UBOAT submarine simulator UBOOT

[Asid]

2024.1 Patch 11
Sun, August 25, 2024


Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

Localization:
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.

UI:
- Added a new gameplay setting to determine, if dates in the game should be displayed in U.S. or British date format. This setting is present only when the game is running in English.
- Fix: Improved formatting of dates in all languages.
- Fix: Mouse wheel no longer zooms in or out the view, when mouse is over any scroll list or outside of game's window.
- Fix: Double clicking a portrait of any officer was entering into FPP mode of that officer in all cases with the exception of a radioman working in the radio room. It was changed to work consistently in his case too.
- Fix: Character role dropdown was scrolled very slowly when a mouse wheel was used for that.
- Fix: When a radioman was asking for resupply, the button for cancelling that request was flickering when hovered with a cursor and was hard to click.
- Fix: Changed the associated sound effect to a better fitting one when a bow decoration or torpedo paint is swapped.
- Fix: Resolution change confirmation popup background wasn't covering the entire screen in case of high resolutions and wasn't capturing clicks.

Graphics:
- Fix: On Type IID, rain could remain visible on a part of the deck in the side view after U-boat had submerged.
- Fix: Conning tower of the U-boat could sometimes appear too bright and washed out after loading a game state, in which there were NPC U-boats nearby that had the same emblem.
- Fix: Occlusion culling wasn't working correctly in Brest submarine pens. It was affecting performance a bit and there were errors in the game's log.
- Fix: Improved the look of a highlight on a diesel compressor on Type VII U-boats, previously it had an irregular shape that wasn't looking well.
- Fix: Diesel compressor internal elements, visible in the section view, were too bright.
- Fix: Foam spray behind dinghy departing from the U-boat was looking a bit wrong.

Crew:
- From now on, when an officer leaves the U-boat during an external interaction, his helpers are unassigned from him and it's also no longer possible to assign any new helpers when he is not on the ship.
- Fix: After diving below periscope depth, sometimes one of the sailors was moving around the boat, starting various actions and stopping them right away without a clear reason.

Simulation:
- Fix: It was too easy to sink ships with a 20 mm gun.
- Fix: On Type IIA and Type IID, the crew wasn't suffocating when air quality was dropping to zero. Also, water wasn't accumulating in the bilges as it should when realistic bilges were toggled on.

Missions:
- Fix: Quick mission completion button was requiring too much fuel to return to port.
- Fix: Mission with detonating a railway wasn't possible to complete in Czech.

Achievements:
- Fix: "Fresh air..." achievement could be received by loading a saved game state file from another player who completed it at any point in the loaded playthrough.

Modding:
- Fix: Modifiers to a DamageProtection parameter on ships weren't applied when they were defined in the sheets.
- Fix: Changes to equipment and entity modifiers in the data sheets are now updated in the loaded game states (although only to new instances of that equipment / entity).

World:
- Added better defences to Thames.
- Fix: Aesthetical fixes to Kiel.

General:
- Voice language is now set to English by default, when the game is launched for the first time and the game's language is English.
- Fix: When an automatic route was plotted from Kiel to areas north of Britain, the route was entering and leaving Kiel canal without need. It was also indirectly affecting tutorial #4, if it was started in Kiel.
- Fix: Certain hotkeys were accessible on a character customization screen and could cause various issues when used (for example, a hotkey for journal).
- Fix: Side view camera was sometimes positioning itself incorrectly, when it was simultaneously zoomed in or out and switched between the deck view and interior view.
- Fix: Fixes to several errors spotted in logs attached to bug reports.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2024.1 Patch 12
Sat, August 31, 2024

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

Localization:
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- Russian localization update by Hard.

UI:
- Fix: Inconsistent text alignment was present for save file info when text was long enough to be wrapped.
- Fix: Capacity bar no longer appears when cargo hold contents are viewed on an inspected merchant ship.
- Fix: When a stadimeter wasn't present on the used periscope, the stadimeter button wasn't changing visually and was still looking like it would be active. Also, added a tooltip that explains why it's not available.
- Fix: When an observation periscope was used manually on a Type II, the depth visualization control was displaying an attack periscope instead of the observation periscope.

World:
- Reworked Brest submarine pens to make them compatible with the lowest tides possible in the area. Each bunker now features a water gate with a regulated water level on the inside.

Ships:
- Fix: NPC U-boats had audible propellers, even when they were docked.

Graphics:
- Fix: Dashed lines on puppet state territories were moving during a high compression travel.
- Fix: When ballast tanks were flooded on Type II U-boats, for a few seconds, there was a moving water surface visible in FPP near the ceiling near the loading hatch.
- Fix: When a scene visible during an external interaction was closed, for a fraction of a second, it could be visible with a wrong lighting.

Audio:
- Increased volume of ambient sound in the hydrophone. Also it now varies depending on the direction, when bearing is adjusted.
- Fix: Music and ambient audio could stop to play, when there were many ships nearby due to hitting a sound effects limit in the engine.

Achievements:
- Battleship Hunter achievement can be now achieved also by sinking battleships travelling in a group with other warships rather than only in a convoy.

