The Carriers Update

Hello Spacers!

There’s a new hum in the void of NEBULOUS: Fleet Command — the Carriers Update, where fighters, bombers, and utility craft bring a smaller, keener edge to the battlespace. For the first time, fleets come alive with the buzz of small spacecraft darting between capital ships, running recon, delivering precise torpedo strikes, and engaging in chaotic dogfights. If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to watch the trailer below:

This update is the largest we've ever done and goes so far beyond just adding small spacecraft and a few carrier hulls. We've made tons of additions and changes in just about every area of the game, including new missile types, weapon types, tweaks to existing components and hulls, new mechanics, and a total rewrite of the game's AI opponent. If you're interested in the details of all the work that went into this update, and to find out what's coming in the future, check out the last devlog in the carriers series here:

Here's an overview of many of the new features coming in the update:

Fighters, Bombers, and Utility Craft

First and foremost, the update adds three new unique spaceframes per faction - one fighter, bomber, and scout each - as well as one shared utility skiff design. The Alliance's craft focus on speed and stealth, while the Protectorate's have more flexibility to interchange a wide variety of loadouts mid-battle.

Every spaceframe has a set of unique weapons and capabilities which can be configured in the new fleet editor module. They also have unique maneuvering characteristics, giving each a different edge in different situations.

Customizable Loadouts

The most unique feature and benefit of spacecraft, compared to anything else in the game previously, is the ability to tailor them for different missions in the middle of battle. The fleet editor's loadout matrix allows you to configure a set of weapons and modules that each craft can take off with for a sortie, and they can be selected in battle as you need them to adapt to whatever circumstances present themselves.

Carrier Hulls & Modules

The Alliance's Levy-class and Protectorate's Journeyman-class join the faction rosters. The Moorline container liner fills the role of fleet carrier with it's massive container bank hangars, and three new types of mounted hangars enable larger ships with C4 and C5 mounts to carry a few craft of their own.

Bombs, Missiles & Submunitions

It wouldn't be a Nebulous update without missiles. This time around we're adding a slew of new rocket weapons, as well as unguided bombs for the first time ever. There are also two new two-stage modular missile bodies specifically designed for anti-spacecraft defense: the SDM-1 and SDM-2. A new Submunition Dispenser warhead has been added to replace the existing rocket and mine containers, allowing you to build more complex and capable submunition weapons than the old pre-built ones. And finally, on top of all those new toys, this update includes a huge collection of missile tweaks, seeker behavior improvements, and bugfixes.

AI Overhaul

The AI opponent has been completely rewritten from scratch to be able to give even experienced players a run for their money. The new AI is capable of all kinds of advanced tactics from bow tanking to cruise missiles strikes, now has complex knowledge of the map and how to move effectively in it, and has a comprehensive set of scenario-specific strategies for victory. And best of all, the new AI is fully moddable.

There are some things the AI isn't great at yet, like using jammers to softkill missiles or illuminating it's own semi-active missiles, but the next few minor updates will focus on further improvement on top of what is already a night-and-day difference with the old AI.

New Tutorials

As is necessary with major new mechanics, we've added a set of two new tutorials to help you get your feet underneath you for carrier operations. Additionally, using the new updated AI, we've added a seventh mission to the basic tutorial series, "Final Battle Problem", which walks the player through a full skirmish battle.

Finally, we'd love to hear your feedback and reviews of NEBULOUS - positive or negative. We hope you love this update as much as we do, and thank you so much for playing our game.

See you in the battlespace,
- The NEBULOUS Team

Consolidated Patch Notes, v0.5.2.1

Spacecraft:
- NEW: Added small spacecraft and associated behaviors.
- NEW: Added unique Halberd skiff spaceframe variant to each faction.
- NEW: Added new Alliance spaceframes:
- Tanto Interceptor
- Claymore Bomber
- Sundial SEWAC
- NEW: Added new Protectorate spaceframes:
- Pike Scout
- Barracuda Strike Fighter
- Sturgeon Bomber
- NEW: Added unique bespoke weapons for all spaceframes.
- NEW: Added unique bespoke EWar components for all spaceframes.
- NEW: Added selectable sensor types for some spaceframes.
- NEW: Added craft statistics to battle report.
- NEW: Added voice callback system with flight identifiers for craft groups.

