Nomads release notes

[spectrez]

Exotic_Retard, thanks.) Unfortunately I have not enough time to play or to make some arts... But your modification inspires me. I know that it's a hard job. I wish success!

[Exotic_Retard]

Hello everyone,
Today is the release day for Nomads V 88
This patch is the last patch of this year, bringing the total number of nomads patches released in 2019 to 14!
Of those, 6 were major patches, and 8 were minor patches, and together thats more than one patch per month!
We believe that its very important to keep the mod updated frequently so you guys get to see all the latest features without delay, and all your help and support has been absolutely necessary to make this happen.

But if you would like to see even more progress next year, then you need to get involved too! Mods don't make themselves you know! And we need you (yes, you!) more than ever! There is every kind of work that needs doing, so dont worry if you think you dont have coding skills, because every skill is needed.

To help out with the mods development, as well as just keeping up to date or even complaining, head here:
Nomads discord server: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

You can play the newest version right now by clicking the nomads featured mod from the list on the side of the client, enjoy!


Changes for this version:
New T1 Air scout model:



If you have been keeping up with the development diaries, you may have seen some hints of the T1 air scout already, and now its time to see the finished thing in game!



This little guy doesnt have any particular special abilities, but we still made it the best that it could be! When landing, it folds its engines inwards like so:



New Unit Icons:
Amazing Ninrai has been at it again, this time fixing a long term pain involving outdated unit icons! We keep working on new models, but we havent had anyone to keep the icons matching. Now we do! And they are indeed very lovely:


This is a never ending task though since we keep cranking out new stuff, so the T1 air scout doesnt have its icon just yet, but it will be done soon! We promise!


Intel Probe:
The intel probe got a quality of life pass this patch, with it now displaying the range of all the intels that it provides, so you arent confused anymore about where those are coming from. Additionally, if you have the capacitor upgrade on your ACU you can temporarily boost the radius of the probe with it for even more spying!


Full list of changes from V87 (note that V87 was a minor patch and contains even more stuff, but isnt listed here):

Spoiler: show

Shiny new features, and design changes:
- Replaced the T1 air scout model
- Updated unit icons to match the new models

Bugfixes, code improvements and more:
- Changed the air staging icon to T1 like the vanilla game
- Renamed the Assassin to Marksman
- Renamed Orbis to Eclipse
- Fixed an issue with hotbuild keys sometimes being wrong or missing.
- Rewrote the intel probe code so it now shows the radius of the intel it gives, and is also boosted by capacitor
- Adjusted the T4 transport to work even better with the beamer, so they have better animations, and fit together perfectly.

Balance:
- Updated target priorities on all the nomads units, so now they will be much more convenient to use. enjoy!
- Updated the T2 gunship to have one type of missile that can target both above and underwater units, with bonus damage to the latter
- Changed the balance on the Leviathan into a more submarine based unit following your feedback. check it out!
- Made the T4 transport and beamer have the same range on their weapons for maximum ghetto fun
- Cleaned up a whole bunch of code regarding

Undieing gratitude goes to:

Spoiler: show

Armaster - He made the T1 scout model! We can all only aspire to be like him one day!
Apofenas - The veritable king of balance! He has been working really hard listening to all the players feedback and making sure that the units are exactly right.
Ithilis - A key part of the mod is feedback, and Ithilis has done a lot of that. Because of him, a whole bunch of changes were made, and bugs were fixed this patch.
Samuel.hxs - He renamed the Orbis and Assassin to Eclipse and Marksman! Enough said!
ShrodingersKot - He helped out with grammar and spelling issues in the descriptions and names of stuff. This work is very important since its directly what you see in game.
Ninrai - He made the unit icons, which are just. As always fantastic work and we hope that all the other icons we will need are made by him, too!
All those who left feedback on the mod on our discord server, helped with suggestions and gave comments and criticism, you know who you are!

As usual, we are always looking for new developers to help us with our work. If you are interested in contributing, or even leaving a suggestion, or simply want to keep an eye on our progress as we continue our work on this mod, feel free to join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

We look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your continued support!

Additionally, if you are looking for help, advice or support on modding supcom in general, or how to do what we do, you are more than welcome to join and ask questions. We are also offering any content and source files we created, so you can get all the resources we use, some of which is extremely exclusive!

Sincerely,
The Nomads Development Team

[Exotic_Retard]

Hello everyone,
Today its time for the first Nomads patch of the year - Nomads V 90
Since the last patch, there have been 87 commits, and we have quite a lot more things stacked up for next time. Its hard to guess the time scales now, but we might be adding a new unit every patch, possibly even more, so keep track!

