Hello Spacers,

Another round of Public Testing Branch is completed and the fruits of it are now available for all on the Live branch! This patch adds a lot of new features to increase craft build diversity and addresses some balance concerns.

Modular Spacecraft

Fixed sockets have existed on spacecraft since the release of the carriers update, but this minor update adds a whole slew of new sockets and accompanying modules to put in them. These new modules can greatly enhance craft survivability, stealth, and offensive ability, allowing you to invest in your spacecraft and get better results from them. The new modules include things like stealth coating, ceramic tiling, different countermeasure launcher types, missile decoy projectors, missile computers, helmet-mounted displays, and more.

Spacecraft Fuel Rebalance

The most important and far-reaching balance change for carriers and craft is a near-total rebalance of fuel capacity and burn rates. The end result of these changes it that craft cruise ranges are generally unchanged, but loitering times have been greatly reduced. Loitering flights near the carrier to build up large deathballs or at a hidden point in the map to wait many minutes for an enemy flight or ship to come by is no longer possible. Additionally, fuel tanks which did not overlap with S2 weapon mounts (e.g. Tanto fuel pods, Barracuda upper fuel pods) have been removed to make additional fuel capacity mutually exclusive with fighter S2 Strike or SDM-2 Anti-Craft missiles.

With craft having to visit the carrier more frequently, turnaround times have been decreased with a faster post-flight speed multiplier as well as a general pre-/post-flight speed buff for the Levy hull.

Defensive Behaviors

Craft defensive behavior settings have now been exposed to the player with three new options in the craft info bar. These options allow you to control whether craft go defensive against missile threats automatically or only on manual trigger, the specific tactic they will use to defend, and when they will launch countermeasures. All of these settings can be left on AUTO to maintain the default behaviors you're used to.

Additionally, craft now have a limited number of countermeasure patterns that they can deploy. The quantity and type of pattern can be changed by selecting a different countermeasure launcher for the design in the fleet editor.

Protectorate Hull Costs

In order to incentivize the use of more heavily-invested ships instead of numerous empty hulls on the OSP team we have shifted some of the cost of common builds away from components and onto the hull itself. Some OSP ships have had their hull costs increased and some of the components which were used in high-investment builds had their costs decreased. On average, most of these builds should result in a net cost change of zero.

Multiplayer Community Features

And finally, we've added a few new icons you'll notice in the server browser which indicate new features available to dedicated servers:

• Rank Restricted: These servers only allow players below a certain rank to play, though anyone can spectate.

• AutoBalanced: These servers have a built-in team balancing feature which will keep total team ranks roughly even while minimizing the number of players it has to move around. These balances can be done automatically or only by vote, depending on the server configuration.

• Competitive: These servers will have a special icon in the server list, indicating that they are intended for hardcore/competitive play.

The official ERI servers will be down for a short time following this patch while we reconfigure them with the new settings. The new official servers will now feature 2x new player servers, 2x autobalanced casual servers, 2x general casual servers, and 2x competitive servers.

As always, full patch notes follow.

See you in the Battlespace,

- The NEBULOUS Team

Changes/Features:

- Added new static sockets to all spaceframes (not all types available on all frames): Avionics, Fuselage, Engine, Countermeasures.

- Added craft static socket configuration to loadout selection tooltip along with ammo contents.

- Added craft static socket configuration to the tooltip for craft silhouettes on the info bar.

- Added 15 modifiable stats to all spacecraft.

- Craft can no longer fire infinite countermeasures. Available countermeasure patterns are automatically restocked on launch.

- Added craft group countermeasure status to craft info bar and tooltip for individual craft icons.

- Added tooltip to flight ops board craft filter list showing static socket configuration for each filterable craft type.

- Added active sensor EMCON toggle for craft.

- Added three defensive posture options to craft groups.

- DEFND controls whether craft defend automatically or only on manual trigger.

- DFTAC controls the tactic craft will use.

- CTRM controls when countermeasures will be deployed.

- Added ability to manually trigger craft evasion with Shift + Z.

- Disabled craft self defense behavior against S2 missiles which usually resulted in flying into the prox trigger.

- Decreased Tanto centerline fuel tank storage capacity to 1000 (was 2500) and increased mass to 8 (was 0).

- Removed Tanto inboard wing fuel pods.

- Reduced Tanto 15mm coilgun ammo capacity to 6 shots (was 10).

- Decreased Barracuda underwing fuel pods storage capacity to 1000 (was 2750) and increased mass to 8 (was 4).

- Removed Barracuda overwing fuel pods.

- Rebalanced Tanto and Barracuda fuel consumption rates to disadvantage long loitering.