Ships:
- NEW: Added new carrier hulls:
- Alliance Levy class escort carrier.
- Protectorate Journeyman light carrier.
- NEW: Added Container Bank Hangar component.
- NEW: Added "CV" hull symbol option to Moorline hull.
- NEW: Added Bulk Internal Hangar component.
- NEW: Added Small, Medium, and Large Mounted Hangar components.
- NEW: Added hull socket cutouts for all C4 and C5 mounts for components which have interiors that descend into the hull.
- NEW: Added 2 C1 mounts to all Marauder bow and core segments.
- NEW: Hull structure will no longer receive any damage if the damage is less than 20 points.
- NEW: Replaced Moorline hull with Moorline Refit, converting some C2 mounts to C4s and C3s.
- CHG: Original Moorline hull now inaccessible in the fleet editor, but will remain in assets for fleet compatibility.
- CHG: Increased the lower XL compartment in all Moorline Cores to 8x3x16 or 16x3x8 (was 8x3x8).
- CHG: Decreased Marauder LN hull cost to 300 (was 350).
- CHG: Increased Marauder hull structure HP to 4000 (was 3000).
- CHG: Added +20% hull-spacecraftarmingspeed buff to all AN hulls.
- CHG: Increased depth of Draugr Mount 2 to 4 units (was 2)
- CHG: Removed hull-component-max-repair intrinsic modifier from Solomon hull.
- CHG: Increased Vauxhall lateral thruster power to 90% (was 80).
- CHG: Decrease Vauxhall CL armor thickness to 26cm (was 30).
- CHG: Increased depth of Flathead mounts 4 and 5 to be full C3 sized (was shallow).
- CHG: Decreased Axford hull-component-max-repair bonus to +10% (was +15).
- CHG: Added +1 hull-missilechannels modifier to Draugr and Flathead hulls.
- CHG: Decreased minimum depression on all LN forward arcs to -1 degree (was 0).
- FIX: Fixed ship roll and heading orders conflicting.
- FIX: Fixed disconnect caused by restoring a component with a null resources array.
- FIX: Fixed socket short names being incorrect on multiple hulls.
- FIX: Fixed ships not being eliminated if they spawned with no CIC and/or no drives but with enough restores to restore them if they existed.
- FIX: Fixed Ocello mount 1 not being able to fire at targets directly ahead.
- FIX: Fixed Marauder Bow A DC display not actually matching silhouette.
- FIX: Fixed Draugr top mount platform not receiving armor damage.

Ship Components:
- NEW: Added Deck Gear Locker with +50% hull-spacecraftarmingspeed modifier.
- NEW: Added Spacecraft Strikedown Station compartment, allowing 1 craft to conduct pre-flight without a pad.
- NEW: Added Flight Deck Traversal System, decreasing pad reset time.
- NEW: Added Spacecraft Repair Station compartment and ability to repair spacecraft after landing with damage.
- CHG: Added a +20% hull-spacecraftarmingspeed modifier to Ammunition Elevators.
- CHG: Added Levy class to Masquerade option list.
- CHG: All magazine types now have consistent costs regardless of how large of a socket they are installed in.
- FIX: Fixed multiple compartments not having Rotate To Fit set.

Sensors & EWar:
- NEW: Added hull-sigpower-wake stat to all hulls with base value varying by hull.
- NEW: Added hull-sigpower-wake modifiers to various drives.
- NEW: Added new WAKE passive detection.
- NEW: Added J75 'Warbler' Comms Jammer for OSP.
- CHG: Wake signature size is now visible in signature summary in ship info bar.
- CHG: Refactored signature and ewar targets systems to remove all need for colliders, improving performance.

Weapons:
- NEW: Added 100mm Flak ammo type.
- NEW: Added 35mm Slug ammo type.
- NEW: Added 35mm Flechette ammo type.
- CHG: Changed Flak Round name to 50mm Flak Shell.
- CHG: Reduced 120mm RPF trigger radius to 37.5m (was 50).
- CHG: Reduced 250mm RPF trigger radius to 45m (was 60).
- CHG: Increased 100mm Grapeshot detection radius to 1.25 (was 0.75).
- CHG: Updated 100mm Grapeshot impact VFX.
- CHG: Updated Mk81 Railgun stats:
- Increased cost to 75 points (was 50).
- Decreased HP to 125 (was 300) and DT to 15 (was 30).
- Increased autoloader capacity to 3 (was 1) and recycle time to 2.5s (was n/a).
- Increased reload time to 100s (was 30).
- CHG: Decreased Mk68 and Mk66 Cannon HP to 550 and 450 HP (was 650 and 550) respectively.
- CHG: Ungrouped weapons will now automatically split fire when ordered to attack a set of grouped tracks.
- CHG: Removed dual-purpose flag from T30 Cannon.
- FIX: Fixed continuous weapons on BSHRT doing an extra damage roll every time they switched targets.
- FIX: Fixed magazines below their functioning threshold still being able to provide ammo.
- FIX: Fixed turret controller getting stuck in a bad state, preventing them from firing even outside forward arcs.

