EXODE has been setting up its next update during the past few months.
This has been a lot of work with many ideas added!
A previous post introduced our EXODE screens.
It hinted at features such as teams, team experience and levels, food and resting, research projects, designs and dynamic quests. We also explained how we wanted to handle content with 'player asset valuation' in mind.
You also have, every week, the weekly updates with giveaways shared by @birdbeaksd, sharing more details from our Discord!
So, what is more to present?
Well, a real, big final ETA first!
Also how we handle ETAs, because there has been some issues from us about this.
But to get more into the "meat of things", we'll also get into some mechanics today, explaining the concept of technology NFTs but also other detailed formula.
Sit tight... let's dive deeper into 2325!
Some big dates first!
Alpha 4 release is announced for Friday, September 9th.
This step will add teams, team synergy and experience, research projects NFTs and more!
This is the date of an immense takeoff for pilots into a big new world.
Alpha Final Round is announced for Friday, September 23rd.
It will add card cooldowns, unlock multigames and add some colony market features. We'll get as far as we get depending on development constraints.
Alpha Rewards will all be distributed before the Final Round.
EXOFUEL, Settler experience and alpha boosters to be distributed depending on participation to previous content. We will check rewards for every account, and check XP to send for past alpha challenges!
Beta pre-access will be deployed during September. This will be an account-based reserved access to a limited quantity of beta packs.
Now this is an interesting section too which deserves some more information.
Beta packs will increase price as more are sold. This happens once beta is released. That's why getting a pre-access is interesting as it keeps a fixed price. This also removes any need to rush (as these packs are reserved to you until release happens). This does not affect beta deployment in any big wrong way, so there only are positives to this.
The quantity will be determined according to Settler level and faction power (collection power) to discourage any multi-accounting scaling up to get this privilege.
Information on our updates
We often aimed at small updates every Sunday/Mondays before this big release .
We accepted that windows could be missed as we were compromising with being ambitious yet having a small team (and having a much larger life commitment to EXODE!). So in the "big picture" of things, any delay would be thought as minor.
Sometimes content was requiring two weeks, sometimes debugging and QA or wrong estimates pushed it. Using agile objectives and relying ourselves on a qualitative and very supportive community (you!), we often aimed to just push it for next Sunday/Monday with the added features of the following week.
But an added difficulty as we progressed was... that we finally aimed at a much larger update.
This is an important step in this game odyssey.
This big update never managed to fit into a weekly or even a monthly update. Heat waves and COVID did not make it easier, just like our own ways of being faster at times and slower at others in spread of x1 to x20. And the update had room for a lot better ideas. EXODE was at a risk of forgetting some of the "strategic" addiction of its gameplay while focusing on its "colonial", immersion and discovery aspects.
This update never fit into one of our weeklies or monthlies despite some efforts. There was a larger plan to release a small version then use a "slower colonization speed" to introduce improvement to it.
This larger plan was a nice idea actually and some of it still stands, but it was also why we could aim at June for a first version, "baiting us" to a faster release. We had to scrap that as explained in a previous post, as we got more ideas and could not fit that in a first format.
So, new plan: full release on September 9th!
Technology going "the EXODE way"!
Let's discuss further one important part of this update: technologies!
You can already get to our previous post to get some screens and generic explanation. So now let's get into more detail!
The update will give access to technology and you already know about this. But another interesting part is that research projects in EXODE are becoming NFTs.
Once a project is researched, it becomes your own game NFT and you'll be able to trade your results with other players once colony market is deployed.
What is a game NFT?
Game NFTs are already a thing in EXODE. Generated game characters, for instance, are NFTs on their own. But you did not have a market to trade them yet so it was never made obvious.
We don't get into "superlative marketing" saying all the unique things EXODE does.
Note: this is one of our beta characters, art by Art_eto.
We do a lot of unique things but we are a small team so our ways of using these ideas will always be original and special. Also, you get superlatives everywhere else; you don't need more of that from me.
Let's explain again this EXODE unique system with game NFTs, one of severals, as this is a very important aspect of the game and its economy.
- When you use a collection NFT (one of your cards) you lock it to your game.
- You will recover this card once a game ends.
- When you do, you get some XP on it to improve it further.
