The Game Interface — Panels and Icons
What every OpenFront panel and icon means. The crown, handshake, envelope and broken shield above player names, the control panel, event feed and radial menu.
The short version
- 👑 crown = rank 1 · 🤝 handshake = ally · ✉️ envelope = alliance request · 🛡️ broken shield = traitor
- A broken shield means you can hit that player at half losses for 30 seconds
- Check the Tribe label in the player overlay first — those cost 30% fewer troops to attack
Four icons carry most of the information. 👑 crown is rank one, 🤝 handshake is an ally, ✉️ envelope is an alliance request, and 🛡️ broken shield is a traitor. A broken shield means that player can be attacked at half the usual losses for the next thirty seconds.
The rest of the screen sorts into four areas.
Player icons
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Crown | Top of the leaderboard |
| Handshake | Allied with you |
| Envelope | Has sent you an alliance request |
| Broken shield | Traitor. Attacked an ally |
| Dollar stop sign | Embargo. Trade with you has stopped, automatically or manually |
The broken shield shows for 30 seconds only. Inside that window attackers take half losses and advance 20% faster. Seeing this icon is an opportunity. See What Happens When You Betray an Alliance?.
Control panel
Your own status, always on screen.
| Element | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Attack ratio | Fraction of troops your next attack sends. T/Y adjusts it |
| Gold | Amount held and income rate |
| Population | Current troops and your cap |
Warnings appear here:
- “Near your army limit” — you passed 80% of cap. Growth has nearly stopped; spend or donate
- “Very low on troops” — you have committed your defensive reserve too
- “You can attack disconnected players even if allied” — a disconnected ally is fair game, with no traitor mark
- “You can betray traitors without becoming a traitor yourself” — breaking with an existing traitor is free
The last two are not flavour text. They are actual rules and the code implements them.
Event panel
A running feed of recent events, requests and quick chat.
Attacks — both incoming and your own outgoing attacks appear.
- Click a message to centre the view on it
- The red ❌ cancels an attack in progress, at the cost of 25% of the attacking force
- Cancelling a boat sends it back to its origin; if that land changed hands it attacks there instead
- Nukes cannot be recalled once launched
Alliance requests — accept or reject, and Focus jumps the view to the sender.
Quick chat — messages you send and receive collect here.
Player info overlay
Hover any country. What matters here is the player type and their troop count.
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Player | A human |
| Nation | An AI nation. Affected by the difficulty setting |
| Tribe | A bot. Humans and Nations take 30% fewer losses attacking these |
| Attitude | How a Nation regards you (hostile to friendly) |
| Defending troops / gold | Their strength |
| Warship and building counts | How hard the invasion will be |
Check for the Tribe label first. Losses drop 30% against them, so for the same troops a tribe is nearly always the better target.
Reading troops against tiles owned gives you their defensive density. Low density targets are easier, because the 40% of attacker losses driven by density shrinks.
Info menu (right click → Info)
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Alliance request | Allies share resources and troops and cannot attack each other |
| Target mark | Marks that player for all your allies |
| Quick chat | Pick a category, a phrase, and a player if the phrase needs one |
| Emoji | Send a reaction |
| Stop / start trading | Manually cut or restore gold flow between you |
Allies additionally get donate troops and donate gold.
The troop donation amount follows your attack ratio slider. Raise it with
Ybefore sending.
Leaderboard
Top players with name, land share, gold and troops. Show All expands it, Hide collapses it.
Land share is the win condition, so do not ignore it — FFA ends at 80%, teams at 95%.
Options
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Timer | Time since the game started |
| Pause | Unavailable in public games |
| Speed | Unavailable in public games |
| Settings | Alternate view, emojis, dark mode, hidden names, left-click behaviour |
| Exit | Leave the game |
Changing left-click behaviour makes left click open a menu instead of attacking. In that mode, Alt + click attacks.
Reading the colours
- Checkered border — defense post coverage. Attacking there costs ×5 (defense posts)
- Orange growth rate — you passed the growth peak. Time to spend (the 42.2% rule)
Spaceterrain view — plains, highland, mountain. Check before choosing a direction
More
- Every Keybind — all 36 defaults
- Game Modes and Options — FFA, teams, difficulty
- Getting Started — if this is your first game