Frequently Asked Questions

Game Basics What is Influence? Influence is a space strategy sandbox MMO set in the asteroid belt of the Adalia system. Adalia is humanity’s new home after an ill-fated journey aboard the Arvad, a multi-generational ship that fled a dying Earth. Influence is a blockchain game that empowers the players to own the game universe. All in-game assets are modeled on-chain as Player Owned Game Assets (POGAs) to ensure the player has un-censorable ownership. Is Influence a “crypto game”? It is more accurate to say that Influence is utilizing blockchain to enable a decentralized and unstoppable game, to empower the community and studio to be aligned. Influence is designed first and foremost as a fun and balanced game experience. Players get additional control over their assets and the freedom to choose what they want to do with them. Is Influence free to play? New players will need a crewmate, some SWAY to purchase their initial buildings, and a small amount of credits to execute game actions. The “Basic Starter Pack” is targeted to be $25 or less at launch. It is entirely possible to play Influence, accumulate SWAY, and purchase in-game Player Owned Game Assets without purchasing anything else. There is no recurring fee charged for playing Influence, but performing certain actions will cost some network transaction fees due to use building on decentralized server architecture. Players can think of this as their subscription to play, but rather than paying for a month of play, they only pay for their actions. This cost is likely going to be between $5 and $15 per month for an active player. You can also convert in-game currency into network credits. Is Influence pay to win? No. Pay to win games allow players to purchase in-game items (usually directly from the developers) that provide them a significant advantage over other players. In Influence, the only way to progress is to play. Influence’s design philosophy is balance and fairness, meaning that every player has the same chances of success relative to the amount of time they put in, not to the amount of money they put in. Furthermore, every feature of Influence is accessible through performing in-game actions and participating in the game world. Every in-game item can be purchased using SWAY (Standard Weighted Adalian Yield), Influence’s in-game currency. When a player purchases in-game materials and components, they do so via marketplaces run and owned by players. Almost all SWAY transacted flows from player to player. While some may decide to buy SWAY directly using fiat currency, they will purchase it from another player who has earned it through in-game activities, not from Influence developers. In this case, a player is not paying Influence to win, but paying their fellow players to accelerate the development of their own infrastructure. What type of game assets will players own? First off, a basic understanding of the difference between this game and most traditional games is, in Influence all assets players earn, buy, craft, and trade are owned by the players themselves. The assets are held in accounts players control and even if a player were to lose access to the game, as long as they can still log into their account (independently controlled by the player and the studio cannot remove your access) you would be able to transfer, trade, and sell these assets on outside markets. We refer to these assets as “Player Owned Game Assets” (POGAs). Player Owned Game Assets (POGAs) Asteroids are the “land” of Influence. Players mine asteroids for resources that are the basis of Influence’s in-game economy. Crewmates (formerly called “crew members”) are the players’ characters or avatars in Influence. Ships allow players to move their crewmates throughout the Adalian system. Player owned in-game currency and items Resources that are mined from asteroids. SWAY (Standard Weighted Adalian Yield) is the in-game currency of Influence How do players earn SWAY? Players earn SWAY, Influence’s in-game currency, by playing Influence. This SWAY is akin to ISK in Eve Online or Gold in WoW. Extract resources or build goods to sell at a market. Manage a market and collect fees from each trade that takes place. Lease lots of your asteroid or members of your crew to other players. Provide liquidity at markets to earn incentives set by market owners. Trade goods and take advantage of arbitrage opportunities. Can I play Influence now? Yes! Influence has ongoing public alpha tests of the first release, title Exploitation. The first fully playable production release of Influence will be during 2023. Asteroid Basics What are asteroids? Do I need asteroids to play the game? Asteroids are the “land” of Influence. They are POGAs that players can own, and mining asteroids for resources is the basis of Influence’s economy. You do not need to own an asteroid to play. There are free lots on Adalia Prime, the largest asteroid in the Adalia system, available to players that do not own an asteroid. When will asteroids be on sale again? During the first half of 2023. Every asteroid is eligible to be purchased, but we will only sell a maximum of 250 each week. Another 250 will be available the following week and every week until Exploitation. Players may purchase asteroids from other players on OpenSea: LINK TO OPENSEA.IO What does an asteroid do for you in-game? Asteroids are the “land” of Influence. Players can mine resources, construct buildings, run marketplaces, or lease lots on their asteroids to other players. What are the spectral types of asteroids? Which resources are mineable from each kind of asteroid? There are 11 total spectral types made up of four primary types: C (carbonaceous), S (stony), M (metal), and I (icy). Each type carries a unique composition of the core resource categories: Volatile, Metal, Organic, Rare Earth, Fissile, and non-economic. For more information, visit the Resources page. C-type: Organic, Volatile S-type: Metal, Rare Earth, Fissile M-type: Metal, Fissile I-type: Volatile What bonuses can an asteroid have? There are six categories of bonuses: one for each of the core resources and one that applies to every resource an asteroid can produce. An asteroid can have any combination of these bonuses. For more info visit here. General Yield: +0%, +3%, +6%, +15% Volatile: +0%, +10%, +30%, +50% Metal: +0%, +10%, +30%, +50% Organic: +0%, +10%, +30%, +50% Rare