Summary of AI

Muddy Forest is a space-themed blockchain-based MMORTS (Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy) game where players need to use spaceships to conquer planets of different levels and use the Extra Energy mechanism to attack higher-level planets. The game has a comfortable color tone and is easy to pick up. There is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of game features. This article provides an introduction to the game's background, gameplay, tutorial, as well as some considerations and future development features.

Game Introduction

Game Link

https://muddyforest.tetrationlab.com/intro/

Muddy Forest is an RTS game developed by Tetration_Lab. The game's beta version was launched in February 2023, and as of the time of this article's editing, the game is still in the testing phase and has not been deployed on the blockchain.

Muddy Forest is developed using a well-known MUD engine and draws inspiration from the pioneering blockchain game Dark Forest. In the game, the main objective for players is to conquer as many planets as possible within the universe, while also improving and fortifying their own planets to defend against other players.

Team Background

Muddy Forest is developed by the Tetration_Lab team. For specific team members, please refer to their official website.

https://www.tetrationlab.com/

Gameplay

The game is divided into three factions, and each player chooses their faction at the beginning of the game. The player's goal is to occupy as many unclaimed or enemy faction planets as possible to increase their faction's total planet count and achieve victory.

Game Tutorial

Game Information

The game is currently in the testing phase and not deployed on the blockchain.
The game uses a burner wallet, which means players don't need to connect their personal wallets when entering the game.
The burner wallet data is stored in the browser, so be careful not to clear browser cache, as it will result in the loss of game data.

Game Flow

1. Choose Your Faction

After entering the game, the first step is to choose your faction. You can choose any faction since the current game features do not significantly differ based on the faction chosen. It won't affect the gameplay logic.

After selecting a faction, the system will generate a burner wallet for you, and then you can enter your username.

2. Game System Overview

After creating your account, the game will provide a basic introduction to the game system, explaining the gameplay mechanics.

In summary:

Spaceship: Each player has one spaceship with both movement and attack capabilities.
Planet: Planets need to be occupied by players, and some planets can produce resources. Players can use these resources to construct buildings on their occupied planets.
Transportation: Players can use the transportation system to transfer energy or resources between their occupied planets or spaceships.
Extra Energy: Spaceships and planets have their own energy storage limits. Players can use the transportation system to concentrate energy from other occupied planets onto their spaceships or specific planets, surpassing the energy limits and enabling them to conquer higher-level planets.

3. Game Interface

At the start of the game, your spaceship will spawn on your faction's home planet. You can move and zoom the screen using the mouse scroll or drag.

The top-left spaceship icon, when clicked, will directly focus the screen on the spaceship's coordinates. "Energy" displays the spaceship's current energy and energy limit, and "Planets" shows the planets currently occupied by the player.

The bottom-left corner of the game interface contains the player's faction channel and the public channel.

The top-right corner of the game interface contains various elements. The first section, "Settings," allows adjustments to map exploration settings. In Muddy Forest, the game map is continuously generated. The more miners, the faster the map generation. Players can click "Pause" to stop map generation.

Regarding the "Patterns" option in "Settings," it seems to have no significant effect based on current testing.

The second section contains shortcuts for screen movement and zooming. "Follow Explorer" allows players to track an explorer's route and explore what types of planets are being generated in the universe.

The third section, "Leaderboard," displays the number of planets occupied by each faction.

The last section, "Help," provides basic game instructions.

On the right side of the game interface, players can find building options on planets and ship movement functionalities, which will be directly reflected in the game process.

Lastly, in the bottom-right corner, there are currently undeveloped features, which appear to be the backpack, technology tree upgrades, and fog exploration.

4. Conquering Planets

Before searching for our target planet, let's zoom out the game view. You will notice the universe filled with various planets. The planets with halos around them have already been occupied by other players, and each color represents a different faction. The color of the icon next to your username in the top left corner of the screen represents your faction. In my case, it is the red faction. The other two factions are represented by blue and green colors.

The planets without halos are the unoccupied ones.

Each player's spaceship has a maximum energy capacity of 8750, and the condition for capturing another planet is that "the attacker's current energy - the defender's current energy > 0" (energy is consumed during attacks). Let's randomly click on a planet, and its information will be displayed, including the energy capacity, recovery rate, attack and defense abilities, potential resources it can produce, and the building limit.

Since the initial energy of the spaceship is 8750, we need to find planets with energy capacities below 8750 to capture. After some effort, we finally find a suitable planet.

