Meal`n`Real — Episode 15
Introduction
It is the first in-game digest of the season. The number of zones has decreased by 75% (compared to the previous event), so now the episode size will be several times smaller, and it will probably be better for the reader. There is also not much public information currently available about who exactly is playing and what alliances exist. We have some reliable information, and some is just guesswork. But it is too early to reveal all the cards. We will keep monitoring the situation.
In any case, in this episode, we will make statistics by zones, provide additional unknown information for many, publish highlights, the first season interview with one of the community’s key players and the project’s active participant, and cover a few more topics.
The tournament start
The tournament started on January 11 at 2 pm UTC. Players had access to 5 zones with familiar names and the same limit of 40 settlements in each zone. One of the major changes in this tournament was the entrance — the Dutch Auction. The auction works on a simple principle: if there is a demand and players buy settlements, the price goes up, and if they do not — the price falls.
The price started from $1000 for one settlement and rapidly went down since no one bought it for this money. An hour later, the price dropped to $250 in all zones and continued falling. We want to remind you that each zone has its own separate market. The Mithraeum team bought the first three settlements for $150, which was made for the video contest winners. They were allowed to choose any zone, and, surprisingly, everyone chose different ones, which simplified the task for us.
When the price dropped below $100, players and guilds began to purchase settlements actively.
The average entry price was about 60–70 xDAI, and after a month of the tournament, the price is 54 xDAI. Currently, 173 out of 200 settlements are occupied, and players continue to buy them. Today, Sunday, the day of the digest writing and publication, players have already bought 10 settlements by 11 PM UTC.
For the first couple of weeks, everything was like a paradise for those who liked farming more than being active. But the first impetus for active actions was given by the group of settlements in the central zone Adrothra. These players focused on fort upgrades and army hiring. Maneuvers to neighboring settlements were their next step. It was the message for most that military actions can start anytime, and it is important to remember this. So other players woke up, began to test the waters, attacked the neighbors, and maneuvered between zones.
Why did this group of settlements in the center start active operations so early and did not develop like the others, considering the plan? We will return to this moment a little bit later.
We will not analyze the location of guilds and players since we, like other participants, do not understand the whole situation. And to avoid guessing and assuming, we will allow the stealth mode to continue existing and skip this moment. Let the players conduct their own investigations and communicate with each other for accurate information.
So let’s move on to the zones and their statistics after almost a month of playing.
Statistics
Dead Land
- Number of settlements — 34/40
- Settlement price — 42.7 xDAI
- Zone leader by workers — ROHAN | 527
- Zone leader by units — CRY | 504
Sapphire Isle
- Number of settlements — 36/40
- Settlement price — 60.8 xDAI
- Zone leader by workers —BRUT | 354
- Zone leader by units — KANHE | 484
Never Earth
- Number of settlements — 36/40
- Settlement price — 67 xDAI
- Zone leader by workers — NOBODY | 497
- Zone leader by units — STRONGHOLD | 461
Fate Moon
- Number of settlements — 34/40
- Settlement price — 45.3 xDAI
- Zone leader by workers — XD | 563
- Zone leader by units — MITHRAEA | 539
Adrothra
- Number of settlements — 35/40
- Settlement price — 55.3 xDAI
- Zone leader by workers — AMIGO | 358
- Zone leader by units — RUWANK | 314
General Statistics
- The best zone by the number of workers— Dead Land | 4.99k
- The best zone by the number of military units — Fate Moon | 3.38k
- The best zone by the number of prosperity — Dead Land | 5.78k
- The best player by the number of workers among all zones —
XD | 563 (Fate Moon) - The best player by the number of military units among all zones — MITHRAEA | 539 (Fate Moon)
- Occupancy of the continent —173 out of 200
- Fully occupied zones — 0 out of 5
Experiment
Now we will talk about a situation many players do not know, but there are some guesses among our participants. It may be unexpected for many, but it is time to share it.
Let’s return to the topic we mentioned in the start section. About the first active actions in the central zone. Who was it? Why did they choose war over development? Why does it seem a little unexpected, illogical, and suicidal? What’s happening? It seems you know approximately all the tournament participants, but where do these aggressive guys come from?
Let’s start with the question, who was it? It was us, part of the Mithraeum team. We decided to participate with our players in this tournament. We took part on par with the other players — buying settlements from the auction and replenishing the reward pool, waiting for the good price, communicating in a secure chat like any guild, waking up on alarm clocks, and with all the other delights of the gaming life.