General:
- Fix: Aircraft could sometimes end up in the water, if they were loaded during a high compression travel. This could cause issues, especially during tutorial #4.
- Fix: Type II U-boats had a stadimeter present on their observation periscopes. It was removed to be in line with Type VII.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2024.1 Patch 13
Thu, September 5, 2024


Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

Localization:
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.

Simulation:
- Added periscope and UZO graticule illumination in a dark weather.

Technical:
- Fix: Resolved incompatibility with Intel graphic processing units that was leading to various artifacts being displayed near ports.

Missions:
- Multiple patrol assignments with the same destination are no longer offered at the same time.
- Added objective markers that point wolfpack formation spots. Please note, that they will appear only for wolfpacks formed after the update, but the coordinates can be also read from the HQ message saved in the journal.
- Fix: Japanese submarines could sometimes remain permanently at the rendezvous spot after a mission.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to change torpedo run depth during tutorial #3. Instead, their depth is automatically set to 1.5 meters.
- Fix: Dirty interiors modifier may no longer appear during tutorials.
- Fix: Reworked tutorial #4, so that all officers remain selectable during its duration. Previously they were becoming unselectable to prevent assignment to stations that were later explained how to use.

UI:
- Adjusted how cursor highlights work in the main menu settings.
- Added a loading hint that explains that navigator may cease to work in publicly known areas like ports, as it's not possible to get lost near them.
- Fix: Gazala mission was lacking an objective description at the mission selection screen.

World:
- Fix: Resolved issue with Italian fishing boats spawning in German ports and later becoming hostile after Italian surrender, causing entire port to become alert.
- Fix: Brest submarine pen wasn't visible on the world map.
- Fix: After undocking and docking at a different slot of a submarine pen, warehouse worker and a recruitment officer could duplicate.
- Fix: Brest submarine pen wasn't already built in the late starting scenarios that had all other submarine pens built.

Graphics:
- Fix: NPC U-boats weren't affected by the ambient lighting present inside submarine pens and were looking a bit out of the place, if they docked there.

Achievements:
- Fix: Battleship Hunter achievement change from Patch 12 was rarely working in practice.
- Fix: Researcher and Safe and Sound achievements could be obtained in campaigns that started at a later date than those mentioned in their descriptions.

General:
- Time compression is now limited to x12 during torpedo launching, since higher time compression could decrease salvo accuracy, especially if FPS wasn't high enough.
- Fix: If certain steps involving saving and reloading were performed, it was possible for a single shell or rocket damage to multiply many times and become unreasonably high.
- Fix: If scroll at the screen edges option is enabled, the map is no longer being scrolled when the game's window doesn't have an active focus or the cursor is outside the window.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2024.1 Patch 14
Sat 14 September 2024



Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.


Localization:
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- Russian localization update by Hard.

Crew:
- Sailors assigned to officers are no longer counted towards overwork penalty if they don't do anything.

UI:
- Fix: It wasn't possible to use map drawing tools on areas covered by contact visualizations (blue / green contact arcs).
- Fix: After loading another game state in-game, the silent running and alarm buttons in the TAB menu were remaining in the previous state, and potentially weren't reflecting the actual state of a silent run and an alarm.
- Fix: In the machine room and the torpedo room of Type II U-boats, there was a carry water button appearing in the bottom UI, but it didn't make sense in the case of these U-boats as the water may flow freely between the rooms.
- Fix: If an attempt was made to scroll text in a radio message view using a mouse wheel, the view was closed instead of scrolling the text.
- Fix: Assignment name was sometimes not fitting into the text area for some assignments in some languages.
- Fix: If a map drawing tool was toggled, something was started to be drawn and then another tool was toggled without completing the previous drawing, the previous drawing would remain on the map and wasn't possible to remove.

World:
- Fix: Sometimes sunk merchant ships were later displayed as having an unknown origin and an unknown destination. This problem may stick around for a while in the old game states but should disappear after some time passes in-game.
- Fix: Fixed probably all causes of a relatively rare situation where after sinking a ship with a certain name, a new one could be encountered with the same name shortly after. This problem may stick around for a while in the old game states but should disappear after some time passes in-game.
- Fix: After leaving a submarine pen and docking in another pen nearby, the leading officer from the previous pen could remain and duplicate.

Graphics:
- Fix: Asset loading error that could cause various issues: pink particle effects, sailors with missing jacket geometry, etc.
- Fix: Unusual, intense reflections around the lens of an observation periscope on Type VII and both periscopes on Type II.

Achievements:
- Fix: If certain steps were performed, it was possible to obtain a Needle In a Haystack achievement for sinking a ship in a group smaller than 15 ships.

Modding:
- When binoculars are used in manual mode, from now on an attempt is made to load a fullscreen overlay from such a path: "Images/Periscope Overlays/Binoculars Fullscreen". This allows mods to use a different overlay for the binoculars than for UZO.

