NAR Alpha 1 for UAD 1.7

[Dutchy]

may sound dumb, but is this expected? 

[Dutchy]

campaign
If i get into another battle i'll let you know

[Peksern]

2 hours ago, o Barão said:

Thank you!!! Already noticed! 🫡

Guess this is how it should look like. For AI Empires it seem to be fine, but for the own one not. 

[o Barão]

20 minutes ago, Dutchy said:

may sound dumb, but is this expected? 

The many wars? 

 

Well I went crazy in this update with naval invasion events, but those should not affect the major nations relations. 

 

Now between major nations, is well know that in UAD things can snowball really quickly, but you can manipulate the situation to work in your favor. 

 

Nathan also added an improvement where it forces the allies to immediately enter in a war state to protect their partners, and this can make the "snowball" effect even more pronounced much faster. 

 

There is also new changes by the devs related with ships sailing around and how they impact the nations relations, but I don't know at the moment the impact it have in game.

[Peksern]

1 minute ago, o Barão said:

There is also new changes by the devs related with ships sailing around and how they impact the nations relations, but I don't know at the moment the impact it have in game.

It seems to make more sense. You no longer get tension in sea region far away from your ports or fleets, which never made much sense. 

 

But for example, I fought a War in the caribbean against Spain, and the fleets operation their gravely increased the tension with the french and dutch, who also have ports in the region. But it felt manageable.

[Dutchy]

@o Barão, this time around tho, intead of being in the "moving flee", it is in "update research" 

[Dutchy]

Saving, going back to the menu and loading the map again fixed it

[Dutchy]

10 years into the campaign and besides that fluke, so far so good, that being said, it might be worth checking the wars a bit. Besides France (60 ships)and USA (81 ships), there are 6 nations with less than 10 ships atm and a few more sitting at around 11 to 20. Worth a note, that this is in 1900, which ships are still pretty cheap. Most of them are sitting at around 20 ships being build, but since everyone is killing each other, i'm guessing that as soon as something is built, it gets destroyed.
Can provide screen shots if necessary 

[o Barão]

19 minutes ago, Dutchy said:

Can provide screen shots if necessary 

No need, thx.

The ship numbers for those countries not at war are good values. The nations killing each other is another issue. Maybe possible to be improved in a later update, or not.

[Dutchy]

7 minutes ago, o Barão said:

No need, thx.

The ship numbers for those countries not at war are good values. The nations killing each other is another issue. Maybe possible to be improved in a later update, or not.

All good, thought it was worth the feedback.
Just pointing out tho, that there are no countries not at war. Each nation is fighting from 1 to 6 nations at the same time as we speak (looking at you Chile and Argentina 😅)
So in short, the nations that managed to win they first few battles started snowballing and the rest are just playing catch-up and not being able to do so, since they newly built fleet gets destroyed in a few turns.
All that being said, i'm unsure if that has to do 100% with the mod or the vanilla version is facing the same problems 

Edited November 7, 2024 by Dutchy

[Peksern]

@o BarãoBtw, don't forget to change this thread's title, to announce the release of NAR for 1.6.1.3

[o Barão]

13 minutes ago, Peksern said:

@o BarãoBtw, don't forget to change this thread's title, to announce the release of NAR for 1.6.1.3

I will do when I release the new update. It is still in the shipyard. Maybe today or tomorrow.

[o Barão]

@Peksern and @Dutchy you guys will need to update to the live version. Not only comes with important things added by the devs, but also an important folder with the armor values used by the AI when designing ships was missing in the version uploaded before.

[o Barão]

NAR  "let's make UAD great again", part 1 for UAD 1.6.1.3 Opt

 

IMPORTANT!

This is a big update that features many changes to components and for that reason it is mandatory to delete your campaign, custom battle and shared designs save files to make it work.

