Fleet Battles
About
Star Control games have always had a mode that lets players select a ship and take it into one-on-one battle with an opponent. In the original Star Control, the game was essentially nothing but that, with only a cursory background story that explained the existence of two factions of warring alien races (the Ur-Quan conflict).
Star Control II changed this with the addition of a rich and exciting Adventure mode, whose combat gameplay was based on the existing one-on-one combat model. This same model was also playable outside the adventure as "Super Melee," where players could choose from an array of ships from both Star Control and Star Control II and battle against a friend or computer opponent. Star Control 3 used a similar melee mode.
Star Control: Origins has a feature called "Fleet Battles" which follows roughly the same pattern. A new feature is that players will now not only be able to choose from pre-made ships, but have the option of makingtheir own. A closed beta featuring this mode will be available in late 2017 to anyone who pre-orders the game.
Modes
Star Control Origins: Fleet Battles contains several different game modes for players. These range from single to multiplayer experiences both offline and online.
Single Player
This mode sets players against a pre-selected fleet of ships controlled by a computer opponent of varying difficulty levels. The player can select any ships for themselves and their opponent within the point limit and can go on to choose from a variety of difficulty levels.
Local Match
Designed for local two-player games. This mode allows two players to fight using two different control schemes (keyboard or controller) with pre-selected fleets of ships.
Custom Match
Not yet implemented.
Unranked Match
The first standard online multiplayer mode. Once a player has selected their fleet they are placed into a queue until another player can be found.
Ranked Match
The second standard online multiplayer mode. This mode works just like the unranked match mode, however, a win or a loss will count towards a player's score on the metaverse leaderboard.