Select your spaceship, and a movable line will appear, allowing you to choose the landing point for your spaceship. However, we notice that the energy consumption for this distance is 18340, exceeding the spaceship's energy capacity. Therefore, we should divide the transfer into multiple stages to complete the journey (the spaceship's energy will gradually recover over time after each transfer).

After the first transfer is completed, a cooldown timer will appear in the top left corner of the screen. This represents the cooldown time for the spaceship after each transfer. Additionally, the spaceship's energy requires time to recover.

Now, we have arrived near the target planet.

Click on the spaceship, then click on the planet. This will bring up the attack panel. We primarily focus on the "Energy Used" and "Final Damage" sections. "Energy Used" allows us to adjust the energy consumption, which includes both the distance and attack costs. The farther the distance between the spaceship and the planet, the greater the distance cost, which may result in insufficient energy for the attack. Therefore, instead of launching a direct attack, we first approach the planet.

When attacking the planet, adjust the "Energy Used" progress bar in the panel. The system will automatically calculate the final damage for us. We just need to ensure that the final damage exceeds the energy level of the planet. In the example below, the planet's energy is 5000, and the final damage is 5188. Click "Attack" to initiate the attack.

After capturing the planet, a colored halo representing your faction and the name of the conqueror will appear on the planet.

Now, we are ready to capture the next planet, but we notice that its energy is quite high, reaching 15000. However, the previously captured planet has an energy limit of only 5000, and the spaceship's energy capacity is 8750. This is where the game's Extra Energy mechanism comes into play. There are two possible attack strategies: transferring the spaceship's energy to the previously captured planet until its energy reaches a sufficient level to capture a new planet, or transferring the planet's energy to the spaceship and moving the spaceship to launch the attack. We choose the latter option.

First, move the spaceship near the target to reduce the distance cost during the attack. Then, select the planet, click "Send," and choose the spaceship as the transfer target. After a trial, the maximum transfer reaches approximately 90%, with the remaining energy accounting for the distance cost during the transfer.

Once the transfer is completed, we observe that the spaceship's energy exceeds its capacity. Now, we wait for the planet's energy to recover for a while and repeat the process to increase the spaceship's current energy further.

When the spaceship's energy is sufficiently high, we can initiate the attack and capture our second planet.

After the planet is captured, its original energy is reduced to zero due to the attack, and it requires time to recover. The recovery rate varies among different planets.

Next to the previously captured planet, we discover a celestial body resembling a black hole. We are interested in this celestial body not because of its unique appearance, but because it has the ability to produce "Astral Nebula."

Following the same approach as before, we utilize the Extra Energy mechanism to capture the higher-level celestial body. The previously captured black hole has already started producing Astral Nebula.

5. Building on Planets

Clicking the plus sign under "Buildings" will display four selectable structures, and the build panel will show the construction costs and functions of each building.

Regarding construction costs, currently, the game includes three types: Energy, Stellar Prism, and Astral Nebula. Energy is inherent to each planet, while Stellar Prism and Astral Nebula must be obtained by the player.

As for the functions of the buildings, the structure resembling a radio telescope is used to increase energy recovery rate and attack ability. The 100% attack ability means that by using 100 energy, you can deplete the opponent's 100 energy, while the upgraded 105% attack ability means that by using 100 energy, you can deplete the opponent's 105 energy. The same logic applies to defense ability.

The artificial satellite structure increases the energy capacity, energy recovery rate, and defense ability of the planet.

The rocket-like structure is used to increase the recovery limits of the two types of resources on the planet. However, these resources still follow the Extra Energy mechanism, allowing players to transfer them from other sources to the planet, surpassing the limit values.

The aircraft-like structure is used to increase the planet's attack ability.

6. Conquering Space

At this point, the primary gameplay mechanics of the game are mostly covered. In the game, players continuously utilize the Extra Energy mechanism to launch attacks and capture higher-level planets. After capturing a planet, players can further upgrade and modify it using different buildings.

Gaming Experience

The color tones of the game visuals are pleasing, and playing on a large screen can provide an immersive experience.
The variety of planets in the universe gives a sense of treasure hunting when searching for targets.
The condition for a player to capture a planet, based solely on comparing energy levels, is a simple and straightforward mechanic.
The game's current features are relatively simple, but there is great potential for expanding its gameplay and enhancing the overall player experience.

Appendix

Official Twitter

https://twitter.com/muddyforest_eth

Open-source code

https://github.com/Tetration-Lab/muddy-forest-x