Image from the media section of their discord server
This post is not financial advice
This post is my opinion. Anyone who has seen me post about games knows I give my honest opinion. When I see major flaws I call them out. Also the dev has admitted tokenomics are not balanced yet.
I have some thoughts now that I've tested the game for a week. I do want to say the dev is responsive to feedback and does make changes from suggestions.
All that said the tokenomics are , in my opinion not remotely balanced and potentially headed for disaster.
One of the things I first noticed is there isn't nearly enough EMP in the packs. Considering how much EP a basic plot produces they are too expensive to build. All plots are and with the new packs coming out that's just going to get worse.
The rewards are low which is expected at the beginning but I still haven't seen any sustainability plan. How are they going to keep the reward pool stable and growing while NOT counting on new sales?
There is also maintenance fees every 7 days. Again with it already, in my opinion being too expensive to build adding decay makes no sense. It's just adding it for the sake of adding it and forcing players to be more active. Why add a grind? All plots need to have maintenance fees paid individually for no reason. They, in my opinion should get rid of this decay. It's not adding value to the game or gameplay.
With balanced tokenomics this is not necessary, Decay can work long term but not as it's designed here .When games add extra grind step for either no conceivable reason or to just make it so players need to constantly put funds in (or use all their earnings just to keep playing) is a bit much. There is no way to earn EMP directly in game yet there is decay based on EMP. Players can convert their earned HIVE but there needs to be a way to earn EMP directly. Earning HIVE is entirely leaderboard defendant which is a huge issue in itself.
It's going to cost more for the packs soon (that in itself is fine) and more EMP to build proportionally.
Then there's the leaderboard. Every single game that is entirely dependent on leaderboards for income for players that I played has failed. Many more that I never played have also failed. This failure is usually due to only a few people at the top getting most of the rewards. A leaderboard should never be the ONLY way a player earns. It very soon becomes impossible for new players to earn anything significant, or in some cases anything at all.
They say it's a "no battle game" but if you constantly have to put in more funds for the leaderboard and can never catch up to those on the top. You are actively competing with other players. Just because you aren't directly looting doesn't mean it's not a constant battle.
Leaderboards should be a bonus not the entire game and should be capped. No one player should get that big of a size of the pool. Otherwise it's just a pay to win and that to me is boring AF. There's not much strategy in just throwing money at a game. Also at some point it will be impossible for new players to catch up without spending obscene amounts to get into the top 10. Every day that goes by it's harder for new players to get a spot. This also dilutes the pool and drags down everyone's earnings as new players /new pack purchases come in(when folks build new factories).
This is classic law of diminishing returns.
New players (and pack purchases)should strengthen the game and reward pool, not weaken it.
A game like this needs to be built to encourage new players/purchases and make it possible for everyone to earn. It's only a month or so already there's leaderboard decay on top of plot decay. This is demotivational and if not corrected will kill the game.
Plots/factories should earn on their own without needing to qualify for the leaderboard. It's the only fair sustainable way to run a game like this. I say this as someone who is often in the top 10 or higher in games. I also say this as someone who has warned game devs about all these issues and every single one didn't listen.
Every single one of these games failed , most them within 2 years or less because of this and similar issues. This is not a new issue. This a a well known game killer.
The leaderboard should be for bonuses and events not the only way to earn or it will collapse. I already see signs of outscaling. The longer it takes for this to be corrected the harder it will be to balance. At some point soon there will be a point of no return.
I say these things not to be mean but because I want this game to succeed. I have seen games that are designed exactly like this last only a few months in some cases. Every single one fails. These are known issues. I am not mentioning anything groundbreaking.
