Meal`n`Real — Episode 19

Introduction

Three months have passed since the start of the second Mithraeum tournament and the fourth public event in less than two years. It seems Iron Age I is nearing its end, as evidenced by the events taking place in the game.

As we recently noticed, the alliance has started collecting weapons in a few of their wallets, the holders of which exchanged over 50,000 mWeapons for xDAI. This all took place the day before yesterday, following which 17 settlements were purchased from the auction for about $13,500. It means that the alliance started to push out its opponent — the Ordengg guild, from the top of each zone, for which players will receive future Mithraeum tokens. So, we can conclude that it is the home stretch of the Iron Age I.

Many might have thought that this season would be no digest episodes published. But no, episode 19 and our new — 33rd interview for the last year will be released.

We have prepared a series of episodes with the leaders of the playing guilds about the current tournament, where there will be no statistics or unnecessary information. Only facts, visions, and opinions on what has happened in the last few months. There were general questions for leaders and those that specifically related to their guilds.

What came out of this? Let’s see!

But before we start, we would like to say a few words about the guild from which our guest today is.

One-on-One in the TAVERN

A guild that has not missed any public Mithraeum events. Our acquaintance with them started in Bronze Age I. At that time, they seemed like a small group of players surrounded by stronger and more organized enemies. But that’s just how it seemed because a series of correct actions and negotiations led this guild to become one of the most prominent and dominant. They are one of the two leaders of a large alliance.

Degen Guild is known for their negotiation skills, and they do it better than others. Where it is possible to resolve the problem and avoid bloodshed on the battlefield, they always succeed, which cannot be said about their partner. The guys from Degen Guild are very reliable allies in this pair because, in the public sphere, there have been no scandals or betrayals on their part towards anyone. They have achieved quite impressive gaming results in all tests.

The person we communicated with is the one who started the first event under the TombStone banner. Now, he is one of the main players in Degen Guild, and the leader of this tournament. This is not the first time we have met him in an interview, and we think it was very interesting. This man is Minty_Boy!

Also, Hope to the moon participated in the answers. He was looking for a guild in the Discord chat during the last tournament due to an unsuccessful single experience in the Bronze Age II test. Initially, he chose the Chamomile guild, but later, he decided to try to join the guys playing under the castle banner, and as we can see, he is now a member of Degen Guild.

Minty_Boy — Degen Guild Leader

The Degen Guild is among those who attended all four Mithraeum public events. Do you have people who completed the entire journey and all these stages lasting 1.5 years? If so, who is this guru, and how is he doing?

We have one such person who exactly “attended” all four events. This is cavkie. But in this tournament, he placed a settlement and then, after about a week or two, through governorship, transferred the management of his settlement to our small active group who played the game.

I (Minty_Boy) missed the previous tournament because I had another job, and the economic incentive to participate in the last tournament seemed insufficient to me.

We also have a relatively new guild member who has actively integrated into our team — this is Hope to the moon #4628. He has been in friendly relations with our guild since the last tournament. In this tournament, he was fully integrated into it, and we were satisfied with our common work with him.

How does the guild survive the bear cycle? What do they do, and which projects do they participate in? How has the market affected the members’ quantity and their mood?

The majority of players in the guild chose not to participate in the current tournament because Mithraeum is quite a time-consuming project. (Hope’s opinion)

The guild members are in touch with each other, especially the core members. However, a large part decided not to participate in this tournament because the game takes up a lot of time, and the economic output is insufficient to play it instead of their main job. And if you’re not fully involved in the game, you can even become a burden to the guild, as others need to keep you informed of current events and priorities. The more people who are weakly involved in the game, the more challenging the management becomes.

We continue to monitor other projects closely, and if interesting gameplay or sufficient economic incentives for participation arise, part of the guild or it as a whole will participate with greater enthusiasm. In particular, we are looking forward to the release of the game NOR (someone from the guild is already an investor in the NFT project there — like Minty_Boy, for example) https://twitter.com/welcome_to_nor. We are also monitoring the development of https://twitter.com/BibliothecaDAO, and some guild members are investors in their NFTs.

The members’ quantity was primarily influenced not by the market but by the conditions of participation in the tournament, economic incentives, and the time commitment that would be required. It’s quite possible that there would have been more willing participants, but I’m afraid there wouldn’t have been enough space on the map for them, as the map turned out to be quite small. At the same time, if our guild had brought in more people — for a larger sum, it would have been more challenging to generate a profit that satisfied the participants.

It was quite unexpected to see Metaguild among your allies. How did this happen?

