RTW3: v1.00.81 Public Beta Now Available

[MaximKI]

Hello everyone,

A new public beta is live now. This is a major update to RTW3 that upgrades the engine. This comes with a slew of improvements, including a variety of UI color modes, improved UI scaling, and resolution of issues related to saving preferences and save games. For Matrix standalone users - this is a full setup installer that will uninstall your current version of RTW3 and install this new version.

You can download the new version either from the game store page or by going to the File Downloads for RTW3 in the My Page section of the Matrix store.

For Steam users, you can switch to it by going to RTW3 in your Steam Library, right-clicking on it, choosing Properties -> Betas -> then choosing the latest beta branch from the drop-down list and allowing Steam to update your game. If it updates correctly, you should see the latest beta version listed as your version in-game on the bottom right.

Note: If you have any issues with loading older saves, please let us know.

What's New in Version 1.00.81:

• Fixed a bug with some columns resizing on column click if scaling is larger than 100%.
• Fixed a bug with budget becoming negative in unusual circumstances.
• Fixed a bug with Italy missing from the list of turret styles.
• Choosing mobilize in the rising tensions event will now actually mobilize your fleet.

What's New in Version 1.00.80:

• Fixed a bug with the heavy AA value not updating properly in the ship design screen.
• Prevented last minute reloading of stuff when a ship is already sinking (makes no difference in the game but looks silly in the log).
• Suppressed redundant up/down menu choices in the fleet organization tab.

What's New in Version 1.00.79:

• Fixed a bug that could cause access violation if there was a battle in an area without a commanding admiral.
• Fixed a bug that could cause occasional errors when an AI nation was trying to buy aircraft from other nations.
• Fixed some glitches with ship graphics in the ship design screen.

What's New in Version 1.00.78:

User Interface
• Fixed column widths growing in the tables on screen scaling larger than 100%.
• Fixed main screen size growing from saved values after restarting the game (also related to scaling).
• Fixed a glitch in display of fire arcs for submerged torpedo tubes.

Ship Design
• Fixed a bug with BE being set to 1 inch when doing an auto carrier conversion.
• Fixed a bug with the weight gained from reducing CT and BU armor in a rebuild being restored in subsequent rebuilds.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the delete key working in the ship design screen.
• Fixed problems with the ½ character on Japanese language OS. All half inch armor thicknesses are now expressed as .5.
• Fixed sluggishness in some controls in the ship design screen.
• Fixed a problem that could arise with excess secondary guns showing that could not be moved.

Ship Design Graphics
• You can now click the color boxes for the superstructure layers to directly change the fill color of a layer.
• You can also ctrl + click the box to enter a color code. You can copy and save the code for a good color that you want to reuse in other ships in a text file. Then you can easily just copy and paste the color code in the input field when you want to use it for another ship.
• The color picker will now have the color of the current layer selected.
• Tertiary guns are now drawn correctly.
• Saves the custom colors used in the color picker in the design screen.
• You can now set the superstructure layer on which a visual is drawn (right click in the list in the ship design screen).

Officers
• Added rank icons to the officer list (makes it easier to figure out the rank in a language you do not know).

What's New in Version 1.00.76:

Game Engine
• Modernised game engine and appearance.

Save Games
• Savefiles should be fully compatible with the new version.
• Games are now saved in the correct path for your documents folder (...\Documents\My Games\Rule the Waves 3). The first time it is run, it will copy all existing savefiles to the new correct save location if needed. It will still leave a copy of the save files in the old location, so this means you can run both this and the current release version if you would want to do so, though not using the same saved game, as they will diverge. Note: there may be problems loading saves from the new version in the old version.

Preferences
• Added dark mode options (Preferences/Sound and video). The user can now chose between four different display styles, two light and two dark.

User Interface
• The division editor is now part of the main screen and the functionaliy is found under the tab "Fleet organization".

Ship Designer - Graphics Interface
• You now select the active layer from a list.
• Replaced the asymmetric superstructure checkbox and replaced it with a mirror checkbox.
• When the mirror checkbox is checked, all points will be mirrored immediately when they are placed. You can click on either side of the centerline, and the point placed will be mirrored on the other side.
• If the mirror checkbox is unchecked, you can do a feature on one side only, like a CV island. No mirroring takes place.

Ship Design
• Made some adjustments to DD design weights to make US flush decker destroyers possible.
• Reduced the weight discount for fire control on cruisers If you want battleship grade fire control on a cruiser, it should cost you (Looking at you Kriegsmarine).
• Display of fire arcs for submerged torpedo tubes improved.

Strategic Layer
• Reduced the crew quality penalty for ships under rebuild.

Aircraft
• Added an option to stop auto upgrade of Aircraft type for air units.

Submarines
• Added reliabilty value for submarines under construction in the submarine list.

Battle Generation
• Fixed the invasion problem for Norway.

Officers
• Fixed a bug where officers could have the same name.

Battle Resolution
• Fixed a bug with ships firing AP from secondary guns even if no AP shells were available on board.

