Nebulous: Fleet Command
Devlog #27: Protectorate Edge
Update 0.2.2.38 - Fleet Editor Improvements
Stay tuned for our upcoming devlog this weekend which will give more details on the development of the OSP as well as some changes to railgun and jamming mechanics that will be coming along with the update. In the meantime, here's what's in this patch:
Fleet Editing in Lobbies
One of the most requested features over the last year has been the ability to edit your fleets while waiting in the lobby, either to kill time while waiting for other players or to make some critical last minute adjustments to fit better with your team.
You can now access the Fleet Editor directly from the Skirmish lobby by clicking the pencil icon next to your fleet's name. Your currently-selected fleet will be loaded into the editor and you can make any modifications you need. You can also create an entirely new fleet from scratch, but try not to keep everyone waiting. Whatever fleet you have open in the editor when returning to the lobby will be automatically selected for you.
Chat is also available while in the editor, accessible via the button in the bottom right, so you don't get too lost in your work while everyone else just wants to play.
Quick Testing Range
Another commonly requested feature for the Fleet Editor is the ability to quickly test out your fleets. By opening the ESC menu, you can now access the Small Testing Range directly by clicking the "Testing Range" button. The fleet you currently have loaded will be your fleet, and you will be prompted with a fleet list to select a fleet to use as your target dummies. Note that the AI is disabled when using this feature, so whatever ships you use will be static targets. If you want an actual battle, you will still need to set up your own singleplayer skirmish.
Undo/Redo System
Finally for the editor, we've added a history system to the fleet composition mode. This keeps track of adding modules, munitions, and more on an individual ship basis. If you've ever accidentally replaced or removed something, you'll probably be glad this is here. You can access the undo/redo functionality from the buttons on either side of the sub-mode select, or by the standard hotkeys Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y.
The history system is not available for the other sub-modes currently, but may come in the future.
Hybrid Missile Fixes
Two persistent issues with hybrid missiles have been fixed in this patch. The first is related to jamming, where jamming a radar seeker on a hybrid missile would cause it to stage immediately. This is because the jamming presents a false target to the seeker that is 1 kilometer away that the missile will veer off towards. Missiles without validators will still have their staging triggered by this, but missiles with validators will now know to reject the false target and remain in the cruise stage.
Additionally, a bug with command seekers causing hybrids to stage immediately after leaving the cell when fired at an approaching target has been fixed.
Automatic Mod Syncing Disabled
Unfortunately, to end on some bad news, we've temporarily disabled the automatic syncing of mods in multiplayer lobbies while we work to improve the feature's security. In the meantime, we recommend mod-friendly lobbies include acceptable mods in their names so players can pre-load the appropriate ones. For example "3K - ASMR Space Battles [SYS, PRISM, BBB, DAMN]". We're very sorry for the inconvenience, and hope to have the feature back and better than ever as soon as possible.
Full patch notes follow:
Changes/Features:
- The Fleet Editor can now be accessed from the Skirmish game lobby, in both singleplayer and multiplayer.
- Clicking the edit button on yourself (or a bot if you're the host) will take you to the fleet editor and load that fleet.
- Other fleets can be loaded at any time.
- The fleet you have active in the fleet editor when returning to the lobby will automatically be set as the selected fleet.
- Added a "Testing Range" button to the Fleet Editor escape menu to quickly test your fleet without having to return to the main menu.
- Added an undo/redo history to the Fleet Editor fleet composition mode.
- Components in the palette will now show a mod badge if they are from a mod, with a tooltip indicating the mod name.
- Added a cost breakdown to the Fleet Editor, seen by hovering over the "Breakdown" highlight next to the point cost for a ship.
- Note to modders: You will need to indicate a component's Cost Breakdown Class in its configuration, or it will always be grouped as "Other".
- Added flank speed and damage probability stats to propulsion stats block.
- Seekers set to reject unvalidated targets will no longer stage prematurely when being jammed.
- Adjusted spectator overlay ship list sizes.
- Temporarily disabled the automatic syncing of mods in multiplayer lobbies.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed "Working" modal not appearing when loading a fleet in the Fleet Editor.
- Fixed null reference with chat host when loading a saved Skirmish game.
- Fixed Home-On-Jam seekers targeting ships when auto-fired by the PD Controller.
Nominate NEBULOUS for the Steam Awards
You can click the image above if you'd like to nominate the game. Thank you to everyone for all the support this year!
Devlog #26: A Rag-Tag Fleet
The OSP faction will be our second major update, coming out in a few more months. Conquest will be our third major update, with no release timeframe currently determined. If you'd like to know more about Conquest, you can join our Official Discord and find the concept document in the #1mc-announcements channel.
Update 0.2.2.37 - Enhanced Data
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).
Update 0.2.2.36 - Fleet Management
Folders & Search
The most hotly requested feature for the Fleet Editor was the addition of folders and search functionality for the fleet list, with 25 individual mentions and a combined 509 votes in our feature request channel on the official Discord. In this update the fleet list window has been revamped to introduce folders. Your existing fleets can also be drag-dropped into your newly created folders via the in-game UI, but must be done one at a time. If you want to sort large numbers of fleets at once, you can move the files directly via your operating system's file explorer and they will be reflected in the game.
I've also added a search functionality to the fleet list. Entering any text into the top bar will display only fleets which match that text, and open all folders recursively.
Happy sorting!
Steam Cloud
As part of this release I've enabled Steam Cloud functionality to auto-sync all Fleets, Ship Templates, and Missile Templates. If you have previously been manually copying these files between computers, note that Steam will upload the versions that are on whatever computer you start the game on first after the feature is enabled, and may overwrite files with the same names on other computers.