But to keep things going, we need you! Yes, you! To help out with the mods development, as well as just keeping up to date or even complaining, head here:
Nomads discord server: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

You can play the newest version right now by clicking the nomads featured mod from the list on the side of the client, enjoy!


Changes for this version:

New T1 Tank model:


This has actually been a little bit of a surprise model. At some point we made the decision to make the T1 tank non-amphibious, and planned a model for it. But it was a very low priority and we didnt expect to get one any time soon. But then Redmelevolence just went and made one! After a bit of cleaning up, its now in the mod, which is his first major contribution to it. Congratulations to him for keeping up with the work until it was finished. Also: thanks to Armaster and Marlo for working on it during various stages.

This guy doesnt have any special abilities, but there is an antenna that rises up when it gets a target! So keep an eye out for that little detail. We hope you enjoy seeing the new acu helper as much as we do!



Refactoring and lag reducing:
This patch has been pretty heavy on the code, taking the time to clean up dozens of files, and thousands of lines of code! In particular thanks to speed2 for taking on the bulk of the work, who helped reduce lag with nomads significantly by rewriting the build effects from the ground up so they are a lot faster now.

Intel Probe:
Just like last major patch, the intel probe got some more quality of life changes. Most of them are behind the scenes and are aimed at making it more robust and similar, but a couple of front end changes also made it in. Now you can use the intel probe from the acu orders panel, so you dont need the abilities panel at all. Also there is now a progress bar on the ACU which shows when the next probe will be ready. In addition there was a very old bug that could reset the timer on the cooldown, which has been fixed now.

UI Changes:
We have been cleaning up a couple of niggles with the UI, most notably the unit stats and the auto-toggle, which is used for the capacitor upgrade.

The capacitor has an auto-charge mode, which has a ring that toggles and it looked pretty ugly so we made it much nicer:

and here is what it looked like previously so you can compare:


The ingame stats was a long term problem for us, since the FAF implementation is woefully inaccurate for many units and hasnt been fixed for years. This is outside of our area normally, since its the FA teams job to look after the base game, but we had to fix it after all this waiting since people kept looking up stats for Nomads units and thinking the numbers they were shown were accurate. And now they are!

Try to compare the dps stats for the UEF lobo below with the faf patch released currently, and see what the difference is!


Full list of changes from V89 (which was a minor patch so there were even more changes that arent listed):

Spoiler: show

Shiny new features, and design changes:
- Replaced the T1 tank model
- Added a new icon for the auto-mode so its easier to tell if your capacitor upgrade is working or not.

Bugfixes, code improvements and more:
- many balance adjustments for keeping up to date with faf balance
- Many files refactored, including units, weapons and build effects which should be working a lot faster now as a result
- unit stats displays have been fixed since faf ones are broken
- intel probe timer got a small rework and now works better and shows a progress bar
- Nomads support for notify mod added, but you need to go into the settings and reset to defaults to add them. We are working on a solution.
- lots of old code cleaned up and removed

Balance:
- Fixed the T1maa/a DPS for anti air which was too high before
- Anchor has been removed from the T1 land scout, which was the last unit in the game to use it, so this ability is no longer in the game.
- Death weapons on the radars while being boosted have been removed, so that they dont create emp mines when killed anymore
- the T2 Cruiser now has better anti air performace
- Carrying on with the above, the Aircraft carrier has better anti air as well, having had bugs fixed regarding it.
- Lastly, the T2 mobile flak has some higher muzzle velocity so it can deal with planes better.

Undieing gratitude goes to:

Spoiler: show

Armaster - He helped out with modelling the T1 tank model!
Marlo - He also helped out with the T1 tank model, this time adding bones and getting it ready for the game to import.
Apofenas - As always, he has been the once working hard to get the balance just perfect. This includes things like the radars changes, fixing t1maaa dps and much more.
Thrax37 - A new contributor, he helped fix miscellaneous bugs, rename things and stuff like that. Thanks to him the intel probe has a progress bar now!
speed2 - We all know him, and he is responsible for a simply massive refactor of a whole load of files, cleaning, fixing and making the game run faster. High quality work, as expected.
All those who left feedback on the mod on our discord server, helped with suggestions and gave comments and criticism, you know who you are!

As usual, we are always looking for new developers to help us with our work. If you are interested in contributing, or even leaving a suggestion, or simply want to keep an eye on our progress as we continue our work on this mod, feel free to join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

We look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your continued support!

