Influence TestNet Phase 3 Preview

Influence prepares to continue their test and earn series with Testnet Phase 3. Though we don't have an official date yet, this test and earn opportunity should open up sometime soon. This phase brings several new features, focusing on the next step of colonization, resource extraction!

Influence continues to steadily roll out new features to test for their upcoming space-based MMO. We've already completed the first two phases of their test and earn campaign, now we get some details about what to expect in phase 3.

Phase 3 includes a number of new features. And rather than dump them all on the players at once, Influence plans to add them in throughout the phase 3 period. These features include several new user interface screens, resource heatmaps, asteroid scanning, buildings, resources, mining, core sampling, and surface transport!

You can see that this selection of new features covers the basis of resource discovery, extraction, and storage. Which is the logical next step after purchasing land rights for asteroids.

And remember, this is not really an alpha. The playability of the game will be very limited. Instead, this is an opportunity to get a preview of the game and assist in testing while also earning tokens along the way! And since this is also sort of a test of Starknet as well, don't be surprised if there end up being some network issues along the way.

As usual, the test will occur on the Goerli network. Since the faucets for the testnet can often become overloaded when the test goes live, I would strongly suggest getting yourself setup with some ETH on Goerli ahead of time. The last two tests were open for several weeks, so I expect phase 3 to follow suit. Especially with all of the new features! And there will almost certainly be opportunities to earn SWAY tokens by participating in the this test. For more information about preparing for the Influence testnet, take a look at the official wiki page.

The Influence team has not yet announced any dates for Testnet Phase 3.

What is Influence?

Influence is a space-based MMORPG. In Influence, a colony ship has arrived at its destination, only to find uninhabitable planets. After much debate, the ship commander decides that the passengers and crew would set up camp in an asteroid belt and begin building a new civilization. Players have already begun to lay claims to Asteroids in the belt, and soon will come mining crews, bases, merchants, wealth, and inevitably, conflict.

In addition to the Asteroids and Ships, players also own Crew NFTs. Crew have the option of creating a background storyline. This is done through a text story where the player makes choices for the Crew member. Based on those choices, the Crew receives certain traits that affect their in-game skills allowing players to personalize their NFTs.

And though the space MMO genre is becoming increasingly crowded, Influence is offering some unique features that make it stand out. Mainly, its adherence to a realistic simulation. Not only are the resource production processes complicated and based on real life, but the Asteroids themselves include orbital dynamics! This is not a static map. All the Asteroids are constantly moving in their orbits. Each Asteroid has an orbital period (how long it takes to complete one orbit), a semi-major axis (how far it is from the center), inclination (how angled the orbit is off from the orbital plane), and eccentricity (how stretched the orbit is from a perfect circle)! This all plays into effect as time progresses, causing the distance between any two Asteroids to vary daily!

There certainly will be a lot to process in this game. Luckily, some people are already building tools to help players figure out the complex production processes. In fact, Influence recently held a community vote to choose a number of third party projects to receive a stipend of SWAY tokens to continue their work!

You can find more info on influenceth.io, the official Twitter account, and their Discord server.