To be honest, it was very surprising for me (Minty_Boy) to receive such a question from the Mithraeum team. We have great respect and love for this guild. Before each test, we always reach out to them to learn about their plans regarding the test and the results they want to achieve. We sincerely try to find common ground to act together and benefit from cooperation rather than clash in military battles. In the lead-up to the current tournament, we immediately found common ground with them, along with our constant and steadfast ally — TombStone — and were happy to unite into an alliance. Metaguild is an excellent ally; they act together with other alliance members and are incorruptible (Orden offered to buy all their settlements at a good price to confront TombStone and Degen & 0Y). They are even willing to act in the alliance’s interests after being defeated. Of course, this will not go unnoticed by the Degen Guild and TombStone, and we will make every effort to ensure that our allies, who objectively did not have luck on the battlefield, as well as with zones where there are a maximum of cultists, not only enjoy the game but also receive monetary rewards.

What interesting things happened during the negotiations between all the guilds?

An interesting thing was the ongoing conflict between TombStone and Chamomile — the intrigue lay in the hidden truth, not readily apparent to everyone, about who was at fault and why things turned out the way they did. There were no conflicts among the other guilds in the alliance — Metaguild, TombStone, Degen Guild, and 0Y. Everyone followed the common plan, and it seems that the final goal of profit will be successfully achieved.

There was also a funny incident during the settlements’ placement (the guilds in the alliance had previously agreed on where each guild would place their settlements and in which zones). There was a small misunderstanding regarding the Deadland zone, which was considered to be a common zone for any guild (a screenshot will be provided in response to other questions below). However, a line was drawn across this zone, and we (Degen Guild) placed one settlement slightly above this line with no malicious intent. This caused some tension with Metaguild. However, after a quick discussion in the chat, the issue was resolved. But it did cause some temporary tension, of course.

What do you think about the reward pool? Did you expect it to be like this?

Yes, our expectations were 75k+. It’s a pity we didn’t reach the nice round number of 100k, but 80k is a pretty good result. We hope that with the project’s development in the right direction, attracting new guilds, marketing efforts, and many other factors, it’s quite realistic to surpass the 100k mark in the next tournaments.

How much time did the game require in the beginning? Are there any funny stories about how it didn’t let you live your real life?

At the very beginning of the tournament, the game takes up a maximum amount of time, as a series of correct actions taken on time gives a strong advantage in the long run. (Hope)

In this tournament, as the guild leader, I (Minty_Boy) spent significantly more time on the economic and technical aspects of the game. We had a new coder in this tournament (the previous one found the economic incentives less interesting), so there was a lot to explain to him — how things work, what needs to be fixed, how to do things, etc. The previous coder could quickly and efficiently solve these issues because he had more experience and could invest more time. So there were moments when the bot simply stopped working, and for example, resources weren’t farmed for a whole night. Therefore, there were days, especially at the beginning, when you couldn’t rely on the bot and had to manually fix its shortcomings. And, of course, you also had to capture hexes and fight wars — so there were often days when you went to bed at 3 in the morning and slept until 9, for example, waking up several times during this period to perform some in-game actions.

There were days when I only had 1–2 hours of sleep and stayed awake for almost two days straight. (Hope)

Were there any moments when you thought you would be defeated? When was the turning point (if there was one)?

From the very beginning, there was a certain confidence in victory thanks to the alliance. Our competitor had fewer settlements. However, due to the skillful play of the Orden guild, doubts would sometimes creep in, but nothing more than that. (Hope)

I (Minty_Boy) had the utmost confidence in our key allies — TombStone and 0Y (yes, they are a small guild that we brought into the game, but they are reliable, loyal, and playing for the common result). We have a lot of experience in playing Mithraeum and in the interaction and mutual support between guilds. Here, much depends on macro-strategy, not just efficient management of settlements at the micro-level — at which Ordengg objectively excelled at the beginning of the test. One moment made the alliance a bit nervous — when Ordengg managed to claim hexes, but all our attempts were countered, and they immediately canceled their bets. It was impressive. But even under such difficulty, we could adapt together and develop a successful strategy.

In your opinion, what made Ordengg initially play hidden without declaring themselves? Is it simply not to draw attention, or is there another reason?

(Hope) — Secrecy is a habit from previous tournaments that provides a small temporary advantage. There are not many of these advantages, so they didn’t miss the opportunity to use one of them.

