Hello fellow admirals,
We are glad to announce that the next major update is available for you to play in its first Beta version! The update offers a rich amount of new ships and interesting new mechanics that make gameplay more interesting and realistic.
The first beta content is not finished. Auto-Design may be not optimized yet in time management, not all hulls are added (although the majority is available, with 42 new hulls), and there may be things that need addressing.
Please read below what the new update includes up to now:
WARNING
Old campaign saves and old ship designs are incompatible. The game automatically cleanups campaign saves, custom battleship designs, mission ship designs. It is mandatory to clean up shared designs manually.
BETA Major Update v1.4
42+ NEW HULLS
- German “Hybrid Battleship” which can resemble the Scharnhorst-class with more accuracy. It is a hull available from 1935 and has a displacement between 38,000 and 52,500 tons.
- British “Large Light Cruiser”' which resembles the Courageous-class. It can be found in the battlecruiser hulls from 1916 to 1929 and has a displacement between 18,250 and 21,000 tons.
- British “Command Cruiser”, a hull with exceptional characteristics and ship parts, suitable for creating ships with superior accuracy. It is found in the heavy cruiser hulls after 1939 and has a displacement between 14,750 and 17,500 tons.
- British “Experimental Heavy Cruiser”, a hull that aims to build cruisers of high firepower and survivability but not particularly fast. It is available for Britain from 1939 and has a displacement between 17,500 and 19,750 tons.
- Austro-Hungarian “Heavy Scout Cruiser” is a hull that can create durable and fast heavy cruisers, strong for medium distance fights. It is available in the heavy cruiser hulls after 1935 and has a displacement between 10,900 and 16,550 tons.
- German “Modern Heavy Cruiser III”, a hull that can replicate the Admiral-Hipper class more closely. It is available after 1933 and has a displacement between 10,900 and 16,550 tons.
- British “Modern Heavy Cruiser I”, a cost-effective new heavy cruiser which resembles British historical cruisers of the time. It is available from 1926 and has a displacement between 9,000 and 13,500 tons.
- British “Compact Heavy Cruiser”, another cost-effective heavy cruiser available from 1926 with a displacement between 8,000 and 10,500 tons.
- US “Heavy Cruiser II”, a hull quite similar to the Northampton-class. It is available from 1922 and has a displacement between 13,300 and 15,000 tons.
- French “Heavy Cruiser I” a speculative French cruiser of the interwar period, which is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 11,900 and 14,300 tons.
- Austro-Hungarian “Experimental Heavy Cruiser” a speculative, rather bulky, cruiser of the interwar period, which is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 11,500 and 14,250 tons.
- Russian “Experimental Heavy Cruiser” a speculative cruiser of the interwar period, quite durable but slow, which is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 11,800 and 14,850 tons.
- Japanese “Experimental Heavy Cruiser” a speculative cruiser of the interwar period, an agile and versatile ship, which is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 7,400 and 12,000 tons.
- Chinese “Experimental Heavy Cruiser” a speculative cruiser of the interwar period, which is rather small for its role but also cost-effective. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 7,500 and 9,500 tons.
- Spanish “Experimental Heavy Cruiser” a speculative cruiser of the interwar period, which can make useful cruisers for overseas patrol duty. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 7,300 and 11,200 tons.
- German “Heavy Cruiser” a speculative cruiser of the interwar period, which could be a bigger version of the historical German Light Cruisers of the time.. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 9,000 and 11,250 tons.
- British “Heavy Cruiser II” a speculative cruiser of the interwar period, which resembles the County-class.. It is available from 1922 and has a displacement between 11,250 and 13,500 tons.
- British “Heavy Cruiser I” a speculative cruiser of the interwar period, which resembles the Hawkins-class.. It is available from 1917 to 1928 and has a displacement between 10,250 and 12,500 tons.
- Compact “Heavy Cruiser ” for Spain and China is a cruiser of small size that can host large guns, useful for nations with a small budget.. It is available from 1922 and has a displacement between 8,500 and 9,500 tons.
- Italian “Experimental Heavy Cruiser” tis an advanced hull for its time, offering very fast and stealthy cruisers which, however are not well armored. This cruiser which is based on the early Condottieri-class cruisers is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 8,900 and 12,000 tons.
