On the eve of launching the Conquest phase of their game, R-Planet released a whitepaper giving us details about how base building and robot construction will work. R-Planet is an old-timer on the Wax blockchain. Though up until now, we have only been in phase one of the game, Discovery. The Conquest phase opens up base building, robot creation, and combat!
Ever since early 2021, R-Planet players have earned Aether and used it to create and discover new elements. Then, this past spring, two land sales opened up the accumulation of 4 new tokens – Wecanite, Caponium, Enefterium, and Waxon.
At long last, players can make use of these new minerals thanks to R-Planet Conquest and its base building and robot construction options. Wecanite functions as fuel, and is needed for maintaining your bases and robot armies. The other three minerals are required for construction and upgrades.
In the game lore, the players have landed on their new home and begun building a new home. However, some nasty space pirates, known as the Ahnangs, have also landed on the planet and begun raiding players’ bases. Players join one of three factions, build and upgrade their base, create armies of robots for attack/and or defense, and expand their operations in the hope of building a Superweapon to destroy the Ahnang mothership!
Though the document released by R-Planet feels more like a game design document for base building and robot construction, rather than a whitepaper, it does provide quite a bit of information about what to expect with Conquest. So let’s get to it!
Heroes give you a boost
Heroes! Everyone loves them! And you’ll see them on R-Planet Conquest. It’s not required to have a Hero, but it will be a lot cooler if you do. Heroes provide combat bonuses, speed bonuses, and mineral extraction bonuses. Heroes can also tame Masiks, beasts native to this world. Masiks cannot attack but apparently are pretty good at defending.
Heroes are the only way to find Artifacts, powerful items that can singlehandedly bring great riches to their owners. When activated, Artifacts turn on for 48 hours, no more, no less. Anyone and everyone in the game can see whenever an artifact has been activated and where it is. So beware! For wielding such great power will draw in enemies and those who seek to seize the artifact for themselves.
Heroes can do other fun things such as go on adventures to find cool and powerful items. Items which they can equip and use. These items provide bonuses to the Hero’s stats and/or the base that the Hero occupies. There are also consumable items that players can use for temporary bonuses, quick completion of construction or production, and increasing a Hero’s experience. All Items will be tradeable NFTs.
Though Heroes don’t participate directly in battles, they can die if the army they are attached to is destroyed. A new Hero avatar can then be created, but it takes time. It seems like Heroes will be tied to external NFTs, but that part is unclear.
Base Building
Bases are the main source of production. Each player has one main base that can never be completely destroyed. As the game progresses, players with enough resources can branch out to construct multiple bases.
Players construct buildings and crate robots at their bases. There are a multitude of buildings to choose from. Too many really Twenty-six in fact!. Buildings for each type of Mineral production, buildings to enhance each type of mineral production, buildings for each kind of robot, several types of storage buildings, two types of research buildings, and then several with specific uses, such as the Expansion Hub for capturing and building additional bases.
Bases are where the already existing NFT lands come into play. With the Terraformator building, players may attach a land to the base which boosts production of the appropriate mineral. Boost percentage is determined by the land’s rarity and level. Up to a maximum of three lands can be attached to each base, though doing so requires leveling your Terraformator to level 20.
Bases harvest in-game Minerals. And it seems that these minerals can only be used in-game. Presumably, the R-Planet Land NFTs will still continue to produce minerals outside of the game, but this is unclear and the wording in the whitepaper is a little confusing.
But anyway, Bases will be the central hub for players. Serious players will keep their bases maintained and coordinate production with fellow alliance members for maximum efficiency.
Robot Construction
Though divided into three factions, every player has access to basically the same units. They may differ in appearance and name and have slightly different stats, but the same functions/classes are available to everyone. The strong attacker, the cheap air defense, the scouts, the fast robbers, siege engines, base builders, etc.
In-game there are a couple of primary distinctions. First off, all units are either ground or air based. Secondly, there are specific troop types with special abilities. Scouts can investigate enemy bases and report back on their fortifications and troop numbers. Meanwhile, Siege Weapons destroy walls and Artillery troops destroy buildings. Knowing your enemy and bringing the right kind of troops will be an important part of battles.
Players can raid other bases to steal resources, or commit to an all-out attack in order to destroy or capture a base. Though destroying the Ahnang bases and troops is the primary goal, you can also expect to see PvP during the Conquest phase. Some players may even decide that stealing resources from others is easier than harvesting it themselves.
However, details of the Ahnang troops have not yet been provided.
Conquest seasons and lots of questions
Though not explicitly mentioned. It appears that the game will run in Seasons of approximately 4 months with the end goal being the construction of a Superweapon and leveling it up to 100 to destroy the Ahnang mothership. The alliance that succeeds reaps rewards in the form of NFTs. Those outside the winning alliance receive nothing, or so it seems.
If the players don’t complete the Superweapon ‘in time’ (no info yet on how long this period might last), the Ahnangs win. What happens when a Season is over? Again, no information on that. Presumably everything gets wiped and everyone starts over? If that’s the case, I could see this repetitive gameplay getting old. Hopefully there will be more to the game than repeated base building. Especially considering the sheer amount of buildings needed to create your defenses and armies. Or, perhaps, something completely different will come around by the time the Conquest phase is complete.
Even with all of this new information, there are still a lot of unknowns. Especially in regards to how NFTs will interact with the game. The information around the PVE enemy faction, the Ahnangs is also a bit unclear. The whitepaper mentions bases and raids, but it does not provide any specifics in regards to whether they will be a passive enemy or one that the players need to constantly defend against. And what about Hero NFTs? Where do they come from?
Even with some details missing, this next phase of R-Planet promises interesting new gameplay for long-time supporters. Base building and robot construction will possibly bring lots of activity to R-Planet and the new Conquest phase.
What is R-Planet?
The story from R-Planet is about finding planets where we can live. Humanity will pick Mars, but this requires research and testing. That’s where the NFT elements come into place. Combining these will allow humanity to discover more elements, and maybe solve the puzzle. Players will be staking NFTs, mining AETHER, buying and trading these basic materials, using them to create something new, and then the cycle continuous.
The amount of AETHER someone earns for their NFTs isn’t a fixed rate anymore. It’s all about the total amount of all staked NFTs, and your participation in the pool. Finding a pool with little activity, could proof to be fruitful.
