We hope you’re ready for an intense week of Spider Tanks esports tournament action! The teams formed in the last couple weeks and they’ve been practicing hard in preparation for this week-long tournament event.
The 2 finalist teams of 3 at the end of the week will win tickets to -into the galaverse, where they will compete LIVE on the incredible Spider Tanks Galaverse world stage, along with the 2 finalist teams from next week’s Korean node owner tournament!
Additional prizes on the line for the event are still TBA, but suffice it to say that competition will be fierce in this first esports event for the upcoming brawler by GAMEDIA!
This Week’s Schedule
Here is the bracket laid out for this week’s matchups, which are scheduled in such a way that spectators can enjoy every one of them if they so choose. Tonight is the first night of the tournament, so there will be 3 matchups beginning at 7pm PST.
Tonight’s Matchups
7:00pm PST —ShootyBooms Revenants vs. Second String Spiders
8:oopm PST — Pandas Gone Wild vs. The Lone Tankers
9:00 pm PST —Aracnokillers vs. Immediate George
To catch the action live, join the Discord Community, where matchups will be shared live in the Spider Tanks Voice channel all week long!
About Spider Tanks
Spider Tanks is an upcoming PVP arena brawler from GAMEDIA and Gala Games. This expertly crafted and brilliantly competitive game will be the world’s first internationally renowned play-to-earn esport! Learn more at Spidertanks.game.
About GAMEDIA
GAMEDIA is an award winning game studio from the Netherlands, with an extensive track record and history. The long list of games they have developed are mostly based on well know entertainment IP’s and have seen the light on a wide range of platforms and hardware. Currently they are focused on creating our own high quality multiplayer games for PC, consoles as well as mobile.
If you’ve spent more than five minutes playing Town Star (and there’s a good chance you have if you’re reading this article), you’ve probably noticed that things aren’t always equal. Some fields require water, and others do not. Some crafts produce quickly while others drag. Sometimes you’ll see awesome green needles, indicating maximum efficiency, and other times you’ll see scary red needles that make you want to smash your keyboard through your screen.
It’s time to get the scoop on proximity effects. Figure them out, and not only will Town Star become even more enjoyable, but you’ll be better equipped to win and earn.
Sometimes called passive effects or area effects, proximity effects are one of the most important things to understand in order to become an effective Town Star player. This game is about synergy, organization and efficiency. It’s about building a complex machine that grows, produces, and crafts the things that will make you money in the most efficient ways possible.
Proximity effects are the ways in which certain buildings and geographies affect the area around them. Some of them are are positive effects, while others are negative and detrimental to your town’s efficiency. If you can master the placement of your buildings and fields in a way that maximizes the positive proximity effects while minimizing the negative ones, you’re well on your way to the realm of the Town Star elite.
Proximity Effect Shorthand
Before we start describing and explaining the various proximity effects, it’s important that we understand how they are expressed. There is a simple method of explaining how proximity effects work. It always works the same in Town Star, no matter the proximity effect. We call it the stairstep method.
If a particular building has a proximity effect of 4, here is a diagram of what that means.
A proximity effect of 4 means essentially that the first tiles adjacent to the building receive 4 of the effect. The next ring of tiles out receives 3, then 2, then finally, 1. Pictured in the diagram is the entire proximity radius of that building’s effect (whether positive or negative). Notice that diagonals are treated a little differently. The first ring of proximity effect includes all diagonals as 1 tile, but diagonally adjacent tiles are gradually removed from the effect radius.
Proximity Radius = 4 (in this example)
Now you know what we mean when we say that a certain building “provides 3 oil,” or that another one “casts 3 tiles of shade.”
Negative Proximity Effects
Let’s start with the bad news. These are the things you want to avoid the effects of whenever you can: The negative proximity effects.
A negative proximity effect is never universal. That means that no matter how much dirty pollution or shade are created by a building, its negative effects will only be experienced by certain specific units.
You may be confused now, wondering how you can possibly know which negative proximity effects negatively affect which buildings. This is more simple than you may think, and you can usually use common sense to solve that puzzle.
This poor little Wheat Field is clearly out of place around the Refineries and Power Plants. Because of pollution and shade, we’re seeing a red needle and long production time.
