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 What is NEBULOUS and why should I care? NEBULOUS is an early access space combat RTS that looks like Homeworld, but plays like Wargame: AirLand Battle. As for why you should care, if you like space and/or strategy games in general, I'd highly recommend checking NEBULOUS out. The main developer is (as I understand) an active officer in the US Navy, and the game’s realism and attention to detail reflect that. Tell me about the gameplay Similar to the Wargame franchise, you don't construct units during combat -- what you deploy at the start of each round is all you have to work with, so you had better make each ship count. Speaking of ships, there are currently 5 hulls and plans for many more. The currently available ship classes are (from smallest to largest) corvette, frigate, destroyer, light cruiser, and heavy cruiser. Each is balanced around point cost, mass, number and size of weapon mounts, speed, durability, etc. The game features extremely detailed radar and E-war systems, with various factors affecting each ship’s signature radius, emissions, etc. Various ship systems like radar and communications can be toggled off in order to run dark, but tactics like these must be used carefully, because ships under these conditions are effectively flying blind, and rely entirely on other ships to gather and transmit intel. The game features a fleet builder mode, which allows you to customize and save individual hulls, as well as combine them into fleets which can also be saved. Every single module has a points cost, and multiplayer games are typically organized around fleets with power levels in 1k increments. Whether you choose to field a swarm of corvettes or a single pimped-out heavy cruiser is entirely up to you -- your devious imagination is the limit! What game modes are available? Single player options are currently limited to a (fairly comprehensive) tutorial, as well as a player vs. AI “skirmish” mode, but development on a persistent “conquest” campaign is actively under way. The current alpha build also features a fully functional multiplayer mode, which is reasonably bug-free and a ton of fun. There are currently only 3 maps available, and 3 modes -- annihilation (last ship standing), station capture (king of the hill), and control (take and hold 5 points) I’m sold, how can I play it? The game is currently listed on steam, however it can’t be purchased there (yet). The only way to obtain a key for the moment is to back the game on Patreon at the $10/month tier. Here are the relevant links: Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/887570/NEBULOUS_Fleet_Command/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EriInd Discord: https://discord.gg/ZvFF3Ca Pics or it didn’t happen I got you, fam!     
s1ppycup fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Feb 16, 2021 |
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Feb 15, 2021 05:09
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Wargame in Space, where the ships look like they got ripped out of the Expanse? poo poo I think I literally had a dream about this a couple months ago. Sign me up!! The trailer looks like what would happen if we got to see the major fleet actions happen in The Expanse too
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Feb 16, 2021 02:23
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https://twitter.com/EridanusInd/status/1335335367889711104 lmao
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Feb 16, 2021 03:52
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I joined the Patreon and decided to have a look at this since I like crowdfunding the occasional game. My first impressions are hopeful. The UI and control is very close to Homeworld. Even down to hitting space for the sensor map. The move system is well done, when you click, you open a wheel of orders for that ship to make. It needs a lot of tuning and takes some getting used to, but I can see where it's going with the system. I really enjoy the formation system and the hotkeys are similar to Homeworld. The ships are slow and deliberate. It feels like a mix of Cold Waters or Battlefleet Gothic with a heavy Expanse vibe. Every ship is a distinct, named unit and you can tweak unit speeds and responses. When combat starts you need to give a lot of orders very quickly. The combat is fast and brutal and the ships all feel like glass cannons. I had a nice moment where I hid some ships behind an asteroid and used the other part of my fleet to kite the enemy into firing their missiles at them and follow them when they retreated. They passed the asteroid and my other ships popped out and filled them full of PDCs with a satisfying rattle and hiss. I have rarely seen a space combat game where you can pull off a move like that. It was straight out the stealth ship battle in The Expanse TV show. I know "The Expanse" is going to be thrown around this thread like it's in CQC, but it's the best visual depiction I have seen of the space battles in the books, where combat is mostly about who can shine the brightest lasers and chaff at the other ships sensors while shooting torps and PDCS. I will also say the tutorial is very good at explaining how it all works. The fleet builder is pretty straightforward but it's a little trial and error at the moment. I think there should be a variety of pre-made ships with clear classes to tweak for starting players and then build on that. But at the moment you are just putting in what you hope is right. It's not too complex and it's definitely fun messing around. This part is where the Wargame deck builder analogy comes into play. But if it's done right, it will be more like building a mech lance in Battletech. My advice starting out is to build a fleet of one ship and skirmish against an AI with the identical ship. It will give an idea of the capabilities of each weapon and ship and only controlling one ship will help you get to grips with flying and targeting without being overwhelmed. I am not going to list all the things I think they should change here or the bugs I encountered. I will probably put that on the discord. I just wanted to give a general idea of what the gameplay is like and I really like it. Even if you are not dropping into the alpha, it's well worth keeping an eye on if you are into this type of game. Lonos Oboe fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Feb 17, 2021 |
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Feb 16, 2021 12:54
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Has anyone tried this on windows 7? I'd give it a go but it claims to require 10.
