Why you no talk to us?!
First off, we apologize for the lengthy delay between posts. So much has been going on behind the scenes at Surgent Gaming (i.e. expanding the team to work on our new game, AR Bots, now renamed Astral Wars!) that some of our previously planned posts had to be shelved while we reevaluated our short-term goals. This included figuring out how our roadmap needed to be altered to account for these new developments.
We're now ready to share with you what's been going on at Surgent Gaming, what you have to look forward to in Astral Revelations, and several other surprises!
Make sure you read all the way through ;P
Roadmap Update
Since we cover a lot of these roadmap adjustments in greater detail throughout the rest of this post, here are the highlights for our most current roadmap:
- July 1st: Pre-Alpha update patch
- July 15th: Closed Alpha begins for Starter Pack owners
- ?? July: NFT Marketplace launch
- ?? July: Resume Presale
Since gameplay is our primary focus, we've pushed back launching the Marketplace to sometime in July. The goal is to update the current Pre-Alpha, confirm the changes are stable, and then roll out the Closed Alpha for all those that purchased Starter Packs.
The Marketplace has also been delayed to include assets from Astral Wars so that both games will have transactable NFTs available at the same time. We hope to launch as soon after the Closed Alpha release as possible (including resuming the presale), but the actual launch date will depend on how long it takes to finish integrating Astral Wars.
Pre-Alpha Status
For those that may not know, Astral Revelations have been open for testing to a small group of players pulled from our Discord community. Many of these testers have shown gameplay in their streams or Hive posts.
We will be increasing the number of players that have access when the June 30th patch is live, but testers will only be chosen from our Discord community.
Here are some of the planned updates for the Pre-Alpha:
- Eliminate certain exploits identified by testers
- Fixing the progression towards bosses (now they can actually be challenged)
- Addition of a Quest log
- Addition of a Combat log
- All battles have been retuned to provide a more practical challenge
- Removed terrain height from battles
- Unlocked the Marshlands and Snowlands (after defeating the first boss)
- Abilities
2nd AMA
Recently, we hosted another AMA to discuss all things Surgent Gaming and demo our newest game, Astral Wars:
Thank you to all those that participated! For those that couldn't make it, here's a summary of questions answered during the event:
Astral Revelations
(Q) What is planned for the next phase of AR's Pre-Alpha?
(A) Fix the current list of bugs, introduce new content, stabilize the build, and transition to the Closed Alpha.
(Q) Will more players be added to AR's Pre-Alpha test?
(A) Yes. Stay tuned in our Discord for opportunities to become a Pre-Alpha tester.
(Q) Will Starter Packs be usable in AR's Pre-Alpha test?
(A) No. The Pre-Alpha is strictly a systems test. Integrating NFTs will start during the Closed Alpha phase of testing that comes next.
(Q) When can we open packs from the presale?
(A) You'll be able to open NFT packs once the marketplace has launched.
(Q) Will Astral Revelations and Astral Wars have different launch dates?
(A) Astral Revelations is still aiming for a 1.0 release by the end of the year, but it's entirely possible Astral Wars will be ready for its own 1.0 release at an earlier time.
(Q) Will Astral Revelations and Astral Wars share NFTs?
(A) To a certain degree, yes. After the initial launch of Astral Wars, certain NFTs from Astral Revelations will crossover as part of a planned future update. Likewise, certain NFTs from Astral Wars may find their way into the world of Astral Revelations.
Astral Wars
(Q) Is Astral Wars a browser game, or will we download a client?
(A) Astral Wars is currently planned as a browser game.
(Q) Will Astral Wars be available on mobile devices?
(A) Yes. After the initial 1.0 launch is stable, we plan to develop mobile support.
(Q) Will Astral Wars have game modes like in Splinterlands?
(A) Yes and no. Astral Wars will have very little in common with Splinterlands, but we do plan to roll out multiple game modes over time depending on the size of the player base. Keeping match queues short is a top priority.
(Q) Will bots be allowed in Astral Wars?
(A) No. We acknowledge that certain players will attempt to bot regardless of our wishes, so we intend to design Astral Wars in a way that makes botting particularly uncomfortable for those that go against our wishes.
(Q) When can we play Astral Wars?
(A) Astral Wars is likely to begin its Pre-Alpha test by 25th of June.
(Q) Will Astral Wars limit how many games we can play?
(A) No. You will always be able to play more games, but the way you earn rewards will require you to do more than just grind out games all day. This is where we hope the PvE story mode will gain appeal.
(Q) Are there different difficulty settings vs. AI with greater rewards?
(A) Yes and no. The AI opponent will be limited to story mode and practice matches. Story mode will provide fixed rewards at certain progress milestones, but practice mode will not. Optional challenges with greater AI difficulty will be available for one-time bonuses, but playing against a harder AI opponent in practice mode will not provide better rewards.
(Q) Was the Astral Wars demo really made in just three weeks?
