Added music to one of the cinematics in "Hunter, Hunted" and "Storm Descendent"
A couple of bonus missions have been flagged as beta-only (i.e. inaccessible in the public build). Sorry!
Added a new tech to "Hammer and Anvil"
Bugfixes:
Fix ship designer tutorials being completely broken.
Fix paint jobs being applied to flag strands in the ship designer.
Fix a bug causing autofire weapons to shoot at an invalid target in "Hunter, Hunted"
Fix a small hole in the front of the Sumner hull model.
Modding:
Added a "heightChangesScale" property. Set it to FALSE to have parts that move up and down without stretching.
Patch notes for Waves of Steel v0.55RC3
This is another patch release! Nothing but patch releases from here until launch, as things get steadily more and more polished.
NOTE: this build includes a change to how the game handles parts built on top of superstructure. This should make the game better at detecting whether a piece of superstructure is actually supporting other parts. However, as a side-effect, all existing ships in your save files will not track that information any more. The only consequence of this is that you'll be able to pick up your superstructure and move it out from under the parts it supports. That's not a bug! It's just a lack of backwards compatibility.
Patch notes for Waves of Steel v0.55RC3:
Gameplay:
Add 9 more achievements (some of which rely on not-yet-public content).
The "Notched Circle" cruiser superstructure is shaped slightly differently.
Improved behavior when picking up small parts (e.g. Oerlikon AA guns) off of other parts.
The part stats panel now includes a line to indicate if a part's height can be adjusted.
Display mission and tech progress when selecting save files.
Nicer-looking arrow icon on the intermission screen when the player needs to go to the ship designer to progress the story.
Collecting crates with extremely large ships should be somewhat less unreasonable now.
Bugfixes:
More robust method for detecting whether superstructure parts are supporting other parts.
The ship selection UI has received more attention, and should be more nicely laid-out now.
Fix scaled superstructure parts resetting to base height when picked up.
Fix gun belowdecks colliders being inconsistent. They now always terminate at a consistent altitude.
Fix visual glitch where firing angles were semi-visible during foggy weather even when they were supposed to be inactive.
Fix missing terrain info on a bonus mission.
Fix bridges not displaying properly in the ship designer stats panel after returning from the ship testing range.
Fix being unable to build guns on the Akizuki bridge.
Fix Super Typhoons being visible before they've spawned in.
Fix newly-created saves inheriting tech unlocks from the current active save.
Fix the target center for the Apotamkin being below the surface of the ocean.
Fix certain mission timers running in realtime, instead of in game time.
Fix a bug causing the Dora Volante fight to get "stuck".
Weapon fire effects now scale with the scaleFactor of the ship the weapon is on.
Fix mods menu responding to mouse events when it's in the background.
Modding:
Added an "unlockedByOtherTech" field to both ships and ship parts. This allows you to make your modded parts unlock when other parts are unlocked.
Patch notes for Waves of Steel v0.54RC2
This is a patch release to fix the most important issues discovered in the previ ous build.
Gameplay:
Most guns now have 6 smaller increments of height, instead of 3 large increments.
The ship selector's layout has been tweaked a bit. More tweaks are likely in future builds.
Changed the default volume level for ambient SFX from 0.5 to 0.3
Rocket PT boats have worse aim
Bugfixes:
Fix being able to place guns entirely off of the ship's deck
Fix being able to take illegally-placed parts into the testing range
Fix the tier-5 battleship hull menu being broken
Fix the to-do list being confused if you fail the testing range "mission" by leaving the arena
Fix the ship designer tutorials allowing the player to put parts in illegal locations
Fix stretched superstructure not drawing properly in combat
Fix a visual issue with the intro cinematic to "Storm Descendent"
Fix most issues with the combat weapons display glitching out if changed rapidly
Fix visual glitch in "Escalation" preventing projectiles from being drawn
Fix camera getting stuck at the end of some missions
Fix issue causing the "shield dropped" sound effect from playing repeatedly
Fix visual glitch causing shields to not render properly when weapon impact w arnings are nearby
Modding:
Added targetLeadTimeMultiplier to parts.json, which controls how good a job t he weapon does of leading the target. Default is 1, value of 0 means "shoot at t he player's current position".
