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.