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Feb 16, 2021 17:51
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Lorem ipsum posted:Has anyone tried this on windows 7? I'd give it a go but it claims to require 10. FWIW, I asked the dev about this and their reply was: "It should run on win 7, i just haven't tested it officially."
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Feb 16, 2021 20:49
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Op add a cool tagline to the thread title to lure more unsuspecting goons in here. "Wargame in SPACE" or "what if The Expanse but Videogame" or "Gaming food megathread" or something !!
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Feb 16, 2021 20:53
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The ship models all look hekkin cool.
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Feb 16, 2021 21:02
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s1ppycup posted:FWIW, I asked the dev about this and their reply was: "It should run on win 7, i just haven't tested it officially." Good enough for me to throw  at it!
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Feb 16, 2021 21:46
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OctaMurk posted:Op add a cool tagline to the thread title to lure more unsuspecting goons in here. "Wargame in SPACE" or "what if The Expanse but Videogame" or "Gaming food megathread" or something !! I don't think I actually CAN edit a thread title after it's been created...I think a mod has to do it :S If anyone knows how, please let me know!
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Feb 16, 2021 22:44
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Definitely works on windows 7. I had some trouble with zaxis stuff thoughout the tutorial but the game is really cool. I like all the systems and the pacing. After playing a few rounds against the ai, I wish there was a faster ship class or the option for much better radars as the scouting options seem limited and you can waste 10 minutes chasing nothing, but I feel like this is just a balance thing. Really neat overall, would recommend so far.
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Feb 17, 2021 05:18
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Lorem ipsum posted:Definitely works on windows 7. I had some trouble with zaxis stuff thoughout the tutorial but the game is really cool. I like all the systems and the pacing. After playing a few rounds against the ai, I wish there was a faster ship class or the option for much better radars as the scouting options seem limited and you can waste 10 minutes chasing nothing, but I feel like this is just a balance thing. Really neat overall, would recommend so far. Try out the "spyglass" radar module -- its range is ~11.5km. Check out the "spotlight" radar illuminator as well -- when used in conjunction with the pinard module, you can often detect ships at a pretty long range. The illuminator does require some fine aim though, which can be tricky in practice.
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Feb 17, 2021 16:04
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Update on how the pre alpha access works: Supporting the game is $10 per month on patreon and gives you pre alpha access. If you support for at least two months, your alpha access is permanent. So basically $10 to try the game for a month, $20 to keep it until they eventually enter early access on steam. OctaMurk fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Feb 18, 2021 |
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Feb 18, 2021 22:45
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Necroing this thread because the game drops tomorrow and I'm incredibly excited. https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/409639847356137473/929225927672623124/2022-01-07_20-05-51_Trim2.mp4
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Feb 10, 2022 16:58
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Looks pretty cool. Is it coming out in full release? Or Early Access?
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Feb 10, 2022 19:32
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It'll be an early access release. From my understanding the first release is focused more on game engine for multiplayer skirmish style fighting, with future developments focused more upon the story or conquest campaign experience. They have a public roadmap (https://trello.com/b/ZNxJIGSQ/nebulous-public-roadmap), which they've followed throughout development and plan to continue following. There's a discord which seems pretty active, which is where the developer Mazer Ludd has posted cool gifs. Utilizing the orbit command https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409639847356137473/921900517653897326/2021-12-18_15-02-52.mp4 A ship about to go critical https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409639847356137473/920830698695294976/2021-12-15_16-11-16.mp4 IAmThatIs fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Feb 10, 2022 |
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Feb 10, 2022 21:19
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBPM4mXuZv0 tempted to throw down $20 just for the spaceship building
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Feb 15, 2022 03:06
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 spent too much time designing bote more than fighting
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Feb 15, 2022 07:45
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Just had this this pop up on my youtube feed, which made it look fun enough for me to take the plunge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOXdXlx78Cc&t=913s Only had time to play through the tutorials so far, but it's already looking very promising. Properly setting waypoints in 3D space for the missiles is tricky as hell though, even though I'm somewhat experienced placing things in 3D spaces from using Blender. So far I've had the best success first setting the radius from a perpendicular perspective and then switching to a perspective where I'm basically "behind" the origin looking at the target for the bearing. But even that has about even odds of putting the course in exactly 180° the wrong direction.
