Gameplay Overview

Influence: A Space-Strategy MMO Influence is a highly strategic and massively social space colonization game, where players vie for dominance and control in the newly formed colony within the Adalian asteroid belt. Combining elements of economics/trade, space exploration, strategic decision-making, and futuristic realism, players take on the role of space-faring entrepreneurs, and their main objective is to develop and manage an economic empire within the Adalian asteroid belt. The gameplay consists of resource gathering, trade, and player-driven diplomacy. Players must make strategic decisions to expand their territories, establish trade routes, exploit resources, and build infrastructure and industries to generate wealth and influence within the game world. Influence is built with real space/science in mind. The game consists of 250,000 asteroids that all orbit in real-time, have unique spectral type compositions, travel requires fuel and trajectories of flight are based off of NASA’s rocket science equations. In addition, items are crafted from raw materials and are pushed through realistic complex production chains to construct each intermidate and final product. Overall this game simulates the life of a growing group of colonists working to survive in the far reaches of space. When will Influence launch? Influence’s Pre-Release is planned to launch in 2023, with the main release of Exploitation shortly after. More specific dates will be given as soon as possible. Who should play? Influence is for the player that loves the emergent gameplay and vibrant economy of Eve Online, the strategic focus of Stellaris, the sense of scale in the X-Series, and wants to own their experience and help shape their universe. It drives the player to answer the question: How will you expand your Influence? Players we believe will fall in love with Influence: Strategy game enthusiasts (Think Stellaris and Crusader Kings) MMO players (Especially EVE Online) Science fiction readers (Think “The Expanse”, “The Martian”, and other science fiction books rooted in some grounding with reality and the natural laws of physics) Developers, engineers, and scientists who like new technology and experiences Gamers who want to own their content and experience What can you do in-game? You interact with asteroids from a third-person view similar to strategy games like Stellaris, Civilization, or Starcraft. If you have the appropriate resources or items, you can build the structures and ships that drive the economy. Mining is a large part of Influence. Every asteroid has a unique composition of resources that lie beneath its surfaces. You use extractors to pull out raw and unrefined materials. Then, you will be able to refine these materials into various products using the refineries and factories or trade them on the open market. Ships are key to traveling the asteroid belt. Influence employs realistic orbital mechanics and fuel consumption. Plot your flight plan to neighboring asteroids or far away destinations to participate in the trade or engage in combat. Combat takes place in real-time. Tailor your skills, talents, and ship capabilities in your fight for survival. Losing a battle means major repairs, the loss of your cargo, or even the destruction of your ship. Negotiate, battle, or run; the choice is yours. Technology and skills/talents in-game are gained by playing the game and earning experience. Technology is society’s ability to build particular things, whereas skills/talents are personal decisions that assist you along your desired path. Crew members are your characters in the game. There are five classes: Pilot, Merchant, Engineer, Miner, Scientist. Each class has unique skills and boosts. You have up to five crew members at a given time. Whether your crew consists of five pilots or a random assortment of the five classes is your choice. Game Design and Philosophy Influence is a play + earn, space strategy sandbox MMO in which you steer the fate of the remnants of humankind in a hostile solar system. You control a crew of up to five crewmates, each of which can have a different class: LINK TO CREWMATES. It is your decision whether you invest your time mining for resources, building infrastructure, participating in the economic development of the system, researching advanced technology, or engaging in conflict with other players. Gameplay draws from 4x games, management simulators, and narrative open-world RPGs. Examples include: 4x (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) such as Civilization, Stellaris, and Endless Space Management Simulators such as Factorio, SimCity, and Dwarf Fortress Role-playing Games such as EVE Online, Fallout, and Dungeons and Dragons Develop Asteroids Asteroids are the “land” of Influence. They are NFTs that players can own, and mining asteroids for resources is the basis of Influence’s economy. You can view and manipulate asteroids from a third-person view. Asteroids have buildable lots, each of which is one km². Most buildings and other infrastructure take exactly one lot. Many players choose to own asteroids, but it is not necessary to play Influence. Those that do can benefit from their asteroid’s bonuses (if applicable) and can: Mine for resources Construct buildings, ships, or other infrastructure for players to utilize Lease the rights to other players using in-game smart contracts Build marketplaces to facilitate trade and earn income Note: It is possible to build on asteroids that are unowned or without permission from the owner, but you will receive none of the bonuses for doing so and risk antagonizing other players. Command Your Crew Crewmates are your characters in the game and can have one of five classes: Pilot, Merchant, Engineer, Miner, Scientist: LINK TO CREWMATES. Each class offers unique skills and