Mines of Dalarnia PRE LAUNCH AMA on Discord — Recap (25/04/2022)
On the eve of Mines of Dalarnia’s mainnet launch, Game Director Keith McCullough joined us on our official Discord server for a very special AMA. The following is a transcript of all the communities questions and Keith’s responses:
Val: Welcome to everyone and thank you for joining us for this Mainnet Pre-Launch AMA Keith McCullough ! First of all, how are you?
Keith McCullough: Hi everyone!
Doing great, pumped for launch tomorrow
Val: Many have already interacted a lot with you during the last few weeks and the V2 Testnet, but I guess that all Miners and the whole community must be really happy to have you here in the public channel for this special AMA. 💪🏼
We will start this AMA with main questions that we gathered from the community and we will open the chat at the end if anyone has any other questions. You will then be able to select a few.
Keith McCullough: Sounds good
Val: For those who don’t know yet, could you please introduce yourself and what’s Mines of Dalarnia ? How many people are involved in the project ?
Keith McCullough: For sure, hey Discord peeps I’m Keith, lead game designer on MoD 👋
You’ve probably seen me on other AMAs and at conferences and stuff. And on testnet at all hours if you’re in there 😅
MoD is a sci-fi play-to-earn mining crafting action game with RPG elements + landowning, resource collecting, NFT crafting coolness
We have V1 out for a long time and learned a lot from it. We are now making a major update called 2.0 that is a desktop app that’s a much bigger and more complex game.
And we’re super excited to share it with you all tomorrow at 2pm ET on mainnet launch!
How many people involved? The team is about 10 people.
Val: Awesome, this is something everyone was waiting to know 💪🏼
What makes Mines of Dalarnia different from existing play-to-earn games? What are the unique features of the game? And how can people earn in Mines of Dalarnia?
Keith McCullough: For me the main difference is that MoD is really a GAME.
With a couple of exceptions p2e games right now are mostly like defi wrappers or worlds you can stand around in. MoD is all about being an actually fun, playable video game that also has p2e features.
Some of that stuff can be cool, but we’re gamers and we wanted to make something that we would want to play. That’s always been the heart of MoD’s design in v1 and v2.
What’s unique? Land can be owned but also has unique traits that effect gameplay, and requires some upkeep. Anyone can rent to dig on land owned by someone else.
So it’s very open and easy to jump in to.
You can collect resources (that are actually tokens) and craft unique equipment (that are actually NFTs), and upgrade it
People can earn in a few ways. Land owners rent their land out.
Miners can sell resources in the in-game DEX, or craft and sell Terraforming Capsules, which landowners need to replenish the resources on the land.
Or craft or earn and sell rare equipment
Val: it looks indeed really different than other actual “blockchain” games
Mines of Dalarnia will launch its Mainnet tomorrow at 2pm ET, what was your biggest challenge in the last months?
Keith McCullough: I’ve been making games for years and years it’s always a huge challenge getting a game to launch. There’s so much testing and polish and feedback to get through, it’s crazy.
I thought testnet would be a big challenge on here but everyone has been incredible. Huge shoutout to everyone in the testnet group.
We’ve incorporated tons of their feedback and going forward we’ll continue to do that. The game’s going to evolve based on what the community wants, what you guys communicate and enjoy.
Val: I must say that I’ve rarely seen any dev active as such with the community, even if everyone wasn’t able to see it, all testnet players could testify your dedication during this whole phase 💪🏼
On which devices Mines of Dalarnia will be available at launch ? Will people need to validate transactions with a mobile device or Web3 web browser wallets will be available?
Keith McCullough: At launch only PC Desktop.
Mac will be soon. The game works great on Macs but we need to provide a secure, signed installer for OSX just like we do for Windows and that’s a little complicated.
Releasing unsigned installers for a game that connects to crypto wallets is not cool, I don’t want to create risk for our community. As soon as that’s ready Mac build will come out too.
For Mainnet you can use any wallet that supports WalletConnect (wc) protocol. That’s basically every mobile wallet and some desktop wallets … but not Metamask Browser Plugin for some reason .
