Mavia Community Q3 Update
Our largest community update yet, covering our new soft-staking rewards, advisory board, documentation, development roadmap updates and more.
This article contains several major updates which outline the main milestones and topics for the upcoming Q3 2022 quarter.
Because of the extensive details provided in this update, we have broken down the sections of this article into a glossary below to help navigate through the contents.
Article Glossary:
A breakdown of the topics contained in this Mavia update.
1: Market Outlook
2: Engineering Team and Infrastructure Upgrades
3: Updated Roadmap
4: Soft-Staking Season 2 and “Mavia-Match”
5: Game Documentation
6: Teasers & More
1: Market Outlook
As everyone is well aware, the last several months have been extremely volatile, with billions of dollars of value wiped out from the crypto markets. Many projects have suffered (or completely collapsed) during the recent downtrend due to a variety of reasons, and while Mavia has not yet TGE’d (and therefore not heavily exposed to this volatility), we feel it is important to share our team’s perspective on the current outlook of the industry, and how Mavia can thrive during what we believe is an upcoming “Crypto Winter”.
We see this bear market as an opportunity for serious projects to focus on strengthening their products and team.
What is interesting is that for the first time during a bear market, a large share of Web3 projects will be integrated into gaming, which have been shown to be more resistant to recessions and economic downturns.
In an interview by Unity vice president Julie Shumaker, she stated “Gaming is now the wave that maybe radio was a hundred years ago, television became 50 years ago, gaming is now, and that does translate to a recession-proof industry.”
While Web3 gaming has not existed long enough to stand the test of time that the traditional gaming space has, we believe that there is now an even greater opportunity for blockchain-based games to excel during these market downtrends, as millions of people now have additional free-time and are looking for opportunities to earn.
Our team remains confident both in the near-term and long-term for Mavia, and we believe that regardless of the general crypto market sentiment, our product will be able to succeed by scaling a large player base from both crypto and non-crypto native players, helping us to establish ourselves as a leader during the crypto winter.
2: Engineering Team and Infrastructure Upgrades
New Hires & Team Growth
Throughout Q1 and Q2 of this year, Mavia’s name has been making rounds in the traditional gaming world. We were able to attract top-tier engineering talent whose backgrounds include Rovio, Supercell, EA and Zynga.
Our hiring of new talent peaked in Q2, when we added (and replaced) nine engineers, leads and advisors on the game development team, which has helped us greatly improve the pipeline of our development and the architecture of the game logic for Mavia.
Over the months, we have learned to focus on quality over quantity. Each new hire on the engineering team replaced their old counterpart, keeping our development team size tight and efficient.
We also focused on reducing the size of some less-critical areas of the development team, which has saved us additional resources, and coincidentally resulted in improved team output and efficiency.
It is now indisputable that Skrice Studios has a truly veteran AAA engineering team with combined first-hand experience in scaling mobile games to hundreds of millions of players. We are very excited to share this update to our community, and emphasize that our vision of making Mavia a mainstream mobile game has never been more realistic than now.
We have been reluctant to add some of our core engineers and leads to the Skrice Studios LinkedIn, as many of our developers in the past have informed us that they routinely receive “poach” requests from newly-funded crypto startups, offering large sums of cash to leave our team and join theirs instead. These types of offers are often distracting, and can create vulnerabilities in the team cohesion.
We do, however, plan on having a select group of our advisors and team leads join Mavia “Town Hall” events to discuss ongoing development events. Stay tuned for announcements for AMA events on Discord and Twitter.
We will also be making an announcement of our official new advisory board this quarter!
Architecture & Infrastructure Improvements
With the addition of our several new engineers and leads, we were able to identify several major vulnerabilities in the architecture of the previous Mavia backend/client stack, which would have opened up the game to exploits on compromised client devices.
Below we will list a few of the major improvements we are implementing to our new architecture. We will try to explain the changes in a simple fashion so that everyone can understand.
Change #1: Switching Backend Architecture from “Asynchronous Server Validation” to “Synchronous Server Simulation”.
It goes without saying that when dealing with cryptocurrency and money at stake in gameplay and matches, it is critical that we protect the integrity of the game against all threats, cheats and exploits.
