This post is the culmination of all the team's work in 2024. The second half of this post will briefly cover the roadmap of 2025.
A very Happy New Year from Surgent International FZ-LLC. We hope this year will be prosperous and may all your wishes come true.
It has been a very long time since we wrote this post. This was a conscious decision. The bear market is for building, and we have taken that seriously, which meant spending all our time focusing on building AND testing. We have wanted to make our games accessible to both Web2 and Web3 users. That meant creating a game that Web2 users would like to play.
Another reason for that was certain tech limitations of Hive that we had to work around and build for considering that we were building for multi-platform. That naturally took time, and while we haven't worked around all of them, we are in a position to positively say that our games belong on Hive as the go-to representation for a hybrid web2-web3 game.
We believe we have come closer to our vision; however, much must be done. This post will describe what we have done for Astral Wars. Please find a quick overview below.
Table of Contents
- Hive.io
- Windows Launcher
- Onchain Activities
- Expanding our Game Economy
- SSL Certificate
- Marketplace
- Game Patches
- New Mechanics
- Internal test for Google Play
- Solo Mode
- Tutorial Mode
- Glossary
- VFX Showcase
- Foil Cards
- Global Passives
- Airdrops
- WE NEED YOU!!!
- Closing of the Alpha Server
- Roadmap
- How To Play
- Getting Involved
These are the following things that have been worked on in the year 2024 for Astral Wars. Please note that while we worked on other projects in 2024, this post is only for our game Astral Wars.
Hive.io
We have finally been listed on Hive.io, which is a honor and the next step for us to get our names out there. While this did happen earlier in 2024, it is nonetheless something that we extremely value.
Windows Launcher
Our Windows launcher, which is downloadable from here, now supports the Spanish Language thanks to @newenx.
For those who don't know this launcher is capable of supporting multiple games. It automatically updates your games and if your account is linked it will load all the posts for that game. I invite any game dev reading this post to reach out to us to get their games on this launcher as it is the perfect distribution software. Much like Steam, but for hive.
On-chain Activities
All game activities in-game are on-chain here. Whether it is an account registration, playing a match, opening a crate, or buying/selling cards, it is on-chain, including what you have drawn from the crate. This means no one can fake any data, as it can be cross-referenced with the data here.
Expanding our Game Economy
We have added two more tokens to support $STELLARUM: Crate Fragments and Card Essences.
Crate Fragments are meant to be used to buy Crates in the game "Astral Wars" just like another in-game economy "Coins" which is a convertible resource with $STELLARUM. They are convertible from $CRF.
Card Essences are meant to be used to buy Cards in the game "Astral Wars" just like another in-game economy "Coins" which is a convertible resource with $STELLARUM. They are convertible from $CE.
SSL Certificate
All of your data, from usernames, emails and passwords on our sites and game API is protected through SSL which is updated every 3 months. We take security very seriously and are glad to have accomplished this.
Marketplace
Conversion of Token to in-game currency
What use are tokens if they do not have utility? We are glad to announce that you can convert the $STELLARUM token into the in-game economy "COINS" which are used to buy card of auctions, buy cards from the market, buying crates and so on. For the purpose of clarity the below images show a step-by-step on converting STELLARUM to coins from our website. Please note Crate Fragments and Card Essences can also be converted in a similar way like $CRF and $CE respectively.
Auctions
Introduced Auctions as a way for users to bid their cards on the marketplace.
Collection
The full Collection of the base set of cards can be seen here.
Sale through Website
We launched a sale through our marketplace for our promo cards, eliminating any manual way of making sales. From here onwards, all our sales will be held at our marketplace on our website.
Game Patches
Various patches have been made, including nerfs, buffs, grammar changes and reworks. Of course, all of it is communicated in our discord here.
New Mechanics
We introduced new mechanics(namely, Range and moving cards on the board) for our game to set it apart from other turn-based trading card games. These can be seen in the following tutorial here.
This was absolutely necessary for keeping the game different from other similar games like Hearthstone, Yu-Gi-Oh and so many others. It is the founding piece that keeps our games unique because mechanics such Range and moving make positioning a super important strategy.
Password Recovery
One of the things that was noticed was that a lot of users were forgetting their passwords, so we introduced a forget password section that allowed the user to rest their password whenever they wanted.
Card UI Changes
Below is a Before/After of a card
Before
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After
In-Game UI
Numerous UI changes have been made to set the game apart. However, this is a work in progress, and we will be making regular changes as needed. Below is an image of the UI.
Before
After
Of course, the above image does not do it any justice, as many animations cannot be seen.
Shop for In-Game Purchases with Google Play
One of the most important is the Fiat shop that works on Google Play. This is our connection of Hive with the web2 player base. This is the single biggest accomplishment that we have done, and just with this we have separated ourselves from 90% of the crypto games.
Below are the images of the shop:
Tutorial Mode
Since our focus has been on readying ourselves for the global release, it is essential that our players know how to play the game, so we have worked on a series of basic interactive tutorials that you can see below.
Astral Wars Tutorial No 1 - Learn The Basics!
Astral Wars Tutorial No 2 - Attacking cards on board
Astral Wars Tutorial No 3 - Armor, Range, & Positioning
Astral Wars Tutorial No 4 - Program Cards & Deterrent Strategies
Astral Wars Tutorial No 5 - Structures, Attachments, and Synergies!
Challenge Mode
The Challenge Mode is for beginners to try to understand mechanics on a practical basis without any guidance. They act more as a training and a puzzle for you to learn the game.
Solo Mode
Solo Mode comes with its own practice against a random deck with a deck of your choice. You are also given 3 starter decks to play with until you can earn enough "COINS" to buy crates and get enough cards for a deck. This mode is perfect for practicing your decks until you are good enough to face off against other players in Multiplayer mode.
