Introduction to Influence
A high level guide to everything you need to know about Influence
Influence is a highly strategic and massively social space colonization game, where players vie for dominance and control in the newly formed colony within the Adalian asteroid belt.
Combining elements of economics/trade, space exploration, strategic decision-making, and futuristic realism, players take on the role of space-faring entrepreneurs, and their main objective is to develop and manage an economic empire within the Adalian asteroid belt.
The gameplay consists of resource gathering, trade, and player-driven diplomacy. Players must make strategic decisions to expand their territories, establish trade routes, exploit resources, and build infrastructure and industries to generate wealth and influence within the game world.
Influence is built with real space/science in mind. The game consists of 250,000 asteroids that all orbit in real-time, have unique spectral type compositions, travel requires fuel and trajectories of flight are based off of NASA’s rocket science equations. In addition, items are crafted from raw materials and are pushed through realistic complex production chains to construct each intermediate and final product. Overall this game simulates the life of a growing group of colonists working to survive in the far reaches of space.
Who should play?
Influence is for the player that loves the emergent gameplay and vibrant economy of Eve Online, the strategic focus of Stellaris, the sense of scale in the X-Series, and wants to own their experience and help shape their universe. It drives the player to answer the question: How will you expand your Influence?
Players we believe will fall in love with Influence:
Strategy game enthusiasts (Think Stellaris and Crusader Kings)
MMO players (Especially EVE Online)
Science fiction readers (Think “The Expanse”, “The Martian”, and other science fiction books rooted in some grounding with reality and the natural laws of physics)
Developers, engineers, and scientists who like new technology and experiences
Gamers who want to own their content and experience
Basic gameplay:
Mining 22 raw materials from 11 different types of asteroids for their resources
Producing items through the utilization of refineries, factories, bioreactors, and shipyards
Constructing and expanding settlements across the belt
Traveling and delivering cargo in ships across the belt
Managing and trading on player-driven peer-to-peer marketplaces
Managing and leasing lots on controlled asteroids
Unique features in Influence:
Realistic orbital mechanics & physics
The game’s setting is within a realistic asteroid belt, where each asteroid has unique orbital mechanics that guide their orbits in real time, leading players to make strategic decisions about when and where to travel within the game depending on the current or future positioning of these asteroids.
Realistic production chains
There are over 200 individual player crafted goods, from ship hulls and electronics to extractors and warehouses. Each will require potentially tens of processes to refine, manufacture, and craft. These have all been modeled off from reality, with considerations to ensuring fun gameplay. (You don’t need a degree in chemical, mechanical, electrical engineering, or organic chemistry, but it may help!). Players overtime will begin to understand the reality that goes into building finished goods.
Player driven marketplaces and supply chains
The realism expands as players will need to organize and collaborate on where to mine particular resources, how to deliver goods across the belt in their ships, and form liquid marketplaces to supply the demand of the other players. This leads players to be able to find opportunities anywhere. Find what’s needed and fill the gap.
Pace of play
The game is a slower paced and highly strategic game played over months and years, and the goals are yours to decide. Each choice has many potential outcomes and the actions you take only make up a small percentage of the “fun” within the game. In addition to this the actions will take time to complete. Building something isn’t instant and depending on the crewmates within your crew can take well past a day to complete. This also includes flights across the belt, where flights can take up to a month in real time.
Persistence
Influence is a sandbox environment, which is to say that it’s non-linear, and the story you get to play is not predetermined. In addition to this Influence is a persistent and onchain world, giving your characters and game items permanence, as they all live on public blockchain infrastructure. Which will allow the game to be continued regardless of the studio’s upkeep, and since all actions are onchain players have deep insight and access to all game actions taken. We will see stories of economic war, sabotage, espionage, empires rise, empires fall, and it will all be onchain for everyone to utilize how they want
How do you beat Influence?
Influence is an enthralling, grand strategy game that defies the conventional concept of victory. It places you in an expansive universe where winning is not about reaching a predetermined end, but rather, about defining and pursuing your personal goals within the framework of the game's deep and strategic mechanics.
Influence is challenging and is played over months and years, rather than minutes and hours. The game propels you into a dynamic landscape, characterized by intense competition and large-scale alliances. It's a universe that rewards strategic progression and offers the thrilling opportunity to vie for market dominance, control over supply chains, and exert economic and social influence within the belt.
Your journey in the game commences with the formation of a team or 'crew', composed of a diverse set of characters - miners, engineers, scientists, pilots, and merchants, each with their unique skill set. Leveraging the strengths of your crew, your mission is to contribute to the development and prosperity of the newly formed Adalian colony. Additionally, your task involves ensuring the survival of the belt and gradually expanding your sphere of influence.
The path to success in Influence involves accruing SWAY, the game's native currency. Accumulating SWAY enables you to amplify your objectives, and it can be earned by making informed decisions that yield positive results for your crew and the Adalian colony. Remember, every decision you make can steer your game's trajectory, and each action carries potential benefits and drawbacks.
Influence challenges you to tread cautiously and intelligently. It invites you to contribute to the thriving life of the Adalian colony and to carve your unique path in this expansive universe. The power is in your hands, and how you wield it determines your 'victory' in the world of Influence.
Players own their assets?
Yes, Influence is built with “Player Owned Game Assets” or POGAs. Players can buy in-game land as POGAs, characters are POGAs, and other in-game items such as ships are POGAs.