- Decreased Tanto, Barracuda, and Pike nose cone radar range to 3km (was 4) and FOV to 60 (was 120).

- Significantly reduced Pike maneuverability.

- Decreased Pike S1 Pylons loading speed to 0.2x (was 0.5x).

- Illuminator pods on the Tanto, Barracuda, and Pike can now be used for the Designate Target order.

- Increased Tanto and Barracuda Jammer Pods range to 3km (was 2.5) and added ability to designate targets at 2.75km.

- Decreased Sturgeon base fuel to 1700 (was 2000).

- Decreased Sturgeon 100mm Gun Pods ammo storage capacity to 20 rounds (was 40).

- Rebalanced Claymore and Sturgeon fuel consumption rates to reduce massing potential.

- Decreased Claymore and Sturgeon nose cone radar FOV to 60 degrees (was 120).

- Increased Claymore S2 Bay capacity to 6 missiles (was 4).

- Decreased speed of R-1 Rocket to 350m/s (was 400) and increased flight time to 8.5 seconds (was 7.5).

- Decreased R-3 rocket damage pool to 1500 (was 3000) and decreased point cost to 3 (was 4).

- Decreased R-3 Spearfish rocket submunition cost multiplier to 0.5x (was 1).

- Decreased KBU-22 submunition cost multiplier to 2x (was 4).

- Converted FBU-15 to an actual rocket and set flight speed to 300m/s.

- Increased FBU-15 per-ray damage to 20 (was 15) and decreased ray count to 35 (was 45).

- Added 2x multiplier to post-flight speed compared to pre-flight.

- Increased Levy hull-spacecraftarmingspeed intrinsic modifier to +50% (was +20%).

- Decreased overheat damage probability for Mk600 Beam Cannon and Mk610 Beam Turret to 60% (was 80%).

- Decreased Mk600 Beam Cannon and Mk610 Beam Turret aimpoint selection interval to 5 seconds (was 10).

- Increased Marauder LN base hull cost to 375 (was 300).

- Increased Flathead Monitor base hull cost to 200 (was 175).

- Reduced C65 point cost to 40 (was 45).

- Rearranged Tug's compartments to reduce total center stack HP.

- Increased Tug's structure hitbox size.

- Increased Tug base hull cost to 100 (was 75).

- Reduced Bloodhound LRT cost to 15 (was 40) and R550 EWR cost to 40 (was 65).

- Decreased Damage Control Complex point cost to 55 (was 80) and increased compounding cost multiplier to 4x (was 3).

- Decreased MLS-2 and MLS-3 point cost to 15 (was 20).

- Reduced SDM-2 booster stage burn time envelope to 8-13 seconds (was 10-15), resulting in boost range envelope of 6.8km-8.45km (was 8.5km-9.75km).

- Added different server icon for official dedicated servers.

- Official servers will now sort to the top of the match list by default.

- Added "New Player Mentor" badge for players in lobbies.

- Added ability for dedicated server hosts to mark their server as "Competitive".

- Servers marked "Competitive" will now be filtered for new players by default.

- Added server label tags to multiplayer filters.

- Multiplayer game filters will now be saved across restarting the client.

- Added autobalance options to dedicated servers with configurable rank discrepancy threshold.

- Added !voteautobalance and !autobalance (admin) chat commands to dedicated servers with any autobalance option enabled.

- Updated some player conduct report details.

- Updated all starter fleets.

Bug Fixes:

- Fixed CBU bomblets having unintended fratricide damage.

- Fixed Tanto 15mm coilgun PIP priority conflict with wing guns.

- Fixed some parts of the Flathead Monitor's random point volume being outside the hull.

- Fixed continuous weapons not continue to cool down when BSHRT is toggled while off target.

- Fixed ships evaluating ROL orders incorrectly when translating directly up or down

- Fixed FQ indicator being hidden behind flight ops board.

- Fixed misalignment of Journeyman's lower main engines.

- Fixed WeaponComponent.UpdateTargetOffset being called on clients.

- Fixed its/it's mistakes in fleet design tips and new craft modules.

- Fixed multiple map votes being able to occur at the same time.

- Fixed missile and bomber support decoys not being acquired as visual tracks when radar was off/disabled.

- Fixed target designation orders continuing to function after a craft was destroyed.

- Fixed carrier pads being held in the up position by a group trying to land when the last craft in the group are far from the carrier.

- Fixed decoy track icons always being red instead of using the player-selected IFF color for enemy units.

- Fixed submunition warheads triggering at their configured range instead of immediately when using a direction-only seeker

- Fixed hangars and EW modules causing a ship to count as armed for point contest precendence.

- Fixed some mouse clicks being blocked or redirected to the selected component in the missile editor.