Buildings that require wind (Windmills, Wind Turbines and Wind Pumps) are negatively affected by wind block.
Buildings that require sunlight (Fields) are negatively affected by shade.
Shade and wind block are caused either by mountains, or buildings with height. The taller the building, the greater the shade and wind block it casts.
Pollution is created by industrial production buildings, and negatively affects fields in the same way as shade and wind block.
Compounding Negative Effects
Negative proximity effects work in the way pictured in the above diagram, but their symptoms are different than those of positive effects. Negative proximity effects lower the efficiency needle on fields and production buildings based on the effect radii of the buildings causing them.
For example, Windmills have a shade radius of 3 tiles. Is a Windmill is placed more than 3 tiles away from the nearest Windmill, production will be perfectly efficient and both Windmills’ needles will be in the green.
This is ideal placement, but I can’t keep it up forever.
However, if those Windmills are moved 1 tile closer together, then they begin to affect one another negatively with shade. Now, each of those Windmills will have 1 negative point against its perfect production, causing its timer to double from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
This is not perfect, but still pretty good.
Finally, if you move each of those Windmills one step closer still, they will inflict upon each other the maximum negative proximity effect of -3 points. The result is two more doublings to the production timer, or a total of 240 seconds for each round of production.
I should avoid this type of placement for as long as I have room.
Positive Proximity Effects
Positive proximity effects are a lot more fun than negative ones. Many of the NFTs sold in the Town Star store offer positive proximity effects as a benefit. Sometimes we call these passive production benefits.
The simplest passive production benefit to explain is water. Fields are provided passive water when they are placed near natural water, such as a pond or a marsh. Each pond provides 2 water, which means that it provides 2 units of water to directly adjacent tiles and 1 to the next ring of tiles.
Wheat Fields require 3 units of water to grow wheat. In the example below, you’ll notice that the selected Wheat Field is 2 spaces away from one pond (1 passive water) and 1 space away from another pond (2 passive water).
I should definitely build a pond in the middle of that cluster of Wheat Fields.
Positive proximity effects are only applied to production buildings, such as Fields, Windmills, Chicken Coops, etc. A Water Facility (which makes industrial water drums) is another example of a production building, so it can also be supplied passive water when placed near ponds.
Other passive benefit units include Wheat Stands (which provide passive wheat for production in a Windmill or Feed Trough), Solar Panels (which provide passive energy to surrounding industrial production centers), and Water Pumps (which provide passive water drums) to industrial production buildings that require water.
There are even some NFTs that provide unexpected passive resources, such as the Haunted Mansion, which (depending on the piece) provides passive oil and perhaps pumpkins.
Passive pumpkins are produced by the Haunted Porch and delivered to the Silo by the Headless Horticulturist.
More Subtle Proximity Effects
There are a few proximity effects that have subtle effects which may be difficult to spot at a glance. We’ll give you a hint, but let you discover the details on your own. Pay attention to salty land that is next to oceans, and pay attention to the especially sandy land that is found in deserts.
Don’t forget that mountains cause a lot of shade. If you’re next to a mountain, you may be able to mine precious minerals from underground, but you’ll need to account for the 5 tiles of shade that the mountain always causes on an entire side of your town.
When you’re next to a river of fresh water, take full advantage of that water. It works exactly like a row of ponds, saving you a great deal of trouble watering your fields if you’re clever.
Some buildings even give both positive and negative proximity effects. Consider the Power Plant. It may provide a great deal of passive energy to surrounding buildings, but it also has a pretty wide pollution radius.
As you become the master of your Town Star domain, you’ll start to see everything in terms of proximity effects. The way things work together in a great web of causality is not only how the game works, but how the world works.
Hopefully this article has given you some good insight into the world of Town Star proximity effects and helped you to find greater strategy and depth in your game!
You’ve already seen these items, and many of you early Spider Tanks enthusiasts have had a chance to test them out on the battlefield. Now the GAMEDIA team is incredibly excited to launch the first sale of Ancient Tank Parts. They are extremely powerful, and extremely limited in supply.