- French “Armored Cruiser V” the culmination of French heavily armored cruisers. It is available from 1917 to 1925 and has a displacement between 7,500 and 13,700 tons.
- British “Advanced Escort Cruiser I” replacing the hull which had the same name which got upgraded on a higher titer, it can offer robust cruiser designs for all purposes. It is available from 1935 an**d has a displacement between 12,500 and 14,500 tons.
- [b]German “Modern Light Cruiser II”**is a hull that can offer designs similar to the Nurnberg-class but more powerful. It is available from 1935 and has a displacement between 11,200 and 13,950 tons.
- British “Modern Light Cruiser II” is a hull that can offer designs similar to the Town-class. It is available from 1925 and has a displacement between 8,550 and 13,500 tons.
- British “Advanced Scout Cruiser” is a hull which can recreate the Dido-class with much detail. It is available from 1935 and has a displacement between 6,950 and 7,980 tons.
- British “Light Cruiser VI” is a hull which offers designs similar to the British Cruisers of the C-Class and its larger variants. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 6,900 and 11,500 tons.
- British “Light Cruiser V” is a hull which offers designs similar to the British Cruisers of the first Arethusa-Class and its larger variants. It is available from 1917 to 1925 and has a displacement between 6,100 and 10,500 tons.
- Spanish “Light Cruiser IV” offers speculative cost-effective cruiser designs that can last for many years. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 5,300 and 9,200 tons.
- Chinese “Light Cruiser V” offers speculative cost-effective cruiser designs that can serve for many years. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 5,500 and 7,500 tons.
- Italian “Experimental Light Cruiser” is a special, very advanced hull for its time, which can offer designs similar to the early Condottieri-class.. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 7,200 and 10,000 tons.
- Russian “Light Cruiser V” is a hull quite similar to the Admiral Nakhimov-class.. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 6,500 and 9,200 tons.
- German “Light Cruiser V” is a hull fairly similar to the post war Emden-class.. It is available from 1917 to 1935 and has a displacement between 7,000 and 9,250 tons.
- French “Light Cruiser V” is a hull based on the La Motte-Picquet-class and Duguay-Trouin-class designs.. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 8,500 and 9,500 tons.
- Japanese “Light Cruiser IV” is a hull based on the Kuma-class and Nagara-class designs. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 5,400 and 10,000 tons.
- German “Scout Cruiser” is a speculative hull that can offer fast and robust light cruisers. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 4,500 and 7,250 tons.
- US “Large Scout Cruiser” is a hull quite similar to the Omaha-class. It is available from 1917 and has a displacement between 9,700 and 13,500 tons.
- British “Scout Cruiser” is a hull looking similar to the various British scout cruiser designs of the first World War..It is available from 1910 to 1925 and has a displacement between 4,500 and 8,500 tons.
- Russian “Semi-Armored Cruiser V” is a speculative hull that offers large, well protected but slow light cruisers. It is available from 1915 to 1925 and has a displacement between 5,500 and 11,500 tons.
- “Semi-Armored Cruiser IV” for China and Spain is a speculative hull that offers large, well protected but slow light cruisers. It is available from 1915 to 1925 and has a displacement between 5,000 and 11,000 tons.
- Austro-Hungarian “Semi-Armored Cruiser III” is a speculative hull that offers large, well protected but slow light cruisers. It is available from 1915 to 1925 and has a displacement between 6,900 and 12,900 tons.
- French “Semi-Armored Cruiser V” is a speculative hull that offers large, well protected but slow light cruisers..It is available from 1915 to 1925 and has a displacement between 6,000 and 12,200 tons.
- “Small Scout Cruiser” for Austria-Hungary, China and Spain offers stealthy and very small light cruisers. It is available from 1915 to 1925 and has a displacement between 3,000 and 5,800 tons.
- Improvements on previous hulls: Various new towers and part models for new and older ships.
- MORE HULLS TO BE ADDED
NEW GUNS
- New quad guns for all techs, all calibers and all nations.