Missiles:
- NEW: Added SALS-2 'Ward' and TALS-2 'Talisman' turreted, magazine-fed missile launchers.
- NEW: Added R-1 'Perch' Rocket.
- NEW: Added R-3 'Spearfish' Rocket.
- NEW: Added KBU-15 Bomb.
- NEW: Added RBU-15 Bomb.
- NEW: Added KBU-22 Bomb.
- NEW: Added CBU-40 Cluster Bomb
- NEW: Added SDM-1 Lunge missile body.
- NEW: Added SDM-2 Typhoon missile body.
- NEW: Added ability for missiles to check for correct target aspect before being fired.
- NEW: Removed vision from all missiles in multiplayer games.
- NEW: Missiles with terminal maneuvers will now decrease their estimated maximum range for aim checks depending on how severe the maneuver is.
- NEW: Added note on terminal maneuvers affecting max range to the missile editor.
- NEW: Missiles launched as submunitions from another missile will now be added to a common submunition salvo for all parent missiles in the original salvo instead of starting one salvo per original missile.
- NEW: Added target size parameter for missiles and craft, affecting blast frag hit probability.
- NEW: Added pulsed radar only mode for ARAD seeker, which doesn't seek jamming signals but can still be jammed.
- NEW: Added new missile socket type SubmunitionWarhead, only available on CM-4 body.
- NEW: Added Submunition Dispenser warhead.
- NEW: Added CM-4 Mine Container and CM-4 Rocket Container stock missile templates.
- CHG: Removed CM-4R6, CM-4R12, and CM-4M missiles.
- CHG: Added multiple missile class compatibility to missile launchers and split SGM missiles into "Missile" and "Hybrid Missile" categories.
- CHG: Increased all container missiles to size 4 to fit submunitions of size 3, still considered threat size 3 for PD purposes.
- CHG: Increased R-2 rocket storage volume to 9m^2 (was 6).
- CHG: Decreased CM-4 and CM-S-4 minimum engine ticks to 3 (was 5).
- CHG: Added "CRAFT" option to missile defensive doctrine settings.
- CHG: Increased R-2 Rocket missile size to 2 (was 1), updated launchers and craft tags, still considered threat size 1 for PD purposes.
- CHG: Added "Detect Small Targets" option to WAKE seekers so they can now detect craft.
- CHG: Missiles with BF warheads will not detonate on missiles if fired at craft and vice versa.
- CHG: Added small positional error to all beam seekers.
- CHG: Added Wake-Thermal Seeker. Performs the same as Wake-Homing in Targeting mode, validates from all aspect for WAKE strengths > 175.
- CHG: Added 4x SUBM cost multiplier to M-50 Auger Sprint Mine.
- FIX: Mixed missile salvo planner can now account for ships in formation which do not have a uniform missile complement.
- CHG: Blast fragmentation warheads will now do 50% damage on a failed roll for targets over size 0.5.
- CHG: Revised Blast Frag and BFEL hit probability graphs to account for non-linear dot product values.
- CHG: Added bonus curve to BF and BF EL warheads, determined by target size. Missiles are 0 and craft range from 0.6 to 1.0. At size 0 the bonus is 0.0 and at size 1 the bonus is 0.4.
- CHG: Modular missile fuzes are now only active in the final stage.
- CHG: Decreased Lock Target TTGI for EO and all Radar missile seekers to be 2.5 seconds (was 3).
- CHG: Turreted missile launchers will now behave like other weapons and not queue orders like VLS launchers do.
- FIX: HE Impact warheads will now deal full damage instead of just one ray to simple targets like missiles and craft.
- NEW: Added random 50m deviation to initial position "guided" missiles without seekers are fired at when fired from craft.
- FIX: Fixed mines sitting on rocks not triggering due to erroneous obstruction.
- FIX: Fixed missiles resetting their flight time when transitioning between search and seek states.
- FIX: Fixed NRE when a missile attempted to validate a null target.
- FIX: Fixed Fixed Radar, SAR, and SEAR seekers having different validation costs despite having the same behaviour.
- FIX: Fixed missile staging issues when the target travels at a comparable speed to the missile's final stage.
- FIX: Fixed modular missiles without a seeker not being able to accept waypoints.
- FIX: Fixed direct missiles with terminal maneuvers not flying along the connecting line when on min angle.
- FIX: Fixed missile seekers not applying current target affinity weight to decoy signatures.
- FIX: Fixed missiles gauging TTGI based on max speed instead of current speed.
- FIX: Fixed mixed salvos reporting incorrect weapon count when firing by position with less than the max number of missiles.