- XP, improvement and rewards will depend on your game duration.
- These rewards are what we call Legacy Rewards.
The longer and better your game is, the more rewards you will unlock as you unlock more "reward tables" thanks to your game activity.
Legacy rewards improve your collection NFTs.
And collection NFTs are the most valuable permanent thing, the starting firepower of every game.
So, in a way, game NFTs are a way to ensure your game gets far enough to unlock the best collection NFTs. They, in turn, add new valuable gameplay option, make your collection NFTs more, all that thanks to another feature which is dynamic leveling.
And if our super large collection of cards and options was not enough especially with elite cards in the mix (okay, we are tempted to use superlatives here :D), EXODE games and the special way we handle them can improve your entire collection further, making every single card even more unique.
We have identified while experiencing other games that a key to asset valuation is having every single asset proposing something unique. And by that I mean that this was part of EXODE concept but we haven't seen that really used much elsewhere. The lack of it leads to an issue which we will detail further.
When you don't do that players will compete with each other to sell the exact same thing. This makes "price" the only factor. When all assets are identique to each other, usually supply goes up and up until it largely exceeds demand, especially as some players become autonomous in it and no longer need it. Then market competition in turn destroys an asset value, sometimes even very quickly. Lack of game layers or PVE accelerates it even further. And not only will your ROI go out of the window, but also all current valuation.
We do our best to analyze this new pattern but actually EXODE initial ideas should already compensate this quite effectively. Planets are unique, planet reserves are limited and unique, player needs and supplies are multilayered and a big enemy is here too.
Let's explain it in more depth.
Why this should work even further and longer?
There are many mysteries to reveal in EXODE.
It is a strong PVE environment and an immersive game, something which we believe is important to give a base fundation.
But just as players rely on 2325 technology (and cards) to deploy and survive, colonies will also mature and players will also rely more on player-made content to continue. Player made content does not replace "collection content" and is actually boosted by it in new games.
Player-made content will also include weapons, ammunition, ship parts, ships, market nodes, maybe even a player station someday. The collection, in a way, is just the beginning of your uniqueness, there will be plenty of other niches thanks to a multilayered environment, an asymetric PVE vs an unknown, overpowered alien faction. And we have only scratched the surface of our EXODE lore and what happens to every faction in the new world.
The player made economy is even stronger thanks to planet uniqueness and resource invention (as you "design" your own resources), making every planet its own niche of collector resources with limited reserves.
There will be "no sure way to survive in EXODE", but also "no gratuitous way" for a gameover on an entire colony (once it's settled). Being careless or unprepared will surely be an issue.
But as you can guess, this gives immense layers to enjoy, with immense risks but also immense rewards to daring colonists.
There is no other game like this, not the way we make it (okay, we are a bit superlative sometimes it seems :D) , there are layers to refine and ideas to enjoy and a place for every science fiction dream in EXODE. We are extremely proud to push this universe further step by step. Despite every flaw in our development pattern, EXODE concepts seem solid and lasting.
Back to our tech subject, thinking research as NFTs is entirely compatible with this vision.
As we add rarity to research (you can discover Common, Rare, Epic or Legendary versions of every tech) we'll also give licensing options and full trading options to it.
About team synergy
I hyperjump to another colonization topic now with your team synergy!
There are many other elements we will explain about teams.
The initial concept about team synergy will work the following way:
- Every character contributes his Individual Team Synergy (ITS). (explained below)
- Individual Team Synergy is divided by the team size to determine the resulting Team Synergy.
- Team Synergy is then used to multiply every role proficiency. For instance, if you have 120 team synergy (=120%), every role proficiency is increased by 20%. If you have 60 team synergy (=60%), every role proficiency is decreased by 40%.
- Team Synergy has a stable chance to improve over time with a +1 per day. So keeping the same team is very interesting.
- Team Events can modify it further; although bad events could get some synergy down so if characters have a chance to generate "bad events" this might happen some day. We would like these chances to be mentioned, though, when possible.
