Town Hall Summary featuring Aaron Warwick
A lot of cool leaks were shared in a recent Town Hall featuring Aaron Warwick. This article details what the most interesting items were!
Overview of the project
Illuvium has experienced setbacks in their development timelines due to delays in building internally and externally, as well as hiring new team members. Some of the new members lacked motivation or did not deliver at the expected level. The team acknowledges that the hiring process has been difficult due to skepticism about the project being labeled as a “scam”. Despite these challenges, Illuvium is committed to creating a truly unique gaming experience while being fully transparent. As more people search for good projects, they will look for projects that show responsibility and reliability. With its on-chain revenue distribution and dedicated playerbase, Illuvium promises to be that type of project that makes Aaron excited for the changes that will happen in the next 5 years. In the meantime, the team continues to build and shares that they have considerable focus on PvP and the Overworld.
Arena PVP?
The next Arena Beta version, Arena 3, will include new Illuvials and new battle mechanics that feature rebalanced synergies and classes to be showcased in the new PvP mode. The PvP will consist of a one-on-one mode that lasts for 12-20 minutes. During this time, you will choose Illuvials and react based on what the opponent places on the board every wave. You will place units, they place units, and you fight. During the battle, you see their newly added units and react to that during the next planning phase that lasts roughly 20 seconds. While this PvP mode will be out, tournaments will remain in the pipeline for a little while longer as a newly found bug or exploit may completely ruin the competitive scene.
Overworld PB2
The Overworld beta that will come out simultaneously will have overloading obelisks and new movement mechanics. You will be able to practice and progress in the overworld more quickly to gain better rewards. Practice is especially important when playing in the new regions, namely the Abyssal Basin and Brightland Steppes. These two regions will both be much more lush than the first deserted region of the Crimson Waste. Unlike the straightforward Crimson Waste, the Abyssal Basin will feature lily pads that you can ride to move across the fast-flowing rivers. The Brightland Steppes uniquely have bubble-producing plants that can carry you high up into the skies. You can use these bubbles to move all the way to the top of the rugged landscapes and then glide back down to obtain resources.
Illuvium Zero’s economic conundrum
As the underlying economic driver, Illuvium Zero is key to the entire Illuvium Ecosystem. Herein lies a problem, as the fuel balancer pool was a very old idea that now seems to be exceptional in every way. The idea of having a free-market for fuel has been around for 18 months now and all the economists say that it is the best way to go about using fuel as a fundamental resource. The idea is that players will decide the price of fuel based on whether they want to pay for it to play the game. Because of this, in-game prices will fluctuate wildly until the community has come to a consensus on its value. Is this the way to go? Or should we find a different way?
The community has been indecisive about it and suggested that the team add rails to maintain a certain level of price stability. Aaron, however, says that “The only way for a price to get to a place that people don’t like is when people pay for it to be that high.” We can only take this as us not understanding what the initial idea was, and that Aaron knew better all along!
Megacities, Levels, and Communication
Three new features will be added in the upcoming beta versions. One of them has quite something to do with fuel production, namely, Megacities. The Megacities were previously mentioned to be implemented for the release of the Open Beta, but Aaron states that Megacities will be an expansion instead. He also aims to have a feature added to the game that requires all megacities to be formed in a square… Your line of lands will do nothing for you, sir! But this will all be added at a later date. For now, we will just have to be patient as we await the next season of the alpha.
Patience will also be required as we wait for the implementation of Levels. Levels for Illuvials that can limit your gameplay due to power restrictions and that massively impact your bond with the Illuvials will only be added at a later date. This has to do with the fact that Levels majorly affect the balancing of the game. The team may accidentally balance around the levels rather than the underlying mechanics which could have a negative impact on the game. The team will aim to first finish the game and make it as balanced as possible before adding the leveling system.
Communication, on the other hand, has no impact on the balance and will be added to each game mode. The overworld will have a local chat. The Arena will potentially see a chat as well as emotes to interact with your opponent. Illuvium Beyond will reward you with these emotes, which might now entice you to buy those incredible-looking Illuvitars! Lastly, Illuvium Zero will have the local chat but it won’t really be functional for a while.
Community x Team Sentiments
The team has been building tirelessly over the past two and a half years as they have pushed the release of the game further and further in front of them. This is only a natural result of their insanely optimistic roadmaps. The community chats have often become heated as a result of this, which then influences the team. This can either have a positive effect, where the team becomes motivated to prove the community wrong, but in some cases, the team can become scared of the possibilities. Everyone will still have to grow into their respective roles. The Illuvium team, unlike traditional gaming teams, is open to the community to be criticized and can be reached in person. This breaks away a barrier between the harsh feedback and protected developers. While this can be incredibly beneficial for the developed product, it can also turn out for the worst. There is a balance that must be retained, and both the community and team will have to feel each other out before reaching that point.
Key Takeaway and Final Notes:
The team, in contrast to a lot of other projects in the web-3 space, is building an incredibly sophisticated and fully transparent system that will be visited in the next waves of Crypto exploration. Playing these games will be a magnificent experience that can motivate even the brokies to make in-game purchases. Until then, we will go through a number of additional Private beta versions. When those end, the Open Beta isn’t even the final product. It will just be the first iteration with a bunch of expansions waiting to happen. One day, the Overworld will become multiplayer as you will be able to fight Illuvials in the overworld with friends, and the Leviathan arena will host massive tournaments for the biggest whales on the planet. By that time, we will have bi-weekly updates, and the game will have thousands of active daily players. But before we get there, we will need to have professional council members make the necessary decisions for the project. We can’t rely on passion only to fuel this project; we need expert judgments on certain points. So when the next election for council Version 2 happens, try to find those professionals and recommend them to the community.
These are the official YouTube video and uncut document for more complete details:
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