Sea Power Update 0.8.2 - Deployment Zones, Unrestricted Task Force Mode & more

Hello from the Triassic Games team!

We have updated Sea Power to version 0.8.2 today. This update includes two large new features for Task Force Mode: Deployment Zones and Unrestricted Mode, along with a variety of small changes and bugfixes.

• Task Force Mode: Deployment Zones, Unrestricted Mode, and points rebalance

• Campaign-map, briefing, and force-planning improvements

• Ship weapon alignment and broader weapon/torpedo/sonar refinements

• Beginning to bring Aerial Refueling into the game as a fully supported feature

• New Weapon Report, Sensor Tool, and gameplay quality-of-life features

• Mission Editor map elements, zones, and briefing-map authoring tools

• Bugfixes across Task Force Mode and Pacific Strike - thank you for your reports!

Please see below for full details. We have greatly enjoyed seeing the reaction to Task Force Mode and the Pacific Strike campaign. More to come as we work towards our next major release in late September with the Royal Navy / Argentina release!

- The Triassic Games team

Deployment Zones

0.8.2 adds Deployment Zones for Task Force Mode campaign missions. This allows you to position your units within the marked zone, change their formation, and issue their first waypoint. Later missions allow you to place the formation either as a formation, or dispersed into individual units (for example, to assist with evading enemy identification...)

As part of this change, the linear campaign map has become a positioning and briefing surface, with enemy unit markers created for each mission, allowing careful analysis of the situation outside the normal briefing map. The map tools are exposed here as well to help with planning.

Without spoiling later missions, friendly player units appear on the map as well and can be investigated, and player airbases are shown which provide another entry point for airbase prep and air tasking.

Deployment Zone visible for mission 02 (Action in the Taiwan Strait). Players can position their force within the blue marked area, examine the briefed enemy units on the map, and use the map tools for planning.

Unrestricted Mode

Task Force Mode campaigns can now enable Unrestricted Mode, which unlocks the Task Force Builder to use all units in the game. In this mode you can play through any Task Force campaign with any ship in the game.

This change necessitated the creation of an automatic points calculator, which runs each time at game startup to generate points values for every unit in the game. This means that modded ships should now work in unrestricted Task Force Mode as well!

Enable Unrestricted Mode from the campaign rules when starting a new campaign.

Task Force Builder for mission 01 of Pacific Strike with all units enabled.

Ship Alignment Updates

A common complaint about ship handling in-game is that ships will often turn to unmask train-limited missile launchers or guns when ordered to engage. To counteract this, we have added an "alignment" toggle in the bottom bar for ships. Toggle this on or off to set the behavior of units as you prefer:

Aerial Refueling Refinements

We are continuing to work on smaller functionalities that are missing from Sea Power. Aerial Refueling is now supported for player aircraft using a basic context menu action, or by right clicking on a compatible tanker.

How it works:

• Receiver aircraft must be compatible with the tanker (e.g., boom aircraft like KC-135A cannot refuel Tomcats)

• Right click on a compatible tanker on the map, and the formation will fly to the tanker, enter the queue, and then tank one by one

• Tankers will supply fuel until their cargo fuel is exhausted, then RTB

• Aircraft (such as A-6E) with tanker loadout will support their compatible receiver types

• Formations will fly with the tanker until all formation members have finished tanking, then return to their original waypoints

What is not available yet:

• Animated hoses, drogues, and booms

• Multi-point refueling systems (only one receiver per tanker currently)

• Multi-type refueling systems on same aircraft (KC-135MPRS) - will come later

• Compatibility across all aircraft types (this will come shortly)

• Perfect tuning of tanker positioning (this will come shortly)

• Proper models for KC-135A and Tu-16N (stand-ins are used currently)

• Tanking for enemy AI

• Automated tanking procedures for player or enemy aircraft

• Pre-generated tanker waypoint racetracks (just set up loops for now - place two waypoints, right click the last waypoint and click Loop and the tanker will loop back and forth)

Sundowners tank from a KA-3B. Flights will fly in formation with the tanker, with each aircraft taking a turn to refuel, before leaving the tanker as a formation once fueling is complete.

