Gaming with Blockchain: The concept behind Coins & Steel
Your time is valuable, and what you choose to spend your time on can be as equally valuable. At least, it’s important enough to you to invest that time.
Whether it be that 4 foot tall house of cards you’ve been slaving at for a month, or those perfectly marinated braised ribs you’ve been saving for that special dinner with your in-laws, your efforts may shine through the finished product but only for a moment. One day that house of cards will fall and somebody’s gotta eat those ribs.
There’s an impermanence that permeates many things that people work on. This very sentiment is unfortunately the same in the world of online video games, namely online Role-Playing Games. Getting the most out of any RPG can take a lot of patience and countless hours.
Despite this, every piece of enchanted armor and high level weaponry is forever tied to that specific game world.
The character you’ve poured all your time, energy, and often real world money into is simply gone the moment the game servers shutdown.
At least your braised ribs were as enjoyable to feast on, as they were to prepare.
Fret not for we here at Moonrealm Entertainment have found a solution in our upcoming game: Coins & Steel.
The Blockchain Difference
Coins & Steel is an online fantasy multiplayer role-playing game executed entirely on a blockchain.
This means that everything is decentralized. Every item, character, and component of the game is run and stored using blockchain.
This makes it decentralised. This means that it won’t be like that house of cards. Your efforts and time will persist, as it cannot be brought down.
The in-game economy utilizes the STL (read as ‘steel’), an ERC-20 token created specifically for Coins & Steel.
Due to its decentralised manner, the development of Coins & Steel isn’t centrally controlled by us, it can also be contributed to by anyone.
This makes the game assets far more valuable as even the players themselves may have a say on the game’s outcome.
The technology also ensures that it has the security benefits provided innately through Ethereum.
Still Not Sold?
Developing on blockchain allows us to address a number of shortcomings in the current generation of games, especially Games as a Service (which has become the predominant way to play).
Traditional games
- No ownership. MMOs and RPGs are often sprawling epics, that ask the player to spend countless hours. Unfortunately, MMOs can close down. You may have just found an awesome sword, but no longer anywhere to test it.
- Lack of transparency. Game operators can manipulate loot drops, alter existing items, create backdoors, and more. Cash-grabs are not uncommon.
- Trade restrictions. When games have offered a marketplace for players to buy and sell items, they are more often than not, walled gardens where it can only be done within the game itself.
- Option to pay. Developers rely on you spending your cash in their game. In most cases, you can’t directly earn money while you’re playing.
Blockchain games
- Complete ownership. Your hero, your items, resources, weapons, these truly are yours. You have full ownership of everything that you have kept over your adventure.
- Transparency and proven fairness. The game is built on the Loom network and ties assets on the Ethereum platform. This means that everything in-game is accessible to the public, and anyone can verify existing game rules.
- Open market. Buy, sell and trade your items with anyone, anywhere. You are not confined to the Coins & Steel marketplace.
- Option to earn currency. You can earn STL tokens just by playing Coins & Steel — and you can convert STL into Ether. Sell your items or characters to other players for STL or Ether!
And this is just covering the broad basics of how blockchain will change games to empower players.
Integrate with other content!
You heard that right! Yes, Coins & Steel can be integrated with other blockchain content!
You can transfer items from other games into Coins & Steel and use them through your adventure.
For example if you play CryptoKitties you can transfer your kitty to Coins & Steel and it will serve as your valiant in-game pet, with effects and attributes unique to each kitty!
Token or not token? That is the question
The game will operate on a Tokenized Economy. What this means is that everything of value in the game world is essentially a token.
And tokens can be traded directly between players through bartering or using STL. In-game items are ERC-20 and ERC-721 standard tokens respectively. These are types of tokens designed solely on the Ethereum platform.
STL can in turn be sold on exchanges and eventually converted into fiat/legal tender. More info on Coins & Steel economy will be shared and detailed in future posts.
More than its “gimmicks”
While the blockchain aspect is enough to set Coins & Steel apart from every other RPG on the market, our primary goal here is to build a great game.
We want to focus on an RPG where player choice truly matters. The game boasts a variety of classes with a branching skill system, as well as features designed around fortifications, owning or defending your own slice of the world.
This game world is truly shaped and molded by the player base.
A Brave New World
What good would your fully realized character be without a fully realized world? Luckily we’ve has got you covered.
A large open world is a large open world divided into multiple zones. Each zone contains one settlement, which starts off as a rural village.
Players cooperate to build up the village into a town, a city, and finally a citadel. Each city’s stage of growth attracts new dangers to the surrounding lands: monsters, dungeons, world bosses, and resources will appear as a settlement develops.
Different regions will have different resources. Not only does this encourage exploration, but also collaboration (trading), and even conflict.
Keeping combat real
In every fantasy world filled with treasures and secrets, monsters and ne’er-do-wells are naturally there to get in between you and glory.
In Coins & Steel, combat is played out in real-time. This sets it apart from most RPG’s that run on blockchain, where combat is often turn-based.
With a real-time combat system, we are adding urgency and dynamism to the world, where battles are fast paced, exciting, and satisfying.
Craft Til’ You Drop
A variety of materials are used in crafting equipment and consumable items. Consumables can range from potions and enchantments, to simple things like meals or pet food.
Players will also be crafting items, weapons and armor. And when alliances forge and players cooperate, they can use their crafting knowledge and resource to build siege weapons and fortifications.
Keep it Classy
At the start of the game the player can choose between three basic classes: Fighters, Archers, and Wizards.
Fighters are heavily-armored warriors. Their main attributes are strength and toughness, allowing them to take heavy hits and keep going. They are average damage dealers with high health and high defense. Fighters are great on the front line, attacking enemies directly.
Archers are skilled in marksmanship. They are highly agile and effective attackers from range, especially against low-defense targets. Archers can inflict severe damage but their survivability in close quarters is limited.
Wizards are skilled magic practitioners renowned for their intelligence and ability to cast powerful spells that penetrate armor. They are great damage dealers but their health and defense attributes make them fragile on the front lines.
Each class will have three trait branches with class specific skills in each branch.
A Trait may be a talent or a skill. Talents are passive, they reward bonuses to a character’s attributes. Like increasing the characters defense against poison.
Skills are active, so they require player input before they are performed. A well timed Skill can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
As we strive to grant the greatest choice to players, it will be possible to obtain all Traits for your class through the Reborn feature. We will detail this, along with a deeper dive into classes in another post.
Seamless Onboarding
All this talk of blockchains and cryptos might be a bit too heady for some, but there’s no need to worry about the ins and outs of the blockchain technology or the open crypto market to get the most out of the game.
From trading and bartering items to exchanging STL for ETH (or even fiat) everything is handled seamlessly in game. We make it so easy for you that you won’t even notice that the game is running on a blockchain.
And most importantly, the game is completely free to play. This sets it apart from most blockchain based games, that often require the player to buy their avatar or make some kind of purchase to play at all.
With Coins & Steel, we are crafting up to be an adventure for the ages!
If Coins & Steel sounds like a game you’re just dying to play then share this article to spread the word, and checkout the official Coins & Steel website as well as our social media pages:
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