly slower than they used to, while radiomans and engineers received a slight boost to make their pace closer to the leaders.
- Fix: Ordering switching light colour in TAB menu now cancels all previous orders of this type.
- Fix: It wasn't possible to simultaneously order blocking and repairing a leak from the hatch in the stern torpedo room and from one of the pipes in the control room, despite that there was enough space to do that in both cases. This fix requires starting a new game to function.
- Fix: Wounded characters on some beds were lying with legs on the pillow.
- Fix: Improved animation of standing up from the bed of treated characters.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to dive to wrecks that are deeper than 150 meters. Previously, it was unintentionally set to 700 meters.
- Fix: If a wounded character was being carried to safety and then player docked in a port and the whole crew was automatically treated, the carried character would become bugged in many ways.
- Fix: It was possible to send the same characters onto two inspections (and other types of interactions).
- Fix: Officers now never go to work on their own to the periscope, if there is another officer at the UZO.
- Fix: Sometimes there was no effect (like panic etc.), once a stress among the crew peaked.
- Fix: Button on the portrait that is used to enter a manual mode was appearing before the officer arrived to the gun.
- Fix: It's now possible to send crew onto enemy merchant ships, if they were abandoned by the crew. Previously that was allowed only for neutral ships.
- Fix: Officers that had ammunition resupply task highly in their schedule were sometimes stopping to perform player's orders to instead resupply ammunition.


General:
- Added an integration with Discord.
- Optimisations, fixes to a few small memory leaks and technical changes that decrease the save file size for long campaigns.
- Added a pool of historically correct ship names for Illustrious-class and Bogue-class aircraft carriers and for County-class cruisers.
- Captains and first engineers now spawn on tankers, just like on the regular merchant ships.
- Off duty time skipping in a port is now stopped right away, if player receives a letter.
- Fix: Once the contact is lost, it stops to be marked as a target for the officers on the map with a crosshair.
- Fix: Music played through the radio wasn't detectable to the enemy hydrophones.
- Fix: It was possible to detonate torpedoes with magnetic detonator by moving camera near them, if it was in a certain mode.
- Fix: After loading a game state, in which a music was played on a radio, the background music and the radio music would play simultaneously.
- Fix: Torpedoes with a magnetic detonator could be detonated by a nearby lifeboat.
- Fix: LST ships didn't had specified GRT ("0 GRT" was displayed after selecting them).
- Fix: Sailors rescued from NPC ships were speaking German while eating.
- Fix: Time compression was sometimes stopping without apparent reason.
- Fix: Errors in the log after toggling the binoculars view.
- Fix: If an auto-save was made, while saving or loading UI was open and then that auto-save was loaded, the game would run in slow motion.
- Fix: Music played through radio is now stopped when u-boat submerges at a depth that makes it impossible to receive it anymore.
- Regression fix: Music defined by mods for specific ports was no longer being played since a few versions back.


Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Roadmap for 2022
Tue, 8 February 2022


Dear skippers,

We are back with a roadmap for the year 2022! Please have a look at it to get a general idea where UBOAT is heading and what to expect soon.

We plan to leave the Early Access this year after two more updates. Initially, we wanted to make a one large update, but this way you will have a possibility to enjoy fresh content without a long break along the way.



Starting with this year, we are also going to change the naming convention for the future updates. We will now categorize them by the year they were released in.

That means that the next updates will be named 2022.1 and 2022.2 instead of B132 and B133. We feel that this is going to be much more clear and easier to memorize as compared to a one long sequence.



The next update still needs some love, but we are working hard to complete is as soon as possible. We hope that you will enjoy it!

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update 2022.1: Development Log
Thu, 21 April 2022



Dear Skippers,

We wanted to share with you the progress that we made for update 2022.1. We plan this update as a major milestone towards the full release later this year, therefore it's growing to be one of the largest updates to UBOAT that we made thus far.