Patch notes for Waves of Steel v0.54RC1!
Today's a big day: we're releasing Release Candidate 1 of Waves of Steel! This marks the end of "normal" development. But it's not the final release before launch! I'm sure you all will find more things that need to be fixed or improved, and I'll have my hands full. But nonetheless, this is a huge milestone. After three and a half years of hard work, the end is in sight!
Patch notes for Waves of Steel v0.54RC1:
Gameplay:
Improved the appearance of most objects in the game. Better shadows, lighting, and colors.
Most weapons can now be placed on superstructure.
Parts may now be placed in invalid positions. Invalid parts will be removed when the ship is saved.
Most superstructure can now be stretched vertically, giving more aux space.
Most superstructure can now be rotated in 90-degree increments
Add some new parts, including an ammo depot
Bow drills are now available from the start of the game
On Hard difficulty, the player takes even more damage.
Rocket PT boats have a worse rate of fire.
Several niche weapons are lighter
The Sawblade weapon has a larger hitbox
The Sawblade and Bow Drill weapons deal 5x and 10x more damage, respectively
Add "Melee" and "Plasma" weapon categories
Tweaked the appearance of the dialog panel slightly
A dock in "The Tendency of Power" has been moved, to keep the player from getting stuck if they play that mission with a large ship
The Plasma Lance weapons are better-able to hit nearby enemies
The "Iowa Bridge (Refit)" part has been renamed to "M-Tech Bridge"
The ship picker layout has been improved; ship specials are now shown in the picker
Add some extra dialog to mission "Escalation" if the player does objectives out-of-order
Added two PT boats to the ship test range
Bugfixes:
Fix weapons being placed into the wrong weapon groups
Fix firing angles not updating when the designer camera is moved
Fix muted sound effects in mission summary
Fix bugged fadeout when leaving combat
Fix the 100cm gun not getting proper firing angles
The CIWS model is correctly scaled (i.e. slightly smaller)
Matte materials (such as those used for weapon glows) are not covered by ship paint jobs
The "ship sailing" cutscene type has better framing
Fix portrait flicker if two characters use the same portrait slot in a single conversation
Fix continuous-fire weapons sometimes having their effects play in the wrong direction
Fix the flag on the Bismarck bridge being badly-oriented
Fix the smoke on the King George V vent spawning in an odd position
The Ratatosk now has a "water shadow" like other ships do
Fix the Town and Tone cruisers having poorly-placed engine overdrive shockwave visuals
It should be much harder, if not impossible, to get stuck on terrain now, due to decreased friction
Fix various "in-universe" UI elements, like guide arrows, being drawn in post-mission screenshots
Fix certain weapons firing backwards if mounted at a 90-degree angle
The mission "Chrysalis" has a larger arena
Fix modded flags/decals being shown in the ship designer UI even when those mods are disabled
Fix missing treasure in "Taking Flight"
Fix a bug causing autofire weapons to be unable to fire on buildings in certain circumstances
Some weapons have more realistic stats (e.g. railguns no longer have 100k ammo)
Fix bug causing ships to become unstable when maneuvering at high speeds
When saving ships in the designer, the ship's name updates immediately instead of waiting until the save dialog is dismissed
Fix a bug causing parts to be duplicated when using the Undo button
Fix a bug causing guns to not target the true center of the target in rare circumstances
Fix the inset target display for the Dora Volante being a cube
Fix the flag strand placement UI being broken for gamepad users
Fix flag strands drawing in strange locations during combat
Fix a rare bug causing music to not change when told to by the mission script
Fix visual bug if a ship is cut in half while it has an active shield
Modding:
Add projectileParticleEffect, projectileParticleOffset, projectileParticleSc ale so modded projectiles can have particle effects.
Patch notes for Waves of Steel v0.52b
This is a patch release to fix critical bugs in the previous release. Here's hoping this one's more stable!