boosts. Your crew can have up to five crewmates at a time, but whether you choose all pilots or a random assortment of the five classes is up to you. You can recruit Citizens, Specialists, and Department Heads on the secondary market (OpenSea). These come with bonuses that are beneficial but not game-breaking. You may also choose to mint crewmates in-game (cost TBD but under $10/each). These come with no inherent bonuses but can earn experience and skills the same as any other crewmate. An essential aspect of Influence is the lore building. The in-game actions of your crewmates are persistent on the blockchain. Every action you take with a crewmate is recorded and becomes part of their in-game narrative. A crewmate’s narrative lives with them forever on-chain, even if they are traded or sold. Fly Your Spaceship Ships are your key to traveling the asteroid belt. Influence employs realistic orbital mechanics and fuel consumption. You can plot your flight plan to neighboring asteroids or far away destinations to trade resources or engage in combat. Early ships are simple, such as shuttles and freight haulers, but players constantly research new technology and other improvements. Mine for Resources Mining for resources is the bedrock of economic activity in Influence. Every asteroid has a unique composition of resources that lie beneath its surface. You can use extractors to pull out raw and unrefined materials. Then refine those resources on your asteroid, fly them across the system to marketplaces or other facilities, or use them to craft other assets. Build Infrastructure Storage facilities, marketplaces, and mining sites are among the earliest infrastructures you can build in Influence. Players may build these on their asteroids or lots leased from other players. Asteroid owners can charge fees for every transaction in their marketplaces, and players may provide liquidity to receive additional benefits. As new technology develops, the options for building infrastructure will increase. Coming in future releases (Discovery & Conflict) Research New Technology Technology and skills/talents are gained by playing the game and earning experience. Technology is society’s ability to build particular things. Skills/talents are personal decisions that assist you along your desired path. Using your crewmates, engage in research and development, discover new technology, and even profit from your discoveries on the open market. Engage in Combat Combat takes place in real-time. Losing a battle means significant repairs, the loss of your cargo, or even the destruction of your ship. Tailor your skills, talents, and ship capabilities in your fight for survival. You may find it challenging to find a genuinely safe space in the system outside of Adalia Prime. Player interaction is bound to occur, and not every player has your best interest at heart. How do you beat Influence? Influence is an enthralling, grand strategy game that defies the conventional concept of victory. It places you in an expansive universe where winning is not about reaching a predetermined end, but rather, about defining and pursuing your personal goals within the framework of the game’s deep and strategic mechanics. Influence is challenging and is played over months and years, rather than minutes and hours. The game propels you into a dynamic landscape, characterized by intense competition and large-scale alliances. It’s a universe that rewards strategic progression and offers the thrilling opportunity to vie for market dominance, control over supply chains, and exert economic and social influence within the belt. Your journey in the game commences with the formation of a team or ‘crew’, composed of a diverse set of characters - miners, engineers, scientists, pilots, and merchants, each with their unique skill set. Leveraging the strengths of your crew, your mission is to contribute to the development and prosperity of the newly formed Adalian colony. Additionally, your task involves ensuring the survival of the belt and gradually expanding your sphere of influence. The path to success in Influence involves accruing SWAY, the game’s native currency. Accumulating SWAY enables you to amplify your objectives, and it can be earned by making informed decisions that yield positive results for your crew and the Adalian colony. Remember, every decision you make can steer your game’s trajectory, and each action carries potential benefits and drawbacks. Influence challenges you to tread cautiously and intelligently. It invites you to contribute to the thriving life of the Adalian colony and to carve your unique path in this expansive universe. The power is in your hands, and how you wield it determines your ‘victory’ in the world of Influence. Players own their assets Simply put, you own your content which is stored in a player owned account that the game studio cannot ban or revoke assets from. You can buy, sell, and trade them in-game and outside of the game. No more black or grey markets for in-game items and currency. You are free to do with it as you please. Player-owned open economy Influence is built fully “onchain” and with a system that enables player driven economies to arise free from control of the game studio. The tech standard for this utilizes “Non-fungible” and “Semi-fungible” tokens, which allow players to own and verify their items outside of the game’s servers. A core pillar of Influence is to empower players to be able to truly control, collect, and decide what they want to do with their assets. Ultimately, the game will play like any other, but you control your assets in an account that the studio cannot access. How can I play? Currently, Influence is in early development. We have a working alpha and will be adding more features in the coming months. If you would like to test the game out as