The No-Frauds Club ยป Cosmonarchy

The definitive real-time strategy experience.


Primer


Cosmonarchy is an isometric 2D real-time strategy game set in the Xibalba universe and made in the Antikythera engine.

Cosmonarchy is defined by its unrivaled scale, with a jaw-dropping roster of units and structures, and thousands of combatants doing battle in any given skirmish. Its immersive missions respect the player's time, leveraging only mechanics and scenarios that reinforce real-time strategy gameplay. Its cooperative missions challenge players with competent AI-controlled opponents, which additionally serve as respectable enemies in immersive levels and valuable training partners in custom maps. In addition to supporting 1v1 matchmaking, its competitive environment allows for teams of all sizes to queue into balanced matches. Finally, its expansive development tools allow interested parties to produce custom content, from accessory campaigns and skirmish maps to custom regencies and total conversions.


Game Flow


In Cosmonarchy, players act as commanders of regencies with expansive techtrees. Players control massive armies made up of individual units and have no max unit cap. Units are trained from structures that are in turn built by workers or other structures. Workers harvest resources to provide the materials necessary to construct bases and field armies. Factors like the scale of the environment, the quantity of resources in the level, the number of allies and opponents, and the game mode all determine how long players will have to explore their techtrees and interact with their enemies. The text below assumes an average of 45 to 60 minutes of gameplay, with some hints of how games may end outside of that range.

Note that the descriptions that follow only apply to these game types:
In immersive play, starting conditions are not guaranteed to be equal. Symmetrical map layouts are very rare in immersive scenarios, and free-for-alls and imbalanced teams are commonplace. Dialogue events are used to present persistent narratives, characterize commanders, and relay information from AI-controlled allies. As immersive levels are always singleplayer and often part of a larger map set, the player's regency is often predetermined. In some cases, a list of allied regencies will be available for selection before a mission begins. Immersive scenarios often have cutscenes that bookend the mission's running time, but first-party content will never interrupt gameplay mid-map.

In cooperative play, players generally have synchronized starting conditions, and must compete against AI-controlled regencies. As with singleplayer levels, cooperative scenarios are rarely symmetrical in their layout and often have imbalanced teams, but cooperative play tends to boast more even map design (i.e. proximity to expansions, defender's advantage, access to upstart strongholds) when compared to their strictly-immersive counterparts. Every cooperative scenario can be played offline, with AI-controlled allies standing in for human ones. Dialogue is kept to a minimum and maps are designed around replayability, with all regencies available for play.

In competitive play, all players begin with the same quantity of resources and no preplaced units or structures. Dialogue is absent and maps are designed with even play in mind. Competitive levels aren't always symmetrical, but mirrored layouts are more common than in the other game modes. As with cooperative scenarios, all regencies are available for play in competitive modes.

Regardless of game mode, a match of Cosmonarchy begins in the ready room - a pregame viewport where players select their ideal starting location from a list of predetermined coordinates. Once all origin points are chosen, players have one minute to spend their initial resources and lock in their choices. If specified in the game's lobby, possible start locations for hostiles are highlighted in the early game, and the entire map's features are visible on the minimap as if the player had already explored it. These options are defaults in ranked play, and reduce the knowledge gap between players who are new to a map and players who are veterans.

When all players lock in their choices (or the timer expires), the prebuilding phase ends and the proper game begins. Worker units are ordered to harvest resources, construct buildings, and scout out locations. Assuming a map of middling size, experienced players scout early to determine the build orders and opening playstyles of their opponents. AI-controlled, upstart squads take arms against all regencies, guarding high-yield expansions and their own distant strongholds that can be destroyed for resource injections, rescuable combatants, or other rewards. Players maintain a scouting presence, finding and monitoring their enemy's early army movements. This persistent information gathering helps to flank hostile armies should they engage upstarts or take roundabout paths to their targets, especially in team games or on maps with larger distances between players.