Point Defenses:
- NEW: Prioritizing a PD target will cause the AMM salvo count to be cleared, immediately refiring.
- NEW: PD Controller will now prefer to fire a defensive missile with matching doctrine at a z-prio target, rather than just the first available missile.
- CHG: PD Controller now uses predicted intercept time calc as fallback, but checks if last launched AMM is still in flight as primary check before firing second salvo.
- NEW: Added NEZ calculation to ship PD Controller so ACMs can't be baited/kited.
- NEW: Added a NEZ toggle to the PDMSL setting menu.
- CHG: Divided all missile and craft skin thicknesses and all PD weapon armor pen by 10 to get more realistic values.
- CHG: Decreased Mk90 Aurora PDT armor pen to 0.275 (was 0.3).
- CHG: Decreased 15mm Sandshot armor pen to 0.275 (was 0.3).
- CHG: Increased P20 Bastion PDT fire rate to 240 RPM (was 180).
- CHG: Increased size of EA99 to S2 (was S1) and storage volume to 20 (was 4).
- CHG: Added 1 second gap time between defensive missile fires for VLS-2 and VLS-3.
- FIX: Fixed PD turrets anticipating a target entering range, allowing them to be baited into wasting ammo on a static target outside range.

Fleet Editor:
- NEW: Added Spacecraft Editor mode to fleet editor.
- NEW: Added configurable loadout options for craft.
- NEW: Added "Carried Craft" block to ship stats in fleet editor.
- NEW: Added full loadout count stats for each craft type in the fleet editor.
- NEW: Added fleet editor design warning when at least one craft loadout on the ship does not have any ammo.
- CHG: "For Current Mounts Only" now accounts for craft loadouts.
- CHG: Fragmentation warheads now show fractional damage in their stats.
- FIX: Fixed turreted missile launchers not showing arc restrictions in the fleet editor.
- FIX: Fixed NRE in missile editor when having a missile component selected and leaving the editor.
- FIX: Fixed time overflow in fleet editor ammo endurance display.
- FIX: Fixed having a missile engine axis locked and switching to another engine visually updating the triangle on the other engine to match the first's locked value.
- FIX: Fixed formatting error in fleet editor socket tooltips.

UI:
- NEW: Added contextual order system for spacecraft.
- NEW: Added new rebindable group hotkeys 1-20.
- NEW: Added flight management UI to skirmish ship info bar.
- NEW: Added craft groupings to skirmish friendly ship list.
- NEW: Added "furball tracker" UI showing summary of craft engaged in combat with other craft, visible in the tactical view or all views in verbose mode.
- NEW: Added deck status to ships based on heading and speed, defining when craft can be launched/recovered.
- NEW: Added polar plot showing ship heading and speed relative to green deck speed.
- NEW: Added FQ throttle option to keep ship below green deck speed, only available on ships that carry craft.
- CHG: Updated name format of missiles with submunitions in battle report.
- CHG: Ships transferred from a disconnected player will now be assigned hotkey numbers.
- CHG: Opening the Flight Menu or DC Board will now close the Action Menu, if open.
- CHG: Decreased size of LOB HUD markers and thickness of bearing lines in tac view.
- NEW: Bearing and crossfix HUD icons can now show unique letters in the center defined by sig type.
- NEW: Added ability to automatically group some HUD icons.
- NEW: Enemy jamming LOBs from the same source ship are now grouped on the HUD.
- FIX: Fixed EMCON button being interactible on disabled ships.
- FIX: Fixed NRE in pointer widget when hovering a HUD icon that disappeared.
- FIX: Fixed many UI elements which were preventing scrolling when passing the mouse over them.
- FIX: Fixed lock target pointer widget (when pressing X) tooltip showing ability to add multiple targets.
- FIX: Fixed tooltip not being correctly adjust on screen sometimes.
- FIX: Fixed UI drop flag button not working.
- FIX: Fixed flags teleporting to random locations when dropped by a ship that was carrying them.
- FIX: Fixed ammo quantity indicators not changing color to match status when ammo quantities increased.