General:
- Fix: In some cases, the amount actually paid for various U-boat upgrades was lower than initially declared in the UI (sometimes they were completely free).
- Fix: Autosave on dock wasn't working if a quick return to port was used.
- Fix: Sometimes the external hatch wasn't being closed, even though the entire crew entered the U-boat. Consequently, the sailor responsible for flooding the tanks would await closing the hatch indefinitely.
- Fix: Quick mission completion wasn't working correctly if it was clicked while using a device in manual mode (for example, a periscope).
- Fix: In some cases, if a ship was accidentally hit by its ally, it could take away credit for sinking from the player.
- Fix: Fixes to various errors spotted in logs sent using a bug reporting tool.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2024.1 Patch 15
Thu, September 26, 2024


Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

Localization:
- Chinese localization update by Alex Zheng, JM-LeiDao, 36 D, Xenon_Tennessee, 人生多忐忑, 肚子困脑袋饿, Parrot with Carrot.
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- German localization update by Ruby.

Simulation:
- Fix: T5 torpedoes no longer react to a sound emitted behind them.
- Fix: Nelson's hull was impossible to break in half in certain circumstances.

Missions:
- Various improvements to the assignment on Hopen Island to make it clearer which structure to locate and where to look for it.
- Fix: If a button for quickly leaving a port was used during tutorial no. 2 in Brest, the previously plotted route was cleared and it was necessary to plot it once again.
- Fix: Tutorial missions were providing more fuel to Type IIA U-boats than their maximum fuel capacity.

Crew:
- Discipline now regenerates during time skipping.
- Fix: If a sailor with a specialization was wounded, his associated specialization point was lost, but after he recovered, the point wasn't coming back until other event triggered a recalculation.
- Fix: Sometimes an officer with a suitable role wasn't automatically coming back to observe the surroundings from the conning tower after surfacing from a periscope depth, but instead was continuing to use a periscope.

World:
- Increased a number of AA guns in several ports.
- Improved the default undock route in Brest.
- Fix: When a very large group of ships was approaching a waypoint (for example a waypoint of a convoy), all ships in the group were heading to a single spot, before heading to the next waypoint on the route. This behaviour became especially apparent with the recently added larger convoy sizes.
- Fix: Improved algorithm that splits large groups of ships into smaller ones. It could sometimes cause mild AI issues or make it so that ships were loaded too close to the U-boat, especially with the recently added larger convoy sizes.

Graphics:
- Fix: Incorrect view could be rendered for a duration of a time skip, if the time skip was initiated on a zoomed out map.
- Fix: Lighting wasn't smooth on an attack periscope tube on Type II U-boats.
- Fix: Black pixels on the side, when looking up from the inside of Type II U-boat through an open hatch.
- Fix: Added texture precaching during an assignment summary sequence, to avoid displaying a blurred out map on the table at the end, before it was streamed in a full resolution.
- Fix (regression): The night illumination of UZO / periscope graticule introduced in Patch 13 wasn't looking correctly, when a periscope was used in a fullscreen mode.
- Fix: If a manual periscope usage mode was left using a mouse wheel, sometimes the transition wasn't fully smooth, and there was an instant FOV change.
- Fix: Improved crew pathing on Type II, to avoid sailors clipping with the storage or galley.
- Fix: If a crew member remaining inside the U-boat was picked for an external interaction and then he was removed from the selection, he had a wrong lighting on him later on and could also become invisible in some circumstances. There were other, more complicated, ways to make this happen, but all of them revolved around sending a crew member to an external interaction. This problem was clearing itself once he left the U-boat's interior and entered back.
- Fix: There was a gap in the Brest submarine pen's ceiling due to occlusion culling in a map view.

UI:
- Improved descriptions of certain budget operations in the tooltip.
- Removed keyboard navigation on items in the MENU dropdown.
- Fix: Points added on the map using drawing tools, now remain draggable, even when they are in a place covered by a contact visualization (blue / green arcs) and drawing tools aren't used.
- Fix: If any ship was selected and a list of officers that could target it was opened, and then the ship was deselected, and then UI scale was adjusted, then after selecting any ship again, the list of officers was in an incorrect place.
- Fix: The notification about missing watch crew, was sometimes appearing too fast, before a ship fully surfaced and anybody could go out.
- Fix: Ongoing tasks listed in the HQ view were not reacting to clicks on the officer portraits inside them.
- Fix: After following certain steps, it was possible to make it so, that the red arrow on the UI telegraph was blinking indefinitely.
- Fix: Added a larger timeout to the missing cook notification. It was sometimes appearing without a need.
- Fix: Change course orders spoken by the skipper were missing in the crew reports log, if they were initiated using an UI compass.
- Fix: "Course to view" command on the UI compass was sometimes not working correctly.

Modding:
- Fix: If a mod's source code was recompiled, the mod's assembly was loaded twice into the memory. It could cause issues in some cases.
- Fix: Mod compilation errors weren't written to a log (mods were compiled before a logger was fully initiated).

Uboatopedia:
- Updated Polish version of Uboatopedia.

Technical:
- Optimizations to physics and particle effects that are mostly aimed at improving performance of a high time compression near large convoys.
- Fix: An error that could sometimes make a saved game state unloadable.