In the future when we migrate to Chromia the login/wallet will be right in-game, but there’s just no remotely easy or secure way to do that on BSC.
Val: Will lands and NFTs be available to be traded freely on the in-game marketplace at launch ? Will land owners be able to set their own renting fees?
Keith McCullough: Lands and NFTs (such as equipment) will be freely tradable on third party markets at launch. They have metadata and display like any normal NFT, with an image and description.
There will be an in-game resource DEX and launch but not an in-game NFT marketplace at launch. That’s still being developed.
Land owners can set their own renting fees yes. It defaults to 0.25 DAR per rent, but they can change it in the game interface.
Val: Will people initially be able to play and manage their NFTs only through the desktop app?
Keith McCullough: I don’t totally understand. You can only play on the desktop app yes. The NFTs are NFTs so you can go find them in your wallet and do whatever you want with them. Trade them or sell them.
In the future we’d like to release a mobile companion app that lets you trade and manage your land and whatnot from the phone
future-future I want the whole game working on phones, but that’s longer term.
Val: All the resources will then be tradable on the in-game marketplace and all NFTs will be available to be traded on external marketplaces
Keith McCullough: Correct, resources are fungible tokens. There’s an in-game DEX you can use to buy and sell them.
NFTs are all viewable and usable in-game, you craft and equip and combine and upgrade them in-game, but to buy/sell them from other users you’ll have to go to a third-party market until we get our in-game equipment market running.
That’s a high priority feature, I’m not going to put a date on it but obviously it’s really important to get in so we’re pushing for it as fast as possible.
Oh just to be clear: The Dex uses DAR as its currency and our NFT market will too
Val: How does DAO work for planets (landowners)? and when will it be implemented?
Keith McCullough: Implementing a DAO correctly is a big deal to us, to get it right we have to establish the game successfully first. So I look at this as a future feature.
Prematurely implementing DAOs has a bad track record in other projects and we pay a lot of attention to the space. It’s a complex thing. We certainly want there to be a DAO but it’s not something you rush into.
Val: How often could players expect updates after the Mainnet release ? About what will consist of these updates?
Keith McCullough: Monthly, last Tuesday of the month, like clockwork.
We’ll do faster patches if needed of course. There will probably be a patch next Tuesday for example to iron out any launch issues.
But for our planned updates, every month. They will introduce new features every time. Some bigger than others of course.
Anyone on Testnet knows how much stuff we can improve in a month
The first 3 months are already very planned out, after that we’re getting more flexible since we want to be able to see how the game is growing and respond to community feedback
Val: Clearly we have see a lot of constant improvements in the last weeks…Not sure how you were all able to do that… How do you see the future of the in-game PVP and multiplayer? Do you expect to implement co-op mode?
Keith McCullough: Yes absolutely. A majority of the 2022 roadmap involves adding social/community/online features.
Actual direct PvP is a little ways out.
We’re working on shared space multiplayer first. Hang out in a dropship or lobby and show off your gear. Then go from there.
I don’t want to talk about this toooo much because I don’t like talk a ton about far-future features. I like to keep it pretty real. I think there are too many games that talk about crazy stuff that’s years away.
We have some really cool social features planned soon, reasons to engage with each other, ways to make your land stand out. Then shared spaces. Then we’ll see what we prioritize… if people would rather co-op or battle each other.
Val: Players will also be able to buy a Mining Passport when the game will launch tomorrow. How many Mining Passports will be issued ? Will there be any limit or anyone will be able to buy one ? What will happen with the generated value from these sales?
Keith McCullough: You buy the passport right in-game for 20 DAR.
Without a passport you can play as much as you want on Luna Praxis, a moon on the edge of the Dalarnia sector
Luna Praxis only has Copper though, if you want to get out there and check out the weirder biomes and get better resources you need to fly to one of the three major planets: Terra Prime, Simia and Caldera
The pass gives you permanent access to all three.
Passports are unlimited, we don’t see any reason to say “no more people can play our game sorry.
