What is Influence Asteroids?
Influence is a play-to-earn (P2E), open-universe space strategy MMO set in a realistic asteroid belt called the Adalia system. The game is built on the Ethereum blockchain, giving players true ownership of their content.
Players of Influence can build infrastructure, colonize asteroids, engage in combat, discover technologies, and more. They can compete in a variety of ways, including mining, construction, commerce, research, and combat. Since the game is rendered in 3D, players interact in third-person through control of their spacecraft and the installations they create. Additionally, players use the resources of the asteroids to accomplish their objectives, either solo or in collaboration with other players.
Influence is built around a finite set of 250,000 asteroids, each with a distinct mix of resources and bonuses. Although the game is free to play, players can buy and acquire any of these asteroids as land NFTs. Besides asteroids, players can also own ships and crewmates (characters) as NFTs. These NFTs can be bought, sold, and traded in-game and outside of the game.
By simply playing the game, such as mining, building, and traveling, players can earn SWAY (the game's native token) since in-game activity will be incentivized. Additionally, there are numerous other ways players can earn from Influence, such as leasing out plots of land on asteroids, extracting resources, building goods, and more.
History of Influence Asteroids
Influence was founded by Chris Lexmond, who is now the CEO of the company. Besides Lexmond, the key tech and ops team behind Influence include Jean-Paul Faraj (Head of Community & Partners), Patrick Keenum (Principal Engineer), and Charlie Tilt (Principal Engineer). A number of experienced professionals also work on the art and sound team of the project.
The team behind Influence aims to push the boundaries of the gaming industry and put the ownership of game content into players' hands. To achieve this goal, they're developing an ecosystem that allows players to earn real-world value while enjoying the gaming experience. The release date of Influence is divided into three development stages: Arrival Release, Exploitation Release, and Discovery Release.
The Arrival Release was done in April 2021. It was launched on the Ethereum main chain (L1) and includes the initial procedural generation of the Adalia system, the ability to purchase asteroids as ERC-721 NFTs, the ability to give each Asteroid a custom name, and the ability to scan resource bonuses on owned asteroids. In addition, the release also includes groundwork to enable deposits or withdrawals of asteroids to and from layer 2.
In September 2021, 9239 asteroids were bought. Today, the game has secured numerous partnerships with leading companies in the blockchain industry, such as Yield Guide Games.
Types of Property in Influence Asteroids
Asteroids
Adalia comprises 250,000 Asteroids, which serve as the "land" of Influence. Players can own one or multiple Asteroids. Those who own Asteroids can build infrastructure upon it, mine resources, run marketplaces, and participate in Influence's growing universe. Asteroids can also be leased out to other players.
Each Asteroid comes with a distinct composition of materials and a variation of attributes to produce a unique experience for the owner. They come in different types, sizes, locations, rotations, and inclinations. The cost of asteroids depends on the size. As a rule, the bigger the Asteroid, the more expensive it is. However, bigger Asteroids also mean that players have more space to build and/or lease out on.
There are four size categories of Asteroids. However, there is a gradation of sizes within each category. Therefore, when looking at Asteroids to buy, it's better to look at the "area" than the "size" to know how big an Asteroid actually is. The amount of players who can play on an asteroid is estimated to be 13km2 per player on the low end and 25km2 on average for a more supportive industry. The smallest asteroids are 13km2 and are appropriate for recreational gaming, while professional gamers will benefit from scaling up.
Besides the size, Asteroids also have six grades of rarity. Each grade comes with a different approximate chance of rolling said bonuses while scanning asteroids. These grades include common (~50%), uncommon (~35%), rare (~10%), superior (~5%), exceptional (~1%), and incomparable (~.1%).
There are also 6 bonus categories, including overall yield, volatiles, organics, metals, rare earth, and fissile.
