I've tried it. It's a fun game, but really complex and actually the basic interface doesn't help. Also when you are commanding more than three ships the micromanagment may be a big problem. Anyway, as a fan of both Nexus and Homeworld this EA it's already a gem and the developer has released two big hot-fix
Thanks mate.
So say we all.
The Modular Missiles Update
Hello Spacers!
The time is finally upon us, the first major update for NEBULOUS: Fleet Command, the Modular Missiles Update, is here! If you haven't seen it, check out the trailer below:
This is the biggest addition of content and overhauling of mechanics to date and will breathe new life into missile gameplay. The testing and balancing process consumed us for over the last month and a half, but the update is in a great state and is a lot of fun to play. If you're interested in the details of how that process went (as well as a sneak preview of Faction 2 in development), you can check out our 25th devlog here:
Please note that any fleets you intend to play with will need to be updated via the fleet editor before you can take them into a game. This is as simple as loading the fleet in the editor, and the upgrade will be accomplished automatically.
You can read the full, lengthy patch notes at the bottom of this post, but here's a quick overview of the major features and changes:
Modular Missiles (Obviously)
The original six legacy missiles have been removed from the game and replaced with an entirely modular system. There's now a special missile editor built into the fleet editor, allowing you to configure five different missile bodies which all have different uses and capabilities. The three bodies from the legacy missiles are still here, along with two new hybrid multi-stage missiles. A variety of seeker options, guidance systems, warhead types, and support modules gives you tons of possibilities for tailoring missiles for exactly what you need.
And don't worry, if you still want to sling T'heads you can; all the legacy missiles have been re-created using the modular system and provided as templates to get you started.
Launchers and Programming Channels
MLS is dead. Long live VLS.
In order to heavily cut down on spamming hundreds of missiles, we've introduced a new mechanic called Missile Programming Channels, which dictates how many missiles can be simultaneously prepared for launch from a single ship. Missile carrying capacity and launch volume are now completely decoupled, as it is no longer dictated by the number of VLS modules you have. This means VLS compounding cost is now gone. Additionally, we're adding
two variants
of a size 3 launcher, the VLS-3 and CLS-3.
Unfortunately, balancing programming channels between VLS and MLS with their completely opposite paradigms proved to be impossible, so we have removed the MLS launchers from the game. They may return with the future second faction. In the meantime, use the CLS-3 for all your corvette torpedo run needs.
Point Defenses
With the increased lethality of missiles, more effective defenses are coming to your rescue. All point defenses have receive a huge buff in the form of "fast-lock", which allows PDT fire control radars to lock a target as soon as it is in their cone rather than waiting for the normal 1-second sensor acquisition cycle. This means that the Defender and Aurora will no longer spend the first second of firing spraying wildly into the void.
We've also added two new PD weapons which fit on Class 2 mounts. The Stonewall, which is a large flak gun which chews up swarms of cheap missiles, and the Sarissa, which is a long range coilgun able to pick off individual expensive hybrids at up to 6 kilometers.
Penetration, Cannon, Railgun, and EW Rebalancing
The way over-penetrations are calculated by the game has been changed to be more realistic. Originally there was a penetration distance falloff curve which would cause projectiles to overpen at close range and do full damage at long range. Admittedly this was extremely contrived, but was designed to promote using weapons at their intended longer ranges.
All hulls now have an internal density, described as an equivalent thickness of armor per meter of travel inside. The remaining armor penetration capacity of a projectile after penetrating the armor is then used to calculate how far into the hull it will travel, and whether it will reach the other side.
With a major overhaul to the game already underway, including a change that already affected projectile weapons pretty heavily, this seemed like a good time to do some rebalancing of non-missile weapons. The changes to penetrations have increased the effectiveness of cannons significantly, and the 450mm HE shell in particular has had its damage numbers boosted.
Railguns, either the love or bane of all players with no exception, have had their damage envelope narrowed considerably so that they aren't either destroying components in a single hit or doing basically nothing. They are now meant to be a long range support weapon rather than a main weapon, dealing consistent moderate damage over huge ranges. They also now have a high probability of causing debuffs like fires, to keep enemy DC teams very busy.
Finally, Electronic Warfare has had a diminishing returns mechanic added to power calculations. The more jammers that are being applied to a single target, the less effect each successive jammer will have.
New Tutorials
Everyone's favorite LT Hazel returns for two new tutorial missions. The first is a lesson on how to use an existing missile UI tool called Target Reference Points, which many people didn't even know existed. The second is a lesson on basic anti-ship missile defense tactics to help new players not get completely overwhelmed by being on the receiving end of their first missile salvo.
Thank you to everyone who continues to support our game, and we hope you love this new update!
See you in the battlespace,
- The NEBULOUS Team
Consolidated Patch Notes, v0.2.2.34:220820-0131
Missiles:
- NEW: Added customizable modular missile system.
- Recreated SGM-1XX, SGM-2XX, and SGT-3XX missiles as missile bodies.
- Added hybrid multi-stage SGM-H-2XX and SGM-H-3XX missile bodies.
- Recreated active, semi-active, command, and anti-radiation seekers as modules, including additional variety.
- Refactored anti-radiation seeker to optionally home in on all emissions, not just jamming.
- Added Electro-Optical seeker module.
- Added Wake Homing seeker module.
- Added tuneable missile engine performance characteristics.
- Recreated Blast Fragmentation and HE impact warheads as modules.
- Added a Blast Fragmentation EL (enhanced lethality) variant with better probability of doing damage at high relative velocities.
- Added HE Kinetic Penetrator warhead module.
- Added 8 missile support modules.
- NEW: Added missile templating system.
- Recreated all existing missiles as stock templates.
- NEW: Added missile terminal maneuvers.
- NEW: Added functional description, based on missile setup, for missiles in the ammo selection list.
- NEW: Missile track select widget now shows salvo count and total weapons to be fired.
- NEW: Destroyed missiles now deal 5 damage to all nearby missiles.
- NEW: Added custom missile color selection.
- NEW: Selecting a missile in flight will show the seeker cone(s) and waypoint path in the tactical view.
- CHG: Group add for missile track selection now adds a full salvo, rounding up to the nearest salvo first.
- If there is only 1 programming channel on the ship, group add will still add 5.
