Author: FaultProofBen

Gm!

WE. ARE. SO. BACK.

Crypto is ripping with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and many other tokens hitting new yearly highs.

But that’s not all.

We’ve also very much returned because on Monday, the newest Primodium update dropped!!

The latest version of the game (v0.8) is packed with an assortment of new features, building types, and more.

As you can probably tell by now, Primodium tends to take over my life in the days following a new release.

This has undoubtedly been the case this week, as I’ve spent hours playing over the past few days.

Today, I’ll tell you about my experience doing so and how that culminated in WASD declaring in-game war against one of crypto’s most prominent VC firms: a16z!

As always, the following is based on my interpretation of a series of transactions.

It may or may not be correct; you’ll have to check the chain to see for yourself ;)

Now…let’s get to it!

NOTE: This piece assumes an understanding of the basics of Primodium.

*If you are unfamiliar with the game, I suggest you read the section of Onchain Lore III titled “Primodium 101”. *

What’s New in v0.8

Before we get to some gameplay talk, let’s look at the new features in v0.8.

Alliances

Alliances are the most significant addition to this version of Primodium.

As diehard Primates (A term coined by 0xHank to describe Primodium enjoyooors) know, your objective in the game is to score points.

Points are determined by the amount of resources you have and displayed on the in-game leaderboard.

Now, with alliances, players can team up and pool their points together.

Up to 20 Primates can join these onchain pacts, which are either public, with anyone able to join, or private, where you’ll need to request membership or be invited.

You can see your fellow allies in the starmap, as they’ll have a green tint around their base.

All in all, I love the addition of alliances.

I think they make the game a lot more fun by introducing cooperative gameplay. They make Primodium a much more social experience (which I always enjoy).

I also like alliances because they add new elements of strategy and (as you’ll see) serve as an excellent source for in-game drama.

Combat Refinement

Primodium’s combat mechanics have been improved in this latest update.

A common critique of v0.7 was that the outcome of raids felt too random and unpredictable.

For instance, players would attack bases with swarms of powerful units, only to find that they were defeated by a seemingly weaker defense force.

Furthermore, a defending base would still lose resources in a raid even if they won the battle.

Thankfully, these issues have been addressed, as in v0.8, raid losers do not claim any resources. In addition, combat results are now based on aggregate attack and defense ratings.

Units have always had individual attack and defense stats.

For example, a Trident Marine has 80 attack and 100 defense.

However, you’ve previously not been able to see the aggregate total across all your units.

Now, you can, as each base has a total defense rating displayed both in your UI and the starmap.

Furthermore, you can also view the attack rating of a fleet before deploying it.

So, for example, if you have 10 Trident Marines, your base would have an attack rating of 800 and a defense rating of 1000.

This means that to win and poach your resources, an enemy fleet must deploy units with a total defense rating of at least 1001.

I’m a big fan of these changes.

I think the combat system is now more logical, simple, and predictable, making it far easier for players to plan offensive and defensive strategies.

New Building Types

There are two new building types in v0.8.

1. Shield Generators.

2. Vaults

Let’s quickly go through each.

Shield Generators:

Shield Generators are 4x4 buildings that act as a multiplier for your defense rating.

For example, if you have 10,000 defense across your units and a 1.5x multiplier from shield generators, you’d have then have 15,000 in defense.

I think this is a nice addition to the game, as it spices up combat and gives players another high-value building (they cost 10,000 sulfer and 5000 alloy) to work towards.

I also think they are not OP.

I’d say they are arguably even underpowered, as you need to build two to begin to reap the benefits, while each incremental generator only provides you with a .1x multiplier.

Their design is still sick, though.

Vaults:

Vaults are 3x3 buildings that give you the capacity to store “raidable resources.”

As the name suggests, these refer to resources that cannot be taken from you during a raid.

When you build a vault, you have protection for 700 non-motherlode resources, which balloons to 2000 if you upgrade it to Level 2.

In addition, Level 2 vaults also shield 100 motherlode resources (Titanium, Platinum, Iridium, and Kimberlite).

However, you cannot choose what resources to store in vaults, as protection is spread across all types.

I think unraidable resources help balance the scales by making players more resilient to heavy raiding.

With that said, I love to see what the game would be like if you were able to choose which resources you could protect.

Assorted Smol Tweaks

There are numerous other, smaller changes made in v0.8, including:

• Lots of bug fixes

• A 12-hour grace period for new players in which they cannot be raided

• Changes to the cost of SAM Guns and Stinger Drones

• Cool new animations for under construction buildings and when you raid a base

• The ability to move buildings on your base without having to destroy them

A Day in the Life of an Alliance Admin

Now that we have some context on what’s new in v0.8, let’s get into some gameplay!

Whether I’m at a conference or in desperate need of sleep, Primodium updates always seem to launch at an inopportune time.

Monday was no exception, as the game was released while I was trying to finish up my article on Realms ecosystem.

Then, minutes after, the thermostat in my apartment stopped working.

For those who may care, it still isn’t fixed, and my apartment is boiling hot.

Anyways, given the recent launch of WASD Guild (Thank you so much to everyone who minted a badge btw), I figured that Primodium would be a great way for the clan to leave its first onchain gaming mark.

And thus…the WASD Alliance was born!!

The alliance setup process was quite easy, as I just had to click “Create Alliance” and choose the “Invite Only” option.

To join, all guild members had to do was request to do so in-game, and then post their burner wallets address in our WASD Collectooor Telegram Chat.