The choice between consolidating one's infrastructure, technology, and military is a crucial one, and until an economic advantage is secured, players must balance these elements. Opening gambits involving greedy resource spending on quick tech-ups or additional mining investments can be easily disrupted if an opponent chooses to rush out low-tier combatants, and the variety of options available to players and teams puts a high priority on scouting.

As players strengthen their militaries, expand their mining operations, and begin scaling up their techtrees, the impact of unaffiliated upstarts is reduced. Player tech now outstrips the lesser powers, and many of their strongholds and territorial squads have been dismantled for the resources and rewards they guarded. In solo or team free-for-alls, some forces have already shown signs of weakness or perhaps even fallen outright, and regional superpowers are beginning to take shape. What was previously a chaotic war between multiple belligerents is now consolidating into a showdown between the most stable and competent players, and if one is not outright favored as the early-game fades into memory, a longer game is on the cards.

Armies clash, find some success, and are pushed back. Resource nodes are exploited and drained. The true extents of each player's arsenal are on the horizon, as expensive and brutal weapons of war enter the battlefield. The ebb and flow of army movements and combat success is reflected in the complexity of the armies themselves - as resources become scarce, a technological downswing occurs, requiring more frugal spending on lower-tier units and more precise tactics for armies to find success. Players have maintained focus for upwards of an hour by this point, and fatigue manifests itself in more common mistakes, some of which will likely cost one of them the game.

In the rare event of a prolonged stalemate, a disadvantaged team may choose to engage in mutual destruction via Apocalypse devices. These technologies, usually taking shape as imposing structures, are beyond expensive - but should they be completed, Apocalypse devices will destabilize the battlefield itself, eventually leading to the complete and utter destruction of the warzone. Such a pyrrhic outcome provides no true victor, but a team that successfully executes an Apocalypse ending will avoid the ranking penalties inherent to conventional losses.

Some of what's documented above can also apply to custom play, which often features altered melee conditions, custom scenarios with player vs player elements, modified techtrees, and other twists on the RTS gameplay provided by Cosmonarchy. Other custom content will diverge entirely from RTS convention, at which point many elements of the above will no longer apply.


Mechanics


This section describes the mechanics that Cosmonarchy features, as well as a list of mechanics it deliberately does not feature, with explanations and reasoning included in the text.


Resources


The resources of note within Xibalba's universe are broadly sorted into two distinct classifications: practical metals called magmite, and vital plasmas called hypervials.

Magmite serves as the foundation for any competitive military, forming the base materials for anything from the most time-tested infantry armor to the most impressive flagship. This ubiquitous resource is as plentiful as it is valuable, with access to magmite often determining the outcome of early skirmishes. Magmite is not, however, the most sought-after resource on the battlefield.

Hypervials are comparatively rare and sourced in large part from hyperlines - concentrated formations where the boiling material can be safely capped and harvested. The volatile nature of hypervials necessitates some precaution on behalf of their would-be miners, with the common solution manifesting in the form of processing plants constructed around the hyperline. While this process is not required, workers are unlikely to survive the unsafe temperatures of unprocessed hypervials for very long.

While many warriors solely mandate a sufficient quantity of magmite in order to deploy, there are far fewer combatants that require only hypervials, with the vast majority of any regency's weapons of war requiring some combination of both resources in order to deploy. As a general rule, the cost of each substance scales with the power expressed by a given unit, and the more impressive structures that provide a multitude of powerful options often come with a hefty price tag attached.

Both magmite and hypervials self-perpetuate, replenishing at consistent rates under normal circumstances. This process of reformation is often aided and abetted by the regencies that harvest them, with a plethora of technology and mining techniques that accelerate resource regeneration. When depleted, nodes persist with a notably-reduced yield that can be rejuvenated given enough time, and the land they reside in can be freely traversed. Artificial methods of boosting formation rates find even more value when higher-yield veins are concerned, though these bountiful troves are often hotly-contested by belligerent militaries.

In some battlefields, it is common to see the militaries of upstarts gathering around resource nodes in an (often vain) attempt to protect their valuable territory from being exploited by the more powerful regencies. While the fate of these underdog empires is quite frequently death, their collective thorn in the sides of the universe's superpowers is still notable as skirmishes turn to battles, and eventually to wars.