- CHG: Left clicking with the track select widget will no longer queue one extra missile, unless there are 0 queued, so the number shown on screen is the number of weapons fired. Position widget maintains current behavior.
- CHG: Position select widget now shows salvo count as well as total weapons to be fired.
- CHG: Missiles now remember which direction they were flying in when a target was lost, instead of returning to their original course.
- NEW: Selecting a missile in flight will show the missile's course of travel and its seeker status in the tactical view.
- CHG: Updated all missile impact and destruction VFX.
- CHG: All missile seeker types now show in colors to make them easy to distinguish.
- FIX: Missiles fired at a track that is lost between the start of the launch animation and the missile taking control will now fly to the last location of the track, instead of going straight up and being useless.
- FIX: Fixed cold launched missiles flying down into the ship in some cases.
Missile Launchers:
- NEW: Added missile programming channel mechanics, limiting the number of missiles that can be prepared to launch at the same time regardless of the number of launchers.
- Missile fire rate is now completely decoupled from carrying capacity.
- Added information to mount status display showing missile programming progress.
- NEW: Added resizing VLS modules, which will fill the size of whichever socket they are added to.
- CHG: Removed compounding cost from VLS modules.
- CHG: VLS2-16 renamed to generic resizing VLS-2.
- CHG: VLS1-23 renamed to VLS-1-23.
- NEW: Added VLS-3 launcher.
- NEW: Added CLS-3 launcher.
- NEW: Added VLS-1-46 launcher for class 2 mounts.
- CHG: Removed MLS-2 launcher.
- CHG: Removed MLS-3 launcher.
- NEW: Added Missile Parallel Interface module to increase programming speed.
- NEW: Added Missile Programming Bus module to add +1 channels.
- NEW: Added Missile Programming Bus Array module to add +2 channels.
- NEW: Added Strike Planning Center compartment, which increases missile programming speed.
Fleet Editor:
- NEW: Added missile editor tab to fleet editor.
- NEW: Added additional design warning for magazines that contain ammo that is not being used by any weapons on the ship.
- NEW: Added new automatic upgrade step for fleet file version 2 to version 3.
- Fleets will need to be ugpraded in the editor before being playable.
- Upgrade will:
- Replace all legacy missiles with modular equivalents.
- Replace all MLS-2 launchers with an empty VLS-2.
- Replace all MLS-3 launchers with an empty CLS-3.
Ships:
- NEW: Added intrinsic missile channels modifier to all hulls except the Sprinter and Solomon.
- NEW: Added a second, more tightly tuned PID controller to ships that is used when aiming a spinal weapon to reduce overshoots.
- CHG: Increased the size of Mounts 3 and 4 on the Raines frigate to be Class 3.
- CHG: Reduced the depth of the Sprinter corvette's Mount 2 so it can no longer fit a VLS module.
- CHG: Adjusted Solomon battleship model slightly so Mount 2 doesn't sit directly under the bridge overhang.
- CHG: Added +25% power generation to the Keystone destroyer hull.
Point Defenses:
- NEW: Added ability for fire control radars on PDTs to lock outside of the normal 1-second acquisition cycle.
- NEW: Added dual-purpose capability for weapons, allowing them to be automatically tasked for point defense use when not already tasked by the player.
- CHG: Enabled dual-purpose use for Mk61 and Mk62 cannons. Requires HE-RPF ammo to be available.
- CHG: Improved reliability of proximity fuzing for HE-RPF shells.
- CHG: Reduced autoloader sizes for Mk61 and Mk62 cannons to be 1 round, and reduced reload time to create same effective rate of fire, to enable faster ammo switching.
- CHG: Increased traversing speed of Mk61 and Mk62 guns to 35 degrees/sec (was 20).
- CHG: Added an AOE explosion effect to HE-RPF shells, allowing them to reliably destroy missiles.
- NEW: Added EA20 Flare Decoy for countering WAKE-homing seekers.
- NEW: Added EA99 Active Decoy, similar to chaff but mimics ship radar emissions.
- NEW: Added description text to decoys in munition select list.
- NEW: Added ability for Point Defense Controller to only fire decoys which will affect the incoming missiles, as long as the intel is present.
- NEW: Added additional PD DECOY settings: LEAST (fire least-capable decoy which will cover the threat) and BEST (fire most-capable decoy which will cover the threat) to reduce excess decoy expenditure.
- NEW: Right clicking a track will turn the DCY button yellow, and only decoys relevant to that track will be fired.
- NEW: Added individual missile doctrine settings for configuring different defensive missiles in the editor.
- NEW: Added per-missile defensive salvo size settings.
- CHG: Removed PDMSL TORP mode and replaced with DCTRN to defer to editor-set doctrine.
- NEW: Added PDMSL FIRE POL option DCTRN to defer to editor-set salvo count.
- NEW: PDMSL settings can now be changed for the entire formation at once.
- NEW: Added Mk95 'Sarissa' PDT, a class 2 coilgun which can take out missiles at long range.
- NEW: Added 15mm Sandshot ammo type.
- NEW: Added Mk29 'Stonewall' PDT, a class 2 flak gun.
- NEW: Flak round explosion effect now lingers for 5 physics frames.
- CHG: Increased flak round explosion radius to 50m (was 40m) and adjust damage curve to increase damage to targets behind the explosion.
- CHG: Increased flak round damage to 15 (was 11).
- CHG: Advanced 50mm flak round fuze time by 0.1 seconds, to keep rounds exploding in front of the target more reliably.
- CHG: Reduced cost of Rebound PDT to 20 (was 30).
- CHG: Refactored PDT target prediction logic to account for target acceleration.
- CHG: Substantially reduced size of 20mm slug ammunition.
- CHG: Significantly improved turret aiming logic, making PDTs far more accurate.
- CHG: Increased Mk90 Aurora power requirement to 1250 (was 700).
- CHG: Adjusted MK90 Aurora timers to 1.75s active (was 25s) and 3.25s cooldown (was 30s).
- CHG: Increased Mk90 Aurora overheat probability to 40% (was 10%) and overheat damage to 14 (was 10).
- CHG: Increased Mk90 Aurora integrated FCR range to 3.25km (was 3km).
- CHG: Manually prioritizing a PD target will now cause all PD weapons to focus on it, instead of just moving it to the front of the queue.
