Modding Nomads

Trying to figure out how to properly apply modifiers to the faction and individual units. At the moment I'm basically tweaking an already existing mod to instead apply its effects to nomad units, but for whatever reason they don't seem to catch.

For reference, I'm using Flying Engineers - Slower to basically make nomad engineers fly. Since nothing is happening, I'm not sure whether the nomad units' code is too different to work or if info regarding nomad units is out of date.