Bugfixes:
Fix some missions (e.g. "The Tendency of Power") not being able to progress past the introductory cutscene.
Fix those same missions having a noticeable pause at the start of combat if the player skips the introductory cutscene.
Fix a bug allowing the wrong ship to be deleted when deleting ships.
Patch notes for Waves of Steel v0.52
This is a patch release, to fix important issues reported after the last release. Thank you to everyone who sent in feedback!
Gameplay:
The arrow keys (gamepad: right analog stick) can be used to move the camera in the ship designer. This can also be used to move the camera off of the centerline of the ship.
The Bazel's armor mass has been reduced from 250t/inch to 180t/inch.
Mission "Lost Sheep" has a larger arena, to reduce likelihood player will wander outside of it during combat.
PT Boat (Rocket) and Landing Ship (Rocket) have weaker weapons. An earlier change to improve rocket aiming made them too powerful.
Bugfixes:
Fix game resolution resetting to 640x480, again.
Fix options claiming the player was playing on Easy even if they weren't.
Fix issue causing missions to claim the player had failed if they don't immediately go to debriefing on completing all objectives.
Fix "Juno's Wrath" being uncompletable.
Fix various bugs preventing the ship designer tutorials from working.
Fix bug causing unsaved ships in the designer being discarded if you click the "cancel" button when prompted to discard the ship.
Fix single-tube torpedo launchers not working properly in the ship designer.
Fix bug causing certain visuals in "Eitri's Forge" to look wrong.
Fix bug causing parts to sometimes display more liberal firing angles than they actually had.
Waves of Steel v0.51 release notes
Whoops! It's been two months since the last build. My apologies for the delay: I've been head-down focused on wrapping up the campaign.
The good news is that the campaign's gameplay is now completed! The bad news is that I can't release the new missions yet. I need a good-sized package of New Content to show off when launch time comes, in early 2023, and the remaining campaign missions are that content. Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to let you all see what I've been working on. Keeping everything under wraps, not just here but on Twitter, has been killing me. But it's all part of making sure that the game's launch is a success.
What I do have for you in this release is a fairly major polishing pass. Expect more of these in the coming weeks. Now that the content grind is over, I'm able to focus on fixing all those issues you've been telling me about. My to-do list is gigantic, but hopefully from here on it's only going to get smaller!
With luck, I'll also find some time to create a couple of extra bonus missions. I want to do another racing mission at least, and maybe another Halloween or other holiday-themed mission. We'll see what the future brings! In the meantime, thank you for supporting Waves of Steel!
Gameplay:
Add a treasure to "Eitri's Forge"
21" torpedoes deal twice as much damage.
Rocket weapons should properly lead targets
Added new extra-weak sound effects if the player is struck for trivial damage.
The 9" MLRS has reduced spread
The railgun's damage output has been tripled.
Missions can be restarted from the combat menu; restarting or aborting a mission now prompts for confirmation
The Flying Battleship now tilts into turns
Enemy aircraft have longer attack runs when using cannons/torpedoes
Aircraft that drop bombs have better aim.
Enemy aircraft carriers should be harder to run out of aircraft
Aircraft HP have been halved
Most AA weapons have better range, muzzle velocity, and tracking speed
The UI for loading a saved ship has been updated
The options UI has been updated
The default flag for each hull depends on that hull's nationality
The Ratatosk in mission "Chrysalis" has double defense
Tweaked some dialog in mission "Chrysalis"
The player cannot sink while they are reeling in a health crate
Overhaul main gun sound effects
The Drifter special is now accessible from the start of the game
"The Tendency of Power" has fewer aircraft
The ship designer should have better control when placing parts near the centerline
Activating the engine overdrive special now automatically sets the ship to full throttle
If the player grabs tech crates after finishing a mission, a message pops up to tell them that this isn't necessary
Improved performance of ship designer by making most AA guns always get their full range of motion
"Stress Test" has more aircraft
The "Super Foghorn" starts out unlocked
The "Time Bubble" special has been changed so that the player's projectiles still behave normally.
