MACH//BREAK
Concept
Strider
Light. Runner and scout. Fastest on the Breakline, first to the Core, first to know where the enemy is. Needs escort, sensor cover and route timing to survive the trip home.
Speed · capture · recon
The game · Development build
Physics doesn't negotiate
MACHBREAK is built from the physics up: mass, velocity, gravity, ground friction, jet thrust and an energy budget. Everything else sits on top of that. On this page: movement, energy, frames, weapons, the scout, bases, mid-air hits, tactical depth.
Movement
Movement is the first weapon system, and it was the first milestone: if crossing an empty map is not fun, nothing else gets built. Grounded velocity is projected onto the surface, so a downhill slope is an accelerator and the momentum you collect going down is kept going up the next ridge.
- GlideHold it and the ground stops braking you. Low-friction traversal; momentum preserved along the surface. Release for Traction: normal control, quick stops, footwork.
- BurnJet thrust. Lifts you off the ground, then blends into forward acceleration so you can correct your vector mid-air, clear a crest, or hang for a shot. Costs energy.
- BreakA velocity threshold event. Cross it and the game tells you — telemetry, sound, a scoring hook. MachBreak is the exceptional high-speed state above that.
- BreaklineThe optimal route through terrain to an objective. Every objective has at least three: safe and slow, fast and exposed, extreme and technical.
- Burn ArcGlide into a slope, Burn at the lip, coast the arc, land on the next downhill already moving. Chain them and the speedometer climbs into the hundreds.
- CutA turn taken on the Breakline without giving the speed back: bank the slope, let the terrain do the steering.
- DiveDropping onto a descent to convert altitude into velocity. The way a runner gets from a ridge to 250 km/h.
- RiseClimbing off a slope with the speed you brought: the Burn that turns a valley floor into an approach over the enemy wall.
- Vector / VectoringYour velocity, and the act of shaping it. Everything above is Vectoring.
Target speed bands
| Skill band | Velocity | Means |
|---|---|---|
| New player | 30–70 km/h | Move, fight, understand objectives. |
| Intermediate | 80–150 km/h | Chain slopes, spend jets wisely. |
| Advanced | 150–250 km/h | Run routes, intercept, survive at speed. |
| Elite | 250–400+ km/h | Invent routes, time attacks, create spectacle. |
Design targets. Speeds are measured in-engine and regression-tested; the numbers move as tuning does.
Energy
One pool, many customers. Burn drains it, shields drain it, the precision energy weapons drain it, and it recharges only while you are not spending. Arriving at the enemy base at 200 km/h on an empty tank is a choice you made three ridges ago.
That is the whole economy of a run: every jet is a spending decision, and the terrain is the only free acceleration on the map.
What the numbers say
Slope momentum preservation is an acceptance test with a regression suite behind it: at least 85% of speed kept over 50 m on a 30° slope. The dev log records the measurements.
Frames
Three frames. Nobody is locked into a role; the frame sets your mass, energy and how much you can carry, and the weapons, pack, grenades and deployables you pick at an inventory station do the rest. Every spawn starts with the same kit: a Cell Pack, the Impulse Launcher with 10 rounds and the Vector Cannon with 50; anything more comes from a station.
Concept
Ranger
Medium. The generalist. Duels, escorts, holds the mid-field, bridges offence and defence. If you do not know what the team needs yet, take a Ranger.
Duel · escort · control
Concept
Bulwark
Heavy. Siege and base pressure. Carries the Gravity Mortar, anchors a push, holds a base. Slow on the flat, dangerous on a downhill, dependent on targeting data and protection. Its body is chosen by the pack it wears: Assault by default, Guard with the Barrier Pack, Siege with the Munitions Pack, Support with the Mender Pack.
Siege · anchor · pressureSpecter
Electronic warfare and infiltration. Its tools are in the build as gear any frame can carry: the Veil Pack (cloak), the Static Pack (jammer), beacons, the Eye Grenade.
Tools in the build · frame undecidedEngineer
Repair and deployables. Also in the build as gear: the Repair Gun, the Mender Pack, turret and radar networks, mines, sensors, the Field Refit and the Relay Pad. The bots already play the role.
Tools in the build · frame undecidedThe boards drew Specter and Engineer as frames of their own. Their tools were built first, as packs and deployables the three frames carry; whether they become frames is a decision for after the core game is proven.
Weapons
Thirteen weapons, all in the build. Projectile-first: every shot has a travel time, so leading the target at speed is the whole art. The beams are the exceptions, and each one either spends your energy or does no damage at all.
Impulse Launcher
A slow field ring with splash. The aerial duelling weapon, and the way to launch yourself.
Vector Cannon
A kinetic stream with a short spin-up. Interception at speed.
Ion Repeater
The sidearm every frame carries. Slow bolts, no ammunition, only charge.