Previously, the game client (iOS app, Android app or Desktop app) would run the front-end code independently from the backend. This is standard game development practice for most mobile games.
The front-end app would run some client-side logic, and update any changes or results to the database, which would then be stored and synced/saved.
This method works well when the client apps are behaving in a normal fashion. However, if the game client app is exploited (through rooting, jailbreak or other methods), it is possible to spoof data sent to the server. This ultimately creates the ability to win matches illegitimately.
The solution is to create a synchronous “simulation” of the game on the backend for every battle and base, which runs in parallel to the front-end app. The exact same user-inputs received by the client app are sent immediately to the backend in real-time, and are inputted into the backend simulation. The result of the simulated battle on the backend must match 100% to the client app result, or the results are discarded entirely and considered illegitimate.
It is only possible to use this method in a “deterministic” game such as Mavia, as the defending base is already pre-configured by the defending player, and the only variables in the battle are the troop type selected, deployment timestamp and location of deployment on the battlefield by the attacker. After recording the attacker inputs (on a text file), we are able to re-create the exact same battle on any simulated device, as all of the other game logic is handled by AI.
This same logic is also how we are able to re-create a battle replay using only a text file, and no video recording logic. By loading the pre-built defending base and the attacker’s inputs, the remaining gameplay logic can be re-created using the AI in the game.
Every troop deployed, superpower used, button pressed — everything is “calculated” on both the client app and the backend simulation, and the result of any battle must match with 100% accuracy from both the front-end and the backend simulation. Only then can we be sure the match was played fairly.
This approach requires more skill and time, and thankfully our team was well-equipped to solve this issue.
Over the long-term, this will virtually eliminate the ability to spoof or cheat using the front-end client device, keeping all players competing purely on skill and strategy.
Change #2: Converting 2D sprites to 3D real-time rendered assets
We have made a significant overhaul in our visual rendering methods, specifically transitioning from 2D sprites to 3D animated real-time models. This comes at the expense of additional technical art development, but makes a massive difference in the gameplay. We are even able to achieve up to 60 FPS on many devices in 3D using this method.
Comparing this 3D quality to a sprite asset will show the incredible advantage our new rendering method will provide. Additionally, troops will be able to maneuver in 360 degrees, as opposed to only 8 directions that sprites move in most other base-builder games. This will make the characters feel more real and fluid-like.
These improvements will take our gameplay, effects and animations to new heights in the game.
Change #3: Improved Pathfinding System
Pathfinding in Mavia is among the most important logic, as it dictates the behavior of troops, heroes and even buildings/traps.
In simple terms, pathfinding is the “AI” which directs character movements, attacks and behavior after being deployed in a match.
The pathfinding engine is also relevant for defensive buildings to prioritize targets, and for traps to select which troops to attack.
We are upgrading the pathfinding logic to be much more dynamic and responsive to new user inputs. This combined with the new fluid-like troop movements will make for very fun battles.
Change #4: Scenery and Default Troop Skins
Another very important improvement we have made to the game architecture is the ability to equip skins to troops, Heroes and buildings.
While this may seem trivial on a high-level, it is in fact a very complicated undertaking when accounting for device speeds, loading times for assets, and scaling across different renderings.
However, our new approach allows us to let players equip unique skins and themes to all characters, buildings, base scenery and more!
Several Other Additional Changes:
The above changes are just some of the main improvements we have decided to implement into Mavia. There are dozens of other smaller changes which will enhance the overall game when released.
3: Updated Roadmap
Mavia Beta Timeline Update
While the Skrice Studios art and web development milestones have been delivered ahead of schedule, our game development team has endured several setbacks as a result of changing some core infrastructure components.
As mentioned in the above section, these development changes were necessary for the long-term health of the game, and we made the decision as a team to accept a short-term setback in return for a stronger and more durable product in production.
Had we continued with the original architecture of the game backend and front-end client, Mavia would not be able to run optimally on many mobile devices, and also would be much more vulnerable to hacks/vulnerabilities from compromised game clients. Additionally, we would not be able to leverage our incredible skins and art graphics to their full potential.