The game should take more automatic photos of the player during missions
Anti-aircraft missiles have a slower fire rate
"The Tendency of Power" has some extra dialog if the player does objectives out of order
Slightly reduce drag for the "Bazel" ship
Tweak layout of the playership picker
Bugfixes:
Fix bug causing most AA guns to benefit from fire control
Fix rapid "wobbling" of the ocean when the camera moves
Fix AI ship wakes visibly toggling on/off when the camera moves
Fix various issues causing sound effects to not play or get cut off
Fix certain in-universe UI elements (like impact warnings, guide arrows, and waypoint halos) drawing in photo mode or when the HUD is disabled
Fix weird motion of ships that are sailing in formation if they're close to but not on top of their desired position
Fix the Mysterious Ship not being able to fit engines/drives.
Fix the model for the Squid ASW mortar
Toggling the mass limit in the ship designer now immediately updates the mass stats in the sidebar
Parts that increase a ship's max mass allotment can now be placed even if they'd put the ship over its previous max mass
Fix a graphical issue with the hologram special
Enforce a 64-character limit on ship names, to avoid UI issues
Fix bad ship thumbnail images
The Super Omega (AI-only ship) is no longer shown in the ship designer
AA gun sound effects should be quieter
AA gun projectiles now despawn when they hit their max range
The ship designer tutorials should allow more leeway in exactly where you need to place parts
In ship designer tutorials, the expected part placement position should be more clear
Fix issue causing ship designer tutorials to break if played more than once
Fix weapon configuration being inaccessible after going through a ship designer tutorial
The lower half of the ship designer view only dims if you try to place a part using that view
Fix an issue with the mission summary screen on displays with non-16:9 aspect ratio displays
Improve performance of a certain hazard in mission "Escalation", as well as of paradropped ships
Fix issue causing magenta flamethrowers in "The Dead Travel Fast"
Fix missing texture on the Frightening Gun
Fix some buildings catching on fire that logically shouldn't be able to
Fix bug causing bogus targets to be shown near the center of the map
Fix ship color bug in mission "Juno's Wrath"
Fix boss in "Juno's Wrath" not being able to target some locations
Fix a broken cinematic in "Hunter, Hunted"
Fix bad rendering of the "damage critical" overlay on non-16:9 aspect ratio displays
Fix rendering bug with shields on buildings
Fix aircraft flying through buildings and ships
Fix rare bug causing aircraft to gain altitude indefinitely
Tweak impact warning overlay colors to be more visible in certain weather conditions
Fix the BB Iowa layout (used by the AI) having some mis-placed parts
Fix the invisible DoesNotDisplay material getting painted by camouflage
Fix a bug when exiting the recent-items menu in the designer
The Flying Battleship in "Between Scylla & Charibdis" cannot be destroyed
Fix "Enemies die in 1 hit" assist allowing the player to destroy un-targetable objects
Fix a trigger in "Winter" not being triggered if the player uses a flying ship
It should be easier to trigger waypoints (large green halos) with flying ships
The "shield down" sound effect is louder
Fix poorly-framed rendering of the inset "current target" display
Tweak appearance of the inversion bubble created by the "Time Bubble" special
Fix error in description of Defense Command systems
Fix bug causing text scrolls (such as at the end of "Chrysalis") being very slow if the game is in slow motion when they are triggered
Fix the "12x29 block" superstructure not being able to be placed on top of other superstructure
Fix flying ships not kickflipping properly
Fix kickflips not reliably causing the ship to jump
Fix shield and hologram specials not extending the duration if they are stacked
Fix lack of visible objectives in "Lost Sheep"
Fix a model bug with the Myoko Aft Bridge part
Fix double fade-in after some cinematics
Fix issues where the resolution gets reset when changing scenes
Fix the "windowed/fullscreen" toggle not initializing properly
Modding:
GRAPPLE-type weapons have configurable grapple strength, using the `targetPushMultiplier` field
Waves of Steel v0.50b patch notes
This is a very minor patch release.
