Test and Earn with Influence

Influence, an in development, space-based MMORPG, announced a new test and earn event on the Goerli network (Ethereum). During this event, players can buy and scan asteroids, earning SWAY tokens in the process.

With 1.5 billion SWAY up for grabs, there is plenty to go around. To start earning, all you have to do is switch to the Goerli test network, use a faucet to get some free test ETH, login to the game, and start purchasing asteroids! The limit is 100 asteroids per wallet, with a maximum of 11,100 Asteroids to be minted total.

Purchasing Asteroids is a pretty quick process, though the purchase button is not always easy to find for newcomers.You have to select an Asteroid, then click the Details button in the Asteroid trait section (scroll down to the bottom on the right side). Once purchased, you’ll see an button for scanning the Asteroid. This requires two transactions, and can sometimes take a few minutes. Once completed, you’ll have all the info about what type of resources are on the Asteroid as well as the Asteroid’s rarity (none of which matters for this phase of the test, though it’s still fun to find an Exceptional Asteroid!).

To get the most bang for your buck, purchase Small Asteroids. They are much cheaper, so you’ll be able to pick up more of them. The team promises 10K SWAY for every Asteroid minted, and an additional 5K SWAY for every Asteroid scanned. There will be a phase 2 coming soon, in which players will test moving their Asteroids over to Starknet and have additional chances to earn tokens.

Additional features arriving in the near future include flight and travel, basic asteroid interactions, a 3D asset viewer, and completed production chains.

What is the Goerli Test Network?

This test happens on the Goerli test network. That means all the ETH is test ETH. No need to use any real funds. As you might guess from the name, the Goerli Test Network is one of several testing, sandbox networks for the ETH blockchain. Wise developers will deploy and test their code on test networks long before they deploy their contracts to the mainnet. And I’m glad to see that Influence is taking time to test their products.

You can access the Goerli network in Metamask just by selecting it from the network dropdown at the top. Once there, you will probably need some test ETH. There are a few different faucets you can try. They all have some limitations, and many of them are being hit by other players wanting to grab a few asteroids. But with a little patience, you can get enough test ETH to make some purchases.

The faucets are:

Breaking News: The Influence team also just created a Dyno Bot form you can fill out to receive test ETH from them. Once you have your ETH, head over to the test server and start claiming Asteroids!

What is Influence?

Influence is a space-based MMORPG being built on Starknet (Ethereum Layer 2 solution). In Influence, a colony ship has arrived at its destination, only to find uninhabitable planets. After much debate, the commander decided that the passengers and crew would set up camp in an asteroid belt and begin building a new civilization. Players have already begun to lay claims to Asteroids in the belt, and soon will come mining crews, bases, merchants, wealth, and inevitably, conflict.

In addition to the Asteroids and Ships, players also own Crew NFTs. Crew have the option of creating a background storyline. This is done through a text story where the player makes choices for the Crew member. Based on those choices, the Crew receives certain traits that affect their in-game skills and actions. Pretty cool way to allow players to personalize their NFTs!

And though the space MMO genre is becoming increasingly crowded, Influence is offering some unique features that make it stand out. Mainly, its adherence to a realistic simulation. Not only are the resource production processes complicated and based on real life, but the Asteroids themselves include orbital dynamics! This is not a static map. All of the Asteroids are constantly circling in their orbits, with much variation. Each Asteroid has an orbital period (how long it takes to complete one orbit), a semi-major axis (how far it is from the center), inclination (how angled the orbit is off from the orbital plane), and eccentricity (how stretched the orbit is from a perfect circle)! This all plays into effect as time progresses, causing the distance between any two Asteroids to vary daily!

This all leads to what could be a very cool and interesting game. Hopefully the interface will make it an easy process for regular gamers to get into the game and enjoy the details. There certainly will be a lot to process! Luckily, some people are already building tools to help players figure out the complex production processes!

Expect to see more news from Influence over the coming months as they prepare for mainnet release!