The next question the players can be interested in is why they need this. Why did they take part with us? And some may even think that it looks dishonest.
Let’s start with the motives for participation. The project is growing and developing, and we have recently added many new members to the team. Many are not even close to the project, blockchain, and the gaming industry. Many things had to be explained in words and “on the fingers” about how it works and why it is necessary for the players in the game. There were some difficulties. Therefore, we decided that there would be no better way for them to understand and realize what they are working on as an option to get to know everything in practice. Yes, we understood the risks and that not everyone would like such a solution.
But why did the team not want to participate in the demo, where it had already openly tested the product before the start of the tournament?
There are several reasons. The demo was not serious enough for most of the players. It was a check of the mechanics and main changes. We realized that the team would not fully feel the emotions and problems the players can face in a real battle. Also, if we visited the demo with so many team members, the price would go up very high, and a lot of newcomers would not come to get acquainted with the project, or the veterans would not come to take advantage of the training before the tournament. Therefore, since we were already risking, we would need to pay compensation for this, and then we will increase the reward pool for players in the main event, which would be a nice bonus for everyone. And so it happened. Today 20% of the reward pool is the Mithreum team funds, which the players are only happy about.
And returning to our active actions, we did not have the goal of showing the team how to farm resources for a month and upgrade buildings daily. We are not here for this! We allowed them to develop their settlements a little to understand how it works, and immediately after this, they moved on to the active phase of the game, which means maneuvers, sieges, wars, and helping their guildmates.
But we can state now that good designers, artists, and managers are not equal to good players, even close! After 2.5 weeks, we were destroyed. All the settlements are in negative prosperity, and we observe how our settlements are burning.
We also want to note that the part of the team that took part did not have ANY advantages over the players. There is no hidden or secret knowledge, formulas, and loopholes in the game that are known only to us. Everything available to our players in our GitBook is also available to the team. There is no other hidden information here.
But these 2.5 weeks for new team members and even for those who have been in the project for a long time, but did not fully understand how it looks in practice, became a powerful boost in further work and understanding of where to move, what to focus on and what we can do easier.
Thanks to everyone who showed us how to play. It was fun, and we hope everyone got a valuable experience.
Highlights
The most memorable events of the last few weeks.
Cultists
Those who did not need a rest after a three-month test were cultists. They are always here and ready to complicate life for everyone. The first confrontation between our players and them is coming to an end. The favorite mechanic of the last test was cultists and everything related to them. In the first summoning of cultists, the players did not cope with them very well. The first pancake was lumpy. And perhaps the settlement owners in some zones didn’t plan to fight with enemies in the temples.
Let’s look at what the situation with cultists looks like in all zones less than two days before the arrival of the new army.
Each time two days before the appearance of the cultists, we will create an event on our discord, reminding the players that they need to think in advance about what to do with them. Or vice versa, do nothing if you are trying to arrange a wipe.
Tournament treasury
All players have the Leaderboard tab, where they check the Tournament reward pool funds daily. When it increases, it means that you can continue developing and improving the Smithy production; when it decreases, it probably means that everyone is already starting to exchange mWEAPON for xDAI.
Remind you that players exchange weapons for the Gnosis stablecoin at a fixed price of 0.02 xDAI per 1 point. And they can do this as long as there is money in the reward pool. As soon as all money is exchanged, the tournament will be over.
We know that many players are interested in making a wipe and starting from the very beginning. In such a case, there will be a complete restart of the world. Only settlements will remain in the same locations. There will be 7 starter workers, new resource contract addresses (the old ones will not be available), the first level for all buildings, and so on. The main change is the fixed price for 1 weapon — it will increase by 5 times to 0.1 xDAI. Profitable? You decide.
As for the reward pool, it is 10439.26 xDAI today, February 5.
Communication between settlements
In the discord announcement channel, the founder of the project, TheLastTriarius, made a poll about the players’ wish to have a chat between settlements inside the game. Everyone who participated voted for it, and none against it. And in less than 24 hours, we added an experimental solution to the game — WalletChat. It allows the players to communicate immediately in the game instead of trying to find a player on discord. It can be a problem in the tournament. Most participants do not indicate their discord tags, and it is clear why. Accordingly, there was practically no connection.
For those who missed this news, read the announcement and thread.
In the first days, we received a lot of positive feedback that the players liked this solution, and they were happy with the ability to communicate directly with other settlements in the game. And most importantly, everything looks very simple for the player.
But we would also like you to write feedback about the use of chat in both positive and negative ways on our feedback channel.
Or perhaps you know a better solution? We will gladly get to know it.
