Hey Everyone! As The Etherscape is preparing for to get ready to all Alpha players we have decided to start a development blog series to keep you all up to date on our progress. We are hoping to release these monthly from now on. It will give a quick snapshot of the progress we have made, and what we are intending to focus on in the next release.
Transitioning to Efinity
The biggest change to announce in this release is that we have made the big decision to transition from the Enjin blockchain to the Efinity blockchain. This was a tough decision to make given that we had thinks working end to end on Enjin already. However, after spending some time playing around with Efinity, it is clear that it will be the better long-term choice. There are a few main drivers that led to this decision.
Efinity is easier and cheaper to acquire compared to jump net Enjin which requires several Ethereum transactions which are expensive. Efnity transactions cost a fraction of a cent.
The feature support for Efinity is very active and has all kinds of cool things we can start taking advantage of on chain. For example, 3d models in tokens and smart contracts.
Efinity is built from the ground up for NFT's and has much better marketplace features which will help to build a vibrant community for The Etherscape.
However, there is a significant drawback. The major one being that Efinity has not completed all of the necessary features for us to move over. Also, it will set us back a couple of months to do the transition. Nonetheless, we are confident that this is the right choice and will pay off in the long run.
We already have a bunch of test NFT's minted on the Efinity change and a basic explorer page that you can use to check them out. Take a here.
New Features Added
Despite the focus on the new chain, we have still added a few new features which players will expect to be available. Here is a quick description of each...
Item Enchanting: There is a new vendor which can be used to re-roll a single property of an item. This helps to tweak excellent items and make them even better. Enchanting can only be done on items before they are etherbound.
Town Portal: We have added a town portal feature so that you can return to town in the middle of a quest.
Chat Support: There is a new chat window which allows you to chat with other players on the same map as you.
Preparing for Alpha
Beyond new features, we are putting more focus on getting ready to add alpha players into the game. One of the main concerns is how we will ship the client to users in order to ensure that they can easily get updates. This is a bit tricky because many common platforms block NFT games including Steam which is the normal go to. For now, we have done the necessary work to make builds which have a clean client without any of the server code mixed into them. We are experimenting with some different ideas such as shipping on the Windows Store which has very favorable terms.
We are also working on performance improvements for the server to make sure it will be able to scale to as many players and maps as possible. This is critical because it will impact how many alpha players we can afford to let into the game.
We are REALLY excited to start giving player access and getting feedback. If you want to get access to the alpha then the best think you can do is join our Discord channel. When we start handing out alpha contracts, it is going to be to our engaged fans there.
Full Release Notes
Finally, you can check out our quick overview of the full release notes on our white paper here.
Thanks for following along with The Etherscape. We are looking forward to playing together with you all in alpha soon!
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