A new pre-release phases arrives in Influence, bringing with it a chance to earn SWAY tokens by playing and completing missions for this space-based MMO set in a field of asteroids with real-life orbital dynamics!
Soon, players will be able to explore, build, and colonize in the Adalia system as they play the game of Influence. But before that can happen, we need to have some pre-release testing. The pre-release is already underway, and with it come a number of opportunities to earn SWAY tokens, the game currency for Influence.
For the Pre-Release phase, Influence has allocated 1 billion SWAY for distribution among the community. This SWAY is split between three categories: Solo Missions, Community Missions, and Community Support/Engagement. The allocation for missions will be split 50/50 between Solo Missions and Community Missions.
Some of the missions do have a limited number of claims. So you’ll want to be sure and get in early. Early access for those who own Influence NFTs or signed up on the website a while back will start on February 21st, 15:00 UTC. Public access opens to everyone on February 27th.
Accessing the Playtest
Known as Exploitation, pre-release lets players mine resources, construct buildings, travel through the belt, set up their own markets, and more!
You can login to the pre-release test at https://game-prerelease.influenceth.io/. You will need a Starknet wallet (Argent X is the most popular), and you will need to set your network to the Sepolia test chain.
Accessing the playtest and bridging your assets can be quite a chore. Luckily, Influence has set aside a portion of their official wiki with information about access this playtest and copy over any owned assets.
Players can choose to bridge their existing NFTs onto the testnet, or they can just purchase new Crew members and Asteroids. Either way, you will need at least some testnet ETH for transactions. You can get some from the faucet available through the in-game store, or you can visit the Starknet Sepolia faucet. Both options only allow one claim per day.
Then you can play the game on the testnet, and work towards completing as many missions as possible. Unfortunately, there is no indicator for when you have completed a mission. You just have to keep track of it all yourself. This playtest also includes community missions.
And though you can buy Crew in the pre-release, only Crew that has been bridged from the mainnet can be used right now for missions. New Crewmates will have to wait until the public release before they can see any action.
You may need to reference the official wiki and also ask for help on Discord to figure things out. Influence is a complex game!
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 member receives certain traits that affect their in-game skills, allowing players to personalize their NFTs.
Influence is offering some other 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.
To learn more about Influence, visit their website, follow them on Twitter, and join their Discord server.
