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A new update for Rule the Waves 3 is now available, focused on improving stability and refining several core systems following the release of the Expanded Battles expansion.

This patch introduces a series of fixes and gameplay improvements aimed at enhancing the overall experience across campaign mode, Quick Battles, and scenario creation tools. In addition to addressing a number of reported issues, the update also expands historical content with the addition of new ship designs for custom player scenarios. Here you can find the link to download the update: https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/Ruleth ... 01.38.zip
You can read the full changelog here: https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/Rulethe ... tsnew.pdf

See full changelog below:

V1.01.38 - May 14th, 2026

Preferences
Added button to reset preferences in preferences screen.

AI
Increased AI utilization of fighters for attack missions.
Fixed a problem with ships occasionally going the wrong way when withdrawing to base.

Campaign User interface
Removed the header "Commander" from the possessions overview tab.

Campaign Strategic Map
Added Alghero base to Sardinia to prevent Italian ships being blocked on the wrong side of Sardinia.

Campaign Fleet Organization
Fixed a quirk in fleet organization tab where the fleet flag could be selected after doing something instead of the division you were currently editing.
Fixed a bug with setting Fleet flag or Scout flag division role not sticking.

Campaign Ship Design
Corrected a British battleship template that had erroneous original speed.
Fixed a bug with additional deck armor adding weight at each subsequent refit.
Fixed a bug with British legacy ships getting German visual style turrets on some start years.
Blocked triple and quadruple gun mounts on DD (this was never intended to be legal).

Campaign Aircraft
Fixed a bug with determination of heavy jet aircraft numbers on aircraft carriers (36000 tons was applied as a limit and not 40000 as stated).

Campaign Battle Generation
Fixed a quirk with a minelaying mission and the objective being on land.
Fixed missing invasion objective in Albania.

Campaign Submarines
Ensured that pending submarine destinations are cleared after turning off auto submarine moves.

Quick Battles
Mouse wheel now works in the force selection screen.
Carriers without certain numbers or calibres of guns are no longer disallowed when designing ships for a quick battle.
Manually designed carriers will now have aircraft in the battle.
Added option to ignore design errors when designing or loading ships in quick battles.

Scenario Editor
Fixed a bug with error message when a neutral steamer was deleted.
Neutral steamers now have a green division flag for clarity.
Fixed a bug with weather conditions being listed several times in the interface.
Fixed copying of divisions.
"Clear map" renamed to "clear scenario data" and now it does only that, it does not clear land.
Fixed a bug that generated error messages when adding an air unit to a scenario if no ship or base was selected.
Fixed a bug with the user Ship Designs directory being ignored in the hierarchy described in the manual when looking for ship design files when running scenarios.

Scenarios
Updated Yellow Sea scenario with the correct design used for the Hashidate.
Fixed wrong month in Eastern Solomons scenario.

Historical Ship Designs
Corrected Scharnhorst, Ajax and Achilles ship designs.
Fixed wrong fire control on Prince of Wales & KGV.
Added design files for Japanese carriers and German cruisers and destroyers.