A space colonization game set on the Hive blockchain, EXODE has hundreds of unique cards, nearly 138 000 cards in existence, a market, multiple ways to equip your spaceship and an evacuation gameplay scene. The last challenge distributed a few rewards as well.
But these were just steps... steps toward a bigger game!
EXODE now announces its 'Alpha 2', it's next chapter in gameplay.
And Alpha 2 is beginning soon... very soon now!
This article will tell you so much more about Alpha 2, planets, and what to find in it!
Our captains already know what this Alpha 2 will be about: as an extension to your space adventure, you will be able to live your first minutes in the new galaxy and scan your planet. Which leads to the most interesting part: your planet.
This is the most unique asset in eXode: one element in game design where EXODE actually tries to rethink how starting conditions should be.
Instead of mimeting all other players, you are receiving something unique right from the start. In MMO, and MMORPG especially this is something big and something new.
How so? You no longer begin just like any other player, with your level 1 bag, your level 1 pistol (or stick) in a level 1 newbie area with the same starting monsters. Instead, you evacuated and are now receiving your planet as a full NFT 'with benefits'. This planet does not have a level; all planets are wild, packed with content for you to enjoy for weeks.
A planet has a crazy collection of attributes! some will be scanned right away, and some will be discovered later by your explorers and scientists.
And some unique assets will also be invented... by YOU!
Welcome to your unique NFT, captain!
Here you will enjoy immense gameplay options as your planet can last a long time.
If EXODE would be a fantasy game, the planet would be not only a personal dungeon given to you, but your entire collection of dungeons and monsters and loot, all unique, all made to be later usable, craftable, tradable for money, and make your precious game time - that we hope to be fun, too! - worth it.
The difference being, as we are not a fantasy game, this is not exactly a happy dungeon with expected mobs and loot. Here, you are also facing the unknown, captain!
The big, dangerous, deadly unknown. Possibly armed with pointy things, toxic plants, poisonous swamps, or even carnivorous deadly plants armed with pointy things.
Or just a fruit.
Just an innocent fruit can kill the uncautious.
Captain Kirk also got it right:
"There's no such thing as the unknown -- only things temporarily hidden, temporarily not understood."
But before something not understood actually kills something, please, take caution, have fun, and understand Alpha 2 is just a big step toward Alpha 3 and the full colonization experience.
But what about now? you will be securely seated, in space, away from the unknown dangers of your planet, and happily scanning. Just taking a glimpse of it... so let's see what is out there!
Before we get again to your planet, let's review some basics.
- Alpha 2 will be proposed as a new launch option.
- Alpha 2 is a gameplay scene which is to happen right after evacuation.
- Alpha 2 is rather short but includes a large collection of data (planet generation stuff).
- To test it more easily, you will first be able to launch "demo versions" with a fixed set of cards. And you won't have to evacuate this time.
Also, once you are there:
- Scanning is designed to let you access information progressively until you decide to land.
- Once this demo is played and debugged, we will move up and up with new "demo versions" unlocked by your collection. Such as: you have a Secret Agent? then you'll unlock the special Secret Agent demo. You have a Kumicho and Black Lotus? then you'll unlock the Syndicate demo. And so on. These are just examples!
- Once Alpha 2 is bug-free, we will open the evacuation + scanning game; the longer test meant to include the full experience, with all your custom cards, to detect and fix the last issues.
- And then we will switch to Alpha 3 - full colonization!
So that's the roadmap, captains!
And what is your role in all this?
I am happy you asked!
Once the Alpha 2 grand opening event is there (something like Sunday), here is your todo list:
1. Jump to the new galaxy.
2. Wake up computer and crew.
3. Scan! Scan! Scan! and land?
4. Enjoy the experience.
5. Tell us about it!
Simple yes!
But also... watch out for "the little surprises"!
Your planet NFT is not just an id but a collection of data.
There are some major attributes: such as temperature, habitability, natural danger from atmosphere and present storms; all very observable factors that you can determine from space.
But there are also a set of information to discover.
In the new galaxy your computer will report to you jungle worlds, ice worlds, lava, desert, oceanic and terrestrial worlds, and also rocky planets.
Every planet is in a favorable step for welcoming life.
Every planet also has a collection of relevant ore, minerals, wildlife and vegetation.
Jungle worlds will certainly have more wildlife and vegetation; rocky worlds will have more ore; and so on. Moreover, cold (or hot) temperatures may be more tolerable with the proper suits. So, if a proposed planet option does not sound right, maybe it will be time to burn up some fuel and look out for another.
Your planet will have regions made of rather small but very relevant territories; and every region will have a collection of sectors to explore.
You can tell how many regions and sectors from space, and even landscape and climate of regions you find, but to find out more you will have to land there and send an exploration team.
You can even explore all sectors, given (a long) time, as you must send a party to every sector.
Exploring sectors can even unlock new regions as a reward, such as finding new relevant territories or subterran areas.