Given the composite materials of the cosmos's combatants, some regencies have taken to harvesting the broken forms of fallen warriors, with this practice often yielding great results during frontline operations. Those with a proclivity for collecting bodies have found that time is of the essence, as the piles of corpses and mounds of rubble that litter the battlefield are forgotten in relatively short order - though this expiry time (and the haul of materials a body harvester could attain) scales with the resource cost of the unit in question.

Resources of all shapes and sizes pave the way for unending conflicts that stretch across the known universe, and while most appear in the form of natural nodes, commanders of all regencies find the most success when they leave no stone unturned in the hunt for raw materials. The resource depots of each regency are generally built as close as possible to any source of raw materials, though many gatherings of resource nodes manifest unstable terrain that structures cannot be placed on.


Tech Tiers


Arsenals of allies and enemies become more impressive and well-rounded over time, with regents pooling their harvests into more expensive technology. The strength of these higher-tier weapons and combatants is a main motivation for expanding the territory and mining operations of any given regency, and this macro-level focus manifests as a natural and emergent objective for all players. Whether they are expanding their own base area, or supporting an allied regent by clearing out an occupied position, players will consistently seek victory through seizing access to the most resource nodes.

In addition to improving the raw power of a regency's arsenal, higher tiers of technology also give way to additional tactical options. Combatants with a penchant for weaving in and out of skirmishes and navigating treacherous terrain make for superb harassment options, and force opponents to consider more conservative and defensive options. Mystics and specialists hold the potential for disrupting enemy forces, enchanting allied weapons and armor, and permanently disfiguring the battlefield itself. These elements of a regency's techtree are rarely suited for frontal assaults, and instead make more precise and tactical strikes possible, while also supporting direct action from a safe distance.

Another strength of ascending to a higher tier of one's techtree is the access to noncombatants with more utilitarian roles. Advanced workers are prized among regencies, with improved harvesting capabilities, faster build times, partial or full flight, or some combination of these vital traits. The infrastructure that a regent may deploy also improves with higher tech tiers, as they gain access to powerful defensive structures, supportive devices, and mobile production facilities.

For all these reasons and more, the more expensive and impressive tiers of technology are forever a focus of all players, and especially all regents.


Vitals


Combatants in Xibalba have several vital statistics, the most important of which is their hitpoints. When hitpoints reach zero, a unit is killed. Some units benefit from multiple layers of vitals, such as shields or plating. Until these upper layers of lifebars are depleted, hitpoints cannot be damaged.

Specialized units have energy, a resource spent on abilities, behaviors, and enhanced attacks. If a unit with energy is within 5 range of a dying enemy, they will receive +5 energy.

Some units and regencies have innate or active regenerations associated with their vitals. For example, Sycora regenerate shields when out of combat, while Ruun regenerate life.


Weapons, Armor, and Penetration


Attacks in Xibalba never miss or do different amounts of damage due to random chance. All combatants are able to target terrain with their attacks.

All weapons fire projectiles that have both damage and armor penetration stats that interact with their targets. Should they strike an enemy, the victim's armor reduces the incoming damage - unless this armor stat is lower than the projectile's armor penetration stat, in which case the armor is completely ignored. No extra damage is conferred when projectile armor penetration exceeds target armor, and projectiles cannot deal less than 1 damage. If a weapon does not deal splash damage, and is targeted on terrain instead of a unit, the projectile will deal damage to the first victim it finds within 0.5 range of the target site.

Projectiles, like units, have their own health and armor stats. Splash damage on the same plane as a projectile will deal damage to it. Some ability effects and special weapons can target projectiles. Larger projectiles can be targeted by conventional weapons. Conversely, certain supportive abilities will increase the armor penetration or movement speed of a given projectile.

In most cases, melee attacks launch incredibly-fast, invisible projectiles. Melee projectiles are never targetable. In cases where melee combatants have their ranges boosted, a visible projection of their attack will appear and travel to its max range. Likewise, cleaving melee attacks will leave a faint weapon trail to indicate the arc of the weapon swing. For visual clarity, melee hits always proc an overlay on victims.