Additionally, if you are looking for help, advice or support on modding supcom in general, or how to do what we do, you are more than welcome to join and ask questions. We are also offering any content and source files we created, so you can get all the resources we use, some of which is extremely exclusive!

Sincerely,
The Nomads Development Team

[Exotic_Retard]

Hello everyone,
Today its time for the next Nomads patch - Nomads V 94

We have made some great progress on the mod, putting in a new unit model as well as paving the way for future changes. Thanks to everyone who has helped out so far, and participated in the community!

But to keep things going, we need you! Yes, you! To help out with the mods development, as well as just keeping up to date or even complaining, head here:
Nomads discord server: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

You can play the newest version right now by clicking the nomads featured mod from the list on the side of the client, enjoy!


Changes for this version:

New T1 Air staging model:


Welcome the new air staging for the Nomads! The T1 Hangar! This has the unique ability to store up to 10 aircraft inside to hide them from view, repair many at once and protect them from passing ASF! Beware however, as the building itself is rather fragile and if destroyed, anything stored inside is also killed.


Emergency Repair:
Nomads previously had it as an upgrade for the ACU and SACU.

Well, now it is being introduced as a faction wide mechanic for many structures. Here is how it works:

-Whenever a building fires its weapon or recieves damage, its repair mechanic is disabled
-After a period of a minute or two after, the repair process starts and the building gradually repairs itself back to full HP
-This can be interrupted either by taking a hit or by firing its weapon, at which point the timer resets

Thats it! This is similar to the cybran regen on their structures, though with a little bit of a twist on the mechanic introducing a delay and a higher repair speed.

There is also an accompanying repair effect so that you can tell when a building is being repaired, which disappears after it reaches full hp.

Addionally, this is enabled by default for the ACU and SCU, with their repair upgrades boosting the amount rather than enabling it. The bonus also stacks with capacitor if you have that upgrade on your commander. When playing against nomads, make sure that you keep harassing them to deny them their bonus!


Spookys Unit database:
This isnt quite a part of the mod itself, but Nomads is now supported on the Spooky unit database:



You can now browse through all the stats and compare them just like you could the other factions. Enjoy!

Check it out here: http://spooky.github.io/unitdb/#/

Full list of changes from V90 (which was the last major patch which we announced):

Spoiler: show

Shiny new features, and design changes:
- New unit replacement - Air staging - now able to store up to 10 aircraft!
- Renamed T4 Transport Comet to Atlas
- Rework to rapid repair to be default on the ACU, as well as many structures
- Updated T4 transport death animation
- Reworked SCU upgrades, and the SACU presets are much simpler now.
- Added a reload bar to the Crawlers missile barrage
- Updated Crawler missiles to have nicer effects and pathing.

Bugfixes, code improvements and more:
- Added Snipe mode to the ACU and Exps
- Changes to orbital frigate behaviour on transported ACUs
- Fixed an issue with Cybran TMD missing Crawler missiles
- Fixed a bug where the drop pod was double dropping
- Fixed and error with nukes causing trees to not collapse
- Fixed Intel probe being spammable with shift click abuse
- Fixed Intel probe being targettable by stuff that isnt TMD
- Fixed Orbital strikes not giving the ACU Vet
- Fixed some broken icons
- Fix nomads labs dieing from transports
- Lots of old code cleaned up and removed

Balance:
- Made the Nomads TMD more reliable
- Loads of balance updates, for the ASF in particular
- Fixed storages having incorrect stats
- Fixed T3 tactical submarine missiles not hitting their targets on the sea properly.
-Nerfed T1 barrager to have slower missile speed
-Nerfed T4 Crawler

Undieing gratitude goes to:

Spoiler: show

Spooky - he hosts the Unit DB and implemented support for Nomads! Also, he contributed to the repo fixing unit names and other such things to keep everything neat.
Apofenas - As always, he has been the once working hard to get the balance just perfect. This includes things like the ASF changes, fixing t1maaa balance and much more.
samuel-hxs - He helped out with renaming the Comet to the Altas, as well as a couple of other small things. Thanks for that!
TakesTheBiscuit - A new contributor! he helped out with animations on the T4 transport, which now dies in a much nicer fashion!
All those who left feedback on the mod on our discord server, helped with suggestions and gave comments and criticism, you know who you are!

As usual, we are always looking for new developers to help us with our work. If you are interested in contributing, or even leaving a suggestion, or simply want to keep an eye on our progress as we continue our work on this mod, feel free to join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

We look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your continued support!