Not for the Casual Gamer
Spider Tanks will soon take the gaming world by storm as the first blockchain-backed play-to-earn esport. It will be playable and adored by the casual gamer as well, but we expect serious gamers to seriously elevate the high-level competition. Those serious gamers will need serious equipment, and for that, they’ll turn to Ancient Parts. Seriously.
While some other rarities of Tank Parts have been available in supplies of hundreds or even thousands, each Ancient Tank Part will only ever have a total of 10 available. This will put each Part’s rarity on the level with Ancient limited edition Tanks such as the (sold out) Whaleshark Tank.
Ancient Pricing
These items will be sold with a system of increasing price tiers, similar to that with which Mirandus Exemplars are sold. Instead of the usual 10 tiers, Ancient Tank Parts will be sold in 5 tiers. Each tier will consist of 2 units.
That means every time the 2 units in a tier are sold, the next tier will soon return with a higher price. The price increase with each tier will be 10% of the original (tier 1) price.
Ancient Gameplay
Through Spider Tanks gameplay, players will have opportunities to use in-game resources to level up their tanks. When these level-ups occur, there is an element of randomness that determines how much power is gained from each level upgrade.
When already leveled up items (such as Ancient Tank Parts) are purchased from the Spider Tanks store, every built-in upgrade is perfect.
When you purchase an Ancient Tank Part, it will come perfectly upgraded to level 28. That means it will be stronger than any other version of that Weapon or Body, especially stronger than those that were leveled up organically through gameplay. because these Parts have already completed a leveling journey from 0 to 28 with a 100% perfect record, they will have incredibly powerful advantages over almost all other Parts in the game.
Ancient Parts
Here is a list of the Ancient Parts that have just been released in the Spider Tanks store. We have no idea how quickly these will go. Consider yourself warned.
Scout Body
Nomad Body
Bandit Body
Shotgun Weapon
Cannon Weapon
Repair Artillery Weapon
About Spider Tanks
Spider Tanks is an upcoming PVP arena brawler from GAMEDIA and Gala Games. This expertly crafted and brilliantly competitive game will be the world’s first internationally renowned play-to-earn esport! Learn more at Spidertanks.game.
About GAMEDIA
GAMEDIA is an award winning game studio from the Netherlands, with an extensive track record and history. The long list of games they have developed are mostly based on well know entertainment IP’s and have seen the light on a wide range of platforms and hardware. Currently they are focused on creating our own high quality multiplayer games for PC, consoles as well as mobile.
On her way to the Crucible, Valentina realized she hadn’t slept in days. She always had the strangest dreams when she visited this place anyway. The Ancients called it the Gallows of Time. Valentina never knew exactly what that meant, but to her it was the place where time goes to die. The FTL engines of the Asterius had worked hard over the last week. Valentina knew that her ship needed some serious attention, and she hoped that Mateo would have a hanger to spare at his home in the remote outlying star system whose name she couldn’t remember. Luckily, she still had its coordinates though after all these years.
Mateo’s place was ramshackle, or at least that’s how it was supposed to look to approaching ships. It was one of many bolt-holes maintained by the wider smuggling community in case one of their own needed to cool their heels. It was bigger (and more armed) than it looked.
Valentina knew Mateo well. They met when she first branched out into smuggling, just after she got ahold of the Asterias. He was a better than average forger, usually had reliable pass-codes, and kept a couple decent mechanics on staff. He had a lot of friends who knew a lot of things. If she was lucky, he may know something about her run gone sour.
Mateo was about as close as any decent smuggler came to a trusted friend. Valentina would go so far as to say she trusted him. “Trust is a dirty word. The dirtiest,” her mentor used to say. She was reasonably sure she wouldn’t be betrayed, but that didn’t stop her from keeping a close eye on her surroundings as the Asterius came in for landing.
Valentina set the Asterias down on one of Mateo’s many empty landing pads. Mateo didn’t entertain very often, and he didn’t like most people enough to let them use his personal landing pad. Still, she took the liberty of front parking, rather than the larger pad out back, the one reserved for clients.
“Still got that bottle of brandy I gave you?’ Valentina called in a teasing as she wandered into the house, knowing full well that he drank it long ago. Under the cover of its rough outsides, Mateo kept a tidy space. She wasn’t just being cute, she was announcing her identity in hopes that she could avoid getting blasted by a security bot. Mateo took his security very seriously. “Picked up heat and I don’t feel like fighting today.”
