The purpose of these posts is to provide some developer notes and updates as we continue to work towards the next stable release on Steam.

Thanks for reading!

Fleet Builder

The Fleet Builder tool is central to our vision for the completed game. We are continuing to advance the feature by implementing faction-specific ships and improving visual clarity in the UI.

There are new icons which show the angled 5x5 grid representing the formation layout. There are eight pre-made formations, consisting of basic shapes like line or wedge.

• [Formation Editor] UI improvements
• [fleet builder] faction per boat

These changes are only the beginning - combined with the soon-to-be-revealed flagship heroes, multiple squadron saves, scenario integration, Fleet Points system, and a Custom formation that will allow the player to position the ships freely, Fleet Builder will be one of the main features of the game.

New Warships

While depiction of every historical detail is far out of reach, we felt there were certain breakpoints we needed at a minimum in terms of the tiers of ships and their arsenals to showcase the arms race that defined the Dreadnought era.

We have done more research, including reading the excellent Castles of Steel, to help formulate the spirit of the age we wanted to recreate. We decided that the addition of four classes of cruiser: Heavy Cruiser, Armored Cruiser (County Class), Auxiliary Cruiser, Protected Cruiser (Town Class) and one battleship: Pre-Dreadnought Battleship.

The additions of these new ships will be available both for custom squadrons in the Fleet Builder and recreating historic battles such as the Battle of Coronel in the South American campaign.

• [New Model] Converted passenger ship (auxiliary cruiser) i.e. Otranto
• [New Model] Scharnhorst (armored cruiser)
• [New Model] HMS Drake/Good Hope (obsolete armored cruiser)
• [New Model] HMS Ocean/Canopus (pre-dreadnought battleship)
• [New Model] Novik (obsolete protected cruiser)

There are so many more ships that we could’ve included, and some more we may still, but at a certain point making variations of ships due to minute differences stops making sense from a gameplay perspective. After all, this is a game and not a simulation.

Furthermore, we have decided to not include the smaller arms on ships. While of course a battleship would be bristling with smaller arms to keep torpedo boats at bay, from a gameplay perspective we decided to just pick the biggest gun. That way, the range, reloading time, and speed of the vessel has more of a rock-paper-scissors dynamic even with a smaller number of units on the field. Indeed, in practice it was large arms fire that predominately sealed many fates at sea.

Unit Production

The first steps in unit production were implemented last sprint, with officer and rating enlistment. We expanded this feature by implementing tech tree enforcement and handling Industry cost. Unlike other resources, Industry is required during production but is not consumed. The macro phase of Ruler of the Waves is therefore unique in comparison to other RTS games, with production capacities that are effectively shared between units and buildings. While officers and ratings are their own resource, rather than units on the map, they are nonetheless produced at the barracks.

• [unit production] enforce tech tree
• [Lifeboat] Lifeboat touches ground - recovery
• [production queue] handle Industry requirement

Ship production will occur at the Dry Dock structure, and will be primarily gated by the tech tree and resource requirements. The production slot in the Dry Dock structure will double as a repair slot, but only one ship may be repaired or produced at a time. There is a great opportunity for unique animations with the ship being placed within the Dry Dock structure, with gates opening, raising/lowering water, etc.

Port Drop-off Feature

Rather than follow the traditional RTS model of having workers harvest resources, there are Trade Routes on the map that will spawn freighters or passengers ships that must be delivered to a friendly port. Harbors unload more quickly and can support a longer queue than Loading Docks.

As mentioned in the Unit Production section, the production slot and docking slot are shared by the building. Therefore, as the player’s empire expands, it will be necessary for increased control or more structures to fulfill the requirements of ships arriving at dock. While the feature was initially framed as for resources only, warships were also given an event to designate that they are in port, which will be used in future developments.