Weapon Report UI

Update 0.8.2 adds the new Weapon Report, accessible from the pause menu during any scenario. It shows a readout of all expended weapons from your force, weapons expended by shooter unit, and enemy weapons expended.

Weapon Report allows careful analysis of weapon effectiveness. Hits, intercepts, and misses are all tracked along with weapon expenditure by enemy units.

Mission Editor Map Elements

To support Deployment Zones (and future Spawn and Patrol Zones), tooling has been added to the Mission Editor. The new Map Elements tab allows placement of map labels, gameplay zones, and mission points/gameplay markers.

The mission editor has also received a visibility toggle bar at the top, allowing mission makers to selectively hide units, waypoints, map elements, and trigger zones, for ease of editing.

01A Senkaku Run with waypoints hidden.

Using the new Map Elements tab, mission makers can set up interactive labeling inside the mission. Use the toggles on the left to show the markers in the campaign map (if the mission is part of a linear campaign), in the briefing prior to scenario play, or in the mission itself.

Supported symbols in 0.8.2 include:

• Text labels

  • Font, font size, absolute/relative scaling on map, color, rotation

• NTDS unit icons

• Basic arrows

• Circle, oval, square, rectangle, or polygon shapes with varied opacity, fill type, and borders

• More to come!

Finally, the new label system can be specified in the Mission Briefing tab to auto-generate the briefing map. This then provides an interactive briefing map, centered on the "center of world" marker, which the player can move and inspect. The legacy format is still supported, so missions that do not use this format still work as expected.

Full change list

Newly added features in this release:

• Ability to toggle auto-take off for Flight Deck ready up tasks

• Added Distress Flare and lights for liferafts

• F10 DM/Developer mode: added "God Mode" - makes player units immortal

• Improved contrails

• Button to enable/disable flare launch

• Loading screen and main menu will now show a gameplay tips panel

• Added new Weapon Report showing expenditure by unit

• Encyclopedia: Hide sensors from units with sensors in the loadout that isn't selected

• Encyclopedia: now shows default loadouts for units with loadouts defined

• Encyclopedia: Added more encyclopedia data (hit chances against certain target types, etc)

• AI: Morale System first pass: Morale can now be enabled in scenarios and will force units to retreat if their morale drops below 20%

• Task Force Mode: Deployment Zones are now available for some missions in Pacific Strike, allowing setup of your units pre-mission and formation type selection (Formation vs Dispersed)

• Task Force Mode: Campaign map view now supports mission labels; when mission is selected, campaign map view can function as a "pre-briefing" and allow player unit positioning via marked deployment zones, where enabled by campaign author

• Task Force Mode: Campaign map view now shows preview NTDS unit icons for each mission, including unit displays for pre-placed units showing veterancy and loadout

• Task Force Mode: Added new campaign start options for Unrestricted (all units available) and "Limit unit dates" modes (units which are outside the timeframe of the campaign will not be used)

• Task Force Mode: Added info to Task Force Builder showing the player's Task Force units which support an aircraft, when selecting aircraft for purchase

• Task Force Mode: Added support for Helicopter slots for Air Tasking setup

• Task Force Mode: Added support for difficulty-based spawns in campaign missions

• Task Force Mode: Added automated point generator which covers ALL units in-game including mods

• Task Force Mode: Scoreboard export to PNG

• Task Force Mode: Task Force Builder will now show a Situation panel indicating status of reinforcements and give context to why certain ships are not available

• Task Force Mode: Flight Deck for TF units is now accessible for readying onboard aircraft; default ASW prep is disabled if units are pre-readied

• Task Force Mode: Mission Debrief panel will now show expended weapons

• Task Force Mode: New MissionWarningMessage which triggers a confirmation popup with configurable text to prompt users before campaign mission launch (ex: mission 05)

• Task Force Mode: Aircraft squadron skill is displayed in the Flight Deck with new symbols for skill levels (WIP)

• Task Force Mode: Added Developer mode controls into F10 DM panel for adding units to task force; modifying points and points cap; unlocking loadouts for owned player units

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Setup all missions for Deployment Zones and map labels

• Mission Editor: New filters for units, waypoints, map drawings, trigger zones visibilities