(Minty_Boy) — …But the large alliance against which Ordengg decided to play acted together. Allies informed each other about the settlements they placed. The settlements that obviously did not belong to the alliance were either single players or Ordengg. From there, it’s a simple on-chain analysis to figure out which settlement belongs to a single player and which one is part of the enemy guild.

What can you say about the Ordengg guild as an opponent?

(Hope) — They are very skilled players who worked smart and cohesively throughout the tournament, showing impressive gameplay. It was a pleasure to compete against such a strong opponent.

(Minty_Boy) — I’m glad they decided to stir things up in this tournament and play against the alliance. It made things much more interesting and added intrigue. This is the guild that I admire in terms of the technical part and the discovery of non-obvious mechanics. However, I think they overlook a couple of other key elements in the game that have a significant impact on the final outcome — diplomacy (in the test before last, in which I was also the Degen guild leader, negotiating with Ordengg was the most challenging) and global strategy.

Let’s talk about the dramas. Your close allies — TombStone, have been getting into unpleasant situations with alliance members for the second year. Does this moment confuse you? What are your thoughts on this recurring pattern and the situation with Chamomile? Did TombStone betray them? How did the alliance cope with this scandal?

It seems to us that everything is not so simple, and initially, TombStone definitely did not plan to deceive or harm them. Objectively, they turned out to be the weakest link in the tournament in general. Thus, they were a direct target that shouted “Attack me” or “Place settlements in my zone” — which Ordengg gladly took advantage of. It would have been strategically advantageous for the Order to eliminate Chamomile first, throwing out one of the alliance members (or trying to sway them to their side). However, Chamomile were part of our alliance, and they were protected from potential attacks. *And even if Ordengg had managed to defeat them, they would still ultimately get a share of the alliance’s collective rewards (how it turns out with Metaguild in the end).

The proofs provided by Bond 007 are intriguing and convincing, but they do not prove the TombStone guilty 100%. There could have been discussions in conference calls, deleted messages, private messages, and other things that remained hidden from public view. In any case, this event caused some members of the alliance to become a bit wary, but in our case, not so much to end the alliance with a trusted ally. While occasional disagreements, misunderstandings, and complex issues arose with them in different tests, they were always diplomatically resolved in a way that ultimately benefited all parties involved. We believe that to avoid such situations, one should be a bit more open and pleasant in diplomatic terms, as personal contact plays a crucial role in negotiations. On the other hand, to be “stronger” by having a larger capital for placing settlements and/or to develop more effectively. This way, your allies will see that you are truly committed to playing, investing time, attention, and money, and will take you into account. Furthermore, if any misunderstanding arises, you are always open and ready to discuss it to reach an outcome beneficial to all.

Are you not worried that you might also be associated with all these negative situations, given that you are in the same boat?

It is similar to real politics. People have the right not to trust any clan (read: state) or individual player, including ours. We can only be responsible for the actions and words of our clan. In this regard, the Degen guild is clean and highly values its reputation. In Mithraeum, it’s a team game, and winning without allies is difficult, no matter how skilled you may be (as demonstrated by the situation in this tournament). Therefore, it’s important to build relationships with various clans. Sometimes, you have to take someone’s word for it, which can be scary, especially in the first interaction. That’s precisely why the Degen clan highly values its reputation. As for our partnership with Tombstone, they have been and remain our closest allies. (0Y doesn’t count, as they are like a younger brother to us.) As for their reputation and their actions with other guilds, I am not responsible for that (Minty_Boy). However, I can confidently say that they have acted exclusively in our favor. For three joint tests (not four, as it seems they didn’t participate in the last one, but I can’t say for certain since I didn’t participate), if there were any occasional misunderstandings, disagreements, or unintentional disputes, they were resolved instantly. We always found effective ways to resolve these issues through negotiations.

Will you maintain relations with the Chamomile guild or propose alliances to them in case they participate in the next tournament?

It’s possible. It all depends on who will be playing and who we’ll be competing against. (Hope)

Outside of tests, our guild maintains relations with TombStone. We would be happy to consider the possibility of participating in other games together. With Metaguild, some of our guild members have direct contacts and discuss not only Mithraeum. 0Y, as I’ve already said, are like our younger brothers. Our guild members are part of the same crypto community, so these are also very close people to us. As for other guilds, we don’t maintain contact with them outside of tests. That’s why I can’t give a guaranteed answer regarding the presence or absence of Chamomile in the alliance. But we would gladly arrange more meetings and Discord chats with as many different guilds and major single players as possible to establish connections and try to find common ground and shared interests with as many potential partners as possible. (Minty_Boy)

What can you say about your alliance after 3 months of playing together? Did everyone meet your expectations, or are there any questions? Are TombStone scammers, or do they deserve trust?

