ZED Run development update #3 — June 2019.
Hello, ZED family!
Welcome to our third development update! 👋
As most of you would know by now, Breeding was launched last week! This was our first major functionality release since ZED went live in January 2019 and we could not be more pleased. Hopefully, this will whet your appetite whilst we continue to work hard on what you are all eagerly anticipating, racing!
You will have seen some racing teasers from our last development update and hopefully, they gave you some clear insight into the direction where ZED is planning to go. We are humbled to have a phenomenal team working on the racing art style and animations; although the visual element does play a key part in delivering a fun and unique experience, there are two other fundamental parts to successfully executing racing in ZED.
1. Determining a dynamic racing algorithm
ZED’s unique racing algorithm has been in the works for several months now. We have been consulting with industry experts and data scientists in developing an algorithm to determine the results of any given race based on the attributes and characteristics of any given horse (this will be discussed in more detail in a future post).
2. Interacting with the blockchain
Just as important, we have spent time concentrating on various ways of interacting with the blockchain with regards to the publishing of race results to ensure that ZED is provably fair.
From a high-level perspective, our mission is how do we make races feel as realistic as possible in terms of pace and speed. We also want to ensure that those that put time into thinking about the strategy behind their racehorse are rewarded whilst subsequently taking into consideration those racehorses who are not expected to perform can also feel like there is a chance or hope of placing well — just like a day at the races!
Once we are comfortable with our race outcomes, our focus will then shift to integrating and posting these results to the blockchain, while working within the limitations that are currently present and pioneering solutions that have potentially never before been done or considered.
Next Steps
Our next steps are to start trialling our racing algorithms, overlaying our simulated results over the animations, then running observations of these races to ensure they line up with our high expectations. In the coming weeks, we will be looking to recruit members of our loyal community, along with real-life horse racing experts to validate this and ensure we are working towards the most realistic view possible.
Those of you that are actively contributing to the community, providing valuable feedback and having an overall positive impact on the future of ZED will be approached because we really, really do value you and your input. We would not be where we are already without you!
Breeding
You still may be observing and understanding how breeding works in ZED or you may have bred your first foals. We are actively listening to your feedback, digesting it and looking to roll out some improvements. Some of these planned improvements are:
- Filters to enable you to more easily find the perfect horse for you to mate with.
- Colour coded activity feed with links to make it more useful to recount your historical usage within ZED.
- Display of ETH earned from breeding.
- Display current Racing Pool.
Stable Management
You have seen the screenshots and the team is now implementing the upgraded horse and stall management views.
We know some of you have over 200 horses (20+ stables have over 100 horses) and it is quite hard to browse/find your future champion racehorses; we want to make that easy as possible.
Thanks for reading!
Till next time,
P.S. We are hiring! We are looking for skilled front-end, back-end and blockchain (smart contract & web3) developers. Get in touch at hello@zed.run
Join Our Community 🐎
Head over to www.zed.run to buy your very own digital thoroughbred, or join one of our fast-growing social channels below;
