The Game Litepaper 001: Gameplay & Basics

The contents of this Litepaper are subject to change. Our Litepapers will be living documents; we will update them iteratively as game development continues. Future Litepaper releases will also go in-depth on specific sections (e.g. token distribution & in-game economy).

tl:dr

• Leverage learnings from our proof-of-concept Discord games to create a rewarding, challenging, fun game with an extraordinary visual layer
• Introduce unique use cases to Star Wolvez NFTs owners
• Push the boundaries of ‘interoperability’ with other pixel art NFT projects
• Earn rewards from gameplay, which accelerate based on engagement and quantity of Wolf ownership
• Expand the Star Wolvez brand into a bigger platform and network, accelerating growth and retention
• There are multiple levels of incentives to owning multiple Wolvez (buy them on secondary here)

Proof of Concept Phase

Over the past 6 months, we have tested mini games in our Discord server. This yielded significant feedback from the community on how to improve and fine tune them. The first mini game we created were ‘Quests’, simple text-based journeys that yielded players small amounts of XP. We then expanded to one-on-one PVP battles and ‘PVP Battledomes’, a Battle Royale style arena where 16 finalists battle in a round robin until one winner remains.

These mini games were also tied to significant rewards; some were even used to govern which members of the community earned Genesis Wolvez. The XP earned in the games enabled members to earn the ‘Lore Giver’ role, which allowed for one post in the Community Lore channel. Exceptional additions to lore earned members the ‘Elder’ role (allowlist).

FAQs

Wen launch? We will roll the game out in phases in order to introduce playable elements to the market as soon as possible. We will also continue to source significant community feedback as we build by rolling said phases out to committed community members first. Our goal is to have a fully operational game by the end of Q2.

Wen start? We started building the game six months ago with proof-of-concepts in Discord. Many of the pieces from Discord will be repurposed and reused. We started the UI for the game more than a month ago, and have completed the modal windows, button components, interactive tilesets, and user-specific UI elements. We currently have two senior full stack developers working on the game as well as the Web3 developer who created the contracts for the Star Wolvez Genesis and Star Wolvez Generative mints. Top tier.

Is it L2? We are building with Web2.5 principles: i.e. a combination of both Web2 and Web3. We will not use staking as a method to confirm you own any NFTs, we can simply snapshot wallets prior to sessions and major actions. We will also store two of the three in-game resources (Space Elixir and Neon Gold) in a database, eliminating gas fees for a large portion of actions.

How many Wolvez do I need? Each squad can have up to three members in it and any number of NFTs on the ‘subs’ bench (from compatible projects). You will need at least one wolf to begin playing (in the early phases). A squad of three Wolvez will always be optimal for HP and daily yield.

Does rarity matter? Rarity will matter to a degree: there is balance required between rarity and the quality of a player’s overall strategy. We will index the rarities of Wolvez and all compatible projects and calculate the HP of each NFT based on this pool of data. The most rare Wolvez, especially Genesis Wolvez, will be the most powerful characters in-game. Having a rare Kaiju King, for example, will also be a great choice for any Squad. There will be other methods to improve your Squads efficacy too; besides their HP/rarity rank, players will eventually be able to train ‘Troops’* (that can ‘die’ during missions) and acquire time-sensitive ‘Boosts’.

• Note: Troops will not be NFTs, they will be stored as data in the game servers.

Do traits matter? We aim for traits to play specific, niche roles in the game, aligned to the overall spirit of balanced gaming. The community will have a say in these dynamics as well and we will compensate a community member for creating the best model. More on this to come.

Gameplay Basics

The Star Wolvez game is split into two main game mechanics:

1. Resource generation (Homebase, Mining)
2. Battling (PVPs, Battle Royales)

Players manage their Homebase and conduct Missions. There are both passive (Mining) and active (Battling) missions. Over time, there will be new Missions added to the game that provide new and innovative gameplay.

The main in-game currency, Stardust, can be earned, swapped, or used (burned). Using Stardust will give players access to Special Items (such as Merchandise or high-end allowlist spots) and enhance their gameplay through a variety of mechanisms, e.g. upgrading Machinery on their Homebase or short-term efficacy boosts for their Squad in battles.