- CHG: Extended chaff lifetime to 45 seconds (was 15).
- FIX: Fixed defensive missiles turning around when the lead PIP for a fast target was behind them.
Intelligence:
- NEW: Added ES32 'Scryer' Missile Identification System, which determined missile capabilities and displays them in the "INTEL" section when hovering over a track.
- NEW: Added an additional "PD: %%%" readout for ship Intel, showing the percentage of functional PD.
Offensive Weapons:
- NEW: Reworked overpenetration mechanics.
- All hulls now have an internal density equivalent to armor thickness.
- Overpenetration calculation is now based on interior armor equivalent, with no falloff curve for range.
- CHG: Reduced Mk550 spinal railgun reload time to 35 (was 45).
- CHG: Increased 300mm rail sabot armor penetration to 200cm (was 100cm), reduced component damage to 70 (was 175), increased overpen multiplier to to 0.6 (was 0.15).
- CHG: Increased 300mm rail sabot debuff probability multipler to 2.5x (was 1.0x).
- CHG: Reduced Mk610 Beam Turret point cost to 80 (was 100).
- CHG: Reduced Mk610 Beam Turret power demand to 3000 (was 3500).
- CHG: Increased 450mm AP armor pen to 110cm (was 80), increase override search distance to 110m (was 55m), and reduced overpen multiplier to 0.3 (was 0.6).
- CHG: Narrowed ray spread of 120mm and 250mm RPF to increase effectiveness.
Sensors:
- NEW: Added EO signature to all ships.
- NEW: Added WAKE signature to all ships.
- FIX: Fixed sensor tracks converting to burnthrough tracks if they were picked up by a BRN before being tracked and then were destroyed before the BRN expired.
- FIX: Fixed BRN tracks being exploitable to track targets moving outside of the sensor's range by repeatedly triggering it.
Electronic Warfare:
- NEW: Added diminishing returns to jamming power. Stacking jammers on the same target will result in effective power for each successive jammer being scaled by 100%, 87%, 58%, 30%, 12%, 3%, etc.
- CHG: Decreased the cost of the Spotlight illuminator to 15 (was 20)
- CHG: Decreased the cost of the Floodlight illuminator to 15 (was 30).
- CHG: Reduced the radar signature modifiers of the Spotlight and Floodlight illuminators to 10% (was 20%).
- CHG: Added a 10% radar signature increase modifier to the Blanket jammer.
- CHG: Added a falloff value to illuminator power at the edge of the cone, so chaff in the periphery has less impact on SARH.
- CHG: Increase 450mm HE damage to 150 (was 120) and explosion radius to 15m (was 12m).
- CHG: Reduced E70 Interruption jamer cost to 55 (was 75) and power demand to 600 (was 750).
AI:
- NEW: AI players will now pick spawn arrival vectors the same way players do.
- NEW: Added AI ability to choose to disengage from an engagement that is going unfavorably.
- NEW: AI will now designate dedicated scout ships based on the configuration of the ship.
- CHG: Reduced the amount of time the AI will stay focused on the same ship before re-evaluating and possibly switching targets.
- CHG: AI now fires missiles more frequently, and bases salvo sizes on the quantity and condition of expected point defenses.
- CHG: AI now intelligently pairs missile capabilities against threat classes.
- FIX: AI will no longer fire missiles at targets outside of their max range.
Tutorial:
- CHG: Updated some lines in Tutorials 2 and 4 to match changed mechanics.
- NEW: Added a new Tutorial 7 mission to explain how to use Target Reference Points.
- NEW: Added a new Tutorial 8 mission to explain the basics of Anti-Ship Missile Defense.
- CHG: Updated the tutorial mission set cover art.
Other:
- NEW: Added five new tracks to the skirmish battle music.
- NEW: Added an abandon ship button to the damage control board.
- NEW: Added 2 new starter fleets with special missiles: TFs Hemlock, and Sycamore.
- CHG: Updated all existing starter fleets.
- CHG: Added different particle and sound effects for hot vs cold launch of missiles.
- CHG: Kinetic shells now have a particle representation in the tactical view.
- CHG: Reduced network traffic by up to 90% for all HullComponent RPC calls, damage, and repair frames.
- CHG: Changed the color of team chat to white and made [TEAM] text appear in team color.
- CHG: Fleet files that have a different validated point cost from what the file says will have the file updated, so it is only wrong once.
- CHG: Firing a weapon/jammer/illuminator at an ELINT LOB will now ignore range and fire down the bearing.
- CHG: Opening the weapon menu on a LOB track will no longer flash a warning about range being 10000m.
- CHG: Increased fire debuff damage to 10 (was 5) every 30 seconds and spread chance to 25% (was 15%).
- CHG: Main Bus Short debuff now does 10 damage every 45 sedconds (was none).
- CHG: DC board detail names can now resize a little bit to fit more text.
- NEW: Added shorter names to many components for use in the DC board, to make them easier to read.
- FIX: Fixed thread pool size error with armor compute shader.
- FIX: Fixed DC team repair speed bonuses not being correctly applied.
- FIX: Fixed debuff roll being based on damage done instead of current health percentage.
- FIX: Fixed camera position being loaded incorrectly from saved games.
- FIX: Fixed chaff rockets that hit the ship during launch flying off to infinity.
- FIX: Formation web and PIM line of a selected ship are no longer visible when toggling the UI off.
- FIX: Fixed errors caused by lifeboats spawning outside the withdraw line.
- FIX: Fixed lifeboats spawning at the edge of the map flying back towards the center instead of to the edge.
- FIX: Fixed bug in lead calculations causing NaNs if target was faster than the shot of the weapon being aimed.
- FIX: Camera will no longer snap back to a previously focused ship when leaving the tactical view.
- FIX: Fixed activating BSHRT during a jammer's cooldown period skipping the cooldown.
- FIX: Fixed illuminator cone of effect not being visible from directly behind.
Update 0.2.2.35 - Improved Mod Support
With our first major update behind us, we're shifting back onto a somewhat regular schedule of minor updates while we continue our work on the second faction and begin laying the foundation for Conquest. The first of these minor updates is to provide enhanced modding support to our awesome community of modders. An incredible number of map, weapon, and ship mods have cropped up since early access and we want to continue supporting these as much as we can.