C:\users\(user)\Appdata\LocalLow\Game Labs\Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts

• custom_battle_data.bin
• mission_data.bin
• save_x.bin

 

Download and install the latest TAF from Nathan:

 

Features:

• Total war experience. Vastly increased the naval invasion events. Added the minor nations wars changes by the devs in the recent updates and the world is now on fire! (the naval invasion events are now too much IMO, but I will wait for the players feedback to do any changes about this)
• Colony population will be used for the ships crew. (small%) Thanks to @NathanKell
• Double turrets unlocked for light cruisers in 1898, year when the Bogatry was launched. The first protected cruiser to use them (if I am not mistaken)
• Double turrets unlocked for destroyers in 1926, year when the Fubuki was launched. The first destroyer to use them (if I am not mistaken)
• All towers (main and secondary) for all cruisers available between 1920-1940 had the weight value changed to more realistic values. No more towers on small cruisers with a weight around 2000-3000 tons.
• Some components added and others removed to improve the ship design language.
• Late destroyers hull tonnage values changed to more realistic values. No more 5k tons destroyers as an example.
• All modern TBs maximum hull tonnage buffed to 1350 tons in 1935, and the torpedoes size limited to 21", thanks to @NathanKell tip.
• The AI will not get any research bonus in higher difficulties, only money.
• The tension modifier from our allies in relation with our enemies disabled in the mod. With the new Taf changes to how alliances work, this modifier should be irrelevant now.
• New gun min caliber limit applied to all battleships in game. No more battleships armed with 9" designed by the AI.
• Most barbettes for secondaries removed from all capital ships  (Yamato still have the iconic barbette). This was needed to force the AI to design better ships. The difference is big, and IRL only a few BBs had that anyway (Littorio and the Yamato) Many others barbettes were selected or removed to help the AI to design better cruisers and destroyers.
• VP from transports losses are now using vanilla values.
• Added new AI sec lines for DDs. Didn't exist because there are no sec on DDs in vanilla. Now, if there is room, the AI can use those empty spaces for small guns if they are not near main guns or torpedoes.
• It should be very rare, if not almost impossible to see the AI using barbettes close to the bow or stern in DDs.
• Many small changes/improvements for some AI styles, as an example: to promote the use of torpedoes only in the middle, a new barbette AI choice logic being used in late era light cruisers to promote the use of more guns.
• Now small secondaries are forbidden to get close to main guns and torpedoes. This will make sure that we will not see AI designs with the firing arcs of the main guns being blocked by a small 2". This is applied as a global modifier, so both the AI and the player are affected by this change.
• Added new Chilean ship names. Courtesy from @Maximus Tyberius

 

NOTE: This update is huge and took me many hours, and it is simply impossible for me to test everything and make sure that everything is working properly, so expect bugs or strange things. Also a word about the AI design logic. Where it is possible to see some improvements in some areas, the reality is that it is a nightmare to make the AI to do what I want. In many cases, I still see the AI doing dumb things, and it is a frustrating experience trying to understand why it is so dumb and stubborn.😒

 

This update does not feature all the changes I want to implement to ships, so expect another major update next month and then if everything is ok to create a ship pack to use the "fast" option in the campaign. For now, all campaigns are limited to the "slow" option.

 

Download all NAR mod files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lgxYZ6NM3NBrLl6sYqOrxVj2ayrkXBBh

 

And please block the steam updates!!!!!!:

I don't know when I am going to update the mod again, so to avoid any issues, block the auto updates from steam:

• Set game to update when start game. Do this in game setting(properties)-> update.
• Don't start game by steam or steam shortcut. Make a shortcut on desktop from the main game .exe  in this location: "....\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts\Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts.exe"
• Start a game from this shortcut. Game will run without update.

Edited November 7, 2024 by o Barão

[DougToss]

Is there a way to make sure the autogenerated merchantmen are more accurate? Little compartmentalization, power plants far behind military standard (remember Liberty Ships had triple expansion engines), minimal gun armament with no fire control or rangefinding systems, etc. ? 