Secondary settlement market
Another innovation was the secondary settlement market. More precisely, a change in the marketplace, now all manipulations with banners can be carried out on Niftyfair. The veteran players already know the possibilities of the market, but the newcomers still have to figure it out. As it turned out, not everyone who entered the tournament knew that the banner they created at the beginning of the game and under which they play is NFT. To which their settlement is connected. So it can be transferred /sold / or bought by someone else and a few more options.
We will add the full announcement published for this news for those who missed it
There is a View on marketplace button under the banner on the settlement dashboard
Now each player can use the following options:
- Put your settlement up for sale for a fixed price or auction your settlement
- Make an offer to buy someone’s settlement
- Send your settlement to another address
Do not forget to check the Show Description tab to be sure that the banner belongs to a real settlement, and remember about the main details before buying.
You can influence the situation in the Mithraeum World not only through the game but also through the secondary market.
Embassies
If we remember the start of the last test, the guild embassies acted as a space for discussions and gloating. Separate channels that burned like the settlements in the game. But over time, the players realized that open communication should be reduced and moved to their closed channels not to spend so much time talking.
Therefore, now the embassies are some kind of onboarding space where a new player can write to contact the guild he is interested in.
As a reminder, we have changed the embassies’ view from channels to forums so that they take up less space and discord looks more aesthetic.
Two embassies were removed due to the inactivity of the leaders’ communication with us, and we plan to remove two more soon. We want to understand the intentions of the guilds to play and be part of the project in the future, even if they miss this tournament.
Mercenary Captain
For the tournament duration, this person decided to separate from his guild, where he is one of the leaders, and tries himself in a new role. We supported his desire and initiative and gave him a unique Mercenary Captain role on our discord. Those who follow the general chat know that this is Hyper Doge. He was in our publications last season — we covered his interesting thoughts in the form of Twitter threads about the project.
With his new role, he wants to show players that it is possible to play Mithraeum even without having a settlement and that you can influence the outcome of some events or unite guilds around you without being in any. You can know all the latest insides and rumors, upcoming attacks and betrayals, and the location of participants without even visiting the map. There are many opportunities for this role.
One of his last discord messages was
Looks intriguing. What else does he know? Is this information 100% true?
Therefore, if you think you can be helpful to such a person or have valuable information, write to him personally and name your price. You can become a part of something huge that you or other players cannot even imagine. Maybe there are already people in your guild who work for him? We will find out later.
One-on-One in the TAVERN
Mithraeum is a social game, and community is very important to us. We want our players to interact with each other and us. And thus, we added a digest section where we introduce you to different guilds, their leaders (and players), and single players, giving you more understanding of your allies and competitors with whom you share the same zone.
In the new season’s episodes, we will continue our acquaintance with players from our community. Today we will talk to the person we mentioned above in the highlights. Yes, this person will be one of the Degen Guild leaders who is missing this tournament as a member of the guild and has the role of Mercenary Captain — Hyper Doge. Let’s try to get to know him better, his thoughts about the current role, and the tournament.
Mercenary Captain — Hyper Doge
Hi! Tell us a little about yourself
Hey, I’m Hyper Doge! I’ve been full time in crypto since the middle of 2017. When I communicate with normies, they increasingly start to consider me being a retard. Much memes, very wow.
What do you do outside of the game — in real life?
Stare at screens for 10h a day. Look for early and late gems to invest in. Or watch anime. Or play video games.
How did you find out about Mithraeum?
A fellow chat member shared the link.
What can you tell about your participation in the last test? Are you satisfied with the result? Did the test take a lot of effort? What was the hardest thing?
The last test was fun, although it did took a lot of effort. The hardest part was sacrificing my usual “work” to be able to play effectively. I was one of the council members of Degen Guild. My responsibility was “diplomacy”.
You are one of the Degen leaders, but when I offered you this status on our discord, you refused and did not give an interview last season as a leader. However, you are a key figure in Degen Guild and the Mithraeum community. Why is that? Do you love being in the shadow?
Having a role in Mithraeum discord doesn’t define me as a person! However, other people start to expect certain behavior from you. I thought that other people from Degens would handle the responsibility coming from these expectations much better than me. The idea of being a shadow-master definitely appeals to my outsized ego tho.
What changes in this Mithraeum tournament do you like, and what do you not?
I like the zero-sum sustainability. With it, there is not need to print inflationary rewards. I was either the one, who suggested to try out this path to the Mithraeum team, or among the first ones to do so. I’m sure that eventually all crypto games will come to be more or less zero-sum games. However, I’m not sure when.