Additionally, if you are looking for help, advice or support on modding supcom in general, or how to do what we do, you are more than welcome to join and ask questions. We are also offering any content and source files we created, so you can get all the resources we use, some of which is extremely exclusive!

Sincerely,
The Nomads Development Team

[Exotic_Retard]

Hello everyone,
Today its time for the next Nomads patch - Nomads V 95

This version is made just in time for the upcoming tourney, fixing a few bugs and also adding in TWO new units! Check them out, and thanks to Armaster, Marlo and others who helped work on this patch! Its a tiny patch out today, so aside from the new units theres no major stuff involved, but its still an important one!

But to keep things going, we need you! Yes, you! To help out with the mods development, as well as just keeping up to date or even complaining, head here:
Nomads discord server: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

You can play the newest version right now by clicking the nomads featured mod from the list on the side of the client, enjoy!


Changes for this version:

New T1 Anti-Air and T1 PD models:


Two whole models! Well, unless you count the fact that they share the same base! Now the Nomads AA and PD look beautiful, and have also had slightly changed effects to make them match up. In the future they may get a little more tweaking to their projectile effects to look even better! Nothing too fancy about these units, they just do their job, as expected!


TML bugfixing:
There were a couple of big bugs with how Nomads interacted with TML, and now they are all fixed. The Nomads should have no issues shooting down cybran TMLs anymore, and likewise the other factions TMD should have no issues shooting down the Nomads static TML either.


Rapid Repair UI improvement:
In the previous patch we released rapid repair on all buildings, but it was a little confusing if you didnt know about it. So now Nomads structures at full HP show 0 regen, and when the bonus is given they show their repair effects and the added regen. There are no gameplay changes here, but just a UI improvement to make things more clear.

Full list of changes from V94:

Spoiler: show

Shiny new features, and design changes:
- New PD and AA models! Thanks to Armaster for modelling the top and Marlo for modelling the base!
- Made a ui improvement to rapid repair so its a little less confusing.

Bugfixes, code improvements and more:
- Fixed Nomads TMD dieing to cybran TML
- Fixed Nomads TML killing cybran TMD
- Added a test on performance improvements for replays watched at high speeds - reclaim effects have been changed.
- Added support for SCTA shaders

Balance:
- Adjusted the DPS on the T1 PD slightly so its nearly identical to the other factions
- Adjusted the rate of fire and damage on the T1 AA so its nearly identical to the seraphim static AA

Undieing gratitude goes to:

Spoiler: show

Spooky - He updates his unit DB to keep up with Nomads, and also contributes description changes to the mod every once in a while!
Apofenas - Keeping his watchful eye over the balance, as always
Armaster - He modelled the turrets for both the PD and the AA amazing work!
Marlo - He modelled the base for both the PD and AA which is shared between them.
All those who left feedback on the mod on our discord server, helped with suggestions and gave comments and criticism, you know who you are!

As usual, we are always looking for new developers to help us with our work. If you are interested in contributing, or even leaving a suggestion, or simply want to keep an eye on our progress as we continue our work on this mod, feel free to join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

We look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your continued support!

Additionally, if you are looking for help, advice or support on modding supcom in general, or how to do what we do, you are more than welcome to join and ask questions. We are also offering any content and source files we created, so you can get all the resources we use, some of which is extremely exclusive!

Sincerely,
The Nomads Development Team

[Exotic_Retard]

Hello everyone,
Today its time for the next Nomads patch - Nomads V 96

We released this patch after all the great feedback we got from the recent Nomads tournament, letting us make loads of improvements to the balance of the mod, but if thats not enough, we have TWO MORE new units in this patch! Check them out, and thanks to speed2, Steven, Armaster, Marlo and others who helped work on this patch! Its a tiny patch out today, so aside from the new units theres no major stuff involved, but its still an important one!

But to keep things going, we need you! Yes, you! To help out with the mods development, as well as just keeping up to date or even complaining, head here:
Nomads discord server: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

You can play the newest version right now by clicking the nomads featured mod from the list on the side of the client, enjoy!


Changes for this version:

New T1 Frigate model, and all-new T1 Artillery boat:
Al welcome to our newest units!

First up is the T1 frigate, which has gotten a shiny new model, a new weapon and even a new role! Instead of having anti air, it now has a weaker version of the TMD! Why? See below!



The T1 artillery boat is just like the Barrager - it can also target air units! So now the frigate is specialised against land targets, while this can take out air, as well as structures. Its the first all-new unit to nomads that we added, having previously been only replacing existing units. This is also why we needed to release this with the frigate at the same time, as they are rather interconnected.




