Space Wars gameplay

Real-time travel meets turn-based combat.

Spacewars is a turn-based tactical online strategy MMO, where real-time travel meets turn-based combat. The universe is made up of five asymmetrical races, with very different play styles from each other. Players choose a starting race, and a starting ship, with a customized Captain as their avatar. Via experience gained in combat, capturing regions, or successfully accomplishing missions, they can improve their Officer skills via an RPG upgrade skill tree, or acquire more powerful ships.

Play now How combat works

FACTIONS: 5
POWER LAYERS: 4
BATTLE SIZE: 1v1–20v20
PLAYERS PER RACE: 1,000

01 - THE WAR

Empires at war

Where races' borders meet, regions become contested ground. For the history behind each side, see the Universe lore.

Each race controls its own large group of regions, and where races' borders meet, these regions become the contested areas. Players can choose to either invade a neighboring region, or defend one that is being invaded, with as simple as 1v1 action, to as many as 20v20 player combat. If a region is successfully taken by an invading force, it becomes part of that Empire. The eventual goal is for one race to successfully dominate all other races, and win the server. Each race can have as many as 1000 players, all fighting for multiple regions, whether alone or in groups, as well as clans. Some regions have unique star systems, essentially strongholds, with multiple planets to capture, others defended by large bases.

Explore the region map →

Galaxy map - early build, the interface has since been redesigned

02 - THE BATTLE

Skill based combat

Every turn opens with a round for distributing power, then a round for movement and firing.

LAYER 1Propulsion
LAYER 2Sensors
LAYER 3Force Fields
LAYER 4Weapons

The core gameplay is focused on the combat itself, where the use of tactical skill makes the difference between an average player and a successful one. Ships fight on a 2D hex grid, diverting power to four different strategic layers: Propulsion, Sensors, Force Fields, and Weapons. The turn-based element initiates when enemies meet each other on the battlefield, with a round for distributing power and battlefield analysis, and a round for movement and firing for every turn. How a player manages his power distribution, logistics, initiative and combat movement can make the difference between a victory or failure. Using line of sight obstacles, such as moons and planets, or anomalies like ion storms, nebulae, and radiation zones also adds another tactical layer. Teamwork can enhance gameplay, as well as successful defense/capture of regions.

Combat on the hex grid: a Sol Halifax plots a move and fires plasma at a Genari Predator, with the in-game HUD — Combat on the hex grid - Sol Halifax against a Genari Predator

In-game combat in the Steam build: a laser strikes a green and black alien warship in front of a ringed gas giant, asteroids and glowing hex grid, with the turn timer and ship status HUD — Combat - a laser hit blooms on a warship over a ringed gas giant

In-game combat in the Steam build: a large dark cruiser fires a long laser beam that hits a distant enemy ship, with weapon slots and the turn timer on screen — Combat - a heavy cruiser lands a long-range laser hit

03 - THE FLEETS

Unique races and ships

Every hull has its own look, loadout and abilities. Browse them all in the Shipyard.

Beyond a dramatically different look for every race (you can immediately recognize a Sol ship, compared to a Genari, for example) every ship within that race has unique and original designs, allowing the player to identify and enjoy what each has to offer. Even within the same class of ship, the construction, weapons layout, and abilities are unique to each. Players will come to gravitate to certain play styles and races, and find favorites within each race. All five races will play radically different from each other.

The Spacedock screen in the Steam build: a Mendi IV corvette inspected in the hangar beside its stats, systems and ship skill panels — Spacedock - inspect a hull, its stats and its systems before you buy

The Shipyard screen in the Steam build: a grid of Sol ships with offense, defense and maneuverability bars, plus empire, role, class and name filters — Shipyard - filter every Sol hull by role, class and variant

04 - PROGRESSION

The RPG element

Meet the captains and explore every officer skill tree on the Captains page.

When a player destroys or 'routs' an enemy ship from a region, they gain experience points. Once back at a base, they can choose to improve the skills of their key Officers, such as the Helmsman, Science Officer, Tactical Officer, Medical Officer, Chief Engineer to name a few. Each of these Officers have multiple sets of potential upgrades which can improve the performance of your ship. Or, the player can choose to save the experience points and apply it to acquiring new warships, usually going for the next level, a more powerful ship. The player's Avatar, the Captain, also accumulates experience, and has its own unique set of skillsets that can be improved & upgraded.

05 - THE MODEL

Free to play

Full access to the gameplay and universe. Variants add choice, not power.

The game is free to play, where there is full access to the gameplay and universe. The method of monetization is mostly via unique variants of the ships currently available on the shipyard. Most ships will have type II, III, and IV variants, which are not just a pretty reskin of the ship, but also have a modified loadout on some of their systems (not necessarily making them more powerful, just modified to play somewhat differently from the original variant). So sure, as a paying player you will stand out, but will also have a greater selection of loadouts to play with, but none of which will make you outpower your opponents.

06 - THE RULES

Logical ship design, strict build rulesets and hardpoints

One ruleset keeps every class, and every race, in balance.

Beyond the cosmetic side, all of these ship designs were put together by following a comprehensive ruleset (It's literally several hundred of numbers, tables, calculations and hardpoint charts) created by Simyar with a logic base to ensure that there is proper balance within all ship classes, as well as between races. Every ship class has its own crew, mass, and hardpoint limits for proper and logical builds of ships that sustain a 'realistic' design, whether it is a small class II escort, or a class IX battleship, Genari, Sol, Hive or Ma'alaketh.

See the hulls and their hardpoints →

07 - LONG TERM

Replayability

Beyond the core tactical combat, there is always another front.

TEAMSCreate teams and clans, and associate with friends in the in-game chat system.

MISSIONSRoam the universe in search of single player missions.

COMPETITIONTournaments and Battle royales, in an instanced area where people can fight each other regardless of race.

RECOGNITIONIn-game achievements and medals, plus legacy awards on a server's end.

Besides the core game of tactical combat, you can create teams/clans, associate with friends in the in-game chat system, as well as roam the universe in search of single player missions. There will also be Tournaments and Battle royales (where there is an instanced area where people can fight each other regardless of race) and regular updates adding new ships. In-game achievements and medals are handed out, as well as legacy awards on a server's end.

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