Additionally, Asteroids have spectral types, which were assigned based on their color, surface albedo, and emission spectrum. There are four most prominent groupings, including:
- C-Type (carbonaceous) - These asteroids are the most common of the spectral type, with 65% being pure C-type. They are composed of water, carbon compounds, and minerals like Olivine and Serpentine. Players can find them throughout the belt, inner, main, and outer. However, most of them are located on the main belt. This type of Asteroid is also found in Cm, Ci, Cs, Cms, and Csi mixed-type asteroids.
- S-Type (stony) - These are the second most prevalent spectral type, accounting for less than 10% of all asteroids. Pyroxene, Olivine, and Chromite are examples of iron and magnesium silicates that contain little to no water. They're primarily found in the inner and main belts, with the highest density near the 1.6 AU semi-major axis. Cs, Cms, Csi, Sm, and Si mixed-type asteroids also have S-type.
- M-Type (metallic) - These asteroids are relatively rare, accounting for fewer than 5% of all asteroids. They are brilliant asteroids made mostly of nickel-iron that are the remnants of early minor planets' metallic cores. They can be found across the main belt, with the largest concentration of about 1.8 AU. Cm, Cms, and Sm mixed-type asteroids all have M-type compositions.
- I-type (icy) - These are the rarest and least accessible types of asteroids, with only 1.25% in the main belt being pure I-types. Composed of rock and frozen volatiles like ammonia, methane, and water, these asteroids are very dark. They can only be found in the extreme outer belt.
Ships
Ships are the transportation system of Influence that allow players to move their crewmates around the Adalian system. Players can craft their own ships by using their own materials, flying to another asteroid to obtain the materials they need, or having someone deliver materials to a marketplace on the asteroids they inhabit. Alternatively, players can also purchase ships from others on the open market within the game. During the first release of Exploitation, three ships with different roles are available for players to travel around the belt.
There are three types of Ships, including Shuttle, Light Transport, and Heavy Transport.
Crewmates
Crewmates, or crew members, are NFTs representing players' characters or avatars in Influence. Players need at least one crewmate in their crew in order to be able to play Influence. A crew can have a maximum of five active individual Crewmates, one of which must be selected as the captain. Although players can own more than five Crewmates, they have to set them in "inactive" status.
Before the launch of Exploitation, around 11,000 Crewmates already existed, including a limited set of 13 Arvad Department Heads, 1,859 Arvad Specialists, and 9,241 Arvad Citizens.
To gain a Crewmate, new players and players who do not have a full crew of five separate Crewmates must "recruit" one. Crewmates may be recruited on Adalia Prime at first. Crewmates can eventually be found at any player-owned Habitat. Players can choose their appearance, one of five classes, and a unique, immutable name when they are first recruited as a Crewmate.
Once players recruit a Crewmate, they can assign them to one of five classes. These include Engineer, Merchant, Miner, Pilot, and Scientist.
Native Tokens Used in Influence Asteroids
The native token used in Influence is the SWAY token. It's the base currency of the game and the denomination used for all fees and buy-side transactions on the market. Players can acquire SWAY in several different ways, such as buying it via decentralized exchanges, extracting raw materials or manufacturing goods to sell at a marketplace, managing a marketplace and collecting fees from each trade, providing liquidity at marketplaces to earn incentives, leasing lots of asteroids they own, or trading and taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities.
Top 3 Reasons to Invest in Influence Asteroids
- Monetizing opportunities -. According to the creator of Influence, Chris Lexmond, the team wanted to build a game in which the players could capture some value. Thus, owning Asteroids in Influence gives players a number of monetizing opportunities. As a P2E game, players can earn income by simply playing. However, there are numerous other ways players can gain profits, such as leasing out their asteroids and selling resources they mine from their asteroids.
- Community focus - The team behind Influence wants to involve the community in the direction of the game. This community focus, combined with their strong focus on creating sound economics, means that the game has great potential for sustainability in their P2E ecosystem.
- Players can collaborate with each other - The simplicity with which players will be able to collaborate with one another is one of the most significant benefits of the blockchain-enabled technologies on which Influence is built. The game encourages players to form organizations, allowing them to collaborate with each other by supporting existing DAO.