General:
- Fix: If certain steps were performed before initiating a carry items order between two storages, it was possible for an item that was present in the officer's backpack (for example, a med-kit) to end up in the storage that doesn't accept such an item type, for example an ammunition storage.
- Fix: If certain steps were performed on Type VII U-boats, it was possible for some of the torpedoes in a salvo to be announced as a dud and sink right after they were launched.
- Fix: Meat hanging in Type II control room was sometimes clipping through the ceiling into the conning tower.
- Fix: Fuel consumption reduction that could be obtained after completing weather station placement assignments, was being lost after changing U-boat to another type.
- Fix: Errors spotted in the player logs.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2024.1 Patch 17
Tue, October 1, 2024


Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

Localization:
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- German localization update by Ruby.

Graphics:
- Fix: Underwater effect was temporarily disabled when zooming in the camera from the orbit view to the section view, if camera was previously placed in a specific position.

Crew:
- Work at the navigator's station in publicly known areas now has a decreased priority instead of having zero priority. This makes it possible to force navigator to work on this station at all times for a fuel consumption modifier.
- Fix: "Focus" skill description was improved and is different when playing with disabled periscope stabilization.
- Fix: Many fixes and improvements to character voices played when using a deck gun.

UI:
- When a character screen is opened for an officer who has a pending level up with unspent skill points, the screen automatically opens up on the skills tab.

Technical:
- Fix (regression of Patch 15): The game was crashing after sinking an aircraft carrier.
- Fix: Another error that could sometimes make a saved game state unloadable.

General:
- Notifications no longer play their associated sound effects during return to port cutscenes.
- Fix: North Labrador weather station campaign objective banner was displayed at a wrong position on the map after loading any save file.
- Fix: If a merchant ship's evacuation was ordered during an inspection, the ship's captain was later missing on the lifeboats.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2024.1 Patch 20
Sun, 10 November 2024



Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

Crew:
- Once a routine hydrophone check is ordered, a progress bar for that order is displayed on a radioman's portrait that gets tasked with it.
- The game is now asking, when an officer is being tasked with loading a torpedo, if he should only load it, or maintain it first and then load.
- Crew no longer verbally reports friendly and neutral units near friendly ports, since it's rarely useful and there are often many such contacts. Notifications still appear with no changes.
- Fix: A small clipping was present when a character was wearing a beanie and had a face of type X.
- Fix: Right after resting, officers weren't considering orders waiting in the global order queue (for example, torpedo loading orders) and were always doing something else from their assigned role.
- Fix: Characters could sometimes incorrectly rotate for an animation, when there was a high time compression in use and they handed out a report to an officer just before starting another animation (for example, if they went to their bunk for any reason after handing out a report).
- Fix: Officer's hat, hair and beard could disappear, if he was controlled in FPP and certain steps were performed, involving saving and loading the game states in a specific way.
- Fix: When there were multiple injured people on the ship, some of them could heal indefinitely after being treated.

UI:
- Added tooltips to controls displaying a number of sailors, officers and survivors on the ship.
- Clicking on a notification about free specialization points, now opens an associated screen where they can be spent.
- Improved transition to a character screen.
- Fix: Once a screen for releasing survivors was closed, the transition was slightly wrong. The fade in and out animation was played completely and only afterwards the UI was changing.
- Fix: Japanese navy flags weren't visible in UI, only in the 3D scene.
- Fix: Orders queue was sometimes appearing partially outside the left edge of the screen.

Modding:
- Added UnityEngine.JSONSerializeModule.dll and System.Xml.dll to compiler for use in the mods.

External interactions:
- Fix: Too many decision buttons were appearing after a search of an abandoned merchant ship was completed.

Graphics:
- Fix: Type VIIB U-boats had green positional lights on both sides of the conning tower due to an issue with UV map.
- Fix: Fixes to certain problems with flickering lights in submarine pens.

Missions:
- Fix: If an interaction screen was opened and closed without selecting any decision, during a rendezvous with a Japanese submarine, it wasn't possible to open it again.
- Fix: It was sometimes not possible to load the cargo from B1 submarine and continue the mission.

General:
- From now on, when ports are restocked, some of the stored equipment is replaced with new items. This fixes an unwated situation, that an outdated equipment was sometimes occupying port storage indefinitely.
- Combat music and elevated stress among the crew are now maintained for 10 minutes after loosing enemy contacts, if there is a clear reason to believe that the enemies are still somewhere close. Automatic alarms are also maintained slightly longer in such situations.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2024.1 Patch 21
Mon, 18 November 2024



Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

Localization:
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Russian localization update by Hard.

Crew:
- Fix: If a button for viewing tuberculosis event was quickly clicked several times, before a transition to a new view was over, the captain was becoming indefinitely blocked on a bunk of an ill sailor.
- Fix: Officers could sometimes become permanently idle on the deck after a decoration cutscene. They were blocking diving in such state. This fix will also repair this problem in existing game states that already have this problem.
- Fix: Increased tolerance of a helmsman station and a galley to water in a compartment, especially on Type II.

UI:
- Fix: Once a screen faded out to black after clicking a quick return to port button, it was sometimes still possible to click on UI elements, even though they weren't visible.
- Fix: Further adjustments to a transition to a character screen. Among other things, there was often an unnecessary deselection sound effect played when it was being opened.