Seasons
2022.1 will bring realistic seasons to the game, along with related effects like a dynamic snow cover and a vegetation changing colour.



Climate zones
Another addition are going to be climate zones. That means that you will no longer find potato fields on Sahara. This feature will hopefully make your assignments more memorable and immersive.






New ports
Work on the new ports is progressing very well, but please keep in mind that most ports will be shipped in update 2022.2. Our goal for 2022.1 was to create a few very good ports to prepare a technical groundwork and figure out optimal workflows in the process.

These new ports will be nothing like the old ones, bringing in some flashy features as well as historic layouts. The port on the screenshot below is Helgoland early in the war, before building a Nordsee III submarine pen in it.




Greater challenge
We noticed that some veteran subsim players voiced that they need more challenge from the game. For this reason, we put work into ensuring just that, by improving combat AI as well as improving various simulation aspects.

We compensated many of these changes on the easier difficulty settings, so that mostly experienced players will be exposed to them.

Release
It's still too early to give you an estimate when this update is going to land, but we are getting there. While it's mostly feature complete now, the exact time it will take depends on how well the further testing will go.

Please note, that the features mentioned in this dev log are not a complete list. Actually, it's just a tip of the iceberg, so please stay tuned for more news!

Aircraft Carrier Survival



We would also like to use this opportunity to notify you about a release of Aircraft Carrier Survival. It's a game from another studio belonging just like us to PlayWay group.

The game has many parallels to UBOAT and you may potentially find it interesting. Please have a look.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021100/Aircraft_Carrier_Survival/



Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

UBOAT Submarine Simulator  Update 2022 1 Trailer
26 June 2022

[Asid]

Update 2022.1: Coming in October
Tue, 30 August 2022



Dear Skippers,

We know that you can't wait for the update 2022.1 to be finally released.

We have to inform you though that we have to move the release until mid October from the previous estimate of the late summer.

We will inform you about the exact release date by the end of September. We will also have many other big announcements (good ones) to share at the release day of the update.

To get a better impression and why this update is so long in coming, below is an overview of the features and content that will land in your hands soon. It's the largest update we've published for UBOAT thus far!

Please note that this overview is not a comprehensive list, since we want to leave you some nice surprises for the release day. There are some exciting things about this update that we haven't shared yet!

We will publish a complete list of changes made by the update 2022.1 at the day of its release.


Ports
The ports have undergone a total overhaul. The new ones are more detailed and historically correct. The ports reworked in 2022.1 include La Rochelle, La Spezia, Bergen and many more. There are also new ports added in.



We had to pass many technical challenges to ensure that these ports will work with an optimal performance and at the same time look well, since UBOAT is designed for playing on very vast areas represented in 1:1 scale. To put that into perspective, on average three ports collectively cover an area of 30 - 40 square kilometers that often equals to the entire world in many top RPG games.



The update 2022.1 will allow you to build submarine pens in ports that historically had them to protect the stationing u-boats.



The new ports feature functional locks that keep the water level inside the port at a stable level, independent from the tides on the sea.

Once you return to the port after a successful mission, you may be greeted by the welcoming committee.


Allies
Hedgehog launchers are now installed on Allied ships starting with late 1942. It is a new major threat that may lead your u-boat to a demise. The comforting part is that Hedgehog attacks look quite cool and you may find some enjoyment in the process.



Allies now sometimes start massive air raids at ports in which you are stationing. This is a new threat in this update, but along with it comes a way to permanently protect from it, namely the submarine pens mentioned previously. Once you build them, you can put your sunglasses on and relax in the pen.



Starting with 1944, CHANT tankers and by extension Empire F type coasters now appear in the coastal convoys. There will also be new destroyers added, but it's a top secret for now. Please burn the message once you read it.


Steam Deck compatibility
This release improves compatibility with Steam Deck in many ways. The issues with disappearing cursor in the launcher were fixed and various quality of life improvements were added to make the game easier to use on this console.