Playable Characters & Interoperability

Every Squad in the Star Wolvez game will require at least one Star Wolf in the first iterations of the game. We anticipate eventually lowering this threshold in order to allow the game to be used by a much wider audience.

A Star Wolf will always be a more powerful character in the game, e.g. higher HP in battles, and higher success rates in mining missions. A Star Wolf will also be the only NFT that can yield Resources from the Substitutes bench (meaning, if you own many Wolvez, they will all actively earn resources even when they’re on your subs bench).

That said, players can fill their three character squad with their favorite compatible NFTs. Use your personal favorites or the NFTs you own with the highest rarities (equating to higher HP in game).

Our vision for this approach is to create a first of its kind experience in the P2E gaming meta, as well as provide a new, external utility for all holders of all compatible pixel art projects.

Compatible Projects

The initial list of compatible NFT projects was formed by a) asking members of the community, b) assessing the support for Star Wolvez, and c) quality of other project teams.

We will be able to scale compatible projects up or down easily and will hold regular community votes for which collections should be added or removed.

We will not require users to stake their NFTs; holding an NFT in your wallet will suffice. We will take regular snapshots of a player’s wallet in order to achieve this.

A few compatible projects we can currently confirm include (these will be added to during community votes over the coming weeks):

Resources

There are 3 types of resources that players earn. These are used to purchase and upgrade assets. Players will earn these Resources through the various playable mechanics: Missions, Homebase building, and Time-Based Objectives.

The three resource types that players can earn in game are as follows:

Stardust (Premium Resource) (On Chain) — A special resource obtained through airdrops, swapping on a DEX, or payouts in Missions. This can be used to accelerate building and upgrade times, acquire special items in the Marketplace (e.g. limited Merchandise), and buy packs of the other two resources labeled below.

Neon Gold (Not On Chain)—Neon Gold is mined using the Mining Computer. Once collected, it is stored in your Neon Gold Ledger. Neon Gold is needed to buy and upgrade Army machines and Space Elixir mines, fund Battles, and upgrade the mainframe.

Space Elixir (Not On Chain)—Space Elixir is mined in the Moon Mine. Once collected it is stored in your Moon Vault. Space Elixir is needed to buy and upgrade Research machines and Neon Gold mines, fund Missions, and upgrade the mainframe.

Homebase

As part of the Star Wolvez game, the player will be able to build out their ‘Homebase’ — a set of rooms that allow players to build and upgrade Machines, Troops, and other management tools.

The purpose of players building and improving their Homebase is as follows:

• Generate resources to execute Missions, upgrade machines, and create troops
• Upgrade machines to increase the speed at which resources are generated (e.g. certain machinery, such as the Neon Gold Mine, yield resources on an hourly basis).
• Resources can be swapped for Stardust, an ERC-721 token that can either be sold on the open market or used to buy efficiency gains in game (e.g. Hyperwire: Boost a machine’s output by 3x for 24 hours) or can be traded for other special Items (e.g. Merchandise)
• Visual upgrades will also allow you to build a deeper connection to your Homebase, enjoy gameplay, and differentiate your experience from other players’. ‘Skins’ and visual upgrades will be earned or bought during Seasons. Our goal is to commission cosmetic items as NFTs so that a player can sell or buy them from a marketplace. Cosmetic items will not provide in game advantages, but alter visual aspects of the game according to your preferences.

Machines

There are a variety of Machines built for different purposes: Resource Mining, Resource Storage, Administration (e.g. upgrade levels for other machines), Army Building, and Research & Trade.

The proximity of machines to one another creates a multiplier that allows some Machines to boost others. The proximity of one Machine to another also creates a risk quotient, whereby one or more Machines may see “downtime” crashes for short periods of time.

There are plans to create a full suite of Partner Machines with unique capabilities — players will need to own that partner’s NFT in order to build the machine. If you sell said NFT, it will render the machine ‘broken’ until a new NFT in that collection is purchased.

Here are some examples of the planned machines:

Mainframe — Administrative — The Mainframe unlocks the ability for players to build new machines and upgrade those machines to certain levels. The Mainframe itself is also upgradeable, in order to unlock further features and Machines/upgrades.

Technician Bunk — Administrative—Each Star Wolf in your active squad allows you to add and maintain a Technician Bunk. Each active Technician Bunk you have allows you to conduct concurrent actions (e.g. with 3 Technician Bunks, a player can upgrade two buildings at once and conduct a Mission too). The total number of Technician Bunks a player can have will be capped based on their Mainframe level.