• Mission Editor: New Map Elements tab with support for authored display-only Symbols: labels, unit icons, shapes, polygons, etc, and Zones (gameplay regions): deployment, patrol, spawn zones; "Mission Points" dropdown with new "game logic" points, covers RetreatPoints now and will cover more functionalities later

• Mission Editor: New AI Behaviors tab (stub) with Morale enablement toggle; more to come

• Mission Editor: "Retreat when weapons expended" flag for missile and torpedo boats only; if enabled, these units will retreat to designated retreat zone after primary ASuW weapons expended

• Mission Editor: Ability to specify mission briefing map (right pane) to be built entirely from labels created in the mission editor itself

• Mission Editor: New Unit Damage State condition to detect when certain system categories are damaged on a unit, can also detect overall integrity

• Mission Editor: New "FlightDeck_SuppressDefaultASWPreparation=True" INI key for mission authors who want to prevent ships from automatically having readied ASW helo

• Added Argentina mast flag

• Add weapon arc data

Changes from previous release:

• Modified difficulty settings to be more descriptive

• Improved loadout details for ranges and countermeasures

• Damage Control: Overhauled DC UI with tooltips and hints, teams knocked out count, and UI groupings

• First pass on refining aerial refueling:

  • Tanking can now be ordered from aircraft context menus; tankers must be compatible by refueling system type (probe/drogue, wingtip, boom)

  • Tanking aircraft will fly in formation with tankers and go to proper offsets for tanking (positionings are still WIP)

  • Adding receiver aircraft to tankers will create a queue and aircraft in queue will fly in Vic formation, moving in to take fuel one by one

  • Compatible aircraft (when selected) can right click a tanker to initiate refueling automatically

  • Initial pass on aircraft to make them compatible - example KC-135A, Tu-16N (both placeholders), and added configs to KA-3B, A-6E tanker loadout. Setup usn_fa-18a, usn_f-14a, wp_tu-22m, usaf_f-4e as example receivers

  • Incompatible refuelers will post a message and play the negative VO

• Hiding the game UI will now also hide the cursor

• Improve missile readying

• Improve alignment during weapons firing

• Mission Briefings now use the new format from Task Force Mode

• Added more details to loadouts (weapon names, approx loiter time)

• Optical views: hiding UI with Backspace will now hide the optical mode tooltip hint

• Task Force Mode: Updated short descriptions for towed array ships to call out their value as force multipliers

• Task Force Mode: Allow for different nation commanders in unrestricted mode

• Task Force Mode: Awarded units are now worth their full price and can be sold if not wanted

• Task Force Mode: First pass at gender neutral citation texts for later support of male/female commanders for post 1990 campaigns

• Task Force Mode: removed ship picker for restricted unit count missions (03B, 05, 08) - replaced with the checkboxes on TF Manager top bar

• Task Force Mode: new flag for missions that require all TF units to deploy

• Task Force Mode: new hint text that explains how many units will deploy

• Task Force Mode: Improve TFBuilder menu load time

• Task Force Mode: Refund cost ALWAYS taken from unit ini or roster

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Fixed labels and added a few more enemy units to 02

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Added some random positioning to 03B

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: USS Rentz added to campaign lineup

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: added more exposition on backstory into slides

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Added missile boat retreat logic and removed Okean AGI from 06

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Fixed proper airstrike trigger, added missile boat retreat logic, fixed rearm cargo ship logic in 08

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: added enemy CAP flights to 09

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Removed HMAS Orion from 08 (anachronism)

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Fixed briefing map inset locations for 03A, 05

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: added some spice to 08A

• Mission Editor: Added tab overflow controls for eventual air tasking (civ routes), background data, and campaign authoring pages

• Units: added AdvancedARM and Torpedo stocks to Tarawa's flight deck to accomodate eccentric airwings

• Units: standardized radar cross section values for all tactical fixed wing aircraft

• Units: Added date limitations to many ship loadouts (e.g. Ticonderoga Late only available in 1985)

• Units: added Late loadout for Kanin DDG

• Units: revised loadouts for Perth DDG

• Units: added DateBased weapons to RAN Oberon

• Units: RCN Oberon loadout now includes a post-SOUP variant w/Mk-48

• Units: Removed QH-50 DASH capability from all non-JMSDF escorts and Gearing class DDs