Environment
There are now seasons in 2022.1 with snow in the winter and plant life reddening at the autumn.



Climate zones are now also part of the simulation with plant life variation depending on the region.



Tides are now simulated within the game. Their intensity varies from region to region. Most of the mainland European ports don't experience strong tides. The highest among them are in La Rochelle with up to 5 meter variation of the sea level. On the other hand, British islands have some of the highest in the world with Cardiff seeing even a 10 meter variation, which is more than enough to impact gameplay in a subsim game.

Sun now appears at a correct position for the Northern and Southern hemispheres.



It's common in UBOAT to see mainly the sea and the sky for most of the time. For this reason, we put work into that second part, by implementing volumetric cloud simulation, which makes the clouds much more pleasant to look at.

Civilian fishing boats now populate the seas close to the shores.


Crew management
We've seen your feedback that it doesn't feel right that some officers had to remain in a bed during battle, because all stations were occupied. To improve that, officers can now command the ship and coordinate damage control from the control room just like in the movies about submarines. By doing so, they can support others and provide various ship-wide benefits that correlate with their skills.



Alarm can be now controlled manually. Toggled alarm provides various bonuses, although also has some small drawbacks that make it unsustainable for long periods of time. It will allow you to keep your officers at work as long as it's active, even when their energy drops to zero, but keeping them in such a state for a long time may be dangerous for their health.



Crew now uses toilets. It's a small addition that adds to the overall immersion.




User interface
We've put a lot of work to make the user interface more user friendly, practical and better looking.

Torpedo solutions are now visualized on the map to help you decide, if the moment is right for launching a salvo. The game is also estimating an impact angle at the target and warns you, if it's too high for the impact detonators.

Also, the identification book used with the manual mode of the periscope and UZO is now organized into categories. This is a tremendous improvement for practicality.



We've improved TAB menu usability. Orders are now more organized and sorted in a practical way. The screen has also received some structure that makes it more pleasant to work with it.



Map drawings are now stored in the saved game states and restored after loading them back. This was a commonly requested feature that we managed to include in this release.


Bug fixes
The largest chunk of work are definitely bug fixes and small incremental improvements. If you are a long term player, you will quickly notice that practically everything in the game has received some small touches and many bugs have disappeared from existence.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update 2022.1: New 1939 campaign
Fri, 7 October 2022



Dear skippers,

We've decided to prepare a series of posts for you about new features introduced in the upcoming update 2022.1 of which we haven't mentioned before.

We weren't sure earlier, which of them will make it into the update, but we can tell you all about them now since they are done. We will publish these posts over the next few days

1939 campaign
We are most pleased to inform you that a full 1939 campaign is now a thing in UBOAT. It will let you experience the entirety of the war from its beginning to the end. Along with the campaign come many new activities and campaign objectives that suit this part of the war. There are also many historic messages from the command added in.



Starting in 1939, you will operate very close to British Isles, mostly on the North Sea and Western Approaches. We ensured that these areas are much more interesting and developed than they used to be before.



In 1940 you will have an opportunity to play through the Norwegian Campaign and after that you will be able to move either to the newly formed French flotilla or join Battle of Arctic.



Arctic is another area that received many improvements to ensure that you will stay occupied there, if you choose to operate from this area.

Streams
Using the opportunity, we also wanted to give you a heads up, that many streamers will receive an early access to the update 2022.1 on October 12th. If you would be interested to see it for yourself before it gets released, we invite you to watch the streams from streamers that agreed to join.

If you are a streamer and would like to participate, you will be most welcome. Please contact PlayWay, our publisher.

Daily deal
There is also going to be a Daily Deal for UBOAT on Steam at the day of release of the update (October 15th). If you are new to our community, it's going to be a good moment to join in for a good price.

We will still have more news about the update soon, stay tuned!

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update 2022.1: Minelaying & map improvements
Mon, 10 October 2022



Dear skippers,

We are back with more news about update 2022.1 once again.