• [Feature] Trade Route / Port dropoff
• [Port Shipment] Selected boat HUD - in port healthbar widget icon
• [Port Shipment] Harbor speedier unload
• [Port Shipment] Consume
• [Port Shipment] Add resources drop-off
• [Port Shipment] Port capacity slots
• [Port Shipment] Option toggle to auto-refund at port (free up supply against ship limit)
• [Port Shipment] Call freighter
• [Port Shipment] Cargo widget
• [Port Shipment] Trade route minimap icon
• [Port Shipment] Return to trade route entrance
• [port shipment] default rally on trade route
• [freighter spawn] look direction at first waypoint
• [Port Shipment] Not considered in port if anchored and has far waypoint
• [Ability] Prevent on in production building
• [Port Shipment] Add in port designation
• [Port Shipment] Progress pie chart widget
• [Port Shipment] selected boat HUD - shipment details
• [Port Shipment] Selected boat HUD - In port icon
• [Port Shipment] Simultaneous unload
• [Port Shipment] Call ocean liner

New Ship Menus

As the officer and port features began taking shape, we decided to rework the ship menu so that there are four main panels: Turrets, Abilities, Officer, & Cargo.

• [Ship Menu] Toggle ship menu: cargo, officer, turret, abilities
• [Turrets] [Widget] Gun layer toggle
• [Officers] Officer widget

Ships that have an economic focus will display their Cargo menu by default, whereas most warships will show the Turrets menu. The abilities menu contains Torpedo, Prepare Broadside, and the other abilities that were added in a previous update. The main change is that there are now four tabs and the menu displays in the central view area.

We are brainstorming a variety of cargo options beyond passengers and wealth, such as mailbags (which could influence moral), having finite amounts of coal or ammunition, or even wackier items like marmalade, kippers, rats, and bats.

The Menus Will Be Polished!

It’s definitely a slog getting through all these menus, then spending time back-tracking and tweaking and polishing, but we think the payoff will be huge. The goal of these changes is to make the UI concise and clear, while giving event hooks to provide feedback (e.g. out of resources, ‘SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS!’), and more informative tooltips throughout.

We fortified the concept of “overseer”, which collects the Fleet Menu, Construct Building menu, and more into a single point of focus in the UI. There is a new button as well that will return the player to the overseer view if they have a ship or building selected.

The layout is a focus as we try to balance the amount of information and menu options with clarity. One technique we use is by resizing the game window to various sizes to test the responsive layout. We are proud to say that, in the year 2025, it is possible to enjoy the game in glorious 1024 x 768 resolution!

Besides the layout, we also focused on polish and small details. For example, there is now an interpolation effect that shows the number rising when resources are gained. Also, we have changed the font to support Euro typeface characters, for example any umlauts or accent marks. This compliments our exciting new feature, which is to rename any ship!

Finally, the command menu for ships has been improved with new indicators for moving/stopped, resolution for default hotkey conflicts, and improved tooltip text.

New Features

• [Ability] Add production timer to tooltip
• [Flavor] [Resources HUD] Refresh tooltip texts
• [HUD] Ship name: new typeface supports that Euro
• [Building] resource errors for building units
• [Building] specific errors for low resource, invalid place, low industry
• [Abilities] Resource errors for abilities
• [Overseer Menu] polish/bigger icons in top level menu
• [Overseer] Fleet menu
• [unit production] cost tooltip
• [Command Menu] return to overseer view from ship/building selected
• [Command Menu] Add indicator for movement queue
• [Command Menu] Add better text to replace placeholder tooltip text
• [Ship Names] Rename ship
• [Small resolution support] Enjoy the game in glorious 1024 x 768 resolution!

Bug Fixes

• [Building] hide ability menu when under construction
• [Fleet Menu] fails working when any ship is sunk’
• [HUD] Fix construct building cost details color/alignment
• [Resources] Interpolate resource gains effect - too slow
• [Command Menu] Resolve default hotkey conflicts

Fog of War

We are in the early stages of implemting this feature, but the basics like vision radius and minimap support are completed.

• [Feature] Fog of war / lighthouse

However, there are still many tricky edge cases like drawing out of bounds, different size maps, enemies out of view, and multiplayer (!!!), that need to be handled as well, so, like always, we find ourselves with 2 steps forward, 1 step back, and a long journey still to go.

Sprint 8 is in the books, adding a lot of huge functionality for buildings and resources, along with continuing improvement to the HUD and UI. In Sprint 9 we look forward to the Officer (i.e. upgrades) feature, returning to the on-rails gameplay in campaign, and hopefully some cool new art as well.