it develops the Test Network and working alpha is open to all. A link to the testnet can be found HERE (if the link does not work, we may be pushing new features to the system, and you will need to check back later.) You can also check out our mainnet client HERE, but the feature set is more limited. Does it cost money to play Influence? Yes, Influence will initially cost players some money to get started. There are a few things players NEED to play. These items are: A crewmate ($5) SWAY (our in-game currency which you can purchase as much as you would like) ETH (This allows you to pay for the small transaction fees) The game will provide on the home screen different options to get started, contained within “Starter Packs” each with different amounts of the above. Starter Packs will range from $15 to $100. However, if you want a cheaper to zero cost starting experience there will be alliances that accept new players and help them get started, and provide some boot strapping in exchange for some of what you earn in-game. You are not locked into these alliances. Is there a subscription to play Influence? No, there isn’t a monthly subscription fee to play Influence. Instead, the game operates using Starknet, a blockchain layer 2 ecosystem, which means: You’ll need a starknet account: This is similar to having a game account, but it’s able to be utilized for any application on Starknet, not just Influence. Don’t worry, though-setting up an account is as simply as entering an email address and logging in. You pay as you play: Unlike traditional games where you might pay monthly, in Influence, you spend a little bit of Ethereum (ETH) each time you perform an action in the game, like mining or trading. This fee is a “transaction fee” that goes to the network of computers that keep the game running, not to the game game studio. You will have a simply way to add more ETH to your account if you are running low. Affordable play costs: Our goal is for average player costs to be around $10 to $15 per month at launch for these transaction fees when the game launches. As the underlying technology becomes more efficient, we expect these costs to drastically decrease. So, while there’s no traditional subscription, you will need some funds for in-game actions. You can also use what you earn in the game to help cover these costs. What is unique about Influence? Influence is the first of its kind, taking space realism to the next level. Each asteroid, which serves as a player’s base, orbits in real-time, making the strategic decision of when the best time to fly your ship from one asteroid to another an important part of game-play. Players make tactical decisions around mining, building and refining materials on a limited set of 250,000 asteroids, each with its unique combination of resources. Each asteroid is a player own-able game asset, that serves as provably owned digital land. This allows the player to control who can play on their land, and if they choose how much SWAY is required to play on that land. This gives rise to a more powerful in-game economy where players and alliances can granularly control their owned game assets. Build your own asteroid settlements and work to have a bustling economy on your asteroid. In solo or collaborative modes, players are challenged to build infrastructure, discover technologies, craft buildings and ships to facilitate trade, engage in combat and expand their influence across the asteroid belt. Asteroid owners will be able to realize the fruits of their labor through features like selling and trading the unique materials and products they mine and produce on an open market platform through the in-game utility token SWAY as currency. It is a peer-to-peer economy, i.e. marketplaces are owned and operated by players. There are no NPCs in the game, which means players are the only source of in-game materials. You need to engage or barter with other real people for resources to grow. Does the game have a token? Yes, Influence will be introducing a token called SWAY. This token will be what players earn in-game. SWAY will be utilized similarly to other game tokens and facilitate transactions between players for resources, components, ships, etc. The specifics around tokenomics have not yet been released to the public, but the team will be providing more information in the coming months. There will be multiple opportunities to earn this token (SWAY) in-game. How do you earn in-game? Collecting and earning in games is always a big part of an MMO, we all love “loot”. A big difference in Influence vs other games is that all items in-game are player crafted and created. There are no NPCs to buy or trade items with, meaning players will need to play together, craft goods, and trade with each other to accumulate assets to progress. Through this players will build up an arsenal of owned items, goods, ships, and infrastructure. When you sell these goods in-game you will earn SWAY. SWAY is the is the main vehicle for exchange in-game and the more you have, the more you will be able to pick up on markets, influence others around you, and take over your slice of the Adalian asteroid belt. Below are the basic ways players can accumulate the in-game currency SWAY: In-game activity will be incentivized so simply playing (mining, building, traveling) will earn SWAY. Extracting resources and building goods will result in SWAY earnings when sold at the market. Market owners will collect fees from each trade taking place in their market. Asteroid owners may lease out plots of land on their asteroids in exchange for SWAY. Providing liquidity at markets will be incentivized in SWAY by the market owners. Actively trading and taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities can generate income in SWAY. Earning SWAY does not guarantee monetary gain.