u/applchr

Hi everyone. This is MESHFALL, a strategy game I've been building on my own. It sits somewhere between an RTS and a tower defense.

The idea it's built on: your units only take orders while they're inside the signal your relays put out. In the clip, raiders kill the last relay on a bridge and the nine soldiers past it stop hearing me. They keep fighting, I just can't tell them anything until I rebuild the link.

There's a free demo that runs in the browser, no signup: https://applechr.itch.io/meshfall

Two things I'd like to hear from people who play a lot of strategy games. Does losing control like that feel like a fair consequence, or like the game taking your units away? And is it clear from the clip why it happened?

Happy to answer anything.

I've been working on a game that's somewhere between tower defense and RTS, and I'm honestly not sure which community it fits into, so I figured I'd ask here.

The tower defense side is probably pretty familiar: turrets, slow traps, mortars that can outrange everything but can't fire at close range, so you have to protect them. There are 100 waves, with a boss every 10th wave. I tried to make the bosses create different problems rather than just having more health. One carries a jamming field that blacks out any district it passes through. Another completely ignores your army and goes straight for your relays. Another disables your ability to give orders while it's nearby.

The part I'm most interested in getting feedback on is the lack of traditional lanes. Instead, you build a radio network out of relays, and that network is what the enemies are actually trying to destroy.

Enemies prioritize relays based partly on how much of your network depends on them. So if one relay is carrying half your map, it's basically wearing a giant "kill me" sign. Building a loop solves that problem, because if one relay goes down, the signal can just route the other way. The enemy AI understands this too, so redundant relays become less attractive targets.

Basically, your defense isn't just about where you put turrets. It's also about the shape of your network.

Your units are tied into this as well. They can only receive orders while they're inside your network's coverage. If a relay gets destroyed in the middle of a wave, everything downstream from it can suddenly stop listening to you until you rebuild the connection.

The economy is the newest part, and probably the part I'm least confident about.

Ore deposits are finite. A deposit runs dry after roughly nine minutes of mining, so the position that's funding your army right now might be completely worthless ten waves later. The resources that don't run out are in the far north, but the north is controlled by enemy masts. They don't attack anything or even fire a shot; they just deny you the ground inside their radius.

You can't research your way around them or wait for them to disappear. You have to physically push north and destroy them. The catch is that you need to extend your radio network ahead of your army so you can actually command your units once they get there.

So the overall loop I'm trying to create is: standing still eventually stops working, but what's forcing you to move is your economy drying up rather than the enemies simply getting stronger.

It's free, runs entirely in the browser, and is a single HTML file that works offline. It's a solo project and is still in playtesting.

I'm especially curious what people think about the two things I'm least sure about: whether the lack of lanes makes sense for a TD player or just feels annoying, and whether the finite ore feels like interesting pressure or just punishment.

https://applechr.itch.io/meshfall

The genre usually hands you infinite command range for free. I wanted to see what happens when it is the scarce thing.

Your army has no radios. It uses yours. Orders travel from the Command Post down chains of relays, so pushing anywhere means building signal out to it first. When a relay dies mid-fight, and the enemy goes for relays on purpose, every unit past the break stops hearing you. They keep fighting, they just stop being yours until you rebuild.

Because of that, network shape is real defense. Enemies weight their targeting by how much of your territory hangs off each link, so a relay carrying half your map is basically wearing a sign. Close it into a loop and it stops being worth cutting.

No fog of war. You can see everything, you just cannot reach everything.

Free, browser, one HTML file, solo project in open playtest.

https://applechr.itch.io/meshfall

Hi, checking with you before posting instead of guessing at rule 1. My game MESHFALL is a solo project, an RTS/TD hybrid, free in the browser, currently in open playtest. I used AI assistance while writing the code. There is no AI art or audio anywhere in it, because there are no asset files at all: every visual is drawn by the game's own code at runtime and all the sound is synthesized live. I disclose the AI code assistance directly on the itch page. Does that fall inside rule 1, or would you rather I skip posting it here? Happy either way, I just didn't want to step on the rule. Page is here if you want to look: https://applechr.itch.io/meshfall