We can feel a limitation in terms of guilds, and there are very few new single players. We’re growing very slowly. As a result, as the test progresses, communication within the alliance about gameplay moments becomes rarer and rarer as we solve complex issues, successfully conclude military actions, and perform economic magic to prevent cultists from appearing in our zones.

TombStone, 0Y, and Metaguild have fully met our expectations. I hope they can say the same about us. As we can see, our productive collaboration has led the alliance to its final goal — financial success.

Regarding how we view TombStone — I won’t repeat myself; I’ve described our perspective on this issue in detail above. The TombStone guild acts fairly, and they fulfill agreements conscientiously. We help them in some aspects, and they help us in others. We have a very successful symbiosis, in my opinion. Therefore, our guild maintains the highest level of trust in them. (Minty_Boy)

What moments from the tournament do you remember the most?

The breakdowns of our bot, the difficulty in capturing hexes and subsequently wresting them back from the alliance opponents, as well as a couple of challenges in planning military campaigns and coordinating economic-magical maneuvers together to deal with the cultists (increasing their presence in the enemy zone, and reducing them to zero in ours).

And a separate moment that definitely stood out:

CL on the map — the space designated for ClassicJ, a member of the Ordengg guild.

The moment when ClassicJ left the chat was very epic and memorable. It became 100% clear that the Ordengg guild had decided to play against the alliance.

How would you evaluate the new tournament? What do you like and what don’t? Share your fud or love here.

Liked: The game has become more visually beautiful and varied. Hexes have brought a new gaming experience, although the mechanics of capturing them are incomplete. We think that when you place a bet, prosperity should be deducted.

Disliked: Loading screens, lags, high computer load. I even had to rent my own node to ensure that transactions were sent properly and the interface loaded faster — a very poor experience, especially at the beginning of the test.

The duration of the tournament is too long and exhausting, especially towards the end when everything has already been decided on the battlefield and in the economy. Among allies, there is already an agreement on how to divide the pool, and it becomes a simple process of resource farming and looting the settlements you besiege.

If you want to convey something to the developers, don’t hesitate in your expressions.

It would be awesome if you added the “End Game” button, where pressing it would distribute the pool according to the loot from settlements, taking into account the penalty zone (if the penalty is 100%, you get nothing; if the settlement was plundered, you get nothing).

Or some kind of game accelerator. By pressing the “Speed Up Game” button, you could choose speeds like x2, x3, etc., to shorten the 14 days before the cultists’ appearance to 7 or less.

It would be cool if there were mines guarded by a certain number of NPCs, like in Heroes of Might and Magic.

You could also try adding a sea and its crossings.

I really wish the tournaments would last a maximum of 2 months: one month for development (FARM) and one month for BATTLES, and that’s it. Then 2 months of development and a new tournament. Some newcomers who didn’t manage to enter the tournament might not return if they hear the next tournament will be in half a year…

Marketing is very needed. New players, new blood is necessary. Without this, a brilliant idea and years of development can come to naught.

Is there anything to say to your allies or enemies?

It’s just a game — enjoy it.

GGWP

What advice would you give to newcomers who want to play Mithraeum?

Find a guild that will help you succeed (Hope).

I agree with Hope. If you’re a single player who doesn’t know how to code or doesn’t have a very large capital = you won’t survive. You’ll simply get outfarmed and then get taken down right away. So, before the tournament starts, find a guild, agree in advance that you will be their ally, and be ready to act for the common interests. Yes, the first time, you’ll have to trust that you won’t be deceived, that the allied guild won’t wipe you out, and that if your enemies take you down, your allies will help you militarily, economically, or simply share part of the rewards later on. In other words, the first time, you’ll most likely just be an ally of a major guild you choose (reputation matters) because currently, the core part of any guild is strictly Friends and Family. But the second time, it’s quite possible that the guild will be willing to take you on board because you’ll be a proven player. Hope, a core member of the Degen guild in this test, is proof of this. In the previous test, he was a newcomer and showed himself well. In this test, guild members vouched for him, and now he’s a part of it (Minty_Boy).

Do you already know how you will distribute the prizes in case of victory? Is it a fair distribution?

Yes, the question of reward distribution has been discussed. Now, we can only hope that everyone will just take what they are entitled to according to the agreement, virtually shake hands, and say, “Thank you for the game. See you in the next tournament.”