Usage of the sales proceeds is not fully decided yet, it goes into the funding pool for the game. We might use it for in-game reward for future features. We might just burn it if that ends up being the right decision for the economy. In some cases I imagine a community vote would be involved.
Val: How will the guild system work? Will Mines of Dalarnia have a similar program to Scholarship?
Keith McCullough: Guilds are on our radar but not top priority. There are a lot of other features we want to get in first.
This is a great example of something that might change based on community feedback.
We have scholarship built-in kind of because you can rent land from landowners to dig on. There is not a high bar to get into MoD like in some games. Just get some DAR, buy a mining pass, and go.
There will be expensive stuff, powerful equipment, rare NFTs and cosmetics, but you don’t NEED those to play.
Val: Ape holders should have some in-game benefits, could you tell us a bit more about that ? What Ape holders should expect short and middle term?
Keith McCullough: Short-term Ape holders get a free mining passport, a unique armor set called Cyber Armor, and a 16 DAR airdrop.
There’s a unique ape helmet coming for them the near future too. There are a few cool/funny unique helmet NFTs coming out and that’s one of them.
These armors are called “holos” — they are transmogs basically. They change your miner’s appearance without changing stats.
A few are launching with the game and this will be the ONLY time they will be minted.
So however many Cyber Armor holos go out this week, that’s all that will ever exist.
Please note that we can’t promise everyone will get their cosmetic “holo” NFTs by launch, it’s a distribution the website team is still working on. We’ll make sure everyone gets access at the same time — but you may not have your holos tomorrow (this goes for ape ones and any others.
Longer term we’ll keep releasing cool cosmetic stuff like that for ape holders. Cyber Armor is a good example of the kind of things we want to reward players with — for particpating in tests, for holding apes, for engaging with the game, etc.
+ Once there’s a shared space it’ll be better to show it off
Val: There should be 20000 of Canary NFT, is that correct? How will people be able to acquire them ?
Keith McCullough: We only released a small number for sale on Binanace. I want to say 100?
We are not going to sell any more, we’re going to keep the rest as rewards for special events or participations. We want to keep them pretty rare.
To clarify: we may sell other Canar-Es or similar pets in the future, but they will not be this original batch and will not have any of these unique skins.
Val: Beside that, I see that there’s a 20% token distribution for the “foundation,” can you please give us insight into what this will be used for?
Keith McCullough: The “foundation” is basically the company that owns the IP and the game.
Those tokens are how development gets funded, how we will pay for servers and expand the game, grow the team, hire people, etc. for the coming years of development.
It’s essentially MoD’s working capital.
Val: What are you the most proud of and what is your biggest concern about the project right now?
Keith McCullough: Biggest concern is launch week going smoothly of course! Anyone who’s ever launched an online game knows what that’s like.
Maybe I’m weird but I love reading patch notes in video games haha… actually making patch notes is the best.
Most proud of? The game itself… I can’t easily pull out one thing. The characters look awesome, the RPG systems are surprisingly deep, the p2e loop is looking strong. I’m proud of MoD!
I think it’s something really special, nothing else quite like it out there.
We have the opportunity to really do something exciting and new, forge new ground and grow the game into a major player in a brand new space of crypto gaming. It’s exciting!
Can’t wait to get everyone in there and grow it together. Thanks everyone on this community, you’re the best 🙌
Val: Clearly, MoD has something special that we can’t see in any other blockchain gaming project, likewise sir I’m super excited about what will happen for MoD in the coming year(s) and I think most of the members in the community have the same feeling.
Do you have anything that you would like to share with the community, any spoilers or teasers?
Keith McCullough: Yes, Craftable, Upgradeable Weapons will be added shortly after launch!
I’ve got pictures of them to share in Sneak Peaks right after this
They’ll add a whole new Equipment category to craft, trade, and sell, with their own suite of unique common, uncommon and rare perks
However, crafting weapons will take something a little extra from the usual resources and catalysts… more details coming soon.