AI:
- NEW: AI opponent completely rewritten from the ground up.
- NEW: Added moddable ship role definitions allowing AI to determine ship purpose based on build.
- NEW: Added modular/moddable AI captain classes, applied to ships based on role.
- NEW: Added modular/moddable AI strategies, defining rules for assigning missions to AI-controlled task units based on the game mode.
- NEW: Added default AI strategies for all stock game modes.
- NEW: Added ability for skirmish scenarios to tell AI players which strategy to use.
- NEW: Added broad set of spatial queries to maps, allowing AI to have more comprehensive map knowledge and move more intelligently.
- NEW: Added AI difficulty levels, locking out certain more advanced tactics.
- NEW: Added ability for AI to plot cruise strikes.
- NEW: Added ability for AI to build mixed missile salvos.
- NEW: Added ability for AI to gauge required missile endurance and conserve ammo.
- NEW: Added ability for AI to calculate salvo size needed to penetrate PD nets.
- NEW: Added ability for AI to chain-restore DC lockers.
- NEW: Added ability for AI to determine armor angling by target aspect.
- NEW: Improved AI ammo selection based on target weight class and aspect.
- NEW: AI can now calculate expected remaining game time and adjust behavior accordingly.
- NEW: Added ability for AI to insert evasive "wiggle" waypoints to cruise missiles on higher difficulties.
- NEW: AI can now estimate risk of sending units to a capture point.
- NEW: AI can now calculate the number of control points needed to win vs what it has.
- NEW: Added stealthy pathfinding for certain unit types, allowing them to keep to nodes which do not have enemy sensor coverage.
- NEW: Multiple AI players on a single team will now play as one cohesive unit.
- NEW: AI player will now defer to human players if player ships on their team are moving to capture objectives.
- NEW: AI player will now retire if all human players on their team have retired.
- NEW: Added octree to Small Testing Range and Abyssal to enable AI movement.
- NEW: Added bot difficulty setting to dedicated server config file.
- FIX: Fixed pathfinding to targets getting unecessary waypoints even when there was a direct line of sight to the target.
- FIX: Fixed repeated pathfinding failures when inside an obstructed leaf.

Other:
- NEW: Added new tutorial to basic tutorial series: Final Battle Problem.
- NEW: Added new tutorial series on spacecraft operations, with two tutorial missions.
- NEW: Added log intercept function to add game time-relative timestamps to all log messages.
- NEW: Added !kick and !enddebrief admin commands to dedicated server skirmish debriefing.
- NEW: Made numerous optimizations to CPU time and memory waste for craft, PD controller, ships, and missiles.
- NEW: Added AN and OSP carrier starter fleets.
- CHG: Updated all other starter fleets.
- CHG: Updated disconnected player fleet transfer logic to account for "fleet management load".
- CHG: Removed extraneous logging from ships.
- CHG: EWar effects like jamming and illumination now pull from generic prefab pool.
- CHG: Added KnownBearing property to ITrack, removing hacky dual-purpose of KnownPosition depending on sensor type.
- CHG: Cleaned up navigation graphs for all stock maps.
- CHG: Increased Canyon default Victory Points to 1500 (was 1250) and Nyx's Eye to 1250 (was unset).
- CHG: Updated Hazel portrait and added alternate version.
- CHG: Temporarily disabled skirmish game saving and loading pending refactor for campaign.
- FIX: Added protections to all Poolable and NetworkPoolable objects to prevent disconnects if an effect is broken.
- FIX: Pooled spatial SFX emitters will now check if the object they have been attached to has a visibility script and mute themselves accordingly.
- FIX: Fixed unpooling objects on P2P hosts being delayed by one frame.
- FIX: Fixed anti-aliasing settings not being applied when starting a new game.
- FIX: Fixed level geometry not blocking reactor explosions from hitting ships.
- FIX: Fixed ReloadLocalMods console command not working.
- FIX: Fixed being able to quickly click the "edit fleet" button after clicking the start button in a solo lobby.
- FIX: Fixed 00:00 showing up at the top of all tutorial missions.
- FIX: Fixed being able to put ships in formation with allies.