Distension is a basing game that allows you to permanently build, customize and upgrade
every ship, while still maintaining Trench Wars dynamics (high weapon power and low
firing rate) that make the zone unique.  Each ship also has an array of special
abilities which you must carefully choose between to complement your playing style.

When DistensionBot is in the arena, simply enter into a ship to load your saved pilot.
When you begin, you will have access to the Warbird and Terrier.  The Warbird heads up
the Assault ships, whereas the Terrier is the main Support ship.  As you make kills and
win battles, you will increase in rank.  You can unlock new ships through ranking up
and meeting special conditions.  Some ships will unlock faster depending on whether you
are Assault or Support.

Assault ships focus on making kills and clearing out the enemy.  Their special abilities
generally are offensive-oriented.  Support ships are the backbone of the army, and have
mainly defensive abilities.  They also generally have more special abilities than Assault.
Support ships also receive some Profit-Sharing, which helps them rank up without making
kills simply by helping the army succeed, and also receive a much larger share of the
end-round bonus when they win a battle.

For a brief in-game introduction, enter a ship and PM !intro to DistensionBot.

Every kill made earns rank points (RP).  You also earn RP for winning battles.  With
enough RP, you will go up a rank.  Each rank will give you a certain number of upgrade
points (UP) which will allow you to !upgrade your ship in the !armory.  Some upgrades
may be given automatically.

You will have to rank up each ship separately.  RP and UP are not shared.

	Standard upgrades (there may be minor differences between ships)

	1	Rotation		How fast a ship can move left and right
	2	Thrust		How fast a ship accelerates	(does not affect shift afterburner)
	3	Speed		The maximum speed at which your ship can travel
	4	Recharge*		How quickly your energy recharges
	5	Energy*		Total ship energy + armor
	6	Guns		More powerful weapons	(requires more energy to fire)
	7	Bombs		More powerful bombs	(requires more energy to fire)
	8	Multifire		Spreading weapon		(usually requires more energy to fire)
	9	X-Radar		Allows you to see enemies using cloak or stealth
	10	Decoy		Allows an additional decoy to be fired at every rearm
	11+	[Ship-dependent]	(These special upgrades are allocated on a per-ship basis)

	*	Energy and Recharge are upgraded automatically, except in the Z-Class ship.

Use !armory to see which upgrades are available, at which rank, and for how much.
Use !upginfo when in a ship for more information on specific upgrades.
Use !upgrade to upgrade your ship with a particular upgrade, and !scrap to remove it.

The world of Distension is one at war.  Two armies are vying for control over the sector,
valuable for a resource used to manufacture interstellar drives.  While the army controls
the sector, it is able to harvest this resource and maintain dominance in the Galaxy.
As a pilot of one of these armies, your job is to secure and hold the sector, and prevent
the enemy from doing the same.

To secure the sector, you must hold one or both of the base flags.  In single flag games,
only the top flag matters.  In two flag games, which are active when there is a medium to
large group at war, both flags must be held in order to win the battle.  Because this is
much more difficult, you do not need to hold the flag as long in two flag games.

If an enemy takes one of the flags before your army wins the battle, they have just made a
Sector Break, and your army will need to secure both flags again to continue.  There are
two ways in which a break is handled.  In Normal Mode, one or both flags must be held
continuously, without the other army getting a Sector Break, in order to win.  In Hybrid,
the flag hold time is cumulative, or adds up, and is not reset at a Sector Break.  The
army that has the most time has the Sector Advantage.  When the army that does not have
the Sector Advantage gets hold of the flag(s), the clock runs in reverse, usually 3 seconds
at a time, until it reaches 0.  At this point, they gain Sector Advantage, and the clock
runs forward normally again, 1 second at a time.

Before each round starts, a small window will show you what kind of round is being played.

Between rounds, called Free Play, you can make kills in the spawn area, try to capture the
bases, play a soccer game for extra RP, use the time to upgrade your ship, or take a break
to get some food or to use the bathroom.