We still aren’t quite stable enough for re-release, but there is quite a bit of groundwork that is finally coming together, along with some interesting new additions planned.

Achieveing stability and releasing an update for the demo is still a priority, but we’d rather not take any shortcuts with plenty of work still to be done.

Any early access supporters on Steam can be assured we are still investing into the quality of the final product.

Sprint 8 Ending Stats

Sprint 8 began in October 2024 and ended March 2025. Here is the rundown of all the work completed this sprint:

New Features & Improvements:

Total: 23

• [HUD] Anchor indicator in health bar widget
• [Overseer Menu] Advanced structures tab
• [tech tree] ability (i.e. unit training) limits
• [minimap] building minimap icon
• [buildings] rally point
• [Building] Unit production queue
• [ability] cancel building fob
• building construction - cancel building
• resources hud widget
• resources HUD layout
• building construction - world placement
• building construction - resource cost
• building construction - HUD/UI
• new sinking animation for scuttle
• Middle Mouse scroll movement
• [New] Shore Leave / Population Growth
• [Feature] Building Wealth Generation
• [Feature] Building Tech Tree
• [Menus] Improve main menu pass
• [Feature] Abandon ship - scuttle/life rafts
• [Models] Lifeboat Models
• [UI] Make custom tooltip widget
• [Controls][Strategy Cam] Implement keyboard scrolling

Bug fixes:

Total: 12

• [Hotkey] Adds 2 items to queue
• [Building] display construction progress in production queue area
• [cursor] waypoint displays while in shooting mode
• [cursor] always draw line to waypoint > 1
• [hud] always show healthbars in overseer mode
• [HUD] waypoint circle when making new waypoint too close to boat
• [HUD] waypoint circle continues to display after pressing Stop key
• [HUD] no hit mask blocking behind right menu
• [Ability] Enforce resource cost
• sinking effect has selection circle
• REFACTOR RAMMING DAMAGE CALC
• [Minimap] Prevent drawing outside bounds

Grand Total:

• Completed: 35
• Removed: 18
• New/Punted: 14

Sprint 9 Beginning Stats

• Issues: 14
• Backlog: 78

We will provide more development notes and possibly dev logs in the future, and of course, an update to the game itself!

After months of careful planning and consideration, we have arrived at what we believe will be the final, initial working version of the building tech tree. Structure building is meant to intersect with and enhance the seafaring gameplay by introducing management of the new resources system trifecta: Capital, Industry, and Labor.

Choices involving prioritizing certain structures or resource generation versus shipbuilding, and the skill required to multitask, ought to increase the strategic depth of the game. More information on building functions and the new resource systems will be shared in the near future.

Without further ado, here is the structures tech tree:

• Tier I
  • Dock
  • Power Plant
  • Lighthouse
  • Barracks
• Tier II
  • Factory
  • Admiralty
• Tier III
  • Logistics Bay
  • Dry Dock
  • Shore Defense Cannon
• Tier IV
  • Hangar
  • Harbor
  • Floating Dry Dock
  • Coastal Battery

An image containing this information is available on the documentation page as a PDF. Check it out - it contains a bit more information and makes the hierarchy of choices easier to visualize.

New Documentation Page

As an aside, this announcement is the first appearance of the website’s new documentation page.

There is a link to the docs page from the software gallery, and any docs will display on their relevant game page above the recent news section.

It’s been over two years since we launched into Steam Early Access, nearly two decades since we first put pen to paper imagining a WWI battleship game, and over a century since the Dreadnought era came to an end, scuttled at Scapa Flow.

The main menu’s new subdued, weathered style was inspired by several titles from the ‘golden age of RTS’.

Originally envisioned as a top-down turn-based strategy akin to Fire Emblem mixed with the BATTLESHIP board game, our game Ruler of the Waves 1916 launched on Steam and mobile as an on-rails 3D turret shooter and has slowly morphed into an RTS/FPS hybrid as the scope continues to expand.

Ultimately, the goal was to create the best game possible, not just meet some deadline or stick to an original plan.