Your planet will be generated with its own ore to find and exploit.
Every ore is generated with its own attributes (such as name, hardness, material grade, etc) and its preferred depth, so only ground scanning will detect deep deposits. Maybe some day you will detect a relevant ore you never thought existed!
Ore can be transformed then used for construction.
But ore deposits may also contain minerals.
Minerals are entirely different than ore and of a whole different value, used for all the finer things.
Minerals can be metallic (such as iron), non-metallic (such as sand) or actual gemstones (a non-metallic mineral which has very other interesting properties), and can also present itself in a variety of forms, from large crystals to microscopic grains. Microscopic grains, by the way, are harder to detect or to extract.
Minerals can have affinities with specific ore on your planet, explaining why you are more likely to find it contained in it.
Forgot to tell you.
Ore and minerals can be radioactive, of course.
But they will be the subject of an entire post later!
Today, we wanted to focus on things that move...
We'll detail vegetation later but let's first zoom at the actual wildlife on your planet!
The system will not overload you with billions of species as there could be on Earth (there would be no gameplay to present with all that!) but introduce you to a few very relevant species.
Notice how often I use the term "relevant". This is because you are playing the gameplay version of space exploration! Some fun simplification is there, such as having "a few" manageable species.
Wildlife, as we call it, will be generated with a name (which you'll be able to change later), its physical form (from "head to toe", so to speak) and generic attributes such as size and lifespan.
Behaviour is also generated with it:
How aggressive is it, how clever, does it react well to humans, but also what does it eat, where does it live the most. Is it specific to one of your regions, or spread everywhere? Does it only come in a specific season? (more about seasons later). Is it omnivorous, carnivorous, lithovorous (eats stone) or whatnot? oh, and also, is the animal cute?
All that is information.
It has some effects here or there.
( an aggressive cave bear with four arms and the size of a T-rex is part of the "there" )
A tiny herbivorous insect that sings at night could actually be trivial.
But fortunately, some players who would like to focus on the big stuff, can also have it.
All above is of inferior importance to you compared to what follows:
Every wildlife also contains the real treasure for you:
biofragments.
Biofragments are the simple yet rich design by which you will enjoy research and crafting from wildlife.
Every wildlife is generated with a few biofragments. Some of them can be easily detected, others are more secretive and will require more research from you.
Every fragment has a type (such as being "the heart", or bone, or blood, etc) and has interesting properties.
It can have a protein level (to feed humans) a taste, a look, and an "easiness" to be cooked (as a developer I decided to call it "cookiness", but please don't mind me ;) ).
It of course has a toxicity (as you begin to expect!) which explains... why we would research ways to cook it! Cooking has effects, such as destroying other interesting attributes, and increasing the protein level and (hopefully) reducing toxicity. There will be more about cooking later, but to simplify, it's just one of the transformation tasks you can give to citizens..
You can assign many tasks to citizens in colonization.
- Away tasks include exploring and collecting resources ; they can use vehicles and pilots.
- Colony tasks include guarding, resting, or transforming a resource into something else.
- The later also includes research tasks, such as researching something you found (a wildlife, a biofragment, ...) to identify more content, or designing something new.
More about that later!
So far so good.
But let's get to the most interesting part.
So: ore can lead to minerals.
Wildlife leads to biofragments which can lead to chemicals.
Suppose you found in your crate a design for an ammunition; to create it, you must find for instance a metal and a "B chemical". So here you are, in your game, looking for where you could find this chemical. At some point later, you may find it: maybe little fire scarabs on your planet have a "potent version" of B chemical in its thick skin!
Exploring, researching and producing will be part of your colony life and is meant to have depth. It is also planned to have a long duration and valuation, thanks to how products and designs can be researched, then made, used, consumed, then improved. Some chemicals will have affinities for others, and allow to create superior chemicals by combining them!
The point is to understand that players get it step by step, thanks to a research tutorial, and everything we will introduce to make it fun. We don't ask players to understand the 'endgame' yet.
Stronger chemicals - and minerals! - are used for the best things, such as making a blaster, a fuel... or a warp engine!
We can't wait to see what player alliances and groups of friends will make to address every need!
That's all pilots!
I would have happily shared more - but look at the length of that post :D this was intense!
I need to log out and finalize our interface and game screens - some of it was late for today, or I would have happily added more! there is some work to do for our Sunday!
This Sunday is the day I picked for our testroom grand reopening; there are still some things to do for it to shine, but every day and deadline still makes EXODE better; keep tuned to our discord this weekend to know the exact 'when' , if it makes it on time, and the exact 'how to play it'!
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More information about EXODE can also be found on our website, our Discord, or multiple posts such as this one about our epic characters, or this trailer made by a fan, or this review or this one . A summary of latest posts and events is also here.
Also running a witness node:
You can check the post about it here and if you like what this means you can:
See you soon in eXode!