World:
- Fix: Improved defined imports and exports of Norwegian ports, especially Narvik as they were in a conflict with its description in a tooltip (this change takes effect in new games only).

General:
- Decreased the price of explosives by 25%.
- Fix: Slightly improved animation of officers looking at the map in the HQ, to make it more seamlessly looped.
- Fix: Reworked an interaction with a Japanese submarine, to handle a case when the U-boat is full and it's not possible to load mission cargo.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2024.1 Patch 23
Tue, 3 December 2024



Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.

Crew:
- Fix: Officer using AA gun on Type II U-boats could become invisible for the time of using it in certain circumstances.
- Fix: In rare cases, it wasn't possible to assign an officer to perform a repair, if it was previously being repaired by a sailor. This fix corrects that problem in the affected game states as well.
- Fix: Sailor could sometimes enter a state, where he stood idle near the position where he stopped to work and wasn't going to rest, even though he was tired.
- Fix: On Type VII U-boats, if officer was assigned to a helmsman station, that was being already occupied by a sailor, he sometimes wasn't walking to the work place and was standing still instead.
- Fix: Increased tolerance of a galley to water in the compartment on Type VII U-boats.
- Fix: The external hatch could in a specific case not be closed once the last person left the deck. Once this happened, the dive orders were ineffective, because assigned officers were waiting for the hatch to be closed before flooding the tanks.

UI:
- Added a fade out animation to a loading screen.
- Fix: Compass tool was clickable, even when it was behind something else, for example a menu dropdown.
- Fix: "Vacation" modifier to discipline was renamed to "Last vacation", to make it clearer what it means.
- Fix: Warehouse inventory screen couldn't be scrolled with a mouse wheel, when the cursor was above the window's background. It was working only when the cursor was above one of the items.
- Fix: Assignment about destroying oil tanks near Haifa was having a wrong description in German.

Audio:
- Fix: Combat music could stop to play in some cases when it should be playing as usual.

General:
- Fix: Save system fixes.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

Update 2025.1
Mon, 20 January 2025



Dear captains,

We hope that you had a good start to the New Year 2025! 🎆

We are happy to announce that the next update for UBOAT is now ready to download.

Below is a quick overview of the changes shipped with it.


Damage simulation
Following popular demand, this version reworks the damage model used for enemy ships. While the U-boat's damage model has always been developed quite well, it was simplified for other ships. This version changes that by adding damage simulation to various parts of a ship:

   - Engine rooms. They are usually located behind the funnels, towards the stern. Damage here often leads to a major fuel oil or lubricant fire and immobilizes the ship.
   - Ammunition storages. Damage may trigger a powerful secondary explosion that often seals the fate of a ship.
   - Boilers. They are always located beneath the funnels and may explode with a burst of hot steam when damaged. In addition, disabling all boilers on a steamship, immobilizes it.
   - Cargo holds. Hitting cargo holds can have varying effects depending on the cargo. For example, if a ship is carrying coal, there is a chance of starting a fire.
   - Armor. The largest ships in the game, such as cruisers and battleships, now have protective steel armor belts that can block most shells. They also provide a limited protection from torpedoes.
   - Torpedo belts. These are also present only on the largest warships and provide an additional protection from torpedoes.



With these changes, your attacks will be much more varied in their effects. In addition, identifying your target's weak spots may help you sink it using fewer torpedoes.


There are also various other upgrades related to the enemy ships:

   - There are now two sinking physics simulation presets, "Quick" and "Realistic," available in the realism settings for a new campaign. Both presets provide a more realistic sinking simulation than previous versions of the game but differ in the speed at which wrecks sink and how often partially sunk wrecks remain afloat.
   - All ship classes in the game now have their real-world compartments recreated in the data structures used by the simulation, making their sinking behavior more convincing and realistic.
   - Each ship has a randomized build quality. Ship classes that were known to be rushed or are older are more likely to deviate from their design specifications than others.
   - Enemy crews now perform active damage control, as long as the ship is not evacuated. While they can't repair torpedo damage, they may patch up small breaches caused by shells and use pumps.
   - Bulkhead states on enemy ships are now tracked, and enemy crews open and close them depending on the ship's overall alertness or damage level. If you launch a surprise attack, there is a high chance that some bulkheads will be left open, allowing incoming water to quickly flood a substantial portion of the ship, sinking it in a matter of minutes. On the other hand, it's harder to sink a ship that is ready for combat.
   - When internal bulkheads break due to water pressure, audible water inflow sound effects can be heard on the hydrophone.
   - Fire and smoke effects on ships have been rewritten for improved visuals, performance and consistency.




Career statistics
We've also been working on a detailed career statistics screen that will hopefully increase your satisfaction after a successful career! It tracks stats such as your GRT totals and the longest successful attack distance.

Please note that many of these statistics will only start being counted for pre-existing save files after updating the game, since they weren't tracked in earlier versions.




Historical leaderboard
There is also a historical leaderboard now in the game that allows you to compare your successes with those of historical commanders. This leaderboard is updated dynamically as the war continues, with the GRT totals of historical commanders increasing on the dates of their historical sinkings.




Realistic periscope views
This version improves several aspects of periscope and UZO views.

