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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