Glossary
For those who are want to look at what symbols mean or what certain terminology means there is a full fledged glossary that can be accessed between matches or in the main menu.
VFX Showcase
Please see the wonderful visual effects created by a team member that accompany the wonderful cards created by our community members.
Astral Wars - Community Promo VFX Showcase
Foil Cards
What is a game without collectibles? Well, this game has introduced gold and prismatic foils. The gold foil has a beautiful golden brown edge and is worth five times the price of the normal foil. The prismatic foil has a beautiful purplish blue gradient ingrained with a symbol language created for this gaming universe. They are worth 10 times the price of the normal foil.
They currently have no rewards attached to them, but we intend to introduce that down the line as more people get into the game. Do also keep in mind that gameplay-wise there is no difference between the normal foil and these foils.
Global Passives
We introduced Global Passives to give value to certain high-value cards. These passives essentially are active even when they are not in play, or even when they are not in the match.
Airdrops
To date, we have airdropped over 2k Hive and 90 Million $STELLARUM to our $ASTRA stakers. 40 million of this $STELLARUM has been used to buy in-game items, allowing the account to have significant rewarding capability to users without having the need to mint.
Internal test for Google Play
Please note that the mobile version and the game are still being tested, so the review process has not been completed. When we are ready, it will take 15 days to get it on Google Play with access to millions of people. In the meanwhile, check these cool ads we plan to host on our Google Play page.
WE NEED YOU!!!
We need more testing on all types of mobiles. We cannot launch to the world without more information. So we invite you to please join our discord and help us to test te game. You don't have to play it if you don't want to. But whether game is downloading properly or whether it is launching properly is super useful info for us and we can work on fixing these issues.
Closing of the Pre-Alpha Server
The first Pre-Alpha server has been closed. It was an honor for us to have initiated this and this is what gave us the confidence to keep on going. We thank all the wonderful testers who have stuck with us through thick and thin. This server is no longer is use and has been put to rest, though I have the backup if we ever wanted to revive this to see the leaderboards. There was a person there with 800 losses.
Roadmap
Now, the roadmap is broken into weekly cells. This way, we will be able to get things done faster. Please note there will be other project cells mixed into this, but I will not state them here.
Cell 1 - Fixing and optimizing tutorials and uploading them on you tube, as well as connecting them with our overall post (1 week)
Cell 2 - Apply for game review and release the game into global beta (5 weeks) (need 20 signups before this can be started, which we hope to get after Cell 32)
Cell 3 - Crates to be buyable with Crate Frags and Cards to be bought with Essences (1 week)
Cell 4 - Astranian and Numina cards to be completed and tested internally (1 week)
Cell 5 - Currency Exchange system (1 week)
Cell 6 - Chat system and in-game systems to be optimized for Mobile (1 week)
Cell 7 - Achievements and Badge System (1 week)
Cell 8 - Friends System Overhaul (1 week)
Cell 9 - Lands Quest system (2 weeks)
Cell 10 - In-game Items and promotions shop sales (1 week)
Cell 11 - New Alt art for certain cards (1 week)
Cell 12 - Making an error crash system, that takes the burden of reporting details away from the user (1 week)
Cell 13 - Troubleshooting certain issues of the game launch on certain processor models for mobile. (2 weeks)
Cell 14 - Whitepaper (3 week)
Cell 15 - Tribes system (1 week)
Cell 16 - Tribes Boss and Shop (2 weeks)
Cell 17 - Tournaments Constructive (1 week)
Cell 18 - Tournaments with Random Decks (1 week)
Cell 19 - Implementation of Creation Relics (1 week)
Cell 20 - Card Upgrades (1 week)
Cell 21 - Dungeons Delving (1 week)
Cell 22 - Endless and Time Attack Modes (2 week)
Cell 23 - Battle and Level passes (1 week)
Cell 24 - Events (1 week)
Cell 25 - Faction Battle Modes (2 week)
Cell 26 - Campaign mode (1 week)
Cell 27 - Base building and Autoplay (1 week)
Cell 28 - Rebuild the Marketplace with a new stack (1 week)
Cell 29 - Migrate the site and test the site (1 week)
Cell 30 - Fix Launcher Bugs (1 week)
Cell 31 - Apply and register for the launcher to not be flagged by anti viruses (1 week)
Cell 32 - Post for 2024 Review and 2025 Roadmap (5 weeks) (In Progress, delay due to data collection from parties)
Cell 33 - Exploration Mode (5 weeks)
Some of the cells will be worked on simultaneously, so do not be surprised if things get done faster. We spent the whole last year optimizing, and we will just keep on doing so till we get there. Please also note the execution of the cells will not be in order but by priority and if there are any delay it will be mentioned within the #roadmap channel in the discord here.
As usual, thank you all for your patience.
How To Play
There are currently 2 ways to play Astral Wars.
a) You can go to our website and download our Windows Launcher for PC or you can use the following link. You can then install and play the game through the launcher.
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b) You can choose to play the mobile android version which is under Google play testing here.
You will have to let us know the email address that you are using to access your Google Play Account so that you can download it. Please join our discord here to let us know.
Getting Involved
If you're just now learning about Astral Wars, come mingle in our Discord to get regular updates, ask any questions you might have, and hang out with your fellow gamers!
You can also check out some of our earlier posts below:
INTRODUCING: Surgent Gaming — A Web3/Hive Game Development Studio
Astral Wars — Pre-Alpha Launch and $ASTRA Staking Event
Astral Wars - Pre-Alpha Ending, Open Alpha and New Content
Astral Wars — Land Presale and Kusaku-Gun Art Preview
Astral Wars — Mobile Release, Land Details and Thuringian Art Preview
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