Convoys even in 1900 can pummel a light cruiser, while the ships are hard to sink, where we know from the surface actions in the world wars that a few shells could compel a merchant to heave to, or would sink her or set her alight, and that their gunnery - while enthusiastic- was barely enough to cause a U-Boat to back off, let alone actually fight off a surface combatant. 

Love the mod. 

[Peksern]

Can't put a gun behind that barbette on a DD. Don't know why, in the older NAR (for 1.6.06) it just worked fine. And I think, it should work, A-XY was a common US DD Gun Setup.

Edit: Same problem with the front. Guns AB on the for extension isn't possible, it does not allow a gun in front of a Barbette there.

Edit the second: Only occurs with 10.2 (4 in) guns. 12,7cm (5 in) and 7,6cm (3 in) guns work fine as intended.

Edited November 7, 2024 by Peksern

[o Barão]

31 minutes ago, Peksern said:

Can't put a gun behind that barbette on a DD. Don't know why, in the older NAR (for 1.6.06) it just worked fine. And I think, it should work, A-XY was a common US DD Gun Setup.

Edit: Same problem with the front. Guns AB on the for extension isn't possible, it does not allow a gun in front of a Barbette there.

Edit the second: Only occurs with 10.2 (4 in) guns. 12,7cm (5 in) and 7,6cm (3 in) guns work fine as intended.

It is this new value:

length_expand_lowcal,0.6,expanding Z collider for lower caliber guns,0.0505,,,,,, (params file) previous was around 0.05

EDIT: this modifier is responsible for not letting small guns come close to main guns. So to not let the main guns firing arcs on AI designs being blocked.

But only for 4"? Maybe I can find an improvement somewhere. I will run some tests now.

Edited November 7, 2024 by o Barão

[Peksern]

5 minutes ago, o Barão said:

EDIT: this modifier is responsible for not letting small guns come close to main guns. So to not let the main guns firing arcs on AI designs being blocked.

But only for 4"? Maybe I can find an improvement somewhere. I will run some tests now.

Seems to be a problem anyway, since I only used main guns.

[o Barão]

NAR *let's make UAD great again*--  v1.0.1, for UAD 1.6.1.3 Opt*

Cut by half the Z collider modifier value to allow 4" guns to get closer to barbettes.

The image above show the minimal distance requirement.

 

This is a temporary solution for the issue.

[o Barão]

1 hour ago, DougToss said:

Is there a way to make sure the autogenerated merchantmen are more accurate? Little compartmentalization, power plants far behind military standard (remember Liberty Ships had triple expansion engines), minimal gun armament with no fire control or rangefinding systems, etc. ? 

Convoys even in 1900 can pummel a light cruiser, while the ships are hard to sink, where we know from the surface actions in the world wars that a few shells could compel a merchant to heave to, or would sink her or set her alight, and that their gunnery - while enthusiastic- was barely enough to cause a U-Boat to back off, let alone actually fight off a surface combatant. 

Love the mod. 

Yes, but I don't recommend doing that, because the AI lines are very limited to transports and applies to all of them:

 

You can see them in the randparts file

#,,#tr,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
953/tower_main///////,,tr,,,,tower_main,,,,,,-1,1,,,,
954/funnel///////,,tr,100,1,4,funnel,,,,,,-1,1,,,,
955/tower_sec///////,,tr,60,,,tower_sec,,,,,,-1,1,,,,
956/funnel///////,,tr,,1,4,funnel,,,,,,-1,1,,,,
957/special///cargo////,,tr,,2,2,special,,,cargo,,,-1,1,,,,
958/special///cargo////,,tr,,2,2,special,,,cargo,,,-1,1,,,,
959/gun//mg//c//main_cal/tr_rand_mod,,tr,100,2,4,gun,,mg,,c,,-1,1,main_cal,tr_rand_mod,,
960/gun/p/mg2///s/main_cal/tr_rand_mod,,tr,75,2,4,gun,p,mg2,,,s,-1,1,main_cal,tr_rand_mod,,
961/funnel///////,,tr,,1,5,funnel,,,,,,-1,1,,,,
962/gun/p/mg3///s/main_cal/tr_rand_mod,,tr,45,2,4,gun,p,mg3,,,s,-1,1,main_cal,tr_rand_mod,,
963/torpedo/p////s//tr_rand_mod,,tr,20,2,4,torpedo,p,,,,s,-1,1,,tr_rand_mod,,
964/special///cargo////,,tr,,1,6,special,,,cargo,,,-1,1,,,,

