DIP-5

Intro

From the very beginning of Duck Wars, we’ve been seeing tremendous support and interest from the project’s participants. Over 11 million matches played since September and an average of 3,000 players engage in battles daily, despite the fact that this is only an alpha version of the game! But at the moment, aside from bugs, the game has one obvious flaw — it is just too basic. Reading your feedback about the game in chats, we realised that our community is not just ready for the game to evolve but even craves it, actively discussing every smallest update! This article is our vision of Duck Wars’ future, and we’d like to share it with you.

Waves Ducks has always been about the community first. That’s why we want to make the Duck Wars Roadmap public. Let’s start with the goals.

At the moment, we’ve set ourselves 3 major goals:

1. To increase the number of players
2. To make the game more fun and complex
3. To make the game more skill-based and give our players means to influence the outcome of the game, other than just choosing a duck

Read below about how we are going to do it. Keep in mind that each item has its own step-by-step implementation plan, and now we are just giving you a sneak peek at what’s coming ahead. We would really like to hear what you think about it, so feel free to share your opinion!

1. Clash of Farms

You’ve been asking about the war between farms for quite some time, and we agree: where is the thrill without a competitive element? 😈 So, this is how the Clash of Farms is going to work:

• There is a map divided into various neutral regions with different additional amplifiers for collective farms
• In order to capture a region, collective farm players choose the region that they will be fighting for
• After selecting a region, the player fights a rival farm player in a regular match, and whoever wins gets +1 victory.
• Capturing a region depends on the number of victories in this region. The task of the CEO and the community is to organise themselves and focus forces on capturing or defending regions with the most profitable resources for them
• An important aspect is that players themselves decide which region they want to fight for, the CEO can only guide them and discuss the plans, no one is obliged to follow the orders, but still, it will be more efficient to cooperate
• After capturing a region, the collective farm will have all its benefits until other farms recapture it
• In addition, it will be possible to create alliances to assist farms in the fight for the region against their enemies, and not to compete with them. But be careful, you never know who will betray you and when…
• The map will have limitations and regions will have different upgrades for the farm and the players. The most desired regions provide the best benefits
• Also, since the choice of a collective farm will be a very important decision affecting the game, players will be tied to it for a much longer period than it is now (the term is still not decided). It will no longer be possible to switch farms every new lap.

2. New combat mechanics

The second aspect that we intend to change after the Clash of Farms is the game mechanics. At the moment, the game is mostly random “rock-scissors-paper”. Players are restrained by the set of cards provided by each duck and failing to choose the desired one, they may have to revise their original strategy and settle for weaker cards. Then, they have to guess the areas to defend and to attack, which is also completely random. Obviously, such a concept is only suitable for the alpha version of the game, so here are the changes that await you:

Changes

• Player’s deck. Players will be able to build their own decks of cards. However, ducks still give unique cards associated with their genes, achievements, and generations. So, during the match, the cards of the chosen duck are added to the player’s pre-built deck. Therefore, players can and should synergize the selected cards with non-replaceable duck cards. This will also increase the need to select the correct duck for a particular deck.
• New cards and adding classes. At the moment, we are assembling and balancing possible cards and classes. We will not reveal all the cards (pun intended), but we can say that there will be at least ten times more of them than there are now. Each class has its main ability (e.g. a fire-based class can burn cards in the opponents’ hand), and players can build decks only within the chosen class, so there are no intersecting main abilities (yet). Among other things, effects that cards cause will be added to the game:

Examples of Effects

1. Critical Damage

2. Shield

3. Healing

4. Armour

5. Periodic Damage (burning, poisoning, bleeding)

6. Regeneration

7. Lifesteal (vampirism)

8. Freeze

9. Stun

10. Amplification (healing, damage, block, effects)

11. Weakening

12. Removal of effects (dispel)

13. Card draw

14. Adding/selecting action points (mana)

15. Decrease/increase the cost of cards (mana)

16. Mass (damage, healing, effects, etc. to both players)

17. Cards with a choice

18. ChanceSpecial (ultimates)

Examples of Classes

1. Internet troll (fantasy-based analogue is Fire Mage) — its main ability is to cause butthurt and flame you. It has cards that trigger the fire effect and burn opponents’ cards.
2. Scammer or Impostor or Pseudo-expert (fantasy-based analogue is Rogue with Vampire elements) — its main ability is to confuse and suck the life out of you. It has cards that trigger the “steal life points” effect and it turns the cards used by the opponent into completely different ones.
3. Toxic Person (fantasy-based analogue is Witch, anything poisonous) — its main ability is poison. It contains cards that activate the poison effect and turn other effects into poison afflicting the enemy.
4. Down-shifter or Enlightened person (fantasy-based analogue is Priest ) — its main ability is countering everything above. It has cards that remove negative effects, restore health, and prevent negative effects from being used on you.

• Action points. It’s been decided to get rid of attack/defense areas and add action(=mana) points. Each player now has 5 action points per turn. Each card has a usage cost and spends action points. And yes, now players can use as many cards as their mana limit lets them per round. The idea is to shift from guessing to relying on players’ skills and their knowledge of the game.
• Collectable cards as NFTs. In addition to class cards and duck cards, there will be cards with special unique abilities. These will be NFT cards, that is, they can be obtained, sold, or bought. They will be limited in their use.

Concept

Regarding the concept: we are adding storytelling to the game. Our source of storytelling is the internet culture. Initially, the project was conceived as a sort of a lighthearted mockery — memes depicted as funky ducks. We want to stick with this concept and develop it further.

The design of everything will also be amped up in terms of “memefication”, so we hope your bodies are ready.

Card design

Each card, as at the moment, will have a picture, a name, a description with the principle of operation, and a cost. But they will also be associated with classes and will have names related to meme culture. For example, a toxic person has a “toxic comments” card, a downshifter has a “move to Bali” card, and so on.

Game experience

• Animated Battle Backgrounds. Background animations are something that has no direct effect on the gameplay but makes the game world much more alive. Locations will also be themed after mass culture and the Internet
• Card Effect Animations. Even basic card effects such as fire, poison, or defense will be animated
• Sounds. This has been brought up countless times both within the team and the community. Obviously, sound effects are one of the most important elements of the game, and yes, we are finally adding them!

3. Personal leveling system

Leveling systems have been around in gaming for a long time. Leveling allows players to influence the game themselves. This is, firstly, one of the ways to increase a player’s personal power, secondly, it gives players a sense of progression, and lastly, it is a way to reward those who put more effort into the game. It simply gives players a chance to develop and grow.

With each level, players will be unlocking new class cards, new ways of customisation, new perks, and other bonuses, which we will cover in detail when the time comes.

4. Tournaments

How to determine who is the strongest? Tournaments of course! Tournaments will add a competitive spirit to the game along with the Clash of Farms.

Tournaments have almost unlimited development paths and opportunities. At an early stage, we have these ideas:

• Different leagues
• Each league will have its own participation fee, from which the prize pool of the tournament will be formed
• Each tournament will have conditions that the participants must meet
• The conditions will concern not only participation fees but also player level, ducks, mantles, classes, and other things
• There will be tournaments where you can only participate with your duck, or you can give yours to other players for the tournament

In other words, tournaments are literally a separate direction of the game, which opens up a lot of opportunities for development.

Outro

As you can see, the development of the game is in full swing. Mechanics, wars, maps, ducklings, etc — it’s all on the way. Development and balancing take time, so please be patient. $EGG to the moon and beyond!

Remember to join the Waves Ducks group and subscribe to the Waves Duck’s Twitter!