v1.1.0 Deck Gun Update

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v1.1.0 is here! This is the biggest update yet and I've been working on it for a month! Three huge things are landing at once: deck gun, full controller support, and modding support for pretty much everything. On top of that there's a ton of smaller fun improvements and a long list of bug fixes - thanks to the awesome testers for reporting them!

Let's get into the juicy parts of what is new, shall we?

Deck Gun

Now you can surface, man the deck gun, and settle things the old-fashioned way.

Look through the telescopic sight to train the gun left or right, set the range, fine-tune the elevation, and fire with the foot pedal. It's not as easy as it might sound. Shells take time to reach a moving target, and your boat's pitch and roll can easily send a carefully ranged shot short or over. Watch where the misses splash, correct your aim, and time the next shot. The crew reloads automatically, but rough seas slow them down. Your gunnery crew calls out shots, impacts, and reloads in Crew Reports, so you'll hear about it when you're short or long.

What you load matters:

• HE (HC on the 3-inch gun) bursts on impact and can start damaging fires.
• AP Common has a better chance of penetrating light plating, and a low hit can open a leak below the waterline.

Where you hit matter:

• Hits near fuel, explosive cargo, or ammo can produce a rare secondary explosion. Very satisfying.
• Direct hits on the bridge can sometimes make ships stop zig-zagging or even perform an emergency stop.
• Hits on the machinery (usually below the funnel) can cause a ship to be dead in the water.

As the war goes on, you can refit 3-inch, 4-inch, and 5-inch guns and divide a fixed ammunition allowance between explosive and AP Common rounds. Larger guns give you more reach and punch, but they carry fewer rounds and take longer to reload, so pick your poison.

Full Controller Support

You can now play everything in the game with a controller. LB, Y, and RB open the left, top, and right panels, and every station has its own controls. If you forget what does what, hold R3 to bring up a controller instructions overlay. You can also tweak all bindings in the settings!

This was a LOT of ground to cover, so please let me know what you think, and tell me if I've forgotten anything or something isn't working!

Moddability

Silent Shark now supports modding for tons (TONS!) of things in the game: assets, ships, shipping lanes, and even your own custom panels that listen to events in the game. If you've ever wanted to add a ship class, rework the patrol world, or build that instrument you've always wished the boat had, now you can, and you can upload it to Steam Workshop for others to use as well.

Here's a simple example one I made for switching torpedo speeds between 31 kts and 46 kts:

Yet again, this was a huge amount of work, so I'm sure there will be things to iron out - if you need help or run into problems with modding or mods, join our Discord and give a holler!

I've also created a modding "handbook" with a quickstart and a full reference of everything that can currently be modded. (Spoiler: it's a lot) Modding Handbook

You can import mods manually or grab them from the Steam Workshop. I can't wait to see what you all make.

Other Fun New Stuff

• Improved rain droplets on the scope.
• Pressure deaths now build from a rising hull creak into three increasingly loud, overlapping explosions before the final blast. Scary stuff.
• Settings are easier to see and scan, with foldable sections that cut down the clutter and clearer key bindings.
• Added a master volume control.
• Editing a binding in the default controls profile now automatically creates and selects a Custom profile, so the built-in defaults stay untouched.
• Cribbage cards are larger during play and in the end-of-hand views, and played cards are layered in aligned columns so they're easier to read.

Bugs Fixed

• Destroyers now line up depth-charge approaches and salvo runs with your estimated course correctly, fixing heading-dependent alignment errors. (Yeah, that makes them even more deadly.)
• Destroyers screening a coordinated search now circle in the same direction instead of sometimes approaching each other head-on (which was not very smart).
• Freighters and tankers now follow collision-avoidance turns while zigzagging, then go back to their zigzag afterwards.
• Aircraft already searching nearby now investigate reported torpedo impacts instead of circling their old search area.
• Newly assigned campaign patrols now estimate travel distance, transit time, and return deadlines using navigable routes around land. If no route can be calculated, the estimates show as unavailable.
• Campaign patrol arrival bonuses now show up in the debriefing, with the full 1,000-point reward for reaching the assigned patrol zone.
• Campaign encounters with multiple fleets now give combat radio reports for each fleet you damage or sink, including fleets with no survivors, so you no longer miss those report rewards.
• Campaign mode now restores oxygen and electricity to 100% when you return to base.
• Loading a campaign now keeps music and sound effects at your chosen volume, no slider-wiggling required.
• The periscope detection warning now respects the Automatic Time setting and no longer pauses the game when that response is off.
• Panning the periscope to a ship you've already identified now brings back its recognition-book page and stadimeter mast height, with a page-turn sound. TDC settings stay unchanged.
• Placing a timestamped map point no longer breaks a periscope target lock, and turning the periscope by hand now clears the orange target highlight. The periscope view shows the bearing you're looking at, which is the bearing sent to the TDC.
• When you're locked onto a moving target, the blue viewing cone on the periscope minimap now turns with it, matching the periscope view and the map.
• Periscope ship silhouettes now keep their correct proportions across viewport sizes and aspect ratios.
• Distant flares no longer tint your periscope or surface optics, or trigger the destroyer-flare tip, when you're outside the area they light up.
• When patrol pauses on a hydrophone contact, the bearing projection now appears at full strength instead of already faded.
• The speed, heading, and depth gauges now reopen where you left them after returning to a game, instead of jumping off-screen. Their sizes and the expanded periscope/binoculars view are also remembered between sessions.
• Small text in Settings and the Learning Hub is easier to read, with larger fonts and stronger contrast.
• The Scenario Editor's Ships panel now has a dark background and readable text and controls over the map.
• Removed the small circle that followed the mouse pointer over the map.

As always, thanks so much for playing, and let me know what you think! Now go try out that deck gun!

P.S. I want you guys to know I read every single Steam review you write and they mean the world to me. Thank you all for your kind words!

P.P.S. If you enjoy Silent Shark and haven't written a Steam review yet, now might be a great time!