Due to this pivot in development architecture, the timeline for the Mavia Beta has been pushed back by one quarter.
Our new updated roadmap can be found in the image below:
While it disappoints us to have to delay the beta, we know our decision to choose a stronger game will benefit everyone greatly in the long-term, and we have never been more confident in our product, pipeline and engineering team. The changes being made to the game are well worth the wait, and we are extremely excited to share more updates on our progress this quarter.
Our team had several meetings to discuss ways we can give back to our loyal community during this additional wait period, and we came up with the “Mavia-Match” program, which is explained in the next section below 👇.
4: Soft-Staking Season 2 and “Mavia-Match”
The first Season of soft-staking was a great success! We saw over 81% of Land NFTs soft-staked. Even with turbulent market conditions, our community held strong. We were very inspired to see this.
Season 2 Soft-Staking
We decided to create a “Season 2” soft-staking round for all Land Owners. Season 2 simply means that there will be an additional reward available for all stakers, and participants will be able to keep their original Statue NFT reward so long as they remain staked for the 9 month soft-stake time.
Season 1 will end on July 31, and new soft-stakers will not be able to stake for the “Gold Statue NFT” after this date. However, since 81% of Land Owners have already staked in Season 1, this leaves only 19% of Land Owners excluded from this reward (in addition to anyone who sells or moves their land before the 9 month time commitment).
Season 2 will go live on August 1, 2022. ALL Season 1 participants will automatically be entered into Season 2 with no additional steps required.
Season 2 will give land stakers “Mavia-Match” rewards, and this new season will require holding up until the TGE of the MAVIA token.
If you are already staked, there is no further action required. All current Season 1 soft-stakers will be automatically entered into Season 2.
For the 19% of Land Owners who are currently not staked, you will be able to stake into Season 2 at any time before the TGE of MAVIA token. However, the earlier you stake into Season 2, the more rewards you will earn, as “Mavia-Match” rewards accrue by the second.
Mavia-Match Rewards
Mavia-Match is a staking reward earned from staking Mavia Land NFTs in Season 2 of our soft-staking program.
The Mavia-Match program aims to reward stakers and early adopters with exposure to the MAVIA governance token, while solving several flaws in the traditional airdrop model.
Problem 1: KYC Requirements — Traditional airdrop models require KYC from all participants (for example, BAYC’s $APE token airdrop).
Problem 2: Sell Pressure — When tokens are airdropped soon after TGE, many of the participants sell their free tokens received, causing harm to the token price and liquidity during its crucial launch and price discovery phase.
Problem 3: Less Incentive to Purchase — When the airdrop participants receive their tokens, they may not have as much of an incentive to purchase additional tokens on the market, as they have already received some exposure for free.
Problem 4: No long-term commitment — Once the airdrop tokens are received, there is no commitment required to the project. Many purchase NFTs just to receive the airdrop, and then sell both the NFTs and tokens after receiving the airdrop.
We have solved the above problems, and created a new type of incentive structure called “Mavia-Match”. Here is how it works:
Step 1: Land NFT soft-staked before TGE — In order to participate in Mavia-Match, a user must own and soft-stake one or more Mavia Land NFTs . The earlier the land is staked, the more Mavia-Match they will be eligible for.
Step 2: User purchases MAVIA tokens on exchange —After the MAVIA token TGE, the user should purchase MAVIA tokens directly on an exchange (either CEX or DEX, does not matter). The user can purchase as many MAVIA tokens as they would like to, but the matched amount will depend on the amount of tokens accrued from the soft-staking season 2 rewards.
Step 3: User stakes purchased MAVIA tokens in locked pool —The user must stake the purchased MAVIA tokens into the MAVIA staking pool (locked 6–12 months). Mavia Match is only available up to 15 days after TGE, so the purchase and stake of the coins must be done within this time frame to be valid.
Step 4: User’s MAVIA stake “matched” and earns APY — The user can stake unlimited MAVIA into the locked pool, but the amount of MAVIA matched will be limited to the Mavia-Match reward amount earned by the user through the soft-staking rewards. The initial stake amount will be automatically be adjusted upon staking to add the Mavia-Match amount. This new adjusted staked amount will also earn APY rewards, further compounding the rewards earned from Mavia-Match. The amount of APY rewards earned depends on the chosen lock duration in the pool.
