MACH//BREAK

BreakFlag

The loop. Two bases. Each holds a Core on its Core Station. Take the enemy Core, carry it home along a Breakline, and touch it to your own Core Station while your own Core is safe at home. The Runner gets the capture, the team gets the point. First to the cap limit, or the most captures at time, wins.

The operation. Around that loop: escorts clearing the route, interceptors waiting on the ridge where the fast Breakline crests, a Bulwark shelling the base so the defence is repairing instead of chasing, a Strider on the far route nobody is watching. Every capture is a small operation, and every link in it can be broken.

The routes. Every Core has at least three ways out: a safe, slow one; a fast, exposed one; and an extreme, technical one that only a practised runner can hold. Map notes name the official Breaklines; players find better ones.

The grab. A Core can be taken at speed. A runner who arrives at 200 km/h leaves at 200 km/h, minus whatever the defence takes off them on the way through.

The rules in the build. A Core dropped in the field returns home after 60 seconds unless a player or its stand holds it. Standoff: a carrier cannot score while their own Core is away, so a stolen Core has to be run down and returned before the capture counts. First to five captures wins. Every spawn carries the same kit, a Cell Pack, the Impulse Launcher with 10 rounds and the Vector Cannon with 50; anything more comes from an inventory station.

Status

Playable on the internal build, on all six maps: two bases with base guns, radar and generators, three frames, thirteen weapons, bots with roles (runner, offence, midfield, chaser, defender, engineer, raider), a deterministic server simulation with client prediction and lag compensation, replays hashed and verified on every release.

Competitive target: 7v7. Playtest target: 8v8. The exit test, an 8-a-side session with humans that produces real tactics, has not been run yet; it is the next milestone. The menu will still explain it as capture-the-flag; the systems and words are our own.

Content complete · exit test pending
Development build: inside a Skerry Yard flag room, looking out past the Core's light at the aurora
Development buildInside the flag room, Skerry Yard

Team roles in a BreakFlag match

Roles are what you are doing, not what you picked in a menu. Any frame can do any of them; some frames do some of them better. The bots play seven of their own (runner, offence, midfield, chaser, defender, engineer, raider) with routes planned on the terrain: they plant turrets, raid generators and defend the vaults, and sixteen of them fill a server.

  • RunnerTakes the Core and brings it home. Usually a Strider.
  • EscortClears the route ahead of the runner and shoots what follows.
  • InterceptorStops the enemy runner where the Breakline is predictable.
  • Disruptor / RaiderHits base systems: power, sensors, the Core Station's defences.
  • Anchor / SentinelHolds the base and the Core Station; long-range overwatch.
  • HunterFinds and kills the enemy's beacons, jammers and infiltrators.
  • EW · EngineerJamming, cloak, repair, turret and radar networks, mines. The tools are in the build; the bots already play engineer and raider.
  • Vehicle Assault · Air DefenceLater: the vehicle layer and its counters. One hover scout so far.

Maps

Maps are designed as Breaklines first, scenery second. Every base has sensor shadows, beacon opportunities, sweep routes and counter-battery positions. Six are built and playable, from a dueling arena to a big map over a kilometre flag to flag. The test realm rotates two of them, the icefield and Proving Ground: a big map and an arena.

MapFlag to flagNote
The icefield1,060 mThe big map. On the test-realm rotation.
Ascent Prime1,000 mMountains, a ringed planet over the ridge.
Tallow Reach925 mBases on the ridges, long approaches.
Echo Ridge660 mRavines and ridgelines; also on the boards, below.
Skerry Yard540 mA cold coastal yard between two bunker bases.
Proving Ground260 mA dueling arena. On the test-realm rotation.
Development build: a frame sprinting across the icefield, the big map
Development buildThe icefield
Development build: first-person on Ascent Prime, Impulse Launcher in hand, mountains ahead and a ringed planet over the ridge
Development buildAscent Prime
Echo Ridge map concept: forest ravines and caverns
ConceptEcho Ridge, as drawn on the boards

Planned

No dates. Each of these waits until BreakFlag is finished and people keep coming back to it. Ranked candidates are marked.

Frontline

Large territory warfare, 32v32 scaling towards 64v64. Combined arms, logistics, forward bases.

Planned

Breakpoint

A moving objective. Mobility, rotations, temporary control.

Planned

Vector Control

Multi-node domination. Split pressure and route decisions.

Planned

Relay

Pass-and-carry race with combat. Speed, passing, interception, escort.

Planned · ranked candidate

Convoy

Escort or destroy. Vehicles, ambush, air cover, route denial.

Planned

Strike

Attack and defend infrastructure. Staged sabotage, repair, siege.

Planned

Hunter

Collect and extract fragments. Risk, reward, visibility.

Planned

MachBall

High-speed sport mode. Passing, positioning, aerial control.

Planned · ranked candidate

Duel

1v1. Movement and prediction, nothing else.

Planned · ranked candidate

Vector Arena

2v2 to 5v5, equalised competitive combat.

Planned · ranked candidate

Survival

PvE, solo or together. Mechanics training and lore delivery.

Planned

Incursion

Four-player PvE missions. Contracts, lore, a place to learn the chains.

Planned

Movement Trials and Mach Academy

Movement Trials

Named Breaklines with a clock. Run the route, race your ghost, race the leaderboard, watch the replay of the runner above you. Trials are the movement school and the movement sport at once, and they need nothing but the terrain, so they arrive early.

Planned · after the core prototype's exit test

Mach Academy

The training system: tutorials that teach Glide, Burn and the Burn Arc in that order; bot matches; time trials; a vehicle sandbox later. Nobody is thrown into a 7v7 at 250 km/h without having been shown how to stop.

Planned

Solo and local play are part of the architecture, not an afterthought: offline bots and a listen server exist today; LAN play, a practice server, map testing and community rule sets follow.

Competitive integrity

Everything that affects gameplay is available to everyone from the start. Nothing gameplay-affecting is ever sold, grinded or gated. Progression is cosmetics, titles, records and mastery badges. Rank reflects skill by mode, not account age or spending. Competitive servers are server-authoritative today; anti-cheat beyond server authority is planned. Ranks run from Initiate to Apex. Ranked is planned for BreakFlag, Vector Arena, Duel, MachBall and Relay.

Guilds, tournaments and community play →