Any commander must be aware of the implications of the game settings. They can easily be the turning point in a game. The commander who first got into the server is the one with "game control", which simply means that he's the only one who can change the game settings. If he gives command to someone else, that person inherits game control as well. If there are no players remaining in the team that contained the player with game control, then the commander of the next team gets game control.

Here are the settings and what they do. If you can't remember this in game, notice that, like most things in Allegiance, placing your mouse over any option will display a small description at the bottom right of your screen.

WIN CONDITIONS

Game Type

• Conquest: Conquest is the default and by far most widely used game type in Allegiance, the others being seldom or never used, and the game being clearly designed and balanced around this game type. Conquest is simple: destroy all your enemy's bases. In a two-team game, only all technology bases must be destroyed to kill a team. In a three-team game or more, all stations that allow launching/docking must be destroyed to kill a team. Note that the % represents the amount of technology bases.
• Deathmatch: Teams simply play for the kills. The team getting a determined amount of kills first wins.
• Capture the Flag: Capture the Flag is straightforward. Simply grab another team's flag and bring it to your own flag platform while the flag is on it to gain a point.
• Artifacts: Artifacts is a scouting game. It consists of finding as many artifacts as possible. You can set the victory condition to a certain amount of artifacts. Once that limit is reached by a team, that team wins.
• Territorial: Territorial victory conditions consist of occupying a certain % of the sectors on the map.
• Custom: Custom simply lets you set whatever victory conditions you like. You can, for example, set it so that a team must accumulate 10 flag points, 100 kills and 25 artifacts to win.
• Prosperity: Used under the Custom game type, this option sets a certain amount of money as a victory condition.
• Countdown: This option adds a countdown timer to the game. Whichever team has progressed the most towards the victory condition of the game when the countdown is over wins.

GAME OPTIONS

• Number of Teams: You can set the number of teams from two to six. Note that the number of players on the server is determined by the administrator, and is divided by the number of teams to determine the number of players per team.
• Players per Team: Although the server administrator sets the player limit, the game controller can set the number of players per team within that boundary, setting both a minimum and a maximum using options like 1-32 or 5-10. This is important for the map type you wish to select, since maps may have team size restrictions. More players will change the map, adding an extra home, for example.
• Skill Levels: This option requires that statistics are available (like on AZ). If set to a value other than "any", it can limit the kind of player that may join. "Nov. Only" prevents intermediate and advanced players from joining. "No Adv." only prevents advanced players from joining.
• Team Lives: Sets the number of lives that each player has. You lose a life when your pod is destroyed. If the option to remove pods is selected, you lose a life when your ship is destroyed.
• Starting Money: This sets the amount of money that each team starts with as shown in the table below. Faction differences also modify this amount, and the effect is also included in the table, which shows an example with the Med starting money setting.

Total Money: This sets the amount of He3 that will be present on the map. A higher setting means that the map will contain more He3. Note that He3 is divided into sectors, and will be distributed so that a home sector contains half of the amount of a standard sector. In other words, there are twice as many He3 rocks in standard sectors as compared to home sectors. However, because the number of sectors changes on every map, the amount of He3 per asteroid changes depending on the number of sectors. The relevant numbers are shown below. Note that the total money will not be depleted after it has been collected because He3 regenerates slowly, and there are many other income sources. Also note that the amount of He3 was multiplied by 80 to give an approximate value in credits.

Resources: This sets the amount of tech rocks and He3 rocks in each sector. The numbers differ between home and standard sectors. Note that below, N:NoHomeS stands for Normal with the modification that there are no home special (tech) rocks. P:NoHomeS stands for Plentiful with the modification that there are no home special (tech) rocks.

Map Type: Maps in Allegiance consist of nothing more than a certain arrangement of sectors. The position of rocks and alephs within those sectors is usually randomized, and as such only becomes a strategic concern after the game has started. Allegiance offers a variety of maps, and the Community has designed tools that allow for the creation of custom maps and give a lot of freedom to map designers, going much beyond the simple relative positions of sectors.

A map choice is generally based on the number of players present and the kind of game that people wish to play. Many maps are even restricted in the amount of players that they can accommodate. To help you take these variables into consideration when making your choice, here is a list of some of the maps available in Allegiance along with the restrictions that apply to them.