The missiles can target both land and air units, and can be shot down by TMD. Be sure to have lots of fun with this new unit!

Many Balance Adjustments:
The tourney was a fantastic source of feedback from everyone, which let us jump right ahead and work on all the things that we couldnt test by ourselves before. There were quite some changes, but in particular:
We nerfed the Nomads static artillery, since it was too strong both at direct fire - being on part with the Aeon, and at hitting units. Now it should be more flexible but less potent.
We reworked the beamer, fixing a bug where it got stuck firing at units outside of its range, and also reworked the balance on it - It now moves faster, has less range, and less DPS.

Theres a lot more than just that though, so check out the full list of changes if you are interested:

Full list of changes from V95:

Spoiler: show

Shiny new features, and design changes:
- Added new T1 frigate model
- Added new Artillery boat unit
- Air staging icon updated (Ninrai)
- Build effects changed to be less prominent, especially when viewed from far away
- Updated unit descriptions (Steven)
- Adjusted projectile effects on various units (Steven)
- Adjusted some effects on TML,MML crawler missiles (Steven)

Bugfixes, code improvements and more:
- Adjusted missile paths on Crawler to hit fewer mountains (Apofenas)
- Create unit menu fixed for future patches (speed2)
- Fixed Mass fab effects showing through FOW(speed2)
- Added some futureproofing code to avoid faf patches breaking everything

Balance:
- Buffed Nomads TMD and fixed a bug with it that led it to shooting less than it was supposed to!
- Nerfed T1 LAB (Apofenas)
- Nerfed T2 torpedo gunship torpedoes (Apofenas)
- Adjusted Intel boost on radars/sonars to be less strong (Apofenas)
- Adjusted T4 transport to work with new beamer (Apofenas)
- Nerfed T3 mobile artillery (Apofenas)
- Adjusted T1 bomber firing cycle a little (Apofenas)
- Buffed T3 Nomads SAM (Apofenas)
- Removed manual TML from cruiser (Apofenas)
- Nerfed Desolator (Apofenas)
- Buffed T2 PD Muzzle velocity (Apofenas)
- Buffed Beamer (Apofenas)

Undieing gratitude goes to:

Spoiler: show

Spooky - He updates his unit DB to keep up with Nomads, and also contributes description changes to the mod every once in a while!
Apofenas - Thanks to all your feedback, he took a big look at all these balance things and knocked them into shape
Armaster - He modelled the T1 frigate! Just look at how good that is!
Marlo - He modelled the T1 Artillery boat!
speed2 - Under his watchful eye, a few future issues were revealed, and he also helped fix a couple of important bugs!
Steven - He helped with some important changes to the UI, effects and book-keeping involving the two new units.
All those who left feedback on the mod on our discord server, helped with suggestions and gave comments and criticism, you know who you are!

As usual, we are always looking for new developers to help us with our work. If you are interested in contributing, or even leaving a suggestion, or simply want to keep an eye on our progress as we continue our work on this mod, feel free to join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX

We look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your continued support!

Additionally, if you are looking for help, advice or support on modding supcom in general, or how to do what we do, you are more than welcome to join and ask questions. We are also offering any content and source files we created, so you can get all the resources we use, some of which is extremely exclusive!

Sincerely,
The Nomads Development Team

[codepants]

Isn't TMD/TML in t1 inconsistent with the other factions? It seems imba that Nomads have access to both now in t1 whereas other factions have to pay for t2 before they can counter tml, and Nomads do not have to pay for t2 before they can counter tml. What am I missing?

[FunkOff]

The T1 frigate looks really cool! I 'm not sure about the sea-worthiness of such a design as it doesn't look very hydrodynamic, but it is nonetheless cool as heck

[Apofenas]

Isn't TMD/TML in t1 inconsistent with the other factions? It seems imba that Nomads have access to both now in t1 whereas other factions have to pay for t2 before they can counter tml, and Nomads do not have to pay for t2 before they can counter tml. What am I missing?

TMD on nomad frigate is just as useful, as torp defence on aeon frigate. It exists, it stops some specific weapons from dealing damage, but in most sitiations you'd prefer having AA on frigate.

It surely can stop such cancer game play as TML rush, but if that gets to happen - it means you either were way behind on tech and would lose game anyway, or you would be at same tech level and defend from it anyway (remember Nomads have access to mobile TMD at any t2 factory?). This also requires TMD being built rather close to your base or upgraded expansion which usually happens at 10x10 maps. Can name at least 5 naval-focused maps with that size?