Custom Factions
NEBULOUS has always had a faction system built into it, but as a number of hull mods sprung up the creators elected not to use it because all of the vanilla weapons were locked to the existing Alliance faction. This would have required them to create a full suite of weapons as well as hulls in order to have their faction be playable, which was an unfair obstacle to impose on them. The faction system has been enhanced to allow factions to borrow equipment from other factions, making it much easier to create a dedicated faction for your custom hulls while still being able to use the base game's weapons and other components. Weapon and other component mods which leave the "Faction Key" field blank will still be available to all fleets regardless of faction.
Additionally, the roundel for a fleet's faction is now displayed next to the fleet name in the game lobby so you can proudly fly the colors of your preferred faction. This roundel is also displayed in the fleet select list.
Please note: If modders choose to update their mod to use the faction system for their hulls, keep in mind that any existing fleets you have will still be marked as "Alliance" and will be detected by the game as having a mix of hulls which is not permitted. Opening these fleets in the fleet editor will allow you to re-assign their faction, and will remove ships which do not fit that selected faction.
Dependency Tracking
Mods can now have dependencies between each other, allowing enhanced support for community toolkit and foundation mods without the need to duplicate assets or DLLs between multiple mods. Mod loading order can now also be automatically sorted in the mod manager list.
These dependencies can also be tracked when loading mods from a multiplayer lobby, and will be iteratively discovered and downloaded as they are needed.
Mod-Friendly Lobbies
The delicate nature of balance in a game like this means some players don't like playing with mods, and that can mean players who want to play with their modded fleets can struggle to find a group to play with. Lobby hosts can now mark their lobby with a special "mod friendly" tag, which will show a badge in the match browser indicating that lobby is accepting of fleet mod use.
Full patch notes follow:
Changes/Features:
- Added the ability for modded custom factions to share equipment from other factions on either a per-component or pattern basis.
- Opening the fleet editor with multiple factions available will present a list to select the fleet's faction from.
- Fleets with mixed-faction hulls can no longer be used in skirmish games, but can be converted to one faction or the other in the fleet editor.
- Added a faction badge to the currently selected fleet in the lobby and to each item in the fleet selection list.
- Added a "Mod Friendly" option for hosting a new multiplayer lobby, which marks lobbies with a special badge on the match browser.
- Added mod dependency tracking in ModInfo.xml files.
- Added auto-sorting of mod dependencies in the mod manager window.
- Loading mods in a lobby will now iteratively subscribe and download all dependencies as they are discovered.
- Hovering over the mod badge (crossed wrenches) next to a player's fleet name will show a list of mods the fleet uses.
- Hovering over the mod synchronization pane of the lobby will show all mods in use for all fleets, maps, scenarios, etc.
- The default fleet when entering a new lobby will now be the first non-modded fleet, even if a modded fleet preceeds it in the list.
- Mod developers can now use the console command "ReloadLocalMods" to reload any non-workshop mods when they have made changes, without having the restart the game to test.
- The confirm button when exiting a game early as host now needs to be held for 3 seconds to prevent skipping the warning.
- PD Controller now checks for obstacles between the ship and the PIP before launching AMMs.
- Friendly ship icons now fade out as the camera gets close to them.
- A separate heading line is now visible in the tactical view for all friendly ships and enemy tracks identified as ships.
- Made further adjustments to spinal weapon aiming PID.
- Rebalanced difficulty of heavy cruiser target in Tutorial 6.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed bi-directional sequential buttons (e.g. for ship posture) not transitioning visual states when being right clicked.
- Players who have a modded fleet selected and switch to spectator will no longer count towards mods that need to be loaded.
- Fixed the player ship in Tutorial 8 firing on the enemy spotter if it was hit by a missile.
- Fixed Intel report for enemy ships showing "Pending..." far longer than it should.
- Fixed AI firing missiles at targets which are occluded.
- Fixed AI firing missiles at targets which are out of range, or will move out of range before intercept.
- Fixed bug in time dilation controller resulting in timescale stuttering between 10% and 100% when under stress.
- Fixed extra newlines in ship card debuff list tooltip.
Update 0.2.2.37 - Enhanced Data
For October's minor update we're rolling out enhanced data and statistics to help players dive into the intricacies of their battles and figure out where they need to improve.
Enhanced Battle Report
The largest addition for this update is a major overhaul to the post-game Battle Report. This new report tracks over 50 different statistics, many down to the individual weapon or missile level, and presents a detailed summary of each ship's performance.
The performance of each ship is summarized in five "warfare areas" with a rating score between Terrible and Excellent. All of these scores are calculated based on the statistics grouped under each area, which can be seen in detail by scrolling down further in the report.
You can even export your battle report to XML to save it for posterity. We have no data collection mechanisms in the game currently, but if you feel so inclined you can upload a ZIP of these XML files periodically (no more than once a week please) to a special thread on our official discord under #neb-discussion so that we can do statistical analysis on these reports to help us make more data-driven balancing decisions.
If you worry you'll miss the old report that showed ship status displays and basic damage numbers, don't worry because it is still in the game and will be shown if a battle ends before a victor is declared. This is because the sheer volume of statistics being collected is prohibitive to synchronize continuously, so they are downloaded from the host at the end of the game. Be sure not to quit before the download is complete!
Debriefing Chat
We have a really great community in this game and many of our experienced players are more than happy to help our newbies in our official Discord through the #post-game channel, but it can still be difficult to get a discussion going in the first place. When a battle is declared over and the battle report is successfully downloaded, all players who are still connected will be taken to a debriefing lobby where they can view the battle report and continue to chat with each other and give feedback.
Track References in Chat
Continuing on the communication front, I've expanded the "Hook Track" feature to take advantage of the text chat. When you enter any series of 4 digits into the in-game chat, everyone on your team will see it automatically converted to an orange link. Clicking that link will perform the same function as hitting Q and typing it in manually, bringing your camera to the location of the track and highlighting it for you. These numbers will be automatically picked out of any chat, so you can send them along with other text like "Everyone primary 1234", and 1234 would be converted to a track link.
