With this release, Waves of Steel is now officially in the endgame! 2/3rds of the story campaign is now playable. That's 22 out of 33 missions, not counting the bonus missions. Strap in, folks, because the end of this campaign is going places.



Thank you to everyone who has played the game, especially those of you who have written reviews and sent in feedback! It's thanks to all of you that Waves of Steel has improved so much since that first release in July of 2021! I look forward to seeing your reactions as we move towards the final missions.

The complete release notes for version 0.43 are below.

Gameplay changes:

Add a Ukrainian flag and associated emblem

Much of the UI has been polished and should hopefully look a lot nicer now

Cruisers and battleships are more generous with their max displacements now

Main guns are generally heavier and slower-firing, but deal more damage per shot

Change the allocations of many techs to be in different missions

Add several more treasures

New bonus mission: "Score Attack (Cruiser)"

All cruisers in the game can now be unlocked for use in the ship designer

Removed the simplified ship designer mode from the game

Planes have tweaked maneuverability and speed

Added several new weapons, most of them silly

Most destroyed buildings now remain on the map in a "wrecked" form

The target lock-on system now prefers to lock onto mission targets

Anti-projectile point defense works differently now

The armor menu in the ship designer now shows your total HP as well as the armor bonus

The "Akagi" and "Enterprise" carriers have 50% more HP

The Ratatosk 1 has a simplified model, to help differentiate it from the Ratatosk 2

Mission "Shadowy Waters" has fog

Aircraft bombs are visually a bit bigger

New assist: enemy camera. Lets you see the game from the enemy's point of view, while still controlling your own ship!

Bugfixes:

Tweaked target info display in combat

The "North Carolina" battleship has a correct name in combat

Fix binoculars overlay drawing over the top of some HUD elements

Fix spotlights drawing their firing arcs when you get a "DEAD ANGLE" flash

Fix issue with the pause menu's radar circles drawing at inappropriate times

Fix an issue causing the player to consistently miss when firing at ships that are running away from it

Fix autofire guns sometimes firing at the center of the map

Fix flak cannons (like the 5" heavy AA gun) not working

Fix bug causing the countdown in mission "Pillars of Heracles" to continue after the mission is won

Fix the ocean looking strange if time-of-day changes during combat

Fix doubled quotation marks in loading screen tips

If the player is not using their gamepad, it will not rumble

Fix over-long objective description in mission "The Cat's Away"

Fix an outdated reference to armor penetration mechanics that no longer exist

Fix an issue with the collider on the Vulcan

The "Faster" prompt in the mission summary now changes description when the summary is done filling in

Fix a bug that could cause the ship designer to softlock

Fix enemy healthbars wandering all over the place when the game is paused

Fix ships moving weirdly immediately after unpausing the game

Fix projectiles dying immediately if fired from inside an opponent's shield

Fix bug causing destroyed ships to sometimes still have collision and fail to sink

Submarines have a proper above-water material if they ever end up surfaced

Fog no longer follows the player around

Fix Nichols being drawn alongside tutorial elements in "The Center Cannot Hold"

When the mission script calls for the camera to be moved, it now does so at a consistent speed, instead of a consistent duration

Fix the player being able to interact with the intermission menu when a popup (e.g. "you unlocked new bonus missions") is active

Fix flag strands button being clickable during ship designer tutorials

Fix garbage flag strand style

Fix popup prompting the player to overwrite their ship that they just saved for the first time

Fix bug causing the mouse to not work with the main menu until the player uses the keyboard or gamepad

Fix issue causing combat camera's speed to depend on the size of the player's ship

Fix some building collider issues

Fix some bugs if the player's ship gets chopped in half on death

Restore George's umlaut; various other minor dialog tweaks

The "TREASURE" text on the mission summary should be easier to read

The rocket engine SFX in the Apotamkin intro cinematic should be less loud

Light pillars marking allied/enemy ships now get destroyed when the ship is sunk

Objective status updates should draw in a more sensible order

Fix bug causing mines to be harmless

Fix bug causing the target preview in the top-left to be tiny

Removed two lighthouses from mission "Quetzalcoatl", to keep a certain pilot from getting stuck on them

Change the color of the firing arc visualization in combat

Fix HUD overlap if the player's ship has a lot of weapons

Fix a bug causing background fades to not always complete

Fix numerous bugs around mission "Storm Descendant"

Fix AI anti-aircraft guns not working

Fix non-ASW autofire guns shooting at submerged targets

Fix a model bug with the Oerlikon x2 gun

Modding:

Fix hitscan weapons not obeying friendly-fire settings

[*]The game now prevents ships from having negative drag