Val: Love your sneak peeks 😛
Keith McCullough: Yeah we’ll be doing more of those again soon. We stopped recently because of Launch Crunch, but don’t worry. They’ll be back 🙂
Val: We will now move into the second part of this AMA and will open the chat for community questions.
The chat is open and slow mode has been enabled to avoid spamming, if someone has a question feel free to ask, MoD Game Director is here for you!
………….
Chat is closed 🙂
Feel free to reply to few questions Keith, if you still have some time, we could potentially make another round after this one.
1/ 26 of April Landowners will be able to earn DAR with their lands, right?
Keith McCullough: Yes right away on the 26th, as soon as players get in
2/ Can lands be sent directly from wallet to wallet?
Keith McCullough: Yes they are normal NFTs outside of the game
3/ Do miners have a limit on the number of times they dig every day?
Keith McCullough: Nope
4/ Will the testnet still be available after the launch of the mainnet?
Keith McCullough: Yes we’ll be maintaining a testnet after launch, and probably have some kind of plan to reward people who help us by testing on it.
5/ Will there be restrictions on the admission of players to the mainnet or will it be immediately available to everyone?
Keith McCullough: No restrictions planned. If we get absolutely flooded we may have to stop selling passes temporarily, but we’re hoping not to have to.
6/ What about the starter pack?
Keith McCullough: Starter pack stuff is all getting put out as community rewards instead (for V1, V2 and apeholders)
7/ Is there any difference between maps and can we upgrade maps like V1?
Keith McCullough: Yes there are differences between maps and you cannot upgrade at launch, but that’s high on our list. We want landowners to be able to differentiate their land by investing in it, improving it, and therefore draw more miners.
8/ What is gonna be the tax % on the rent fee?
Keith McCullough: 5%
9/ The project will be multichain?
Keith McCullough: Not really, we launch on BSC and migrate to Chromia when we are able.
10/ It feels like the project is still moving in the underground. Do you expect a massive increase of interest when the main net is open? Any plans to accelerate this?
Keith McCullough: I definitely expect and hope so. I’m not on marketing dept but my understanding is the plan is to launch and increase hype as we grow.
11/ Just to clarify, what is the difference between the MetaMask plug-in and the Metamask browser extension?
Keith McCullough: I have not had luck using the MM browser extension for MoD, it does not support walletconnect. I’m interested to see what can be done on mainnet. I think we’ll need to be releasing documentation and guides on this topic.
12/ When will the first competitions start and how will they be held?
Keith McCullough: Not announced yet.
13/ will transforming capsules be available right after game launch or we will have to wait for craft/selling in the market ?
Keith McCullough: Some will be available on the dex at launch yes.
14/ Could reward be sent this 26th before we have to buy
Keith McCullough: I’m guessing this is re: ape holders? Trying to get the mining passes out to you ASAP yes.
15/ When will we be able to learn more about the economy of the game, so we can understand what is the ROI of having a land and how much money do a land generate, depending on its revealed characteristics?
Keith McCullough: There are like 4 articles out about this already. But realistically nobody can know the real ROI until the game comes out and the economy grows and settles.
16/ Are there future land sales?
Keith McCullough: Nothing announced yet.
17/ What provisions do you have to prevent bots taking over, mining, and selling en masse?
Keith McCullough: This is and always will be a struggle in any game. We have some anti-cheat tech in there. More medium term the goal is to add enough events and challenges and eventually online play so it’s just not really viable to bot everything. Our economy is designed to be bot resilient as well (if not exactly bot proof) because even the best bot can only get a 5 star run. Not that destructive. This is majorly improved from V1’s design, which was ridiculously exploitable by bots
18/ What is your long term marketing strategy? It is clear this game will evolve exponentially over time. — Perhaps moderate at first, and heavy after a few more features are added?
Keith McCullough: Yes more like that.
Val: Thanks a lot Keith ! We will now conclude this AMA session. Thank you to everyone who participated.
We wish you all a great day. We hope that everyone is as excited as us for tomorrow’s Mainnet Launch at 2pm ET (8PM CET) and we hope that you will enjoy it !
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