 

So yes, it is possible in theory to tell the AI to focus in placing funnels only in the stern, but then all transports would follow that rule (if the AI follow your command lines, which from my experience you are only asking for troubles)

 

"...with no fire control or rangefinding systems, etc. ? "

Transports should not have any rangefinder. You can see that in the compTypes file in this line below:

rangefinder,$compTypes_name_short_rangefinder,$compTypes_name_rangefinder,$comptypes_category_equipment,"bb, bc, ca, cl, dd, tb",,10,needs_part(tower_main),,,,,,

[Fyredrake]

1 hour ago, o Barão said:

NAR *let's make UAD great again*--  v1.0.1, for UAD 1.6.1.3 Opt*

Cut by half the Z collider modifier value to allow 4" guns to get closer to barbettes.

The image above show the minimal distance requirement.

 

This is a temporary solution for the issue.

I've encountered similar issues with turrets and secondary interactions on ships, where they will throw an error instead of just restricting the firing arc of the turret so that there isn't an interaction or overarching fire arc.  

[HMS Implosive]

Would it brake things if you would give that tall superfiring barbette to other battleship than Yamato? Or if you don't want to do that, what might go wrong If I chose to add it back myself? @o Barão I rather like that tall supersuperfiring barbette.

[DougToss]

I appreciate your attention to detail

 

Edited November 7, 2024 by DougToss

[o Barão]

1 hour ago, HMS Implosive said:

Would it brake things if you would give that tall superfiring barbette to other battleship than Yamato? Or if you don't want to do that, what might go wrong If I chose to add it back myself? @o Barão I rather like that tall supersuperfiring barbette.

What would happen is that the AI could use them all the time if it had the chance, and the AI doesn't understand why it is bad in most cases. And that is not the worst example, much worse is when the AI is allowed to use the side barbettes for small guns. This being said, I think I already found a partial solution for this and is being used atm.

You will see this barbette in all modern ships, but the AI will not use it. I removed the connection between this component variants and the AI code lines to design ships.

For the others variants, I will run some tests by removing the AI lines of code that use the small barbettes to secondaries. If working properly, I can make them available to players again. I can't do the same method because small barbettes are very important for light cruisers when it can be used for the main guns on those ships.

 

1 hour ago, Fyredrake said:

I've encountered similar issues with turrets and secondary interactions on ships, where they will throw an error instead of just restricting the firing arc of the turret so that there isn't an interaction or overarching fire arc.  

You are allowed to design a ship with an error?

[Fyredrake]

58 minutes ago, o Barão said:

What would happen is that the AI could use them all the time if it had the chance, and the AI doesn't understand why it is bad in most cases. And that is not the worst example, much worse is when the AI is allowed to use the side barbettes for small guns. This being said, I think I already found a partial solution for this and is being used atm.

You will see this barbette in all modern ships, but the AI will not use it. I removed the connection between this component variants and the AI code lines to design ships.

For the others variants, I will run some tests by removing the AI lines of code that use the small barbettes to secondaries. If working properly, I can make them available to players again. I can't do the same method because small barbettes are very important for light cruisers when it can be used for the main guns on those ships.

 

You are allowed to design a ship with an error?

No, it throws an error and doesn't let me design.  I'm saying that it's really upset if you have center or wing mounted main guns and try to put secondaries anywhere close to them on the side that impinges on what it thinks it's full arc of fire is.  So you can't reduce the arc with secondaries on the main deck essentially.