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.
[expand type=details expanded=false]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
2024.1 Patch 23
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
2024.1 Patch 22
Dear captains,
There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.
Crew:
- Added new recordings for announcing an alarm by the officers when enemy ships or aircraft are spotted. - Added new emergency voice variants for order confirmations during an alarm. - When reporting contacts, officers now say that the target is "straight ahead", instead of at "0 degrees". - Fix: If an officer with zero energy was controlled in FPP during an alarm, then the alarm was disabled, and then player left the FPP mode, the officer was standing in place and wasn't going to bunk, despite being exhausted. - Fix: After loading a saved game state with injured officers, they were rendering with closed eyes on their portraits, and the portraits remained in such a state even after a full recovery. - Fix: "hold.. hold.. fire!" voice said by officer at the deck gun, is no longer played at high time compressions in map mode. - Fix (regression of 2024.1): On Type VII U-boats, move orders issued with a right mouse button weren't working on some parts of battery room no. 1 and battery room no. 2.
Ships:
- Fix: Guns on Liberty ships were lacking ammunition and weren't firing.
Graphics:
- Fix: The destination marker, that appears after issuing a move order to an officer, was appearing partially under the floor in the stern torpedo compartment on Type VII U-boats.
Audio:
- Fix: When multiple officers have levelled up at once, the associated sound effect had multiplied volume.
General:
- Fix: "Days later" screen, that appears after clicking a quick return to port button, could get stuck indefinitely in certain situations after changing an U-boat to another type during the same play session without leaving. - Fix: Fixes to save system.
Yours, DWS
2024.1 Patch 21
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
2024.1 Patch 20
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
2024.1 Patch 19
Dear captains,
There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.
Technical: - Fix (regression of Patch 15): The game could crash when an aircraft carrier has moved away from its original group and has disconnected from it along with several other ships.
Yours, DWS
Development blog: Type IX DLC, next updates
Dear captains,
Days are getting shorter and the autumn starts to set. Having the full release behind us, we are here to discuss our current short to mid-term plans for UBOAT.
Type IX
A part of our team is currently working on the next playable U-boat types from the Type IX lineup that will be released in a DLC expansion. These large U-boats are well-suited for extended operations in distant waters, such as the eastern coast of the North America and the Indian Ocean. With six torpedo launchers and a powerful armament on the deck, they are a force to be reckoned with!
Along with those U-boats, we plan to introduce new types of missions tailored for their capabilities and expand the in-game world appropriately.
We will be sharing the progress of this work along the way in the next dev logs. Currently, they are still on early stages and we expect to finish them sometime in 2025.
Next updates
There is still a lot to be done in the other departments. Our plan is now to focus on a more normal-sized updates that can be delivered faster into your hands.
We've already started initial work on the next update that will improve sinking physics, along with several other improvements. We expect to complete it in early 2025 and will provide more details about it later on as it develops.
We will take a short break over the next few weeks to recharge our energy and approach the new challenges in UBOAT with a full enthusiasm. Once we are back, we plan to release several small patches more to 2024.1.
Yours, DWS
2024.1 Patch 18
Dear captains,
There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.
Localization:
- Russian localization update by Hard.
UI:
- Fix: Budget operations related to ship upgrades and crew vacations were displayed incorrectly in the budget history in languages other than English and Ukrainian.
Achievements:
- Fix: It was possible in certain cases, to not get "Convoy? What convoy?" achievement, despite sinking all ships in a convoy that qualified for it. This fix will work in a full extent only for newly encountered convoys.
Crew:
- Fix: A small inconsistency in the calculation of a task priority for work at the navigator's station.
Yours, DWS
2024.1 Patch 17
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
2024.1 Patch 16
Dear captains,
There is a new patch ready for version 2024.1.
Technical:
- Fix (regression of Patch 15): Game could crash in certain cases, when a large group of ships was split into smaller ones.
Graphics:
- Fix: Sailor's cap LOD levels were sometimes slightly clipping with a sailor's head.
