In Allegiance , players each pilot a spacecraft chosen from a nearly-Xeroxed Homeworld manual. The game s twist of originality lies in its command structure. Battlefields this large have previously been limited to online role-playing games, but Microsoft is hoping to change that.
Battles occur in a network of sectors, linked together like a spider web by alephs.
A sector takes a couple of minutes to fly across in a fast ship, and can be populated by asteroids. Some asteroids can be mined, others can be transformed into outlying bases. The rest of the team embarks on these missions in space vehicles that range from scouts and fighters to missile frigates and cruisers. The ultimate goal is the removal of all opponents from the network. The hangars that resupply the fleet are appropriately massive, as are the floating asteroids.