A contested map in StarWarp is equivalent to a solar system. Just like real space this consists of a star and the planets, moons, asteroids, comets and dust which orbit it.

Up until now we’ve told you that a short term aim is to conquer solar systems. But we haven’t explained how.

We have three game styles, each with different winning conditions. The game style is decided before the instance starts. Eventually it will be possible for you to see all of the battles and associated game styles through the meta server. (The meta server is still on our todo list, more news about that at a later date)

So, what are these game styles?

Ok, ok, but first some general stuff that applies to all games.

Each team will start the game in a solar system map owning one planet. This planet is very important because it can produce clones of your dead and build new ships. It also contains your starter armies which you may use to conquer additional planets. The starter planets are spaced as far apart as possible, if there are two teams that means on opposite sides of the star.  

Now I can explain the game styles.

Team Domination

The primary objective is for your team to conquer all planets in the solar system. Yes that includes the other team(s) starter planet. Kick their alien butts back to where they came from.

The secondary objective is to control the most planets when the timer runs out. There’s a timer??? Yes. Rather than let a battle go on indefinitely we want people to be able to join a game and play it through to completion in a reasonable amount of time. After the game has ended everyone can move to another map or replay this map.

The primary condition is obviously more difficult and therefore will be worth more points, the solar system will also influence the points as some systems will be much bigger than others.

Team Death Match

This is a blood bath. (Or icky green substance bath for some of our alien friends who lack the red stuff)

The objective is simple, kill the enemy as many times as you can to get points. Once your team reaches the target points you win! There’s no timer but we can hopefully estimate the duration of a game from the target value.

Different ships will be worth different points, this way it might be worth sacrificing a few smaller ships to take out a big one. This is something we’ll need to carefully balance.

Conquest

Each team starts with 1000 points and loses them gradually if the enemy owns more resources. The number of resources they own determines the speed your teams points diminish. A team loses when its points reach zero.

Thats whats planned for BETA, it’s possible we’ll add more game styles in the future. 

Thanks for reading and please stay tuned for more information