Iron Command Playtest · published
Most base builders hand you a pile that runs out. You mine it, it's gone, you move on to the next
one. Iron Command does something else, and it changes what you do with a map.
Riftstone comes out of rifts - tears in the ground where the stuff pushes through. Around
every rift lies a field of crystals, and the rift grows that field back over time. Here is the part that matters: The crystals are the seed. As long as a single one is still lying there, the rift recovers -
even from completely empty. Strip the rift and clear the field, and all that's left is a dead
scar in the ground. Permanently. Nothing grows there again. A rift with its field intact. Two collectors working it.
It turns a routine decision into a real one. Clearing your own crystal field is quick money. It is also the fastest way to make sure that rift
never comes back. You are not choosing between two rates of income - you are choosing between income
now and income later, and the later one is permanent. Push hard, strip everything, win fast. Or leave the seed lying, take less, and still have a rift
running in twenty minutes. Most maps ask you where to build. This one keeps asking what you are willing to burn. The same rift, minutes later. One crystal left - that is the difference between recovery and dead ground.
Humans send collectors that pick up crystal shards one at a time. They plan in fields.
Kharzeth drain the rifts directly with tankers - drive up, fill, drive back. They plan in
loads.
That is not a difference in numbers. It is a different rhythm, and it changes what a good position
on the map even looks like.
Yields, regeneration speed and field size are all still moving. What's settled is the principle: a
resource you can use up for good, including your own. Iron Command is a classic base-building RTS - on your monitor, or from inside the battlefield in VR.
Coming spring 2027.