PS I sincerely hope that the current geopolitical situation will be resolved as soon as possible so that we can not only shake hands virtually but also in person. And perhaps even share a warming drink (Minty_Boy).

Did you play manually or automate processes? If so, what exactly?

We played both manually and automated some processes. The farming process has been automated — since it is very difficult and, over time, disgusting to manually assign resources to dozens of settlements for 3 or more months, where every hour matters. Automation is not always ideal, as there were often glitches that led to a complete lack of farming for an extended period. I would prefer to play only manually in the future (to make it easier for newcomers to join the game), but for this, developers would have to overhaul the game mechanics. For example, they could place more emphasis on the importance of successful military campaigns (while also considering aspects that would hinder bots).

Is it difficult to control the enemy and keep zones in negative toxicity?

At times, I wished to automate the process of looting a besieged settlement (for instance, setting a percentage of a resource to take).

Keeping zones in negative toxicity requires some smart strategies to achieve. But, over time, this process becomes established, and all participants understand what and when to do in order to reach the desired result.

What are the strengths of the alliance and its opponent?

Strengths of the alliance: extensive gaming experience, strategic vision, dedication, and high level of trust.

Strengths of the opponent: extremely powerful bots for developing settlement economies. There may have been bots for sending armies, ensuring they went out and returned precisely when and with the speed required. Also, their interaction with hexes was very impressive. Ordengg was able to uncover several less obvious mechanics, so there are things we can learn from them.

What are the weaknesses of the alliance and its opponent?

Weaknesses of the alliance: The bots are bad and not optimal. The work is still done individually rather than as a unified “hive” or “anthill” with shared resources that would come into one wallet and be distributed from there for farming and building upgrades. This could potentially increase efficiency. But our bots are just not good :)

Weaknesses of the opponent: Overconfidence. Perhaps this was based on their successful second test (for Ordengg), where the Degen Guild participated with a very limited number of players, and the TombStone guild didn’t seem to participate at all. Additionally, it might have been based on their exceptional success in other games (Dark Forest). Poor diplomacy (a willingness to negotiate only when you are obviously losing) was also evident, as it was in the first test when Orden participated. This was repeated in this tournament. For this repeated mistake, they were “punished.”

Who was responsible for coordination and military in your alliance?

On a global scale, Mike Dreams played an incredibly significant role in coordinating military actions. He primarily saw the bigger picture (for TombStone, it was easier because they had settlements in all zones), planned military operations, and shared his thoughts with allies. Then, Metaguild and Degen would express their opinions on how they could contribute to a particular operation, create military units in the necessary settlements, and send them to fight. As for me (Minty_Boy), I was responsible not only for my guild in this regard but also for conveying the general plan to 0Y. I recorded videos for them, had conference calls, and so on, explaining what was required from them militarily and economically in each case.

Did Ordengg offer you an alliance or negotiate with you?

Ordengg initially was even a part of the alliance’s Discord chat (at least their representative), but they left it when the test started (as shown in the screenshots above). After that, we had no interaction with them, except for one message from me (Minty_Boy), in which I expressed admiration for how Ordengg operated and the interesting mechanics they discovered of the hexes. And that’s it.

It’s quite logical that in this situation, after unilaterally leaving the alliance and initiating aggressive actions against it, Ordengg decided not to reach out to us. We would never betray our old and trusted ally — TombStone, and wouldn’t take 0Y with us. We keep our word, we honor agreements, and we don’t betray our allies.

In any case, we would have put all our efforts, time, and resources into jointly defeating the alliance’s opponents. In case of failure, we would have accepted the defeat gracefully, but we wouldn’t sacrifice the trust of our allies and our reputation.

Has the tournament’s fate already been decided, or is it still unknown?

It has already been decided — all left is to distribute the reward pool among the allies according to the agreement.

Would you like to ask players from other guilds some questions?

I would be interested to know, after the test has already taken place, whether it was actually planned in advance that Ordengg would play against the alliance this time. And therefore, if ClassicJ acted as a spy.

Or did something really go wrong within the Ordengg guild, resulting in ClassicJ finding himself in an uncomfortable situation and deciding not to participate after unintentionally misleading the alliance about Ordengg’s plans?

I consider any of these two options to be adequate and possible. If it was espionage, then this is also absolutely normal, as Mithraeum is conducive to such actions (personally, my (Minty_Boy) opinion is that the first option here — it was pre-planned).

As always, a big thank you to the participants from Degen Guild — Minty_Boy and Hope To The Moon for their answers, responsiveness, and participation in the “One-on-One int the TAVERN” section.

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