Step 5: User can reclaim tokens after stake ends —Once the staking pool lock duration has been completed, the staker can now withdraw their initial stake amount in addition to their matched MAVIA tokens. The APY rewards accrued will have a 12-month vesting schedule applied, which begins on each “Claim” by the staker. However, the initial principal stake amount and Mavia-Match bonus is available to be withdrawn immediately after the staking lock ends.
Soft-Stakers will earn free MAVIA tokens ranging from 1.5–4.5 MAVIA per Land Staked, depending on the land type.
Common Land Mavia-Match: 1.5 MAVIA earned every 24 Hours (Max 200 MAVIA per land)
Rare Land Mavia-Match: 3 MAVIA earned every 24 Hours (Max 400 MAVIA per land)
Legendary Land Mavia-Match: 4.5 MAVIA earned every 24 Hours (Max 600 MAVIA per land)
This model gives the MAVIA ecosystem and community the following benefits:
Benefit #1: Rewards Loyal Land Owners with Free $MAVIA — The most obvious benefit is the reward of MAVIA tokens to Land NFT stakers. Additionally, this reward will attract more Land NFT buyers and stakers, helping to strengthen the Land NFT value even further.
Benefit #2: Increased TGE buying volume—With the requirement to buy tokens within a specific timeframe after TGE in order to be eligible to receive the Mavia-Match, the MAVIA governance token will see greater volume on launch day.
Benefit #3: Encourages long-term commitment in MAVIA —The MAVIA tokens must be staked into the locked pool for a minimum of 6 months (up to 12 months). This creates a strong holding environment for all token owners, bringing the community even closer together.
Benefit #4: Turns Land Holders into Token Holders — We will potentially see a few thousand more holders of the MAVIA governance token in correlation with Land NFT owners.
Benefit #5: No KYC Required —Because there will be no airdrop, we will be excluded from needing to collect KYC information from holders.
There will be another article written on Mavia-Match leading up to the release of Soft-Staking Season 2 in a few weeks, providing even more clarity and information about the rewards, how they are redeemed, and answers to common questions from the community.
Mavia Token TGE
Our original target date for the MAVIA token TGE was set for Q2 of 2022, but we anticipated the looming bear market and decided to postpone until Q4. Ultimately, this decision worked out strongly in our favor, as we were able to avoid launching during one of the biggest crashes in history.
While we did not postpone the token launch to wait until a “bull market”, we do want to launch the core governance token under calmer market conditions. We believe by Q4 of this year, we will see a more neutral market environment to launch the $MAVIA token in, and we can then benefit during the inevitable rise in the market sentiment in the future, as we will have established ourselves at the “bottom” of this downtrend.
As of now, the TGE date is scheduled for the end of Q4 2022. We will provide more updates closer to this time. Depending on market conditions, the TGE could be in Q1 2023 as well. Until then, Land Soft-Stakers can enjoy earning passive MAVIA rewards.
5: Game Documentation
This quarter, we will be releasing the first official “Mavia Game Documentation” for the public.
This documentation can be thought of as a wiki that will constantly be updated whenever changes, patches or improvements are made to the game.
The documentation will feature the following:
- Troop/building stats, descriptions, images and strategies.
- Ability to view 3D models of characters and buildings (in AR on mobile as well).
- Walkthrough on setting up a beta account for the game.
- Game features and gameplay types.
- Resource types.
- Lore.
- Frequently asked questions.
- Tutorials and walkthroughs.
The Mavia docs will be used long-term for all future game versions, and will be maintained by the Skrice team and the community!
6: Teasers & More
We have added some teasers for upcoming announcements and content releases for fun. Enjoy!
About Heroes of Mavia
Heroes of Mavia is a AAA MMO strategy game allowing players to buy land, build a base and battle other players for the in-game token RUBY. There exists three NFT types in the game — Land, Heroes and Statues, each of which can be bought and sold on the Mavia marketplace. RUBY is the main play-to-earn currency in the game, and can be earned by winning battles against other bases.