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Feb 15, 2022 09:24
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Some tips that may not be immediately obvious: -Jamming works on missile, too. Different kind of missile is susceptible to different kind of jamming. (Thunderhead & Gale: Blanket, Hurricane, Mace & Riposte: Hangup) -Jamming degrades PD effectiveness. -Jamming not only creates interference on the UI, with enough jamming you can completely hide your ship from detection. In general you need at least two blankets to start hiding your ship. In short, EW is awesome. pedro0930 fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Feb 16, 2022 |
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Feb 16, 2022 02:50
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Grabbed this last night and played some of the tutorial missions and now I understand the issues some people were having with the sphere widget. I also find it difficult to find the right perspective to drop a movement order on a waypoint, it'll look like it's right on until I rotate the camera and then I realized its not all that close. The additional cues in the Sensor view make that a lot easier though. I also kinda hate the aesthetics of the current ship set. They're a little too "tall" when compared to their width or length, but that's a pretty minor quibble, especially with more shipsets to come.
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Feb 16, 2022 21:02
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I've just been playing skirmish against the CPU, but the game is fun. Lots of diversity in the ship builder, and while there aren't many maps or a real campaign, it's EA and those will show up eventually. That moment where you hit an enemy with big guns and the shell blows straight through in a cloud of particles is incredible. The game looks like a cross between Homeworld and Children of a Dead Earth, and plays pretty much like a game halfway between those to would. Some tips.
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Feb 16, 2022 21:02
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Just picked this up on Steam. Worked my way through the tutorials, impressed with it in general. I love the expanding sphere method to position yourself in 3d space, it works great to fix the clicking 3d space in 2d problem, especially when you are trying you lead missiles around an asteroid. I'll be happily following this in early access and living out my Expanse battle fantasies.
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Feb 16, 2022 21:14
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Yea, the whole setting waypoints in 3D has been a consistent complaint of mine thoughout the beta: https://twitch.tv/videos/917183115 Honestly its a really serious UI challenge so I have sympathy but it really sucks.
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Feb 16, 2022 21:37
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Anyone have any thoughts about designing tanky ships? I find that even with a Solomon with lots of damage control it's not that hard for a heavy ship to be rendered combat ineffective, though the heavier the ship the more effort it takes to actually finish it off. Like, a battleship vs roughly its point value in heavy cruisers seems to lose pretty consistently simply because the more it gets shot up the less it's able to fight back in short order while one of the enemy cruisers is free to do whatever it wants without hindrance. Also embarrassing when an early shot plugs one of your reactors and your entire weapons array goes completely offline. Feels like designing something to take hits just doesn't work very well?
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Feb 16, 2022 21:45
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Tomn posted:Anyone have any thoughts about designing tanky ships? I find that even with a Solomon with lots of damage control it's not that hard for a heavy ship to be rendered combat ineffective, though the heavier the ship the more effort it takes to actually finish it off. Like, a battleship vs roughly its point value in heavy cruisers seems to lose pretty consistently simply because the more it gets shot up the less it's able to fight back in short order while one of the enemy cruisers is free to do whatever it wants without hindrance. Also embarrassing when an early shot plugs one of your reactors and your entire weapons array goes completely offline. Feels like designing something to take hits just doesn't work very well? Ewar, PD, and cover are your best defensive layers. If you get in a brawl it kinda doesn't matter how tanky the ship is, it will go down quick and its kinda down to luck. Damage control works best when you are eating pokes from a medium/long range
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Feb 16, 2022 21:54
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Ill wait until they actually release it, Im kind of burned out on "early access".
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Feb 16, 2022 23:35
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Biffmotron posted:Missiles are better, though whiffing with a big missile barrage can leave you without a lot of options. This is kinda the game right now (that and 'beam battleships are obviously the future'). Mass missile strikes either wipe out entire enemy groups or they whiff into chaff and pd and the guy with now empty magazines quits out.
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Feb 17, 2022 00:29
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Tomn posted:Anyone have any thoughts about designing tanky ships? I find that even with a Solomon with lots of damage control it's not that hard for a heavy ship to be rendered combat ineffective, though the heavier the ship the more effort it takes to actually finish it off. Like, a battleship vs roughly its point value in heavy cruisers seems to lose pretty consistently simply because the more it gets shot up the less it's able to fight back in short order while one of the enemy cruisers is free to do whatever it wants without hindrance. Also embarrassing when an early shot plugs one of your reactors and your entire weapons array goes completely offline. Feels like designing something to take hits just doesn't work very well? For beating heavy cruisers (or really any close range brawl) ensure you're bringing something more than just railguns. Railguns are great for their long range, high accuracy, and high travel speed but don't do as much damage as you'd expect: a 300mm diameter hole through your ship hurts, a 450mm packed full of explosive detonating inside the hull hurts much more. Ensure you have enough redundancy or spare capacity to survive some component losses: if you're running at 97% power capacity then as soon as the reactor output drops from damage expect weapons to go offline, especially if all you're bringing is something as power-hungry as railguns. Note that you are absolutely right about it being hard to completely knock out a heavy ship. Killing a heavy ship takes either an extreme amount of firepower or an extreme amount of luck. Rendering it irrelevant or harmless is not easy, but is significantly more achievable. Once it stops firing back switch targets unless your guns have literally nothing else to do. Intel Centers can give you a rough estimate of an enemy ship's current condition. And finally, never choose a fair fight. Use asteroids to restrict firing angles, emerge where unexpected, bring friends.