It sounds simple enough – But I was soon overwhelmed by a bombardment of requests.

Of course, I was thrilled by this.

However, it meant much of my Monday was spent frantically trying to add people and verify that they were in the guild!

In the future, I hope this process will be made easier by allowing alliance admins to see the linked ENS names for players who request to join, as this would make it easier to identify who they’re actually adding.

Logistical challenges aside, the WASD Alliance was nonetheless born and ready to dominate.

The Build-Up

With Primodium’s greatest alliance formed, the usual base build-up process began.

I’m happy to report that Primodium’s addictive core gameplay is very much intact in v0.8.

Mining resources, producing factory materials, building up unit armadas, and going on raids are as engaging and fun as ever.

Perhaps due to the migration of the game’s contracts to MUD V2 (the latest version of the framework), the game’s polish is at an all-time high.

In that vein, I did not run into as many minor bugs compared to v0.7.

With that said, I encountered some loading time issues, and (as we’ll see) some significant global bugs popped up.

I have PTSD from being endlessly raided during my last play through, so I decided to center my base building strategy around establishing a robust defense.

I purchased a SAM Launcher (which provides 5000 defense) and invested in two Shield Generators to bump my defense multiplier to 1.1x.

I also decided to (at least at first) keep my head down by not attacking large bases.

Instead, I chose to pick on smaller, lower-level ones with 5-10x less in defense than myself.

There was one player had just 5K defense and hundreds in Titanium and Platinum.

So, I decided to target him relentlessly.

Was this a scumbag move?

Idk, but it’s ruthless out there. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Anyways, as of writing, I sit at 16th on the leaderboard.

However, Primdoium is a team game now.

Individual point totals matter far less than that of your Alliance.

Thankfully, there are a bunch of gigachads in the WASD Alliance who brought the points and then some including simmonsd.eth, raymondz.eth, and others who consistently placed in the Top-5.

What a bunch of legends.

Between our collective contributions, the WASD Alliance racked up billions of points.

We reigned supreme, holding first place for several extended periods (we’re currently in second for reasons I’ll get into later).

However, this was not enough.

We needed MORE points.

To get them, WASD had to set its sights on other alliances.

We had to go to war.

The March To Battle

WASD was not the only entity or individual to create an alliance in Primodium.

Several others sprouted up, including those started by Fun Blocks (FUN), AvengerThor (AVENGE), and the game’s largest (albeit with a MAJOR asterisk) ORDEN.

However, there was one other high-profile alliance: The VC firm a16z.

a16z has been a force to be reckoned with, sometimes topping the leaderboard while consistently placing in the Top 3-7.

Perhaps the sauna-like conditions in my apartment were fueling my pointlust, but I honed in on them as the target.

To quote Palpetine:

So, I put the decision to go to war to a vote via a poll in the WASD Collectooor Chat.

(Ironically, we have members of both the a16z alliance and WASD Guild who were able to participate in this process)

After a 3-hour voting period, the intensity of which would make recent US Presidential elections blush, WASD Guild voted by a 4-2 margin to…

…go to war against a16z!!

This was made official on November 8 at 3:47 pm PST, as we declared war via xeet from the WASD X account.

A Pause in the Action

In typical me fashion, I couldn’t even declare war right.

About an hour after our declaration, the Primodium X account released a thread stating that they would be redeploying the game’s contracts due to a bug.

Remember how I said ORDEN was the largest alliance?

They were able to attain this position due to a mining-vessel-related bug that allowed a single player to accumulate the maximum amount of resources and millions of defense points in a single day.

Given the production rates of resources, this was not mathematically possible.

Thus gave this player an unfair advantage by essentially allowing them to compete on god mode.

As a result, the Primodium team is shipping a new update, v0.8.1, that’s set to go live tomorrow (hence the aforementioned redeployment).

This means that, unfortunately, player progress from v0.8 will be wiped, meaning that you’ll have to start over when constructing your base.

As a result, the war with a16z has not technically begun – But will once the patch is released.

ALPHA TANGENT: The thread’s final xeet suggests linking your “normal” wallet to your in-game browser wallet for a reward in the next update (v0.9).

I have no clue what this will be, but I’d highly recommend doing that!

Pre-War

People have started to use the phrase “pre-rich” in the lead up to this bull market.

Yes, I think we are in a bull.

But more importantly (at least for me) I also think that WASD Guild is in a state of what I call “pre-war.”

The calm before the storm, the lame duck period before v0.8.1 drops, as both sides prepare to duke it out for onchain glory.

We have not yet begun our battle against a16z, instead using this time period to prepare, get ready and even recruit allies.

Our friends (or rather, ex-Primodium nemeses) at Fun Blocks have agreed to join us in the fight against a16z.

The AVENGE alliance has suggested in Discord that they may enter the conflict as well.

While it’s disappointing that we’ll have to start from scratch, I think Primodium is a ton of fun.

So, I don’t really mind it. I mean, what else would I be doing?!

Better yet, this time around, the stakes will be even higher.

WASD is at war.

May the best alliance win!

🫡

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Thanks for reading!

If you liked this piece, you can collect it at the top of the page. It’s free!

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One last thing…

You can also collect the various memes and Midjourney art embedded throughout the piece!

The We Have A Shield Generator and What Gives People Feelings of Power memes were contributed by Guy Wuollet and Mason Hall respectively via the WASD Contributooor Program!

100% Zora Protocol rewards for those mints will go directly to them!

Thanks again and see you all tomorrow!