To that end, we are grateful for the support we received along the way which we have reinvested into the game to add higher quality models, textures, music, and more.

We have meticulously planned out more features and ideas than we have time to work on, but after a hiatus for most of the year 2024, we have resumed development and are working on a revamped main menu, creating engine cinematics, and setting the stage for some big plans on the gameplay side.

Overall, we have a massive backlog but nevertheless a desire to see the project through. Some of our top features in development are:

• Main menu refresh: creating a more consistent and immersive style for the menus

Another example of the new main menu - look closely at the background to see the original terrain from the North Sea overmap.

• Ship texture update: add normal mapping, roughness, and metallic attributes for material shaders to some ‘papery’ ships

• Cinematics/cutscenes: setting the stage for campaign missions and creating promotional material

• Maps: introduce landscapes for unique strategies and obstacles

• Buildings: Add base building mechanics for structures like shore defence batteries, an admiralty to recruit officers, and dry docks to repair ships

• Survival missions: new mission objective to holdout for a given time period against waves of enemies (previously announced as Rogue Mission mode)

• Lifeboats: no more will every sailor be doomed to go down with their ship

Please stay tuned for future announcements!

Note on the Mobile Version

As we continue to improve and add to Ruler of the Waves and expand its RTS-style mechanics, it has become less feasible to maintain the mobile version of the game with the same features as the PC edition.

Aside from the challenges posed by different control inputs, graphics capabilities, and networking, the constantly changing requirements from both Google and Apple introduce the need to update the engine and perform various other busy works that the developer would prefer not to engage in for the time being over gameplay and feature updates.

As such, we are no longer planning to update the mobile version during the early access period. We might revisit in the future, but for now the entire focus of development will be on the PC version.

While the mobile version has been behind for a few updates now, we are making the announcement official as of today. The price of the mobile version was previously reduced to compensate, so please feel free to dive in for a more action/arcade-like experience on the go.

Release Notes

• introduce ‘half-dead’ status
• improved large display support
• change between portrait and lansdcape view
• add timers for game time, shot clock, and timeout

Check out the app details page for screenshots and app store links.

Release Notes

Build 8 brings seven new ships with unique turrets and abilities, UI and gameplay enhancements, bug fixes, and more.

New Ships

Campaign

• Begin adding new ships to the campaign missions
• Fixed an issue where the leviathan boss would tickle boats inside of sinking them

Gameplay

• Doubled the base movement speed for all boats; Implemented turning radius coefficient
• Rebalance ships HP and damage a bit
• Added new projectile types: small round, torpedo, sea mine

Fleet Builder

• Added new ships to Fleet Builder selection
• Added an option to alter space between ships in the formation

UI

• Added “click and drag” selection box
• Added ability to issue & queue move commands via the minimap

HUD

• Added segmented HP bar for selected ship
• Added hotkey indicator for the selected ship
• Added ship speed and other information to the HUD
• Fixed issue where right click ground could occur through the HUD

Audio

• Fixed an issue where the sound effects would occasionally fail to play
• Fixed an issue where sounds would continue playing with the menu open
• Made music persistent in more areas

Menus

• Added a list of all default key controls in the options menu
• Added option for sound effects volume

Multiplayer

• Missed shot indicators now only display for the instigating player
• Fix an issue where the overseer view began on Player 1’s fleet as Player 2
• Physics simulation for projectiles is now server-authoritative
• Press Enter to select chatbox in lobby
• Removed chatbox from gameplay

Project Stats

Issues resolved this sprint: 64

Issues kicked to next sprint: 1

Issues in the backlog: 68

Total issues resolved: 209

Release Notes

Indicators

• Added waypoint indicators: displays the current move destination for the active warship; hold the Shift key to view the waypoint queue
• Added a port/starboard indicator around the active warship to help with aiming broadsides

Hotkeys

• Added hotkeys for prepare broadside ability (port [ , ], reset [ . ], starboard [ / ])

Campaign

• Campaign missions now default to tactics mode (i.e. ships are controllable; uses the strategy camera instead of close-up camera)

Balance

• Health and damage numbers have been adjusted to a higher base level to allow more room in the future for balancing
• Added new Armor attribute into damage calculation formula