“Valentina Barbaro, running away from a fight? My goodness, is the End of Times on us already?”
Mateo’s rough, gravelly voice drifted out of his living space, so Valentina pushed the beaded curtain out of the way and stepped into the large kitchen where the man was waiting. He was a short, stocky old man with a wild beard and a nervous twitch to his hands.
“Little more heat than I like to tangle with,” Valentina chuckled as she stooped to kiss his whiskered cheek. She felt a strange tenseness in Mateo when she moved in close. “Something the matter?”
“This and that,” Mateo told her with a wave of his hand he was attempting to play off as casual. “Let me see what I have in the cooler. I know you like fresh fruit.”
He was dodging the question, and that wasn’t like him. Mateo liked the sound of his own voice too much to ever keep quiet. Once his back was turned, Valentina’s eyes took a quick attentive stroll over the table where he had been sitting. A lone data chip sat not far from Mateo’s data pad.
Without quite knowing why, Valentina snatched the chip. She knew it wasn’t the best idea, but curiosity got the better of her. She justified it as payback for their last encounter, when Mateo’s foolishness had cost her a handsome payout. No room for mistakes like that. She jammed the chip into her own data pad and downloaded the content quickly, then set it back exactly where it was just a moment before.
Glancing at her pad , she could make out coordinates of some kind, maybe something valuable even? Valentina promised herself a better look once she was back on the Asterias.
“So, tell me about the fight you don’t want to fight,” Mateo said when he came back from the kitchen, a plate of cut fruit in hand. “Anything that’s too much for Valentina Barbaro is my kind of story.”
“Thought it was a normal run,” Valentina told him, just a little bitter as she took a piece of fruit. “Last stop took me through Shepherd’s Void, and you know how they get about smugglers. I was hoping you maybe heard something?” The fruit was bitter too.
“Plenty of chatter in subspace but nothing about you, Valentina. I think you have the right of it, Garrison hates smugglers, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Well it’s good I got paid in advance then. I’ll be steering clear of House Space for a long while.”
And with that, Valentina has left the Ember’s Grace star cluster, meaning that claims there are no longer available until she returns. Perhaps the next chapter of her story will reveal her next destination.
Stay tuned for more of Valentina’s adventure, and the next cluster of the Celestial Claim Land Presale, from Echoes of Empire!
Not only was Town Star the first playable game created by Gala Games, but it’s the first of its kind. The play-to-earn farm builder lets players own blockchain-backed items that are fully tradable. These items can be played alongside the standard in-game items, but with added benefits, as well as the potential to earn daily TOWN rewards for playing with them.
As Town Star Play-to-Earn marches on, gaining new players and perfecting its decentralized reward economy, tons of new NFTs are being added to the game. Some of them can be purchased with GALA, ETH, BAT and Coinpayments.net (like most items in the Gala Games store), while others may only be purchased with TOWN, the reward token that is generated by playing to earn.
The more players who join P2E, the more NFT items that will be created and sold, building a glorious cycle of incentives and rewards in which players always have the option to put their rewards into items that will generate more rewards! Today, let’s take a look at the different types of NFTs in Town Star and how each of them can be used to enhance your gaming experience and give you a Town Star advantage!
This Haunted Mansion piece sits at the center of a complex industrial area, providing passive oil to the surrounding Refineries!
What Can you Gain?
Why should you want an advantage in Town Star? Not everyone is interested in the fast-paced weekly competition version of the game and its GALA prize money, but there are several other benefits to owning Town Star NFTs.
Support the Ecosystem — By owning Town Star NFTs, you’re supporting the biggest decentralized gaming platform in the world and essentially owning a piece of history.
Actually Own Them — The thing that makes NFTs so special is true ownership, which was lost somewhere along the way with gaming in the 21st century. Owning your NFTs means that you’re free to play with them, earn with them, transfer or list them for sale at any time.
