Gameplay in Avian Hunt

Game composition
In Avian Hunt, a player has almost complete control over an entire faction. This is accomplished by using a turn-based strategy game and a 3D flight shooter combined.

Strategy
In the Economy phase, which is the first part of a turn, a player builds ships, researches technologies, and trades either in the commodity market or with allied factions to obtain extra resources. It is advised that a player always starts a turn by purchasing a new turn, as players lose a game automatically by running out of turns, and during the Collect phase, 1 turn is deducted.

In the Move phase, the player selects each squadron and tells them what to do. Right-clicking on an allied building will send the squadron to defend the building, right-clicking on a friendly squadron will combine the squadrons when they meet, and right clicking on any enemy will send the squadron to pursue the enemy until they clash. At the end of the Move Phase, all of the squadrons follow through with their actions.

Flight shooter
When two opposing squadrons collide at the end of the Move phase, each player chooses which ships to send into battle. If a squadron is fleeing another, the player can send one unit on a suicide run to buy time, or a player could send in a larger amount of units to overpower the enemy's numbers. Because a player doesn't need to send every single unit into battle, sometimes battles can last a long time; sometimes over 30 turns (at most, though this is an impractical strategy to employ if a squadron holds such numbers).

Levels
To add variety and long-standing interest, Avian Hunt has 5 different enemy Artificial Intelligence programs. The more skilled programs are obtained with experience. Winning battles, killing units, and deflecting fire all contribute to experience points, or XP. After a certain number is reached, pilots level up, and will fight more skillfully when the player is not playing as them. This is a smart way to allow the player to influence the ability of pilots that he does not directly control. Players can still choose to play as Level 1 pilots, and the player's ability, usually being above that of Level 1, will be able to level up the newbie pilots faster. In addition, a Training Academy building is available, which, when built, lets units that go into it train on practice targets in a simulator, thus increasing XP without risk of life. Carefully training, empowering, and customizing units makes for a formidable force, and is advisable when ships are more expensive.


 * Level 1 units are not very effective. They wander around the screen, and not too evasively at that, and shoot at targets that stray into their path. They will not aggressively pursue enemies, so they can be shaken with a simple somersault or brake. The AI of these pilots is about equivalent to the enemies of Rogue Squadron, where it almost seems like they intentionally wander into your firing reticule so a player can conveniently deliver punishment.
 * Level 2 units are smarter. They are like Level 1s, but they fly more evasively and shoot slightly more aggressively. They will also be more liberal when barrel rolling, somersaulting, and U-turning, though it isn't hard to take them down with a simple lock. Their AI is similar to the Normal difficulty of Battlefront II's space levels.
 * Level 3 units are the best to start sending into battle at relatively low cost. Level 3s are competent, able to save their skins in tight situations, and a challenge to take down. Even though players are able to take down several of these in a single life, they are a powerful fighting force that is easy to snipe at only when they are concentrated on other units. This is a bit better than the Elite settings for Battlefront II's space battles.
 * Level 4s are all you can expect from a pilot. They are more competent than Level 3s, and are more aware of their surroundings, able to pull away as soon as an enemy starts firing and dodge obstacles like a live player. They aren't too hard for experienced players to defeat, though they are very difficult to contend with in numbers. Level 4s can recognize the intentions of players to a degree, and assist their friends or outsmart their enemies.
 * Level 5s are the most elite special pilots you can find. Examples of Level 5s include Darth Vader and Clone Pilot Oddball. They are the best of the best. They are surprisingly aware of their surroundings, and are able to deduce in a fraction of a second which maneuver best gets them into a strategic position. Only the most experienced players can defeat a Level 5. Their response times are calculated to be just a bit slower than that of a human's reflexes, so only a player that is good enough to respond to situations instinctively is a likely match for Level 5s. Against a full squadron of 20 Level 1s, a single Level 5 is likely able to be the victor, though some items and a lot of health may be lost. Only a select few heroes are Level 5 from the start, and otherwise, it takes many tough battles to make a unit worthy enough to level up to 5. They're like the Jedi pilots of Avian Hunt.

User Generated Scenarios
Avian Hunt encourages players to be individualistic about their units, allowing custom-generated names, portraits, and personalities (personalities may not be fully implemented in the first public version) for new units, as well as designing units before playing a game to have them appear on the map in a user-generated scenario. This allows players to reenact canon battles of the Clone Wars and make personages for oneself.

Players can upload portraits, cropped to 64x64 pixels, of their favorite canon character, or a picture of themselves, or other image, as a personal avatar for online play. They can continue to upload pictures for their own units, being able to, essentially, create fanon characters for the fanon battles they play in Avian Hunt.

Rewards
Rewards are based on several different aspects. Factions can be unlocked as playable by beating certain levels of the campaign mode. The Endurance training level is unlocked when the final level is beaten, and new ships are unlocked for Dogfight mode and Endurance by purchasing them with assessment credits.

Assessment credits are awarded to players after they complete a game. They are awarded based on the skills exhibited by the player in keeping units alive, surplus in economy, and efficiency in defeating an enemy, among other areas. They can buy unlockable ships, purchase cheat codes, and trade in for a random pack of Strategy Cards or Tactic Cards.

Strategy Cards are cards that name and describe in detail the strengths, weaknesses, and uses of a certain strategy a player could use in-game. The primary means of unlocking the cards are first playing a turn in which the strategy is employed. This way, a player can have a name discovered for a strategy, and have a sign of approval indicating that the player is playing smart. However, being unnamed until they're unlocked, a player cannot likely know every strategy that could be used. Players will eventually resort to buying random packs. A random pack consists of one Strategy Card and five Tactic Cards.

Tactic Cards concern ways to play smart in the Attack phase. Tactic cards are special, as they can be used before a battle to tell bot units (non-player units) what tactic to employ, and they will attempt to do so. When a Tactic Card is used, it cannot be used again. Therefore, a player who wants to exploit the advantages of Tactic Cards needs to keep purchasing new packs with the Assessment credits he earns.

Another option is to trade cards online. This lets players trade Strategy Cards to learn new ways he could exploit the enemy, and trade surpluses of Tactic Cards to gain the commands that players just can't seem to get when buying random packs. Assessment credits can also be traded for cards.