Sidus Heroes: An Overview of the Blockchain Game Set to Redefine Gaming

The gaming industry has always been at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of computing technology, along both hardware and software domains, owing to the unique requirements of the gaming community. Games have preceded mainstream adoption of crucial technologies, two of them being better, high-quality GPUs and robust software engineering systems which can handle millions of user requests and actions concurrently. Therefore, the integration of gaming and blockchain technology represents the inevitable adoption of core Web 3.0 principles of decentralization and user ownership towards multiple mainstream use cases.

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies help users build, create, own, and operate virtual economies and be rewarded for their style of gameplay in the form of the game’s native tokens. This incentivizes the community to direct their attention towards the network’s robustness, safety, and marketability among the wider ecosystem of blockchain-based games. The play-to-earn model enabled and popularized by Axie Infinity has led to the development of hundreds of GameFi projects. However, three challenges remain.

Three Primary Challenges in P2E Gaming

• Projects are unable to meet sophisticated user expectations since users want the best product irrespective of it being blockchain-enabled or not.
• Projects that dampen the industry’s credibility via below-par token economics and short-term development cycles to generate hype without basic product fundamentals.
• Projects which fail to create the required game mechanics and features that can lead to social engagement and interaction among users who participate in the game’s economy, thus reducing the ability of the project to retain users for the long term.

Considering these challenges, Poolz ventures recently invested in Sidus Heroes, the first-ever MMORPG, WebGL enabled, AAA-level, NFT, play-to-earn blockchain game. The project aims to solve the above-mentioned problems in the GameFi ecosystem whilst increasing the total addressable size of the market itself. This post aims to provide a high-level perspective of Sidus Heroes’ in-game mechanics and help the Poolz community to contribute to the project in various forms and shapes.

Project Overview

The overall Sidus metaverse consists of planets inhabited by living beings who’ve merged with technology. Additionally there exist neutral planets and comets that are yet to be discovered and colonized by users, and the independent city of Sidus.

From this vantage point, players can build infrastructure and lay the foundation of their own cities in one part of the metaverse. They can choose to travel and discover new spaces, lobby the governing council for colonization, equip themselves and other users with items and objects for expeditions, and in general decide how best to spend their time. Across the metaverse, users will be able to find valuable artifacts and pets whom they can train and take possession of.

Sidus Heroes is a closed economic system with limited resource emissions, upon which all player interactions are based upon. The metaverse is designed such that manufacturing and using items for productive use would make players collaborate with each other. Players with better skills will need products created by newcomers, who are yet to develop gameplay skills. This ensures that there always exists a demand for products created by players who have just gotten into the game. Therefore, this helps everyone develop their skills in a holistic manner independent of any constraints.

Key Project Features

Accessibility to a large user base

Users do not need to download an application onto their Android, iOS, PC, or Mac devices. The only thing required is to open a web browser and type in the project’s URL. Using WebGL technology to make this possible is a huge testament to the quality of the Sidus team which has been working on the project for 3 years. WebGL enables the creation of interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser. The technology is compatible with Unreal Engine 5 and supports high-quality 3D art. Readers will know that Unreal Engine 5 is the benchmark when it comes to most of the 3D art that’s used in games and movies.

Using WebGL in the project’s software architecture significantly helps in expanding the total addressable market size that Sidus can tap into. Users from across the world, with an internet connection, can take advantage of the revolution brewing in gaming: the play-to-earn model enabled by blockchain technology.

Each point going forwards showcases the key features of the project from the perspective of a user.

Release genesis NFT collection and Hero Attribute Modelling

The initial NFT collection that the project released in August 2021 consisted of 6,000 unique NFT Hero characters. Every Hero was generated randomly from thousands of visual attributes. The core feature of the game is the fact that Heroes’ attributes depend on their belonging to 12 ‘races’, named after 12 blockchain networks’ unique attributes. Every Hero is unique and the collection has 3 levels of rarity: Original, Rare and Legendary. This initial group of users who got the Genesis NFTs will be the first ones to try their hands on the game when its beta is released around 10th January 2022.