Plasma Thrower
Short-range burning bolt. Interiors and doorways.
Grenade Launcher
A timed charge that bounces. Damage where you cannot see.
Gravity Mortar
Arcing siege shell. Aimed at a place, some seconds from now.
Lance
Charged precision beam. Draws from the same pool as your jets: the shot costs mobility.
Arc Prod
A charge dumped at contact range. The last argument.
Seeker Launcher
Locks, then flies. Built for hulls, not people; a flare will pull it.
Siphon
A beam that pulls the charge out of what it touches. Kills nothing, ends plenty.
Spotter
A designator. Paint a target and it is on every friendly display, and the mortar has its aim solution.
Range Finder
Marks a stationary team aim point for indirect fire. A secondary any frame can add.
Repair Gun
A field beam for frames, emplacements and generators.
Beside the weapons: five grenades, six packs (Cell, Barrier, Mender, Munitions, Veil for cloak, Static for jamming) and eleven deployables. The arsenal page has every item and how it is used.
The scout
One vehicle so far: a hover scout, on a pad at every base. Single seat, a bow gun fed by the craft's own energy, one live scout per team. A Strider or a Ranger can fly it; a Bulwark cannot. The pad needs the base's power and can be destroyed and repaired like anything else. It exists to prove the vehicle layer end to end, pads, pilots, the network and the bots, before anything heavier is built.
Vehicles are the next big push, and the bots will be taught to use them and to counter them before any are called done. The boards name more; none of those is built, and this page will list them when they are.
Bases
Every base in the build is defended the same way, and every part of the defence can be killed. Base guns on the approach cones, five barrel types on one pedestal: PD, Cannon, Flak, Mortar and Seeker. A base radar on the ring. Generators in their own vaults off the base, with walkable doorways; a generator down powers the base down: guns stop, the radar goes dark, the inventory stations refuse you. Three inventory stations: one on the deck outside, one inside, one in the generator vault. Stand in a station's ground ring and it refits you.
Players add to this with their own networks: turrets and radars in the field, mines, sensors, beacons. The bots plant turrets, raid generators and defend the vaults.
Mid-air hits
Hitting a target that is airborne, moving fast, or both, is the skill the whole game rewards. The design: the server scores every mid-air hit on a formula that weighs the target's speed, altitude and the shot's travel time, and announces the tier.
The tiers are named and designed. The scoring is not in the build yet; it is on the list after the core prototype's exit test, and the thresholds will be tuned from play.
Vector Hit tiers
| Tier | When |
|---|---|
| Vector Hit | A clean hit on an airborne or fast-moving target. |
| High Vector | Same, at speed or altitude that makes the lead hard. |
| Extreme Vector | Both shooter and target moving fast; the shot led across a long arc. |
| Mach Hit | The target was in the MachBreak state. The clip everyone shares. |
Tactical depth
The rule: no important battlefield capability comes from one player pressing one button. Powerful outcomes emerge from chains that the enemy can disrupt at several points. The reference pattern is targeted indirect fire, the beacon-artillery chain. The pieces are in the build today: sensors, jammers, cloak, beacons, the Spotter's aim painting, repair, and the power rule. The chain as one readable system, with its own telemetry, is not, and that is the honest state of it.
| Stage | Attacking team | Defending team's counter |
|---|---|---|
| 1Blind the grid | Disrupt, destroy or jam enemy sensor coverage. | Protect sensors, run patrols, keep redundant sensor nodes. |
| 2Insert marker | A Strider (later a Specter) infiltrates and places a covert Target Beacon. | Sweeps, motion sensors, engineers, anti-cloak pulses. |
| 3Maintain own network | Keep your command radar or relay online. | Raid the enemy's sensor and command infrastructure. |
| 4Generate aim solution | Bulwarks see the sky and trajectory marker for indirect fire. | Jam the beacon, repair sensors, deploy a shield canopy, move assets. |
| 5Execute fire mission | Heavies lob arcing mortars onto the marked area. | Counter-battery fire, intercept rounds, kill the mortars, rotate base defence. |
| 6Exploit damage | Runners or vehicles attack during the damage and repair chaos. | Emergency repair, reserve defenders, relocate the Core, fall-back positions. |
Reconnaissance enables targeting; targeting enables heavy fire; heavy fire enables objective movement; objective movement forces a response; the response creates the next opportunity. Every step is readable after the fact, so a team understands why it lost.
What the chain depends on
Sensors, beacons, jamming, the power grid, the repair economy and supply. Each is a place the enemy can cut the chain, and each needs a different role to hold it. In the build, that means the base radar and the field radars, the Marker Beacon and the Spotter, the Static Pack, the generators, the Repair Gun and the Mender Pack, and the inventory stations. See bases.