This synergy is calculated with:
| Factor | Description | Maximum Points |
|---|---|---|
| Faction | Are faction traits of this character matched by other characters? | 60 |
| Federal Alignment | This is like a lawful/chaotic alignment. Are other characters of the team aligned with the character beliefs? | 60 |
| Style, Personality | Character personality can be compatible with several personality profiles. For instance, Beta personality works well with an Alpha personality, but two Alpha don't work well together. | 100 |
| Other factors | Work location and other environment and colony factors can affect team synergy. But most of them will actually affect Morale and Happiness and alter the character's individual proficiency, leaving only a few factors such as team events to be used here. | ? |
This makes from 0 to 220 synergy, and should usually get around 80 or 100.
any number is not final.
Note: we know the question you have. Do we mean that all team members must have at least one compatible faction? or that all factions must be covered by all characters? this can change cards value such as Special Infiltration Agent:
This is more the former, of course. Meaning team members must cover at least one faction.
But we'll make balance tests before adopting a final decision as this can have a huge influence on results.
Also, the game screen will inform you on currently active modificators! so you'll be able to understand what synergy is counted, and why!
Please never forget that a role proficiency is also affected by the character "Readiness".
Readiness is a concept which was introduced while working on this update and translates into combining current Stamina, Health, Morale and Happiness (the shmh?) into one single factor.
Readiness is only one score, combining them all on your character screen and is expressed in %, so you can usually be at 100% or less. This one-value-for-all makes it much more accessible to players.
Note: Stamina, Morale and Happiness can actually temporarily exceed 100% thus affecting Readiness in a favorable way. In that case it will always decrease over time to come back to its maximal value. Stamina increases/decreases faster than Morale (usually over a single day) and Morale lasts longer but still increases/decreases faster than Happiness.
That's all pilots!
This was a long session today, but I did wait a long while before making a new article.
Thank you for attending!
As you can see, hot events are coming!
See you soon in 2325!
More information about EXODE can also be found on 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.
We also have a witness node:
You can approve it with peakD or vote for it on Hivesigner.
Or, of course, you can head into the game right away on its website!
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
This is honestly the first time I’ve ever been excited about a computer game. And I’m fully stoked. Kick ass Commander.
Always nice to see myself mentioned in the official news!
Keep up the great work on this great game!
!PIZZA
Awesome ! Just the day came back from holiday, 9 september is in my agenda :)
Yasssss Progress I've been waiting so long to get back into this game again and really use it and September looks to be that sweet spot. Keep up the good work on the project
Thanks for the update and ETA.
Looking forward to the adventure.
Best ...
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Wow thanks so much for the detailed update. I am looking very forward to the next stage of gameplay! The tech as NFTs and passive asset upgrades seem like great ideas. I look forward to seeing how the in game market works out I especially like how the resources produced can be unique and uniquely limited due to the planetary uniqueness and game play choices.
September is just around the corner! This is very exciting! 🍉[MELN] will build that first station out in the new galaxy.
Example of a game that was released way too early when the features implemented were only minimal, and then updated for years, but interest of players and patience went down during the process. I understand it to a certain extent (for funding it is better) but I don´t like this approach. I hope it will be not similar with PsyberX and Ragnarok.
Hello @stayoutoftherz !
We released the EVAC part of the game on its first month and even then EXODE had many cards and factions and concepts to get used to. Using player feedback was important to get ever since that time.
We understand alpha development is something very difficult with a lot of time going on and that such process goes against what players are used to generally, so feel free to come back into it once the game is complete.
Know that contrary to many projects we have not used any marketing or intensified any distribution metrics. Future EXODE audience is entirely preserved! You have an alpha starter and we'll also make sure to work to make it gain value in beta.
Many players will get to the game when it has more into it and development cycles are shorter. This is when we'll get "outside" of HIVE to recruit more people to it, as well.
See you soon back in 2325!
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STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Finally had the time to properly read this!
WOOHOO DATES!
I added them to my calendar :P
Sadly I'll be working a long day on the 9th so I won't get to play tear
Still, EXCITED!
Plus very happy with the plan for beta pre-access, hopefully that includes the contracts ;)
I'll end this with the immortal words of Futurama... "Take my money!" :P
Thank you for these words of support!
I chime in on this to confirm that yes, depending on settler level/activity this will include a pre-access to some or even all contract packs.
And all early players up to and including away team challenge players will have a good enough settler level for this!
much excite!
!PIZZA
Thanks!