Abyssal Stars

Abyssal Stars is set in a distant future, where the Earth Empire is crumbling under a massive insurrection and a foreign alien threat. You play as one of the three factions: The stoic and noble Imperial Forces, the treacherous and deceitful Ulteron Raiders, and the mysterious and devouring Hive Swarm. As one of these factions, you all have goals in mind to accomplish in a newly discovered galaxy, where the Empire has fled when their home worlds crumbled.
Combat is similar to WCIIIs, yet vastly different at the same type. Armor and weapon types are just and maybe even more important, depending on which foes you are fighting. Micromanagement has been simplified in the larger Starcraft-like scale of battle. Ships behave like they do in StarWars, with tiny fighters whizzing around and dodging enemy fire while large capital ships bombard each other with plasma shells. Smart automatic actions done by fighting warships makes easier management during large scaled battles.

Gameplay Features:
3 Unique Races, each with their own agendas and strategy. The Earth Empire seeks to reclaim its former glory, while the Raiders seek to create carnage and profit off the misery of its enemies. The Hive slowly waits while it assimilates worlds into its every growing horde of organic creatures. Each race also has their own Mothership, which is very vital for each race to protect as it is their central hub for all activities.

Fighters and bombers automatically do firing runs, and frigates and capital ships move into place to begin weapons firing. A strong rock-paper-scissors combat system is also in place to force players to make a little consideration in army planning or suffer the consequences of defeat.

Each race uses resources for different things, and sometimes ignore one resource almost completely. They also affect their surroundings individually, with the Empire colonizing and invading planets, the Ulteron Raiders stealing and negotiating with them, and the Hive Swarm assimilating and destroying planets.


Planets have many uses depending on which race you are playing as.

For the New Earth Empire, they may colonize planets. Colonized planets provide a steady tax income every few seconds, as well as having a "loyalty" meter, or mana bar. As they gain mana, tax income is increased. Loyalty may be used to purchase troops, gain additional funds, and increase the defense of a planet against enemy landings. The Earth forces can also set up Planetary Quarries to add on a passive and steady ore income.

For the Raiders, they have no direct interaction with planets other than setting up Trading Colonies orbiting a planet. Depending on where the Trading Post is located, different legal (and illegal) goods may be produced and harvested.

The Alien Hive Forces assimilate planets, slowly putting them into a case of decay while rapidly gaining resources from them. Once used up, a planet becomes barren, and can't be used for much else.

The 3 resources are:

Galactic Credits - A type of universal credit system, used in purchasing many Raider vessels, but also used by the Earth Empire in setting up structures and constructing starships. Galactic Credits are not used by the Hive Forces.

Mineral Ore - Harvested from asteroids and quarries on planet. Eaten by Hive Forces because of its energy contents, Mineral Ore is also used by the Earth Empire to build its structures and support its ships.

Mineral Ore functions very differently for raider forces. They, normally, only get a small subset of technologies. As they expand and set up trade posts throughout the galaxy, they gain access to Mineral Ore through trade, which, to them, is used as a basis for research.

Supply - The food and quartering needed by every army. The Hive Forces has the greatest reliance on this. Works exactly like food in Warcraft III.

With a quickly enveloping fog of war, players must always stay on their toes to keep with the latest information to know how to react. Each race has several abilities to help them with this.

Intro/Help Features:
The game automatically displays helpful tips, which can be disabled individually by each player, which help to guide new players at their basic objectives and simple goals. Also, there is a informational quest log in development.

Each race, upon starting the game, will get a simple non-intrusive tutorial to help start them off. It's up to them if they want to take the advice.

Terrain Features:
A space background, with asteroids, stars, planets, nebulae, and even a black hole. The black fog covering the stars is a signal of the approaching darkness.

New Earth Empire:

Hidden information: Though tattered and beaten, the Earth Empire has arisen yet again. Hiding from the shame of the fall of their homeworld, the Terran Fleet of the Earth Empire has fled to a far off galaxy. With their high tech weapons and navigations system, they are a force to be reckoned with. Their downfall may be their lack of ingenuity and subterfuge. The New Earth Empire deploys both scouts and Radar Satellites to detect approaching enemies, with the Radar Satellite sending radar pings alerting you of nearby enemies. Pros: Strongest navy Strongest long-term Economy Best long-range weaponry Shielding technology Large and extensive tech tree Nuclear weapons Cons Planetary dependence Fewer and expensive ships Less versatile abilities and ships Mothership dependent Slow to respond to situations

Ulteron Raiders:

Hidden information: Ravenous extremists who challenged the rule of the Old Earth Empire. A massive insurgency uprising brought down the Imperial Home world, and caused the downfall of the Stellar Network that linked all the worlds of the Terran Fleets. The Raiders, seeing the fleeing Imperial forces, followed them through hyperspace warps, bringing them to the new galaxy. With the most agile and subtle ships, the Raiders are a network of guerrilla warriors that can challenge even the mightiest ships in battle. Pros Swiftest and most versatile ships Low detectability Cloaking technology Mobile base Quick income from trade routes Cons Only one capital ship, and is relatively weak Ships generally weaker, in terms of integrity Must steal to get some technologies Must steal enemy capital ships by boarding them Mothership dependent

Hive Swarm:

Hidden information: A previously unknown force, they were disturbed by the hyperspace warps into their galaxy. Drawn to the energy signals of the strange beings that entered their space, the Hive Swarm does not take lightly to this incursion. With a disturbing potential to swarm enemy with massive fleets of lesser and greater creatures, the Hive deploys a variety of space faring entities. The Hive Swarm assimilates planets to fuel both its appetite for resources as well as using its organic material to produce eggs, which hatch into the variety of species used to fight its enemies. Pros Numerous and volatile units Natural organic regeneration Infests planets and brings it under control Corrupts unit, destroying them from the inside Powerful and unpredictable organic attacks Powerful mothership Cons Quickly exhaustible resources Weak flesh armor Susceptible to anti-organic weaponry No defensive structures Weak to area of effect attacks