Power Hogs
Power logic has gotten a small improvement which should have a huge impact. Previously, components consumed power based on their priority. That means that if you had a radar drawing 4000 power and only 3500 available, that radar would consume the 3500 and
still
not operate, starving every other component in the process. With the changes in this patch, if a component can't draw enough of a resource to operate successfully it will not consume it and leave it for other less demanding components down the priority line.
Spectator Overlay
And finally, it's about time to give some love to our amazing streamers and tournament casters (and also to those of you who just like to spectate for fun). This patch unlocks a ton of information that was previously unavailable to spectators such as information bars and damage control boards for all ships on both teams, as well as a special new overlay HUD which allows them to see an at-a-glance summary of all ships in the battlespace.
We hope you all enjoy the update for this month, and stay tuned for a new devlog coming soon! There are a few other minor improvements and bug fixes, so be sure to read the full patch notes below:
Changes/Features:
- Added a detailed post-game Battle Report showing performance breakdowns for every ship.
- Multiplayer games will now exit to a debriefing lobby where players can discuss the outcome and review performance.
- Missile salvos now distinguish softkill counts from simple misses in their tally counts.
- Renamed the former battle report to Battle Summary, which will still be displayed if a multiplayer game was not completed before exiting.
- Added a new overlay for spectators showing all players, ships, and their statuses at a glance.
- Spectators can now select ships and see their information bars and damage control boards, but cannot interact with them.
- Spectators can now see all active electronic warfare areas of effect.
- Total battle count and win/loss record now appears in the tooltip showing progress to the next rank.
- Missiles with HEKP warheads but not enough velocity to penetrate armor will now turn the "0cm" text red and display a reason.
- Sensor tracks on the HUD now show a closing/opening rate in meters per second next to the range when a ship is selected. Positive numbers indicate increasing distance.
- Any 4-digit numbers entered by a teammate into the skirmish game chat will be automatically converted to a clickable link which will provide the same functionality as Hook Track.
- Added icons for chaff and flare decoys in the munitions select list.
- Comms jamming area of effect is now yellow to distinguish it from sensor jamming.
- Parts in the damage control board and ship status display (the small one) will now flash white for 1/5th of a second when receiving damage.
- Components attempting to consume a resource will no longer actually pull the resource if less than the requested amount is available, preventing them from starving less demanding components with lower priority.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed fleet list folders not being able to be created in the lobby.
- Fixed dragging a fleet item in the lobby causing it to vanish.
- Fixed withdrawing ships with a locked heading order not playing the animation properly.
- Fixed Curve Shot achievement not being unlockable.
- Fixed some debuffs having references to old stat names.
- Fixed hybrid missiles staging early in some cases where the target was approaching quickly and the cruise stage was not at max speed (i.e. just after launch).
Star Trek: Starfleet Command Gold Edition
there's skirmish but no campaign yet, probably won't be added in until the second faction is fully released
The Protectorate Update + Midweek Madness 25% Discount
Here is an overview of the major features in the update:
New Faction Ships
The Protectorate faction features six all new hulls to build your fleet from. They range from mothballed Alliance cruisers, to the mighty Lineships which OSP bases its fleet around, to the hardy but slow Monitors, and finally the two small and maneuverable Clippers.
In order to help convey the truly cobbled-together nature of the Protectorate Navy, we've even implemented a randomized hull layout system which makes no two lineships look exactly the same. Mount placement is roughly the same between all possible layouts, with only slight variations in secondary mount positions, and socket counts are always consistent.
Mastering the OSP and besting the Alliance with their fleets will require outside-the-box thinking and use of their unique tools to counter their superior enemy. This faction is not the most new-player-friendly, but our testers have provided five battle-tested example fleets to help you get started.
New Weapons
This update also features a slew of not only new weapon components, but entirely unique weapon paradigms previously unseen in the game. These weapons range from standard small caliber cannons to massive fixed casemates, plasma-throwing coilguns, missiles made from shipping containers, unguided rocket turrets, and mines.
The OSP also has access to some unique deception techniques in the form of decoy missiles, which mimic the electronic signature of a ship and even generate a random name that the enemy will see next to the track.
Long Range Sensors
The civilian sensor suites found on OSP ships are naturally inferior to the dedicated military radars of their opponent. To make up the difference, this faction relies on clever employment of special long range directional sensors which allow them not only to scan the battlespace with wide, inaccurate beams but also develop a tight track on a single target using a special narrow beam.
Unlike the general purpose search radars currently found in the game which scan a full sphere at all times, these systems must be manually directed into an area of space in order to begin searching, and can be found under the EW weapon menu.
Missile & Point Defense Improvements
Missiles and point defenses have also received a lot of attention in this update, and the effectiveness of both has never been higher.
On the missile side, we've made numerous adjustments to seeker costs and missile body values. The biggest change is to validation seekers, which now assume the field of view and range of the primary seeker, meaning you no longer have to worry about cone compatibility with your primary seeker. Validator combinations saw regular, effective use on the test branch and they are now well worth their cost. Other missile penetration aids, such as decoy launchers and terminal maneuvers, also received improvements.
For point defenses, the ballistic lead solver has been vastly improved and the Defender can be seen regularly shooting down hybrid missiles coming straight in. Defensive weapons also now have the ability to know when they've destroyed their target and can ask the Point Defense Controller for a new target immediately instead of waiting for the next update cycle. The Stonewall and Sarissa also received significant buffs in the form of a new burst-fire targeting method, and the PD Controller is now capable of using fire-control radars and illuminators to supplement its existing capabilities.
Performance
A number of significant optimizations have been made as well as removal of unnecessary additional processing left in to either support cut features or assist with debugging. Overall, most players should experience huge performance improvements in large battles. Missile processing time was also significantly improved, and large numbers of missiles should no longer cause significant lag or frame stuttering.
In the worst testing scenarios we ran, which dragged the game down to as little as 6 FPS, we can now see a steady 60 FPS after the optimizations.
There are also dozens of other quality of life improvements and new features, which you can find a full list of in the consolidated patch notes below. All in all, we hope all of you have as much fun with the update as our testers have been having for the last few months, and we're so excited to finally get it into the hands of all of our players!
Finally, we'd love to hear your feedback and reviews of NEBULOUS - positive or negative - especially on how you feel Early Access is going. All reviews and feedback are deeply appreciated and enormously helpful to guide our development. Thank you!