Area-of-effect damage, also called splash damage, is handled with a linear drop-off from an inner radius (full damage) to an outermost radius (10% damage). The final percentage of outermost damage is iterative and may be changed at a later date. Other than this linear modifier, splash damage works identically to conventional damage.

When combatants have a height advantage - defined as being at least one height level above their target - they gain 2 bonus range per level of height advantage. The sole exception to this rule are melee units, which never benefit from range buffs or debuffs.


Turrets


Units in Xibalba have turret slots equal to unit weight divided by 2, rounded down.

Many units are equipped with turrets upon deployment. Some units can attach themselves to others, becoming turrets until they detach or until the parent unit is destroyed.

Turrets can be manually targeted, damaged, and destroyed independently from their parent. Destroyed turrets can be repaired and will reactivate after being fully healed.

Turrets inherit the armor value of their parent, if it is higher than the turret's base armor. When the parent is destroyed, the turret is destroyed as well.


Buffs and Debuffs


All base unit stats in Xibalba can be buffed or debuffed in both temporary and permanent ways. All buffs and debuffs, even ones that are otherwise permanent, can be cleansed with the appropriate interactions. Debuffs are cleansed whenever a unit is brought to full life from external healing sources. Buffs (and some debuffs) are cleansed with specific behaviors and abilities.

All buffs and debuffs have visual reads associated with them, commonly referred to as overlays. Overlays attach to units at specified offsets called attachment points. For example, a weapon-enhancing buff will attach to a unit's weapon, while an armor-hampering debuff will attach to a unit's body or heavy armor, if applicable. Overlays that are more attention-grabbing than others are presumed to be more impactful, while less important effects have more subdued overlays.


Collision


Except when under the effects of specific buffs or debuffs, units will always provide collision with other units on the same plane. Structures always provide collision with ground units, regardless of plane.

Ground units are separated into the following distinct planes:
  • Minor - Conventional ground units
  • Major - Exceptionally tall ground units
  • Hover - Hovering ground units that ignore terrain obstacles
  • Structure - All immobilized structures

Air units are separated into distinct planes:
  • Fighter - Small, low-flying spacecraft
  • Cruiser - Heavy gunboats and corvettes
  • Destroyer - Large escort ships
  • Capital - Flagships


Construction and Training


The vast majority of units in Xibalba are deployed during a match, with comparatively-few units being placed directly in maps (user-made content notwithstanding). Because so many units are created during a single instance, and because there are so many unique regencies at play in Xibalba, players will encounter many different methods of base construction and unit training. No matter how disparate these deployment mechanics are from one another, they will always involve a source unit or structure, and always cost resources and time.



Transports and Weight


Units in Xibalba have weight, and transports have weight capacity, which in turn controls how many units can be stored as cargo. Transports have their own weight stat as well, and this stat is added to the combined weight of all cargo, which prevents "clown car" interactions where transports can be loaded into other transports to circumvent cargo limitations.

Transports are never restricted to specific unit types and can be used by allied players. In cases where allied units are inside a different player's transport, the cargo owner can issue unload orders at their leisure. Some transports are also garrisons, and allow loaded cargo to fire weapons and cast abilities without leaving the transport.

Players can select their own units while they are loaded within a transport. Orders can be issued to selected cargo, but unless the transport is also a garrison, the cargo will unload to carry out the order. Cargo will also unload if the order's target is out of range.

Unless protected by specific behaviors, a transport dying results in the death of all loaded cargo.


Vision


Units in Xibalba provide active vision of their surroundings based on their sight range stat. Terrain and structures that were once revealed persist in the fog of war and on the minimap, but units that are not actively sighted are completely hidden.

Line of sight is obscured by elevated cliffs, terrain features, and certain abilities. When ambushed by a unit that is out of vision, the attacker is revealed to the victim's owner and their allies. This reveal lasts for 2 seconds after the last attack of the ambusher.