More Efficient = Easier Earnings — Just by owning NFTs and GALA, you’re able to play-to-earn in Town Star. Each level of Gala Power allows you to place another owned NFT for P2E rewards. To unlock each day’s earnings, you must complete a Daily Challenge within the 24 hour period, then claim your rewards. These challenges will soon get harder and more specialized, meaning that any in-game advantage will be extremely helpful in unlocking your rewards.
Next are the different types of NFTs, so you can find your perfect NFT strategy by choosing which ones are best for you!
Haunted Mansions, Solar Panels and Mirandus-themed Skins are spicing up this awesome town!
Storage Units
With such a limited space (16 x 16), storage is always an important part of the game. In order to craft goods of higher tiers, you may need higher capacity storage without taking up a ton of space in your town.
So far, Storage NFT Buildings have been released to replace specific needs of the Silo, which stores basic crops only. Below are the different storage units available, each in 4 different rarities (capacities). The greater the rarity, the greater the play-to-earn rewards associated to each item.
Storage buildings come in all sizes and capacities!
Grape Storage
Brine Storage
Wheat Storage
Sugarcane Storage
Production Boosters
These buildings are also knowns as “Farm Stands.” In general, these are any buildings that provide passive resources to surrounding tiles. There are several examples, and we have taken this idea way beyond the concept of the farm stand.
This Wheat Stand provides passive wheat to all the surrounding Feed Mills, ensuring that the Ranchers stay busy and the animals stay well fed!
Wheat Stands — These provide a passive wheat bonus to surrounding tiles — higher rarity = more wheat and further proximity radius of the benefit.
Sugar Stand — These provide a passive sugarcane bonus to surrounding tiles. Higher rarity = more sugarcane and further proximity radius of the benefit.
Water Towers/Alfa Fountains — These units provide a passive water bonus to buildings and fields on surrounding tiles. Higher rarity = greater proximity radius.
Solar Panels — These units (available in 3 different rarities) provide passive solar energy to buildings on surrounding tiles.
Haunted Mansion Pieces — Every 1 of the 6 pieces of the modular Haunted Mansion provides some passive oil to Refineries on surrounding tiles. The Main Tower provides the greatest passive oil, with a radius of 3. The Haunted Porch generates (in addition to oil) Pumpkins on a timer, which are delivered by the Headless Horticulturist to the nearest Silo.
Free pumpkins and Halloween all year long!
Tesla Coils — Like Solar Panels, Tesla Coils provide passive energy to surrounding buildings, but they also have the added benefit of producing units of energy on a timer as well. Additionally, this energy is produced without the pollution caused by typical Power Plants.
Bot Helpers
Lovable Town Star bot characters can be found all over the Gala Games ecosystem, from those who help build and deliver, to the extremely scarce Legendary FarmBot, whose in-game purpose is yet to revealed. Even the most dedicated collectors can have a difficult time getting their hands on every bot in the collection!
CraneBot says hello!
FarmBot — ????
CraneBot —This upgraded Builder unit moves about 3x faster than the standard in-game Builder character
ElfBot — This bot, originally released a holiday referral incentive, assists with harvesting and delivery of all sugar-related crops and crafts.
SaltyBot — This bot was originally released as a referral incentive in early 2021. He assists with all salt-related crops and crafts.
Mr. Puddles — Mr. Puddles the WaterBot assists with all water activity in your town, and he is currently available only for TOWN in the store.
Mr. Puddles says hello!
Skins
Don’t forget the special series of Mirandus-Themed Skin Packs! Each of the 10 unique packs comes with skins for 5 different buildings. Each skin is an NFT that may be transferred or traded, but there’s more.
Each pack comes with a special Dragon Voucher. Collect all 10 Dragon Vouchers and you will become the owner of a Dragon Familiar in Mirandus! There’s still more…
The Mirandus Dragon Familiar
For every pack of these skins you have deployed in your Town Star town, you’ll get an exclusive SPEED and PRODUCTION BOOST! Use all 10 packs and your workers will move 25% faster!
We can hardly wait to show you the excitement planned for -into the galaverse, December 11th, 12th and 13th. Tickets are still available. Learn more at Galaverse.Games.
Beyond that, we’re thrilled to make 2022 Town Star’s biggest year of growth yet, with new ways to play, new ways to earn, and plenty of new NFTs for you to own!