Why did you decide to play solo in this tournament? And where did the idea about Mercs come from?
I didn’t intend to play at all.
Then two things happened:
- some guy created a settlement with my name
- guilds didn’t show their flags. Nobody new who was who.That created an opportunity to try to bite Tombstone into destroying the settlement with my name.
That’s why I declared them war.Making such a sneaky move made me thinking about MORE sneaky moves. The flake snowballed into an avalanche, and here we go ⚔
Are you satisfied with the result? Were there any interesting deals? Or is this information secret and not free?)
I’m not satisfied with the results. I think people just don’t realize how useful the services of the middle man can be to them. Some educational work is needed to be done for that.
Should we expect Twitter threads from you with your thoughts, as it was on a three-month test?
During this round I wrote several posts in discord. I though it was a better platform for reaching out to Mithraeum players.
What can you say about the stealth mode? Is it a benefit? Or does it cause more fear for active actions from the players and allows others to farm quietly?
The stealth mode is stealthy only for those, who don’t do the work to find out who is who.
Now, people even can rather cheaply buy info from the Mercs ⚔Once the war starts, stealth will be openly broken.
Do you think changing the incentive for participation in this event is the right step or not?
I think that it is a worthy idea to try. Feedback from players will decide its fate.
We saw you published a list of guilds participating on discord. Did you draw such a conclusion thanks to communication with your guild (Degens), or is it a personal investigation and the results of your new role?
Little birds, it’s all little birds with their sweet, sweet stealthy songs.
Do you see any new alliances or the possibility of creating them from those who are participating now?
Of course!
If anyone is interested in creating an alliance, he can contact Mercs⚔ for organizational help.
I’m also pondering on idea of creating a little something myself 🤭
Do you think some alliance will dominate by the end of the tournament? Or is it difficult to do now because of the increased time of maneuvers?
The answer to that question can be found in my very first post about this round. It depends on the Edgers — Middlers dynamic.
What games do you like, and what have you played the most? Which ones have become iconic in your life? Do you play any now?
Cyberpunk 2077, LoL, DoTa 1, TES, Warcraft, all D&D RPGs, Crusader Kings.
Now I’m awaiting a start of another play test of Dark and Darker on steam. It will happen on the 6–13 of Feb. I highly recommend this hardcore game. It is a perfect implementation of risk2earn that I believe will eventually become the standard for crypto games.
How long have you been familiar with the crypto world, and how did it start?
Got to know about Bitcoin when It costed about $200. Started doing crypto in 2017.
What makes Mithraeum different from other projects, and what future do you see for it?
That I’m an investor and that devs sometimes listen to what I suggest 😄
The future may be bright. I hope it will be the one where 1 Mithra token = $1.
What is missing in the project, in your opinion?
3D customizable castles/settlements that you LOSE if somebody captures it with his army.
I want it to be a full-blown hard-core metaverse where everything can be taken from you. Like in Rust and Escape from Tarkov, Dark and Darker.
This will increase the value of ownership and make having a castle or and empire high status.
As the main detective 🕵 of this tournament, you were one of the first who understood the Mithraeum team participation. What was your reaction?
Devs shouldn’t play because they are likely to have an unfair advantage due to their deeper understanding of mechanics.
It depends on who played though. If only people who didn’t design the mechanics, then why not.
Also, the team can try to apply for internships in various guilds. To spread the risks.
Many guilds were destroyed in the last test, all of them by your alliance and, in some cases, by your guild. Do you think the desire for revenge made them cooperate against a common enemy?
Honestly, I don’t know for sure. However, they will definitely take an extra pleasure in taking their revenge
We thank Hyper Doge for his responsiveness, answers, and participation in our One-on-One in the tavern section. We wish him good luck with his new role and plans. And lots of private messages with exciting offers.
Oh, the episode still isn’t small as expected
Feed the flames
Do you have something to say? Maybe you are dissatisfied with embassies’ alliances or guild leaders’ decisions and simply want to vent out. Or you just want to say ‘hello’ to some guilds or the Mithraeum dev team. Maybe you want to mislead other players and get them into your strategic trap?
Whatever the case, fill out the form below, anonymously or under your name, and we will publish the selected pieces. It is your chance to feed the Mithraeum flames! 🔥
👉 https://forms.gle/tnjTjCBXnGjv1NSZ8
Contact us
🌏 https://mithraeum.io/
🐤 https://twitter.com/MithraeumIO
👾 https://discord.io/mithraeum