The top 12 blockchains are represented as planets, each with their race of beings — Bitcoione (named after Bitcoin), Etheredus (named after Ethereum), Avalanya (named after Avalanche), and Polkacyon (named after Polkadot) to name a few. Since each blockchain network has its pros and cons, its own set of features specific to security, networking, and most importantly, consensus mechanisms, every Hero therefore also inherits the traits and attributes of its race, modeled by the Sidus team after an exhaustive deep dive into DAO communities and first principles of blockchains and cryptocurrencies.

Battle Arena

The Battle Arena is where Players fight solo or form fighting legions to compete with an enemy race or team. By competing against each other in tournaments, Heroes get the chance to upgrade themselves. However, the battle is not the main feature of the game. It is simply one of the many roles that users can fulfill in the game. Many users are not interested in fighting or competing in any form that encompasses potential physical violence. Instead, they can become manufacturers, merchants, farmers, scientists, travelers, and government ministers. Like reality, life in the metaverse is complex and needs the cooperation of multiple users living in the society. Therefore, players can choose to explore the universe and do what they like.

An economic system based on real-time user collaboration

The universe relies on two types of resources: non-renewable fossils and renewable biological sources. Resources are needed to develop and create a unique production structure for the game’s users and players. For instance, a user’s activities and wishes are dependent on the actions of other groups of users when it comes to getting access to equipment or items that are available in the marketplace. Similar to specialists in the real world, the Sidus economy focuses on allowing users to specialize in the roles they want to fulfill. It could be one or many.

Native Tokens: Sidus and Senate

All economic processes and transactions require the Senate governance token and the Sidus in-game token. Senate is the governance token. Users who possess Senate tokens will be able to vote as per their political leanings and thereby influence the development of the project’s vision for the metaverse. Voting power will be proportionate to the number of tokens each user has. Senate will also be used for purchasing accelerators and consumables which will make the gameplay productive. Sidus is the project’s gaming token that will be used widely within the game, for instance in the creation and improvement of an NFT hero, enhancement of equipment items, payments for internal services, and platform commissions.

User Roles Based on Personal Aspirations

Quoting specific instances from Sidus’ whitepaper, users and players can look forward to multiple roles in the Sidus metaverse. For example:

1. Users can become farmers and grinders to mine and collect resources from mines, fields, and space to sell them on the Sidus marketplace for tokens

2. Users can become manufacturers and assemble spaceships or develop a spaceship’s individual components like its ammunition and weapons system to sell them to prospective fighters, thereby creating an income stream modeled on the real physical world but backed by code and high-quality simulations

3. Users can become fighters and challenge other players to duels in the Battle Arena, participate in tournaments and build fighting legions to lead everyone involved in the legion to rise to the top, to earn rewards and respect with every battle that’s won.

4. Users can become Scientists and begin to explore new technologies or discover new resources to improve the technology tree structure of the entire universe

5. Users can become leaders and participate in political life. They can represent people and lobby for their interests in the council and thereby shape the direction of the universe

The Sidus team is extremely committed to its vision of giving players as much hands-on control of the game as possible. Every planetary race of Heroes will elect ministers for performing various roles like Science, Defense, Education, etc. and the citizens of each planet will elect their own president. Of course, it goes without saying that these functionalities mean that there are multiple checks and balances in the governance structure of the game, modeled on the principles of DAOs

A Vision Rooted in the Future

Sidus, as a project and a metaverse society, is on course to become one of the biggest disruptions in the GameFi and DeFi worlds. It has everything it takes to succeed — a highly experienced, robust token economics model, and the ability to bridge the gap between the present times we live in and the future.

The vision takes into account that cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance are the norms, allowing internet users all over the world to participate in projects they’re passionate about and be rewarded for their abilities to shape the direction of the network. Poolz Ventures envisions Sidus to be the breakout user-facing blockchain product of 2022. The Sidus team has prepared a 7-year roadmap for the project, potentially leading to the formation of the world’s largest DAO with a user governed economy.

For more news and updates about Sidus, follow its official media channels: Website | Twitter | Discord | Medium.