This time, we wanted to let you know, that TMB mines have also made it into the game. These mines were designed to be launched from the torpedo tubes and were commonly used by the u-boats during World War II.



There is a new type of assignment from the command that asks you to plant a minefield near the enemy coast. The target areas are usually frequently patrolled, so this type of mission is all about sneaking into the area and escaping unnoticed.



We've also improved the in-game map graphically in many ways in this update. Especially, the HQ map was improved and many new tasks were added, including a possibility to send officers to a navy academy to gain additional experience, new construction projects and new aerial reconnaissance tasks.




Save compatibility
We also need to inform you, that the new version is not going to be compatible with the game states saved on the previous versions of the game. We were maintaining compatibility for a long time and at some point we had to abandon it, because we decided to overhaul the save system. The saves are now 30-35% smaller than they used to be and the save system should be now much more stable in long campaigns.

We will still have more news about the update soon, stay tuned!

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update 2022.1: Reward overhaul and new skill icons
Tue, 11 October 2022



Dear skippers,

We are back with another news about update 2022.1.

This time, we wanted to tell you about upcoming changes to the rewards granted for completing the campaign objectives. Previously, it was mostly budget, reputation and milk cow submarines. We always felt that this wasn't motivating enough to complete them and reworked that aspect completely for this release. Most campaign objectives now grant completely unique rewards that aren't possible to receive otherwise.



Some of these rewards are special perks for your crew that simulate the unique experience granted by completing the mission. Imagine being on a German u-boat sneaking under the sea at Gibraltar Strait, hearing propellers of enemy destroyers above your head. This is a life-changing experience and we wanted to give it such meaning for your crew in the game too.

Other missions will unlock new tasks on the HQ map or grant unique fame to your u-boat. We won't spoil anything here, to let you discover all of that for yourself soon!



We've also created brand new icons for all skills in the game. The new icons are much prettier and make the skills much more satisfying to unlock.



We also wanted to give you a friendly reminder that tomorrow (12th October) around 16:00 CET streamers will receive an access to update 2022.1.

If you are interested, please take a look tomorrow for Twitch streams using the link below:

https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/UBOAT

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update 2022.1: Patch 5
Mon, 17 October 2022




Dear skippers,

There is a new patch available for 2022.1. It fixes some of the most common issues reported so far.

Changelog:

Localisation:
- Italian localisation update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- Ukrainian localisation update by vovanvoks.
- Spanish localisation update by Tordo.
- Russian localistion update by Hard.
- Czech localisation update by Spid3rCZ.

Technical:
- Fix: Errors in the log and decreased performance, if the game was launched with "Level of Detail" graphic setting set to "Low" or "High".

Crew:
- Fix: Automatically toggled alarm sometimes wasn't disabling itself.
- Fix: Stress accumulated during an alarm was sometimes not decaying afterwards.

Graphics:
- Fix: Aviator glasses were clipping with a few face types.
- Fix: Certain rarely used types of explosion effects were having a pink shader.

UI:
- One new loading screen.
- Fix (regression): "Berlin" was appearing as the message sender in the journal for messages sent by BdU / FdU.
- Fix: Some skill icons were slightly shifted to the side.
- Fix: After clicking on the notification about new messages, the journal was opened with messages sorted in an inverted order.

Ports:
- Various aesthetical fixes to Wilhelmshaven and Bergen.
- Fix: Recruits running around in Bergen's submarine pen were often moving in front of the camera during a dialogue with the warehouse worker, which was somewhat unpleasant.
- Fix: Added fence in Bergen around the walkable area.
- Fix: When starting the game in Kiel, player's u-boat now appears in the most accessible dock spot.
- Fix: Improved intro cutscenes at the start of the campaign in Bergen, La Spezia, La Rochelle and Helgoland.