Missile Balance Adjustments
For our first balance pass on missiles since the major update there have been some minor adjustments made. These mostly center around balancing the Cyclone, which was always the problem child for the entire internal testing period. These changes make it no longer an optimal choice over the Tempest in all cases. Their costs have gone up slightly, and the HP values have been roughly swapped between the Cyclone and Tempest to give a similar tradeoff seen with the Pilum and Atlatl. The Tempest's increased durability now means Auroras will struggle a little more to deal with groups of them, while something like a Defender still only takes 2 hits to destroy one.
The stacking penalty for missile modules has also been increased, so double stealth coatings will now have a significantly decreased effect. This only applies to modules which change stats, stacking modules like decoy launchers will be unaffected.
Stability Improvements
You don't have to look far in the #looking-for-game or #post-game channels of our discord to find someone who was disconnected from a game they were in. After some deep investigation of our netcode, the root cause of the infamous disconnected-while-loading bug has been found and squashed. I've also made some changes to the networking library we use to hopefully solve the occasional Limit Exceeded disconnect that could occur when lots of sensor activity was happening. Overall, multiplayer stability should be significantly improved.
On a completely unrelated note, the maximum file size for custom badges is now 32kb.
Other Things
And finally, a slew of other minor improvements and changes have been added. These include a deployment phase timer, shift-right-click grouping weapons on ships not in a formation, a withdraw animation for ships leaving the battlespace, and more.
As always, full patch notes follow:
Changes/Features:
- Added folder management system to fleet and ship template lists.
- Existing fleets can be drag-dropped into folders in the list.
- Added file search function in fleet and ship template lists.
- Enabled Steam Cloud support for Fleets, Ship Templates, and Missile Templates.
- Newly saved ship templates will now include missiles, if a missile of the same name is not already in the fleet.
- Does not work for existing ship templates, as they did not contain the missiles previously.
- Added an accessibility setting to disable the background noise in the tactical view.
- Opening the action menu with Shift + RMB for a ship that is not in a formation will now group its weapons as it does for all ships in a formation.
- Added a better explanation of target discrimination behavior to the EO seeker description.
- Added a 60 second time limit to the deployment phase which starts when half of all players, and one player on each team (unless the team is only one person), have clicked the Deploy button.
- Players who have not finished deploying their fleet when the timer expires will have their ship spawn locations randomly chosen.
- Tooltip when hovering over the tracked status of a ship now reads "Track by Enemy Active Sensors" for clarity.
- Ships withdrawing from battle will now play a reverse of the arrival animation before disappearing.
- Player profile badges now have a maximum size limit of 32kb.
- Added a message to the top of the badge select menu with instructions and limitations.
Balance:
- Increased S1 programming time to 6 seconds (was 3). Note that AMMs fired automatically by the PD Controller are exempt from programming time.
- Changed the stacking penalty falloff of missile support modules to 1 (was 3.5, in line with ship components) so the second instance of a module now has a 36% effect.
- Increased S2 body HP to 30 (was 20).
- Reduced S2H body HP to 25 (was 35).
- Increased S2H body cost to 4 (was 2).
- Increased S2H programming time to 10 seconds (was 8).
- Increased Fast Startup module failure rate to 20% (was 15%).
- Reduced EO seeker target selection finalization distance to 1.5km (was 2.5km) for improved target discrimination.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed several network stability related disconnects and crashes.
- Fixed some spelling and grammar mistakes in flavor text.
- Fixed many debuff types not being applied due to class name changes.
- AI ships will no longer continue firing at their last target after it has been eliminated if no other targets are detected.
- Fixed heated metal glow effect in the hull damage shader fading out almost immediately.
- Fixed parts sometimes being immediately re-destroyed after being restored if they had a pending damage frame.
- Fixed damaged components not being able to be prioritized until they had received further damage when loading a saved game of when ships were transferred to another player.
- Ships set to WCON FREE will no longer automatically return fire at tracks that are decoys, missiles, LOBs, or on the opposite side of the ship that hits are coming from.
Update 0.2.2.35 - Improved Mod Support
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.
NEBULOUS Streaming on Store page
For NEBULOUS discussion, you can also join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/57cxuE9hTn
https://store.steampowered.com/app/887570
Hotfix - 0.2.2.34:220821-1431
I hope you're all enjoying the new update so far. We've had a few issues brought to our attention that slipped through the cracks during testing, so we've had two hotfix patches since the update was released. One was on Saturday and the other this morning. Here are the notes:
Hotfix - 0.2.2.34:220820-1655
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed constant stream of NullReferenceExceptions from Intel system when getting into sensor range of a ship owned by a player that disconnected during loading.
- Fixed Intel evaluation not showing the "WARSHIP" step between "UNKNOWN" and the class.
- Fixed DC board component name text resizing and being too small to read.
Hotfix - 0.2.2.34:220821-1431
Changes/Features:
- Armor damage is no longer included in total damage numbers in the after-action report, until split reporting can be developed.
- HEKP warhead no longer shows armor damage for the explosive in its stats, as it could be confusing.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed AI ships spawning inside each other if the fleet had ships with no initial formations.
- Fixed resizable engine/warhead sockets being difficult to select when at minimum size, particularly on the Cyclone.
- Fixed HEKP warhead reporting incorrect damage dealt numbers.
See you in the battlespace,
- The NEBULOUS Team
The Modular Missiles Update
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.