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Feb 17, 2022 02:34
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Yeah, I've just learned the same thing about railguns the hard way. Great range, accuracy, and seems to basically ignore armor, but thoroughly mediocre raw damage potential. It's the sort of thing that's decent as a backup weapon on a missile boat to keep it relevant between/after salvoes, or maybe one turret on a heavy cruiser or battleship to give it some long-range / AP option as it closes in towards cannon range. But a full railgun gunship mostly seems to be a waste of points. Also, has anybody manage to make an effective wild weasel type ship with the radar spoofer and amplifier? I tried it on the the smaller hulls, basically with that and otherwise filled up with PDCs, chaff, and anti-missile missiles, but couldn't quite yet get it to work. Even wholly dedicated to it, it seems like the smaller hulls simply can't bring enough counter measures to the table to survive a solid salvo on their own. It might work on the larger hulls, but that just doesn't quite seem worth the points.
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Feb 17, 2022 09:36
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Which ones are the smaller hulls? Maybe a destroyer would work?
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Feb 17, 2022 09:43
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Saros kindly donated a few pages of his discord for goons looking to theorycraft/play: https://discord.gg/3P536PjHEB
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Feb 17, 2022 19:22
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This game is loving sick and I can't get enough of it. This is literally the space combat game I've always dreamed about, super excited to see how it continues to develop. If you are on the fence it's an absolute purchase
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Feb 17, 2022 20:51
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Perestroika posted:Also, has anybody manage to make an effective wild weasel type ship with the radar spoofer and amplifier? I tried it on the the smaller hulls, basically with that and otherwise filled up with PDCs, chaff, and anti-missile missiles, but couldn't quite yet get it to work. Even wholly dedicated to it, it seems like the smaller hulls simply can't bring enough counter measures to the table to survive a solid salvo on their own. It might work on the larger hulls, but that just doesn't quite seem worth the points. Hypothetically you only need two things to make a perfect wild weasel: the 'Interruption' comms jammer dome and a VLS full of chaff. Hurricanes and Maces are command-guided which means they receive guidance from the launching vessel and at any reasonable engagement range the comms jammer will overpower those transmissions, leaving them entirely unguided. Gales and Thunderheads both seek radar returns with the only difference being whether the illuminator is on the launching vessel (Gales) or on the missile itself (Thunderheads), and a bundle of chaff is wildly more attractive than any ship to their undiscerning eyes. As for Squalls, since they are anti-radiation simply do not enable the jammer. I say "hypothetically" because things are a lot fuzzier in an actual match than this whitepaper perfection. Even when blinded missiles will happily run straight into anything that has not moved sufficiently out of the way, and chaff deflection is more a matter of probability than certainty.
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Feb 18, 2022 09:46
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I just can't see the practical utility of a spoofer ship. People only really shoot things they have identified as threats, and in a 3v3 or 4v4 game there's plenty of sensor coverage to go around. Best case scenario someone takes a few shots at you, but was that worth dumping all of those points to make a ship that's not combat effective? I'm having fun with a fleet that's 2 DD's crammed full of missiles and a Jammer FF.
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Feb 18, 2022 10:42
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Just picked this up, and really excited to see how things play out. Is there any way to play with multiple people on a side, each controlling only a single ship?
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Feb 19, 2022 01:51
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Yes team games are the default, you can set the points however you want and at around 2-3kpt a single battleship is a valid strat.
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Feb 19, 2022 02:01
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You can even have uneven team numbers, both in player and point count. Here is a video of (one of?) the dev taking on four players with 10k points vs their 12k. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-9LOjsB3Mg
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Feb 19, 2022 03:22
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I'm sensing that more and more people are getting wise to the fact that trying a single 3k bb will get you wrecked by missiles.
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Feb 19, 2022 12:55
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As it turns out, the devs' youtube channel also has a number of video tutorials, some of which give some more complete information than the ingame text and tutorials. I'll try to collate everything to do with missiles and their counters, as that's a thing that I constantly find myself having to look up. Missiles Hurricane
Countermeasures Defender PDT
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Feb 20, 2022 23:32
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