Dear skippers,

We are happy to inform you that the update 2022.1 is now available for download.


Some of the top features introduced by this update include:

- Full 1939 - 1945 campaign
- Ukrainian localisation (created by vovanvoks)
- Historical ports
- Minelaying
- Climate zones and seasons
- New destroyers
- Hedgehog launchers
- Deck gun's optics
- Many new convoys
- Tides
- Submarine pens
- Fishing boats
- CHANT coasters
- Manual control over alarm
- Crew now uses toilets
- Commanding activities for the officers
- Steam Deck compatibility
- Reward overhaul for the campaign missions
- New campaign objectives
- New types of missions
- ...and much more!

To read a full changelog, please head over here:
Full changelog

We sincerely hope that with this update, UBOAT will bring you some nice time in those turbulent times. Take care!

Yours,
DWS

Dear skippers,

We are back with another news about update 2022.1.

This time, we wanted to tell you about upcoming changes to the rewards granted for completing the campaign objectives. Previously, it was mostly budget, reputation and milk cow submarines. We always felt that this wasn't motivating enough to complete them and reworked that aspect completely for this release. Most campaign objectives now grant completely unique rewards that aren't possible to receive otherwise.



Some of these rewards are special perks for your crew that simulate the unique experience granted by completing the mission. Imagine being on a German u-boat sneaking under the sea at Gibraltar Strait, hearing propellers of enemy destroyers above your head. This is a life-changing experience and we wanted to give it such meaning for your crew in the game too.

Other missions will unlock new tasks on the HQ map or grant unique fame to your u-boat. We won't spoil anything here, to let you discover all of that for yourself soon!



We've also created brand new icons for all skills in the game. The new icons are much prettier and make the skills much more satisfying to unlock.



We also wanted to give you a friendly reminder that tomorrow (12th October) around 16:00 CET streamers will receive an access to update 2022.1.

If you are interested, please take a look tomorrow for Twitch streams using the link below:

https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/UBOAT

Yours,
DWS

Dear skippers,

We are back with more news about update 2022.1 once again.

This time, we wanted to let you know, that TMB mines have also made it into the game. These mines were designed to be launched from the torpedo tubes and were commonly used by the u-boats during World War II.



There is a new type of assignment from the command that asks you to plant a minefield near the enemy coast. The target areas are usually frequently patrolled, so this type of mission is all about sneaking into the area and escaping unnoticed.



We've also improved the in-game map graphically in many ways in this update. Especially, the HQ map was improved and many new tasks were added, including a possibility to send officers to a navy academy to gain additional experience, new construction projects and new aerial reconnaissance tasks.



We also need to inform you, that the new version is not going to be compatible with the game states saved on the previous versions of the game. We were maintaining compatibility for a long time and at some point we had to abandon it, because we decided to overhaul the save system. The saves are now 30-35% smaller than they used to be and the save system should be now much more stable in long campaigns.

We will still have more news about the update soon, stay tuned!

Yours,
DWS

Dear skippers,

We are back with more news about the update 2022.1.

Starting with this release, Allies now have the so-called flush decker destroyers at their disposal belonging to the following classes: Wickes-class, Clemson-class, Caldwell-class and Town-class with subtypes A, B, C and D.



All destroyers of these types were built in the United States shipyards, but many of them were later transferred to other navies around the world, including the Royal Navy. They often went through significant modifications in their new homes, and this is also reflected in the game.



American versions are painted using a Camouflage Measure 22, which was commonly used on the Atlantic.



Another new feature is a deck gun sight view. We were aware how much it was requested and luckily managed to implement it in time into this update ːsteamthumbsupː



We will have more news about the update soon, stay tuned!

Yours,
DWS

Dear skippers,

We've decided to prepare a series of posts for you about new features introduced in the upcoming update 2022.1 of which we haven't mentioned before.

We weren't sure earlier, which of them will make it into the update, but we can tell you all about them now since they are done. We will publish these posts over the next few days ːsteamthumbsupː

We are most pleased to inform you that a full 1939 campaign is now a thing in UBOAT. It will let you experience the entirety of the war from its beginning to the end. Along with the campaign come many new activities and campaign objectives that suit this part of the war. There are also many historic messages from the command added in.



Starting in 1939, you will operate very close to British Isles, mostly on the North Sea and Western Approaches. We ensured that these areas are much more interesting and developed than they used to be before.



In 1940 you will have an opportunity to play through the Norwegian Campaign and after that you will be able to move either to the newly formed French flotilla or join Battle of Arctic.



Arctic is another area that received many improvements to ensure that you will stay occupied there, if you choose to operate from this area.

Using the opportunity, we also wanted to give you a heads up, that many streamers will receive an early access to the update 2022.1 on October 12th. If you would be interested to see it for yourself before it gets released, we invite you to watch the streams from streamers that agreed to join.

If you are a streamer and would like to participate, you will be most welcome. Please contact PlayWay, our publisher.

There is also going to be a Daily Deal for UBOAT on Steam at the day of release of the update (October 15th). If you are new to our community, it's going to be a good moment to join in for a good price.

We will still have more news about the update soon, stay tuned!

Yours,
DWS

Today is a very important day! We are proud and happy to announce that our friends from Iron Wolf Studio released their game, Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272010/Destroyer_The_UBoat_Hunter/

The game is available now, and if you want to immerse yourself in an authentic and historically accurate destroyer simulation, you must try it.

And it’s just the beginning - so much more is coming!



