NEBULOUS: Fleet Command

From the Devs

Engage in intense tactical combat across the vast expanse of space in this heavily simulation-based tactical game featuring everything from kinetic and beam weapons to realistic radar and electronic warfare. Take command of a fleet of space warships tailored to your exact play-style and battle the enemy in single and multiplayer skirmishes, or dive into a narrative campaign – solo or with friends – to lead a strike-force behind enemy lines, managing a limited supply of fuel, munitions, and ships in the face of a growing rebellion.

NEBULOUS: Fleet Command seamlessly blends the thoughtfulness of pre-mission planning, tension of battle decision-making, pressure of real-time action, and pain of inevitable sacrifice into an intense tactical space game that will keep you reflecting on every decision – and mistake – for hours after each battle.

It's in your hands, Commodore.

Take unparalleled control of every unit right down to their individual hardpoints. Keep your entire fleet together, dynamically split off task units, or give each ship its own assignment. Large maps with lots of cover and radar occlusion make methodical positioning and sight lines critical, and massing firepower in one place is not always the best solution, as the enemy could come from any direction in the fully 3-dimensional battlespace. Covering your retreat is always in order.

Group your weapons and task them to different targets or focus fire with everything you have, but bear in mind that weapons have compounding benefits and drawbacks, all of which can be compensated for and planned against. Selecting the appropriate weapon to engage a target is as impactful as deciding which targets to engage at all.

Intelligence is key to victory and your situational awareness is never a given. Asteroids and gas clouds can hide ships behind their radar shadows, preventing sensors from detecting their presence, and ensuring illuminators and fire-control radars are unable to mark targets for missile systems.

When out in the open, electronic countermeasures take the lead as they attempt to jam, scramble, or otherwise mitigate enemy sensors on board their ships and missile systems alike, and ships can opt to run cool, turning a variety of systems inactive in order to more easily hide from detection at the cost of some functionality. Finally, a well-designed formation can provide an extra layer of defense with picket ships screening for capital ships – but multiple ships moving in close proximity produce a larger signature, making them more easily spotted by enemy sensors, especially when exposing a larger face to the enemy.

Occlusion, passive signal detection, balancing radar signature size, and the ability to deceive the enemy makes the fight for intel a critical part of every battle.

Face a growing rebellion in the narrative campaign as you take command of a small strike-force operating behind enemy lines, adapting to its strengths and weaknesses as you face off against increasingly capable enemy forces. Play alone or with friends as you jump from battlespace to battlespace and balance the risk of engaging with secondary objectives that might strengthen your fleet while putting your limited ships in harm's way to accomplish them. Scavenge munitions and fuel from installations and destroyed enemy ships, modifying your arsenal and tactics to overcome evolving circumstances.

Meanwhile, skirmishes against the AI and human opponents allow you to test your mettle in isolated combat scenarios, where fleet design allows you to choose between multiple classes, configuring everything from their munitions storage, power supply unit, and electronic warfare capabilities to their damage control systems, point-defense capabilities, and armaments – right down to the types of missiles each bay carries.

A point cost system keeps fleets balanced as you design battleships, cruisers, frigates, corvettes and more, arriving at the battlespace with little idea as to what your opponent might be fielding. Scouting enemy fleet composition and adapting to their designs will be essential to securing victory, and at times you may spend half the battle (or more) trying to accurately determine your adversary's capabilities so that you can strike with precision and force. Express your tactical identity through the design of your fleet, and each individual ship within.

Each system and subsystem aboard your ships perform specific tasks and are tracked and simulated individually. Their position on your ship can determine optimal facing when unleashing a salvo, or the risk factor when enemy systems open fire. Vital systems should be protected with the help of point-defense systems and defensive maneuvering that presents auxiliary systems towards incoming fire while keeping essential systems hidden behind the armor plating and hull.

Damage is modeled for individual components, determining which ship systems remain active under enemy fire, and damage control teams work rapidly to repair what they can as they move from compartment to compartment. Retreating from active combat to repair damaged components before re-engaging is not only a viable strategy, but at times, an essential maneuver, and in a worst-case scenario, a ship with a breach in its reactor can be quite a potent weapon in its own way.

NEBULOUS has extensive modding support, with hundreds of player-made mods available on Steam Workshop including new maps, ships, weapons, and more. Use the robust Campaign Editor to design your own narrative campaigns, complete with cutscenes, scripted events, custom fleets, and the tools needed to tell and share your own stories in the world of NEBULOUS: Fleet Command.