See you in the battlespace,
- The NEBULOUS Team
Consolidated Patch Notes, v0.3.0.54
Ships:
- NEW: Added new faction Outlying Systems Protectorate.
- NEW: Added randomized modular hull system.
- NEW: Added Bulk Freighter class Lineship.
- NEW: Added Container Liner class Lineship.
- NEW: Added Cargo Feeder class Monitor.
- NEW: Added Tug class Clipper.
- NEW: Added Shuttle class Clipper.
- NEW: Added Emergency Reactor Shutdown button to the damage control board.
- CHG: Decreased hull-componentdr stat max value to 50%.
- CHG: Increased Vauxhall Light Cruiser angular motor power to increase turning speed by roughly 33%.
- CHG: Updated ship roll priorities to account for side-mounted fixed weapons.
- CHG: Increased size of Raines frigate compartment 5 to be 4x1x6 (was 3x1x5, not found anywhere else).
- CHG: Increased armor thickness of Sprinter corvette to 8cm (was 5).
- CHG: Reduced DC Priority of all thrusters to Low (was Medium).
- FIX: Fixed damage effect scaling on Solomon BB, so they are consistent with other hulls.
- FIX: Eliminated phantom roll forces causing ships to roll off target when turning.
- FIX: Fixed structure break stat modifiers making crew less vulnerable to damage instead of more.
- FIX: Fixed ship thruster power not varying with direction. All ship thruster values adjusted for balance.
- FIX: Fixed integrated comms antennas not receiving stat modifiers.
- FIX: Ships with high top speeds will no longer appear to get stuck in space when directly approaching an asteroid.
- FIX: Fixed ships not being able to approach extremely close to asteroids.
Weapons:
- NEW: Added C30 100mm Casemate.
- NEW: Added T20 100mm Cannon Turret.
- NEW: Added T30 100mm Cannon Turret.
- NEW: Added 100mm AP, HE, HE-HC, and Grapeshot Shells.
- NEW: Added C53 250mm Casemate.
- NEW: Added C60 450mm Casemate.
- NEW: Added C65 450mm Casemate.
- NEW: Added C81 Plasma Casmate.
- NEW: Added T87 Plasma Turret.
- NEW: Added 400mm Plasma Ampoule.
- NEW: Added TE45 Mass Driver.
- NEW: Added 500mm Fracturing Block.
- NEW: Added Mk65 250mm turret.
- NEW: When a target is lost and there are no remaining roll drivers, the ship will issue itself a temporary ROL order to prevent remasking weapons.
- CHG: Removed Mk82 Railgun turret.
- CHG: Firing railgun weapons now temporarily increases the host ship's signature size.
- Mk81 Railgun turret increases by 10x per turret for 18 seconds.
- Mk550 Mass Driver increases by 12x for 18 seconds.
- CHG: 300mm railgun sabots are no longer affected by component DR.
- CHG: 300mm railgun sabots now have a 100% chance of causing a random event, but can no longer cause critical events (i.e. reactor overloads). They will also cause a random event in a random component if hitting only the structure hitbox, even if the ship is not structure-broken.
- CHG: 300mm railgun sabots now iteratively apply their damage to each component with a falloff factor in all cases instead of spreading evenly or to only one component.
- CHG: Increased 300mm railgun sabot random event multiplier to 100 (was 2), but disability ability to trigger critical events.
- CHG: Doubled component search distance for 120mm and 250mm shells.
- CHG: Refactored fixed weapon aiming logic to work cooperatively with multiple weapons.
- CHG: Fixed weapons can now be grouped.
- CHG: Added casemate controller logic for side mounted fixed weapons.
- CHG: Reduced muzzle spread on Mk61 and Mk62 cannons to be 0.15 (was 0.25).
- CHG: Increased 120mm HE-RPF ray damage to 8 (was 6).
- CHG: Increased 120mm HE component damage to 50 (was 45).
- CHG: Increased 120mm AP component damage to 30 (was 25).
- CHG: Increased 250mm AP component damage to 70 (was 60) and lowered overpen multiplier to 0.45 (was 0.6).
- CHG: Increased 250mm HE component damage to 80 (was 75).
- CHG: Narrowed damage ray cone of 120mm RPF to be 5 degrees (was 7.5).
- CHG: Narrowed damage ray cone of 250mm RPF to be 6 degrees (was 10).
- CHG: Added component search distance override to 120mm and 250mm HE-RPF.
- CHG: Reduced Mk550 Mass Driver autoloader capacity to 1 (was 3) and reload time to 15 (was 45 total, accounting for recycle time).
- FIX: Capped explosive shell randomized sphere overlap position to never be greater than the distance between the entry and potential exit point.
- FIX: Munitions with wide lookahead casts will no longer be triggered by the firing ship immediately upon spawning.
- FIX: Ships will no longer spawn with components that are in their fleet file but cannot be used by their faction.
Missiles:
- NEW: Re-added MLS-3 launcher.
- NEW: Re-added MLS-2 launcher
- NEW: Added Container Bank Launcher.
- NEW: Added Container Stack Launcher.
- NEW: Added CM-4 Container missile body.
- NEW: Added Decoy Container (Line Ship).
- NEW: Added Decoy Container (Clipper).
- NEW: Added turreted missile launcher capability.
- NEW: Added RL16 Rocket Turret.
- NEW: Added RL32 Rocket Turret.
- NEW: Added S1 Rocket, unguided rocket munition.
- NEW: Added loitering missile type.
- NEW: Added ML-9 Mine Launcher.
- NEW: Added S3 Mine and S3 Cooperative Mine missiles.
- NEW: Added S3 Sprint Mine missile.
- NEW: Added Mine Container which deploys two mines at the end of its cruise path.
- NEW: Added Rocket Container which delivers 4 S1 Rockets.
- NEW: Added unique HUD icon for offboard decoy missiles.
- NEW: Added unique HUD icons for mines for both active and inactive states.
- NEW: When firing missiles from an MLS, salvo size for the targeting widgets is now based on magazine capacity for the selected launcher.
- NEW: Missiles queued for launch will now be considered "reserved" from the magazine while the order is programming, but will be returned if cancelled.
- CHG: Removed compounding cost from MLS launchers.
- CHG: Reduced MLS-3 magazine capacity to 2 (was 3).