Treasury—Administrative—Upon the successful completion of Battles or Missions, won resources will be stored here (they can be claimed at anytime). E.g. this enables storage of Neon Gold and Space Elixir. Further storage increases will require the Treasury to be upgraded or for additional Neon Gold and Space Elixir Storages to be built.

Neon Gold Mine—Resources—Mines Neon Gold. Upgrading this machine yields more Neon Gold at a faster rate.

Space Elixir Mine — Resources — Mines Space Elixir. Upgrading this machine yields more Space Elixir at a faster rate.

Neon Gold Storage—Resources—Stores Neon Gold. Upgrading this machine allows the player to store more Neon Gold at any given time.

Space Elixir Storage — Resources — Stores Space Elixir. Upgrading this machine allows the player to store more Space Elixir at any given time.

Barracks—Army—Allows you to forge Troops that can be taken into Battles and Missions. The more difficult the Mission chosen, the more troops the player may require in order to be successful.

Cadet Dorm—Army—This is where trained troops will reside before launching Battles or Missions.

Star Laboratory—Research & Trade—Improves a players building and upgrade speed on all machine types.

The above buildings are the basis for early gameplay, there will be more unlocked as the player develops their Homebase.

Compatible Project Exclusive Machines

Some of the agreements we are putting in place with partner projects will introduce Machines specifically related to their collection. For example, if you own an Artificial Intelligence Club agent, you will unlock the ability to build the special ‘AIC Lab’ building.

If you sell the NFT from the AIC collection, your building will go offline until you buy another.

The reason for these Special Buildings is twofold: (a) create a level of owner retention for our partners, (b) ensure that the likelihood of someone’s Homebase being completely unique is increased, making for a more dynamic set of game styles overall.

Troops

Troops are available to train for players who own Barracks and Cadet Dorm machines. Troops can be taken on Mining Missions or Battle Missions to improve the likelihood of success.

Over time, there will be different types of Troops that can be generated with different abilities (e.g. some with the speed and flexibility pertinent to Mining missions, others with higher HP to be more effective in Battle missions).

The amount of Troops that are available to build will depend on the levels the player has upgraded their Troop building machines to at any given time.

Note that Troops are an example of ‘Web2.5’ principles in action: these will be stored on our database and will not require the player to pay gas each time one is created or used.

Missions

Missions come in two types: passive Mining missions and more active and strategic Battle missions. The goal of undertaking Missions is to earn in-game resources in order to build or level up Machines, earn the in-game currency, climb the Leaderboard, and create Troops.

Mining Missions

Mining Missions are a passive method for players to earn dependable payouts of resources. There is also a small pool of Stardust added to the payout pool that will be paid out randomly, albeit rarely (e.g. 1 in every 250 Mining Missions).

On Mining Missions, players will choose between 6 different currently available asteroids to land on and mine. The asteroids displayed to the player will be randomly generated from the available pool (i.e. if someone is already mining a particular asteroid, it will not be available in the pool until their Mining Mission is completed).

Each Asteroid will have a variety of rarities ranging from Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. These come with different probabilities of mining success (dependent on the player’s squad), as well as scaled payouts for successfully completed Missions.

When a Mining Mission is underway, a player cannot launch any other Missions until it is completed. The user can cancel the current Mission after a 10 minute cooldown period.

When a Mining Mission is underway, a player can still manage items in their Homebase (e.g. upgrade, reposition machines, train troops, etc). The player can also view and manage their Squad. However, any changes to their Squad will not take effect until their current Mission has completed.

Battle Missions

Battle Missions are a more strategic method for users to earn lucrative resource payouts. There is also a small pool of Stardust added to the payout pool that will be paid out randomly, albeit rarely (e.g. 1 in every 250 Battle Missions).

In the early stages of the game, players will choose between 2 available options: Battle Royale and PVP. These closely resemble the mechanics built in the Star Wolves Discord.

Battle Royales will mimic the ‘Battledome’ feature that was created previously although, this time, your HP and Troops created will play a greater part in your success. When a player opts to compete in a Battle Royale, the system will pair them with all other players doing the same. In the case that less than 100 people join during that time frame, randomly generated Bot characters will be spawned to fill the remaining player allocation.