- New British gun models for calibers up to 6-inch guns and for Mark 3, 4 techs
- New French gun models for large caliber guns of 17-inch and higher for Mark 1,2, techs.
- New French 4-inch gun models for Mark 4, 5 techs.
- Various fixes, scale repairs, improvements in all previous gun models.
OPTIMIZATIONS AND UI
- Faster Campaign Loading; We refactored and optimized the loading and saving processes of the campaign resulting in a noticeable improvement of waiting time when switching from one state of the game to the next. For example, the time to exit the refit design window can now be 10x times faster.
- Better combat performance: We optimized battle map processes and now you will have a smoother fps during combat. The optimized processes include aiming which is now more consistent and dynamic, affecting the ship accuracy positively.
- Tooltips no longer obstruct: Tooltips will no longer obstruct the interface as there is a short time delay before they are triggered.
- New Armor penetration data tool: We added a new setting which configures the armor quality in the gun penetration data. You will be able to set it from default 0% up to 200% in order to help you understand the applied penetration of your guns in the game. You can set up this tool in the “General” settings at any time during gameplay.
- Ship visuals enhanced: Auto decor of ships (boats, gun doors, deck objects etc.) are now rendered more effectively and make the ships look better visually.
BALANCES & OTHER
- Ship Design Flexibility: Fixes and improvements of the ship design system, allowing more flexibility especially on side barbettes. Those fixes will also affect the auto-design which will become faster and even more effective, resulting in faster loading of campaign turns.
- Campaign AI update: We improved the campaign AI in multiple aspects. The campaign AI will manage the economy more efficiently, and will send land armies in major offensives more logically, evaluating in more detail the strength of the enemy in the target provinces. The campaign AI will also manage the fuel state of its ships and will no longer send them in suicidal missions with low fuel, making them very weak in a potential combat.
- Hull types have different limits of armor: A new statistic ‘Maximum Armor’ now works for each hull type determining the maximum allowed armor for the hull sections. With this new setting, the hulls will be designed with more realistic constraints. Early destroyers will not be able to support much armor. Some light cruisers will be easier to armor while others can only be lightly armored and depend mostly on speed for their protection. Overall, this new mechanic corrects the potential inflated armor values that the player and AI could load on their ships, making them unrealistically durable against shell shots.
- Ship weights balance overhaul: Due to the new hull statistic, which was needed not only for realism purposes but also to make the new hulls more distinct, ship weights had to be balanced accordingly. Old designs will have to be remade, by using the new system.
- Ship cost balance overhaul: Ships costs have been rebalanced to evaluate more accurately the combat value of a ship. This change is very important as it affects campaign economy (which was further balanced) and the battle AI decisioning. A battleship will now cost significantly more than a destroyer, for example.
- Improved torpedo detonation mechanics: Now when a torpedo launcher explodes, only its own ammo is affected. Previously, depending on the explosion magnitude, the whole torpedo ammunition could become destroyed.
- Penetration adjustments: Gun penetration increased about +25% so that the penetration are, on average, closer to historical data.
- The mission generation system of the campaign got further improvements and the port strike missions were improved to show the auto-resolved transport losses.
- The campaign can now be prolonged up to 1965.
- Custom battles can now be set to a date up to 1950.
- The Battle AI has been improved to keep more effective firing distances and keep its main formation closer to the enemy.
- Barbette types have a new stat that improves Flash fire protection.
- Various minor bug fixes that were reported.
NAVAL ACADEMY MISSIONS
WIP
==============================
As stated above, this major update needs to wipe out your save data (Naval Academy progress is not affected). Please note this before you attempt to play the beta. Back up your old saves, put them in another folder, and use them again, if you want to revert to the live v1.3.x version of the game.
Please read this information on how to correctly reset your data:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/2/3832043983170771555/
The above link may be useful if you anticipate problems with the game (the reset saves process is made automatically, once you load the beta, except the shared designs, which you have to check manually. Many of them can be salvaged with editing.
We hope you like the new content and with your help the major update will be finalized faster and in a better state.
You can share your feedback in the below threads:
EDIT:
The List of 42 ships is so long that Steam news section cannot handle it, it seems... showing
Code. Steam moderators, please note.
Changed files in this update