Skip to main content

​
1.2 Movement & Propulsion

  • Burner engines face relative to the ship template grid. Their absolute direction depends on the ship’s absolute facing.
  • Capabilities:
    • Burners facing relative south grant forward movement.
    • Burners facing relative north grant backward movement.
    • Burners facing relative west grant strafeRight movement.
    • Burners facing relative east grant strafeLeft movement.
    • All ships are always capable of turnLeft and turnRight.
  • Speed Mechanics: A ship’s maximum speed is calculated using thruster scaling. The base speed (in cells per tick) is determined by the number of active burners facing that direction in a tick:
    • 1 burner = 1 cell/tick
    • 2 burners = 2 cells/tick
    • 3 burners = 2 cells/tick
    • 4 or more burners = 3 cells/tick Fractional movement is accumulated across ticks. The movement step-by-step raycaster resolves movement 1 cell at a time to prevent ships from “tunnelling” or jumping through solid walls.
  • Variable Speed Control: Instead of returning a plain string for move, behavior scripts can set a custom distance. E.g., move: { direction: 'forward', distance: 2 }. The distance traveled is capped by the maximum speed allowed by the active burners in that tick.

​
1.3 Weapons & Damage

  • Bullets travel as visible projectiles over multiple ticks (they are NOT hitscan).
  • Weapon parameters (damage, range, cooldowns) are dynamic and depend on the current battle configuration. You must read the exact capabilities of your current weapons from the observation payload at observation.self.capabilities.guns.
  • Projectiles move step-by-step each tick. If they collide with a solid wall or a ship, they apply damage and are destroyed immediately.

​
1.4 Defense (Shields)

  • Shield modules absorb a portion of incoming damage.
  • Shield HP: Starts at 100 HP per shield module.
  • Negation: Absorbs 40% of incoming damage if the shield faces the incoming projectile direction (relative face + absolute ship face opposes projectile trajectory).
  • Depletion: When a shield absorbs damage, its shield HP is reduced by the damage amount. If a shield’s HP drops to 0 or below, it is depleted and ceases to absorb damage.

​
1.5 Map Items & Consumables

  • Some maps spawn consumables in open space. These appear as health, shield, overcharge, speed_boost, repair, or stealth items.
  • Picking Up Items: If your ship moves over a tile containing a consumable item, it is automatically picked up and placed in your ship’s inventory.
  • Using Items: You can use an item from your inventory at any point by adding its id to the use array in your returned action object.
  • Effects:
    • health: Restores up to 30 Hull points (capped at ship maximum HP).
    • shield: Restores up to 50 Shield HP, distributed among damaged shields.
    • overcharge: Instantly clears weapon cooldowns for all weapons on the ship.
    • speed_boost: Activates speed boost for 10 ticks, doubling ship movement speed.
    • repair: Grants hull repair state for 10 ticks, regenerating 5 Hull HP per tick (Note: Nebula hazard damage will interrupt the repair cycle).
    • stealth: Activates stealth invisibility for 8 ticks, hiding the ship from enemy sensor views. Firing any weapon immediately breaks stealth.