We've added a new realism setting that lets you choose either a realistic or an extended magnification mode for the periscopes and UZO. The realistic mode ensures that all observation devices use their historical magnification modes, while the extended mode allows for wider magnification ranges for convenience.

Additionally, we've ensured that the graticule scales are correct and can be used to estimate the distance to a target, as long as the target's height or length is known.

If you're interested in exploring how to do this, it was explained very well by Maciek (SnakeDoc) in his article on tvre website: link.

Lastly, we've improved the light propagation effects inside the lens to make the graticule look more natural and immersive.




Navigation lights
All U-boat types now have functional navigation lights that are automatically used by the crew whenever the boat is near a friendly port or unit and no enemy is in sight.




Ship summary
Another addition is a ship summary screen that displays various technical parameters of the U-boat, as well as all installed upgrades, making this information accessible while at sea for a quick reference.




Misc changes
We've also introduced a bunch of minor tweaks and bug fixes. Here are some of the most notable ones:

   - High Command is now more likely to send the player to patrol areas involved in active campaign objectives rather than to squares not part of any current operations.
   - Previously used console commands can now be recalled by pressing the up and down arrows on the keyboard.
   - We've improved the camera shake effect in response to explosions.
   - A long list of fixes and improvements to hull cracking behaviour of all ship classes present in the game.
   - Tweaks to sky and clouds based on the feedback that are aimed at improving realism.
   - Resolved an issue with NPC ships that continued to slowly move for a prolonged time after stopping their engines.
   - Manually positioned tools now retain their position on the screen after adjusting the UI scale.
   - We've increased ammunition to historical values on Type 1934 destroyers that protect German convoys.
   - A bug fix in tutorials #2 and #4 - if player ordered an officer to switch a device rather than the sailors, tutorial script wasn't detecting that order and wasn't progressing.
   - HE shells are now consistently more effective than AP shells at starting fires.
   - Sunk warship tonnage is now counted in your boat's tonnage statistics and towards GRT achievements.
   - Improved physical behavior of damaged ships and wrecks when a high time compression is used.


Special thanks
We want to extend our special thanks to DECAFBAD and Hard (author of the HARDscope mod) for helping us recreate the correct graticules and determine optical characteristics of the periscopes.


Progress on Type IX DLC
We are continuing to work on Type IX DLC alongside the regular updates.

Since the hull of the ship was completed, as reported in the previous dev log, we've now been focused on the interiors for the last few months. This project takes time to complete, as Type IX U-boats are larger than the other U-boats in the game, but also the devices present on them are often different.

Currently, there is still a lot to be done to complete it fully along with the accompanying content that we've planned for it. We aim to finish it around the middle of the year and will be sharing our progress with you as we reach further milestones!

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2025.1 Patch 6
Mon, 27 January 2025



Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Localization:
- German localization update by Ruby.

Damage model:
- Starting with this version, once a ship?s crew is evacuating, the ship is credited and counted towards GRT statistics and objectives. In addition, the player can report having severely damaged the ship for 75% of the reward. If the ship is sunk afterwards, the reward increases to its full amount. Note: this change will work only for newly encountered ships in old game states.
- Some of the cargo carried on ships may break loose, once they rotate vertically and damage the compartments from the inside. Added sound effects indicating such events. This happens most often in cargo holds of merchant ships, but is not exclusive to them. It's a small damage buff that helps to sink ships in a vertical position.
- It's now easier to sink ships that were already evacuated.

Crew:
- Added a verbal report that the crew of a ship is evacuating.

Missions:
- Added new objectives in the overview in tutorial #4 to remind the current goal.
- Panic attack after a crash dive in tutorial #4 now starts much faster.
- Target patrol area in tutorial #4 is now ensured to be deep enough for the tutorial to work well.
- Fix (regression of 2025.1): Camera could intensively shake in tutorial #4, after getting close to the second U-Boat that was attacked by an aircraft.
- Fix: Once radioman detects transmission in tutorial #4, it's no longer possible to order him to stop working in the radio room in any way.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to sink the second merchant ship in tutorial #3 in any other way than using explosives as asked by the tutorial.

General:
- Time compression is automatically toggled off when a ship that is observed visually by the crew is breaking in half, to make it possible to see it.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2025.1 Patch 8
Sat, 8 February 2025



Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Localization:
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Chinese localization update by Alex Zheng, JM-LeiDao, 36 D, Xenon_Tennessee, 人生多忐忑, 肚子困脑袋饿, Parrot with Carrot.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- German localization update by Ruby.

UI:
- Added a notification indicating when the boat is operating in silent running mode.
- Fix: Interface scale affected the new overview screens inconsistently across screen resolutions, sometimes in an odd way.

Missions:
- The "Routine" and "Semi-routine" mission type settings (selectable during campaign setup) now also reduce the frequency of side missions during patrols. Also, when they do appear, they tend to be more routine in nature.
- When Operation Weserubung campaign is active, there is a guarantee to have missions belonging to that campaign available for selection each time a new mission is being selected.