Music

• Added military strategy OST to the game

Options

• Added new setting for music volume

Versus

• Begin transitioning Fleet Builder, Scenario Options, and Formation Editor to independent menus
• Added tooltips to the Scenario Options menu

Bug Fixes

• Fix an issue where the turret would fail to shoot if selected via hotkey after pressing the minimap
• Fix an issue where mouse hover sound effects would play for menu items obscured behind a modal
• Fix an issue where the system mouse cursor sometimes displayed instead of the in-game mouse cursor
• Fix an issue where the selection indicator displayed slightly off-center
• Fix an issue where the viewport would fail to capture the mouse in a multi-monitor setup
• Fix an issue where Team 2 would fail to earn points for sunk boats or turret hits
• [Multiplayer] Fix a potential soft lock when rapdily changing between overseer view and turret mode

Project Stats

Issues resolved this sprint: 19

Issues kicked to next sprint: 3

Issues in the backlog: 85

Total issues resolved: 133

Release Notes

Minimap

• added the minimap
• select the minimap to quickly travel around the map

Revamped strategy cam

• edge scrolling
• Isometric perspective
• fixed an issue where the mouse wheel changed zoom even when not in the current camera mode

Revamped HUD

• moved most information to bottom of screen
• added the hotkey text for turrets
• added the hotkey text for warships

Graphics

• added underwater effect to the camera

Levels

• implemented level bounds
• shifted starting coordinates on some missions to fit inside minimaps

Options

• added option for edge scroll speed
• added option for camera zoom speed

Multiplayer

• fixed an issue where Prepare Broadside failed to activate for client players
• improved UI stability for client players
• flags default to red vs blue instead of historical flags

Bug fixes

• fixed an issue with the Prepare Broadside ability rotating turrets in an invalid way

Project Stats

Issues resolved this sprint: 24

Issues kicked to next sprint: 6

Issues in the backlog: 92

Total issues resolved: 103

Release Notes

Versus Battle

• Fleet Battle is renamed to Versus Battle
• New Game Mode Selection
  • Joust: ships travel “on rails” on a predetermined line. Accuracy and orientation are key. This is the original game mode.
  • Tactics: enables setting waypoints for ship movements, similar to real-time strategy (RTS) style controls. More control at the expense of increased responsibility.

New Features

• Prepare Broadsides ability: instantly align all turrets on a warship to port, starboard, or the start position
• Click to select: clicking any eligible friendly warship on the screen will now possess that ship
• Hits counter: the number of successful hits now displays for the selected warship in the HUD
  • Note: a direct hit = 2, glancing blow = 1

Misc Additions & Improvements

• Improved graphics: the material textures on ships have been revised to a higher quality/level of detail
• Fix some minor visual issues in the Change Allegiance menu (Campaign)
• Fix an error with the camera during level selection (Campaign)
• Fix a defect that would occasionally cause the camera to teleport to the water surface level during binocular mode

Multiplayer

• Implement tactics mode option for multiplayer battles
• Fix an issue where teammates could inadvertently change their ally’s camera view when changing turrets on a possessed ship
• Fix an issue where selection circles would fail to clear when possessing a new unit (Tactics)

Known Issues

• (Multiplayer) Statistics (i.e. score, hits, accuracy) count fails to properly display for non-hosting players (doesn’t affect victory conditions)
• The dreadnought broadside ability can cause side turrets to aim at an angle that is not normally possible

Release Notes

Fleet Battle

Multiplayer

• New multiplayer option comes to Fleet Battles.
  • Host or join sessions over LAN or Internet (Steam)
  • Play games of up to 8 players, with 2 opposing fleets
    • For the first release, teams are automatically assigned and the fleets are chosen from the first 2 players.
    • For games of 3 or more players, players will be grouped onto teams where they can individually control different turrets and share the victory objective
  • Create a player profile (name, avatar) and join together in a chat-enabled lobby before playing

Campaign

• Change Allegiance mode: the player can now choose sides between the Royal Navy and Imperial Fleet during the campaign battles

Various Improvements and Bug Fixes

• Expanded implementation of gamepad controls (specifically during gameplay)