Map Type	Map					Description
	2 teams	3 teams	4 teams	5 teams	6 teams
BigRing						All home sectors are separated by two empty sectors. There is little room for expansion, and so a strong rush team should succeed best.
Brawl						Not fit for a Conquest game, everyone plays within the same sector with little more than a Deathmatch.
Diamond Ring						All homes are separated by a 1-sector route or a 2-sector route. There is little room for expansion, and so a strong rush team should succeed best.
DoubleRing						This is a very small map where the expansion complex is just about the only viable technology, along with a team that needs only rush.
Grid						This is a slightly bigger map with multiple approach routes to your enemy. You're always two sectors away from your neighbor. A good idea is to use one of the four sectors adjacent to an enemy home as an launch point for your assault, and defending all four of your spots.
HiHigher						This map is one of the most popular ones. Although still fairly small because of the short distance between homes, there is a lot of room for expansion and many routes to your enemy, making all tech paths viable.
HiLo						The map is small, but there are many routes to the other homes, making for good hiding places for miners, thus rendering TAC a bit more viable.
InsideOut						Another one of the most popular maps, this is HiHigher with different homes, making the game much more aggressive thanks to the middle sector, earning the voice chat "Stay out of the middle aleph!". You can expect the middle sector to be heated in a six-teamer. Otherwise, the homes are quite far apart, with obvious key control points.
Pinwheel						A very simple map with all homes revolving around a middle sector. Simply rushing with an Exp is probably the simplest way to get this done.
SingleRing						A simple map with few sectors left for expansion, leaving the teams facing each other with little space in between.
Snowflake						This map leaves average room for expansion. The homes are fairly close to each other, but the middle section of the maps leaves a lot of room for technology and resource gathering, so one can either rush or wait and expand.
Star						This popular map leaves a lot of room for expansion, mostly in the middle section. Key control areas are the two sectors (top and bottom) at the middle of the map, and the usual establishment in enemy territory is the sector facing the enemy home (thus one sector away from it), allowing extremely good access (zero sectors away) to anything that comes in or out of the enemy home.

• Map Connectivity: This modifies the number of alephs in each sector, thereby reducing the connectivity between them and changing the map considerably.
• Max Team Imbalance: This sets the maximal imbalance that can occur between any two teams. Setting it to N/A is generally reserved to special games.
• Stats Count: When turned on, the statistics of the game will count toward the permanent statistical record of the AZ.
• Allow Defections: This allows players to change teams. It is generally turned off for a two-team game to keep players from joining the other team to see everything they have, and then join the other team. In multi-team games, however, it is turned on to allow players from dead teams to join the remaining teams rather than wait for the game to end.
• Allow Joiners: This option is generally turned on to allow players to join a game in progress.
• Squad Game: If turned on, the statistics of the game will be counted in the Allegiance Zone's squad support system.
• Eject Pods: When turned on, players whose ship explodes end up in eject pods rather than dead. If turned off, players die upon the destruction of their ships, and thus lose their kill bonus and one life (if applicable). Turning this off also removes all balance issues that involve pods (rescue probes/drones, ripcording pods, etc.).
• Allow Friendly Fire: Simply turns friendly fire on or off. Friendly fire is useful to destroy probes placed in front of friendly red doors, or to place teammates in pods to rescue them and get them home quickly. The option is usually turned off to keep players from destroying their own bases and to make the game a bit easier.
• Invulnerable Stations: Makes all stations invulnerable. This option is usually only turned on for command practice Conquest games, or for games where the stations are not really involved (Deathmatch with development turned on, for example). Note that stations can still be captured.
• Development: When turned on, there is a tech tree and the whole RTS aspect of Allegiance kicks in. If turned off, both teams start with a defined set of ships and upgrades and play with those throughout the game. Development is generally turned off for games like deathmatches, where opponents want fairly equal weaponry.
• Reveal Map: Although generally turned off during normal games, this option is useful during Comm practice games or games with very few players to avoid having to scout big maps. When turned on, all the alephs are revealed, but all other objects are not (fog of war, rocks).
• Allow Shipyards: This option is useful for small games where capital ships could be overpowered. Turning it on or off simply makes the shipyard available or not in the tech tree.