Simulation:
- Lowered the reliability of active sonar on enemy ships on Easy and Medium AI difficulties. Its range remains the same, but detection chances are reduced.
- Rough weather now negatively affects passive hydrophones and active sonars. This effect can be inspected in the tooltip of the detection notification.
- Refined the formulas for active sonar detection. Previously, a small saturation issue meant that countermeasures made no difference until a certain threshold was exceeded.

Damage model:
- Fix: Repairs performed by the crew on NPC ships were sometimes not being triggered, even when there was a repairable damage on the ship.

Graphics:
- The U-Boat is now cleaned of all visual damage after docking at any port.
- Updated DLSS libraries to the newest version.
- Fix: A model issue with one of the bunks on Type II U-boats.

Crew:
- Fix: Fixed a few instances where officers confirmed orders verbally, even though they didn't receive a direct order from the player and were changing stations for different reasons.
- Fix: Fixed instances of crew falling off board due to minor collisions.

General:
- It's now possible to use time compression in FPP.
- Fix: If HQ screen was opened while using a periscope in a manual mode and then left, the camera was entering into an invalid state and wasn't reacting to user inputs.
- Fix: The abandoned U-Boat in the side mission now has a German flag on the contacts list rather than neutral.
- Fix: Fixed several of the most common errors in the logs.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2025.1 Patch 9
Fri, February 14, 2025


Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Localization:
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.

Crew:
- Added new orders that allow to carry a wounded sailor to specific bunks. These orders appear after clicking with a right mouse button on a wounded sailor. They?re useful for situations such as unblocking a torpedo tube when a wounded sailor?s bunk is preventing its operation.

UI:
- Added a sound effect in the UI after refuelling the U-Boat.
- In FPP mode, activator icons now disappear at a closer range to reduce clutter. They also fade in and out smoothly instead of appearing or vanishing instantly.
- Transactions with a cost of zero no longer appear in the budget summary tooltip.
- Fix: A lengthy report was appearing on a send report button after completing the mine-laying assignment, rather than a short summary as in all other cases.

Simulation:
- Fix: Ping effect on the U-Boat's hull was sometimes audible, when there was no possibility to be pinged by ASDIC of the nearby ships, for example due to angle constraints. This issue affected only the associated sound effect; AI wasn't able to actually detect U-Boat with ASDIC in these cases.

AI:
- Ships temporarily stop to perform torpedo avoidance maneuvers, while avoiding a collision with another ship to do a better job at avoiding the collision.
- Fix: Ships now consistently steer clear of partially sunk wrecks; previously, they sometimes ignored them.
- Fix: Ships were performing torpedo avoidance maneuvers less effectively when the game was running for a long time without quitting and time compression was in heavy use.

Graphics:
- Fix: Resolved an issue where rain particles could sometimes fall all at once instead of uniformly.
- Fix (regression of 2025.1 Patch : Issue with transparency or purple texture appearing on sailors since Patch 8.

U-Boats:
- Added more detailed colliders to battery room no. 2 on Type VII U-Boats.
- Increased the threshold above which bunks are considered to be unusable due to water in a compartment for the officer bunks on Type VII U-Boats.
- Fix: Toilet doors could close back without a reason, when player was opening them in FPP.

General:
- Adjusted the order of campaigns available for selection when starting a new game, to keep the campaigns appropriate for new players near the top.
- Fix: Visual indirect contacts sometimes didn't had a visualization displayed on the map and it wasn't clear where they were spotted.
- Fix: Visual indirect contacts in dark weather are now being referred to as "movement in the dark". Other contact names usually weren't fitting the situation.
- Fix: The icon for the port warehouse worker was misplaced on the floor in FPP mode.
- Fix: If a reputation upgrade that increases a number of missions for selection was purchased, and the campaign was started with 2 or 3 mission selections, and all campaign objectives in the current port were completed, it was possible to get 3 mission selections rather than the expected number (4 or 5).

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2025.1 Patch 11
Sun, February 23, 2025

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Localization:
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- German localization update by Ruby.

Missions:
- The tutorial missions can now be replayed multiple times.
- Fix: Resolved an issue that could prevent tutorial no. 4 from detecting when the player ordered the pump to be enabled, causing the tutorial to not progress.

U-Boat:
- It is now possible to manually open/close, flood/drain, and launch torpedoes from tube V on Type VII U-Boats.
- The "Fresh air" modifier for air quality has been split into two separate modifiers: ventilation through the air intake on the bridge and ventilation through the external hatch. Additionally, it now takes significantly longer to fully ventilate the boat.
- Active ventilation is now much more effective on the surface than under the water, as it actively brings fresh air into the boat (rather than only circulating it).
- Improved movement through the hatch from battery room no. 1 to the control room in FPP mode on Type VII U-Boats. Previously, the movement through the hatch sometimes wasn't being triggered.
- The searchlight is now automatically turned off when the crew hides into the U-Boat during a dive.
- Navigation lights are now being enabled only when the U-Boat is near a friendly port or if friendly units are actually spotted.
- After starting a new game, the stern gyro angle receiver on Type VII now starts with a 180 degrees gyro angle set instead of 0 degrees. For the stern tubes, this angle means shooting straight ahead, making it a more appropriate starting value.