- CHG: Increased MLS-2 socket size to C3.
- CHG: Increased MLS ejection speed to 20m/s (was 10).
- CHG: Added note to MLS launcher descriptions indicating they cannot be used to fire AMMs.
- CHG: Added missile subtype to differentiate missiles of the same size number.
- CHG: Validation seekers now assume the field of view of the primary seeker.
- CHG: Validation seekers now roll once for reliability on launch, instead of every acquisition cycle, and will return results based on that reliability. Adjusted reliability for all seekers accordingly.
- CHG: Tightened terminal maneuver envelopes to reduce misses significantly.
- CHG: Increased missile decoy size to 4 (was 3) to increase priority.
- CHG: PD Controller will now flag missile decoys as manual priority to prevent the PD Priority order from nullifying them.
- CHG: Missile decoy penaids are now ejected at the max terminal speed of the missile, even if the sprint is still accelerating.
- CHG: Set max fuzing trigger radius for blast frag warheads to be 50m instead of continuing to scale with larger warheads.
- CHG: Reduced cost of WAKE validator to 1 point (was 2.5).
- CHG: Reduced cost of ARAD seeker/validator to 2 in all-radars mode (was 4).
- CHG: Increased radiated power of Boosted Self-Screening Jammer to 0.5 (was 0.3) and decreased cost to 10 (was 14).
- CHG: Converted Self-Screening Jammer to a short-range omnidirectional jammer for countering radar AMMs. Reduced cost to 5 (was 7).
- CHG: Added one additional increment to SGM-1 warhead/engine tradeoff slider for a total of 7 (was 6).
- CHG: Added one additional increment to SGM-H-2 warhead/engine tradeoff slider for a total of 8 (was 7).
- CHG: Doubled SGT-3 maneuverability envelope.
- CHG: EO seekers will no longer track decoys of any kind, even when fired with no intel.
- CHG: Fixed Cold Gas Bottle early turn rate bonus not being applied for hot-launched misiles.
- FIX: MLS-2 and MLS-3 launchers can no longer be placed in the same group.
- FIX: Fixed missile orders not always firing the correct count when different number of the same missile were present in different launchers.
- FIX: Fixed blast fragmentation warhead not being scaled by the weighted socket size.
- FIX: Fixed beam seeker conical scan not being displayed on clients.
Point Defenses:
- NEW: Added P11 Rotary Gun PDT.
- NEW: Added P20 Rotary Flak PDT.
- NEW: Added P60 Laser PDT.
- NEW: Point defense weapons will now point in the direction of the last assigned threat when idle.
- NEW: Added DEDI option to PDTRT to limit to dedicated PD weapons only.
- CHG: Decreased cost of 20mm Slug to 1 point per 2000 (was 1 per 500).
- CHG: Stonewall and P20 PDTs recycle stat now has the subtype "Belt".
- CHG: Stonewall PDT now has a burst-fire targeting logic. It will fire a full magazine at its target, then swap to a new target. Reduced magazine size to 16 to support this change.
- CHG: PD weapons will no longer count a target as "assigned" until it fires its first shot.
- CHG: Radars which obey the LCK order can now be used by the PD Controller when not in use by the player.
- CHG: PD Controller will now task available illuminators to PDMSL targets.
- CHG: Added Dual-Purpose flag to all illuminators.
- CHG: Added Dual-Purpose flag to Mk64 Cannon.
- CHG: Increased Defender PDT cost to 20 (was 15).
- CHG: Decreased Rebound PDT cost to 15 (was 20).
- CHG: Increased 15mm Sandshot damage to 75 (was 65), increasing range to 8km (was 6.25km).
- CHG: Increased Sarisa autoloader capacity to 3 (was 1) andchanged targeting assignment mode to burst-fire.
- CHG: Adjusted Sarissa integrated FCR parameters to match new range.
- CHG: Changed Sarissa reload stat subtype to "energy-coilgun" and reduced reload time to 6 seconds (was 8).
- FIX: PD Weapons will not longer fire at invalidated tracks until told to stop by the PD Controller on the next cycle, reducing wasted ammo.
- FIX: PD weapons assigned to target A, then B, then A again will now correctly show 2 targets assigned instead of 3.
- FIX: Fixed PD Controller not firing AMMs when one of multiple types were exhausted.
Support Modules:
- NEW: Added Rapid Cycle Cradle module, decreased recycle time between autoloader shots on most weapons.
- NEW: Added new drive types: BW800, BW800-R, BW1500, BW1500-R, BW2000, CHI-777 Yard, Sundrive Racing Pro, CHI-9100 Long Haul, and CHI-6600 Drives.
- NEW: Added new reactor types: Civilian Reactor, Light Civilian Reactor, and Boosted Reactor.
- NEW: Added Large DC Storage locker, which provides no teams but holds additional restores.
- CHG: Increased Auxiliary Steering compartment HP to 300 (was 15) and added reinforced flag.
- CHG: Increased Small Workshop HP to 150 (was 75) and increased DT to 35 (was 25).
- CHG: Increased Damage Control Central HP to 200 (was 125) and increased DT to 35 (was 15).
- CHG: Increased size of Reinforced DC Locker to be 3x1x6 (was 3x1x3).
- CHG: Decreased negative effects of Prowler drive to be max speed -15% (was -25%), linear motor -25% (was -40%) and angular motor -10% (was -30%).
Debuffs/Random Events:
- NEW: Added badges to mount status display showing debuff condition.
- NEW: Made debuff count for individual components more obvious on the DC Board.
- NEW: Hovering over a component with debuffs in the DC board will show the cumulative stat effects.
- NEW: Added Gyroscope Drift debuff, increasing muzzle spread by 75%.
- NEW: Added Focusing Element Misaligned debuff for Mk600 and Mk610 beams, decreasing damage by 66%.
- NEW: Added FC Waveguide Bent debuff for weapons with integrated FC, decreasing radiated power by 50%.
- NEW: Added Heatsink Ruptured debuff for continuous weapon components that have a cooldown, increasing cooldown time by 75% and increasing BSHRT overheat probability by 90%.
- CHG: Consolidated discrete weapon reload/recycle time debuffs into Ammunition Loader Jammed and increased effects to +75%.
- CHG: Increased Bearing Surface Bent effects to slow turret traverse speed by 80%.
