Task Force Admiral · published · build 22129174
Note & credit: Action screenshots were provided by players on the game’s Discord — today featuring Ferda1947, Rookie Chauffeur, Nafeij and Marlock. Big thanks to them!
It’s been a month today since we released Task Force Admiral.
It’s been wild.
We even managed to feature on Steam’s Best Seller list for the month of January. That was not something we took for granted. Thank you for your trust and support over these past weeks.
We are fully aware that the game is still in a rough state in several areas, and we sincerely thank you for your patience. We are pushing forward with new content while continuing to refine the mechanics based on your feedback.
Also, shameless reminder: if you like our work as an owner of the game, please consider dropping a positive review, it will always help to get to that psychological 90% level. We're that close (hand gesture (c) Dir. Krennic).
The coming days will focus on the following:
The Midway map is receiving a last round of improvements before we leave the area and head back to SOPAC. Coastal guns are of particular interest, as they will possibly enable some rather… spirited surface duels in future scenarios.
We’re discussing a second wave of new aircraft instructions. The following features are under consideration:
Expanded search doctrine options (offensive loadouts, flying in pairs, etc.)
Expanded strike doctrine options (target prioritization, post-IP search behavior, possibly in-mission recalls & retargeting, etc.)
Expanded CAP options, including long-range variants that will later be useful for other patrol types
These additions would significantly expand tactical flexibility for players while also giving the AI clearer behavioral guidelines — particularly in situations where it fails to immediately locate the player’s task force.
Enjoy your “lucky” free meals while they last — in the future, we do not expect lost KB air strikes to give up so easily. Likewise, KB responsiveness will improve. As long as there’s a functioning flight deck, they won’t stop shooting back without a fight.
After that, we’ll likely turn our attention to weather systems and fog-of-war improvements.
Two new patches were pushed to the public branch this week. A lot of work went into the fixin', thanks to the hard work of all the players & beta testers involved.
Reworked the Clear Deck function: it can now use multiple elevators simultaneously to move aircraft to the hangar when needed.
This is the first step toward improving overall deck-to-hangar flow. Releasing it is phase two of an ongoing experiment: our developer has ideas to streamline aircraft transitions between deck and hangar. For now, we are testing it specifically through the Clear Deck function. If it performs well without creating new issues, we may implement a broader system-wide version. Feedback is very welcome.
Updated damage models for most carrier-based aircraft
Some aircraft were missing properties or behaved inconsistently. Zeroes, for example, should now catch fire properly like other aircraft.
Fixed an issue where the PBY did not land correctly.
Fixed a bug that prevented a ship from turning when only one rudder was destroyed or disabled
You may see less of the “eternal circling” behavior. Let us know.
Fixed edge cases when a carrier attempted to face the wind while in circular formation.
Minor improvements to ship avoidance behavior.
Fixed a bug preventing fleets from proceeding to the next waypoint if the flagship was damaged during surface combat.
Added a repair countdown in the damage panel
This should help you better anticipate when systems will come back online.
Fixed an issue where old ghost contacts were incorrectly marked as new after loading a save file.
Fixed crash in Fleet Defense level.
Fixed an issue with planes colliding with ships.
Fixed numerous other crashes.
Minor optimizations.
Improved performance in long-running sessions.
We are now digging deeper into both early and mid-war Japanese OOB elements to complete our early 1942 setup.
A much-needed addition: the Nakajima E8N “Dave”, an early-war fleet reconnaissance floatplane that was still very much around at Coral Sea and Midway both.
Think of it as the Japanese equivalent to the SOC Seagull — a biplane scout optimized for fleet work. In several early-war configurations, it will replace later types such as the Jake, which are currently acting as placeholders, and were not yet universally deployed at that stage of the conflict.
And yes — we all enjoy seeing biplanes buzzing around (well… except our dev, who still has to fine-tune the flight model for the stringbag category — but it’s coming).
On the other end of the spectrum, work has begun on the Yokosuka D4Y "Judy".
Less widely known: at Midway, Kido Butai carried a few experimental (and somewhat engine-troubled) D4Y airframes in their reconnaissance configuration.
We’ll need to adjust the AI so it can properly exploit their excellent performance — enough to give your Wildcats a serious headache. In 1943, when they start facing F6Fs, the balance will shift — but until then, if implemented correctly, they should prove elusive and dangerous in that "catch me if you can" sort of adventure. Obviously, it will open new options for the future - can you imagine Santa Cruz being fought against an early Judy production run? That would hurt, I am sure...
(And yes, if you enjoyed using Dinahs and Babs in WitP to spy on your friends, you know exactly what we mean.)
Ship objects are also being improved. Early U.S. radar mattress antennas are being refreshed. We’ll soon begin work on land-based radar as well, which will be required for both Midway and Henderson Field. Right now, radar is more of a trigger mechanic — that will evolve.
Following last week’s update, many players asked us how to access the modded U.S. and Japanese scenarios.
It appears some people skim these updates rather quickly — we encourage you to read them carefully and not focus solely on the pretty pictures ^^
As mentioned previously, these mods are available through the TFA modding section on the BuOrd Discord server. Please go over there, check their boxes carefully, and you'll access the dope in no time.
By the way, a few new scenarios are available, and make use of models we haven't included in the existing battles yet. Go have some (unsupported) fun!
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE BUORD DISCORD
That’s all for now.
Thank you again for your continued support — one month into the shelf life of Task Force Admiral, there's still a lot yet to do, but knowing we can count on you makes our ultimate success a certitude. Thanks for sticking around!
With gratitude,
The TFA Team