Hello all,
We usually offer betas prior to the release of a major patch which includes new ships and 3D content. Now we make an exception because we have prepared something that should please the majority of the game's community,
The most frequent complaint of players was the occasional long loading times in the campaign. So we have addressed just that. Please read:
*v1.6.0.7* (Beta 5)
- Complete overhaul of the campaign system, greatly improving the loading times. When you start a new campaign the AI will use pre-made designs so the campaign will need a few seconds to start instead of several minutes as before. We will gradually enrich the pre-made ships to greatly increase the variability of AI initial designs.
- The campaign loading time between the shipyard and world map or battle and world map have been decreased significantly. Previously, according to how many designs the player and the AI had active, it would often delay too much to load the next game scene.
- Campaign turn times have also been reduced significantly due to refactoring of the related code.
- New options "Mixed", "Fast", "Slow" for starting the campaign, allow you to use the pre-made AI ships according to your liking. If you want to play in the fastest way, you choose “Fast” so all AI designs are pre-made. In “Mixed” mode only the starting units are pre-made and in “Slow” mode all AI designs are generated on demand, making it a full sandbox mode, but it will cost the most time during turn times. *Important:* Mods will be compatible only with the “Slow” mode.
- Fixed a minor auto-resolve issue, not causing adequate transport losses in “Undefended Port” battles.
- Several improvements in the auto-resolve system to make results even more consistent based on the power of ships. This will not be a "hand holding" mode for players. You will expect more sunken ships for the side that is inferior in techs and overall firepower of the fleet for both AI and player. Mods are not guaranteed to have the same results, as always, so if you want to test it out, you need to use the default game values (auto-resolve is affected not only by dedicated parameters but also cost and many other aspects of ships).
- Fixed and improved various aspects of Campaign’s Victory points system. You will notice the impact of submarine raiding of transports more noticeably and battle results will be much more consistent.
- Increased the impact of Crew rescuing/healing techs.
- Weight fixes in several late tech destroyers, which had very heavy towers and were very difficult to design, creating delays in the auto-design. These various destroyers of your fleet will gain free tons which you can use to improve them.
- Weight fixes in several late tech destroyers, which had very heavy towers and were very difficult to design, creating delays in the auto-design. These various destroyers of your fleet will gain free tons which you can use to improve them.
- Added shipyard capacity indication in Ship Design and Map interface.
- Visual optimizations in combat environments.
- AI units will now not be able to retreat in campaign battles where they "Fail to withdraw" as Task Forces on the map. They may still attempt to fight at a safe distance but they will not try to leave the map as before.
- Experimental more aggressive Division AI logic making the ships which are on screen or scout to behave more independently, often more effectively as the previous AI command. This change will also affect the opponent AI.
- Technology priorities/penalties got a milder effect, addressing cases where technology could either be researched too quick for the era or it could delay too much the AI, when it used the priorities.
- Tension mechanics tuning to make tension more dynamic.
- Economy balances. Army cost affects the expenses more. Transport Capacity and Crew Training costs are more dynamic, and depend more on National GDP. Fleet maintenance and repair costs increased slightly. Shipyard capacity limit affects more the building times and costs.
- Various minor bug fixes.
This beta version should be fully compatible with your current saves (as it includes everything from the latest stable version). So you can continue your older saves or start a new campaign and use any of your current shared designs without any problem.
However, because it is a beta after all, it is advised to back up your saves, or start a new campaign with the beta in order to test it out.
With this beta, we would like to receive your feedback regarding the loading times, and if in the campaign you notice something not working right, such as the AI not following up the latest tech in its designs, does not refit often or there are pathfinding issues etc.
We also think that modders who occasionally want to restart their campaigns or pass several turns to see the impact of their changes, will find the new improvements welcome.
In order to participate in this beta, you need to follow these simple instructions:
- Find the game on your Steam Game Library and right click on it:
- Click on properties...
- ... and in the opened window, select from the list the "Betas" option. On the appearing list, select the "beta branch" to switch to the latest beta version of the game.
- If you want to switch back to the stable live version, repeat the procedure and select from the Beta list "None".
As usually, Beta Feedback can be shared in the Steam Beta Forum:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/3/
or in the Official Forum:
https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/44122-beta-1607-fast-loading-in-campaign/