- CHG: Increased Sensor Antenna Bent effect to reduce gain by 50%.
- CHG: All Fire debufs (fire, mag cookoff, etc.) now do 5% of a component max HP every 30 seconds (was a flat 10 damage).
- CHG: Reduced Fire crew vulnerability multiplier to 0.1 now that fires actually do significant damage.
- CHG: Damage done to crew in a component is now proportional to the max HP of the component rather than a flat number.
- CHG: The number of debuffs currently active on a ship (with a margin of error) is now shown in the intel report, i.e. "COND: 75% (15)".
- CHG: Any non-critical debuff which is extremely dangerous (CanSpread or PeriodicDamage flags set) will have highest priority for repair immediately after critical events.
- CHG: When a roll succeeds to add a debuff to a component, there is no longer a possibility of a debuff being selected which cannot be added. All successful rolls will now result in a debuff being added if there are any possible.
- CHG: Reduced random effect probability multiplier for all non-rail weapons.
- CHG: Components with Low DC priority will be placed in the secondary job queue, placing them behind debuffs to be fixed.
- FIX: Fixed fires only having their periodic damage applied when another damage source caused the damage frame to be collected.
- FIX: Fixed some debuffs not being applied.
Sensors and EW:
- NEW: Added Ithaca Bridgemaster search radar.
- NEW: Added Bulwark Huntress search radar.
- NEW: Added R550 Early Warning Radar, a manually steerable long range radar with poor accuracy.
- NEW: Added R400 Long Range Tracking Radar, a fixed radar dish which provides accuracy tracks in a narrow cone at long range.
- NEW: Added J15 radar jamming turret.
- NEW: Added J360 omnidirectional radar jammer.
- NEW: Added jamming capability for passive sensors.
- NEW: Added L50 Laser Dazzler for jamming EO sensors.
- NEW: Added E20 Illuminator.
- NEW: Detected ELINT bearings or crossfixed will now show the general type of sensor (e.g. Search, Fire Control) when hovered over with the mouse.
- NEW: Added signature blooming mechanic. Increasing signature size now decreases the perceived distance between the sensor and the signature, allowing detection at longer range.
- NEW: Added a "Strobe" LOB track for all jamming sources.
- NEW: Added Strobe Correlator module for increasing accuracy of jamming LOBs.
- NEW: Added signature intel deception mechanics.
- NEW: Added Track Quality calculation system. Hovering over a track will show [TQ##] next to the track number. Scale is 1-15, with 15 being best.
- CHG: False tracks created by jamming will now appear as a yellow pending icon, rather than a randomized ship or missile icon.
- CHG: Non-jammer EW weapons (illuminator, directional radar) now give a general acknowledgement callback instead of a jamming callback.
- CHG: Decreased opacity for all EW area effects in tactical view.
- FIX: Stacking radars of the same type on one ship is no longer exploitable for increased accuracy.
- FIX: Fixed comms jamming not causing tracks to drop on clients.
Fleet Editor:
- NEW: Added new slot magazine loadout panel for container bank launchers.
- NEW: Hovering over a ship in the fleet editor list will show its cost breakdown in a tooltip.
- FIX: Ship template list will no longer show ship templates from a different faction than the current fleet.
- FIX: Fixed modifier list tooltips not showing modifiers from base stat type if the stat had a subtype.
- FIX: Fleets are no longer draggable in the select list when starting a quick test battle, which caused an error.
- FIX: Fixed exception in EditorShipController when exiting the fleet editor in some cases.
- FIX: Fixed fleet editor warning you about an unsaved fleet when trying to start a test battle but allowing you to continue anyway and causing an error.
Optimization:
- CHG: Optimized particle system use when not visible or not active.
- CHG: Missile ejectors now use a pooled ejection effect instead of one per object to reduce VFX script count.
- CHG: Reduced volume detection munition fixed update processing time by 97%.
- CHG: Reduced missile fixed update processing time by 70%.
- CHG: Improved shared LOD mesh optimization by sharing more materials.
AI:
- NEW: AI can now identify standoff scouts with long range radars and use them.
- NEW: AI will no longer fire on tracks with TQ <= 4 or that are only tracked via ELINT LOB.
- NEW: AI will not deploy mines when arriving at a point it has been tasked to capture.
- NEW: AI now understands how to pre-face fixed weapons on an expected enemy position.
Miscellaneous:
- NEW: Added 5 starter fleets for the OSP faction.
- NEW: Added four color scheme save slots to the player profile editor, with default ANS and OSPN colors initially.
- NEW: Added "Uniform Faction" toggle to lobby settings, requiring all players on the same team to have fleets of the same faction when enabled.
- NEW: Added epilepsy warning splash screen.
- NEW: Added cancellation buttons for ROL and HDG commands individually.
- NEW: Added minefield callout signal.
- NEW: Spectators will now see the owning player's name when hovering over a ship icon, just as teammates do.
- NEW: Added Container Bank Cookoff critical event.
- NEW: Double clicking on a ship or track icon will now auto-focus the camera on it.
- CHG: Updated all started fleets for AN faction.
- CHG: Catastrophic internal explosion events no longer have a cap of damaging 20 components.
- CHG: When hovering over non-track HUD icons, detailed information will be displayed with a fitting title rather than always being "INTEL".
- CHG: Default bot prefix is now OSPN.
- CHG: Changed default badge to Alliance Roundel.
- CHG: Ships with their command disabled will no longer be able to contest a capture point.
- FIX: Fixed turret controller aiming incorrect when aiming at high elevations on weapons with barrel offsets.
- FIX: Fixed lead solver diverging from correct firing solution at high closing velocities.
- FIX: Ships will no longer automatically return fire on tracks tagged as killed.
- FIX: Fixed turret traversal sound volume not being scaled correctly.
- FIX: Fixed disconnect error related to chat window when joining a lobby.
- FIX: Fixed an exception being thrown when more than 20 jammers were affecting a single sensor.
- FIX: Clients should now receive a correct velocity update for all ships at the end of the arrival cinematic.
- FIX: Fixed input spinner for magazine ammo counts not resetting to the capped value when entering a large number when already at the max number.
- FIX: Rebuilt Pillars navigation graph to provide missing AI routes through D-point.
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