When a unit escapes vision, its position is tracked for an additional 2 seconds, allowing selection and targeting for the duration of the effect. Units tasked onto the tracked unit will not cancel the order after this effect ends, but their target will no longer be revealed after 2 seconds.

Some units have behaviors or abilities that conceal them. For them to be targeted, hidden and cloaked units must be detected by a hostile observant unit. When a hidden unit attacks an enemy, they are revealed to all players for 2 seconds.

It is common to have units that are obscured, in part or in full, by another unit that operates at a higher elevation level. Other cases could include a unit being behind a structure or cliff. In cases where pixels of a unit graphic are obscured, those pixels will be rendered above the obscuring graphic as a player-colored outline.


Have-Nots


The following text denotes common real-time strategy mechanics or elements that have been eschewed in the game design of Xibalba titles, along with reasonings as to why they have been left out.


Supply

In many players' minds, the most notable exclusion from RTS mechanics comes in the form of supply. Because its core flaws are not as apparent in smaller-scale titles, supply has persisted throughout the history of the genre as a means of constraining army sizes, while also forcing players to spend money on another class of infrastructure alongside workers, expansions, technology, and production facilities. The core issues with implementing supply in any game of scale revolve around the binary nature of the mechanic once you grow past a few hundred supply - should a sufficient number of your supply generators fall, you as a player are completely locked out of being able to train units, effectively rendering all of your production facilities useless despite having enough resources to put them to work.

Supply generators are also often fragile, allowing enemies to destroy vast quantities of them in short order, and it only takes the loss of one (depending on your supply count) to shut down a player's entire production line. Many supply generators are structures that take up vital building space, and also occupy a worker's time (or some other critical component of production) while they are replaced. Ultimately, the inclusion of supply - especially given the scale that Xibalba titles aim for - holds the potential to turn late-game engagements into slapstick base races where destroying just enough of an opponent's fragile infrastructure is enough to win the subsequent war of attrition.

The removal of supply as a gameplay system allows for a consistent formula for raising armies, in that all a player needs to do is procure sufficient resources for any given unit, and prevents any undesired morphing of the primary gameplay loop. It also facilitates cleaner target selection, where players understand that destroying training facilities or specific tech structures is a sure-fire way to interrupt their enemy's means of production, as opposed to gambling in killing a sufficient number of supply structures.


Upgrades

Upgrades and researches are another noteworthy exclusion from Xibalba titles. Their inclusion is even harder to justify than supply, because its flaws are more readily apparent regardless of the scale of any given RTS title. Upgrades provide permanent, inalienable advantages that change the power of units, making both player and spectator experiences inconsistent and throwing any stable expectations of who wins what fight out of the window. They are often invisible, have a wide variety of distinct gameplay impacts, and provide arbitrary breakpoints that even change how many attacks one unit needs to kill another. Everything about their inclusion reduces gameplay clarity and muddies any expectations a player might be able to have until they go through the chore of memorizing damage bonuses and other upgraded elements - something that is surely unreasonable to expect anyone to do when you have a game with 2,000 unique units.

Researches are distinct from upgrades in that they unlock abilities for specialist units to make use of. A common example would be Stim Pack for the Brood War Marine, which completely changes the unit's capabilities, increases their reliance on a supportive healer, and acts as the only reason its parent race can compete with certain openers from other races. In addition to the obvious problems of invisibility and inconsistency, this system reduces the actual value of training specialist units, particularly ones with multiple abilities that are locked behind their own unique (and often expensive) researches. They also serve as arbitrary resource sinks, the likes of which were weaponized by Starcraft II to gate the strength of a unit artificially and only so another race could counter it in time. Researches, much like upgrades, are cheap and lazy ways to achieve some form of balance, and bring with them far too many undesirable side effects, especially as the scope of a game increases.


Squads

In a real-time strategy game, squad mechanics refer to the consolidation of multiple units into an automated group. In a title with squads, orders are not carried out by individual units, but instead by an invisible system that governs the behavior of squad members and attempts to interpret the player's original intent. Squads remove precise control and reliability from the player's hands while automating movement and various other actions. They also reduce the individual impact of infantry units in a lame attempt at achieving scale. They will not make an appearance in Xibalba titles.


