Gameplay

RTS - Real-Time Strategy

Achron is a futuristic RTS featuring three species with vastly different playing styles where you create your buildings and army, explore the map, expand to acquire more resources, upgrade your tech tree, and engage in combat with your foes.

Timeline and Timewaves

Like many other games, Achron allows the player to view an overhead map of the surrounding area. However, Achron also shows a map of the timeline. If the player is attacked at a certain point in time, the timeline will show the amount of damage received at that point by a large amount of red on that portion of the timeline. The timeline also shows information including damage dealt and chronoports. Being able to see the amount of available resources at any point in time helps the player figure out the best points in time to construct more units.

Information on the timeline can be lumped into three categories:

A map of time - "Your opponent will attack you in 1 minute"
Inform strategy - "You should have taken advantage of your resources and built a larger army 2 minutes ago, go change the past"
Changes to the timeline - "Your opponent just undid an entire battle in the past"

Changes in history are not instantly propagated through the timeline, but instead are brought forward via evenly separated timewaves, giving the player opportunities to plan and react to those past changes before the next time wave sweeps by. These changes from the revised history are not reflected on the players' screens until the proper timewave passes the player.

Warning...Timewave Approaching

Chronoenergy

To prevent all players from always playing in the far past, their ability to change the past is limited by chronoenergy, a regenerating resource. Each command issued to every unit in the past consumes chronoenergy, limiting how much a player can change and play in the past. It is much more costly to modify a battle that occurred six minutes ago than a battle that happened only 30 seconds ago. Since each command issued in the past consumes chronoenergy, players can reduce chronoenergy usage with command hierarchies by directing units to report to another unit, and then controlling all the units in the hierarchy by issuing commands to just the top level commander.

Speed Controls

The speed controls allow the player to progress through time at different rates. Pause and slow-mo can be used by the player to issue precise orders in a hectic situation, while playing in fast-forward is useful for players replaying in the past. Playing in fast-forward allows the player to catch up to the present. Fast-forward is particularly useful because when a player spends time in the past, the present has advanced by the same amount of time.

» Chronoporting Overview
» Species Overview

» Curious about the "Grandfather Paradox" and how it effects time travel in an RTS?

Species

There are three species in Achron, each with its own unique style of gameplay.

Vecgir: Rugged masters of teleportation
Grekim: Mobile masters of time travel
Humans: Specialized masters of offense

HUMAN

In the Remnant system, the discovery of long-buried alien ruins led directly to the development of reliable teleportation technology, and an explosion in scientific advancement. Some of the colonies rebelled, and used the autonomous systems Earth replied upon to win their independence. Colonial Unification and the formation of the Collective Earth Security Organization brought peace, but also a ban on the research and development of the most advanced intelligence systems that the colonies had subverted to their cause.

Flexibility is the hallmark of human military forces. Liquid crystal and quark-gluon plasma are processed from their containers, and fed into portable nanoscale production lines, allowing buildings, equipment, and weapons to be constructed on-site. Humans have strong specialized attack vehicles and teleport in soldiers to pilot them. Teleporter relays maintain reinforcement lines, and when used in conjunction with chronoporters, give humans the ability to put strong offence where and whenever they choose.

VECGIR

The Vecgir are a proud, individualistic race. Enslaved by the Coremind, they worked in its factories and joined in its conquests. Now free, they hope to recover their lost history and find a place where they can make a home outside of the Coremind's influence. They are bipedal, have four arms, and average eight to eleven feet in height.

The Vecgir are masters of teleportation, and can upgrade their forces to repeatedly teleport without the aide of an external device. This gives them a great advantage on rough terrain, moving past static defenses, and performing effective hit-and-run raids. The Vecgir have a hybrid teleporter and chronoporter, which can be used to repel enemies.

Vecgir facilities are built on fixed positions and interlock into hexagons. These buildings can be upgraded to attack on their own, and the foundations have dynamic repair facilities, making Vecgir strong at defense. Vecgir pilot vehicles, and moments before the vehicle is destroyed, the pilot will eject and continue fighting on foot.

GREKIM

The Grekim resemble biomechanical cephalopods, characterized by a prominent head and eight tentacles. They are born equipped with weapons built-in, ready for combat. The Grekim have three types, any two of which can merge to produce the third type. Unlike the Vecgir, they require minimal infrastructure to build their forces.

The Grekim are masters of chronoportation, and can upgrade their forces to chronoport without the aide of an external gate. They are an extremely hardy race, and are able to come back quickly after battle from only a few survivors. The focus of their command hierarchies is an arcticus, their centers of communication.