anekdotin
5fe7c01052
Drop Apex Dynamics from the playable roster (2 races now: Inner Sphere Navy, Outer Rim Collective) to simplify the 2D art pipeline; World's race-offer logic just shuffles both remaining races instead of picking 2 of N. Also fix bullets using a constant muzzle velocity instead of adding the shooter's own velocity, and shrink the bullet hitbox/sprite. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
109 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
109 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
# Races & Ship Classes
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## Setting
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Two factions fight inside the massive shielding, pipes, and superstructure of
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refineries, shipyards, and mining stations — not open void. Grounded, blue-collar
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sci-fi in the vein of *The Expanse* (disciplined inner-planet military vs. gritty
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outer-belt miners), but built as a fast, arcade 2D tactical arena shooter rather
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than a hard-sci-fi sim. Tight factory corridors and choke points are the map
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language — see `multiplayer.md`.
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> **Status:** This replaces the previous 10-alien-race concept pool and the
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> Terran Republic / Mechanos Sovereignty / Vorg Swarm roster. A third faction,
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> Apex Dynamics (The Corporate Syndicate), was cut entirely to simplify the art
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> pipeline — no code or docs should reference it going forward.
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---
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## The 2 Factions
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### Inner Sphere Navy (ISN) — The Military
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**Weapon type:** Standard-issue ballistics / ordnance
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**Visual:** Gunmetal-gray, wedge-shaped hulls with hard militaristic angles, dense
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protective plating, and prominent forward-facing gun turrets.
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**Feel:** Disciplined, heavy, frontal. Wins by tanking a choke point and forcing
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the fight.
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**Tactical ability:** **Overcharged Aegis** — see [Faction Abilities](#faction-abilities-universal-system)
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### Outer Rim Collective (ORC) — The Belters
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**Weapon type:** Kinetic / repurposed mining hardware
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**Visual:** Blocky, gritty patchwork of mismatched metal plating and exposed
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hydraulic wiring, dominated by external fuel tanks and heavy industrial hardware
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bolted onto the hull.
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**Feel:** Scrappy and improvised. Wins by controlling terrain and denying space.
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**Tactical ability:** **Proximity Scrap-Mine** — see [Faction Abilities](#faction-abilities-universal-system)
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---
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## Ship Classes
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Every faction fields the same 3-ship structure, re-skinned to its own theme:
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| Class | Role |
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|-------|------|
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| **Fighter** | Single, high-precision, high-damage shot |
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| **Gunner** | Rapid-fire spray/burst, more shots for less damage each |
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| **Tank** | Bigger and slower; fires both bullets and missiles |
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### Inner Sphere Navy (ISN)
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| Ship | Class | Weapon |
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|------|-------|--------|
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| **Patriot** | Fighter | A single, hard-hitting high-caliber explosive shell |
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| **Barrage** | Gunner | A relentless quad-barrel spray of fast, low-damage light bullets |
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| **Behemoth** | Tank | Heavy tracking torpedoes plus massive physical deck-guns |
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### Outer Rim Collective (ORC)
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| Ship | Class | Weapon |
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|------|-------|--------|
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| **Rail-Jack** | Fighter | A single, heavy magnetic railgun slug |
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| **Scrap-Spitter** | Gunner | A rotary scrap-cannon spraying rapid, low-damage metal shrapnel |
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| **Iron-Clad** | Tank | Unguided explosive rockets plus continuous vulcan machine-gun fire |
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---
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## Faction Abilities (Universal System)
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Each faction has exactly one tactical ability. Every ship in that faction gets
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it — what changes per class is scale, not kind, so the ability reads instantly
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off a ship's faction regardless of which of the 2 hulls it's flying. Same energy
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cost and cooldown across factions; duration/impact scales with the hull:
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| Class | Scaling rule |
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|-------|--------------|
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| Fighter | Fast cooldown, short/light effect |
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| Gunner | Baseline cooldown and effect |
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| Tank | Long cooldown, largest/heaviest effect |
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### Inner Sphere Navy — Overcharged Aegis
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A frontal hard-light barrier absorbs 100% of incoming damage from the front for
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a few seconds. Sides and rear stay exposed, turn rate drops, and the ship can't
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fire while it's up. Tank's barrier is wide enough to shield teammates trailing
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behind it; Fighter's is a narrow, quick poke.
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**Use:** Push straight through a defended choke point, soaking fire so teammates
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can follow.
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### Outer Rim Collective — Proximity Scrap-Mine
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Ejects a magnetized mine that arms after ~1 second and goes dark on radar.
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Detonates on enemy proximity for heavy damage in a small radius plus knockback;
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alert enemies can shoot it from a distance to trigger it safely. Only one mine
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per ship at a time — dropping a second detonates the first. Tank's mine has a
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larger blast radius; Fighter's arms faster but hits smaller.
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**Use:** Cover a retreat down a corridor, or seed a choke point/objective before
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a push.
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### Faction Interaction
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With only 2 factions, the abilities form a single counter rather than a loop:
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- **ISN shield counters ORC mines** — the frontal barrier absorbs a mine
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detonation, clearing the path for the team behind it.
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- **ORC mines punish a shield push once it drops** — the shield can't fire and
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loses turn rate while up, so a mine dropped in its path (or behind it, once
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the barrier expires) still threatens the push.
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No ability wins a fight by itself — it depends on the map and the moment it's
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used, same as a smoke/flash/molotov in CS:GO.
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