• Units: all submarines now have corrected diving depths according to their published test depths

• Units: Virginia CGN gets SQS-53A in its "Late" loadout

• Units: RAN Oberon now has Kariwara towed array in "Late" loadout

• Units: Adelaide FFG now has Mulloka hull sonar

• Units: Ticonderoga - bow sonar SQS-53B -> SQS-53A

• Units: Spruance (ASROC) - corrected service date years

• Units: added wire limitations to US and USSR submarines

• Sensors: tweaked active performance of many active sonars

• Sensors: added bespoke operating frequencies to some MF and HF sonars, slightly increasing effective range

• Weapons: slightly tuned speed/range of 65-76 torpedo, range is now 27nmi at 50kt, 54nmi at 35kt

• Weapons: Added more weapon profile icons

• Weapons: RBU/antitorpedo now breaks wire of a hit torpedo

• Weapons: Torpedo interception checks for RBU are limited to once per 7 seconds

• Weapons: adjusted RBU-6000 and RBU-1000 minimum range

• Weapons: adjusted RBU hit chances

• Weapons: Sonobuoys now have accurate lifetimes for those exceeding 1 hour (SSQ-53 is now 8 hours)

• Translations

Fixes from previous release:

• Ending guiding alignment was not breaking connection for SARH and RC weapons

• Fixed buoy RemainingLife

• Fix for missing mesh (assault raft) crashing game

• Gun alignment problem for vessels

• Fix torpedo water entry bugs

• Fix encyclopedia weapons display with changing weapon channels

• Fix supersonic reference target

• Fixed some FPS drop when DM panel was open

• Missile contrails were cut off unnecessarily

• Aircraft carriers use correct method to determine aircraft support

• Save/Load: sensors marked required for engagement would sometimes be reenabled after loading a save, breaking EMCON

• Save/Load: Survivor rescue was sometimes disabled for units on reloading save

• Save/Load: fixed reloaded aircraft losing their squadron livery, callsign, and proper loadouts

• Save/Load: Helicopters launched from ships in-game no longer receive "default 1" callsign when reloading

• Mission Editor: flights of aircraft in trigger condition/action units were only saving the lead aircraft

• Mission Editor: nation override was not visible in UI when reloading a mission

• Task Force Mode: Fixed additional helicopter cost in Easy and Difficult modes

• Task Force Mode: Units marked JoinTaskForce did not appear on the campaign map view

• Task Force Mode: Fix unrestricted mode not showing all sub-variants

• Task Force Mode: Very light damage could sometimes not be repaired

• Task Force Mode: Removed incorrect points values from campaign rules doc

• Task Force Mode: Campaign variables were not written to a global state - creating issues with persistence for Slava and 08 rearm ship

• Task Force Mode: restricted missions like 03B would not show correct player force composition on campaign map

• Task Force Mode: Prepare Airbase button could disappear if missions did not have a deploy zone specified

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Airfield in 07 was not reloaded since 05

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: 08A is no longer available before completing 08

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Restored submarine threat to mission 10

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Removed cargo ship survival objective from 08; rearm for remainder of campaign is no longer gated by cargo ship objective which did not work properly

• Campaign: Pacific Strike: Fixed resupply message on 10 in campaign menu (there are no missions after it)

• Units: Alaska CGN ceiling and landing lights setup

• Units: Kidd had no gloss map

• Units: Texture wrap settings on emblem textures

• Units: Texture bug on all Adams variants

• Units: F-14A had 360 degree guidance

• Units: Nimitz CVN corrected weapon system angles

• Units: corrected M-III Ferry loadout issue

• Units: corrected loadouts for Tango, Kilo SSKs

• Units: removed stealth coating on Ivan Rogov (RCS: Medium -> VeryLarge)

• Units: loadout issue with RAN Oberon

• Units: "Early" loadouts now have dates for some units

• Units: Sampan had too large RCS

• Units: Airfield_small had no "limit integrity"

• Weapons: flight characteristics of RIM-67C, SA-N-6, SA-N-7

• Voiceovers: Japanese voiceover now uses proper Aviation English for altitude callouts

• S-300 battery targeting points

• Null refs