Space Chess

a chess variant in space.

Goal of the Game (Challenge 1)

Destroy all enemy Matter Reconfigurers!

Turn Structure

Space Chess plays a little differently from normal chess, because spaceships have  orientation. The moves they have is relative to the direction they're facing. They can also shoot.
Step 1: Select one of your ships and choose a tile to move to. You can't take the pieces by moving onto their tiles. Moving to a tile that already has a spaceship results in a collision and destroys both spaceships.

Step 2: Select orientation. This will determine tiles you can move and attack with this ship in the future. When you're at the edge of the board, you can't choose to face outwards. 

Step 3: Shoot! Select one of the tiles your ship can shoot to. Shooting is mandatory and you can kill your own ships with this. When planning moves, make sure you can shoot at a tile that won't destroy your own fleet. Each ship type has its own weapon type which will greatly affect how they can be used on the board.

Next player's turn.

Meet the Spaceships! (Challenge 2)

	Y-Drones and U-Drones: These are your pawns. Their name describes their moving and attack patterns. Drones are your main line of defense. When shooting, they mark the tile they're targeted. Anything that enters that tile before the start of your next turn gets immediately destroyed.
	Repulsor Hammerhead: This heavy-duty support ship can use its repulsor weapon to push other ships away. This will not only mess up their position and orientation, but can destroy two ships at once by pushing them into each other.
	Laser Corvette: This is the fastest ship by far, but the tiles it can move to is very limited. By choosing the wrong orientation, this ship can get permanently disabled. It has short-ranged laser cannons that will destroy other ships directly in front of it.
	Cockroach Frigate: Fast movement, long range and total immunity to Antimatter Torpedos. This should be your best ship, but it is held back by the rocket system it uses. When selecting shooting target, it will place a marker on the board, but it will only destroy the spaceship on that tile at the beginning of your next turn. This gives it plenty of time to move away. Very often you'll just ram this ship into a suitable target.
	Antimatter Torpedo: These "spaceships" combine movement speed with nimbleness. They don't have weapons, but if they collide with another spaceship, they destroy everything in the 3x3 tiles around the collision point - except Cockroach Frigates. Even direct hits won't hurt those.
	Matter Reconfigurer: These slow ships do not come with any weaponary, but they can turn any ship directly behind them into an Antimatter Torpedo. It doesn't matter whose  spaceship it was, now it is your torpedo. The goal of the game is to destroy both Matter Reconfigurers of the opponent while keeping yours safe.

Notation (Challenge 3)

The game's notation follows this pattern: <shiptype>:<from>-<to>><orientation>x<attack>.

For example if Repulsor Hammerhead moves from A1 to B2, then turns to C2 and pushes the ship on D3, this is what you get: H:A1-B2>C2xD3. D3 will be in the notation even if the tile is empty. If the x<attack> part is omitted, it implies that there were no suitable attack tiles (for example the moved piece is a torpedo). If both the orientation and the attack is omitted, it implies that the ship collided with another ship at the end of the move and could no longer turn or attack.

Due to time constraints only the notation of the first 28 moves are shown.

Credits

Background by Vector Open Stock

Special thanks to Veky25 for all the insights and testing.

Made with Raylib