Pacewar is set in the distant future with two factions fighting for control over space.As neither side has any particular advantage over the other, it is a constant stalemate. Only absolute domination by one of the factions can end this perpetual war, and this can only be achieved by pure piloting skill.A team wins the round when all ships of the other team are destroyed, and a certain number of victories more than the other player is needed to win the game. But there's a catch: as a team gets closer to winning, it loses ships, so you need to be better than the other team to succeed.Human players take over one ship at a time from their respective teams. If a human player's ship is destroyed, that human player takes over an AI ship from their team randomly. This ensures that the human players are always in the game.