General:
- Dynamic travel system is now removed from the game. It may come back with a rework in one of the future updates, if that will be requested.
- Radio messages from NPC u-boats are faster to receive.
- Adjustment to the weight of various items.
- Fix: It was possible that a side-mission about sinking a ship would appear with Lend Lease back story before 1941.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update 2022.1: Patch 6
Thu, 20 October 2022



Dear skippers,

There is a new patch available for 2022.1. It fixes some of the most common issues reported so far. Changelog:

Localisation:
- Portuguese localisation update by AlexShuma.
- Italian localisation update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- Ukrainian localisation update by vovanvoks.
- Spanish localisation update by Tordo.
- Russian localistion update by Hard.
- Czech localisation update by Spid3rCZ.
- German localisation update by Ruby.
- Polish localisation update.

Simulation:
- It now matters how the u-boat is rotated in relation to the enemy sonar. U-boat is harder to detect when it faces the sonar with the front or back and easier to detect when rotated from the profile.

Missions:
- Patrol assignments now have an additional objective at the beginning that asks the player to first reach the target area. The objective about travelling a certain distance inside the patrol area now appears after this objective is completed.
- Fix: On rare occasion, it was possible that the aircraft in tutorial nr 4 has missed the player while dropping the depth charges and the tutorial wasn't progressing.
- Fix: Performance during tutorial missions could be slightly decreased due to intense writing to the log.
- Fix: Tutorial nr 2 now requires from the player to reach only 120 meters during a dive training, since in one of the possible training areas it was sometimes impossible to reach 150 meters.
- Fix: Mission selection screen could be sometimes empty with no missions available, if certain mods were in use that had small errors in one of the data sheets.
- Fix (regression of 2022.1): It's no longer necessary to wait some time after reaching the target area in tutorial nr 2 for the mission to continue.

Crew:
- "Connections" and "Specialist" skills are now never randomly assigned to the skipper, because he has no way to use them.
- It's no longer possible to select a new assignment, tutorial or ask for favors, when there is no skipper on the ship. It's now required to promote a new skipper first.

UI:
- If an attempt is made to delete a save file, there is now a confirmation popup that asks the player to confirm the intention.
- Added a new notification type about sailors falling off board.
- The game is now asking player for confirmation, if he tries to leave the port on a new mission, while being low on fuel.
- Added tooltips to the sailor personality icons on the crew list.
- Improved readability of the countdowns appearing on the officer portraits when they are wounded.
- Added two new hints on the loading screen.
- Added an explanation to the tooltip of notification about a required inspection, that the command station is available only when there is an active alarm on the ship along with an explanation how to toggle the alarm.
- Fix: Missing information about item loading time and other issues in the storage UI, if the game was launched in Portuguese.
- Fix: Green dots that point mission targets no longer appear in the periscope, UZO and deck gun sight views.
- Fix: When player had a route plotted for the U-boat and then pressed a mouse button to plot a new path, all segments from the previous path were disappearing aside from the first one.
- Fix: Issues with Cyrillic fonts on a new campaign setup screen.
- Fix: The photograph of the associated campaign objective was disappearing when player has selected a minelying assignment.
- Fix: Changed description of La Rochelle and Rotterdam in their respective tooltips to make it more universal for the entire duration of war.
- Fix: Small aesthetical improvement to the follower bars near the portraits. Their highlighted states were slightly inconsistent.
- Fix: Follower bars in the TAB menu were less responsive than those on the portraits appearing at the bottom of the screen and were sometimes visible in an incorrect state.

Graphics:
- Fix: Improved positioning of officers in the intro cutscene in all ports to avoid issues with them having feet slightly inside the ground.
- Fix: Footbridge connecting the U-boat and the port was slightly clipping with the port geometry in Wilhelmshaven.

Physics:
- Fix (regression of 2022.1): U-boat was making instant, jittery movements when there was an engineer assigned to the diving steers station and the ship has dived to the periscope depth. The camera was also slightly bobbing along with the ship in regular time intervals.