PVPs will borrow dynamics from the Discord game, though HP and Troops will alter the starting strength of a player’s likelihood of success. This is a turn-based game in which players can Heavy Attack, Light Attack, Heal, Rest, or Defend.

Time-Based Objectives

Objectives are a set of rule-based challenges that players will have to complete in order to earn resource payouts. These Objectives will increase in difficulty over time. e.g. Launch 15 Battle Missions to earn 1,500 Space Elixir

Weekly/Monthly Objectives are a set of time-based Objectives that reward special payouts. e.g. Upgrade 5 machines within 14 days to earn 5 Stardust.

Rank & Experience Points

By undertaking Missions and completed Time-Based Objectives, players will gain experience points that factor into their overall XP. Winners of Battle Missions will receive a larger proportion of the Battle’s total XP payout when compared to the opponent.

Rank, or Level, relates to different tranches of XP, whereby players will need to reach certain thresholds of XP in order to jump to the next Rank Level.

Battles will iteratively attempt to improve matchmaking based on Rank of the competing players to balance gameplay over time.

Ranking and XP will also reset every Season as new dynamics, collections, and abilities are added.

Hall of Champions

The Hall of Champions will be a running leaderboard that never resets — i.e. a leaderboard that displays “all time” metrics.

For now, the Hall of Champions will be purely symbolic, but over time, the game can airdrop those in the HOC with Special Items.

Alliances

Although not available in early iterations of the game, Alliances will allow groups of players to form strategic fellowships. We expect the dynamics of Alliances to change significantly before launched and are eager for the community to offer direction as to how they think these should work.

The current working model is as follows:

• Grant permissions to trusted members of your Alliance to enter your Homebase and collect resources, upgrade machines, and manage your setup for you (i.e. if you enter ‘Vacation Mode’)
• Yield more resources by launching Mining Missions together; for every successful Mining Mission conducted by two or more players, there will be a multiplier on earned resources (i.e. 2 player multiple; 10% extra payout, 3 player multiple; 15% payout, 4 player multiple; 20% payout, etc)
• When launching Battle Missions, a player will be able to use any pooled troops from their Alliance in PVPs. By pooling Troops, the rate at which additional Troops can be generated is sped up by 10% per player.

Each Alliance will be required to stake Neon Gold and Space Elixir to operate. Alliances will be able to launch special “Raid” Missions every 24 hours in which they choose from a selection of other Alliances. These will act similarly to Mining Missions whereby a successful Mission will yield resources, but a failed Mission will send resources to the other Alliance.

Seasons & Wolf Pass

The game will be hosted in Seasons. Some minor or major lore or gameplay-based changes will occur. This will keep the dynamics of the Homebase, Missions, and the game economy fresh.

The Wolf Pass will be a progression based reward system of 100 levels, active only for the current season. Players will be able to buy the Wolf Pass to unlock cosmetics as they level up through the Season. At higher levels in the Wolf Pass, some time-based boost items will be yielded to the player. Other rewards scattered through the 100 levels may include Neon Gold & Space Elixir payouts.

Shop

The shop has three sections: Machines, Stardust Swap, and Special Items.

Machines—A place for the players to acquire new buildings (depending on the level of their Mainframe).

Stardust Swap — A place for players to swap their Stardust for other Resources as well as a link to a Dex where they can trade Stardust for other tokens.

Special Items — A place for players to buy the Wolf Pass, Whitelists, Merch, and other time sensitive promos (such as ‘in-game’ NPCs that supercharge certain aspects of their game — e.g. a Commander that boosts the speed for the training of troops by 35%).

Airdrop

We have always been amazed by how much time and effort our community has put into the Discord games and the Community Lore they contributed for Ascendlist. We will reward early adopters for their time and feedback.

We will take a snapshot of Discord XP close to the game and token launch and apportion the airdrop according to one’s XP gained. This airdrop will be for all three Resources (more on Resources later on).

We will also apportion additional tokens to those who own multiple Wolvez (on a per wolf basis). Finally, there will be an additional Airdrop for Genesis Wolf holders.

There may also be additional rewards for beta testers.

If you’ve reached this far, it’s time to buy a wolf! 🐺