[Jades]

Officers
• Fixed a bug where officers could have the same name.

Not really a bug, though, more of a gameplay inconvenience? One of the teams where I work has two guys with the exact same name. Plus the tradition of Private John Smith <Serial Number> in the British Army

Thanks to the Developers and everyone at NWS and Matrix Games for their continued support of this great game.

I'll leave testing it until next week, off on holiday for a few nights tomorrow and I really should pack.

[10thlegion]

Thanks for the update. The new look is much appreciated.

[silber]

Is there a way to change the text font? I find the update makes it a bit harder to read.

[silber]

For some reason the columns in the ships in service and under construction tabs keep getting wider and wider.

[WLRoo]

Yes, but not consistently which causes some columns to disappear. NWS are already working on a fix for that issue.

[MaximKI]

For some reason the columns in the ships in service and under construction tabs keep getting wider and wider.

Is this reproducible from a save for you?

[mrchuck]

Save Games
• Savefiles should be fully compatible with the new version.
• Games are now saved in the correct path for your documents folder (...\Documents\My Games\Rule the Waves 3). The first time it is run, it will copy all existing savefiles to the new correct save location if needed. It will still leave a copy of the save files in the old location, so this means you can run both this and the current release version if you would want to do so, though not using the same saved game, as they will diverge. Note: there may be problems loading saves from the new version in the old version.

Something went wrong with this bit. I have games in all 9 slots, and they were already in Documents/My Games/Rule the Waves 3/Save/..
but only 1 and 2 are showing.

Since I'm in 1935 with my Italy game in slot 4, this is a bit annoying!
Any way to recover it?

[MaximKI]

Are you seeing all 9 slots in the load screen of your game or are they not being detected at all by your game? Are you using the Steam or Matrix version of the game?

[mrchuck]

Here is the load screen:

Screenshot from 2025-02-07 16-43-59.png (531.62 KiB) Viewed 1533 times

I'm using the standalone version, installed with no errors or messages.

All 9 game slots were populated before and for that matter seem to be still present in the file system.

I've started game 9 yesterday. Only 1 and 2 had previous saves visible when I ran the update the first time.

[macroeconomics]

Is there a way to change the text font? I find the update makes it a bit harder to read.

I like the new look. But I do wish there was an option to use the 'Bold' version of the font.

[Mkha2023]

Is there a way to change the text font? I find the update makes it a bit harder to read.

For the love of God, please introduce a way to increase the font size.

[MaximKI]

Here is the load screen:
Screenshot from 2025-02-07 16-43-59.png
I'm using the standalone version, installed with no errors or messages.

All 9 game slots were populated before and for that matter seem to be still present in the file system.

I've started game 9 yesterday. Only 1 and 2 had previous saves visible when I ran the update the first time.

Where do you have RTW3 saved on your system? Do you happen to also have the Steam version of RTW3 installed? Do you use OneDrive at all?

Do you mind uploading the saves that aren't being detected?

[Megamimed]

I love the new dark mode. But I do also have that issue where the coloumns for "Ships in Service" become wider when I switch to a new tab.

Not sure if this would be possible but it would be nice if you could filter ships in service by type/class etc. would make sorting through them for refits/scrapping easier and I wouldn't have 100's of destroyers cluttering it up.

[TG484]

I love the new dark mode. But I do also have that issue where the coloumns for "Ships in Service" become wider when I switch to a new tab.

I also am getting bugged columns in my ships in service column. running windows 11 in 4k and have tried all scaling options with no change. It seems to be an issue with the width getting set too wide by default. it is the same on a new game as well as one continued from stable. Maintenance and commanding officer as well as guns are just lost somewhere in a scroll bar many times wider than my window.

https://imgur.com/a/iGu2oI9

[Reppu]

To fix expanding columns.
Right click RTW.exe -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Change High DPI settings -> Check 'High DPI scaling override'
And choose:
Application (for 'new' render style)
System (for older render style)

[TG484]

To fix expanding columns.
Right click RTW.exe -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Change High DPI settings -> Check 'High DPI scaling override'
And choose:
Application (for 'new' render style)
System (for older render style)

This did work for me in older versions, but it no longer works for me in the beta. Everything is right, until after crew quality in ships in service. I have tried application as well as the two system options. I have also toyed with my windows scaling options.

It’s not every tab it’s specifically the ships in service tab and the issue persists into a new game as well.


*** EDIT***

My bcmainformcolwidth11 got set to over 8 million. And some others were also crazy numbers.

[WLRoo]

I found it worked for me in the Beta but I had to set it to System.

I also had to adjust a couple of tab sizes but once I'd done that it was fine.

[Xxzard]

Are other folks able to fight campaign tactical battles in .76? I got a consistent access violation error in my campaign. I have a tech support thread, just wondering how everyone else is getting along.

[MaximKI]

Are other folks able to fight campaign tactical battles in .76? I got a consistent access violation error in my campaign. I have a tech support thread, just wondering how everyone else is getting along.

Responded to your forum post with questions.