Sounds great? Feel the thrill of the hunt and check, if you are worthy of being a commander!

Follow them:
FB, Discord, Twitter, Reddit, WWW, Subsim

Dear skippers,

We are happy to announce that the work on update 2022.1 is coming to an end. The update is now scheduled for publication on 15th October.

We will have more reports for you soon, skippers o7

Stay tuned!



Yours,
DWS

Dear Skippers,

We know that you can't wait for the update 2022.1 to be finally released.

We have to inform you though that we have to move the release until mid October from the previous estimate of the late summer.

We will inform you about the exact release date by the end of September. We will also have many other big announcements (good ones) to share at the release day of the update.

To get a better impression and why this update is so long in coming, below is an overview of the features and content that will land in your hands soon. It's the largest update we've published for UBOAT thus far!

Please note that this overview is not a comprehensive list, since we want to leave you some nice surprises for the release day. There are some exciting things about this update that we haven't shared yet!

We will publish a complete list of changes made by the update 2022.1 at the day of its release.

The ports have undergone a total overhaul. The new ones are more detailed and historically correct. The ports reworked in 2022.1 include La Rochelle, La Spezia, Bergen and many more. There are also new ports added in.



We had to pass many technical challenges to ensure that these ports will work with an optimal performance and at the same time look well, since UBOAT is designed for playing on very vast areas represented in 1:1 scale. To put that into perspective, on average three ports collectively cover an area of 30 - 40 square kilometers that often equals to the entire world in many top RPG games.



The update 2022.1 will allow you to build submarine pens in ports that historically had them to protect the stationing u-boats.



The new ports feature functional locks that keep the water level inside the port at a stable level, independent from the tides on the sea.

Once you return to the port after a successful mission, you may be greeted by the welcoming committee.

Hedgehog launchers are now installed on Allied ships starting with late 1942. It is a new major threat that may lead your u-boat to a demise. The comforting part is that Hedgehog attacks look quite cool and you may find some enjoyment in the process.



Allies now sometimes start massive air raids at ports in which you are stationing. This is a new threat in this update, but along with it comes a way to permanently protect from it, namely the submarine pens mentioned previously. Once you build them, you can put your sunglasses on and relax in the pen.



Starting with 1944, CHANT tankers and by extension Empire F type coasters now appear in the coastal convoys. There will also be new destroyers added, but it's a top secret for now. Please burn the message once you read it.

This release improves compatibility with Steam Deck in many ways. The issues with disappearing cursor in the launcher were fixed and various quality of life improvements were added to make the game easier to use on this console.

There are now seasons in 2022.1 with snow in the winter and plant life reddening at the autumn.



Climate zones are now also part of the simulation with plant life variation depending on the region.



Tides are now simulated within the game. Their intensity varies from region to region. Most of the mainland European ports don't experience strong tides. The highest among them are in La Rochelle with up to 5 meter variation of the sea level. On the other hand, British islands have some of the highest in the world with Cardiff seeing even a 10 meter variation, which is more than enough to impact gameplay in a subsim game.

Sun now appears at a correct position for the Northern and Southern hemispheres.



It's common in UBOAT to see mainly the sea and the sky for most of the time. For this reason, we put work into that second part, by implementing volumetric cloud simulation, which makes the clouds much more pleasant to look at.

Civilian fishing boats now populate the seas close to the shores.

We've seen your feedback that it doesn't feel right that some officers had to remain in a bed during battle, because all stations were occupied. To improve that, officers can now command the ship and coordinate damage control from the control room just like in the movies about submarines. By doing so, they can support others and provide various ship-wide benefits that correlate with their skills.



Alarm can be now controlled manually. Toggled alarm provides various bonuses, although also has some small drawbacks that make it unsustainable for long periods of time. It will allow you to keep your officers at work as long as it's active, even when their energy drops to zero, but keeping them in such a state for a long time may be dangerous for their health.



Crew now uses toilets. It's a small addition that adds to the overall immersion.



We've put a lot of work to make the user interface more user friendly, practical and better looking.

Torpedo solutions are now visualized on the map to help you decide, if the moment is right for launching a salvo. The game is also estimating an impact angle at the target and warns you, if it's too high for the impact detonators.

Also, the identification book used with the manual mode of the periscope and UZO is now organized into categories. This is a tremendous improvement for practicality.



We've improved TAB menu usability. Orders are now more organized and sorted in a practical way. The screen has also received some structure that makes it more pleasant to work with it.



Map drawings are now stored in the saved game states and restored after loading them back. This was a commonly requested feature that we managed to include in this release.

The largest chunk of work are definitely bug fixes and small incremental improvements. If you are a long term player, you will quickly notice that practically everything in the game has received some small touches and many bugs have disappeared from existence.

Yours,
DWS

Dear skippers,

After finishing update B129 a year ago, we promised to ourselves to not make such a gigantic update again, but here we are, working on even larger update 2022.1!

The update still needs various fixes and performance improvements to make you fully satisfied, but in the meantime, we prepared a video that will introduce to you some of the top new features and keep you updated on the current progress. We hope that you will enjoy it.



Please note, that this video is not meant as a comprehensive list of changes. The full list of changes will be much longer and we will publish it along with the update.

Also, as always, we want to thank you for being with us, helping, sending suggestions and supporting!

Yours,
DWS

https://partner.steamgames.com/bundles/view/26309

We also encourage you to follow the premiere of our friends' game itself:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1120320/Builder_Simulator