Time for the big news!
Starting in 2 days, and until all colonization tests are done and our test season is over, all testers in EXODE alpha who perform a scanning game will receive a planet NFT.
This planet will grant permanent bonuses to your account, to be active once the testing season ends.
What is a planet exactly?
What is scanning?
And for latecomers... what is EXODE?
Read more below!
The year is 2325, and the NFT is now!
EXODE is a playable game (the website is here, and our discord is here) in which you use card NFTs from your starter pack to customize your game with an origin card, a starship and crew members.
EXODE captains have contributed many interesting play guides and articles already. We are setting up compilations of all of them. If I can name a few: we have a wiki here, an onboarding guide here, video tutorials here, and a last full article here contributed by our players.
Head there to know more about the game itself!
But here is a crash course!
In EXODE the first scene you will play is an interactive deck construction.
Once you have set up your deck, every card used will generate a unique NFT character based on this card attributes. This is basically minting your own customized NFTs, each with unique attributes. And here is a card example!
Once happy with your setup you are sent to a starbase in 2325. This is where the first chapter of your unique story will unfold.
The game guides above will reveal to you what you can expect then. But the following trailer can give you some hints too!
New features released!
I mentioned captains would know 48 hours in advance, and this is exactly the case here.
On Tuesday at 7 PM UTC, players will be able to discover the gameplay after Evacuation for the first time.
The first scene to follow is what we call the "scanning" scene. It was already shared in a preview but now you will be able to experience it with your own cards.
Also, we are effectively getting into COLONIZATION: STEP ONE.
Scanning effectively ends with landing on your planet.
And as you will read below, it's no longer just for the purpose of testing: as you are getting a reward there. Just there in two days.
And even more: we may release pretest links before that, on our discord.
But let's get to the big news first :)
Ownership is NOW!
As we are releasing features gradually (and we understand players may be highly frustrated with that and shout space insults and torpedo tomatoes at us) we also wanted to thank our testers for all their patience, and for basically being always supportive with us. Technically, no one sent space insult so far, or fired tomato blasters, which we take as a good signal.
Some also missed some early presale bonuses.
I understand the frustration in that.
And I think it's high time for some kind of testing anniversary event.
So I think this is a way to say:
"You were there at the right moment. Because you are getting THIS."
I felt it was the right time to reward them - meaning YOU :D - with something of considerable value.
The big news is: once you will have played scanning - and once your ship gets to destination, meaning once you land successfully - this planet will be saved as a permanent addition to your assets.
You understood that well:
You are actually gaining a land NFT in the new galaxy.
Instead of crashtesting unpolished features - though we'll definitely get into that by the way :D - you already get a permanent reward.
What is even more interesting, is that this land will continue to help you in everything EXODE.
It won't be scrapped or reset once the test season is over.
It will remain your asset for your lifetime in EXODE.
And yes, other players don't get that. You do.
Errh... ok... a planet? how does that work?!
Once your game ends with a success (reaching your planet and landing - which won't be that easy actually as we lack some crew roles to help you, so you will need several tests) you will get a screen confirming all of it.
This will be when STEP ONE ends, laying the ground for Step Two to be unlocked in a few days. Step Two will give you a lot more features, a lot of fun stuff, as every step will do (and this is the moment where I may receive space insults, I suppose, as Step One has a nice gift and Step Two has more fun but is not ready yet ;) )
Your colonization portal will then display your planet in the "My NFTs" section, like this:
To avoid favoring or encouraging multiaccounts, the NFT will be bound to your account for the time being.
As we mentioned, we will release features gradually, meaning we will unlock crew assignments and content every week now.
You are getting it: we know you will have more and more features to explore on your planet. We get there as fast as we can, but we wish we could go faster. Meanwhile, we hope your planet will become "your best mate", so to speak, and that you will be able to compare it with your friends and buddies.
But what if you don't like the planet you have gained? No problem!
You can launch a new evacuation game, which will lead to scanning and a brand new planet, just like that. This planet will be saved and replace your former asset, destroying your previous NFT but giving you a new one.
It's not a perfect world to have one planet to play with, and we may work around the issue of willing to test more planets, but we believe it's a proper way to discover EXODE and the uniqueness of a planet.
What is my planet for? what does it give?
During the testing season your planet will become your playground and you'll always be able to resume your game there.
As you can see, this is also our way of keeping the "entire mystery around EXODE" and the new galaxy. You have one planet to play with, not hundreds, and you'll get to know this one! and we'll release features one after the other and every time you try it there.
The option to "reset your planet and colony" is also there in case you are in a bad situation and want to make a new mature planet. And the sad part is that colony may be lost so you would have to keep your replacement crew ready.
But once the testing season is over is where another kind of fun begins.
Depending on what you have achieved there (did you explore all of it? what did you discover?) your planet will distribute bonuses. It will actually mint new stuff for you on a regular basis.
You may use these as airdroppable assets to any of your active games!
You can consider this as a huge, immense and permanent legacy reward. A true ownership that grants you further bonuses and something other players will be jealous about.
We'll make sure this is not some kind of "cheating advantage" but this will still be a fun and unique setting to have this planet distributing assets to you like a Syndicate Contract would.
The details of "your planet drop table" will be revealed later; these bonuses are yet to design, actually. But we'll put some fun surprises and as always: we want it to be unique!
Securing your planet
There are some last notes to share and this is about scanning.
We want this scene to be the focus of the next testrun.
While testing I noticed this scene was in need of a lot of balance and I want to make sure bugs are away from it too. The next two days will be as intensive as the entire week to make sure you get the most of it.
During scanning you give assignments to your crew members.
This first release won't have all crew assignments and options. Because of that, we are afraid many testers will experience some danger. This is because you'll lack some "coverage" by your crew members: possibly no one to launch decoys, for instance.
The very important task to do is to assign your pilot and scan officer, and as you know from the preview, make some decisions like picking a flying technique and a landing site.
These two roles are the most important. You can't get anywhere without a pilot - and right now the person at the helm will be the most important VIP of your ship.
And about scans, only the scan officer can reveal information about your planet. Discovering information from space is a unique opportunity - once you will have landed, it will be too late!
I encourage people to use "Investigation" to detect and improve your chances. More roles will be added quickly; I am testing the Weapons Officer role, to launch tactical decoys and save your ship; the Engineer role, and many others.
Also being tested is the entire "crew feedback" feature.
Crew members have their own dialogue styles and behavior and may send you different kind of feedbacks. While this will be only in prototype status for now, we hope you will have some fun with some of their cues :)
That's all pilots!
Countdown set: your NFT is gained in two days!
You know I want to push more features sooner; lindosses are at work!
What will be our first planet? Who will have it?
Time to fire tomatoes, space insults... or your exo-happiness in comments! :D
