Basic Warfare

Basic Warfare combines real-time multiplayer action combat with strategic economic simulation. You can order units to attack the enemy and join the fighting yourself. Units need energy to gather resources, fight and move; when their energy runs out, they begin to fail. You can target opponents’ energy sources to weaken their forces.

The game’s story describes BASIC Form, a technology from an age of rapid scientific growth that could compile tangible binaries. It required little natural resource and could produce matter at incredible rates, limited only by its compiler. Its power was concealed from the public, leaving few people aware of the war fought during its existence. The game reveals BASIC Form’s legacy.

Advance through the ages

You begin in the Assembly Age, gathering resources, expanding your economy and defending against attacks. Research lets you advance to the QuickBASIC and FreeBASIC ages. Each age increases the value recovered when recycling structures and the number of working hangers available:

• Assembly Age: 25% structure recycle value and up to 2 working hangers.
• QuickBASIC Age: 50% structure recycle value and up to 5 working hangers.
• FreeBASIC Age: 75% structure recycle value and up to 9 working hangers.

Manage resources

Resource is the raw material used to construct buildings and units and advance research. It is scattered across the map, and controlling more resource sites can improve your economy. Only 8 scavengers can gather from a resource at a time.

Energy comes from nuclear, hydro or solar power. It powers units as they gather, fight and move, and is also used automatically to repair damaged buildings. Keeping energy above zero is necessary for your units to remain functional.

Units

Utility units gather resources, while offensive units explore and attack. Scavengers cannot defend themselves, so protecting them is important; Heavy Scavengers can replace them later in the game, gathering faster from the map’s limited resources.

• Scavenger: An Assembly Age unit for gathering resources on the map.
• Heavy Scavenger: A sturdier late-game replacement for the Scavenger, with a faster gathering rate.
• Patrol: An Assembly Age exploration unit with limited attack capabilities.
• Light Attack: A combat unit that performs much better than Patrol units for a small increase in cost.
• Bomber: A somewhat slow unit that can destroy enemy structures.
• Fast Attack: An expensive, sturdy and fast unit that outperforms the other attack units.

Structures

Structures provide power, expand your economy and unit capacity, advance research, or support combat. Compilers are the only way to obtain offensive and defensive units, and can compile more as you advance through the ages.

• Watch Tower: An inexpensive Assembly Age building that expands DOV, but is easily destroyed and should be replaced in later ages.
• Solar Power: A small, inexpensive early-game energy source that becomes cost-ineffective and vulnerable as you advance.
• Hydro Power: A cost-effective, fairly strong energy source that must be built in water.
• Research Center: An expensive structure and the only means of advancing to BASIC ages; without one, keeping pace with an opponent becomes impossible.
• Energy Cell: Increases the maximum amount of energy you can store.
• Small Resource Repository: Increases the maximum amount of resource you can store and is necessary for obtaining more expensive items.
• Large Resource Repository: Increases the maximum amount of resource you can store and is necessary for obtaining more expensive items.
• Hanger: Increases the maximum number of units you can build by 10. The limits are 30 in the Assembly Age, 60 in the QuickBASIC Age and 100 in the FreeBASIC Age.
• Repair Tower: Restores 2 damage to up to 5 units within its DOV range.
• Turret: Uses invisible electromagnetic pulses to deal 2 damage to up to 10 enemy units within its DOV range.
• Fast Repair Tower: Restores 5 damage to up to 20 units within its DOV range.
• Heavy Turret: Uses invisible electromagnetic pulses to deal 5 damage to up to 25 enemy units within its DOV range.
• Nuclear Reactor: A large, strong and cost-effective energy source suited to the late game.