(A) Yes! Our team buckled down to focus on quickly prototyping an MVP. so we could show you our vision for Astral Wars as quickly as possible.
(Q) Can you use multiple factions when building decks?
(A) Yes. Deckbuilding strategy will allow for both thematic "faction" decks and multi-faction "meta" decks. You are free to explore the various synergies available within and across factions.
(Q) Will Astral Wars have Land NFTs?
(A) Yes. Astral Wars will eventually include both Land NFTs and Planet NFTs. More details will be provided in a separate post.
(Q) What factions will Astral Wars have at launch?
(A) The Kusaku-gan, the Thuringians, and the YueYue. For more details, please see our announcement post for Astral Wars.
(Q) Will multi-accounting be allowed in Astral Wars?
(A) Yes. We understand players have many valid reasons for maintaining multiple accounts, but we will expect each account to be operated by a human player.
(Q) Have you determined how Astral Wars benefits will be distributed to ChiFi Bots investors?
(A) Yes and no. We're still determining final numbers, but we do know that any such benefits will be staggered over time. For example, if you qualify for 100 packs based on your contribution(s) to ChiFi Bots, X of those packs would come from the starter set, Y from the 1st expansion, and Z from the 2nd expansion. Examples of that breakdown include 60%/30%/10% or 34%/33%/33%. The goal is to spread these benefits over time to avoid excessive asset dilution and ensure only active members of the Astral Wars community receive the greatest benefits.
(Q) Will solo play have rewards or just PvP?
(A) Yes. Solo play will include story mode which will feature specific rewards available only by completing challenging matches against an AI opponent.
(Q) Will $ASTRA staking tiers be revamped to include Astral Wars rewards?
(A) Yes. Details for these rewards will be shared in an upcoming Astral Wars post and be retroactive for all current stakers of $ASTRA.
General Questions
(Q) Where will the marketplace be for both Astral Revelations and Astral Wars?
(A) The marketplace will be hosted on a joint website for both games.
(Q) What happens if $ASTRA sells out on Hive Engine? Will more be added?
(A) It will depend largely upon what the community decides. If we decide to mint more tokens to sell, we'll first interact with the community to collect feedback on how much and when.
(Q) Is the partnership with Antix finalized?
(A) Yes. The Antix partnership is specifically for our third game, Astral Worlds, which will begin development sometime after the full release of Astral Revelations. (Astral Worlds is intended as a sequel to Astral Revelations).
(Q) Are you going to bridge to other chains?
(A) Initially, no. We've discussed this at length and decided that until we're ready to even consider incorporate another block chain, our focus remains on Hive. This is because many tokens we initially considered when first announcing Astral Revelations are now either worthless or suffering greatly during the current bear market. Even if we do end up branching out to other chains down the road, Hive will remain the home of Surgent Games.
(Q) Will the marketplace support transferring NFTs to Hive Engine?
(A) No. Due to certain limitations we've discussed at length in previous posts, in our Discord, and during the AMA, we will be housing the NFTs for Astral Revelations and Astral Wars within our own database outside of Hive or Hive Engine. We'd like to eventually spread support for our NFTs to other environments, but those environments will need to be free of certain restrictions that currently make it cost prohibitive or impractical for what we want you, the players, to be able to do with the NFTs you collect.
$ASTRA Dividends
For those of you that read all the way through, surprise!
Dividends are something we've been discussing internally for quite some time. We were originally prepared to announce them with the previous Marketplace launch date, but the introduction of Astral Wars required us to delay both the announcement and launch.
Options we're currently considering:
- Option 1: Weighted for top 100-1000+ (increased over time)
- Option 2: Proportional for all stakers with >X $ASTRA
- Option 3: Proportionally capped (ranges from 0 to a maximum payout)
Where will funding for the dividends come from?
- 5% of all direct sales (excludes $ASTRA and Starter Packs)
- 2.5% of all marketplace transactions
These numbers may change, but our goal is to settle on percentages that ensure dividends are meaningful without hindering our ability to fund the development of our games.
We're planning to start distributing dividends sometime after the NFT Marketplace is live and presales have resumed on a weekly basis.
Opportunities
We are looking to translate and localize our game in multiple languages. While English will be the main language of the game, we are also looking to reach out to other regions as early as possible. We have need for Chinese (中国人) translators to help us set up the foundations. If you feel you are the right person, please reach out to @spiritsurge through our Discord.
Getting Involved
If you're just now learning about Astral Revelations, 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:
Astral Revelations — An isometric turn-based pet tactics RPG (built on Hive)
Astral Revelations — Whitepaper, Roadmap, Presale, and Giveaway!
Astral Revelations — Starter Pack Presale Details (Pre-registration Available!)
$STELLARUM — 1st Airdrop Complete & An Economic Preview!
Understanding Variants — Breaking Down Familiars in Astral Revelations
Astral Revelations is powered by Project Hybrid and made by Surgent Gaming Studios:
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