Nebulous: Fleet Command

Nebulous: Fleet Command is a simulation-based tactical space game in which you command fleets of warships in single-player and multiplayer battles. Plan your fleet and its loadout before combat, then manage positioning, sensors, weapons and damage across a fully three-dimensional battlespace. You can fight skirmishes against AI or human opponents, or lead a small strike-force behind enemy lines in a narrative campaign, alone or with friends.

Command in battle

You can control each unit down to its individual hardpoints, keep the fleet together, split off task units or assign ships individually. Large maps contain cover and radar occlusion, so positioning and sight lines matter, and enemies can approach from any direction. You can group weapons to engage different targets or concentrate fire, weighing each weapon’s benefits and drawbacks against the target and the broader situation.

Asteroids and gas clouds can hide ships from radar, preventing sensors from detecting them and fire-control radars or illuminators from marking targets for missiles. Electronic countermeasures can jam or confuse sensors on ships and missiles, while ships can run cool by deactivating systems to reduce their visibility at the cost of functionality. Formations can use picket ships to screen capital ships, though close groups create a larger sensor signature. Passive signal detection, radar-signature management and deception all shape the contest for information.

Campaign and skirmishes

In the narrative campaign, you lead a small strike-force behind enemy lines as a growing rebellion unfolds and enemy forces become increasingly capable. You adapt to your fleet’s strengths and weaknesses while jumping between battlespaces and deciding whether to pursue secondary objectives. These missions may strengthen your fleet, but can put your limited ships at risk. You can scavenge fuel and munitions from installations and destroyed enemy ships, then adjust your arsenal and tactics to meet changing conditions.

Skirmishes against AI or human opponents let you fight in isolated scenarios. A point-cost system balances fleets assembled from battleships, cruisers, frigates, corvettes and other ship classes. You configure ships’ munitions storage, power supplies, electronic warfare, damage control, point defense and armaments, including the missile types carried in each bay. Scouting the enemy’s fleet and adapting to its designs are important, and identifying its capabilities can take half the battle or more.

Ships and damage

Each ship’s systems and subsystems are simulated individually. Their positions affect how you orient a ship to fire and how exposed they are to enemy attacks, so you can protect vital components with point defense and defensive maneuvers that put auxiliary systems toward incoming fire and keep essential systems behind armor and hull.

Damage is tracked by component, determining which systems remain operational. Damage-control teams move between compartments to repair what they can. You can withdraw from combat to make repairs before returning to the fight, and a ship with a breach in its reactor can itself become a weapon.

Modding and campaigns

Nebulous: Fleet Command supports mods, with player-made additions including maps, ships and weapons. Its Campaign Editor lets you create and share narrative campaigns with cutscenes, scripted events and custom fleets.