Smartcasting

Automated decision-making is a poisoned chalice that must be carefully considered at every junction when designing a skill-testing game, and smartcasting is a system with zero upside. As the term may not be familiar to all readers, an example of smartcasting would be selecting multiple spellcasters in an RTS and issuing a cast order on the ground in front of them. If smartcasting is implemented, only one (perhaps the closest, perhaps the one with most energy) of the casters will actually cast the ability, thus automating the decision of which caster to select. Smartcasting also morphs unit production, with players needing to issue multiple orders to production structures when they are group-selected, rather than one order being issued to all selected units.

These elements solidify the status of smartcasting as a parallel system that acts inconsistently when compared to other commands, like movement or attack orders, which are always issued to the entirety of the selected group. Having a slight improvement in precision is simply not worth the cost of completely automating specific choices and reducing the overall clarity of something as low-level as issuing orders to units.


Acceleration

Aficionados of real-time strategy games will know that certain units have a delay before they reach their top speed. This stat is usually called "acceleration", though it controls units that are either starting to move or starting to stop. Because of the often-sluggish nature of units that exhibit this behavior, it is not present in the titles of Xibalba.

The absence of this mechanic is experimental, and may be implemented if movement is deemed unsatisfactory without it.


Control Scheme


Cosmonarchy's control scheme tests for a mixture of mechanical skill (defined as speed and accuracy), and game knowledge (defined as general strategy and compositional design). Players that excel at these twin principles will consistently find success when interacting with the systems of Cosmonarchy. The following documentation details specific actions that require certain inputs.


Viewport

Moving the mouse cursor to any side or corner of the screen will pan the viewport in that direction. By default, pressing the arrow keys also move the viewport. Holding SHIFT during either action speeds up the viewport panning. Left-clicking on the minimap navigates the viewport to the selected position. Holding SPACEBAR will lock the screen in place, preventing viewport movement.

Viewport positions can be saved by holding CTRL or SHIFT and pressing any any function key other than F12. Pressing the key without holding CTRL or SHIFT will then instantly move the viewport to the saved position. An option to display saved viewport positions on the UI can be toggled.

Resource bars help visualize vital statistics in the midst of battle, and can be permanently displayed for no units, selected units, or all units. Energy bars of neutral and hostile units will only be displayed if they are within the vision of an observant ally. Holding CTRL hides permanent resource bars for the duration of the keypress.


Selection

Players can left-click units to select them, and hold a left-click and drag their mouse cursor to box select multiple units at once. Selection is unlimited in Cosmonarchy. This is a necessary step for facilitating large-scale battles that involve thousands of units per player.

Multiple structures can be group-selected, and mixed unit and structure selections are possible. Box-selecting is limited to units, but any unit or structure can be added to the current selection by holding SHIFT and left-clicking, and all onscreen units of the same type can be added by holding ALT and left-clicking.

When a structure is queued, its placement position will be visible to allies and selectable by the owning player. Orders tasked to structures in this state will be assigned if the structure is completed. As with other selections, these future-structures can be added to control groups.

Command cards display in accordance with a unit's rank, an internal stat that also governs which portrait and unit responses are seen and heard when selecting a mixed group. As a general rule, the more powerful a unit is, and the more abilities it has, the higher its rank will be. It is not possible to switch between command cards of selected units without changing the active selection.

Mixed selections display the count of each unit type, allowing for fast selection of a particular unit type. To select a specific unit of a given unit type, players can left-click on the unit group, and then left-click on the desired unit's icon. The icons of selected units also display their resource bars - life, shields, energy, and so on - allowing for experienced players to quickly select a vital unit without needing to look at the battlefield.

In accordance with RTS customs, selections can be stored in control groups by holding CTRL and pressing a home row number key (1 through =) to store the selection. Units can be added to a control group by holding SHIFT and pressing the desired number key. An option to display saved control groups on the UI can be toggled.