Ports:
- Changed automatic undock route in Wilhelmshaven to a path that is more comfortable to use, allowing to get faster onto the open sea without interruptions.
- Aesthetical fixes to La Rochelle, Bergen and Helgoland.
- Fix: In Bergen, after building a submarine pen, NPC u-boats could try to dock at the same spot, in which player has already docked.
- Fix: After undocking from Helgoland, an incorrect undock route was being automatically plotted.
- Fix: After reloading a game state in Helgoland, the dialogue with a warehouse worker was stopping to work correctly. Also, if there were ongoing cargo loading tasks, it wasn't possible to skip them.

Technical:
- Errors appearing in the log, after clicking on the follower bars, if the sailor limit was reached.
- Fixes to various errors spotted in the log files shared with us.
- Fix: Triangular land segments could appear in the middle of the North Sea.
- Fix: Time compression may be now temporarily locked out, if player is approaching a friendly u-boat that is a target of the current mission and is still being loaded (to avoid collision and other issues).
- Fix (regression of 2022.1 Patch 5): Travel system was being changed to Realistic in existing game states with Dynamic travel system after visiting gameplay settings screen. It wasn't intended.

General:
- Fix: After sending officers on an external interaction (for example, a merchant ship inspection) and then performing certain steps that involved saving and reloading multiple times, the performance of the game was degrading and the sent officers could be seen levitating in the sky.
- Fix: It was possible for the torpedo loading noise modifiers to stay permenently in a game state. If your game was affected by this problem, these modifiers should be gone after loading the save file on this version.
- Fix (regression of 2022.1): It wasn't possible to manually move water from the character's bucket to the bilges.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update 2022.1: Patch 7
Fri, 21 October 2022



Dear skippers,

There is a new patch available for 2022.1. It fixes some of the most common issues reported so far. Changelog:

UI:
- Fix (regression of 2022.1 Patch 6): Various issues with the confirmation popup for deleting save files.

Ports:
- Aesthetical fixes to Wilhelmshaven, La Rochelle and Bergen.
- Fix: Sailors couldn't find path back to the u-boat when returning from vacation in Bergen (without submarine pen).
- Fix: Missing recruitment officer in Bergen (without submarine pen).

Graphics:
- Fix: Pilot was sometimes missing on Bristol Beaufort.

World:
- Fix: U-boats departing from Wilhelmshaven were sometimes moving into Thames to perform a patrol.

Technical:
- Fix: Pathfinding wasn't working correctly after reloading a saved game state near the port until the area was left.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update 2022.1: Patch 8
Sat, 22 October 2022




Dear skippers,

There is a new patch available for 2022.1. It fixes some of the most common issues reported so far. Changelog:

Graphics:
- Fix: Leading officer's hair was clipping through his cap.

UI:
- Added tooltips to light color change actions available in the scene and in TAB menu.
- Added a button to the TAB menu for toggling alarm on and off.
- Added description to the adjust ballast action on the valves.
- Fix: Item's parameters weren't disappearing along with its description after moving cursor away in the storage UI.
- Fix: Torpedo solution making progress is no longer displayed next to the target on the contacts list, if it's targeted by a gun, rather than periscope, UZO or hydrophone.

Ports:
- Aesthetical improvements to Wilhelmshaven.
- Small fixes to Bergen.

Interactions:
- Fix: Interaction with a crashed aircraft now disappears after taking its entire crew on board.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to press buttons during a story sequence (for example merchant ship inspection), when a new scene is still being loaded in the background.

Crew:
- Red lighting no longer decreases crew noise. It was an accidental change in 2022.1.
- Fix: Emergency tanks blowing order was missing on the valves after ballast was adjusted at least once.

Simulation:
- Distant contacts now disappear instantly from the map without a timeout, when the device with which they were observed is no longer in use.

Technical:
- Fix: If player entered a port area and quickly left it just before the port has been loaded, the port would still load and would never disappear from the scene afterwards.
- Fix: Camera was shaking excessively when u-boat was being hit by small projectiles.

Yours,
DWS