Simply put, you own your content which is stored in a player owned account that the game studio cannot ban or revoke assets from. You can buy, sell, and trade them in-game and outside of the game. No more black or grey markets for in-game items and currency. You are free to do with it as you please.
What does player-owned open economy mean?
Influence is built fully “on-chain” and POGAs are simply part of the technology stack. This allows player owned assets to take actions within Influence.
The tech standard for this is to utilize “Non-fungible” and “Semi-fungible” tokens, which allow players to digitally own and verify their items outside of the game’s servers.
A core pillar of Influence is to empower players to be able to truly own, collect, and decide what they want to do with their assets.
Ultimately, the game will play like any other, but you have increased flexibility to buy/sell/trade assets without strict terms of service.
How can I play?
Currently, Influence is in early development. We have a working alpha and will be adding more features in the coming months. If you would like to test the game out as it develops the Test Network and working alpha is open to all.
A link to the testnet can be found HERE (if the link does not work, we may be pushing new features to the system, and you will need to check back later.) You can also check out our mainnet client HERE, but the feature set is more limited.
Does it cost money to play Influence?
Yes, Influence will initially cost players some money to get started. There are a few things players NEED to play.
These are items are:
A crewmate ($5)
SWAY (our in-game currency which you can purchase as much as you would like)
ETH (This allows you to pay for the small transaction fees)
The game will provide on the home screen different options to get started, contained within “Starter Packs” each with different amounts of the above. Starter Packs will range from $15 to $100.
If you are looking for a way to play the game for free, we recommend joining the discord and talking with some of the alliances, as they may have options for you, that can help you get started. These are independently run by players.
Is there a subscription to play Influence?
Influence is built “on-chain”, this requires you to have a blockchain account and some money in the form of ETH to pay for actions you take in game. However, we are working with partners to make account set up as easy as any other game, so you never have to think about the blockchain.
With “On-Chain” games you pay for your actions rather than your time, and that payment goes to the network finalizing these transactions, not Influence. This is a new technology and a new way of thinking about playing.
In-game when you start your gaming session, you will confirm and enable your account to play for any amount of time and spend a certain amount of money to go towards actions, and when you are done you will confirm another transaction that will roll up all the actions you took and pay for the “gas”. Influence does not take any cut of gas fees.
In summary, you pay for actions not time. There is no subscription fee to play, but you will need some money to pay for your actions. You can use in-game rewards and earnings to convert into the token you need to pay for your transactions.
We aim to have the average players spend no more than 10 to 15 dollars a month in action cost at release, with that cost going way down as the technology scales.
What is unique about Influence?
Influence is the first of its kind, taking space realism to the next level. Each asteroid, which serves as a player’s base, orbits in real-time, making the strategic decision of when the best time to fly your ship from one asteroid to another an important part of game-play.
Players make tactical decisions around mining, building and refining materials on a limited set of 250,000 asteroids, each with its unique combination of resources.
Each asteroid is a player own-able game asset, that serves as provably owned digital land. This allows the player to control who can play on their land, and if they choose how much SWAY is required to play on that land. This gives rise to a more powerful in-game economy where players and alliances can granularly control their owned game assets. Build your own asteroid settlements and work to have a bustling economy on your asteroid.
In solo or collaborative modes, players are challenged to build infrastructure, discover technologies, craft buildings and ships to facilitate trade, engage in combat and expand their influence across the asteroid belt.
Asteroid owners will be able to realize the fruits of their labor through features like selling and trading the unique materials and products they mine and produce on an open market platform through the in-game utility token SWAY as currency.
It is a peer-to-peer economy, i.e. marketplaces are owned and operated by players.
There are no NPCs in the game, which means players are the only source of in-game materials. You need to engage or barter with other real people for resources to grow.
Does the game have a token?
Yes, Influence will be introducing a token called SWAY. This token will be what players earn in-game. SWAY will be utilized similarly to other game tokens and facilitate transactions between players for resources, components, ships, etc. SWAY is akin to gold in World of Warcraft, or ISK in Eve Online. It is however available to trade openly between players, unlike in traditional gaming.
The specifics around tokenomics found here:
How do you earn SWAY in-game?
Collecting and earning in games is always a big part of an MMO, we all love “loot”. A big difference in Influence vs other games is that all items in-game are player crafted and created. There are no NPCs to buy or trade items with, meaning players will need to play together, craft goods, and trade with each other to accumulate assets to progress. Through this players will build up an arsenal of owned items, goods, ships, and infrastructure.
When you sell these goods in-game you will earn SWAY. SWAY is the is the main vehicle for exchange in-game and the more you have, the more you will be able to pick up on markets, influence others around you, and take over your slice of the Adalian asteroid belt.
Below are the basic ways players can accumulate the in-game currency SWAY:
In-game activity will be incentivized so simply playing (mining, building, traveling) will earn SWAY. (This is through “Random Events” that will happen while playing)
Extracting resources and building goods will result in SWAY earnings when sold at the market.
Market owners will collect fees from each trade taking place in their market.
Asteroid owners may lease out plots of land on their asteroids in exchange for SWAY.
Providing liquidity at markets will be incentivized in SWAY by the market owners.
Actively trading and taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities can generate income in SWAY.
Earning SWAY does not guarantee monetary gain.
Want to learn more?
Join our Discord and join the thousands playing Influence today!