There are no 'idle worker' or 'select entire army' buttons or prompts in Cosmonarchy.


Orders

Both standard and quick ordering exist in Cosmonarchy, the latter of which allows for an increased speed of issuing orders. If quick ordering is enabled, an order will be issued immediately when its keyboard shortcut is pressed, targeting the mouse cursor's current location. If standard ordering is enabled, players must manually confirm the order location with a left-click before it is issued. Order confirmations only apply to orders that require targets.

Right-clicking issues contextual orders, which vary based on the selected unit and the target. The following list describes contextual order cases. Note that units exiting a production structure with a rally point will act as if they were issued a contextual order targeting the rally point.

Contextual orders:
  • Move to target point: Selection includes a mobile unit or structure, target is terrain or an allied unit
  • Face target point: Selection includes an immobile unit or structure with turning capabilities, target is anything
  • Attack target unit: Selection includes a unit with a weapon, target is a hostile unit
  • Set new rally point: Selection includes a production structure, target is anything
  • Harvest resources: Selection includes a resource harvester, target is a resource node
  • Return resources: Selection includes a resource harvester with resources, target is a resource depot
  • Enter transport: Selection includes a mobile unit, target is an allied transport with sufficient weight capacity; does not issue an order to the transport

The ordering of individual selected units, called "smartcasting", is not present within Cosmonarchy. Any order given to a selection of units is issued to the entire selection.

The following orders require specific characteristics:
  • Move, Hold Position, Patrol, Follow: Unit can move
  • Attack, Hold Fire: Unit has a weapon
  • Stop: Unit can be issued an order with a target (move, attack)

If all selected units share the same order queue, that queue will be visualized in the UI panel.


Ready Rooms


As described in the game flow section, matches of Cosmonarchy begin with a pregame phase where players configure their starting locations and retinues. In immersive, cooperative, and custom scenarios, introductory cinematics are commonplace, and begin playing when a map is initialized. These cinematics are always skippable. After the cinematic ends or is skipped, players enter their respective ready rooms and begin the preparation phase.

Mission-critical information is displayed in the ready room, including mission objectives, key map features, and known enemy compositions. Players can also consult prepared intelligence reports, if they are supplied by the map author. The first step of planning that players engage with is selecting their desired starting location, though this choice may have been made for a player if it is locked in the scenario's configuration.

After starting locations have been chosen by all human players, the next phase of preparation begins, where an initial retinue of units and structures are requisitioned with each player's starting resources. In some cases, a default configuration is provided by the map author, which can be selected and modified if desired. These default configurations will generally be used by AI players. As with starting locations, players may have their initial retinue specified for them, depending on scenario settings and the game mode. Starting resources will also vary between scenarios.

Once all human players have configured their starting locations and retinues, a 5-second countdown timer will initiate, after which the game will begin in full.


Competitive Rating


In competitive play, the outcome of Cosmonarchy matches provides a gain or loss of a player's rating. The amount is proportionate to the average rating of the opposing team, weighted towards higher values if such gaps exist.

More info coming soon.


Match Endings


Teams are victorious when all opponents are defeated.

Teams are defeated when two of the following statements are true:
  • the team has no production structures
  • the team has no workers
  • the team has no resources and no way to generate income

In cases where no participants of a competitive game are able to produce units, destroy enemy units, or generate income, a stalemate will be issued and no competitive rating will be awarded.


Apocalypse


If a team is convinced that they cannot defeat their opponents, they may initiate an Apocalypse - a process that requires expensive technology to complete and results in the utter destruction of the battlefield.

Once an Apocalypse is initiated, a countdown timer is displayed for all teams. This timer is representative of the progress towards the battlefield's destruction, and in most cases, it will accelerate if multiple Apocalypse technologies are deployed.

Teams who successfully perform an Apocalypse gain half the competitive rating they would have gained from a complete victory, while teams who fail to stop the Apocalypse will lose half the planned competitive rating.

An Apocalypse is credited to the team that owns the longest-standing Apocalypse device upon the countdown timer's conclusion.