Getting Started - Nuclear Option

Quick guide to get you up and flying in Nuclear Option

Guide is still a work in progress, please comment any ideas/tactics to add to the guide

Controls & Settings

Nuclear Option can be played with Hotas, Controller or Mouse and keyboard.
You can check & rebind keys/buttons by entering controls through the settings menu.

Keyboard & Mouse
The default controls on keyboard are a little spread out so I would recommend taking a few moments to rebind some keys closer to Wasd. Namely; Target select/cancel, Countermeasures & Map are worth rebinding. Keep in mind 'freelook' is not currently bind-able and is locked to the right mouse button.

Controller
Some binds depending on the controller you have may not be bound. Eg: Eject set as "Home" by default. Controls you may want to consider rebinding: Flight assist, Eject, Map. The right stick by default seems to be trim control. Right stick on gamepad is also for free look by default.

Hotas
"Some users have had trouble with certain HOTAS hardware. The 'Joystick Gremlin' can be useful to get them working in some cases. So far the developer has only confirmed joystick bindings to work properly with the Logitech Extreme 3D pro and Saitek X52 Pro." - B25Mitch [Developer]

Pitch inversion
By default this is turned on. This setting can be found on the left side under "Invert virtual joystick pitch"

Graphics settings
"Cinematic mode simply disables all UI messages to allow recording of gameplay without overlays" - B25Mitch (Developer)

Flying Basics

Selecting Tutorial Mission
From the main menu select "Missions" on the bottom left side. Left side of the screen there is a drop down menu for all missions available. Select Tutorial at the bottom of the list, then "start mission"

Tutorial Mission - Taxi & Takeoff
There is tutorial text in the top left of the screen.
in this section you will use the following controls;

Action	Default Keyboard	Default Controller
Throttle Up/Down	Shift/Control	Left Bumper/Right Bumper
Rudder Left/Right	Q/E	Left Trigger/Right Trigger
Break	B	Y - Xbox
Pitch controls	Mouse or W/S	Left Stick
Landing gear	G	Down-Dpad

Flight HUD
In the below image from left to right is your speed, rate of climb & throttle.


In flight you will need to reference additional info seen colour coded in the below image;
Dark Purple: AoA = Angle of attack | How aggressive of a turn you are making.
Light Purple: G-force | force exerted from acceleration. High AoA turns at high speeds will put more force on the aircraft and pilot causing the pilot to loose consciousness or the air frame to break apart.
Orange: Direction indicator | Pitch & Yaw control inputs
Pink: Centre Cross-hair | Middle of screen & where the aircraft tries to point towards
Red: Aircraft velocity vector | Indicates direction the aircraft is moving in which may not be where the aircraft is facing

Aircraft

CI-22 Cricket

Type:	Light Prop Fighter
Max Speed:	515km/h
Stall speed:	140km/h
Manoeuvrability:	6.5g

Short description:

IG: Description
Designed for conter insurgency operations and low intensity battlefields, the CI-22 Cricked features robust landing gear and short takeoff and landing capability, allowing it to operate from unprepared fields. While lacking in speed and survivability, the CI-22 possesses remarkable agility and the ability to mount an array of weapon types.

Weapons mountable:

T/A-30 Compass

Type:	Light Fighter-Bomber
Max Speed:	980km/h
Stall speed:	180km/h
Manoeuvrability:	8g

Short description:

FS-12 Revoker

Type:	Air superiority fighter
Max Speed:	1960km/h
Stall speed:	220km/h
Manoeuvrability:	9g

Short description:

SFB-81 Darkreach

Type:	Strategic bomber
Max Speed:	1325km/h
Stall speed:	240km/h
Manoeuvrability:	4g

Short description:

Weapons

Ground units

Name	Munition	Range	Type of Guidance
Linebacker IFV	Gun	N/A	Optical
AFV-8	Missile / Gun?	5 km	Infrared
Linebreaker SAM	Missile	5 km	Infrared
T9K41 Boltstrike	Missile	15 km	Radar
HLT Radar Truck	Radar	20 km	Radar
AeroSentry SPAAG	Gun	4+ km	N/A
FGA-57 Anvil	Gun	4-5 km	Radar

Linebreaker IFV
Well protected infantry fighting vehicle armed with a *~30mm* auto cannon for use against air and ground targets. Also sporting anti-armour missiles.

Linebreaker APC
Well protected and equip with 12.7mm cannon this is more than capable of taking down low survivability aircraft such as the CI-22 Cricket and soft ground targets.

Linebreaker SAM
Just like the AFV-8, the Linebreaker fires the IRM-S1, however it has 12 of the 5 km missiles instead of eight.

AFV-8 Mobile Air Defence
The AFV-8 fires a the IRM-S1 heat seeking missiles from one of its 8 launchers with a range of up to 5 km.

AFV-8 APC
Light armoured troop transport armed with a single 12.7mm cannon for use against soft targets & aircraft.

T9K41 Boltstrike
The anvil fires the RAM-45 missile, it has a range of up to 15 km. The vehicle has its own radar system incorporated in it.

HLT Radar Truck
The truck has a tracking range of 20 km.

AeroSentry SPAAG
Range: 4000 m +

FGA-57 Anvil

LCV45

Main Battle Tank
Main armament is 130mm cannon. Its secondary armament is a 12.7mm gun capable of taking out aircraft and soft ground targets.

Missions & Objectives

Multiplayer

Tactics & Equipment use

"The radar jammer doesn't have all its capabilities implemented yet, but it's still useful in a couple situations:
1.) using the radar jammer significantly raises the radar floor below which your aircraft is undetectable
2.) using the radar jammer makes "notching" much more effective, in which you fly perpendicular to the radar (put it at your 3 or 9 o'clock) to break the lock
if you are being target by a radar SAM both those techniques are helpful
since the radar SAMs are only semi-active homing, breaking the radar lock will neutralise all missiles tracking you simultaneously from the same launcher." - B25Mitch (Developer)


Guide is still a work in progress, please comment any ideas/tactics to add to the guide

See you in game ~ Nokkt

[Nokkt]

I thought you had to choose a team to even start flying, that was the case in the open play test - no longer have access as haven't bought full version yet

[brockleevegetable]

How do we switch teams in multiplayer. Or choose a team if your put in spectator?

[Nokkt]

dev is active on his discord, join through the in game link and report the bug there

try verify game files and see if makes any difference

[Spy-Ops]

I have weird black boxes around all enemy outlines, the red lines or triangles to tell you what enemy you are sending a nuclear warhead at. It makes it so I can't see any enemy's until they are point blank. i am so confused help

[Qwertyx]

how turn off trim debug???

[Nokkt]

it will - you need to reach whatever the point threshold is to rank up. if your playing modded total war you might start at a certain rank aswell. also note that some airbases like makeshift highway bases cant support some aircraft eg: darkreach

[siracha]

the game doesn't rank me up while im playing total war

[green light]

you cant but you can resuply

[☆ NJ_2124 ☆]

Can we fix our plane by landing in our airbase?

[MANPAD]

Really niche question that doesn't really impact my game play but thought I'd ask. On the plane's radar/main screen right in front of the player, there is a red dot/square that remains constant no matter what direction the player is facing. What's the purpose of this?