Bugfixes:
Fix the flag strands button in the ship designer instead being assigned the "remove mass limit" operation.
If mass limits have been disabled, the max mass display shows infinity.
Fix a display bug with flag strands in the ship designer.
Waves of Steel v0.50 release notes
This is a patch release; no new content has been added.
Gameplay:
The ship selection UI has been updated, to make finding ships in big save files easier.
The treasure for "Poking the Tiger" has been changed to a new special ability. The previous treasure has been added to the drop list for "Hunter, Hunted"
Added a treasure to "Chrysalis"
The visuals for main gun projectiles have been changed
Fire/smoke clouds emitted by main guns now keep moving with the ship
The fading effect applied to shells based on their proximity to the player now has a larger radius
Minelayer weapons (aside from the tether mine) have greatly increased fire rates and max ammo counts, to make up for the difficulty of using them.
The "Miscellaneous" parts section (three dots blue button in the designer) has been subdivided into different categories.
The ship designer now has a "recent items" menu (clock icon), which allows easy access to parts that have recently been worked with.
The ship designer now has a button for accessing weapon config, which has been removed from the main menu.
Added two new sizes of Bow Drill weapon.
If the player has found all techs in a mission, tech crates are no longer converted to health crates, to avoid effects on difficulty when replaying missions.
The M-tech bridges now give some bonus max displacement.
Guidance arrows (red arrows that hover near the ship) now change size dependi ng on the size of the player's ship.
Bugfixes:
Fix a bug causing ships to become untargetable zombies if they are destroyed immediately after getting out of their submarines.
Fix bug causing the player to not die properly.
Fix the amount of ventilation provided by bridges that have built-in vent stacks.
The ocean ambiance sound effect has been restored.
Fix a certain boss leaving active colliders around after it dies.
Fix the Battle Platform superstructure not being able to be placed on other superstructure.
Fix a bug preventing designer tutorials from being rerun.
Fix bow splashes remaining visible on ships when they are jumping or otherwise ballistic.
The nonfunctional "gunpod" weapon has been dummied out.
Fix the County cruiser not having red paint.
Modding:
Added a `maxMassBonus` property, which increases the max displacement of the ship when the part is placed on the ship. Note that increasing the ship's overall mass causes engines to be less effective.
Added a `whooshSound` property, which is the name of the sound to play if the weapon triggers wooshing when passing close to the player.
Waves of Steel 0.49 patch notes
This is a patch release, to fix issues discovered after last weeks release. My apologies that this did not go out sooner; I was quite literally in the middle of making this build on Friday when my hard drive died.
As part of recovering from this process, the version of Unity the game uses has been updated. I've gone over everything I could think of and things seem to bew orking correctly, but it's always possible that this has introduced bugs that I' ve failed to notice. Please let me know if you encounter anything odd.
My thanks to everyone who sent in feedback!
Detailed release notes: Gameplay:
Add an indicator on the intermission screen if the player needs to go to the ship designer
The ASROC anti-sub weapon deals 4 times as much damage per shot
Buildings sometimes catch on fire when destroyed
"Winter" should be easier to complete with unusually large ships
Made the sunset time-of-day lighting a bit brighter
Firing angle indicators now change color depending on time of day
New appearance for the underdeck selection mode's crosshair in the ship designer
Bugfixes:
"Eitri's Forge" and "Lighting a Candle" can now be completed.
The treasure in "Vahana" can now be found.
Fix bugged energy shield specials on certain missions
The ASROC anti-sub weapon should be more reliable
Fix display of buildable superstructure areas on the B97 aft bridge and Battle bridge
The game should now be playable even if Steam cannot be contacted
Fix buried buildings in "Escalation"
The Enterprise aircraft carrier's name has been corrected
Fix the foghorn sound effect being pre-empted by other weapon effects, leading to glitchy audio
Fix some issues with assists not carrying over between missions
The "53x21 diamond" superstructure has the correct material
Fix aircraft carriers running out of planes too early if there's a lot of planes already active
