Tutorial for a Fully On-Chain Simulation Game - Primodium - AW_Research

AI Summary

The article introduces the basic gameplay of Primodium game, including selecting a base, resource mining, resource transportation, and technology upgrades. The article also mentions the shortcomings of the game, such as the lack of a querying/locating system. Additionally, the article provides a practical game operation guide with detailed textual explanations and illustrated examples. It covers topics such as building miners, teleport nodes, and conveyor belts, upgrading technology, smelting raw materials, and transporting supplies to the base. While the gameplay of the game is relatively simple, the author shares some insights and experiences based on their own gameplay, such as the importance of technology upgrades, avoiding resource wastage, and late-game strategies.

Game Introduction

Primodium is a new blockchain-based game developed by @intemerson and @tax_cuts. The game's mechanics are inspired by the popular simulation management game Factorio. In Primodium, players need to design and construct various automated production pipelines to continuously produce increasingly complex industrial goods. Unleash your imagination, combine conveyor belts, various factories, and natural resources on the map to create your own automated production infrastructure and expand your industrial empire on the planet.

https://testnet2.primodium.com/?worldAddress=0x9430EA2AFaFb37b73C088C2e3051fD63a6026819&version=v0.4

Team Background

Apart from the two public developers, @intemerson and @tax_cuts, there is not much information available about the team.

Gameplay Mechanisms Design

The game actions can be categorized into gathering, transportation, processing, construction, research, and combat. Players need to continuously gather resources, upgrade technology, build weapons, defeat other players, and eventually dominate a faction on the planet.

Game Tutorial

Game Notes

The game is best played on PC; mobile devices are not user-friendly.
The game uses a burner wallet (temporary wallet), so players do not need to connect their own wallet when entering the game.
Burner wallet data is stored in the browser, so avoid clearing browser cache, or else your game data will be lost.
Primodium is currently a sandbox game and is not yet on the blockchain.

In-game Production Materials

The production materials in the game are divided into three types: natural resources, forged items, and buildings.

⚛️ Natural Resources

Natural resources are inherent and distributed on the map. These resources include iron, copper, lithium, and 10 other elements from the periodic table.
Natural resources serve two purposes: forging subsequent items and the construction cost of buildings.

⚒️ Forged Items

Forged items need to be produced in the factories constructed by the players (also referred to as synthesis).
The raw materials for forging items are the natural resources found on the map.

🏗️ Buildings

Buildings mainly refer to various factories for forging items and some basic infrastructure in the game, such as resource gatherers and conveyor belts.

Basic Game Flow

📐 Choose your starting coordinates

If you are entering the game for the first time, you should see this interface. Click "Set up a Base" to proceed.

Click on "Base" in the lower-left corner and select your coordinates on the map.
In addition, there is a beginner's guide provided in the upper-left corner of the game screen. It contains a lot of text, so if you don't want to read it, you can skip the tutorial directly.

Choose any location for your base. This will be your base, and the coordinates will appear in the upper-left corner. Also, claim your initial resources in the upper-right corner.
You can see that there are already other players near my location.

🗻 Resource Mining

Before mining resources, you need to know the order in which you should mine the resources on the map.
First, open the Research panel in the bottom left corner. This panel is similar to a technology tree in the game, where you can see the costs for upgrading each technology.

For example, to research the mining technology for Copper, it requires a cost of 200 Iron. To have the ability to construct a Plating Factory, you need a cost of 200 Iron + 200 Copper. To research the mining technology for Lithium, it requires a cost of 200 Iron Plate + 100 Copper. Iron Plate, in turn, is forged from Iron in the Plating Factory. This follows a production line from start to finish.
Therefore, the progression of the game follows the order of this production line.
So, let's start by mining Iron.

Find the Miners in the bottom left corner.

You will notice that only the first Miner is selectable, as the other two require a higher level of your technology tree.
Choose the first Basic Miner. Hover your mouse over it to see that constructing a Basic Miner requires a cost of 100 Iron.

Find an Iron deposit on the map and place the Basic Miner on it. View the basic information of the Miner in the bottom right corner.

🚄 Resource Transportation

Open the Transport menu in the bottom left corner. Here, you will find two things required for resource transportation: Nodes and Conveyors.

Now we need to transport Iron to our main base, the Main Base.
Select a Node and place one near your main base and another near the Miner (they can be placed in any adjacent direction).

Select a Conveyor. Since resources are transported from the Miner to the main base, choose the starting and ending points of the Conveyor accordingly.

Wait for a while, then select your main base and click Claim in the bottom right corner.

After claiming, Iron extracted from the Miner will appear in your backpack, and you can claim it again after a certain period.

⏫ Technology Upgrades

Go back to the Research panel. Now you can upgrade your first technology, mining Copper, by paying 200 Iron.

Following the previous steps, find the Copper resource on the map, place your Miner and Node, and transport the resources to your main base.

Wait for a short period, return to the main base, and claim again. Copper will then appear in your backpack.

Once you have 200 Iron and 200 Copper, you can continue upgrading to your next technology, the Plating Factory, which is used to produce iron plates.

🏭 Forging Raw Materials

After upgrading the Plating Factory, you can start constructing it.

Since the Plating Factory requires Iron as the processing raw material, you need to transport Iron to the Plating Factory.
There are two approaches to mining: finding another Iron resource on the map or using the existing Iron resource for transportation.

Note that if a Node is used as an output, it can only output in one direction. If it is used as an input, it can receive inputs from multiple Nodes.

The Plating Factory panel shows that 10 Iron can be forged into one Plate.
After waiting for some time, you can Claim the resources and then click Craft to forge them.

In my case, I forged 200 Iron Plates from 2000 Iron.

The plates forged in the Plating Factory need to be transported to the base.

After a while, return to the main base and Claim the Plates transported by the Plating Factory. The Plates will then appear in your backpack.

When the game reaches this point, the basic logic of the game is complete. The next steps involve continuously gathering resources, upgrading technology, and constructing more advanced items, such as weapons.

In the late stages of the game, the gameplay looks something like this.

This is another game account I played, located at (270, 305)

Game Impressions

The game's graphics are clean and minimalist, keeping players focused on the gameplay itself.
Multiple players can engage in the game on the same map, allowing for cooperation or competition, enhancing the game's fun and challenge.
Currently, the gameplay is relatively simple, revolving around resource gathering and technology upgrades. If the technology level is high enough, players can even launch missiles to bombard other players.
The game currently lacks a search/positioning system. As players accumulate more buildings, they may start forgetting what they have constructed and struggle to locate specific buildings' coordinates.
As the number of buildings in the game increases, the page may experience performance issues and slow down.

Appendix

Official Twitter

https://twitter.com/primodiumgame

List of items and buildings

https://primodium.notion.site/List-of-items-and-buildings-edd193e073124f1d86cb195514f79517

Official Guide (This version should be an outdated version of the game, and some of the content in the document does not match the actual gameplay.)

https://primodium.notion.site/Primodium-Game-Guide-0b2485d94a2143648a0cce33c2b408c8