Crew:
- Added a new mechanic with standing orders for the crew, allowing automation of certain tasks. These orders can be toggled on and off in the "Crew" screen under the "Boat" tab. Currently, there are three available standing orders:
---- Air compressor management: When active, the crew will power on the air compressors whenever the reserves are not full.
---- Lighting management: The crew switches to red lights at night, blue lights during a silent run, and normal lights in all other cases.
---- Main exterior hatch management: The crew closes the hatch during rain and rough seas and opens it in all other conditions to improve ventilation.
- Fix: Crew members could sometimes forget their movement path and stop executing their assigned orders when passing through a bulkhead that the player had ordered to be kept closed. When this issue was occurring, it could cause various side effects, such as the gyrocompass not being disabled after ordering a silent run or sonar decoys not being launched after player's order.
- Fix: The skipper would sometimes say, "Join the watch crew" without reason when a leader officer switched between the UZO and binoculars.
- Fix: If two crew members were ordered to open the same hatch, one would open it, but the second would close it again.
- Fix: Sailors would disappear from the conning tower and reappear on the deck after closing an external hatch following a direct order on certain U-Boat types.
- Fix: Sailors would sometimes close the external hatch from the wrong side. For example, a sailor on the bridge would sometimes descend into the conning tower instead of closing it directly from the bridge.
- Fix: If the player attempted to move a wounded sailor to bunks occupied by crew members playing cards, the warning message displayed did not accurately reflect the situation.
- Fix: Resolved a few minor issues with the sailor watching over the valves. After flooding the tanks, he was often leaving the station without a reason for a few seconds before coming back. Also, when an order was performed by him, an order bar was appearing in the global order queue in the corner of the screen, but it wasn't disappearing later on until a view was changed to a different one.

UI:
- A warning is now displayed under the dive schedule if it is currently inactive, along with an explanation of how to activate it.
- Fix: The map can now be moved by clicking and dragging while selecting a destination square for a supply ship in the HQ.
- Fix: The rudder indicator in the upper-right part of the screen would sometimes rapidly switch between 0 and 1 degrees when the U-Boat was docked.
- Fix: After starting a dialogue with a lead officer, opening the reputation purchases menu, and then closing it, some UI elements would incorrectly appear during the dialogue, allowing unintended interactions that could break the UI.
- Fix: Resolved an issue where a damage notification would not disappear after all repairs were completed.
- Fix (regression of 2025.1): The "days later" label during quick travel was fading out along with everything else instead of remaining visible on the screen.

Technical:
- Improved performance in the section view, with more noticeable improvements at higher texture quality settings.
- It is now possible to rebind the interaction hotkey from "E" to any other key.
- Removed a few memory allocations that could be avoided.
- Fix: Resolved one issue that could interfere with saving the game state.

AI:
- Fix: Aircraft could, in rare cases, stop attacking the U-Boat without a clear reason.

Simulation:
- Fix: Removed a discontinuity in TDC calculations that could make the parallax correction dial flicker between two values. It was happening in edge cases, such as when attempting to compute a solution for the forward tubes and a target behind the U-Boat.

Graphics:
- Fix (regression of 2025.1 Patch : The U-Boat's hull could become completely black after docking and having the external damages repaired.
- Fix: Explosion effects could in some cases not have a shader loaded and appear partially or fully purple.

General:
- Time compression and pause are now automatically disabled when entering an officer?s FPP mode (they can be toggled back).
- Fix: If the game was saved in an officer?s FPP mode (other than the skipper), it would often load in the skipper's FPP mode instead.
- Fix: If the game was saved in FPP mode, then after loading it and opening the TAB menu, officer portraits could be missing from the menu. They would only appear later after switching views.

Yours,
DWS

[Asid]

2025.1 Patch 12
Mon, February 24, 2025

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for version 2025.1.

Crew:
- Decreased the wind speed threshold at which the crew closes the external hatch when external hatch management is enabled. Previously, there was a range of weather conditions where seawater could easily enter the boat, yet the crew would still open the hatch for ventilation.
- Improved the simulation of water inflow through the external hatch. Previously, water could sometimes enter even when waves should have been deflected by the conning tower walls.
- It is now possible to order officers to perform certain tasks, such as blowing the ballast tanks or switching the power state of devices, even when they are choking due to unbreathable air in the compartment.
- General improvements to the behavior of characters choking due to unbreathable air in the compartment. Time compression is now always disabled when crew members begin to choke.
- Fix: When any of the central compartments on a Type VII U-Boat were evacuated, some idle sailors could sometimes behave erratically or attempt to pass through the evacuated compartments to reach a bunk on the other side of the boat.

Missions:
- Fix: In the "Southern Routes" campaign objective, the number of performed ship inspections could sometimes continue to be registered even after reaching the gold level, causing the progress bar to display values such as: 16 / 15.

General:
- Fix: The camera was getting too close to the attack periscope at the second zoom level, causing some UI elements to occlude the bearing.
- Fix: After opening the breech door and interacting with the stern tube on Type VII U-Boats, the ordnance management screen for the bow torpedo tubes was opening instead of the one for the stern.

Yours,
DWS