Nuclear Option is a combined-arms combat flight game developed by Shockfront Studios. Set in a fictional Cold War that never cooled, it puts you in the cockpit of Cold War-inspired jets, attack helicopters, and VTOLs fighting over a contested island world. It launched into Early Access in 2024 and quickly built a following for making serious air combat easy to pick up.
At its core, Nuclear Option is fast, accessible air combat with real combined-arms depth. You fly aircraft like the FS-12 Revoker, T/A-30 Cathlamet, and SAH-46 Chicane, running air-to-air intercepts, close air support, and anti-ship strikes. Ground armor, SAM sites, warships, and AI infantry all share the battlefield, so every sortie feeds a larger war. And when a frontline will not break, the namesake option is always on the table: a tactical nuclear strike.
Nuclear Option shines in multiplayer. Conquest turns a map into a living war where two factions push a dynamic frontline, and a private dedicated server keeps that campaign running whether you are flying or not. A casual co-op night might be a few pilots clearing ground targets together. A full 16-player PvP battle is a chaotic mess of dogfights, strike packages, and SAM traps. Whatever your squadron flies, a private dedicated Nuclear Option server gives you the slots, mission control, and uptime that player-hosted games never will. Your map. Your factions. Your rules.
Nuclear Option ships with a built-in mission editor and Steam Workshop support, so communities run custom scenarios, hand-built battles, and shared liveries well beyond the stock Conquest and skirmish modes. Multiplayer lobbies range from relaxed co-op missions against AI to large free-for-all and team PvP fights, and dedicated hosting is what keeps those custom missions and persistent campaigns available around the clock.
Nuclear Option leans on the CPU more than raw memory. Large battles spawn a lot of aircraft, ground units, ships, and physics-driven ordnance at once, and high-frequency single-core performance is what holds the simulation tick steady when a whole frontline is in the air. NVMe SSD storage keeps map and mission loads quick, while DDR5 RAM gives bigger 16-player Conquest battles the headroom they need. Pick your plan by player count and how heavy your typical battle runs.
| Server type | RAM needed | Players | Recommended plan |
|---|
| Co-op / small skirmish | 2 GB | Up to 6 | 2 GB plan |
| Standard Conquest battle | 4 GB | 6–12 | 4 GB plan |
| Full 16-player PvP war | 8 GB | 12–16 | 8 GB plan |
A private dedicated Nuclear Option server hands your group full control: the active map, which factions fight, player slots, the mission and game mode, friendly fire rules, respawn settings, and which custom Workshop missions load. Unlike a player-hosted lobby, a dedicated server stays online 24/7 with your Conquest campaign intact, so your war keeps advancing whether one pilot is online or twelve.
Hosting a dedicated Nuclear Option server removes host advantage, lifts the unit and slot caps of a home machine, and holds its tick rate through the heaviest combined-arms fights and tactical nuke runs. PingPlayers pairs high-frequency CPUs with full config control, automated backups, 24/7 real human support, and an integrated Ping AI assistant that spins up your server, loads custom missions, and sorts out common setup snags without forum digging.