Earth: +0%, +30% Fissile: +0%, +30% Crew Basics What are crewmates? Do I need one to play the game? Crewmates are Player Owned Game Assets (POGAs) that represent your characters or avatars in Influence. You do need at least one crewmate to play Influence. How do I mint crewmates? Once Exploitation is released, crewmates will be mintable for just the cost of gas without requiring an asteroid. If you own an asteroid sold during the April Pre-Sale or September “Populate the Belt” sale, you can mint your crewmate in-game. Open game.influenceth.io, then click “Assets”> “Crew Members” to open “Owned Crew.” In “Owned Crew,” click the “Crew Details” button. Under “Available Crew,” click “Mint Crew.” Once an asteroid has minted its crewmate, it will not appear under “Available Crew.” Sign the transaction. Players may also purchase crewmates from each other on OpenSea: LINK TO OPENSEA.IO What is the difference between a crewmate minted from an asteroid versus a crewmate without an asteroid? Special crewmates were released as a bonus to early adopters who bought an asteroid in April or September. Specialists: Crewmates attached to asteroids sold in April are called “Specialists.” Specialists come with a Job Title that provides a substantial bonus. There are 1,861 possible Specialists. Citizens: Crewmates attached to asteroids sold in September are called “Citizens.” Citizens also come with a Job Title, but their bonuses are less substantial than Specialists’. There are 9,239 possible Citizens. Plain or “Vanilla”: Crewmates minted without an asteroid after Exploitation is released will not have any Job Title or intrinsic bonus. Will more crewmates be released? Following the release of Exploitation, any number of new crewmates without bonuses can be minted by players. No new Specialists or Citizens will be released, though not everyone with an eligible asteroid has minted theirs and may do so at any time. We are also auctioning the thirteen unique “Department Head” crewmates on OpenSea every week from now through February. How many crewmates can I have? A crew can have between one and five active crewmates. Each player may have one active crew per wallet but may own any number of additional crewmates that are simply inactive. Players wishing to play with more than one crew may move their additional crewmates to different wallets. Influence treats each wallet as an account, and using multiple accounts is encouraged. Game Development Basics What are Influence’s tokenomics? SWAY (Standard Weighted Adalian Yield) is the utility token of Influence and is designed to be stable, not speculative. Our Tokenomics are published on Medium here: LINK TO TOKENOMICS Will there be a discounted token Pre-Sale? No. SWAY (Standard Weighted Adalian Yield) is the currency of the Adalia system. It is the utility token of Influence and is intended to be stable, not speculative. There will be no discounted pre-sales of SWAY, just a single sale prior to launch, available to all asteroid and crew holders, at what we estimate to be fair market value. Our tokenomics are published here: LINK TO TOKENOMICS Where are the smart contracts? The smart contracts are here: AsteroidSale: https://etherscan.io/address/0xf8cB149E5B32299a6D99F4630731829C8D891258 AsteroidToken: https://etherscan.io/address/0x6e4c6D9B0930073e958ABd2ABa516b885260b8Ff AsteroidScans: https://etherscan.io/address/0x9b811024635626bc37E5d294B384077AB25DCF62 AsteroidFeatures: https://etherscan.io/address/0x99Ce24101bc957A0d02EC65AB7e3B507Fee42a13 AsteroidNames: https://etherscan.io/address/0x7391833C841D8abf62F8ee332015723528035a99 How far along is game development, and where is the roadmap? Development has been ongoing for over two years. The sales in April and September have secured the funding to allow the Influence team to add additional developers, writers, and artists. Ongoing development is focused on gameplay mechanics and moving to our Layer 2 solution StarkNet for Exploitation. The roadmap is viewable here: LINK TO ROADMAP Additional information can be found in our whitepaper: LINK TO WHITEPAPER Other April 2021: What rewards are included with asteroids purchased during the Early Adopter sale? There were one thousand eight hundred sixty-one (1,861) asteroids purchased in April 2021, and rewards for each asteroid will be distributed to asteroid holders at the release of Exploitation. Most rewards are per asteroid, meaning you will receive them for each eligible asteroid in your wallet. One mintable Specialist This reward can be minted at any time, not just at the release of Exploitation Enough resources to do the following: Build one mining facility Build one storage facility Perform five core samples Enough fuel to fly from Adalia Prime to your asteroid and back One special ship skin associated with the size of the asteroid (small, medium, large, huge) that can be applied to a ship you craft. One “Founder’s Card” POGA to commemorate your early support Note: You must have purchased at least one asteroid in April and still hold at least one in your wallet. Unlike other Early Adopter rewards, you will only receive one “Founder’s” Card” per eligible wallet. September: What rewards are included with asteroids purchased during the Populate the Belt sale? Nine thousand two hundred thirty-nine (9,239) asteroids were purchased in September 2021. Each asteroid comes with one mintable Citizen. The Citizen can be minted at any time, not just at the release of Exploitation. How will we bridge over to L2? Is it going to cost players gas? Bridging assets over to L2 will be up to each player, however assets on L2 are required to play the game. Each player will need to pay the gas fees to move them to L2. We are building an easy to use bridge site that will allow players to move assets between L1 and L2 freely and at anytime. Can I have multiple accounts? Yes. Players wishing to play with more than one crew may move their additional crewmates to different wallets. Influence treats each wallet as an account, and using multiple accounts is encouraged. How do I cash out SWAY for real money? Influence is built on the Ethereum blockchain, so you will be able to exchange your SWAY for ETH, USDC, and any other ERC-compatible token. Decentralized exchanges like Uniswap or SushiSwap will offer trading pairs for SWAY and many such ERC tokens. From there, you can exchange those tokens for your currency of choice.